WIRT Activists and Friends,

URGENT WIRT MEETING

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is staging a strategizing and planning meeting at the WIRT Activist House at 6 pm on Sunday, August 4!  Participants will discuss tactics for protesting and monitoring tar sands evaporators that could cross Highway 12 in Idaho beginning on Monday night, August 5.  Omega Morgan has attached one of these megaloads to pull and push trucks and staged it for transport in a paved lot at the Port of Wilma, Washington, a few miles downriver from Lewiston, Idaho.  As described in a previous WIRT newsletter, another shipment remains in a large shop at the port.  Please call 208-310-2108 for more information about this WIRT meeting and see the following articles about this emerging situation.  Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction and WIRT organizers are participating in a direct action training for trainers this weekend and will conduct a regional training session soon, to foster effective demonstrations against megaloads, oil and gas drilling/fracking, and the Keystone XL pipeline.  Expect an action alert after the WIRT meeting on Sunday evening…

Earth First! Direct Action Manual

Megaloads Could Go Monday (August 2 Lewiston Tribune)

On Friday, Omega Morgan stated its intentions to start hauling a massive evaporator up Highway 12 to Alberta tar sands operations at 10 pm on Monday, August 5.  The Forest Service “is not likely to try and stop the shipments if the company proceeds without its approval.”  The Idaho Transportation Department issued a permit to Omega Morgan on Friday and advised it to contact the Forest Service and the Federal Highway Administration.  A federal court recently affirmed their authority to review and regulate megaload permits for passage through the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest and the Lochsa and Middle Fork of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River corridor.  But the Forest Service has only suggested three interim criteria for such megaload transport and has not yet consulted the Nez Perce Tribe, conducted a proposed study of corridor values affected by the shipments, nor established a megaload permit approval process.  Forest Service response to Omega Morgan’s assertions will need Chief Tom Tidwell’s approval.  Opponents and mercenary supporters of megaloads have sent dozens of messages to the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest over the past few weeks.

Update: Can a Mega-Load Make a U-Turn? (July 31/August 3 Boise Weekly)

Editorial: Time to Set Rules of Road for Idaho Megaloads (July 31 Spokesman Review)

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org & on facebook & Twitter

208-301-8039