Please join Extinction Rebellion (XR) Palouse, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), and allied groups at multiple, upcoming gatherings in Moscow, Idaho, during the mid-April week before Earth Day, to interactively discuss and resist destructive fossil fuels and infrastructure expansions and their implications for climate change, biodiversity loss, and resident harms across north Idaho and the Northwest.
GTN Xpress Gas Pipeline Expansion Talk
On Thursday, April 18, from 6:30 to 8 pm, activist Helen Yost of WIRT welcomes everyone to learn about and resist plans by TC Energy, owner of the Keystone and Keystone XL tar sands pipelines, to expand its Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) fracked methane gas pipeline with the GTN Xpress project across the Idaho panhandle, eastern Washington, and central Oregon [1, 2]. This free, public event in the Fiske Room of the 1912 Center, 412 East Third Street in Moscow, will talk about the health, safety, and climate impacts of this unnecessary, Canadian fossil fuels invasion on pipeline corridor communities from Sandpoint and Athol, Idaho, to the Spokane, Washington, and Bend, Oregon areas. The states of Washington, Oregon, and California and dozens of climate, conservation, faith, and health advocacy organizations have opposed GTN Xpress since its initial, autumn 2021 applications to federal and state agencies, through environmental review and public input processes in 2022, via numerous citizen and state official protests, media outreach articles, and government appeals in 2023, and by legal challenges filed in 2024. XR Palouse and WIRT event hosts encourage participants to engage in a question and strategy session concluding this insightful presentation.
Mo(u)rning Walk on Paradise Ridge
From 10 am until 12 noon on Saturday, April 20, community members are meeting at the south parking lot and barn of the University of Idaho Arboretum and Botanical Garden, 1200 West Palouse River Drive in Moscow, to attend a guided walk up Paradise Ridge with representatives of the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) [3, 4]. Over the last three decades, PRDC has refuted deficient, Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) environmental studies and applications and has delayed flawed ITD attempts to realign U.S. Highway 95 between Thorn Creek Road and Moscow, on this ridge that hosts some of the last, significant remnants of native Palouse Prairie. Through four court challenges, expert wetland analyses, public records requests, and a lawsuit settlement, PRDC has forced suspension of wetland damage permits that ITD later revised and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved during 2023. As contested construction activities resume on Paradise Ridge, walk participants intend to share information about this ongoing preservation campaign and to collectively witness and grieve the degradation of this globally endangered ecosystem.
Allied Week of Actions in Moscow Continue reading
Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) is celebrating its March 31 anniversary and thirteenth year as a regional, climate activists collective confronting the root causes and perpetrators of air pollution, water degradation, and resulting climate change, through direct actions and locally organized solutions, in solidarity with frontline communities and grassroots networks of fossil fuels resistance [1-5]. We welcome everyone of all ages to enjoy this milestone at two 13th Annual Celebrations of WIRT, held as benefit performances and potluck gatherings in Sandpoint and Moscow, Idaho, with provided pizza, requested snacks and beverages, a background slide show of WIRT and allied activism, and updates on six Northwest campaigns. WIRT invites and extends our hearty thanks to the remarkable core activists, board members, friends, and allies who have coordinated and shared the successes of ongoing citizen challenges of the corporate and government sources of climate chaos.
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 