Defending Water for Life has been an active part of the campaign to oppose the proposed East-West highway.  A few days ago, one of our allies found what appears to be the link between the east-west highway, the Canadian fracking fields surrounding Maine, and the proposed LPG tank in Searsport.

On either side of Maine, in Quebec and New Brunswick, are multiple huge leases for natural gas fracking.  The east-west highway route through Maine links them seamlessly.  Therefore, as a private throughway, we suspect that one of the highway investors’ first additional moves will be to run a LNG pipeline, that connects Canadian LNG supplies, and provides even greater returns for the highway investors, in addition to tolls they’d receive from Canadian transport trucks.  Peter Vigue of Cianbro announced his vision to use the highway as a multi-use corridor during his presentation to the Transportation Committee during the public hearing on Valentine’s day.  As a private throughway, it’d be up to federal and state regulatory agencies to stop this pipeline, since people across Maine will not have a voice.

This larger energy scheme that benefits private investors, but only uses Maine as a throughway, deepens our concerns about how severely the highway will exploit Maine.  But there is more.  Companies in Canada have started to use gelled propane instead of chemical water to extract LNG.  A November 15, 2011 article in Chemistry World states, “’This is a game changer for the industry,’ says Don LeBlanc, principal consultant at Eastex Petroleum Consultants in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has been involved in shale gas trials with gelled propane in New Brunswick, Canada.”

Fracking businesses have been under pressure for poisoning freshwater aquifers.  By switching to a petroleum based product like propane, they are able to extract more LNG, and recapture the propane as a net gain.  They add a nerve inhibitor to gel the propane to the required consistency.  In addition, propane may be used as an agent to liquefy the natural gas, which makes it possible to store and transport.

From an investor’s prospective, a LPG tank in Searsport is a great idea.  From there, they can truck the propane to Canada to use for fracking shale gas.  Due to the existing pipeline, there is not a domestic need in Maine for more propane.

This is a highly organized energy triad, poised to make a few people very wealthy at the cost of Maine’s people and the land we need to survive.  We were confused why Searsport selectmen were supporting the east-west highway, but now it is clear there is a lot of money involved.  Please visit www.defendingwater.net/maine/east-west-highway/ for more information, and write to your representatives before Tuesday February 28^th, which is the first day this bill to use public money to fund a study for private investors may come to the floor of the Maine House of Representatives.

Below is a list of items the camp is in need of.  If you are able to donate any of theitems listed,  you can stop by or call the number below. We hope to see you in Augusta!!

NEEDS LIST:

rain gear

large wall tents

army canvas tents

shelving

tables

5 gallon gasoline can

gasoline

propane tanks

CONTACT INFO:

For more information you can call Paul at (207)615-4457.

Mysterious and magical things started happening in Yellowstone National Park in the mid-nineties. Streamside cottonwood and willow trees and shrubs were suddenly growing again, after seventy years of slumber. New aspen trees in the park’s northern valleys were also sprouting after a similarly long sleep. With streamside trees and vegetation growing again, badly eroded stream banks were soon stabilized, returning shade cooled the waters and natural water flow was restored. These changes allowed for the return of beavers and beaver ponds, fish, birds of prey and songbirds, insects and amphibians. What triggered this flourishing re-birth? What was missing from Yellowstone for seventy years? And what had finally returned? Wolves!

It turns out that the wolf, this amazing apex predator, is a true guardian of the forest and a vital protector of ecological integrity, of biodiversity. Without wolves, elk, the dominant herbivore in Yellowstone and the Rockies, over-populated and ran amok. Too many elk voraciously devoured every bit of accessible vegetation, decade after decade. Newly emerging green shoots were never spared and allowed to grow into new trees and shrubs. With the wolves return, a healthy ‘ecology of fear’ returned to Yellowstone. The traction alongside a stream or river is much trickier than on smooth, grassy terrain. Elk were no longer on permanent vacation when it came to casual dining by the water’s edge. They quickly learned to avoid these areas where they were once again vulnerable to hungry wolves and more likely to end up as meals themselves. The wolves return triggered what is referred to as a ‘trophic cascade’ of positive ecological change, in which a vital element appears or returns and sets off a cascade of changes that builds on itself, restores needed balance and brings forth new life and diversity. (See National Geographic, March 2010 issue, cover article entitled Wolf Wars.)

How did it come to be that North America’s native wolves were missing from Yellowstone and almost every place else in the United States prior to the mid-nineties? We’ll get to that shortly. It’s estimated that prior to the arrival of European colonizers, two million wolves were living and roaming free throughout most of North America, along with up to 75 million bison and countless numbers of bears, mountain lions, elk and deer, beaver and many, many others. Millions of birds of all kinds filled the sky, a seemingly endless continent full of lush vegetation and teeming with life from sea to sea. Amidst these infinite wonders of creation, lived hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of human animals, who we now refer to as Native Americans. And these natives, from the ice of the Arctic north to the deserts of the south, lived harmoniously and respectfully with the wildlife all around them, including numerous wolves.

Native Americans patiently and objectively studied the wolves who lived on the edges of their villages and beyond for thousands of years. These natives did not fear, demonize or persecute wolves. They admired and learned from them. They observed the wolves’ keen intelligence, their very social nature, their complex and devoted family structure. As hunters themselves, these humans were particularly intrigued to observe how wolves hunt together, strategically and cooperatively. Wolves helped them learn how to take better care of their own families and tribe members. The natives saw wolves as they truly are, vital, intelligent and complex social beings, devoted to their family packs, so much like humans.

And then the European colonizers started to arrive from across the sea. Sadly and so tragically, for the wolves, for the land and its natives and for a gentler history that might have been, these Europeans did not arrive with a reverence and respect for the purity and innocence of wilderness. Instead they brought to this land a strange and perverted notion of wilderness, the very essence of creation, as ungodly. This perverted notion included many centuries of Church-inspired, false and demonic wolf fables. As early as 1630, this profound ignorance resulted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony enacting a bounty on wolves. And so began a savage and heart-breaking war against America’s natives, wilderness and wildlife, including the very embodiment of wilderness, the wolf.

It took three hundred years of unspeakable human cruelty, brutality and sadism to eliminate wolves from every corner of the US. During those three hundred years, bounties and mass killing followed the wolves, from Maine to California and everywhere in between. State and local governments joined in, as did the federal government. Millions of wolves were shot, poisoned, burned alive and died horribly in steel leg hold traps. Wolf pups were not spared and were often dynamited in their dens. Only in Northern Minnesota and a tiny area of nearby Wisconsin did a small number of wolves survive the carnage. For the wolves, it was three hundred years of Nazi rule and they were the Jews. And everyone is painfully aware of what happened to the Native Americans during this time, victimized by the same tyranny, ignorance, intolerance and greed.

So where are we now? The country has caught its breath somewhat. There is certainly far more enlightenment and wisdom among people across the land, when it comes to nature, ecology and wildlife. In the early 70’s the federal government enacted the Endangered Species Act and shortly thereafter, wolves were added to the list. In the mid 80’s and without waiting for permission, a small group of pioneer wolves wandered south from the Canadian Rockies and into the graveyard West of their ancestors. And they quietly spread themselves around a bit. Ten years later, in the mid 90’s, a more enlightened US Department of the Interior, the very killers of Yellowstone’s last wolves in the 1920’s, released a small group of Canadian gray wolves back into Yellowstone where they should have found safe haven all along. By 2008, these wolves had found each other and grew to approximately 2,000 individuals spread throughout Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and some nearby states. Not very many over such a huge area but a nice start. Along with about 3,500 wolves in Northern Minnesota and nearby Wisconsin, things were looking up for wolves in America.

And then along came President Obama and his choice for Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, a rancher and US Senator from Colorado. Within months of their taking office, a quarter of the wolves in the Rockies were dead, ‘legally’ killed by ‘sport hunters’ and federal agents in Idaho and Montana. A heading-out-the-door George W. Bush plan to de-list and downgrade the protective status of Rocky Mountain wolves, from endangered to threatened, was adopted and implemented by Obama. This opened the door to wolf killing, planned and supported by the stuck-in-the-19th century, wolf-hating state governments of the Rockies. Obama, the democrat who promised science-based environmental decision making when he was campaigning for office, neglected to tell those of us who took him at his word, that his word did not apply to America’s wolves and the vicious interest groups still aligned against them. For Obama, dirty politics still applies to America’s wolves, not science, as he had publicly promised the American people.

Still, even with this latest outrage and heartbreak, it may finally be the beginning of a new day for America’s wolves and other wildlife. The wolves now have huge numbers of devoted friends and admiring supporters spread across the entire country, young and old, including dedicated friends throughout the Rockies. A more enlightened American people are no longer willing to accept such heartless demonization and mistreatment of America’s wildlife. Thanks to the very dedicated and excellent work of groups such as Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthJustice and others, a federal court in the Rockies recently reversed Obama’s de-listing of wolves and restored them to endangered status. The presiding judge castigated Obama and his administration for basing the flawed de-listing on politics and not science. But that is surely not the end of the story for wolves in America. The wolves need our friendship and advocacy, right now, more than ever.

Wolf demonizers and haters are still a very powerful and stubborn group. They control state houses and state legislatures throughout the West (including Alaska) and most unfortunately, have a strong hold on federal wildlife agencies that are still doing their brutal, unethical bidding, and at American taxpayer expense. Incredibly, our US Department of Agriculture has an insane ‘Wildlife Services’ division. This twisted division regularly sends wildlife killers into the field, at the insistence of ranchers and farmers in the West. Eco-terrorist Wildlife Services agents are heavily armed with rifles and extremely toxic poisons. Thousands of America’s wildlife, including wolves, coyotes, cougars, bears, eagles and more are regularly killed by these US agents, without any concern for ecological integrity, justice or federal protections. Rosalie Edge, a remarkable conservation crusader from the late 1920’s through the early 1960’s, bravely fought the forerunner to this perverted federal agency, referring to it as: the United States Bureau of Destruction and Extermination. The wildlife killers at the Wildlife Services division even have a current plan to gas wolf pups in their dens and surgically sterilize alpha wolf pairs. Most Americans have surely been unaware of the ongoing horror that they have been funding for decades. Now that we know, it is up to each of us to demand that all federal wildlife agencies permanently stop this obscene war on wolves and America’s wildlife. Until enough of us speak up against this killing and for America’s wildlife, it will continue. Let’s put a stop to it now and forever.

It’s time for the West’s cattle ranchers and farmers to stop their long and brutal war against America’s wolves and other natural predators. Ranchers have long stacked the deck against ecological integrity and against America’s native wildlife. More enlightened voices are being heard in the West. George Wuerthner is an independent ecologist and writer, a former federal biologist and a devoted hunter with Montana roots. He recently authored an intelligent and dead on accurate article about ‘problem ranchers’ throughout the West who use the federal government and American taxpayers to pay for their irresponsible and poor animal husbandry. They are operating more like welfare ranchers, living off of cheap federally funded grazing lands, while demanding what they have come to believe is their God-given right to an unnatural predator free environment. Well, Mr. Wuerthner and so many of us across the land have learned that wolves and other natural predators belong here and are entitled to live on this Earth, just like us. It’s time to stop killing wolves, to stop making wolves pay with their lives for unchanging, ecologically unsound ranching practices that harm the land and other wildlife, too. A more enlightened America has grown to love its wolves, wildlife and wild places and we demand change and a better way now. Let everyone witness a much better, more generous and Earth-friendly way forward.

Ecologist and teacher Aldo Leopold stopped killing wolves and began defending their vital place in nature, when he himself learned through patience and study, about nature and ecology. We can all do that today, the information is there and very accessible. Get a copy of Green Fire Productions’ Lords of Nature DVD. Watch and listen to the wolf-wise ranchers, farmers and hunters of Minnesota. They have learned to live in harmony and respectfully, with the 3,500 wolves roaming free and just being wolves, in their wonderful state. The people of Northern Minnesota live with many more wolves in a much smaller area, than the vast northern Rocky Mountain states that have only half the number of wolves. Yet Minnesota ranchers and farmers do not whine about wolves, nor do they engage in anti-wolf hysterics. With help from their state’s wildlife agency and from wildlife advocates, they have willingly adopted non-lethal, wolf and predator friendly control techniques that very, very effectively protect their cattle and sheep. Western cattle ranchers and farmers can learn from the good folks of Minnesota. And those of us who love America’s wolves and wildlife can make sure they do. Let’s boycott any hate-tainted beef and insist as wildlife defenders and as consumers on ‘wolf and predator friendly’ beef, just as we now have ‘dolphin safe’ tuna.

And to those sport hunters who intentionally or through ignorance continue to mis-inform the public and each other about the ‘damage’ wolves are doing to ‘their’ elk or deer, it’s time to acknowledge some simple truths. Wildlife belongs to the Earth from which they come and which nourishes them. They are not the personal property of any human being. The simple truth is what we all learned in grade school, that predators and prey live together as nature intended. They depend on each other, in a magical way, that creates vitality and renewal for each of them and a healthier ecosystem for all life. Wolves strengthen their prey species, by culling the weak and the sick. Wolves and other natural predators do not ‘damage’ the species upon which they prey, it is humans who have displayed a consistent knack for doing exactly that over and over again.

As we have now witnessed with the wolves’ return to Yellowstone, they are literally guardians of the forest and protectors of the diversity of life. At long last, let’s listen to the Native Americans who, long ago, tried to enlighten those who could not see the true nature of wolves and the innocence of their vital place on the land. Let’s start now by protecting the wolves that thankfully still live on this Earth we love and cherish. Finally getting it right for the wolves will go a long way towards getting things right for the Earth.
******************************
Robert Goldman is a devoted wolf advocate and currently resides in Maine. Bob has lived and worked in Yellowstone, the Sierras, Alaska and other special places, and lives for the day when more wilderness and all wildlife is respected and protected. He urges all those interested in learning more about wolves to read Barry Lopez’s Of Wolves and Men and to watch the DVD Lords of Nature by Green Fire Productions. Visit Bob’s new website coming this Winter: www.FriendsOfTheWolves.org

My name is Don Smith.  I am a native Mainer and I am 82 years old.  I am a

veteran and a grandfather.  I was arrested and charged with criminal

trespass at the Rollins Mt. wind project site in Lincoln on November 8.

Five were arrested as we formed a human barricade to the site.  Dozens of

others braved the cold rainy November day to protest First Wind’s project.

Many people have asked me why I did this.  Good question.  I hope I give

good answers.  The first reason is that nobody seems to be paying

attention to the negative aspects of wind power.  Least of all is the

complacent and complicit media in Maine.  If we had just stood out there

with signs, even the local reporter would likely have overlooked the

event.  By putting myself on the line to dramatize why this project is so

wrong, it caught the attention of media far and wide.

It seems that most people understand utility scale (or industrial) wind

power superficially, accepting wind power as “green” and “clean” and the

panacea for solving energy and climate challenges.  It is the result of

years of masterful propaganda by the wind industry.  Some of us have

actually done a lot of research into industrial wind and have found huge

negatives.  By dramatically raising the visibility of the issue with the

arrests, we are getting people to discover these negatives as the follow

up dialogue transpires.

I have gained insights from my research into industrial wind.  The wind

industry would not exist without massive government subsidies.  For

example:  the US Energy Information Administration reports that in 2007,

wind received $23.37 per megawatt hour in subsidies; the next highest

subsidy was $1.59 for nuclear.  Those are our tax dollars going into

something that doesn’t work.

We are putting up wind turbines in places where there isn’t enough wind to

generate electricity.  Look at the NREL map of wind potential in Maine.

The area around Lincoln Lakes is all white.  Look at the color code and

white means “poor”.  My guess is wind turbines are not about generating

electricity, they are about selling a carbon tax in the form of Renewable

Energy Certificates, raking in Production Tax Credits, and having the

taxpayers pay the cost of construction.

Another reason I got arrested is to protest the proliferation of these

industrial wind projects.  I retired to live a quiet life on Caribou Pond,

with a view of Rollins Mt.  That ridge will have fifteen turbines, each

389 feet high.  The total number of turbines will be forty on Rollins Mt.

and the ridges of Rocky Dundee.  An acoustics expert stated that the noise

from these turbines will negatively impact hundreds of people on the lakes

and nearby country roads, the same well-documented noise problems that

have been experienced at Mars Hill, Freedom, and Vinalhaven.

I am not a NIMBY.  I don’t believe these industrial machines belong

anywhere in the rural landscape.  Not in anyone’s yard—back yard, front

yard, side yard.  The noise issue is just one of many.  If you could see

the destruction of Rollins Mt. taking place right now, you would never

consider this a “green” project.  The DEP would fine me if I moved a rock

at my home, yet they approved ridges being blasted away and scalped.  They

will never be the same.  The Rollins project will blast away more than

seven miles of ridges and clear-cut more than one thousand acres and

install twenty miles of powerlines to tie into the grid.

That is for just one project.  Without thinking through the ramifications,

in 2008 the Legislature passed LD 2283, a horrible law to give favoritism

to wind power.  They chose an arbitrary figure of 2700 MW of installed

capacity by 2020, which at a generous actual output of 25%, ends up being

just 675 MW of intermittent, unpredictable, unreliable power.  If Rollins

is 60 MW, then it will mean 45 more projects like this to achieve that

goal.  Do the math.  Based on the impact of Rollins, that means at least

315 miles of Maine ridges and mountains blasted away to install 1800

turbines; 45,000 acres or more of carbon sequestrating forest permanently

clear-cut; and 1,000 miles or more of new powerlines.  The price?

Rollins’ price tag of $130 million times 45 is a staggering $5.85

billion.

Why did I get arrested?  To help bring forth what a folly this is and how

damaging it is to Maine’s environment.  Wind power is bad economics and

bad public policy.  It is far from “green.”  The negative impacts of these

projects on the environment and our quality of place far outweigh the

pittance of good they might do for the planet.

Earth First!ers being arrested at kibby mountain action

A conversation with Logan Perkins of Maine Earth First!

The Irregular recently composed a number of questions for Maine Earth First! based largely on questions and concerns voiced by a number of locals either in person or via our Facebook page. The answers were provided by Logan Perkins who has been active with Maine Earth First! since 1999 and has worked on a number of environmental issues around the state. She was one of the organizers for the Round River Rendezvous held in Coplin earlier this month and currently lives in the greater Bangor area. Question: None of the protesters arrested were from Maine (which a number of locals are at pains to point out, asking why Mainers weren’t on the front lines risking jail time if the cause is so dire). Why weren’t they? Is there a strategic reason, if so what is it? Answer: Okay… Six Maine residents were arrested last fall protesting the LURC decision to approve Plum Creek’s massive development project in the Moosehead Lake region. This is only one example of the way that many Maine Earth First!ers have demonstrated in the past that they are willing to get arrested and/or take a powerful stand on local issues.

Getting arrested for civil disobedience is a complex and time consuming process, which requires a substantial commitment and willingness to follow through. Part of the action is resisting those charges and being willing to go to trial to continue to advance the public debate on whatever issue is at hand.

That said, there were many Mainers who were willing and ready to get arrested at the Kibby protest, but it just did not work out that way. However, there will be a substantial commitment of time, energy and organizing by local Earth First!ers invested in supporting the arrestees and following through on their cases.

We recognize that it would have been better in terms of public perception if a couple of locals were arrested, and damned if we did not try, but believe it or not we can not actually control what law enforcement does in those situations.

How do Earth First! members (or the organization as a whole for that matter) justify their expenditure of Earth’s resources to come from out-of-state to get to this rendezvous? First, understand that in my experience, individual Earth First!ers are highly conscientious about their resource consumption. The vast majority of folks who traveled to the Western Mountains did so as efficiently as possible. I know that many people carpooled, hitchhiked and hopped freight trains to get here. Others drove or flew. In general most Earth First!ers are dedicated to living low impact, less consumptive lifestyles. I would say that most of the Earth First!ers I know who do fly to events like this don’t do so lightly or blindly, but instead make a conscious and difficult choice.

To choose to personally consume a massive quantity of the earth’s resources carries with it an immense responsibility to give back to the planet, perhaps by dedicating some of your life energy to fighting for the integrity of the planet and its natural systems.

I also think that we tend to place too much emphasis on individual consumer choices when we look at the kinds of changes that need to be made in order to transition to a more sustainable culture. Individual consumer airline travel makes up only a small fraction of the air traffic on the planet. Military, industrial and freight air traffic constitutes the lion’s share of air traffic and all its associated resource consumption. These are issues that need to be addressed at a systemic level, and can’t be reduced to individual consumer choices.

Unless Earth First! is urging all folks to return to a pre-industrial existence, how do they propose power be generated? In the face of all their protests, what are Earth First’s solutions or alternatives? Earth First! itself is a movement in defense of the earth. It is not a movement focused on solutions or alternatives. That said, in their individual lives, many Earth First!ers work on solutions and alternatives. I would say that generally, these solutions are about reducing individual consumption and developing appropriate technology alternatives.

In terms of power generation in particular, I can’t speak for the movement as a whole, but am happy to share my personal thoughts. First, I think we have a massive consumption problem. Everyday we consume three times the amount of energy that the earth receives from the sun daily. We have to cut back to at least one third of our current energy use. And that is only if we are willing to capture and use every single ray of sunlight that hits the earth everyday and every bit of sunlight derived energy, like moving wind and water.

Even if that were desirable it would be basically impossible. So actually we need to reduce our consumption to more like 1/10th of what it is right now.

Once we have done that, I am then willing to talk about how to best produce that power. I would advocate for locally produced and community controlled power production. I think it is central to Democracy that communities have the power to decide how much and what kind of energy they want to produce, and that they have to deal with the very real repercussions of those choices on the health of the local populations –human and ecological.

I think if we generated all of our power locally, you would see very few communities wiling to produce nuclear power, burn coal, or devastate mountain tops to produce electricity.

Many locals view the Earth First! position as all or nothing –completely uncompromising. Some feel that the group’s position is more aligned with nobody living in the north woods, unless they are living strictly off the land. Comment on this perception. In Maine, Earth First!ers have a long history of building alliances with workers and small businesses who are interested in standing up to the exploitative, resource extraction models of multinational corporations that own vast tracts of our state.

Logging is not the problem. Stripping the forests faster than they can regenerate in the name of stockholder dividends and corporate bottom lines is the problem. Maine workers suffer right along with the health of our ecological systems when large corporations from away seek to maximize their profits by extracting Maine’s natural resources as raw materials and shipping them out of state for processing.

All Mainers would benefit from locally controlled, sustainable use of our natural resources to produce value added products for Maine people. Maine Earth First! envisions a world where human communities live in balanced ecological communities. Wilderness is important, but so are thriving human communities living in balance with their environment.

From what we understand, there were no protests at the LURC meeting Wednesday (July 7). Why weren’t they there? Many people spent Wednesday cleaning up camp on the Powers’ land. There were many folks present at the LURC meeting that Maine Earth First considers allies. We try to target our protests to the most strategic moments and places. Wednesday’s LURC meeting was on our radar, but was not the appropriate time for a confrontational protest. I think LURC heard our message loud and clear on Tuesday.

The LURC commission indicated through a straw poll that it would not approve the additional turbines near Sisk. Will MEF continue to fight TransCanada’s expansion plans, other wind development, etc.? What will Maine Earth First! focus on next specifically? Yes, Maine Earth First! will continue to fight industrial wind development. We oppose industrial wind power projects cited in ecologically sensitive areas that are not directly displacing fossil energy production. Projects such as the Kibby and Sisk mountain plans do far more harm than good, and force local Maine communities to bear the burdens and ill effects of “green” energy development which is then sold to Massachusetts. These projects do nothing to reduce local energy costs, and by the time they offset the energy budget of their own industrial production processes, have negligible climate change carbon offset value.

Will there be a specific presence in the area in the future? Are people still in Coplin? There were rumors that some will stay the entire summer. Only Mainers will be around for the entire summer, and beyond!

Everyone is out of Coplin as of Friday, except of course Basil and Harriet Powers and anyone we converted while we were there. (We have) no specific plans or presence at this time.

Is there anyway to quantify the number of people associated with Earth First! either nationally or in Maine? No. Earth First! is a mindset, not a membership organization. The number of people is not important. The impact we have is what is important.

Do you feel that those who were arrested will make their court hearing dates? There are lawyers who have volunteered to represent all those arrested. The arrestees will work with local Earth First!ers and attorneys on how to best proceed regarding the charges.

Is there anything else you’d like to add? No Big Wind! No Compromise!

For Immediate Release
July 6, 2010
Contacts: Emily Posner (207) 930-5232
Logan Perkins (971)-322-6509

Stratton, Maine- At about 8 a.m., Tuesday July 6, at least fifty Earth First! activists blockaded Goldbrook Rd, the access point to the Kibby Mountain wind project  outside the town of Stratton, halting the construction of 22 industrial wind turbines on  the delicate Alpine ecosystems of Maine’s western boundary mountains. The action comes just before the Land Use Regulation Commission’s (LURC) meeting July 7 to consider a proposal for a similar project on neighboring Sisk Mountain, and on the heels of the national Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, hosted this year by Maine Earth First!

TransCanada, the transnational corporation responsible for the devastating practice of tar sands oil extraction in Alberta, Canada, has already built 24 mammoth turbines on Kibby Mountain, and has begun construction of an additional 22 turbines, a process that includes significant road building and wide transmission line corridors.  These projects are part of a trend that shifts from forest management to development in Maine, which threatens to permanently change the face of Maine’s North Woods, the largest undeveloped wilderness east of the Mississippi river. Both Sisk and Kibby Mountain projects will reap huge benefits for TransCanada and the landowner Plum Creek.

“In the face of the Gulf Oil Disaster, and massively destructive coal mining, we recognize the value of developing alternative energy systems,” said Meg Gilmartin of Maine Earth First! “But these projects are a perfect example of how corporations and investors are taking advantage of the climate and energy crises to make profits while  avoiding accountability. We don’t view projects on this industrial scale as being the  solution to our problems.”

“If we really want to look at how the North Woods can mitigate climate change, we should restore our forest and protect sensitive ecosystems, like those on Sisk  and Kibby Mountain,” said Ryan Clark of Maine Earth First! “These unique high  altitude areas are breeding grounds for the endangered Bicknell Thrush, nesting sites for  the federally protected Golden Eagle and critical habitat for endangered Canadian  Lynx.” The project is also being protested for moving forward without public hearings.

Maine Earth First! is the local component of the national environmental group
Earth First!, a network of activists that focuses on grassroots organizing and direct
actions in defense of the earth’s natural systems, and maintains a no-compromise stance.

By Beth Quimby bquimby@mainetoday.com | Staff Writer | original article HERE

John Patriquin /Staff Photographer;Thursday, 07/01/10. Kit Pearson from Fort Collins, Colorado practices tree climbing as Earth First holds its North Woods Round River Rendezvous on private land in Stratton, Me.

COPLIN PLANTATION – An hour before lunchtime, the bustle begins at the kitchen tent set up in a field along the south branch of the Dead River.

Head chef Jessie Dowling of Thorndike issues orders while a team of workers chops and shreds mounds of ingredients for the macaroni and cheese and zucchini cakes on the day’s menu. It is a labor-intensive task to feed the 100 or so people who have already pitched their tents in these fields nestled between the Bigelow and Boundary mountain ranges in western Maine.

By the time all the campers trickle in this weekend, the kitchen is expected to be turning out meals for more than 350 people three times a day.

“I love to do this,” Dowling said.

She was among the early arrivals at the 2010 Round River Rendezvous, an annual week-long international summer gathering of the Earth First! environmental group. The location was carefully picked, not just for its scenic beauty.

Nearby are many of the projects Earth First! opposes: TransCanada’s wind project on Kibby Mountain, Nestle Waters North America’s two-year-old Poland Springs bottling operation in Kingfield, the logging operations of Plum Creek Timber Co., developer of the controversial proposed Moosehead Lake region resort and housing.

Dowling, a cheese maker and aspiring grass-roots caterer who slaughtered a few of her goats to roast during the weeklong conference, has special credentials. She is one of the so-called Plum Creek Six, who were arrested at the Maine Land Use Regulatory Commission meeting in September shortly before the commission approved the Plum Creek development. Many of the six are in charge of organizing this year’s Earth First! convention.

Earth First! is a loosely organized group of environmental activists founded in the 1970s. They are known for their use of civil disobedience, such as roadblocks and tree sit-ins to stop logging and other land development. In Maine, Earth First! gained attention for its opposition to clear cutting forestry practices in the 1990s under the leadership of Jonathan Carter, who organized tree spiking events.

A metal rod would be driven into a tree, which can cause injuries to anyone cutting it down, just one of the group’s techniques that has won its adherents the label of eco-terrorists. But Earth Firsters claim their tactics don’t hurt anyone.

“The question I always posed was ‘Who is the real eco-terrorist, the people destroying our forests, the industrial wind folks who are ruining our mountaintops?’ It is not these folks who are trying to stand up and protect the environment,” said Carter, who is no longer associated with Earth First!

Philip Nyhus, assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College in Waterville, said Earth First! is at one end of the spectrum as far as its political beliefs. At the other end, he said, are the mainstream environmental organizations, such as the Nature Conservancy, which have major donors, land-conservation campaigns and offices and staff around the country.

In the middle are groups such as Greenpeace, the international activist group which finances a fleet of ships to intercept whale hunts.

Earth First!, said Nyhus, takes a more eco-centric approach.

“Their logo is ‘No compromises in defense of Mother Earth,’ and they see the existing political system as the source of the problem,” Nyhus said.

The Earth First! movement has undergone changes over time, with some more radical elements breaking away. Although it remains out of the mainstream, its members have begun to try to soften its radical image. This year, invitations were issued to the media to attend the gathering.

But the invitations came with major restrictions. Reporters and photographers were barred from some of the meetings. They were accompanied at all times by a conference organizer.

Meg Gilmartin of Corinth said this was to protect those who didn’t want any media exposure and to present a consistent message to the world.

Despite the media restrictions, members didn’t appear to hide their political leanings.

A sign outside a restroom identified it as the “Severin Beliveau Loo,” named after Plum Creek’s Maine attorney. Trees were decorated with banners proclaiming “Life Over Profit” and similar slogans. An area for tree-climbing lessons — practice for future tree sit-ins — was prominently displayed.

News that hundreds of Earth Firsters were heading to the region rattled some residents of nearby Stratton and Rangeley, according to local media accounts. Harriet Powers complained to the Lewiston Sun Journal that some of her neighbors were calling her a terrorist for allowing the gathering on the fields owned by her and her husband, Basil.

Which may explain why Earth First! appeared vigilant about security.

Those entering the encampment had to pass through a registration area staffed around the clock by a half dozen volunteers.

On Thursday, only the occasional gawker slowly drove by to watch participants enter the gates, mostly people in their 20s and 30s, many of them calling themselves homesteaders, from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida and New York.

Inside, the day begins with an hour-long morning circle, followed by recreational and educational workshops on both practical and theoretical topics, such as “Saving the Earth without Losing Your Mind,” “Knowing your Rights,” “Tribal Issues” and the “North Woods National Park.”

At a workshop on dental hygiene, members were invited to introduce themselves by first name and preferred pronoun — he or she — before a hike to a nearby riverbank to identify horse tails, a source of silica good for building strong teeth.

At night, attendees may retire to their tents or gather around one of two campfires, the quiet fire or the rowdy fire, or take part in the evening’s contra dance or poetry reading.

While everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, participants say they have a serious agenda.

“I am here because I feel our culture as a whole has moved in a direction that is not sustainable,” said Ryan Clarke of Corinth.

Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:

bquimby@pressherald.com

While volunteer Earth First! activists Erik Wackernagel, left, of Burlington, Vt., Joe Stevens of New York City, and Kaitlyn Leigh of Rochester, N. Y., man the welcome station on Wednesday at the Maine Earth First!'s Round River Rendezvous on Basil and Harriet Powers' land in Coplin Plantation, Ryan Clarke of Corinth (standing at center) and Will Neil of Appleton joke around as Liam Burnell of Union watches. The gathering, which is expected to attract a few hundred activists from around the nation and world, is being held from now through Tuesday, July 6, to connect with local activists, jumpstart discussions around wilderness movement-building, re-wilding damaged lands, and effective strategies for eco-defense, according to its newsletter.

By Terry Karkos, Staff Writer Sun Journal (original article HERE)

COPLIN PLANTATION — Tensions are high in northern Franklin County as hundreds of members of Earth First! assemble this week for an encampment on Basil and Harriet Powers land on the banks of Dead River.

They’ve already been branded “terrorists” by many locals in Stratton, Harriet Powers said Wednesday. Some even called her a terrorist for inviting them.

“My God, they’ve been stirred up in town for two weeks, mad because we didn’t ask everybody and tell them we were going to have them on our property,” she said.

“We had people spinning up and down the road, and one kid last Sunday yelling at me in the garden, ‘Terrorist!’ I could have called the cops on him, but I didn’t. That’s what they’ve called these people. Everybody in town says they’re terrorists.”

Henry Harris of Brooklyn, N.Y., brought his 6-year-old up to camp for the weekend.

“I like it because both of us get to be around people with an attitude that wild places are more important than quarterly profits for the shareholders,” Harris said. “I’m not a radical. … I’m just working class like the rest of these guys.”

“I’m here because I want to live in a culture where people are less dependent on heavy industry and where people are more concerned about the integrity of the land we live off of than for the profit of shareholders and CEOs,” Liam Burnell of Union said.

Harriet Powers blames police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for riling people up about Earth First!.

“It looks to me like the sheriffs and the cops want to start something, and I guess that the FBI is the one that we found out started everything in town, telling everybody they were terrorists and everything,” she said.

She said she’s noticed a greater police presence along Route 16.

Ryan Clarke of Corinth and Maine Earth First! said state police stopped by their welcome station just off the Kennebago Road bridge over the South Branch of the Dead River on Tuesday “out of curiosity.”

Maine State Police Lt. Don Pomelow in Skowhegan acknowledged Wednesday they are aware of the Earth First! gathering. He said he added a couple of troopers to patrol the Stratton/Coplin Plantation area due to “an increase in traffic and concerns from the town.”

Clarke wasn’t fazed by it or even rumors that the FBI had agents in the woods checking them out at one point.

He was, however, concerned about debunking rumors about the group and assuring locals they’re not in town to cause trouble.

“We want to get our message out and to demystify us,” Clarke said. “We’re really just a bunch of normal folks who care about the future of our planet.

“Earth First! is an international movement dedicated to defending our last wild places and also fighting corporate resource extraction where we feel it’s being done irresponsibly.

“We advocate for a diversity of tactics. If it’s not enough for us to lobby and go through the regulatory route, we will do nonviolent civil disobedience. That means putting our bodies in the way of the destruction,” he said.

Four of them — Clarke included — did that last fall, protesting the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission’s approval of Plum Creek’s development plan in Bangor. Criminal charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass against all but one protester were dismissed on April 30, which Clarke sees as a success.

During the weeklong Round River Rendezvous, Earth First members plan to network with other community and national activists to share ideas. They may take a trip to Trans Canada’s wind farm on Kibby Mountain to show participants what it looks like, Clarke said.

“There’s no better teaching tool than having it right in front of you,” Logan Perkins of Earth First! said of the rendezvous, which she likened to a large outdoor conference.

On Saturday, the group will hold a rally on-stage in a big field beside an in-ground campfire ring.

“It’s a place for us to inspire each other through words, music and poetry,” Clarke said.

He said the site was chosen to show people what Maine’s North Woods look like and what current industrial logging practices are doing to it.

They oppose commercial water extraction and biomass waste burning, but that doesn’t mean they’re not welcome on the Powers’ land.

“We see no reason for them not to be here,” Harriet Powers said. “We protested the damn wind mills here … so, we’re protesters, too.

“These people aren’t going out into the woods to start something. They’re just in camp to have a good time and share their ideas. We’re happy to have them here.”

By Terry Karkos, Staff Writer Sun Journal (original article HERE)