21st July 2011
Tree sits Block Min­ing Oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain

The RAMPS Cam­paign put a cou­ple of tree-sit­ters up on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain to stop moun­tain­top removal coal min­ing. The tree-sit has stopped Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources strip min­ing oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain. Cather­ine-Ann Mac­Dou­gal and Becks Kolins cur­rent­ly are sit­ting in trees 80 feet off the ground about 300 feet from active blast­ing oper­a­tions.

Their ban­ners read “STOP STRIP MINING” and “FOR JUDY BONDS.”

Judy Bonds was an Appalachi­an leader in the anti-moun­tain­top removal fight who died of can­cer ear­li­er this year.

Judy’s daugh­ter, Lisa Hen­der­son, said in sup­port of the tree-sit, “I hope that today’s actions serve as a sym­bol that the strug­gle to live peace­ful­ly and pol­lu­tion-free in the Coal Riv­er Val­ley did not end when my mother’s life did. My moth­er and I often com­pared the fight to sur­vive here on Coal Riv­er to the civ­il rights strug­gles of the 1960s. I am sure that gen­er­a­tions from now, our chil­dren will look back on this move­ment also and the actions of the peo­ple involved, and ask the ques­tion of their elders, ‘Whose side were you on?’”

Click here to read full sto­ry and full July 20, 2011 press release

The fol­low­ing is an excerpt from an Under­sto­ry post by Scott Parkin. Image of Judy Bonds via americanswhotellthetruth.org

UPDATE:

Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources halt­ed all work on the Bee Tree sur­face mine while WV State Police and mine secu­ri­ty spent over four hours attempt­ing to locate the posi­tion of the four young peo­ple – even with the com­pa­ny heli­copter. Upon dis­cov­er­ing them, Walk and Schewel, were arrest­ed, and Kolins and Mac­Dou­gal remain in their respec­tive trees. They plan to stay there as long as they are phys­i­cal­ly able, in order to pre­vent Alpha from con­duct­ing fur­ther sur­face min­ing oper­a­tions on Coal Riv­er Moun­tain. Blast­ing on the entire Bee Tree site was shut down for the whole day.

Kolins and Mac­Dou­gal sent peri­od­ic text mes­sages through­out Wednes­day to their sup­port­ers. Kolins report­ed that a heli­copter, owned by Alpha Nat­ur­al Resources, hov­ered dan­ger­ous­ly close to their tree. The two tree-sit­ters also con­firmed that a bull­doz­er is slow­ly grad­ing a road towards their loca­tion from the mine wall bench. Despite their iso­la­tion, these two, strong, brave young peo­ple, in the spir­it of the late Judy Bonds, have vowed, “We Won’t Stop Until They Do – Stop All Strip Min­ing!”

Walk and Schewel were released from South­ern Region­al Jail at around 9:45pm, each was held with a $1000 bail. As is evi­denced by the pic­ture below, they are in high spir­its, and are look­ing for­ward to a good night of sleep.

RAMPS would like to extend its grat­i­tude to the mul­ti­tude of peo­ple across the coun­try that have expressed their unwa­ver­ing sup­port for the tree sit­ters who have cho­sen to take a stand for moun­tains and com­mu­ni­ties. Please be assured that these words of encour­age­ment are being passed on to the young peo­ple in the trees, and will be ever more nec­es­sary with each pass­ing day they spend sit­ting and sweat­ing in the mug­gy West Vir­ginia heat.

If you are able, con­sid­er donat­ing $5, $25, $50 or more to the RAMPS’ cam­paign gen­er­al fund. All mon­ey in the gen­er­al fund goes towards feed­ing and hous­ing the large behind-the-scenes sup­port crew that is nec­es­sary to pull off an action of this nature safe­ly, secure­ly, and effec­tive­ly.

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Updates from the tree tops, coast to coast!

28 July
Eco-resis­tance from West Vir­ginia and west­ern Ore­gon

Coos Coun­ty , OR— Ear­ly Tues­day morn­ing a num­ber of activists with Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers and Cas­ca­dia Earth First! unfold­ed a series of road block­ades in the Elliott State For­est clos­ing access points to tim­ber sales along the west fork of the Mil­li­co­ma Riv­er. The block­ades con­sist of an array of Tree-sits and ground lev­el lock­ing devices.

The sales are all slat­ed for clear-cut log­ging, and are areas of native for­est that have nev­er before seen a chain saw. They exist on steep slopes where ero­sion from log­ging threat­ens to fur­ther dam­age Salmon habi­tat, as well as dev­as­tate pro­tect­ed species includ­ing Mar­bled Mur­relet and North­ern Spot­ted Owl.

“For decades, activists in the north­west pushed the for­est ser­vice into chang­ing there ways for the bet­ter, and we have seen dra­mat­ic improve­ments in the types of projects fed­er­al agen­cies are work­ing on, The Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry has tak­en the oppo­site route, show­ing total dis­re­gard for life, and the health of these ecosys­tems, this is the begin­ning of a long term cam­paign that aims to see state lands man­aged for sus­tain­abil­i­ty, bio-diver­si­ty and the over­all health of the ecosys­tem, we will keep the pres­sure on in The Elliot, and all over the state of Ore­gon from this point for­ward” –Jason Gon­za­les, Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers.

“The clearcut­ting in the Elliot is the worst in the state. They would nev­er allow cuts like this on fed­er­al for­est.” —Mered­ith Cocks of Cas­ca­dia For­est Defend­ers.

Activists in the canopy have issued the fol­low­ing list of demands for the State Land Board and the Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry that they say must be met before they will will­ing­ly leave the for­est:

1) Cease all log­ging of native forests on pub­lic land in Ore­gon

2) Put a mora­to­ri­um on all log­ging and road con­struc­tion in the Elliot State For­est

3) Halt the export of raw logs from all Ore­gon for­est, pub­lic or pri­vate

4) Reject the Ore­gon Depart­ment of Forestry’s 2011 Imple­men­ta­tion Plan for the Elliot State For­est

5) Stop the use of her­bi­cides and the slaugh­ter of the native moun­tain beaver.

Con­tact ODF and tell them you sup­port the demands: information@odf.state.o… Phone: 503–945-7200 Fax: 503–945-7212

This action is a cul­mi­na­tion of last weekend’s For­est Defense Action Camp. Around 70 peo­ple from around Coos and Dou­glas coun­ty, as well as oth­er areas of Ore­gon and the coun­try gath­ered near the Elkhorn Ranch ORV Park in the Elliot for the three day camp. Atten­dants were edu­cat­ed on cur­rent threats to the Elliot State For­est as well as pro­vid­ed with train­ings to engage in direct action, climb­ing and more.

UPDATE: On Wednes­day Night, July 27th, Law Enforce­ment arrived at the Elkhorn Ranch Tim­ber Sale tree-sit and block­ade in the Elliot. Pro­test­ers at the site have been warned that Law Enforce­ment will attempt to forcibly extract any­one remain­ing at the block­ade at noon today, July 28th. Although a bull­doz­er plowed through the slash piles the pre­vi­ous evening, as of this report, road block­ades and canopy occu­pa­tions con­tin­ue.

Meanwhile in West Virgina…

Tree sitters at mine site celebrate 10 days of holding off the blasts