Friends and comrades,

Please see the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) Events Calendar and facebook events for linked information about these March and later events.  Now that a long, cold, difficult four months of winter travel for anti-megaload organizing across three states has concluded, expect forthcoming reports and announcements about the recent Missoula megaload protest, Highway 95 Mammoet megaload re-routing and activists meetings, oil and gas developments and resistance in southern Idaho, and the third annual celebration of WIRT occurring next Saturday, March 29.  Join us soon at any or all of these happenings: Your involvement is crucial to the successes of the climate justice movement!  For instance, at the monthly WIRT meeting tonight, we will start to form affinity groups and design tactics for direct actions against looming Mammoet megaloads through Moscow.

WIRT Events Calendar

March 20: Third Thursday Monthly WIRT Potluck & Meeting (Thursday 7 pm, The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 E. Second Street, Moscow, Idaho)

March 22: Grabbing Back Contributors Panel Discussion (Saturday 4:30 pm, Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, The Crucible, 1260 Seventh Street, Oakland, California)

March 26: Tribal & Climate Activists Gathering about Mammoet Megaloads (Wednesday 1:30 pm, Benewah Wellness Center, 1100 A Street, Plummer, Idaho, & Wednesday 7 pm, East Bonner County – Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar Street, Sandpoint, Idaho)

March 27: A Healing Walk through the Alberta Tar Sands (Thursday 7 pm, College of Law Room 103, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho)

March 29: Citizens’ Climate Lobby Inaugural Meeting & Presentation (Saturday 1 pm, 1912 Center Fiske Room, 412 E. Third Street, Moscow, Idaho)

Please consider joining a new group of engaged, local citizens on Saturday, March 29, for a presentation on a market-based solution to climate change known as a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend.  The event will mark the inaugural meeting of the Palouse Region chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), a rapidly-growing, nonpartisan, nationwide organization whose goal is to build the political will for a stable climate.  Former Utah U.S. Senate candidate and CCL regional coordinator William Barron will lead the presentation and organizational meeting.  For more information, call Rob Briggs at 509-332-5819 or search for Citizens’ Climate Lobby on the internet.

March 29: Third Annual Celebration of Wild Idaho Rising Tide (Saturday 7 pm to midnight, 1912 Center Great Room, 412 E. Third Street, Moscow, Idaho)

Multiple April Events…

May 2-5: Third Extreme Energy Extraction Summit (Friday to Monday, times TBA, Bosque Center, Rio Grande Urban Forest, Albuquerque, New Mexico)

Kim Ellis of Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS) in West Virginia reached out to WIRT and allies about the following described summit, because participants from our area are under-represented.  Kim attended the first two summits in 2013, and is part of summit working groups, so she welcomes any questions about the event.  She is especially interested in inviting Montana Indian Peoples Action, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs folks.  Please see the following information and contact Kim at kleinnola@gmail.com if you would like to attend.  Also reply to WIRT at this email address if you can carpool to New Mexico.

“Good news!  It’s not too late to apply to join us for the third Extreme Energy Extraction Summit on May 2 to 5 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The application deadline has been extended beyond March 15.  In order to make life saner for the planning team, we will not be accepting late registrations, and travel scholarships will not be available after April 1.  So please apply now.

As of right now, we are roughly half full.  Please note that we still cannot guarantee acceptance, as we are striving for the most balanced and diverse group possible.  Organizers in the Northwest, Midwest, the South, Alaska, and Canada are particularly encouraged to apply, as those regions are currently under-represented.  Please forward the original invitation included below to your networks and contacts.  We are looking forward to seeing you in two months!

In Solidarity,

The Extreme Energy Extraction Collaborative”

The next summit will be held on May 2 to 5 at the beautiful Bosque Center in the Rio Grande Urban Forest in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We are especially excited to be in New Mexico, where the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment has graciously agreed to play host and arrange community tours of uranium impacted areas for those who can arrive on May 1.

Once again, the summit will bring together the full spectrum of groups across the country resisting all forms of energy extraction, from small grassroots community groups to large national nonprofits and everything in between.  The incredible diversity of groups and individuals that have come together for our first two summits has been both the greatest strength and greatest challenge of our collaborative, as we struggle together to find ways to work across differences and build our collective power.

To honor this diversity, the focus of the third summit will be “Building concrete skills for working together across differences – in terms of issues, tactics, and identities – to strengthen our movement to end extreme extraction.”  Participants will take home the following tools to collaborate more successfully with other groups:

* A deeper understanding of the issues, tactics, and identities we represent

* Information about what the people we want to be in alignment with need from us, in terms of collaboration

* Some criteria for naming when shared strategy is helpful (and not)

* Models and examples of successful collaborations

* Shared language and frameworks for working across differences

* Concrete collaborative projects that sub-sets of the group can move forward

This collaborative (like WIRT!) belongs to you.  We aren’t convened by any one organization, coalition, or funder.  We were created by the grassroots, for the grassroots, and the summit will be as powerful as we make it.  Please bring your ideas and proposals for how we can all work together.  The more that folks bring to the table, the more we can get done in the short time we have together.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843

WildIdahoRisingTide.org

Facebook.com/WildIdaho.RisingTide

Twitter.com/WildIdahoRT

208-301-8039