Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is celebrating three March 31 anniversaries during recent, pandemic years, as a regional, activist collective confronting the root causes and perpetrators of climate change, through direct actions and locally organized solutions, in solidarity with frontline communities and grassroots networks of fossil fuels resistance [1-5].  We invite and welcome everyone of all ages to share this decade-plus milestone at two Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Annual Celebrations of Wild Idaho Rising Tide, held as outdoor, COVID-19-safe gatherings in Sandpoint and Moscow, Idaho.  Please join dirty energy resisters for an afternoon voyage on Lake Pend Oreille and two evening celebrations, all full of well-deserved, reinvigorating, shared camaraderie, spirited conversations, good food and drink, and talented performances.

Saturday, June 11

Lake Pend Oreille Voyage: 12 to 3:30 pm, Kramer Marina, Hope

Celebrations start at 11 am to noon on Saturday, June 11, with Lake Pend Oreille Cruises’ most popular, 3G tour exploring the various islands, coves, cliffs, mountains, and birds and wildlife of the beautiful, southern arm of Lake Pend Oreille.  With history and geology commentary, the 3.5-hour voyage available to all ages views Garfield and Green bays and especially the Green Monarch range planned for imminent, massive, clearcut logging by the Buckskin Saddle and Chloride Gold “restoration” (aka deforestation) projects [6, 7].  Please see the cruise company’s website for information about minimum passenger requirements, boat ride fares, and optional, on-board lunches and drinks [8].  Contact WIRT via text at 208-301-8039 for carpools departing Sandpoint at 11 am, for the 12 pm launch from the Kramer Marina in Hope, of this last 3G excursion of the spring 2022 season.

Saturday, June 11

Open-Mic Potluck Gathering: 6 to 9 pm, City Beach Park pavilion, Sandpoint

Saturday, June 18

Open-Mic Potluck Gathering: 6 to 9 pm, East City Park picnic shelter, Moscow

On two successive, Saturday evenings, WIRT invites and extends our hearty thanks to the remarkable, core activists, board members, friends, allies, and musicians who have coordinated and shared the successes of ongoing, citizen challenges of the corporate and government sources of climate chaos.  Under the light of the almost-full, Strawberry super moon, rising over Lake Pend Oreille at 5:40 pm on Saturday, June 11, and reaching peak illumination at 4:50 am on Tuesday, June 14, WIRT is converging from 6 to 9 pm on Saturday, June 11, at the City Beach Park pavilion in Sandpoint, with provided pizza and requested, potluck snacks and beverages, to enjoy open-mic performances of music, poetry, talks, and other creative works offered by north Idaho and regional residents [9].

After hosting an information and outreach table at the Moscow Farmers Market, from about 9 am until 1 pm on Saturday, June 18, WIRT eagerly anticipates another lively, open-mic and jam session, potluck gathering between 6 and 9 pm, at the East City Park picnic shelter in Moscow.  At all of these free, public events, we welcome organizers, musicians, and businesses to share their admired talents and to participate as volunteers and/or sponsors.  These yearly festivities not only strive to raise awareness and funds supporting relentless, WIRT activism, but also seek to attract and involve cross-cultural, youth, and community member diversity in the climate justice movement in Idaho and the Northwest.

For further event and issue information and responses to your questions, and/or to contribute toward WIRT’s ninth, tenth, and eleventh anniversary celebrations and travel expenses, please visit the WIRT website and facebook pages, contact us via phone, text, email, or facebook message, and print and post the color Ninth Tenth Eleventh WIRT Celebration Flyer [10, 11].  If you cannot participate in these upcoming opportunities, but would like to uphold WIRT endeavors, please arrange a visit or send a donation to our Sandpoint office.  Physical and fiscal contributions assist the dedicated, determined work of WIRT and partner, environmental justice groups confronting new and expanded, fossil fuels production, transportation, and related infrastructure throughout the Northwest.

Recent WIRT Background

In the last three years, WIRT has commented, testified, and petitioned, hosted frontline and solidarity action trainings, protests, and paddles, and communicated online via social media, email, and website and on-air through a weekly, Climate Justice Forum program on KRFP Radio Free Moscow, encouraging resistance and contesting myriad, regional, fossil fuels and industrial onslaughts [10, 11].  We have actively opposed and monitored BNSF Railway, Uinta Basin, and other railroads’ track and bridges construction, Northwest coal, oil, tar sands, petroleum coke, nuclear waste, and other hazardous freight trains, nationwide, rail transports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), BNSF’s Kootenai River locomotive wreck and diesel spill and the Custer oil train derailment, leak, and fire, the Zenith and Port Westward oil-by-rail terminals, and the train collision deaths of Montana grizzly bears and other wildlife.  WIRT has supported coalition efforts to halt Highway 95 realignment onto Paradise Ridge, Treasure Valley and Payette River-side oil and gas well spacing, forced leasing, drilling, acidizing, extraction, and waste injection, the Newport silicon smelter, Kalama methanol plant, and Jordan Cove LNG terminal, the Dakota Access oil pipeline and its expansion, Keystone XL, Lines 3 and 5, and Trans Mountain tar sands pipelines, and Coastal GasLink, Pacific Connector, and local, Gas Transmission Northwest gas pipelines.  We have countered Powder River Basin coal, Alberta tar sands, and Nevada and Oregon lithium mines, Salish Sea oil refineries, Sand Creek construction setbacks, and timber sales around Lake Pend Oreille.

WIRT is grateful for ongoing, community assistance and recognition of our shared, volunteer activism, especially around our tenth, 2021 anniversary, such as a grant for fossil fuels train and derailment resistance, from the Stand Up to Oil network in January 2021, a Good Steward of the Earth award bestowed by allies Responsible Growth NE Washington, SHAWL Society (Sovereignty, Health, Air, Water, Land), and Silver Valley Community Resource Center in April 2021 [12, 13], and a Green and Red Podcast conversation with Scott Parkin of Rising Tide North America, about WIRT’s decade of dissidence, for Earth Day 2021 [14-16].  In our twelfth year and beyond, we will continue to intensely reject the previously mentioned and other numerous threats to healthy air, water, land, and life, from climate-wrecking pollution and militarized violence, while rigorously amplifying the voices of indigenous and climate activists on some of the most challenging, fossil fuels frontlines.

[1] Search Results for: Annual Celebration, June 7, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[2] 6.5 Magnitude Idaho Earthquake-Interrupted Post, March 31, 2020 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[3] WIRT Tenth Annual Celebration Announced Soon! March 6, 2021 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[4] WIRT: Ten Years Today! March 31, 2021 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[5] 11th WIRT Anniversary! March 31, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[6] Gas Well Spacing and Lakeside Logging Comments, Tribal Paddle and Oil Train Protest Reports, and More, August 25, 2020 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[7] Stop 123,000-Plus Acres of Pend Oreille Lakeside Logging! November 7, 2021 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[8] 3G Tour, June 7, 2022 Lake Pend Oreille Cruises

[9] Time and Date: Moon, June 7, 2022 Time and Date

[10] Wild Idaho Rising Tide website, June 7, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[11] Wild Idaho Rising Tide facebook page, June 7, 2022 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[12] Enviro Groups Find Common Cause, To Hold Friday Stewardship Event, April 12, 2021 Spokane Public Radio

[13] Good Stewardship of the Earth Event (& Recognition of WIRT Activists)! April 14, 2021 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[14] G&R Episode 83: Fighting Fossil Fuels in Idaho w/ Organizer Helen Yost, April 22, 2021 Green and Red: Podcasts for Scrappy Radicals

[15] Happy Greenwash Day! April 22, 2021 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[16] Thanks to Scott Parkin and the Green and Red Podcast…, April 25, 2021 Wild Idaho Rising Tide