Calendar
(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.
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
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.
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.
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.
The City of Moscow and Avista are hosting a free admission showing of Liquid Assets from 5:30pm–8:00pm. This 90 minute documentary explores the critical role that our water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic prosperity. The film viewing, at the Kenworthy theater, will begin with a reception and book sale of Drinking Water- A History, James Salzman. He is the keynote speaker at the October Palouse Basin Water Summit.
Spokane and Tri-Cities rallies co-coordinated with Occupy Spokane at the Millennium Bulk (coal export) Terminals Longview public scoping hearings (9/17 Cowlitz Expo Center in Longview, 9/25 Spokane Convention Center in Spokane, 10/1 The Trac Center in Pasco, 10/9 Clark County Fairgrounds in Vancouver, 10/17 Tacoma Convention Center in Tacoma)
Regional Rising Tide strategy summit (Bellingham, Washington location and dates TBA)
TIME TBA — Save the date: On Saturday, October 19, IRAGE, WIRT, and allies around the world are staging another Global Frackdown! See the WIRT website for more information.
Graham Stevens, from Navigant’s Energy Practice (and a Moscow resident), will discuss methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and evaluating the costs vs. efficacy of these options. Graham’s presentation is at 7 pm in room 103 of the Menard Law Building on the University of Idaho campus, with free parking nearby. The event is sponsored by the UI Environmental Law Society and the Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition.
Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Spokane Rising Tide activists enthusiastically invite regional community members eager to design and stage arrestable protests to the second Stand Up! Fight Back! Against Fossil Fuels in the Northwest! information sharing, brainstorming, and strategizing session. Opponents of coal, fracked natural gas and oil, and tar sands extraction and transportation projects are converging from northern Idaho and eastern Washington for these urgent non-violent direct action training and planning sessions. Duplicate gatherings will occur between 10 am and 4 pm on Saturday, November 9, at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington, and from 12 noon to 5 pm on Sunday, November 10, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho. Workshop participants will learn direct action methods as they share their experiences protecting the public environment and health from corporate pillage, and as they prepare to confront coal and shale oil trains before November 18 port scoping period deadlines and when the next tar sands megaloads move through the region to Alberta.
Extraction, transportation, and production of carbon-dense, dirty energy fuels across the Northwest increasingly threaten the wellbeing of people, places, and the planet with their risky and toxic byproducts of polluted air, water, land, policies, and perspectives. Incoming Alberta tar sands megaloads and pipelines, expanding hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for natural gas, and outgoing coal, shale oil, and tar sands trains bound for West Coast export terminals crisscross our region, as they transform our continent into a resource colony serving Asia and the world. Governments consistently fail to defend their citizens from the ravages of some of the largest multinational corporations on Earth, as they together plunder our public resources, taxpayer coffers, and civil liberties in pursuit of their billions in profits. Fracking Idaho farmlands for gas and North Dakota and Alberta grasslands for shale oil, strip-mining Montana and Wyoming prairies for coal, and steam blasting Alberta boreal forests and bogs challenge the conscious and quality of life of Pacific and Inland Northwest residents and businesses. The railroad industry increasingly hauls countless gallons of explosive oil and tons of dusty coal every day around our remote lakes, within our river valleys, and through our ranches, farms, and cities, to ports on the Oregon and Washington coasts and rivers and ultimately Asia, hastening climate chaos.
Because conventional avenues for citizen recourse to corporate crooks and colluded public officials predictably succumb to industry influenced rules, laws, elections, and bribes, Northwesterners must challenge this corruption and confront the root causes of ecological and economic oppression and devastation in more creative and assertive ways. On Saturday and Sunday, November 9 and 10, Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tides encourage concerned people throughout the region to push back the boundaries of their resistance to industrial invasions, with new allies, tactics, skills, and strategies. Workshop facilitators will adapt training to the needs and knowledge of the group, will lead interactive role plays based on real-life scenarios, and will offer the information necessary to stall and stop the forces that are destabilizing our climate and destroying our democracy. Event organizers expect participants to graciously contribute their insights throughout the workshop, to provide potluck food and beverages, and to immediately apply their new skills and understanding to the process of arranging upcoming actions. Please print and post the attached, color, letter-sized flyer and urge family, friends, and co-workers to attend these worthwhile and inspiring discussions and presentations during this day of educational opportunity.
Workshop Dates & Locations
* Saturday, November 9, 10 am to 4 pm at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington
* Sunday, November 10, 12 noon to 5 pm at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho
Workshop Schedules
10 am Saturday / 12 noon Sunday: Opening Introductions, Intentions, & Issues
11 am Saturday / 1 pm Sunday: Community Organizing & Outreach
12 noon Saturday: Potluck Lunch & Networking
1 pm Saturday / 2 pm Sunday: Campaign Strategies & Creative Tactics
2 pm Saturday / 3 pm Sunday: Non-Violent Direct Action Training
3 pm Saturday / 4 pm Sunday: Action & Blockade Planning
Community Organizing & Outreach
Finding ways for activists to recruit volunteers, Creating consensus and group working relationships, Coordinating events and gatherings, Building a network of alliances and movements
Campaign Strategies & Creative Tactics
Planning and implementing cohesive, effective campaigns that create change, Setting objectives and goals, Identifying and choosing targets, Designing strategies and tactics, Crafting innovative messages and imagery, Engaging the media, Evaluating existing campaigns
Non-Violent Direct Action Training
Using direct action effectively and strategically, Forming affinity groups, Establishing roles, Preparing and staging direct actions, Creating props, chants, and street theater, Managing and de-escalating conflict, Considering legal implications
Action & Blockade Planning
Coherently coordinating upcoming actions, Deploying hard and soft blockades and flash mobs, Stopping people and vehicles, Blocking intersections, roads, and access points, Avoiding authorities’ reaches, Making and utilizing traditional equipment
Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Spokane Rising Tide activists enthusiastically invite regional community members eager to design and stage arrestable protests to the second Stand Up! Fight Back! Against Fossil Fuels in the Northwest! information sharing, brainstorming, and strategizing session. Opponents of coal, fracked natural gas and oil, and tar sands extraction and transportation projects are converging from northern Idaho and eastern Washington for these urgent non-violent direct action training and planning sessions. Duplicate gatherings will occur between 10 am and 4 pm on Saturday, November 9, at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington, and from 12 noon to 5 pm on Sunday, November 10, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho. Workshop participants will learn direct action methods as they share their experiences protecting the public environment and health from corporate pillage, and as they prepare to confront coal and shale oil trains before November 18 port scoping period deadlines and when the next tar sands megaloads move through the region to Alberta.
Extraction, transportation, and production of carbon-dense, dirty energy fuels across the Northwest increasingly threaten the wellbeing of people, places, and the planet with their risky and toxic byproducts of polluted air, water, land, policies, and perspectives. Incoming Alberta tar sands megaloads and pipelines, expanding hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for natural gas, and outgoing coal, shale oil, and tar sands trains bound for West Coast export terminals crisscross our region, as they transform our continent into a resource colony serving Asia and the world. Governments consistently fail to defend their citizens from the ravages of some of the largest multinational corporations on Earth, as they together plunder our public resources, taxpayer coffers, and civil liberties in pursuit of their billions in profits. Fracking Idaho farmlands for gas and North Dakota and Alberta grasslands for shale oil, strip-mining Montana and Wyoming prairies for coal, and steam blasting Alberta boreal forests and bogs challenge the conscious and quality of life of Pacific and Inland Northwest residents and businesses. The railroad industry increasingly hauls countless gallons of explosive oil and tons of dusty coal every day around our remote lakes, within our river valleys, and through our ranches, farms, and cities, to ports on the Oregon and Washington coasts and rivers and ultimately Asia, hastening climate chaos.
Because conventional avenues for citizen recourse to corporate crooks and colluded public officials predictably succumb to industry influenced rules, laws, elections, and bribes, Northwesterners must challenge this corruption and confront the root causes of ecological and economic oppression and devastation in more creative and assertive ways. On Saturday and Sunday, November 9 and 10, Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tides encourage concerned people throughout the region to push back the boundaries of their resistance to industrial invasions, with new allies, tactics, skills, and strategies. Workshop facilitators will adapt training to the needs and knowledge of the group, will lead interactive role plays based on real-life scenarios, and will offer the information necessary to stall and stop the forces that are destabilizing our climate and destroying our democracy. Event organizers expect participants to graciously contribute their insights throughout the workshop, to provide potluck food and beverages, and to immediately apply their new skills and understanding to the process of arranging upcoming actions. Please print and post the attached, color, letter-sized flyer and urge family, friends, and co-workers to attend these worthwhile and inspiring discussions and presentations during this day of educational opportunity.
Workshop Dates & Locations
* Saturday, November 9, 10 am to 4 pm at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington
* Sunday, November 10, 12 noon to 5 pm at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho
Workshop Schedules
10 am Saturday / 12 noon Sunday: Opening Introductions, Intentions, & Issues
11 am Saturday / 1 pm Sunday: Community Organizing & Outreach
12 noon Saturday: Potluck Lunch & Networking
1 pm Saturday / 2 pm Sunday: Campaign Strategies & Creative Tactics
2 pm Saturday / 3 pm Sunday: Non-Violent Direct Action Training
3 pm Saturday / 4 pm Sunday: Action & Blockade Planning
Community Organizing & Outreach
Finding ways for activists to recruit volunteers, Creating consensus and group working relationships, Coordinating events and gatherings, Building a network of alliances and movements
Campaign Strategies & Creative Tactics
Planning and implementing cohesive, effective campaigns that create change, Setting objectives and goals, Identifying and choosing targets, Designing strategies and tactics, Crafting innovative messages and imagery, Engaging the media, Evaluating existing campaigns
Non-Violent Direct Action Training
Using direct action effectively and strategically, Forming affinity groups, Establishing roles, Preparing and staging direct actions, Creating props, chants, and street theater, Managing and de-escalating conflict, Considering legal implications
Action & Blockade Planning
Coherently coordinating upcoming actions, Deploying hard and soft blockades and flash mobs, Stopping people and vehicles, Blocking intersections, roads, and access points, Avoiding authorities’ reaches, Making and utilizing traditional equipment
Late on Friday afternoon, November 22, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) issued a permit to Hillsboro, Oregon-based heavy-hauler Omega Morgan, who intends to begin moving the first, heaviest, and longest megaload of tar sands mining equipment ever to transgress Umatilla and Warm Springs aboriginal homelands in eastern Oregon on Sunday night, November 24. See Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s website for more details.
Megaloads? Tar Sands? Pipelines? Climate Change? What’s the Connection? Explore these questions with local citizens who journeyed to the tar sands of northern Alberta to join the First Nations (Native Americans) and other concerned citizens from across the continent for the Healing Walk. Led by First Nations elders and leaders, participants witnessed the scale of environmental devastation caused by tar sands mining and crude oil processing.
Six local healing walkers will share what they learned on their solidarity journey, connecting the local and regional megaloads, huge pipeline projects, impacts on people and places, and overarching climate change and moral issues. Their presentation and discussion, A Healing Walk Through the Alberta Tar Sands, will be on Saturday, December 7 from 3 to 5pm. This event is in the Arts Workshop room immediately following the Winter Market at the 1912 Center, 412 E. Third St., Moscow. Sponsored by the Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, Idaho Sierra Club and 350 Idaho. For further information, contact Pat Fuerst, epfuerst@frontier.com.