Calendar

Topics will include meeting Patrick Johnson about Palouse environmental issues, ‘debriefing’ on the Tar Sands Healing Walk (sharing our photos, sharing what we learned, what do we do next), and discussion about possibility of inviting a First Nations person here in the future to discuss the tar sands. Melina Laboucan-Massimo would be a great possibility.

Presented by the UI Soil Stewards Student Farm. “Symphony of the Soil” explores the complexity and mystery of the soil.

Please meet to carpool from the corner of Second and Washington streets in Moscow at 8:30 pm and/or from Locomotive Park in Lewiston at 9:30 pm on Monday evening, to demonstrate our collective outrage at Omega Morgan’s plan to move the first of ten proposed tar sands shipments, measuring over 250 feet long, 23 feet high, and 21 feet wide, through the cherished lands and waters that sustain the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people. To learn about opportunities to protest and monitor this megaload, contact Wild Idaho Rising Tide at wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or at 208-310-2108 and 208-301-8039.

As megaload hauler Omega Morgan attempts to defy the authority of the Forest Service and Federal Highway Administration (FHA) to review and regulate transport of massive Alberta tar sands equipment through the national forests and wild and scenic river corridor surrounding U.S. Highway 12 in Idaho, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) appreciates, supports, and encourages the courageous resistance of Nez Perce tribal members. If the Portland, Oregon-based company imposes its 644,000-pound General Electric Corporation evaporator onto the Nez Perce Reservation from the Port of Wilma after 10 pm on Monday, August 5, WIRT activists will peacefully stand with our tribal allies in earnest solidarity against the genocide and ecocide wrought by this megaload’s impending bitumen extraction in Canada. We share deep concerns and opposition to the fossil fuel industry’s aggressive disregard and adverse impacts on the unique Nez Perce traditional homeland and landmarks, cultural and treaty-reserved resources, and tribal commerce and government function.

Despite a February ruling by federal judge B. Lynn Winmill, affirming Forest Service/FHA authority over Highway 12 megaload permits, Omega Morgan barged two evaporators to the Port of Wilma, Washington, a few miles downriver from Lewiston, Idaho, on July 22, provoking urgent conflict with numerous opposing interests. On Friday, August 3, the Idaho Transportation Department issued a permit for pending transport of one of these megaloads, but the Forest Service has not granted approval for it to cross the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest and the Lochsa and Middle Fork of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River corridor. The Nez Perce Tribe executive committee passed an emergency resolution on Sunday, August 4, formally disputing these shipments through its reservation and homeland, as it challenged the Forest Service to use all legal avenues, including the courts, to stop them. The tribal executive chairman asserted that the “tribe will not interfere with its members’ constitutional rights to lawfully assemble in opposition to the immediate threat of the transport of these two megaloads” and that it “would not prevent its own members from blocking the load,…[when] actions beyond mere words may be necessary, in order to have the Nez Perce Tribe’s voice heard.”* Forest Supervisor Brazell has consistently reiterated that he will not allow the Omega Morgan incursion before consulting with the tribe, scheduled for August 20, but that he does not know if he has legal authority to physically block it. Brazell and Forest Service officials plan to respond to Omega Morgan’s announcement of its transport intentions on Monday morning, August 5. According to the contractor’s traffic control plan, its megaload would violate the first two of three Forest Service interim criteria for permit approval: it is greater than 16 feet wide and 150 feet long and would require more than 12 hours to travel through the national forest, but would not necessitate modification of the roadway or adjacent vegetation to facilitate passage. However, the Omega Morgan module would obstruct both lanes of mostly two-lane Highway 12, with full traffic stoppage for less than 15 minutes at a time and ongoing, rolling roadblocks during its four-day journey to the Idaho/Montana border at Lolo Pass.

* Nez Perce Tribe Urges Forest Service to Stop Megaloads (August 5 Lewiston Tribune)
http://wildidahorisingtide.org/2013/08/05/nez-perce-tribe-urges-forest-service-to-stop-megaloads/

(Carpools meeting at 5 or 6 at 116 East Third St., Moscow) The Nez Perce Tribe has vowed that it will continue nightly protests until it rids its reservation and ancestral homeland from the ravages of tar sands/industrial equipment and resulting ecological, social, and climate devastation. Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Occupy Spokane are infinitely grateful that the people and places directly confronting tar sands supply routes are growing! Please join carpools of megaload protesters from Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), sustaining our support of Nez Perce resistance and departing the sidewalk outside the FOC office (116 East Third Street in Moscow) at 8 pm on Wednesday, August 7, and Thursday, August 8. On Wednesday, we will journey to Highway 12 milepost 38.8, the Pink House pull-off near Orofino that an Omega Morgan megaload currently occupies, and on Thursday, we will travel to other Clearwater Valley locations that the evaporator may reach. On both and potentially successive nights, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has permitted the megaload convoy to resume passage toward Alberta tar sands operations at 10 pm. Please bring your friends and family, spirit of solidarity, protest signs and banners, video and still cameras, audio recorders, food, and beverages for the third, fourth, and perhaps many more showdowns between the heroic Nez Perce community and yet another industrial/police invasion. WIRT will update this action alert as further opportunities for megaload opposition arise.

Over the last few nights, regional activists have supported Nez Perce and Idle No More protests of this oversize megaload interloping in the Nez Perce reservation and homeland and soon in the national forests and wild and scenic river corridors east of the reservation. Neither the Nez Perce Tribe nor the U.S. Forest Service have granted approval of the permits issued by ITD to hauler Omega Morgan on Friday, August 2, to transport a 644,000-pound General Electric Corporation evaporator from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Washington, across 174 miles of U.S. Highway 12 in Idaho, through federally designated and protected public and tribal lands, rivers, and highway sections, to the Montana border. Both demonstrations on Highway 12 have drawn hundreds of participants and have emerged as the largest and most passionate demonstrations of public outrage over the last three years of the regional anti-megaload campaign fostered by an extensive coalition of tribal, conservation, activist, and recreation organizations. After diminishing public participation and environmental leadership on this issue since the ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads concluded their invasion of Moscow, Idaho, in March 2012, and the Tri-Cities and Spokane, Washington, in June 2012, continent-wide attention has returned to regionally shared struggles challenging industrialization of Idaho and Alberta forests and waters.

(Carpools meeting at 5 or 6 at 116 East Third St., Moscow) The Nez Perce Tribe has vowed that it will continue nightly protests until it rids its reservation and ancestral homeland from the ravages of tar sands/industrial equipment and resulting ecological, social, and climate devastation. Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Occupy Spokane are infinitely grateful that the people and places directly confronting tar sands supply routes are growing! Please join carpools of megaload protesters from Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), sustaining our support of Nez Perce resistance and departing the sidewalk outside the FOC office (116 East Third Street in Moscow) at 8 pm on Wednesday, August 7, and Thursday, August 8. On Wednesday, we will journey to Highway 12 milepost 38.8, the Pink House pull-off near Orofino that an Omega Morgan megaload currently occupies, and on Thursday, we will travel to other Clearwater Valley locations that the evaporator may reach. On both and potentially successive nights, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has permitted the megaload convoy to resume passage toward Alberta tar sands operations at 10 pm. Please bring your friends and family, spirit of solidarity, protest signs and banners, video and still cameras, audio recorders, food, and beverages for the third, fourth, and perhaps many more showdowns between the heroic Nez Perce community and yet another industrial/police invasion. WIRT will update this action alert as further opportunities for megaload opposition arise.

Over the last few nights, regional activists have supported Nez Perce and Idle No More protests of this oversize megaload interloping in the Nez Perce reservation and homeland and soon in the national forests and wild and scenic river corridors east of the reservation. Neither the Nez Perce Tribe nor the U.S. Forest Service have granted approval of the permits issued by ITD to hauler Omega Morgan on Friday, August 2, to transport a 644,000-pound General Electric Corporation evaporator from the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Washington, across 174 miles of U.S. Highway 12 in Idaho, through federally designated and protected public and tribal lands, rivers, and highway sections, to the Montana border. Both demonstrations on Highway 12 have drawn hundreds of participants and have emerged as the largest and most passionate demonstrations of public outrage over the last three years of the regional anti-megaload campaign fostered by an extensive coalition of tribal, conservation, activist, and recreation organizations. After diminishing public participation and environmental leadership on this issue since the ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads concluded their invasion of Moscow, Idaho, in March 2012, and the Tri-Cities and Spokane, Washington, in June 2012, continent-wide attention has returned to regionally shared struggles challenging industrialization of Idaho and Alberta forests and waters.

CARPOOL from PCEI Nature Center leaves at 9:00am and from Pullman (Pine Street Plaza) at 9:30am.
Please RSVP so we can plan accordingly: jalexander@pcei.org or call 208-596-1837
Tools, gloves and some snacks will be provided. Please dress for weather, wear sturdy shoes, bring sunscreen, and water.

Beginning with our regularly scheduled third Thursday monthly meeting on August 15, WIRT activists will start holding weekly strategizing and planning sessions at the WIRT Activist House (918 S. Jefferson Street in Moscow) at 7 pm every Thursday. Please frequently check the Events Calendar (http://wildidahorisingtide.org/events-calendar/) on the WIRT website, call 208-310-2108 for more information, bring some food and beverages to share, and discuss these and emerging group initiatives at this WIRT convergence:

* Tactics for protesting and monitoring the next (fifth) Omega Morgan tar sands evaporator to cross Highway 12 in Idaho, perhaps next week, from a Port of Wilma warehouse to the Montana border

* Carpools from the Palouse/Clearwater Valley to Whitehall, Montana, for the indigenous-led Moccasins on the Ground direct action training camp over the August 23-25 weekend (https://www.facebook.com/events/1401273903420491/)

* Plans for Idaho and/or Montana actions in solidarity with frontline, indigenous activists who will blockade Highway 63 between Fort McMurray and Alberta tar sands operations on Saturday, August 24, as proposed at the July 6 Tar Sands Healing Walk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGTQ2gI3pMk&feature=player_embedded)

* Arrangements for a regional direct action training session conducted by Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction and WIRT organizers who participated in a Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance training for trainers in Salt Lake City on August 3 and 4 (http://act.credoaction.com/sign/kxl_pledge)

* Other upcoming organizational events and goals, such as delegating tasks, filling the WIRT Activist House, and reaching college populations

We’re going to meet at my place this Wednesday at 5:30 for the 350.org video chat on “Draw the Line”. This is an organizational meeting for the main event on September 21st. More details in the email below. Please let me know if you’re planning to come.

——————————————
Friends,

Here at 350.org, we believe, above all, in people power — and there is no better example of that than our work against Keystone XL and the tar sands.

From the summer of 2011, when 1,253 people were arrested in civil disobedience at the White House to stop the pipeline, to earlier this year when we were part of the largest climate rally in US history, to the ongoing pressure of Keystone demonstrations at Obama Administration events — taking action together has turned what was once a done deal into a defining test for the President’s climate legacy.

In the past few weeks, President Obama has said that he’s willing to stop the pipeline if he thinks it ‘significantly contribute[s]’ to climate change — and so it’s time for us to take action together once more. Today’s announcement that he is putting solar on the White House makes his choice even clearer: it makes no sense for him to put solar in his back yard and a tar sands pipeline in ours.

On September 21st, I’d like to invite you to join 350.org and allies across the country to put people power to work again. That’s when we’ll be taking action against Keystone and the tar sands in communities coast-to-coast, and telling President Obama that there is no turning back — to keep his climate promises, he must reject Keystone XL.

We’re calling it Draw the Line, to show that our commitment to defending our communities and stopping the tar sands is non-negotiable.

Some of us will draw a line showing where sea levels threaten to rise, others of us may link arms in front of refineries or tar sands industry targets to stop business as usual, still others may march with giant pipelines through the streets — but together we will draw lines that send an unmistakable message that the tar sands are a climate disaster and President Obama must stop the pipeline.

If you think you’re ready to lead a Draw the Line action in your community, click here to register your action and get started: act.350.org/event/draw_the_line/create/

At 350, we love days of action. We’ve used them before to make waves in international climate talks to help bring heads of state to the negotiating table for climate action, and highlight the impacts of climate change that are already underway.

With two years of historic momentum at our backs, I think this will be a chance to bring together our movement in a powerful way.

We’ll be having a video chat next Wednesday at 9 PM Eastern Time to talk about Draw the Line on the 21st, and the moment we’re in. I’ll be on it, along with several friends from the movement to be announced — click here and you’ll be automatically signed up to get a reminder: act.350.org/sign/dtl-9-21-video-chat-reminder/

Being a part of Draw the Line on September 21st is easy. Once you’ve found a place where you’d like to draw the line and register your event, there are resources to help you at every step of the way.
If you’re feeling ready to get started, sooner is better than later. Click here to register an action and get the guide for planning your event: act.350.org/event/draw_the_line/create/

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the past two years by any means. President Obama backed the southern leg of the pipeline, which is under construction, and we’re still far behind where we need to be for climate action overall.

But where we’ve made progress, we’ve done so because we stood together, and on September 21st, I hope we can stand together again. Let’s draw the line.

Arm-in-arm,
May

P.S. The news about the President putting solar on the White House is encouraging. This was a campaign we fought hard for — starting way back in 2010 — and it shows once more what we can do when we don’t give up. Here’s a link to a slideshow of photos from the campaign, and a statement from 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben: 350.org/en/about/blogs/president-obama-putting-solar-white-house-roof

Open to the public. Please email Carole Wells for an agenda.

Come on out for the 3rd Annual Hot Summer Days barbeque in East City Park. We will have the grill all fired up; veggie burgers, hot dogs and condiments will be provided. Please bring supplemental food and drink. Families, children, pets welcome. Call 208-882-9755 for questions.

Nez Perce, Idle No More, WIRT, and allied activists are gratefully anticipating hearing and sharing tribal activists’ insights at a gathering at Lapwai City Park in Lapwai, Idaho. The 6 pm meeting on Tuesday, September 3, may be moved indoors to the nearby Pi-Nee-Waus Community Center if it rains. Listen to the following KRFP interview of tribal activist Julian Matthews by citizen journalist Brett Haverstick, describing the last (first) such convergence.
https://www.facebook.com/events/237676256379693/

KRFP Report from Last Meeting
Nez Perce Hold Community Meeting in Lapwai City Park on Megaloads (August 21 KRFP Evening Report, between 11:41 and 3:14)
http://radiofreemoscow.org/2013/08/20130821/

At the next, first Wednesday of every month Liquid Forum, activists of WIRT‘s partner grassroots group, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), will describe what is happening with and how citizens are fighting oil and gas drilling and looming fracking in Payette County. Deserving much more public attention, these processes threaten land, water, residents, agriculture, dairies, and sustainability in Idaho. Please join the discussion and enjoy music by Breakdown Boulevard (as experienced at the Community Progressive III), between 5:30 and 7:30 pm MDT on Wednesday, September 4, at the restaurant/bar Liquid, 405 South Eighth Street in Boise, Idaho.
https://www.facebook.com/events/323031004501173/

FROM WIRT: In solidarity with Nez Perce megaload blockaders, carpools are departing the WIRT Activist House at 8 am on Monday, September 9, with stops through the reservation, to rally outside and pack the 4 pm Boise federal court hearing seeking a megaload injunction. Advocates for the West will present oral arguments for suspending Idaho Transportation Department permits for Highway 12 megaloads until the Forest Service completes its megaload impact study. After the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Rivers United (IRU) versus the U.S. Forest Service case hearing, IRU is hosting a gathering of anti-megaload activists that evening, before we return to north central Idaho. Please contact IRU at 208-343-7481 or info@idahorivers.org if you can attend the party and call 208-301-8039 if you plan to carpool from the Moscow area. The following article and alert describe new developments in this lawsuit.

Check out the Wisescape exhibit and other conservation information at the exhibit booth! The City will be at the Latah County Fairgrounds to answer questions, provide literature and show off the latest water saving programs.