USA: Everglades Earth First! Lockdown Halts Destruction of Florida’s Briger Forest

Novem­ber 7th, 2014

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL— Com­mu­ni­ty activists with Ever­glades Earth First! have halt­ed what they call Kolter Development’s “ille­gal” con­struc­tion in Palm Beach Gar­dens’ Briger For­est. A dis­abled vehi­cle is sit­ting in the road at the con­struc­tion entrance to the site and two peo­ple have locked their bod­ies to it. This week work crews began clear­ing trees for the con­struc­tion, which has been mired in con­tro­ver­sy for years. If com­plet­ed, the devel­op­ment would destroy the 681-acre Briger For­est, one of the largest unpro­tect­ed forests of its size in the south­ern region of the state.

Update: Three activists have now been arrest­ed, while the van con­tin­ues to block­ade the entrance to the con­struc­tion zone. Donate to their bail fund.

“We’re here stop­ping a crime; the ille­gal destruc­tion of the Briger For­est. Kolter Group Co. is vio­lat­ing the Endan­gered Species Act and oper­at­ing with­out all the prop­er per­mits ful­ly approved,” Said Ryan Hart­man. “The time for com­pro­mise is over. If we don’t take direct action and put our bod­ies on the line to pro­tect what we have left, devel­op­ers will pave over and pol­lute every last inch of this place.”

Groups like Ever­glades Earth First! and the Palm Beach Coun­ty Envi­ron­men­tal Coali­tion (PBCEC) have been fight­ing to pro­tect the Briger For­est since 2010. Last win­ter a jus­tice depart­ment lawyer admit­ted to PBCEC’s lawyer Bill Eubanks that there were no prac­ti­cal alter­na­tives to site lay­out designs that could both ben­e­fit con­tin­ued snake use of the site and also sat­is­fy the project’s pur­pose and need, effec­tive­ly sen­tenc­ing to death any East­ern Indi­go Snake on the prop­er­ty. The East­ern Indi­go Snake is one of 13 state and fed­er­al­ly list­ed ani­mal and plant species whom the Briger is suit­able to sup­port. A mem­ber of PBCEC is also appeal­ing per­mits for con­struc­tion need­ed from the South Flori­da Water Man­age­ment Dis­trict. Beyond the legal chal­lenges the groups have gath­ered hun­dreds of peti­tion sig­na­tures, held demon­stra­tions and even staged a six-week tree-sit in the for­est to protest the devel­op­ment.

 

“Kolter and Palm Beach Coun­ty have had a cor­rupt deal from the begin­ning. It is a crime against nature for devel­op­ers to keep bull­doz­ing over wild South Flori­da in order to per­pet­u­ate an ani­mal tor­tur­ing biotech expan­sion agen­da.” Said Ash­ley Lyons.

Since the ear­ly 2000’s, Jeb Bush has tried to lure the Biotech indus­try to Flori­da with heavy state and local sub­si­dies includ­ing this project and the con­struc­tion of a cam­pus for biotech com­pa­ny Scripps Flori­da. In the past few years Scripps has received about half a bil­lion dol­lars in state sub­si­dies for new facil­i­ties and has an agree­ment to lease the coun­ty owned por­tion of the prop­er­ty for $1 dol­lar a year ensur­ing their cor­po­rate
wel­fare for years to come.

With the con­struc­tion of a mas­sive pri­mate breed­ing facil­i­ty in Hendry Coun­ty, the “pro­gres­sive” biotech indus­try is solid­i­fy­ing it’s future of inhu­mane ani­mal test­ing and Scripps will be no excep­tion. Scripps in Lajol­la, CA has a his­to­ry of test­ing on pri­mates and Scripps Phase II will more than like­ly vivi­sect pri­mates if con­struct­ed.

Ever­glades Earth First! promis­es to con­tin­ue fight­ing the devel­op­ment every step of the way.

“We’re going to fight this project until it’s stopped because this for­est is worth fight­ing for.” Said Rachel Kijew­s­ki.

For more infor­ma­tion vis­it www.ScrapScripps.info

UPDATE: Three Arrested at Everglades EF! Briger Forest Blockade, Jail Support Needed!

Accord­ing to most recent reports from Ever­glades Earth First!,”The three arrest­ed dur­ing the Briger For­est block­ade are in cus­tody at Palm Beach Coun­ty Jail. Each are fac­ing mul­ti­ple mis­de­meanor charges. Bail has yet to be set. The block­ade report­ed­ly stopped work­ers from enter­ing the site for over four hours.”

At least 22 cop cars, an emer­gency field force vehi­cle, and a mobile com­mand unit were on site, and both peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing in the lock­down were arrest­ed, along with the sup­port per­son.

Sup­port direct action, and help us con­tin­ue to defend the Briger For­est before it’s too late! Donate to these brave indi­vid­u­als’ legal funds here: https://www.everribbon.com/ribbon/view/16764

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Groups like Ever­glades Earth First! and the Palm Beach Coun­ty Envi­ron­men­tal Coali­tion (PBCEC) have been fight­ing to pro­tect the Briger For­est since 2010. Last win­ter a jus­tice depart­ment lawyer admit­ted to PBCEC’s lawyer Bill Eubanks that there were no prac­ti­cal alter­na­tives to site lay­out designs that could both ben­e­fit con­tin­ued snake use of the site and also sat­is­fy the project’s pur­pose and need, effec­tive­ly sen­tenc­ing to death any East­ern Indi­go Snake on the prop­er­ty. The East­ern Indi­go Snake is one of 13 state and fed­er­al­ly list­ed ani­mal and plant species whom the Briger is suit­able to sup­port. A mem­ber of PBCEC is also appeal­ing per­mits for con­struc­tion need­ed from the South Flori­da Water Man­age­ment Dis­trict. Beyond the legal chal­lenges the groups have gath­ered hun­dreds of peti­tion sig­na­tures, held demon­stra­tions and even staged a six-week tree-sit in the for­est to protest the devel­op­ment.

“Kolter and Palm Beach Coun­ty have had a cor­rupt deal from the begin­ning. It is a crime against nature for devel­op­ers to keep bull­doz­ing over wild South Flori­da in order to per­pet­u­ate an ani­mal tor­tur­ing biotech expan­sion agen­da,” said Ash­ley Lyons, an orga­niz­er with Ever­glades Earth First!

Since the ear­ly 2000’s, Jeb Bush has tried to lure the Biotech indus­try to Flori­da with heavy state and local sub­si­dies includ­ing this project and the con­struc­tion of a cam­pus for biotech com­pa­ny Scripps Flori­da. In the past few years Scripps has received about half a bil­lion dol­lars in state sub­si­dies for new facil­i­ties and has an agree­ment to lease the coun­ty owned por­tion of the prop­er­ty for $1 dol­lar a year ensur­ing their cor­po­rate wel­fare for years to come.

With the con­struc­tion of a mas­sive pri­mate breed­ing facil­i­ty in Hendry Coun­ty, the “pro­gres­sive” biotech indus­try is solid­i­fy­ing it’s future of inhu­mane ani­mal test­ing and Scripps will be no excep­tion. Scripps in Lajol­la, Cal­i­for­nia, has a his­to­ry of test­ing on pri­mates and Scripps Phase II will more than like­ly vivi­sect pri­mates if con­struct­ed.

Ever­glades Earth First! promis­es to con­tin­ue fight­ing the devel­op­ment every step of the way.

“We’re going to fight this project until it’s stopped because this for­est is worth fight­ing for,” said Rachel Kijew­s­ki.

For more info on the block­ade and its rea­sons, click here.