Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allied activists, friends, and supporters heartily welcome your participation in the upcoming, Eighth Panhandle Paddle weekend of opportunities to discuss, train for, and stage resistance to the fossil fuels and railroad industry degraders of human rights, environmental health, and the global climate.  Interior Northwest residents are coordinating and co-hosting annual activities in Sandpoint, Idaho, to unite in opposition to regional coal, oil, tar sands, petroleum coke, and hazardous materials trains, terminals, derailments, and pollution and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway’s recently completed bridge and track construction across downtown Sandpoint, Sand Creek, and Lake Pend Oreille.  Amid the intensifying situations of north Idaho railroad expansion, federal and media criminalization of dissenters, and COVID-19 health and economic disasters during the last five years, we are reaching out to you, our network comrades, to share direct action skills and join with rail line communities in protesting fossil-fueled climate change via these free events on Friday through Sunday, September 27 to 29.  We would appreciate your involvement in the training workshop and paddle, your RSVP of your intentions for spots in kayaks, canoes, and carpools, and your assistance with distributing this event description and printing and posting the Eighth Panhandle Paddle flyer.

Direct Action Training

3 to 5 pm Friday, September 27

East Bonner County Library, Sandpoint

Regional climate activists and water protectors will provide several, interactive, training workshops, through talks and videos sharing frontline skills, stories, and insights.  Advocating grassroots, direct actions at the sites of environmental destruction, more than participation in expensive, ineffective, legal systems and other government processes, trainers will offer their expertise through presentation and practice sessions on topics such as knowing your rights, strategizing and tactical thinking, affinity group dynamics, target selection and scouting, action design, roles, and documentation, media communications, police interactions, de-escalation, security, safety, self-defense,  and jail solidarity.  Trainings have varied over the years, chosen by and adapted to participants supporting various ecological and social justice movements within U.S. political contexts.  Prior speakers have given advice on road and railroad actions, pipeline blockades, grand jury resistance, legal rights, digital security, and previously mentioned subjects.  Organizers holding these trainings anticipate reciprocally learning and strengthening the volunteer activism gaining momentum in the Idaho Panhandle.

At these informal discussions, participants can exchange issue information, expand knowledge, and brainstorm strategies and tactics for creatively engaging and catalyzing further community resistance and regulatory and legal recourse to BNSF’s Sandpoint Junction Connector project and railroad infrastructure, pollution, and risks in the Lake Pend Oreille area and beyond, which activists have denounced and challenged during each of the Panhandle Paddles [1-7].  Please bring ideas about campaign organizing and railroad monitoring and protesting, as we broaden conversations, camaraderie, and coalitions among activists.  We encourage everyone who plans to attend to RSVP in advance and request particular training topics and further event logistical information.  Join WIRT and guests anytime between 3 and 5 pm on Friday, September 27, in Community Room B of the East Bonner County Library, 1407 Cedar Street in Sandpoint.

Panhandle Paddle

10 am to 12 pm Sunday, September 29

City Beach and Dog Beach Parks, Sandpoint

For an eighth year, WIRT and allied activists are bringing their boats, bodies, and bravery to two locations, for on- and off-shore protests of Northwest fossil fuels trains, terminals, and derailments and north Idaho railroad bridge and track expansion.  To accommodate participants who are renting kayaks, paddleboards, or other manual watercraft from Sandpoint businesses that open at 9 am, activists are meeting at 10 am on Sunday, September 29.  Near the south boat ramp at City Beach Park in Sandpoint, we will launch a flotilla on Lake Pend Oreille, departing after participants arrive by land and water, to voyage around present and proposed railroad bridges.  By 11 am, another rally will converge after paddlers reach Dog Beach Park south of Sandpoint.  Please bring large banners and signs, visible to observers at great distances, and respond in advance to WIRT with your boat rental intentions and mobility needs, so we can cover the costs of watercraft and arrange transportation for folks who cannot walk to Dog Beach Park. Continue reading →