The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC), Palouse Prairie Foundation, and Idaho Native Plant Society encourage everyone to join a field tour of sites along and near the proposed U.S. Highway 95 E-2 realignment on the west flank of Paradise Ridge.  On Sunday, May 19, starting at 2:00 pm, participants will meet at the parking lot of the University of Idaho Arboretum, 1200 West Palouse River Drive in Moscow, and carpool to Zeitler Road east of Highway 95.  People attending the field tour will view sites with ungulate/big game habitat, spring wildflowers, and native Palouse Prairie.  Regional botanists and wildlife biologists who know the area well will help guide the tour.  The co-sponsors are inviting the public as well as the Moscow mayor and city council, Latah County commissioners, Idaho state legislators, and the press.  After the planned field tour, hosts will also lead a hike to the top of Paradise Ridge, for participants who wish to enjoy the natural areas and vast views of the ridge.

PRDC and allies are eager for resolution of Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) plans to reroute the 6.5-mile section of Highway 95 between Moscow and Thorn Creek Road.  ITD’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and technical reports document three alternatives for highway realignment.  Besides concerns for a better, safer highway that would upgrade, straighten, and widen the current roadway to four lanes, community members hope that this highway project will not disturb some of the last, best, remaining native Palouse Prairie remnants.  On Paradise Ridge slopes, parts of this critically endangered prairie ecosystem survive perilously close to the suggested E-2 route.  This higher-elevation, severe weather-exposed, eastern alternative would spread weeds into Palouse Prairie remnants and destroy more wetlands and wildlife habitat than the C-3 central alignment.  The Idaho Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have advised against construction of the E-2 alternative, due to likely impacts to these habitats.  Later in 2013, ITD intends to release its final EIS and accept additional public comments about preferences for the least disruptive, most beneficial highway realignment option for people, property, and the environment.

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition works to ensure and enhance the public safety, environmental integrity, and natural aesthetics of Paradise Ridge and its environs, by engaging local citizens and civic/conservation groups in the area.  Coalition members urge fellow Moscow area residents to learn more about Paradise Ridge through involvement in this Sunday, May 19, field tour.  PRDC anticipates providing further educational events, informational meetings, and community participation opportunities on this urgent issue.  Please visit the PRDC website, peruse the ITD draft EIS, and print and post the attached Paradise Ridge Field Tour Flyer.

Contact: Mary and Steve Ullrich, Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition

marysteve@palouse.net, 208-301-0202

Here is a quick update on Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activities, before a tar sands oriented newsletter in a few days.

WIRT on Twitter

We are now on Twitter: Follow us at WildIdahoRT.

WIRT Events Calendar

Wild Idaho Rising Tide and our allies are ready for a non-stop #FearlessSummer, full of events expanding the movement against extreme energy, with powerful convergences, training camps, and actions for a livable future!  On our new website page, a calendar lists and links to activities in the Northwest region and in which WIRT activists will participate, including emerging solidarity actions with our comrades across the continent.  Visit this constantly updated events page often and get involved in grassroots resistance to the root causes of climate change!  For more information about nationwide Fearless Summer initiatives, view the Energy Justice Network calendar.

Oil/Tar Sands Speaker Protest (April 17)

The last time that the Alberta tar sands industry visited Moscow, we blockaded it, hurled protest signs at it, and gestured at its escorts.  We were nicer this time but no less insistent that it is wrong and that it should stop its pillage immediately.  See the photos and descriptions of WIRT’s latest action.

Bidder 70 Screening & Tim DeChristopher Discussion (April 22)

Thanks to each of you for attending and/or assisting the simultaneous, nationwide screenings of the documentary Bidder 70 and the live-streamed discussion with Utah climate activist Tim DeChristopher on Earth Day.  Almost 40 people participated locally in this seminal show and conversation hosted by WIRT and Gathr Films in Moscow.  As anticipated, Tim’s question-and-answer session inspired climate activists and community members continuing our struggles against dirty energy development in the Northwest.  KRFP Radio Free Moscow recorded and aired Tim’s talk during the April 22 Climate Justice Forum radio program, about an hour later on the same evening.  We offer our gratitude and congratulations for a successful event and encourage you to listen to Tim’s incisive and insightful, first public appearance after almost two years in federal prison and watch the following videotaped excerpt.

Tim DeChristopher: Clip 1 Next Step in the Climate Movement (May 2 Bidder70 Film video)

Missoula Direct Action Training Workshop (April 28)

WIRT and our Montana colleagues postponed this workshop until sometime this summer.

Moscow Farmers Market WIRT Booth (May 4 to October 26)

We are seeking volunteers to advance our weekly outreach, education, and activation efforts in Friendship Square, between 8 am and 1 pm every Saturday until late October.  Please contact us if you can lead or assist this crucial interface with our amazing Moscow community.

40th Annual Moscow Renaissance Fair (May 4 & 5)

Please join the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band and WIRT for two special occasions that celebrate spring and the years of admirable community spirit and service contributed by Moscow residents and WIRT activists.  Congratulations to this year’s Ren Fair Queen and King, Dianne and Bill French, who have vigilantly safeguarded our precious but precarious, regional, ground and surface water through the Palouse Water Conservation Network.  And, of course, ExxonMobil minions disguised as police arrested Bill on August 26, 2011, for his valiant participation in a grassroots blockade of an Alberta tar sands equipment transport.

Meet us at 9:45 am on Saturday morning, May 4, at the Veterans Memorial Arch, on the corner of Third and Monroe streets in Moscow, for the annual Royal Processional Parade.  This promenade honors and welcomes the new King and Queen as they walk along the East City Park path from the arch to the Peter Basoa Main Stage for coronation and speeches.  In the unseasonably warm Palouse sunshine, Bill and Dianne’s friends and fellow activists enthusiastically anticipate ushering in their emerging reign.

Event organizers have also invited all previous Moscow Renaissance Fair royalty to dress festively and appear on stage to be recognized before the start of the 2013 Ren Fair Parade through East City Park on Saturday, May 4, at 3:30 pm.  Perhaps for the first time ever, many of the prior kings and queens, including several core WIRT activists, will officially join this year’s parade.  WIRT has borrowed some animal costume hats for the species-inclusive occasion and is seeking volunteers to wear them and accompany the royalty in this community performance.

Word to Your Mother (May 11)

In the Riverfront Park Lilac Bowl of Spokane, Washington, on Saturday, May 11, between 12:30 and 3:30 pm, Spokane Coalition Builders and a dozen other regional organizations are hosting a Mother’s Day celebration as a follow-up rally to the February 17 Forward on Climate event that Spokane area citizens held in conjunction with the largest climate change rally in U.S. history, staged at Washington DC and various locations around the world.  Focusing again on climate issues and raising awareness of challenges facing Mother Earth, the gathering will feature brief rally speeches by local advocates and elected officials, drumming and a round dance led by the Idle No More Drummers, and a free concert by local bands.

Reverend Dr. Todd Eklof of the Unitarian Universalist Church will emcee the rally and speeches by Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder, Walter Kloefkorn of Progressive Democrats of Washington, Mike Petersen of The Lands Council, Bart Mihailovich of Spokane Riverkeeper, Deb Abrahamson of the SHAWL Society, Renee Holt of Idle No More, Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide, and community leader Bart Haggin.  Throughout the afternoon, attendees will be treated to music by Starlite Motel, Lucas Brookbank Brown, the Idle No More Drummers, and at 2:30, the Real Life Rockaz.  Word to Your Mother is sponsored and organized by the aforementioned groups as well as Backbone Campaign, Center For Justice, Coal Free Spokane, Occupy Spokane, Save Our Wild Salmon, Sierra Club, Spokane Coalition Builders, and the Spokane Tribe.  Join us next Saturday: carpools to Spokane depart the WIRT Activist House at 10 am and return by 6 pm.

WIRT Activist House Party (May 18) (website excerpted)

Paradise Ridge Field Tour (May 19)

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition, Palouse Prairie Foundation, and Idaho Native Plant Society invite you to join us on a field tour of sites along the proposed U.S. Highway 95 E-2 alternative alignment on the west flank of Paradise Ridge.  On this Sunday, May 19, tour starting at 2:00 p.m., participants will view areas with ungulate habitat, spring wildflower blooms, and native Palouse Prairie.  For this event, we are inviting the general public as well as the Moscow mayor and city council, Latah County commissioners, Idaho state legislators, and the press.  Attendees will meet and carpool from the parking lot of the University of Idaho Arboretum, 1200 West Palouse River Drive.  After the planned field tour, we will also lead a hike toward the top of Paradise Ridge, for participants who wish to enjoy more wildflowers, parklands, and views of the Palouse countryside.  We gratefully anticipate your involvement in this field tour.

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition works to ensure and enhance the public safety, environmental integrity, and natural aesthetics of Paradise Ridge and its environs.  Coalition members include local citizens and the Palouse Audubon Society, Palouse Broadband of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, Palouse Group of the Sierra Club, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org & on facebook & Twitter

208-301-8039

On a beautifully balmy Moscow Saturday evening in May (especially with reduced university traffic noise and carbon emissions!), Wild Idaho Rising Tide invites you and your friends and family to our humble house to celebrate our collective, its amazing activists, allies, and base camp, and to strategize and energize for a summer of successful actions.  The party starts at 7 pm on Saturday, May 18, and continues far into the evening.  Come and bring beverages, snacks, or dishes to share with your comrades, for a lively night of radical elbow-rubbing, merry-making, and music-playing.  Activists inclined to jam can join the acoustic fray in the front room, dancers can enjoy the roomy kitchen, and party-goers can relax in the back porch and yard.  WIRT would be delighted and infinitely grateful for the honor of your revolutionary presence amongst this revelry!

Thanks to everyone who has donated toward filling the hundred-year-old, two-bedroom WIRT Activist House over the last ten months with essential furniture and household goods: a futon bed, desk, book shelf, screen, printer, microwave, coaches, kitchen and living room chairs, side tables, wall pictures, curtains, bedding, towels, dishes, glasses, cups, plants, and protest sign paints.  We have been fortunate to accommodate several presenters and traveling activists in our downtown house beneath a huge cottonwood tree, but still need just a few more items for our guests: a kitchen table and utensils, a back porch coach cover or new cushions, and a double sized mattress pad and sheets.

The WIRT Activist House is open daily between noon and 8 pm, to provide our group a combined working space, monthly meeting place, information resource center, and visiting/resident climate activist home.  We recently renewed the lease and are still searching through our network for one or two house mates to support some of the monthly rental and utility costs.  Please contact us with your suggestions and questions about the house party and other WIRT business.  Call 208-301-8039 for our location.

Bill and Dianne French are the king and queen of the 40th Moscow Renaissance Fair.

This year’s Moscow Renaissance Fair king and queen planted their roots here 25 years ago, and have been accepted locally as business owners and activists fighting to keep their kingdom pristine.

Bill and Dianne French grew up together in Lincoln, Nebraska, eventually moving to Indiana where Bill studied to be an optometrist.

“I got my eyes dilated a lot when he was going through optometry school,” said Dianne.  “…We knew that we wanted to be self-employed, so we started looking at communities around the country.”

The Frenchs were drawn to Moscow in 1988, because they said it was a good place to raise a family, affect local change, and be heard.

“And the downtown was alive,” Dianne said, “and we saw a lot of towns in ’88 where the downtown was boarded up.”

Together the Frenchs own and operate Palouse Ocularium and recently purchased Ex-Sightment Optical in Moscow.  Dianne is also a client.

“You better not be going anyplace else,” Bill said.

“I have an optician on the side,” Dianne said.  “I just didn’t have the heart to tell you.”

Dianne served on the city’s health and environment commission off and on for nine years starting in the early ’90s, and said that one the group’s greatest accomplishments was reducing the use of pesticides and finding alternatives for the street spraying program and aerial farm spray.

“I think maybe we’ve gone backward on some of those things, but we did make some good work on that,” she said.

The Frenchs also began the Palouse Water Conservation Network in 2002, and are currently involved in a lawsuit with Washington State University regarding its use of its water rights.

“Bill and Dianne, of course, were instrumental in the work that the city is doing now to preserve the aquifer,” said LuAnn Scott, this year’s Moscow Renaissance Fair president, “so that’s mainly why I chose them.  They’re very humble people.  It actually took me a lot of time to get them to accept the nomination.”

“We feel we get a lot of support because we stand up for what we believe in,” Bill said.

The Frenchs are also involved with environmental preservation groups, Friends of the Clearwater and Wild Idaho Rising Tide.

Dianne said she loves the Moscow Renaissance Fair because it gives people a chance to come out and see friends they might not have seen all winter.  One of her royal decrees will be that the sun shines for the event that celebrates its 40th year on Saturday and Sunday at East City Park in Moscow.

“It’s a great time to kind of celebrate your community and also shop for Mother’s Day,” she said.

They raised their two daughters, Alissa and Amy, in Moscow, with both attending the University of Idaho and Amy graduating there.

“They still have fond memories of Moscow Day School,” said Dianne.  “I think they enjoyed growing up here.”

The Frenchs say they don’t have any plans to relocate, and have no idea when they’ll settle down.

“I’ll retire when they won’t give me a license anymore,” Bill said.  “Then I’ll have to figure out what my next career is going to be.”

(By Brandon Macz, staff writer, The Moscow-Pullman Daily News)

Fellow activists, friends, and supporters,

The colonial conquest mindset of dirty energy developers and their minions only seems to intensify, as they trespass upon and seize lands from northern British Columbia (B.C.) to the American Gulf Coast.  The life of these places mutually abides with the people who care for them, not with those who despoil them.  We must collectively continue to escalate resistance to the selfish and destructive ways of fossil fuel corporations and consumers.

This one of several belated Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) newsletters describes the tar sands and coal opposition of indigenous, Rising Tide, and other allies, current as of mid-April with a few topic-specific exceptions.  Expect another few extensive messages about early 2013 tar sands developments, dirty energy accidents, and Idaho legislative and fracking news, before we summarize late April happenings and launch another phase of our Idaho anti-fracking campaign in coming weeks.

INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE

Ta’Kaiya Speaks for First Nations Youth at Idle No More (January 12 video)

An 11-year-old First Nations girl from North Vancouver, B.C., Ta’Kaiya Blaney, spoke out for youth at an Idle No More protest at Vancouver City Hall on January 11.

Journey of Nishiyuu

With two guides, six young men under the age of 20 of the Cree Nation in Quebec walked almost 1000 miles across Canada, from the southeast shores of Hudson Bay to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, between January 16 and March 25.  In a quest-journey supporting Mother Earth, the mission of Idle No More, and the indigenous rights of the true keepers of the lands, waters, and winds, the fierce, young warriors sought to unite and empower historical allies, restore traditional trade routes among First Nations, and revive the ancestral voices and truth of sacred teachings.

Indigenous Organizers to Hold Round Table Meeting on Tar Sands Resistance and Decolonization (January 30 Earth First! Newswire)

Tar Sands Blockade activists recruited indigenous delegates from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Houston’s toxic East End, Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, northern B.C., and other Canadian locations to attend the annual Earth First! Organizers’ Conference and Winter Rendezvous.  Coordinators requested contributions to fund the travel expenses of indigenous, anti-tar sands, land defenders representing struggles against Alberta tar sands mining and proposed pipelines extending west, south, and east to the coasts.  Although we wished to participate in this international round table, the isolated, frontline, tar sands opposition campaigns in Utah and the Northwest could not send attendees.

Overview of the Protect the Sacred Gathering – Brave Heart Society Grandmother Faith Spotted Eagle (January 30 video)

International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects Signing Ceremony (January 31 video)

This footage of the January 25 signing ceremony for the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects, held in the Ihanktonwan Homelands of the Yankton Sioux Nation in South Dakota, features Tantoo Cardinal, Chief Rueben George, Arvol Looking Horse, Thomasina Real Bird, Faith Spotted Eagle, Phil Lane Jr., and many others.  Find more information at Protect the Sacred.

Native Leaders from U.S. in Canada, Join Forces in Tar Sands Fight (March 20 Censored News)

“Native leaders from both Canada and the United States were on Parliament Hill on Wednesday to underline their opposition to both the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines,…both in the courts and through unspecified direct action…Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said Natives are determined to block the pipelines.  ‘It’s going to be a long, hot summer.  We have a lot of issues at stake.’…Phil Lane Jr. of the American Yankton Sioux said Native groups south of the border will stand with their Canadian cousins.  Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation in northern B.C. said the pipeline opponents will never back down…‘We’re the ones going to save whatever we have left of this Earth.’…Chief Reuben George of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation north of Vancouver said it’s time to act against the federal government’s resource development agenda.”

Occupy Enbridge (February 28 ongoing event)

Red Lake Nation Tribal Members Blockade Enbridge Pipelines (March 2 video)

May the sacred fire of the Red Lake encampment over the Enbridge pipelines in Minnesota burn until the Alberta Clipper and associated carbon and tar sands conduits (like the Keystone XL pipeline) are forever unearthed: Thanks, Marty Cobenais of Indigenous Environmental Network and allies!

Red Lake Pipeline Blockade Initiated in Northern Minnesota (March 9 Earth First! Newswire)

Red Lake Direct Action to Stop Illegal Enbridge Pipeline (March 12 video)

Are You Willing to Do the Same? by T.R. Mckenzie, Deep Green Resistance (February 13 Last Real Indians)

“As you know now, this death culture is waging war on all life.  This is a war, and we need to say that…And I ask you: what the hell are you going to do about it?  Those of us on the frontlines are willing to do what is necessary to save and defend the living by any means necessary.  Are you willing to do the same?”

Food, Camping Gear, and Funding Drive for Activists and Lakota Warriors on the Great Plains (March 20 event)

“Hey All, we are looking for some people to do a food, camping gear, and fund drive to help with activities against the Keystone XL pipeline and White Clay.  Can you help with this?  Funds can be sent via PayPal to joey.feaster@gmail.com.  Checks can be made out to Deep Roots Collective and mailed to T.R. McKenzie, 504 Wilson Street, Jefferson, South Dakota 57038, the same address for mailing supplies.”

Moccasins on the Ground: Activist Training for Sacred Water/Mother Earth Protectors (March 8-10 event)

Although WIRT activists longed to be with the brave Lakota people and allied warriors during this weekend workshop, few of us found the destination too far.  Nonetheless, we wished Debra White Plume and her comrades a happy anniversary of their March 2011 blockades of tar sands transports that lifted our seemingly solitary spirits last year, while we confronted the last Highway 95 megaloads.  We continue to hold Lakota tar sands opponents in our hearts, as they prepare physical resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline.  See photos of the workshop, posted by Kandi Mossett, at this event link.

Debra White Plume Moccasins on the Ground Statement (March 13 Lakota Media Project)

Unist’ot’en Camp (April 10, Northern B.C.)

“This morning, two water sampling surveyors got dropped off about 500 meters upstream from the camp by this chopper.  It landed at the proposed right of way crossing for the Pacific Trails pipeline.  A couple of defenders went to the bridge, took this photograph, and yelled at them to leave immediately.  The surveyors donned their surveyor vests and started walking in the opposite direction and ignored the defenders.  The defenders then put on snowshoes and began trekking through the bush to the chopper.  As the defenders got about 200 meters away the chopper, it started up and landed about another 500 meters upstream, at the proposed right of way crossing for the Coastal Gas Link pipeline.  The defenders started hiking to the new landing area and were unable to catch up to the trespassers.  They took off from the new landing site without incident… it appears industry is employing a new tactic that gets workers into and out of areas quickly to avoid the camp defenders.  Our tactics will change accordingly.”  See the Unist’ot’en Camp website for further information about this ongoing tar sands/fracked gas pipeline blockade in unceded First Nations territory.

SELECTED RISING TIDE DIRECT ACTIONS

Fifty Ideas for Actions on Climate Change (Rising Tide UK)

Fifteen Actions to Topple the Fossil Fuel Empire (Rising Tide UK)

Controversial Oil Pipeline Lawsuit Settled in Texas (January 24 Rising Tide North America)

A contrived resolution, likely with entrapping fine print, resulted from the SLAPP lawsuit “intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.  In this case, named defendants, Tar Sands Blockade, Rising Tide North America, and Rising Tide North Texas, agreed to settle the unconscionable SLAPP suit filed against them by a profiteering, multinational Canadian corporation.”  Much like the Montana case that caused ExxonMobil to drop its permit applications for Highway 12 tar sands transports, before several other companies inaugurated that route as an industrial, oversized shipment corridor to Alberta, the “agreement” between TransCanada and its resisters is specific to the lawsuit parties.  As an autonomous group within the Rising Tide North America (RTNA) network, Wild Idaho Rising Tide was not directly involved or impacted by this SLAPP suit.  As we continue our three-year, on-the-ground campaign against ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Sunshine Oilsands, and other tar sands equipment on our regional roads, we wholeheartedly agree with Lauren Regan and Kerul Dyer of the Civil Liberties Defense Center and our esteemed comrade Scott Parkin of RTNA that “lawyers, guns, and money aren’t going to extinguish the rising momentum of resistance from the Gulf Coast to Alberta’s tar sands…[and] will not deter our resolve.”  WIRT will continue to give corporate and government entities abusing regional public resources and inflicting climate chaos all the hell that they deserve!

Climate Resistance in Bloom – March Update (March 18 Rising Tide North America)

RTNA’s March newsletter is full of stories about the almost daily actions of the fierce, growing anti-extraction movement throughout Turtle Island.  Enjoy reading and sharing news from our comrades!

RTNA April Newsletter: Fossil Fuel Resistance Heating Up! (April 17 Rising Tide North America)

The Rising Tide network released its April newsletter with updates about numerous actions and upcoming action camps.

Rising Tide’s Enbridge Noise Demo – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories (January 19 video)

Global Day of Action Against Chevron and the Pacific Trail Pipeline (March 30 event)

Initiated by Rising Tide Vancouver Coast Salish Territories and endorsed by about 40 organizations, this event galvanized supporters of the Unist’ot’en clan and Wet’suwet’en First Nation in mostly Canadian locations including Calgary, Hamilton, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria.  They gathered, stood, and marched to show solidarity for indigenous rights and against Chevron’s and Apache Energy’s Pacific Trails pipeline.  These criminal oil companies plan to ship natural gas from northwest B.C. shale gas fields along the same route to the coast as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.  With an ongoing peace camp that expands global, frontline, indigenous resistance to Chevron in Ecuador and Nigeria, the Unist’ot’en have blockaded construction of both conduits across their unceded lands for over a year.

…Annnnd We’re Back! (March 28 Northern Rockies Rising Tide)

NRRT is resurging and so happy to be back!  WIRT activists knew that they would eventually resurrect, and we are grateful beyond words that they have!  Woo-hoo!

Where Were We Again? Oh Yes, Fighting Climate Injustice (April 18 Northern Rockies Rising Tide)

Imagine mobilizing direct resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline crossing 250 miles of Montana and the Yellowstone River…!  “Some less than encouraging news from organizing attempts along the pipeline route in Montana makes the prospects for a strategic direct action campaign unlikely…We hope to work with such groups [as Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, Tar Sands Blockade, and the Oglala Sioux Nation] in the near future, if a critical mass of opposition around the pipeline in Montana materializes…(Please inquire if you would like to know more.)”  Northern Rockies Rising Tide, we would love to learn more…

Tar Sands Protestors Chain Themselves to Canadian Consulate Doors in Seattle (April 4 video)

Two activists of the newly formed Rising Tide Seattle successfully locked themselves to conference room doors inside the Canadian consulate in Seattle on Wednesday, April 3, displaying a banner reading “No Pipelines, No Tar Sands, We Will Blockade!” and protesting in solidarity with struggles against the Keystone XL pipeline and West Coast tar sands tankers.  Carlo Voli, who later talked with WIRT on the April 8 Climate Justice Forum, Lisa Marcus, and comrades locked down, strewed oil, wielded banners, and asserted manifestos.  Among 19 brave, anti-tar sands arrests in the four Northwest states over the last two years, their direct action amplified WIRT’s twelve 2011-12 megaload protesting and monitoring arrests and Northern Rockies Rising Tide’s five July 2011 arrests.

Manifesto of the Canadian Consulate Blockade in Seattle (April 4 Rising Tide Seattle)

Their fervent demands and feisty intentions explain why a group of Seattle area residents blockaded the Canadian consulate in Seattle on April 3, protesting Alberta tar sands operations and the Harper government’s involvement.

Tar Sands Protestors in Seattle Chain Themselves to Canadian Consulate Doors (April 3 Tar Sands Blockade)

WIRT is as proud of Rising Tide co-activists Carlo and Lisa as we are grateful for the only other anti-tar sands arrests in the Northwest since our March 4-6, 2012, blockade and actions.  Whether confronting incoming truck and train loads of tar sands and fracking equipment or outgoing dilbit, shale oil, and liquefied natural gas in pipelines, rail cars, and tankers, we hope to coordinate and share regional protests with Rising Tide Seattle soon!

Seattle Police Arrest Two Tar Sands Protesters at Canadian Consulate (April 3 The Stranger)

Climate Justice Forum: Carlo Voli 4-8-13 (April 8 Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

The Monday, April 8, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide gratefully welcomed activist Carlo Voli of Rising Tide Seattle, who talked about the growing resistance and impacts of tar sands pipelines and tankers in the Salish Sea region.  Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM and online, the show also covered continent-wide dirty energy developments and climate activism news.  Listen to an edited recording of the April 8 Climate Justice Forum posted in Radio4All.

Rising Tide Seattle (on facebook)

For updates and photos of Rising Tide Seattle actions, see their facebook page, share news of their first arrests, and donate to their legal fund.

More Charges Brought Against Tar Sands “Megaload” Protesters in Moscow, Idaho (April 4 Earth First! Newswire and Portland Radicle)

When WIRT’s facebook links connecting Rising Tide anti-tar sands actions in the Northwest inadvertently prompted posting of our year-old media release in two radical publications, we commented: “Thanks for covering, considering, and supporting Wild Idaho Rising Tide blockades and direct actions.  In solidarity with all 19 brave, anti-tar sands sacrifices in the four-state Northwest region over the last two years, our article describes our twelve 2011-12 Moscow and Coeur d’Alene arrests, the most recent ones before the two Rising Tide Seattle arrests on April 3, 2013, but after the five July 2011 Northern Rockies Rising Tide/Earth First! arrests in Helena.  The tide of dirty energy resistance is rising!”

Utah Federal Building Entrance Shut Down to Honor Climate Related Deaths (April 5 Peaceful Uprising)

On Friday, April 5, Peaceful Uprising activists shut down the federal building entrance in Salt Lake City, engaging in a die-in under the pouring rain, to honor deaths caused by the violence of climate change and oil spills.  Demonstrators asked that Senators Hatch and Lee reconsider their support of the Keystone XL pipeline, as they disrupted business-as-usual, diverted over 30 cars, and drew two arrests.

Flash Mob [Rising Tide Chicago] Don’t Frack Illinois Action at James R. Thompson Center (April 5 Rising Tide Chicago)

Our Chicago comrades are almost as musical as the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band, as they fight some of the first fracking in their state, like WIRT.

ALLIED ENDEAVORS

Protest in Eugene (Cascadia Forest Defenders video)

A march in Eugene after the Environmental Law Conference in early March

Flash Mobs at Port of Olympia, Washington, Against Fracking Supply Ship (March 18 event)

While massive new or reworked ports loom in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon for greatly increased export of Alberta tar sands, Bakken shale oil, Powder River Basin coal, and liquefied natural gas, not only imported tar sands megaloads are slipping into the region.  Bakken operations are shipping proppants for fracking all the way from Asia.  Talk about energy-intensive extreme fossil fuel extraction, not to mention eternally damaged lives and lands!

Court Rules in Bellingham 12 Case: Protesters Denied Basic Defense (March 20 Defend the Bellingham Twelve!)

WIRT cannot believe that upcoming Bellingham 12 hearings would be legitimate without the missing elements of a necessity defense (criminal motivation, climate crisis, etc…) and recognition of First Amendment protest rights.  But under a commissioner’s interpretation of necessity case law, there would effectively be no circumstances under which dirty energy resisters could claim necessity as a defense.  “The defendants were shocked and dismayed by the ruling.  ‘The world is in a state of emergency because of climate change, and yet we don’t hear a word in the media.  It wasn’t even a conversation in the elections.  Our protest was an urgent act in an emergency that nobody was even talking about…’”

Bellingham Twelve Rally and Hearing (April 18 event)

A seminal dirty energy blockaders’ hearing occurred on April 18 for the Bellingham 12, who U-locked at their necks to form a sprawling human octopus on Bellingham train tracks in December 2011, accomplishing the first physical resistance to Northwest coal exports.  WIRT is grateful for our comrades’ courage and leadership in direct action and hopes that the ecologically and socially responsible defendants prevail against a legal system that often ensconces numerous injustices.

Outcome of the Bellingham 12 Hearing on Thursday (April 19 Defendant Ian Alexander)

“Our initial plan had been to seek to move forward with a defense of necessity in a jury trial.  We issued a notice of intended defenses to the court in August 2012.  In December 2012, the court received a motion on the day before a hearing, written by the state asking the commissioner to disallow the defense, and our attorney, Larry, argued against it in court and submitted a written response brief.  The commissioner got back to us sometime in March with a ruling that we could not use the defense.  It took four months for the state to figure out what it was going to do in response to our intended defense, and the commissioner an additional four months to read all the information and make his ruling.

At the hearing today, we asked the judge to consider a request by us to reconsider his decision.  We feel that we satisfy the requirements for necessity.  He is apparently willing to at least hear us out, and we’ll be submitting paperwork/documents over the next few days.

The legal system moves glacially slowly, a metaphor that may not be as significant in a few years as it is now.  As always we have, and continue to appreciate, the patient, consistent support from the community!  We are moving as fast as the court will let us, and I, for one, don’t like it any more than I’m sure most of you do, but it seems to me that there is broad agreement among the defendants that, as tiresome, tedious, and infuriating as the legal system can sometimes be, it is worth it to all of us to not give up at the first sign of trouble, in order to make our stand in the courtroom.  This fight continues.”

Help TWAC Trans and Womyn’s Action Camp in South Florida! (March 19 Indiegogo)

WIRT’s good friends Susie, who has provided us two direct action trainings, Cici, who was arrested monitoring megaloads with Helen, and comrades raised over $3000 in donations through an Indiegogo campaign for staging their awesome training camp in south Florida.  Congratulations to our amazing allies of TWAC (Trans and Womyn’s Action Camp), who effectively practice and teach kicking patriarchal ass and reached hundred$ past their fundraising goal!  Anticipate a similar gathering in Oregon this June…

TWAC South Florida 2013 Fundraising Video (February 28 video)

San Francisco Keystone Protest at Obama Fundraiser, April 3, 2013 (April 4 video)

Thanks to core WIRT activist Jeanne: “I was in San Francisco this week for the Materials Research Society meeting, where amazingly I was staying at the same hotel as Obama.  On Wednesday evening, conference attendees were blocked from returning to the hotel by police barricades, and you could hear materials scientists cussing out the president in many different languages.  Despite my fantasy of seeing Obama in the elevator and giving him an earful about the Keystone pipeline, all I got was a delayed departure the next morning and a glimpse of the White House press secretary at the breakfast bar.  However, San Franciscans showed up in force at the fundraiser that Obama attended.  I found this YouTube video and was pleased to see the musical component of the protest!  Inspiration for the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band [and WIRT]!”

Announcing Wild Roots Feral Futures 2013! (March 22 Southwest Earth First!)

The fifth annual direct action, eco-defense, and rewilding encampment occurs in the wild Rockies of southwest Colorado on June 15 through 23, to visualize vast wilderness and actualize industrial collapse.  “Wild Roots Feral Futures is an informal, completely free, non-commercial, and loosely organized event operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies, and sustained through 100 percent volunteer effort.”  Coordinators are again appealing for funding to acquire essential food and supplies and to reimburse teachers, performers, speakers, and other participants who are traveling long distances to provide their services, knowledge, skills, and expertise.

In addition to the usual gathering activities, the event organizers collective is welcoming a five-day street medics training taught by Chicago Action Medical, Finger Lakes Action Medics, and Mutual Aid Street Medics.  Experienced members of this informal, international community of first aid systems first organized during the 1950s and 1960s popular and liberation movements and have provided medical support during the last half-century of protests, direct actions, uprisings, and natural disaster aftermaths.  Students completing the entire 20- to 28-hour training will receive non-latex gloves and a handbook and will learn about emergency prevention and response, patient assessment and first aid, community health work, operating in unsafe scenarios, and critical thinking in backcountry and urban field situations.

Eco-Warriors Might Now Be Propped Up by Greenie-Weenies – For a Cute, Stuffed Panda, Send in Your Hundred Thousand Bucks, Monsanto! (March 7 Dissident Voice)

“Mainstream, progressive groups have failed by constraining their activities within legal and regulatory systems purposefully structured to subordinate communities to corporate power.  Truly effective movements don’t operate that way.  Abolitionists never sought to regulate the slave trade; they sought to transform the legal structure that supported it by treating slaves as property rather than people under the law.  Suffragists did the same with the legal status of women.”

The Fossil Fuel Resistance (April 11 Rolling Stone)

Bill McKibben lauds the diverse, grassroots work of many groups like Wild Idaho Rising Tide and urges us all to continue to resist: “Like Occupy, this new Resistance is not obsessed with winning over Democratic Party leaders…Used to dealing with the established green groups, the administration thinks in terms of deals – ‘We’ll approve the pipeline but give you something else you want’ – the kind of logic that gains the approval of op-ed columnists and talking heads.  But given that the Arctic has already melted, we don’t have room for easy compromises.”  WIRT trusts the sacrifices and effective threats of place-based, local resistance to dirty energy, not so much the federal focus and symbolic arrests of 350.org.  If Bill could have dispatched however many people showed up in D.C. (to do what?) on February 17 to help frontline communities, change would rapidly intensify.  People in the U.S. trenches like Moscow are afraid to risk arrest, because none of the mainstream, green organizations (including 350.org) and few of their fellow citizens offer the necessary support.  We could all learn plenty from activists in Latin America and Africa, who have died fighting the oilgarchy that we are finally getting around to confronting.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org & on facebook

208-301-8039

See the nationwide, simultaneous screening of the documentary Bidder 70 about Utah climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who stopped an unjust federal oil and gas lease auction.  Participate in his first live-streamed talk and tweeted question-and-answer session since his Friday release from federal prison.  On Earth Day, Monday, April 22, the Kenworthy Theater (508 South Main Street, Moscow) opens at 5:30 pm PDT, and the film starts at 6 pm, co-sponsored by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), Peaceful Uprising, Gage and Gage Productions, and Gathr Films through $10 or donation admissions.  For further information about this seminal event, see the WIRT website and facebook pages.

Tim DeChristopher’s Peaceful Uprising (April 21 EcoWatch)

Thanks to Stefanie Spear of EcoWatch for posting and featuring WIRT’s piece about the nationwide Bidder 70 screening and discussion with Tim DeChristopher on Earth Day, Monday, April 22, wishing us “Best of luck!”, and requesting further news about this event.

Earth Day Exclusive: Tim DeChristopher Speaks Out after 21 Months in Prison for Disrupting Oil Bid (April 22 Democracy Now!)

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org & on facebook

208-301-8039

Comment to the U.S. State Department on the latest Keystone XL pipeline proposal before midnight on Monday, April 22, if you still have any faith in the regulatory system, but copy your manifesto to Bold Nebraska, 350.org, or other non-governmental organizations, because our federal government (purposely?) loses citizen input (keystonecomments@state.gov).  Although Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is a direct action collective, whose multiple members should be staging actions, here is yet another backlogged newsletter from too few of us who would prefer to create news with you rather than tell you about it.  Because talking is faster and more effective than writing, WIRT has covered most of this material, current as of April 14, on our Climate Justice Forum radio program, aired Mondays between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT on KRFP Radio Free Moscow.  Expect another several late newsletters with 2013 first-quarter news over the next few weeks.

WIRT hopes that the activism of our peers described through this effort will inspire you toward passionate activity rather than news-mongering passivity, in reaction to the hegemony of mercenary dirty energy corporations.  Because we are gratefully far from the big city headquarters, fancy hotels, and slick conferences of the Earth desecrators targeted by recent Tar Sands Blockade and 350.org mass actions, we decided not to rile our local banks and gas stations and divert our emphasis on direct confrontations to join our allies’ bandwagons in February and March.

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

Keystone XL Pipeline Evaluation Process Fact Sheet 2012 (U.S. Department of State)

Submit your official 45-day comments on the Keystone XL pipeline: “…members of the public, public agencies, and other interested parties are encouraged to submit comments, questions, and concerns about the project via e-mail to keystonecomments@state.gov or by mail to:

U.S. Department of State

Attn: Genevieve Walker, NEPA Coordinator

2201 C Street NW, Room 2726

Washington, D.C. 20520”

Keystone XL Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (U.S. Department of State)

All pipelines leak!  Comment on the draft supplementary environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL pipeline by Earth Day, April 22.

A Million Comments Against Keystone XL (350.org)

Heineman Says OK to Pipeline (January 22 Journal Star)

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman: “I hereby, in accordance with Neb. Rev. Stat. §57-l503(4), approve the route reviewed in the Final Evaluation Report conducted pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. §57-15()3(l).  I request that Nebraska’s evaluation be included in the Department of State’s Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.”

State Department Report: Keystone XL is Environmentally Sound (March 1 ThinkProgress)

Part IV: America Becomes Sacrifice Zone for Export Pipeline (March 21 EcoWatch)

Keystone XL Scandal: Obama State Department Hid Contractor’s TransCanada Ties (March 21 DeSmogBlog)

That our federal government feels compelled to hide information from its citizens only further demonstrates the effectiveness of investigative journalism and latent democratic power.

State Department Hid Contractor’s Ties to Keystone XL Pipeline Company (March 21 Mother Jones)

Groups Ask State Department for 120-Day Comment Period on Keystone Pipeline (April 4 Inside Climate News)

WASHINGTON DC DEMONSTRATIONS

Tell President Obama to Move Forward on Climate and Clean Water by Stopping Dirty Energy (February 8 EcoWatch)

Climate Patriotism: Sierra Club Endorses Civil Disobedience for First Time in Its History (January 23 ThinkProgress)

[Invitation-Only] Participants (Tar Sands Action)

Sierra Club Civil Disobedience at the White House on February 13 (Dave Warren photos)

Thanks to Dave for being our eyes and ears in DC!  As the Sierra Club makes its first authorized, invitation-only foray into civil disobedience on President Lincoln’s birthday, we wonder why President Obama has not yet freed Americans from the slavery of oil reliance.

48 Leaders Arrested in Historic Act of Civil Disobedience to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline (February 13 EcoWatch)

Forward on Climate Rally (February 17 C-Span video)

We are grateful to hear the powerful, inspiring words of people with whom WIRT has prayed, walked, talked, and shared the airwaves, on stage at this huge event held on the National Mall in Washington DC.  Organizers urged President Obama to begin his second term with energy policies that include limiting carbon emissions, utilizing renewable resources, and rejecting the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Forward on Climate Rallies in Western North America

Largest Climate Rally in History – Take A Stand!

Olvera Street in Los Angeles, California

Local Forward on Climate Rally

One Market Plaza in San Francisco, California

March for Social, Earth + Real Justice!

EMU Amphitheater in Eugene, Oregon

Profiting from Tar Sands in the Green City

Shemanski Park in Portland, Oregon

Forward on Climate Solidarity Rally and Walk – Spokane

Rotary Fountain at Riverfront Park in Spokane, Washington

‘Walking Train Against Coal Trains’ March

Sierra Club Cascade Chapter in Seattle, Washington

Sit-in Against Climate Change at Boulevard Park

Boulevard Park in Bellingham, Washington

Überdrop in the 40th Chinese New Year Parade – We are Water!

Millennium Gate in Chinatown, at Pender and Taylor Streets in Vancouver, British Columbia

Idle No More – National Day of Action – No XL Pipeline

Churchill Square in Edmonton, Alberta

OKLAHOMA DIRECT ACTIONS

Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance: Introduction (March 16 Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance video)

Oklahoma Woman Locks Her Neck to Keystone XL Construction Equipment (February 4 Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance)

Elizabeth Leja graciously provided the initial lock-down to Keystone XL pipeline laying equipment in Oklahoma in February, with her brave one-woman blockade!

Support Elizabeth at Her Court Date (April 15 event)

Lifelong Oklahoman Youth Pastor Suspended from KXL Construction Equipment, Locked to Machinery (February 11 Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance)

Police detained and arrested seven people in Oklahoma, where youth pastor and lifelong state resident Stefan Warner scaled and locked to a side-boom to blockade construction of the toxic Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and an active fracking site on Muscogee-Creek treaty land.  Disregarding Stefan’s safety and OSHA regulations, workers lowered the heavy machinery arm with Stefan lying painfully face-down, while police arrested his support group and obscured him from view and photographs.

Action Camp in Oklahoma! March 18-22 (Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance)

Action Camp Schedule (March 14 Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance)

Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance raised enough funds to help indigenous delegations come from Pine Ridge and Black Mesa to the action camp and for food, supplies, legal input, and other camp expenses.

Oklahoma Grandmother Arrested in Pipeline Protest (April 9 Oklahoman)

Highway 12 tar sands megaloads have been calling you all winter, WIRT activists and allies.  If 79-year-old Nancy Zorn can blockade, so can you!  Her courage proves that you are never too old to stand up for what you believe.

Oklahoma Grandmother Locks Herself to Keystone XL Heavy Machinery – Halts Construction (April 9 Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance)

Nancy Zorn: “I can no longer sit by idly while toxic tar sands are pumped down from Canada and into our communities.  It is time to rise up and defend our home.  It is my hope that this one small action today will inspire many to protect this land and our water.”  Idahoans and Montanans plan to assist other fearless activists who are putting it all on the line to stop Keystone XL in Montana and tar sands mining in Utah this summer.

Actions (Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance)

TEXAS CONFRONTATIONS

An Open Letter from Our Supporters (October 5, 2012, Tar Sands Blockade)

“In the year since [the August/September 2011 Tar Sands Action], we have witnessed people from the Lakota nation in South Dakota and from Moscow, Idaho, putting their bodies in roads and highways, blocking large transport trucks carrying oil refining equipment to develop further tar sands extraction.”

Tar Sands Blockaders Tell Their Own Story in a New Documentary (February 22 Grist)

The incredibly inspiring documentary Blockadia Rising relates the intense story of Tar Sands Blockade activists fighting the ongoing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in east Texas.

Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade (Garrett Graham video)

January 31 Pipetech Americas Conference Disruption in the Woodlands, Texas (January 31 Tar Sands Blockade)

Ramsey Sprague heroically chained himself to audio equipment at an oil and gas pipeline conference and held forth with an unsquelched oratory on TransCanada’s history of corner-cutting and toxic spills.

Protestor Locks Himself to Conference Equipment, Disrupts TransCanada Presentation at Oil Industry Gathering (February 27 Tar Sands Blockade)

Kansan Ethan Nuss with Tar Sands Blockade locked down at an oil industry gathering in Houston on his 29th birthday.  By chaining his neck to conference equipment, he successfully disrupted an oily TransCanada executive’s presentation on tar sands expansion and challenged his audience’s wanton disregard for the climate and communities’ health and safety.

OTHER PIPELINE RESISTANCE

State Department Hearing (and Other Events) (April 18 Bold Nebraska event)

Tar sands resistance heated up last week in Nebraska, inequitably the only state to host a public hearing on the latest, wrongfully construed, purported environmental review of the northern Keystone XL pipeline.  Busloads of anti-tar sands testifiers journeyed from Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Wichita to the Grand Island hearing.  As public processes progress for the ‘Northwest Keystone XL’ – coal exports, we hope for more than the previous few Montana buses and Idaho carpools to Oregon and Washington hearings.

Keystone XL Pipeline – Public Meeting – April 18, 2013 – Grand Island, Nebraska (April 4 Indigenous Environmental Network)

Over 100 Hold a “Funeral for Our Future” at TransCanada Office Outside Boston (March 11 Tar Sands Blockade)

Stop Tar Sands Profiteers Week of Action a Huge Success with 55 Actions Across the Continent! (March 25 Tar Sands Blockade)

What the Hell Were You Thinking? (Catherine Wallace video)

Testimony of a 16-year-old climate change activist against the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in British Columbia

Protect the Sacred (No Line 9 Reversal)

Actions Springing Up for a Tar Sands Free Northeast (January 24 Tar Sands Blockade)

Huge Crowd Turns Out to Denounce Possible Transport of Tar Sands in Region (January 27 Portland Press Herald)

The Tar Sands [Line Nine is] Coming to Toronto (February 20 Indigenous Environmental Network)

Congratulations to all WIRT activists and allies for their ongoing exemplary tar sands and climate change resistance work!

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org & on facebook

208-301-8039