Climate defenders,

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 9: ITD to Hold Public Meetings Statewide Starting October 7 on 129,000-Pound Truck Legislation (Idaho Transportation Department)

Comment and participate in the Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) statewide public meetings on its four proposed administrative rules governing existing and additional 129,000-pound truck routes and implementing Idaho Senate Bills 1064 and 1117 and House Bill 322, all passed in 2013.  Attend 4 to 7 pm meetings with hourly ITD staff presentations and give verbal or written testimony in Idaho Falls and Pocatello on October 7, in Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston on October 9, in Twin Falls on October 16, and in Boise on October 17.  Email your comments on the rules to comments@itd.idaho.gov by 5 pm on October 24.

October 10: Weekly WIRT Potluck/Meeting (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

The climate justice movement in Idaho depends on your activism: participate in planning actions and events, educating our cohorts and communities, reaching out through various media, and challenging energy extraction and transportation corporations.  Please bring food and/or beverages to share, and contribute your ideas and energies toward our clean energy future every Thursday at 7 pm at the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) Activist House in Moscow.

October 10: The Whole Story of Climate (Friends of the Moscow Library)

Local library supporters have invited WIRT members to their annual meeting, to hear Washington State University geologist E. Kirsten Peters talk about her book, The Whole Story of Climate.  Her lecture will occur at 7 pm on Thursday, October 10, at the 1912 Center, 412 East Third Street in Moscow.  Friends of the Moscow Library are offering this program, discussion, and refreshments to everyone free of charge: they welcome all to attend.

October 11: Flush the TPP Spokane (Chris Nerison, Spokane)

This Friday, October 11, at 6:30 pm, learn about the Trans Pacific Partnership international agreement, which could bolster dirty energy infrastructure imports and fossil fuel exports.  View a presentation by Kristen Beifus of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East 11th Avenue in Spokane.  Call WIRT at 208-301-8039 for Palouse carpool coordination.

October 16: Blue Skies Campaign Fundraiser and Action Report-Back (Blue Skies Campaign)

The Missoula-based Blue Skies Campaign will hold a fundraiser on Wednesday, October 16, from 7 to 9 pm at Ten Spoon Windery, 4175 Rattlesnake Drive in Missoula, to help cover fines incurred from their rail line occupation in Helena during the September Showdown Against Coal Exports on the 16th.  In one of the boldest acts of climate-related civil disobedience in Montana, 14 people walked and briefly sat beyond a “No Trespassing” sign between two main coal export train tracks, and received citations and fines of up to $300 each.  Please RSVP through the following link, and join this event that will feature a report-back on the highly successful action and a preview of upcoming initiatives against coal exports.  You can also donate online or mail your check written to Blue Skies Campaign to: Blue Skies Campaign, c/o Nick Engelfried, 321 South First Street West #3, Missoula, Montana 59801.

October 16: Climate Workgroup Hearing in Spokane (Climate Solutions and others)

On October 16 between 5 and 7 pm, in the Music Building Auditorium Room 110 on the Spokane Falls Community College campus, 3410 West Fort George Wright Drive in Spokane, Governor Inslee and Washington state legislators from the Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup (CLEW) will be holding a public hearing for open discussions about climate policy actions.

October 19: Global Frackdown 2 (Food and Water Watch, WIRT, and allies)

As Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction and WIRT design Boise/southern Idaho demonstrations on the frontlines of first fracking in our state, please plan to join us on Saturday, October 19, for the second Global Frackdown in Idaho, announced soon.  Show your solidarity with communities around the world affected by fracking, and help us ban fracking in Idaho before it happens, if drillers have not already fracked the wilderness state!

Global Frackdown2 on facebook

Global Frackdown 2 Calls for a Worldwide Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing (October 7 EcoWatch)

Fundraising for Anti-Coal/Megaload Activists (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

WIRT is seeking contributions for allied activists who defended treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, and the air, water, and lands of our region and climate from the infrastructure incursions of coal export and tar sands import last summer.  During the WIRT-sponsored, well-attended, sign-waving rally, Fearless Summer Coal Export Sacrifice Zone Uprising, on June 27 in Spokane, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad patrols cited Tony Dellwo and ‘Ziggy’ with second degree criminal trespass, when the Occupy Spokane activists walked toward a downtown BNSF railroad bridge with a suspiciously temporarily stopped, loaded, coal export train, to obtain higher traffic visibility for their protest signs.  Trespass charges for both defendants will be dropped after they pay fines and complete the terms of their agreements.  Ziggy served eight hours of community service with Backbone Campaign’s annual Localize This! activist training camp, and Tony is diligently fulfilling his one-year probation.  WIRT requests your help with their combined $125 fines due in October.

In passionate displays of tribal sovereignty and solidarity with other indigenous communities opposing tar sands exploitation, Nimiipuu tribal leaders and members and allied activists valiantly blockaded and delayed a tar sands mining evaporator and convoy at the reservation boundary and throughout the wild and scenic river corridor along Highway 12 on August 5 to 8.  On September 20, Nez Perce Tribal Court arraigned most of the 28 protesters arrested by tribal police and charged up to $500 each for bail, imposing public nuisance infractions (unlawfully obstructing movement on a public highway).  If convicted, eight accused Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee members may be forced by the tribe’s constitution to forfeit their posts for three years.  Nimiipuu activists insist that the tribal court drop their charges, in consideration of pertinent tribal and federal laws, resolutions, and court orders rejecting Highway 12 megaloads.  Although WIRT and allies recently raised over $1200 at a benefit concert, we ask that you join us in honoring such courageous, nonviolent, civil disobedience with your contributions that help cover fines and legal fees.  Please donate whatever you can, noting intended Nez Perce or Spokane recipients, online or by check to Wild Idaho Rising Tide at the enclosed address, so that indigenous and climate activists can participate in resistance to coal and oil company onslaughts, regardless of their financial situation.

RECENT ALLIED EVENTS

October 4-7: PowerShift BC (PowerShift Canada)

Hundreds of young, diverse activists gathered in Victoria in unceded Coast Salish territories for PowerShift BC on October 4 to 7, to develop their skills and embolden the growing movement for climate, environmental, and social justice and sustainability.

October 5: Boise, Idaho, Stands with the Arctic 30 – Candlelight Vigil (350 Idaho)

Southern Idaho friends joined in this peaceful Saturday evening vigil.

Protest or Piracy? Greenpeace Activists Remain Jailed in Russia after Boarding Arctic Oil Rig (September 26 Democracy Now!)

October 8: State Land Board: Stop Fossil Fuel Exports! (Portland Rising Tide)

WIRT joined our Portland Rising Tide and allied comrades in spirit and solidarity on Tuesday morning, as we eagerly anticipated this action’s outcomes!

MEGALOADS/TAR SANDS

No Reconsideration Decision or Highway 95 Megaloads

Allies expect a decision this week from U.S. District Judge Winmill on the motion to reconsider filed by Resources Conservation Company International (RCCI) and supported by a U.S. Forest Service memorandum, in the case brought by Idaho Rivers United and the Nez Perce Tribe, which resulted in Winmill’s September 12 order that the Forest Service close Highway 12 to RCCI’s Omega Morgan-hauled tar sands evaporators.  One such megaload remains stranded in a tall Port of Wilma warehouse near a riverside lot with three heavy-duty trucks and an oversized load trailer.  The October 2 Lewiston Tribune article Idaho Campsites Close, Court Slows stated that, “U.S. District Court in Boise has enough funding to continue hearing cases for the next ten business days, if Congress doesn’t resolve the budget impasse.  But the effect of a shutdown on other governmental agencies – and on participants in court cases – could mean that some cases are put on hold anyway.  And if the lack of funding is extended beyond ten business days, the court will look at what changes in functions or schedules are needed.”  A September 27 ITD response to our allies’ public records request for information or documents about overlegal equipment shipments that could or have recently used U.S. Highway 95 revealed that neither transports nor company inquiries had occurred this summer until the September 17 Forest Service closure of Highway 12.

Caywaaspuu on Twitter (Nimiipuu Activists)

The volunteer group of Nimiipuu Nation members and allies, who have been hosting community meetings and educational teach-ins about direct action and tar sands megaloads seeking transport through Nez Perce territory, has chosen the name Caywaaspuu/Tsy-wass-poo to reflect and honor the vigilant guardian and warrior spirit of ancestral homeland defenders.  According to Billy Williams in the late 1800s, the Nimiipuu name designates the white rocks that rise to the point on the Clearwater River, where a former leading group of the Nez Perce Tribe strategically positioned their village to stand sentinel at the eastern and southern approaches to the river travel corridor, and protect all of the tribal groups lower down the river.  The Tsy-wass-poo controlled direct access to the Camas Prairie and its trade meeting grounds and to the entrance to mountain and buffalo country hunting grounds.  Their voice was potent among all the tribal councils, and they always met the frontline danger of enemy incursions and war excursions with passionate commitment to the good of the people, even in the face of death.  Follow the emerging Caywaaspuu group on Twitter.

Fight Over Energy Finds a New Front in a Corner of Idaho and An Indian Tribe’s Battle (September 25 New York Times)

With a media release about the Benefit Concert for Nez Perce Megaload Protesters, WIRT attracted a New York Times reporter and photographer to Nez Perce lands and Moscow for two days, and inclusively invited core tribal and WIRT activists, event co-sponsors, and allies to directly contact and interview with them.  Strangely, even after receiving this press release, an extensive WIRT interview, and an emailed description of the Idaho megaload situation and involved parties, the Times never mentioned relentless, previous Moscow megaload protests or WIRT, and it (purposely?) mis-attributed the hosts and participants of the benefit concert and peace band march.  Nonetheless, we are deeply grateful for everyone who contributed toward the successful event, for Kirk and Rich’s visit and explorations, and for their article and photo compilation that amplified the honored, heroic spirit and voice of Nimiipuu warriors defending their rights, people, and the Earth from tyrannical Big Oil bullies.  After beseeching our regional community since January 2011 to physically confront every one of these energy transportation invasions and suffering constant, Orwellian legal, surveillance, and social consequences, WIRT will continue to vigorously dispute tar sands megaloads crossing any part of the Northwest.  The intensive and necessary work of radical resistance communities, despite marginalization by status quo-entrenched corporate media and conservation, trusts that peaceful, grassroots direct actions and sacrifice will ultimately protect our beautiful shared home.

Idaho Wild and Scenic Rivers and the Nez Perce Tribe Trump Tar Sands Megaloads – For Now (September 25 High Country News)

The second of five articles/broadcasts within a week that brought more nationwide and international attention to Nez Perce and allied opposition to tar sands megaloads in the roads and courts.

Idaho Tribe Fights to Save Historic Riverway (September 26 Aljazeera America)

A few weeks ago, an Aljazeera reporter working out of Spokane called WIRT about the megaload situation and benefit concert.  He interviewed several allies in the region and us to produce this great article.

Tribal Council Meeting Focuses on Megaloads (September 28 Spokesman-Review)

Social Justice Concerns Grow through Church Involvement (September 2013 Fig Tree)

“Since coming to Moscow, Idaho, Pat Rathmann has become active at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, helping set up several social justice task forces.  Pat believes people of faith need to move from the pews to the streets and courts…”

Protesters Persist in Challenging Megaloads to Tar Sands (October 2013 Fig Tree)

WIRT greatly appreciates the extensive work of Mary Stamp of Spokane, since a mid-May interview with WIRT activist Helen Yost, to capture and tell the entire megaload protest story, despite a few inaccuracies due to our inability to provide article corrections while preparing for and participating in extensive travel during the last week of September.

Tar Sands SOS: Save Our Shore (ForestEthics)

Follow Tar Sands SOS to track toxic tar sands tankers in the Salish Sea and along the West Coast, as big oil companies Enbridge and Kinder Morgan propose 600 such tankers per year – each three times the size of the Exxon Valdez!  See the following ForestEthics press release for more information.

New Web Tool Launches, Highlighting Proposed 700 Percent Increase in Tar Sands Oil Tanker Traffic Along West Coast (October 1 ForestEthics)

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org

Facebook.com/WildIdaho.RisingTide

Twitter.com/WildIdahoRT

208-301-8039