Category: Aviation and Roads

Forest occupation in Belgium needs more people!

Since the first of Juli we have occu­pied a for­est in Wilrijk, south of Antwerp in Bel­gium. It looks like it won’t be a very long occu­pa­tion, because the own­er has already start­ed all the pro­ce­dures to kick us out and the police stops by at least once a day.

Since the first of Juli we have occu­pied a for­est in Wilrijk, south of Antwerp in Bel­gium. It looks like it won’t be a very long occu­pa­tion, because the own­er has already start­ed all the pro­ce­dures to kick us out and the police stops by at least once a day. We urgent­ly need more peo­ple (climbers and ground crew!) to help us occu­py this for­est and make it as hard as pos­si­ble for the police to evict us.


So if you can spare a few days to pro­tect the for­est with your pres­ence and help us build our walk­ways, plat­forms and kitchen, please stop by!

adress: fotografielaan 7
wilrijk
train to antwerp cen­tral
from roo­sevelt­plaats bus 500 to boom
get off close to the piz­za­hut (ask bus­driv­er)
walk to the piz­za­hut, go right, at the end of the road (cows) go right, first left, you’ll see the ban­ners
you can con­tact us at:  steungroep.groenoord@gmail.com
for more info: www.groenoord.be / face­book van ste­un­groep groeno­ord
0485507274

The area has been mapped as a for­est since 1771 and is an eco­log­i­cal­ly very valu­able oak for­est which is a habi­tat for lots of birds and endan­gered bat species. The for­est is a so called wrong­ly zoned for­est, it’s been zoned as an indus­tri­al area since 2005. Flan­ders (the dutch speak­ing part of Bel­gium) is the sec­ond poor­est region in Europe when it comes to forests, only 8 % of the land if for­est. About a third of those forests are wrong­ly zoned which means they are often threat­ened. Most of these forests are cut with­out any­one ever know­ing. So we are not just fight­ing for this spe­cif­ic for­est, we are fight­ing for a more just for­est pol­i­cy in Flan­ders.

The own­er wants to cut the for­est to build an office and stor­age space, but it is not clear if they have some­one to rent it yet. Their old part­ner end­ed the con­tract because the plans were delayed.

There’s heaps of emp­ty office build­ings in Flan­ders. With­in a minute’s walk from the for­est there’s 4 emp­ty build­ings that could be ren­o­vat­ed or bro­ken down to make space for a new build­ing. Yet they still want to cut the for­est.

Because they have nev­er done prop­er geo­log­i­cal stud­ies there’s big prob­lems with the water in the area. The water can’t go any­where so part of the for­est is often under water, which has killed a lot of the trees. Mea­sures need to be tak­en to ensure the sur­vival of the for­est.

When­ev­er cut­ting forests in Flan­ders, they talk about com­pen­sa­tion. Which is bull­shit. You can’t just cut a for­est here and plant a new one some­where else.

It is about time we realise that trees have an intrin­sic val­ue and stop think­ing only about mon­ey.

NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH

Help us defend the trees!

groeNo­ord / Groen­front! (Earth First!)

 

CHP Removes Willits Bypass Protester from Tower

3 July 2013 An envi­ron­men­tal pro­test­er who had been perched 50 feet up a piece of con­struc­tion equip­ment out­side Willits for more than a week has been removed a

3 July 2013 An envi­ron­men­tal pro­test­er who had been perched 50 feet up a piece of con­struc­tion equip­ment out­side Willits for more than a week has been removed and arrest­ed by the CHP.

Will Par­rish, 31, of Uki­ah was arrest­ed Mon­day after being cut loose from a lock­ing device he had con­nect­ed to one of two 100-foot wick-drain installers being used on the High­way 101 bypass project out­side Willits.

The $210 mil­lion bypass is being built to skirt the city of Willits, where traf­fic reg­u­lar­ly slows to a crawl as High­way 101 nar­rows to two lanes through down­town. Pro­po­nents say it’s nec­es­sary to reduce traf­fic con­ges­tion and restore the city’s small-town feel. Oppo­nents say it is a cost­ly and ugly mis­take that will hurt streams and fish­eries and increase flood­ing.

Parrish’s protest had pre­vent­ed the wick-drain installers from oper­at­ing since June 20. Work resumed on Tues­day, Cal­trans said.

More than 30 arrests have been made among pro­test­ers since April.

On Mon­day, CHP offi­cers, act­ing on a request from Cal­trans, which owns the prop­er­ty, used cher­ry-pick­er-type lifts to reach Par­rish.

“We had a team go up and first made sure he was OK and didn’t need med­ical atten­tion,” said CHP Capt. Jim Epper­son. “After we were sure he was OK, we hydrat­ed him — gave him some Gatorade.”

Offi­cers then cut his lock­ing device and brought Par­rish down.

He and anoth­er pro­test­er, Aman­da “War­bler” Sense­man, were arrest­ed on tres­pass­ing charges, Epper­son said. Sense­man sat in a tree for two months ear­li­er this year as a protest against the bypass.

Cal­trans spokesman Phil Fris­bie said Par­rish was “putting him­self and oth­ers at risk and delay­ing con­struc­tion by tres­pass­ing.”

“And with the ongo­ing hot weath­er fore­cast­ed, we are also con­cerned about his health and safe­ty,” he said.

Protest leader Fred­die Long said one tree-sit­ter remains in an ash grove north of where Par­rish was perched. So far, that per­son hasn’t been con­front­ed, Long said.

The 5.9‑mile bypass is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed in the fall of 2016.

Willits Bypass “Crane-Sitter” Resupplied in Stealth Climb

A pro­test­er perched atop a wick drain stitch­er being used to build the US 101 high­y­way bypass in Willits, CA, 28 June 2013

A pro­test­er perched atop a wick drain stitch­er being used to build the US 101 high­y­way bypass in Willits, CA, 28 June 2013

A mys­te­ri­ous climber ascend­ed Cal­trans equip­ment on the Willits Bypass Project Wednes­day evening in order to resup­ply a pro­test­er who has been perched 50 feet up in the air on a con­struc­tion tow­er for a week.

Last week, 31-year-old Uki­ah res­i­dent Will Par­rish climbed one of the two pieces of Cal­trans equip­ment used to install wick drains at the site in order to stall work in the Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty high­way con­struc­tion zone.

Fel­low activists argue that Par­rish has been denied food and water, while author­i­ties state that Par­rish is free to leave the tow­er for food and water and that pro­test­ers attempt­ing to bring him sup­plies are tres­pass­ing on Cal­trans prop­er­ty.

On Sat­ur­day evening, 45 pro­test­ers attempt­ed to send sup­plies up to Par­rish in a buck­et. Accord­ing to Earth First!, CHP offi­cers cut the rope and arrest­ed six indi­vid­u­als. Accord­ing to CHP, four indi­vid­u­als were arrest­ed.

On Wednes­day, a sec­ond per­son climbed the sec­ond wick drain tow­er. Jamie Cheva­lier, a spokes­woman with Red­wood Nation Earth First!, said the mys­tery climber was “like a nin­ja.”

”He climbed the tow­er in full day­light with CHP every­where,” she said. “Then after around six hours he man­aged to tra­verse a line over to the oth­er tow­er 60 feet away for sup­plies and van­ished into the night.”

Cheve­li­er esti­mat­ed that the entire event took place between 5 p.m. and mid­night. She said the sup­ply line is still in place and has a 5,000 pound break­ing

strength.

Dis­trict 1 Cal­trans Pub­lic Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer Phil Fris­bie Jr. con­firmed that Par­rish had been resup­plied and said Cal­trans per­son­nel are not at the site that late at night.

”He was gone by the morn­ing,” Fris­bie said of the resup­pli­er.

Fris­bie said the machin­ery can­not oper­ate with the pro­test­ers on it and that protests over four months have direct­ly cost tax­pay­ers $1.2 mil­lion by caus­ing delays.

Campaigners build dual carriageway on Osborne’s doorstep

Osborne's roads

Sun­day 23 June

Osborne's roads

Sun­day 23 June

Con­tact 07565 967 250. Pho­tos avail­able from 07711 090 544 (pho­to­jour­nal­ist Adri­an Arbib) or from alamy: http://tinyurl.com/k25d5tm

CAMPAIGNERS BUILD DUAL CARRIAGEWAY ON OSBORNE’S DOORSTEP IN SPENDING REVIEW PROTEST
Mon­ey for new roads bad for jobs, coun­try­side and cli­mate say cam­paign­ers

12 noon, Sun­day 23 June: Anti-road cam­paign­ers have built a 50m long dual car­riage­way next to Chan­cel­lor George Osborne’s coun­try retreat this morn­ing, in a protest against the expect­ed fund­ing for new roads in this Wednesday’s (26 June) 2013 Spend­ing Review [2].

Twen­ty peo­ple rolled-out the 8m x 50m road in the grounds of Crag Hall in the Peak Dis­trict Nation­al Park this morn­ing and used giant eight-foot let­ters to spell out the words “NO NEW ROADS”. Pho­tos are avail­able from pho­to­jour­nal­ist Adri­an Arbib [3].

Osborne moved into “a two-storey build­ing near Crag Hall, a sprawl­ing £4million coun­try estate which is owned by his long-term fam­i­ly friend Lord Der­by” ear­li­er this year; “lunch­es most Sun­days” at the near­by Crag Inn pub; and has been a guest at fal­con­ry events at the Hall [4]. Report­ed­ly, he “often talks about how bril­liant it is to come to the coun­try and enjoy some peace and qui­et” [4].

Osborne's roads

The cam­paign­ers – who include an artist, a teacher, a physi­cist and at least four grand­moth­ers – trav­elled from Hast­ings, where peace­ful protests against the £100m Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road (BHLR) have already led to 30 arrests and attract­ed nation­al media atten­tion [5]. The BHLR is the ‘first and the worst’ of over 200 new road-build­ing projects that the Chan­cel­lor, Big Busi­ness and local coun­cils are cur­rent­ly push­ing through­out Eng­land and Wales [6]. Mr Osborne is believed to have pres­sured the Depart­ment for Trans­port (DfT) into fund­ing the BHLR as a test case for Britain’s largest road-build­ing pro­gramme in 25 years.

Karl Hor­ton, a spokesper­son for the Combe Haven Defend­ers, one of the groups involved in today’s action, said: “George Osborne is build­ing a point­less and destruc­tive road to nowhere on our doorstep – and is plan­ning to build scores more on oth­er people’s – so today we’ve come and built one on his. His obses­sion with build­ing new roads is bad for jobs, bad for our coun­try­side and bad for our warm­ing cli­mate. It can – and will – be met with sus­tained peace­ful resis­tance.”

A “Nation­al Ral­ly Against Road Build­ing”, backed by Green­peace, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB, will be tak­ing place in Crowhurst, on the route of the BHLR, on Sat­ur­day 13 July [7].

Con­tact 07565 967 250. Pho­tos avail­able from 07711 090 544 (Adri­an Arbib).

NOTES
[1] http://www.combehavendefenders.org.uk
[2] For back­ground see the Cam­paign for Bet­ter Transport’s brief­ing ‘What the spend­ing review could mean for trans­port’, http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/blogs/traffic/what_the_spending_review_means_for_transport
[3] www.arbib.org; tel 07711 090 544
[4] ‘Final nail in your cof­fin: Chan­cel­lor moves into new home as UK stripped of AAA rat­ing’, Sun­day Mir­ror, 24 Feb­ru­ary 2013, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/george-osborne-bungling-chancellor-moves-1728026
[5] https://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/recent-media-coverage/
[6] See http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns/roads-to-nowhere/map for an online map of the pro­pos­als. For back­ground see the Cam­paign for Bet­ter Transport’s Octo­ber 2012 brief­ing ‘Going back­wards: the new roads pro­gramme’: http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/media/26-Oct-roads-report. The lat­ter lists 191 projects (more have come to light since then), con­ser­v­a­tive­ly cost­ed at £30bn, includ­ing 76 bypass­es, 56 widened roads, 48 link roads and 9 bridges and tun­nels. It also notes that ‘Many of the roads would affect areas pro­tect­ed for con­ser­va­tion, land­scape and her­itage rea­sons … incl[uding] three Nation­al Parks, the Nation­al Wet­land of the Nor­folk Broads and at least sev­en Areas of Out­stand­ing Nat­ur­al Beau­ty (AONBs).
[7] http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/roadsrally2013

Con­tact 07565 967 250. Pho­tos avail­able from 07711 090 544 (Adri­an Arbib).

Osborne's roads

Police Cut off Willits Protester from Food and Water

Crowd of supporters marches onto wetlands destruction site to resupply Red-Tailed Hawk, who has run out of food.

Crowd of supporters marches onto wetlands destruction site to resupply Red-Tailed Hawk, who has run out of food.

23rd June 2013, This inci­dent occurred on the third day that Red-Tailed Hawk has been perched on a stitch­er, block­ing Willits bypass con­struc­tion and pro­tect­ing crit­i­cal wet­lands.

Crowd of sup­port­ers march­es onto wet­lands destruc­tion site to resup­ply Red-Tailed Hawk, who has run out of food.

Sat­ur­day evening around 45 sup­port­ers of Red-Tailed Hawk’s occu­pa­tion of a wick drain “stitch­ing machine” con­verged on the site in what was pre­cious wet­lands in the path of Cal­Trans’ free­way project. Sup­port­ers walked onto the site unop­posed until they reached CHP squad cars, when two offi­cers emerged and tried to call a halt to the march. Sup­port­ers from Willits, Uki­ah and beyond pro­ceed­ed on the the stitch­er in which Red-Tailed Hawk is perched. When he low­ered a sup­ply rope, they tried to attach bun­dles of food and water. CHP offi­cers repelled the attempt three times, cut­ting the rope in the process.

With press on hand pro­tes­tors qui­et­ly sat and rea­soned with the offi­cers to allow resup­ply to Red-Tailed Hawk, who has no food and very lit­tle water left. The offi­cers refused and refused as well to reveal whether they were under orders to starve him until he descends.

 

Police prevented supplies from being sent up to Red-Tailed Hawk.

Police forcibly pre­vent­ed sup­port­ers from send­ing food and water up to Red-Tailed Hawk.

redtailhawk3

..and then cut his sup­ply line.

When CHP rein­force­ments arrived, Sgt A. Mesa ordered pro­test­ers to leave the site and imme­di­ate­ly grabbed Sara Grusky as she was com­ply­ing with the order. Her daugh­ter Thea Grusky-Foley and Nao­mi Wag­n­er allowed them­selves to be arrest­ed in sol­i­dar­i­ty. Matt Cald­well, who had attempt­ed to attach buck­ets to the line, was also arrest­ed.

redtailhawk4redtailhawk5

The evening end­ed at Willits Police Sta­tion, where Sara and Thea, who had walked away after being hand­cuffed, talked by phone to press and Sher­iff Tom All­man amidst a crowd of sup­port­ers. They sur­ren­dered to an angry Sgt. Mesa after call­ing in their where­abouts to the CHP.

All four arrestees are cur­rent­ly at Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty Jail, await­ing book­ing.  Red-Tailed Hawk is still with­out water and food and needs all the sup­port we can give him.

EARTH FIRST! SUMMER GATHERING 2013

EARTH FIRST! SUMMER GATHERING 2013 web­site all infor­ma­tion is now up at http://efgathering.weebly.com.

Gath­er­ing Dates 7th-11th August,

Loca­tion — SE Eng­land (near­est sta­tion Bex­hill)

EARTH FIRST! SUMMER GATHERING 2013 web­site all infor­ma­tion is now up at http://efgathering.weebly.com.

Gath­er­ing Dates 7th-11th August,

Loca­tion — SE Eng­land (near­est sta­tion Bex­hill)

40,000 form human chain around the ZAD

20.5.13

If any more proof is need­ed that direct action works, take a trip to Nantes in west­ern France.

20.5.13

If any more proof is need­ed that direct action works, take a trip to Nantes in west­ern France.

Fif­teen or so miles out­side the city, the region­al author­i­ty backed by the French nation­al gov­ern­ment, has been try­ing to build “Nantes Inter­na­tion­al” Air­port. It claims it is required to replace the sin­gle run­way air­port in the city in order to attract invest­ment into the area. The oppo­nents com­mis­sioned their own study which refut­ed those claims. They also point out that Nantes is just a lit­tle over two hours by fast train from Charles de Gaulle Air­port in Paris. The new air­port is dis­missed as lit­tle more than an ego project of the for­mer major of Nantes, Jean-Marc Ayrault, now the Prime Min­is­ter of France. It has been dubbed ‘Ayrauo­port’.

Last week­end (11th May) I was one of the 40,000 or so peo­ple who formed a 25 kilo­me­tre-long human chain around the site of the air­port. The huge num­bers have been inspired by the direct action of last win­ter. Dur­ing the win­ter months there were tear-gas bat­tles in the woods as police fought to remove hun­dreds of young pro­test­ers who had set up make-shift homes in sup­port of the local com­mu­ni­ty.  The courage of the pro­test­ers from the self-styled ZAD as they resist­ed the police in the bit­ter cold and dri­ving rain of last win­ter both cement­ed their sup­port in the local com­mu­ni­ty and inspired peo­ple from around France and beyond.

Now there are sup­port groups, called “com­mit­tees”, in 200 towns and cities.  Each group stages demon­stra­tions in their own towns and lob­bies politi­cians in their own areas in sup­port of the Nantes cam­paign­ers. Hard­ly a week goes by with­out one of the com­mit­tees cycling or walk­ing through France to the site of the pro­posed air­port. Last week­end on my way back from the protest I spied a bill­board in Le Mans– over 100 miles from Nantes– oppos­ing the air­port.

The ZAD resis­tance fol­lowed on from the 28 day hunger strike staged last year dur­ing the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cam­paign by four peas­ant farm­ers against the plan to evict them from their prop­er­ties. 

The local com­mu­ni­ty has fought a great cam­paign over the years – and recent­ly won an impor­tant court case in the courts where the judge ruled that the airport’s pro­mot­ers had failed to car­ry out prop­er flood plain and envi­ron­men­tal assess­ments of the project, as required by the Euro­pean Union.  The cam­paign­ers believe that the rul­ing from the court may pro­vide a way for the Gov­ern­ment to drop the air­port and save face. But the rea­son the Gov­ern­ment is under so much pres­sure is because of the way that direct action – the hunger strikes and the resis­tance from ZAD – elec­tri­fied sup­port from across France. No won­der there was such a car­ni­val atmos­phere last Sat­ur­day. We were hold­ing hands around an air­port that will prob­a­bly now nev­er be built.

John Stew­art guest post’s blog

Earth First! Summer Gathering: 7th-11th August 2013

This year’s the Sum­mer Gath­er­ing will be in the Hast­ings area near the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road cam­paign. It will run from the evening of Wednes­day 7th August and fin­ish on Sun­day 11th August.

 

This year’s the Sum­mer Gath­er­ing will be in the Hast­ings area near the Bex­hill-Hast­ings Link Road cam­paign. It will run from the evening of Wednes­day 7th August and fin­ish on Sun­day 11th August.

 

The Earth First! Sum­mer Gath­er­ing takes place each year to pro­vide a space in which the rad­i­cal ecol­o­gy move­ment can share skills and plan for future cam­paigns and actions. Any­one who is inter­est­ed in eco­log­i­cal direct action will have a valu­able part to play and is wel­come to come to this fam­i­ly friend­ly gath­er­ing. If you’ve not been to an Earth First! Gath­er­ing before and are think­ing about it, please do come, we are a very friend­ly, wel­com­ing bunch and would love to have you get involved

 

Pro­gramme: Work­shops, skill shar­ing and plan­ning action, plus low-impact liv­ing with­out lead­ers. Meet peo­ple, learn skills.

Transport/location: exact loca­tion will be announced 2 weeks before gath­er­ing on web­site.

Cost: £20-£30 from each per­son to cov­er all costs except food. (If you real­ly can’t afford this, please come any­way and give what you can).

Food: Deli­cious veg­an food will be avail­able, and meal tick­ets will be on sale at the gath­er­ing.

What to bring: Every­one will be camp­ing so bring a tent, sleep­ing bag etc.

If you have any par­tic­u­lar accom­mo­da­tion, access or dietary needs please tell us asap but at least two weeks in advance so we can plan suit­able facil­i­ties. There will be a small amount of liv­ing vehic­u­lar space if booked in advance, on a first come first served basis.

 

Con­tact: summergathering-at-earthfirst.org.uk

http://efgathering.weebly.com

Breaking News: Cops Move in on Willits Treesit; Cutting and Construction to Follow

21 March 2013
If you are any­where near Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty, get out there and help!Warbler_treesit_9045_1000p_WEB

21 March 2013
If you are any­where near Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty, get out there and help!Warbler_treesit_9045_1000p_WEB
Willits, CA-Oppo­nents of the Cal­trans Will­lits Bypass through endan­gered wet­lands are con­verg­ing on the site to pro­tect a tree-sit­ter as dozens of Cal­i­for­nia High­way Patrol vehi­cles arrived at the Bypass protest area in Willits in Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty at 7 a.m. this morn­ing. CHP offi­cers began cor­don­ing off the access roads to the area, keep­ing a gath­er­ing num­ber of pro­test­ers and wit­ness­es away from the tree-sit and Cal­trans’ pro­posed con­struc­tion area. The 24-year old local farmer in the tree who calls her­self “the War­bler” has been aloft next to High­way 101 since Jan­u­ary 28.
 
Four arrests have been made of Willits res­i­dents, and the sit­u­a­tion is still active­ly unfold­ing. Anoth­er Bypass pro­test­er has been stand­ing in front of the brush crush­ing machine that is in the juris­dic­tion­al wet­lands and has repeat­ed­ly blocked it after hav­ing been removed sev­er­al times with­out arrest. Cal­trans’ per­mit process is not com­plete with regard to the Migra­to­ry Bird Act, in effect until Sep­tem­ber 15 for the nest­ing sea­son.
 
Updates will be released as the sit­u­a­tion unfolds.

Caltrans Bypass Battle in Willits Heats Up As Activists Sit Down to Block Equipment

16 March 2013

16 March 2013

Willits, CA-Local res­i­dents say Cal­trans tried to bull­doze their way through Fed­er­al and State reg­u­la­tions again in what has become a run­ning bat­tle over the planned Bypass high­way around Willits in Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty. Activists sat down in front of mov­ing equip­ment and called Cal-tip to report vio­la­tions of the Inter­na­tion­al Migra­to­ry Bird Act after bird nests were found. This was the third time activists have blocked equip­ment since Jan. 28, when a tree sit­ter named War­bler Warblerwent aloft in a tall pon­derosa pine at the south­ern end of the pro­posed con­struc­tion site on Hwy. 101 just out­side Willits to protest Cal­trans’ Bypass.

At issue is pro­to­col regard­ing required sur­veys for nest­ing birds in com­pli­ance with the Migra­to­ry Bird Act and a “juris­dic­tion­al wet­land” dam­aged when Cal­trans work­ers drove an exca­va­tor into the bog­gy area and it became stuck.
 
When Cal­trans arrived at 7:30 a.m. Wednes­day, they were accom­pa­nied by Arrow Fenc­ing Com­pa­ny and their con­sult­ing biol­o­gists, who walked ahead of the noisy machine in case nests were again found in its path. Cal­trans and Arrow Fenc­ing employ­ees on site claimed they had been told they could pro­ceed by Joann Dunn, Cal­i­for­nia Depart­ment of Fish and Wildlife’s (DFW) region­al liai­son to Cal­trans. No proof was avail­able that revised pro­to­cols for the bird sur­veys required before start­ing con­struc­tion had been approved by DFW.
 
Reached by phone, DFW Joann Dunn said she had not seen the pro­to­cols but that the Depart­ment had agreed Cal­trans could con­tin­ue fenc­ing in the pre­vi­ous­ly dis­turbed area, despite being under an “active inves­ti­ga­tion”. Last week it was revealed that Cal­trans did not have the approved pro­to­cols from DFW need­ed pri­or to per­form­ing bird sur­veys.  State DFW ordered Cal­trans to sub­mit revised pro­to­cols and do new bird sur­veys.
 Excavator tracks flat jurisdictional wetlands
The Bypass would raise a  thir­ty-foot high earth­en wall on either end of the small north­ern Cal­i­for­nia town, con­nect­ed by an ele­vat­ed two-lane, high-speed viaduct span­ning the Lit­tle Lake Val­ley. Sen­si­tive wet­lands and Coho salmon in the two longest trib­u­taries to the Eel Riv­er would be severe­ly impact­ed.  More­over, safe­ty con­cerns about the viaduct, which has no exits, have been raised repeat­ed­ly. Cal­trans’ EIR says the safe­ty stan­dards will be met in Phase II of the plan, which oppo­nents sus­pect may nev­er be fund­ed, leav­ing them with a sta­tis­ti­cal­ly pre­dictable high­er rate of seri­ous and fatal acci­dents.
 
State Sen­a­tor Noreen Evans last week sent a let­ter to Cal­trans with some “point­ed ques­tions” about Cal­trans’ design plans after her aide vis­it­ed the site and met with those opposed to the Cal­trans’ Bypass, accord­ing to the Willits News.  That let­ter can be found on the Willits News site at https://www.facebook.com/WillitsWeekly/posts/493170500739029.
 
Dur­ing the sit-down block­ade, activist Jaime Cheva­lier said, “We told Cal­trans we’d leave if they’d stop all work and sit down and talk with Sen­a­tor Noreen Evans.”