WIRT activists, supporters, and friends,

Paul McPoland’s PeaceLove Gig

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) extends our greatest gratitude to all of Paul McPoland’s dozens of dear co-workers, friends, family, and fellow activists who participated in his memorial at the WIRT Activists House and Dave Willard’s home on Saturday, May 31, between 2 pm and the wee hours of June.  We appreciate sharing Paul’s megaload protest reports, memorial cards, tea and treats, stories and remembrances of Paul, tears, understanding, comfort, new ideas, love, hugs, laughter, Paul’s favorite music, T-shirts, polished rocks, books, and tequila, ribs from his freezer, and two great gatherings.  (We hope that you enjoyed every moment, Paul!)

WIRT is still searching for ways to commemorate our stalwart and sincere “right-hand man” who called WIRT activists to action, monitored megaloads, reported on the resistance movement, offered myriad volunteer services, and lived at and watched over the WIRT House as his base and refuge, during some of the finest years of his life of inspiring contributions to his community.  Please offer your suggestions for ongoing WIRT initiatives that we could instigate in Paul’s honor.  WIRT tried to extend the date of Paul’s memorial event on facebook, as a regional venue for continuing to share memories and ideas, but facebook will not allow such changes afterwards.

DON’T POISON MOSCOW!

Residents, reject City of Moscow Street Department toxic trespass!  Put your street, curb edge, and/or alley in front and/or adjacent to your home on the “No Spray List” for the current season, and manually pull weeds and nurture desirable plant growth in your yards.

Public Notice to Moscow Residents

Beginning on Monday, May 12, 2013, Shull Brothers Weed Control will be spraying weeds, according to the City of Moscow Street Department weed spraying contract.  This spraying will continue throughout the spring and summer seasons as needed.  Spraying is a major method of controlling noxious weeds.  Herbicide is sprayed on selected streets, street cracks, and alleys, along curb edges, in cracks where sidewalks abut curbs, and around dead-end street barricades, bridges, guardrails, and fire hydrants on City rights-of-way.  Chemicals to be used include: Krovar I, Banvel, Transline, Telar, Surflan, RII, R900XC, Nalcotrol, Sahara, Dimension, Vengeance, Plainview, Oust, Hyvar, Round-up, Rodeo, 2,4-D, Arsenal, Milestone, Escort, Gallery, and Edict.  Applications will include a wetting agent and drift retardant.  Any resident who wishes not to have their street or curb edge sprayed in front of their residence and/or adjacent alley, and is willing to control weeds themselves, can call or e-mail Tammy Gray with the City of Moscow Street Department, to be put on a “No Spray List” for the current season: 208-883-7097, tgray@ci.moscow.id.us.

EARLY SUMMER EVENTS

June 5: Twice-Monthly WIRT Potluck Meeting (Thursday 7 pm, WIRT Activists House, Moscow, Idaho, call 208-301-8039 for directions)  We will plan WIRT direct actions for the Idaho Republican State Convention in Moscow on June 12 to 14 and for Highway 95/200 megaload blockades.  The Moscow area residents behind the recent screenings of Years of Living Dangerously are also hosting a climate change-oriented rally and street dance called Welcome, Republicans!  (See the Welcome Republicans Flyer.)

June 6: Sixth Annual Intolerista Wingding (Friday 6 to 10 pm, 1912 Center, 412 East Third Street, Moscow, Idaho)  Roy Zimmerman and core WIRT activist Jeanne McHale will play political and cultural satirical music, including the WIRT song The Tide Is Rising, while hosts offer beer, wine, soda, and snacks for sale at this free event open to the public.  Contact Tom Hansen at 208-882-5526 for more information. Continue reading →

Mammoet Withdraws Megaload Permits

For months during 2014, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and eight allied Idaho, Montana, and Washington groups have remained uncertain of the status of the long-standing, region-wide, tar sands ‘megaload’ onslaught advanced by hauler Mammoet USA South Inc. [1].  More than three years of controversy and citizen resistance have surrounded the Vancouver, Washington-based company’s tar sands mining and refinery equipment transports through the sacrifice zone of court-blocked U.S. Highway 12 – U.S. Highway 95 through Moscow and other northern Idaho routes.  In 2011 and 2012, Mammoet moved 350 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil components of the Kearl Oil Sands Project across Washington, Idaho, and Montana, including 70-plus modules through relentless WIRT and allied protests and convoy monitoring in Moscow and along Highway 95, in Spokane, Washington, and on U.S. Highway 395 and Interstate 90.  During intensive civil disobedience against Mammoet equipment shipments, resulting in 13 arrests, citations, and court cases arising from sit-in and critical-mass-bike blockades and monitoring, allied campaigns and lawsuits declared “conquest” of the re-routed modules of one-fifth of an Alberta tar sands processing facility, overshadowing the region’s efforts to halt the climate change wrought by fossil fuel corporations and unaccountable, facilitating governments.

On Thursday, May 15, and Monday, May 19, WIRT and allies received Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) public records indicating that Mammoet has abandoned its most recent plans to transport three hydrocracker parts from the Port of Wilma, Clarkston, Washington, across north Idaho via Highway 95 and either Interstate 90 or Idaho Highway 200, to a Great Falls, Montana, tar sands refinery expansion [2].  In response to April 28 and 29 written WIRT requests and a May 14 phone message, ITD District 1 staff in Coeur d’Alene denied the existence of any April 2014 public records about Mammoet’s proposal [3].  On at least four occasions since the mid-December 2013 public revelation of Mammoet’s recent scheme to haul three 1.6-million-pound, 441-feet-long megaloads up Highway 95 to Montana, ITD has obviously (with supporting evidence) withheld or denied and otherwise provided late or incomplete public records requested by WIRT.

But WIRT allies asked for the same April 2014 information from ITD headquarters in Boise on April 30, and inexplicably obtained and forwarded it, validating that the Boise ITD office did not share some of this material with Coeur d’Alene ITD employees and that the latter purposely withheld public documents from WIRT.  Among various bridge weight-bearing analyses and ID-Mammoet communications, an April 23 email message from Warren “Chip” Kachel of Mammoet to ITD District 1 operations manager Jason Minzghor, Doral Hoff and Reggie Phipps of ITD, Chris Schenck of the Idaho State Police, Cynthia Heinert and Brad Marten of the Montana Department of Transportation, Sonja Clark of the Washington Department of Transportation, and Richard Zondag declared a “termination of permits” with its subject line.  The terse note states, “Please cancel all permits involving Mammoet USA routing to Great Falls, Montana, from the Port of Wilma, Washington, via Idaho U.S. 95/Idaho 200” [4].

Wild Idaho Rising Tide extends our deepest gratitude and congratulations on this issue development to the many WIRT activists and allies in four states who have scouted and documented megaload ports and routes, researched and provided government files and newspaper articles, offered legal advice and defense, attended and protested at public meetings, and participated in discussions and direct action workshops.  As big oil, coal, and gas companies increasingly struggle to maximize their profits though extraction, production, and transportation of marginally lucrative, difficultly obtained extreme energy, grassroots resistance to consequent ecocide, genocide, and climate chaos grows around the world:

For decades, backlash has been thought to be both limited and ineffectual, but new evidence suggests that protests from local people are effective, extremely costly for the companies, and often lead to substantive changes to or total abandonment of a project…Perhaps not surprisingly, protests were most successful when they took place early on, during feasibility and construction phases of a project [5]. Continue reading →

Dear comrades,

Please consider participating in these upcoming May and June events.  We will send a separate announcement about the third annual Tar Sands Solidarity Journey, on June 25 to July 1, to and from the fifth and final Tar Sands Healing Walk, June 27 and 28 near Fort McMurray, Alberta.  Also anticipate pending alerts about eco-performer Dana Lyons and activist Matt Krogh of ForestEthics bringing their Oil Train Tour to Moscow on Tuesday, June 24, to Spokane on Wednesday, June 25, and to Sandpoint on Thursday, June 26.  Check the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) website page, Events Calendar, often for updated WIRT schedules.

May 16: WIRT Activists House Party

Instead of WIRT’s usual, third Thursday, monthly potluck meeting, we invite you and your friends and family to our humble base camp house, for a Friday evening gathering to celebrate our collective’s amazing activists and allies, and to strategize and energize for a summer of successful actions.  Bring beverages, snacks, or entrees to share with your comrades, for a lively night of radical fun on a beautifully balmy May Moscow evening.  The party starts at 7 pm on Friday, May 16, and continues far into the evening, with potential to enjoy home-made acoustic music playing, dancing, relaxing, and enjoying the company of friends.  WIRT would be delighted and infinitely grateful for the honor of your presence (especially on Helen’s birthday and with a tenuous Highway 95 megaload victory)!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed toward the success of the hundred-year-old, two-bedroom house serving as our organizational hub over the last two years.  With your myriad provisions of essential furniture and household goods, we have accommodated several traveling presenters, performers, and activists in our downtown abode beneath a huge cottonwood tree.  The WIRT Activists House is open daily between noon and 8 pm, to provide our group a combined working space, monthly meeting place, information resource center, and visiting/resident climate activist home.  We are again searching through our network for one or two house mates to support some of the monthly rental and utility costs.  Please contact us at 208-301-8039 with your suggestions and questions about the house party, its location, and other WIRT business.

May 18: John Crock Memorial Service

This note comes to us from John’s long-time partner and recent wife, Laurene Sorensen, P.O. Box 9826, Moscow, Idaho 83843: “John departed on his last adventure on Monday, April 28, shortly after noon.  He was traveling light, carrying only a smile.  We’ll be celebrating his life on Sunday, May 18, from noon to 4 pm at the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI), 1040 Rodeo Drive, Moscow, Idaho.  We’ll start with a potluck lunch and then have an informal, outdoor memorial service.  Please bring a dish to share, a picnic blanket, and your stories and pictures.

If you are traveling from out of town, you are welcome to camp on the PCEI grounds or at my farm.  The nearest airports are Pullman (seven miles away) and Lewiston (35 miles away); you can also fly into Spokane, but that’s about 80 miles from Moscow.

We’ll be setting up from 3 to 5 pm on Saturday, May 17, and there’ll be a barbecue and beer for anyone who’d like to help.  Please accept/decline by email to Laurene Sorensen at laurenesorensen@gmail.com, or to Lauretta Campbell at hyperspud2@yahoo.com.”

May 21: No Oil Trains People’s Hearing

Washington state and city government agencies have again dismissed opportunities for public scoping hearings in Spokane and the inland Northwest, as communities risk their health and environments along the sacrifice zone rail lines of potentially explosive unit trains, each transporting 3.36 million gallons of oil.  In January 2014, Imperium Terminal Services and Westway Terminal Company requested environmental reviews of their proposed crude oil terminals and bulk storage facility expansions at the Port of Grays Harbor in Hoquiam [1].  Proponents of the Grays Harbor Rail Terminal proposed by U.S. Development also submitted permit applications and a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist to the City of Hoquiam in April 2014.  Per SEPA, co-lead agencies Washington Department of Ecology and the City of Hoquiam are conducting ongoing, statewide, Environmental Impact Statement scoping processes, accepting public comments between April 10 and May 27, 2014 [2].  But they only held public scoping meetings in Hoquiam and Centralia, Washington, respectively on April 24 and 29, even while trackside Idaho and Washington cities from Hope and Sandpoint to Spokane Valley, Spokane, and Cheney lie in the project crosshairs. Continue reading →