July 7-9 annual actions remember the Lac-Mégantic, Mosier, & Custer disasters

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allied activists invite everyone to participate in tenth annual, Stop Oil Trains direct actions and a training workshop in north Idaho on Friday, July 7, through Sunday, July 9.  Five events commemorate the 47 lives lost and downtowns devastated by oil train derailments, spills, explosions, and fires in the lakeside village of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, on July 6, 2013, the Columbia River Gorge town of Mosier, Oregon, on June 3, 2016, and the northwestern hamlet of Custer, Washington, on December 22, 2020.  These demonstrations also support pipeline-on-rails resistance across the Northwest and in trackside and pipeline corridor communities and environments threatened and polluted by dangerous oil and gas infrastructure and transportation.

Spotlight Message Projection

Friday & Saturday, July 7 & 8, 10 pm, Downtown Sandpoint

As the sun sets, WIRT and allied organizers will provide brief, light projection displays of social and climate justice messages on buildings in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho.  Meet after 10 pm on Friday and Saturday, July 7 and 8, wherever you see this light show, for discussions among activists and curious passersby, about Northwest oil train and terminal and gas pipeline expansion issues.

Resistance Outreach

Saturday, July 8, 9 am to 1 pm, near Farmin Park, Sandpoint

Gather with volunteer activists between 9 am and 1 pm on Saturday, July 8, at the WIRT outreach table at the corner of Fourth and Oak Streets near Farmin Park, during the Farmers Market at Sandpoint, Idaho.  We plan to talk with residents and visitors of the one-mile-wide, north Idaho “bomb train blast zone,” offer updates on Northwest oil and coal trains and infrastructure and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway’s doubled tracks and three new communication towers and second railroad bridges, and provide #No2ndBridge and other petitions, letters, flyers, and brochures [1-5].

Oil Trains Protest

Saturday, July 8, 2 pm, Farmin to City Beach Parks, Sandpoint

At 2 pm on Saturday, July 8, bring your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, protest signs, and creative spirit, to show community opposition to dangerous crude oil conduits to refineries and export facilities: Oil trains and railroad infrastructure, like the present and proposed, BNSF rail bridges in and near Sandpoint.  Starting from the Farmin Park clock, we will walk with banners and signs objecting to the Northwest pipeline-on-rails and its expansion, through downtown Sandpoint to City Beach Park.  At these public march origin and destination places, we will share reflections and stories about the isolated vulnerability of rural, rail corridor communities to oil and hazardous materials derailment catastrophes and industry invasions of local environments and economies.

Train Watch Workshop

Sunday, July 9, 5 pm, Gardenia Center, Sandpoint

For the annual training sessions on regional oil and tar sands trainspotting, David Perk of PNW Oil Train Watch will present methods for trackside observing, documenting, and reporting Northwest fossil fuels train traffic with photos, videos, and social media.  He will discuss rail routes from the plains to the coast, train descriptors, refinery and receiving facilities, rail system operations, stopovers, and transit times, and train watch motivations and resources.  Please RSVP to WIRT at wild.idaho.rising.tide2@gmail.com, for required registration to join this teleconferenced conversation with David generously sharing images, skills, and insights, beginning at 5 pm on Sunday, July 9, via Zoom and at the Gardenia Center, 400 Church Street in Sandpoint, Idaho.  WIRT needs more train monitors along the tracks of the north Idaho, fossil fuels frontline, to document all westbound, unit trains of cars hauling Powder River Basin coal, Bakken crude oil, and Canadian tar sands.

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