Note from Brian Koepke:
“We have a conflicting event on the Terrell Mall on April 18th that will distract from what we are all trying to do, so the ASWSU Environmental Task Force and WSU Environmental Science Club would like to invite you to come on Wednesday, April 17th from 9am-3pm (any time you have available during this period would be great). I am truly sorry about the change of plans, but I hope the organizations that have already confirmed: PESC, WIRT, Palouse Transition, PPF, and the Latah Trail Foundation, can still participate in our community tabling event and, maybe, this makes it possible for other environmentally conscious groups to come. We have other WSU groups that will be out there as well.”
Mr. Thompson is a 30-year veteran of the oil sands industry and Past President of The Oil Sands Developers Group. He is now an executive advisor at Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (member Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers). Mr. Thompson is committed to a balanced conversation about ‘one of Canada’s greatest treasures – the Oil Sands.’ Thompson is Executive Advisor, Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. http://www.cdnoilsands.com/. This is the third Alberta oil sands presentations Parking: Free on-campus after 5pm in ‘Yellow Lots’ on Rayburn Street. We support what Jakob Magolan (UI organizer of event) said before: please be courteous, listen to the oil industry’s perspective without disruption. Let people ask questions.
The ASWSU Environmental Task Force is proud to host Emily Hunter, daughter of Greenpeace’s founding president Robert Hunter, advocacy journalist and environmental activist. Over the past eight years, she has battled on the high seas of Antarctica to save whales; was held hostage in her attempt to protect the Galapagos Islands from illegal poaching; put a spotlight on the Canadian tar sands (the second largest oil project next to Saudi Arabia) with a TV documentary she hosted for MTV Canada; and stood on the protest frontlines at the Copenhagen climate summit. Currently, she works as a freelance environmental journalist, occasionally hosting and producing TV documentaries. Come hear Emily speak at Todd Auditorium on April 17th from 7-9 pm. There will also be a book signing for her newest publication The Next Eco-Warriors: 22 Young Women and Men Who are Saving the Planet.
Topics will include: May or June field trip in vicinity of the city of Palouse about green energy; final plans for that evening’s showing of 350.org film; Scheduling showing of a series of films like Chasing Ice and the YouTube videos from the UUA Green Sanctuary Global Warming group; Attending Bidder 70 at the Kenworthy on April 22 and meeting for a picnic (potluck or brown bag) before at East Side Park (or other spot – even the church patio); updating our Web site – I need some help! Any other agenda items out there?
You are all welcome to come to the Rathmann’s home for the ‘Earth Night’ premier showing of the “Do the Math: the Movie” from 350.org. We will start assembling at 3:30 and the movie starts at 4. If you plan to attend, please contact Pat Fuerst at epfuerst@frontier.com. To find out more, go to http://350.org/, then drop down menu for ‘Campaigns and Projects’ then click on ‘Do the Math: the Movie’. (NOTE: time may be subject to change)
On December 19, 2008, University of Utah economics student Tim DeChristopher disrupted a highly disputed Bush administration Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas lease auction in Salt Lake City. Not content to merely protest outside, Tim entered the auction hall and registered as bidder 70. With no intention of paying for leases starting at $2 per acre, he outbid industry giants on 77 pristine Utah land parcels surrounding American treasures like Canyonlands National Park, and effectively safeguarded from drilling 22,000 acres of land worth $1.7 million, before the auction was halted. Tim was sentenced to two years in federal prison. After the show, Tim and filmmakers Beth and George Gage will live-stream his first public address after his 21-month incarceration and Skype an hour-long discussion and question-and-answer session. Reserve your $10 movie tickets for your friends, family, and self by midnight on Thursday, April 11-12, for this Bidder 70 screening screening at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center, 508 South Main Street in Moscow, Idaho. At least 60 reservations will open theater doors at 5:30 pm, before the film promptly begins at 6 pm. SAVE YOUR SEATS NOW: http://gathr.us/screening/3009.
At the Yellow House as usual (just west of UUCP church which is at 420 E. 2nd St. Moscow). Topics will include: June green energy field trip in vicinity of the city of Palouse and Oakesdale; Idler’s rest maintenance; NWEI discussion book “Menu for the Future; Scheduling a series of films. Any other agenda items out there?
The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition, Palouse Prairie Foundation, and Idaho Native Plant Society invite you to join us on a field tour of sites along the proposed U.S. Highway 95 E-2 alternative alignment on the west flank of Paradise Ridge. On this Sunday, May 19, tour starting at 2:00 p.m., participants will view areas with ungulate habitat, spring wildflowers, and native Palouse Prairie. Attendees will meet and carpool from the parking lot of the University of Idaho Arboretum, 1200 West Palouse River Drive. After the planned field tour, we will also lead a hike toward the top of Paradise Ridge, for participants who wish to enjoy more wildflowers, parklands, and views of the Palouse countryside. We gratefully anticipate your involvement in this field tour.
Contact: Mary and Steve Ullrich, www.paradise-ridge-defense.org/
Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition (PESC) are coordinating a carpool to Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta, Canada, to join with hundreds of indigenous and grassroots allies and activists from across the continent and world in the Fourth Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk which will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 5 and 6 (http://www.healingwalk.org/about). We welcome your participation in the solidarity journey, healing walk, and a local planning meeting at 7 pm on Tuesday, May 28, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow. We tentatively plan to depart on Wednesday morning, July 3, and return on Tuesday afternoon, July 9 (http://wildidahorisingtide.org/2013/05/21/second-tar-sands-solidarity-journey/).
Idler’s rest is owned and managed by the Palouse Land Trust and trails have fallen into disrepair. At present there is no funding or organized effort to maintain Idler’s Rest.
There will be a work party organized for Saturday, June 8, starting at 9 am. You are welcome to bring a picnic lunch if you like. A similar work party may be organized for June 15 or another date. If you are willing to help, please contact Pat Rathmann via Pat Fuerst (epfuerst@frontier.com) and she will let you know what tools etc. to bring with you.
There is a need for a brochure at the trailhead describing vegetation. Any volunteers to work on this? Time frame is open-ended but it would be very helpful if someone with this interest could join the work group some time that morning, June 8. Again, if you are willing, please contact Pat Rathmann.
We are starting to make plans for this. Please join us!
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/
