Climate Justice Forum: Fossil Fuels Resisters on Joye Braun, Atlanta Forest Defender Murder, Idaho Timber Sale & Silica Mine, Greta Thunberg Arrest, Fossil Fuels Treaty 1-25-23


The Wednesday, January 25, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features People versus Fossil Fuels coalition organizers talking about the legacy of indigenous water protector and pipeline opponent Joye Braun and supporting the day of action in her honor.  We also share news, music, and reflections on the raiding police murder of a protester defending an Atlanta forest from planned cop training center development, a proposed north Idaho lakeside timber sale around exploratory silica drilling, the arrest of climate advocate Greta Thunberg at a German coal mine protest and an international treaty protecting fossil fuels invasions, and the final live performance and death of rebellious musician David Crosby.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading

Climate Justice Forum: Maig Tinnin on Oregon Wildfire Aftermaths & GTN Xpress Gas Pipeline Expansion Opposition, Idaho Collaborative Chloride Gold Lakeside Timber Sale 1-18-23


The Wednesday, January 18, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Rogue Climate coordinator Maig Tinnin talking about southern Oregon wildfire aftermaths, the environmental and social impacts of GTN Xpress gas pipeline expansion, and the Northwest community campaign and upcoming People’s Hearing opposing it.  We also share news, music, and reflections on the massive, collaborative Chloride Gold timber sale proposed for the remote, mountainous, southeast side of Lake Pend Oreille in north Idaho.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading

Oppose Collaborative Deforestation around Lake Pend Oreille!

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) and compromised, north Idaho Big Greens involved in the Panhandle Forest “Collaborative” have agreed to massive deforestation of steep mountains on the remote, wilder, east side of Lake Pend Oreille, promoted as “restoration” projects to reduce wildfires and insect and disease outbreaks [1, 2].  Over the next few years, the Sandpoint Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests (IPNF) and timber companies plan to excessively build roads and log over 175,000 acres of Lake Pend Oreille slopes, which would degrade water and air quality, wildlife habitat, protected areas, and recreational opportunities.  A complex of three contiguous logging projects, the 57,000-acre Buckskin Saddle, 43,000-acre Chloride Gold, and 43,500-acre Honey Badger, extends 45 miles from the Clark Fork River on the north, throughout eastern lake forests, and south to the Hayden Lake area.  Government proposals and decisions on these unnecessary forays into carbon-sequestering forests overlap temporally, while the middle Chloride Gold project also overlaps spatially with the area of the Kaniksu Winter Recreation environmental assessment (EA).  These USFS overlaps are called “stacking National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents,” an illegal rush and overburden of public scrutiny.

Located to the south of federal agency-finalized Buckskin Saddle project destruction, currently stalled by Johnson Creek bridge replacement near the Clark Fork River delta between September 2022 and May 2023, and potential litigation by grassroots groups, the Chloride Gold (CG) project proposes to conduct “vegetation management,” “hazardous fuels reduction,” and other activities to “manage invasive plants, roads, trails, recreation, wildlife habitat, and improve fish passage under roads … [and] overall landscape resiliency to disturbances” [2-6].  Pre-scoping ideas suggested that the USFS planned to push approximately 23.8 miles of new, “temporary” road construction and over 12 square miles of forest “regeneration” cuts in the area, which would remove the vast majority of trees in over 17,000 acres (26.6 square miles), through logging, road building, and controlled burning, even in inventoried roadless areas (IRAs).  According to the December 1, 2022, Chloride Gold scoping notice signed by Sandpoint District ranger Jessie Berner, over 22,500 acres would undergo “vegetation treatments” including large clearcuts and prescribed burns.  The scoping letter requests public review and comments by Monday, January 16, 2023, for USFS consideration in drafting only an environmental assessment (EA), not the full environmental impact statement (EIS) required and necessary for the CG onslaught.

On September 27, 2022, in preparation for a public presentation and field trip refuting this logging project, provided by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) in spring or summer 2023, Northern Rockies wildlands and wildlife activist and GIS researcher Paul Sieracki and two WIRT board members visited the Chloride Gold logging project area [7].  With precise maps in hand while exploring CG forests, these citizen monitors found a highly impacted landscape, crossed by a spaghetti network of roads and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and motorcycle trails, devastated by huge logged areas, and immersed in road dust and subsequent lake haze.  They documented and publicly offered their observations with photographs and descriptions, noting several situations in which further CG ravages could severely disturb flora, fauna, and roadless areas [7].  For the Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Climate Justice Forum, weekly radio program produced by WIRT and recorded and posted on the WIRT website, Paul graciously expounded on his knowledge of the probable damages of the lakeside Chloride Gold scheme [8].  WIRT shares a summary of these insights in the following sections intended to further inform and assist public input resisting this CG cause of regional climate chaos. Continue reading

Climate Justice Forum: Paul Sieracki on Chloride Gold Idaho Lakeside Deforestation, Nevada Lithium Mine Resistance March, Hearing, & Contract, Manchin FERC Protest, Actions Honoring Joye Braun 1-11-23


The Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features north Idaho wildlands and wildlife activist and GIS researcher Paul Sieracki talking about the massive Chloride Gold deforestation scheme planned for the remote and mountainous southeast side of Lake Pend Oreille.  We also share news, music, and reflections on an indigenous march and resistance, federal court hearing, and construction contract for the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada, a Washington D.C. protest of Senator Manchin control of the pipeline-permitting Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and a call to actions honoring fossil fuels opponent Joye Braun and the second anniversary of Keystone XL pipeline rejection by President Biden.  Broadcast for ten years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading

Climate Justice Forum: Max Wilbert on Nevada Lithium Mine Resistance, Idaho Highway Construction & Park Geese Hunt, Northwest Coal Trains & Wrecks, Pipeline Expansions, & Opposition 1-4-23


The Wednesday, January 4, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features Protect Thacker Pass activist Max Wilbert talking about ground resistance, three lawsuits, a federal hearing, and an indigenous march against a proposed northern Nevada lithium mine.  We also share news, music, and reflections on north Idaho court challenges of Highway 95 construction in wetlands, Northwest coal train decreases in late 2022 and another BNSF train wreck on New Year’s Day, a public Canada geese hunt at Sandpoint City Beach, Coastal GasLink pipeline construction and protester winter gear requests in British Columbia, and GTN Xpress Northwest gas pipeline expansion and opposition.  Broadcast for ten years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.