Reclaiming the West for Wildlife: Banning Traps and Restoring Wolves

1PM Thursday June 19th @ Wild Roots Feral Futures (exact location TBA)

Bob Brister, an organizer with WildEarth Guardians, will share information and volunteer opportunities about two major campaigns he works on:

Trap Free New Mexico: a coalition of wildlife conservation and animal protection groups are working to pass legislation in New Mexico to ban the poisoning and trapping of animals on public lands. Learn how you can be part of ridding New Mexico of animal traps.

Colorado Wolf Campaign: WildEarth Guardians is organizing local wolf advocacy groups we call “Wolf Packs” to carry out pro-wolf educational and advocacy projects in their communities. Learn how you can be an “alpha wolf” and start a wolf pack in your area.
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For the 6th year running, the Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) eco-defense, direct action, and rewilding encampment will take place in the forests of Southwest Colorado this coming June 14-22, 2014. WRFF is an informal, completely free and non-commercial, and loosely organized camp-out operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely off of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies and sustained through 100% volunteer effort.

We would like to invite groups and individuals engaged in struggles against the destruction of the Earth (and indeed all interconnected forms of oppression) to join us and share your stories, lessons, skills, and whatever else you may have to offer. In this spirit we would like to reach out to frontline community members, local environmental groups, coalitions, and alliances everywhere to come collaborate on the future of radical environmentalism and eco-defense in our bio-regions and beyond.

If you are interested in facilitating a workshop, skill share, discussion, etc., or would like to otherwise get involved, contact us at feralfutures [at] riseup [dot] net

Big Mountain Spring Training Camp

From Black Mesa Indigenous Support:

BIG MOUNTAIN SPRING TRAINING CAMP
MAY 16th-23rd, 2014
BIG MOUNTAIN, DINEH NATION

#Honor40Years
#Not1MoreRELOCATION
#KeepitintheGround

“What we are trying to save—the Female Mountain—is alive. She is alive, she has blood flowing through her veins, which is the Navajo Aquifer, and the coal they are digging is Her liver. They are destroying Her.” –Marie Gladue, Big Mountain Relocation Resister

“We need to exercise our right to be human. To gather on the land and have our words be heard by the ground, the trees, and each other.” –Louise Benally, Big Mountain Relocation Resister

During this moment of peak visibility around climate change, we extend this invitation for a training camp on Big Mountain. We’ll gather to honor 40 years of Indigenous resistance to cultural genocide, forced relocation, and large-scale coal mining.

*Application link at bottom of email*

The Elders Circle of the 40-Year Sovereign Dineh Nation Resistance, with Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS)–a collective working in solidarity with the Big Mountain and surrounding resistance communities–as well as Radical Action for Mountain Peoples Survival (RAMPS),  Missourians Organizing for Reform/Revolution & Empowerment (MORE), and Save the Confluence are collaboratively organizing this camp.

Background on the Training Camp

Building on alliances made during last June’s gathering on decolonization, the collaborative planning process for this gathering has been a combination of conference calls and in-person meetings. Since September, there have been five community meetings on Black Mesa with elders, second generation resisters, and collective members from BMIS. Additionally, monthly meetings are held in Flagstaff with youth and local organizations. Through these meetings, community members have guided the tone, outreach, messaging, goals, and ceremonies necessary for the preparation of this camp. When asked what kind of action elders wanted to see, they shared examples of the different forms of action they have taken while defending their right to remain on their ancestral homeland. They expressed looking forward to sharing their stories as to inspire next generations.

Camp organizers are connecting with trainers and workshop presenters from organizations such as Multicultral Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE), Save the Confluence, Palestinian Youth Movement, RAMPS, MORE, No One is Illegal (Canada), Puente Human Rights Movement, Sixth World Solutions, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Anti-Uranium Groups, and the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission. The camp offers a variety of  non-violent direct action (NVDA) skills and workshops grounded in legacies of land-based resistance. Spiritual, cultural, artistic practices and healing will be foregrounded.

The workshops and trainings will include:

• Introduction and History of NVDA

• The History of the Struggle and Land Dispute on Black Mesa

• Cultural Work as Resistance to Colonialism

• Frontline Movement Updates

• Cultural Sharing and Storytelling

• NVDA techniques

• Decolonial visioning

• Art and prop making

• People’s Media and Communication (including messaging, social media, and live-streaming)

• Know Your Rights and legal training

• …and many more

“During this gathering, we want to re-create harmony between Indigenous peoples who have been harmed by relocation policies. We want to re-spark the cross-movement connections made at last June’s Gathering by taking action at the site of disruption–the coal mine itself.” – Danny Blackgoat, community organizer and son of Resister Matriarch, Roberta Blackgoat.

Goals:

*To honor 40 years of resistance on Big Mountain and confront resource colonialism

*To build on strategic alliances between anti-extraction struggles in Appalachia and Black Mesa

*To strengthen connections between Indigenous communities on the front lines of land defense

*To build on cross-movement connections made at last June’s gathering for decolonization (on Black Mesa)

*To expand the solidarity network

*To center cultural and spiritual elements of resistance

Logistics:

The training camp is free, including all food, lodging and training. However, we are encouraging participants to fundraise and donate as they are able to help offset costs. BMIS has limited funds for travel stipends and we are prioritizing funding for Indigenous and frontline communities. There will be limited indoor space for sleeping; most participants will be camping.  The camp will be in a remote area with no running water, paved roads, or electricity.  More details are provided in the application (below).

Call for Sheepherders/ Human Rights Observers:

Resistance community members are requesting returning sheepherders/ human rights observers this spring. Because this camp is held on actively disputed land (see background), it will not be possible without human rights observation during and following the camp. Your involvement will make it possible for the resistance community to participate in the camp and will help mitigate further harassment.

Contact us if you are able to come a week early and help set up base camp!

Click Here to Apply

Contact: BigMountainCamp2014@gmail.com with application questions

In Honor of 40 Years,

The Elders Circle of the Sovereign Dineh Nation, The BMIS Collective, RAMPS, MORE, & Save the Confluence

Get the EF! Direct Action Manual into the Hands of Activists

Click here to donate to this project!

We are proud to announce the release of the new EF! Direct Action Manual. The DAM presents time tested tactics as well as a plethora of innovative tools for resistance.

We’ve doubled the size of the DAM to a 300 page bound book packed with new tactics and the most up to date techniques for direct action campaigns including:

Action Research
Scouting Communications
Electronic Security
Prisoner Support
Soft Blockades
Lockdown devices
Tripods, Bipods, and Monopods
Skypods
Cantilevers
Tree Sits and Platform Rigging
Traverses Basic Single Rope Climbing
Anchoring and Rope Physics
Hunt Sabotage
Home Demos
Rail Blockades
Action Camps
And More…

New activists, life long rabble rousers, and those fighting for a better world will find pages full of useful tools in what will be a must have book for any direct action campaign. Please check out our Indiegogo site for more info.

We’re nearly half way to our fundraising goal and need your support to make printing this project a success. There are only 10 days left, so check sign up to get your copy  today.

You can preorder your copy and get some extra thank you gifts for your early endorsement by donating today. More importantly, though, we have offered a chance for you to help us spread this knowledge. Every donation over $50 gives you the chance to send a free copy of the manual to a campaign of your choice. The more you give, the more manuals we can put in the mail.

The manual will be printed in the coming month with longtime Earth First! partner, The Gloo Factory. This community-minded, union print shop has supplied Earth First! and its affiliates with stickers and merchandise for decades and remains committed to using a high standard for recycled and reclaimed material, as well as supportive worker conditions.

The manual was first printed nearly two decades ago and has been out of print since its initial dissemination. Though many of the considerations for civil disobedience and intervention have remained tried and true, new elements have altered the ways we put these tactics into action. The Earth First! Direct Action Manual will continue the role of safe and effective actions in stopping the destruction of the planet.

Support this effort today!

Rad Herb 2014

March 7th-9th, 2014
Outside Tucson, Arizona

You are cordially invited to a gathering of herbalists and plant enthusiasts of an anti-oppressive or otherwise community-minded persuasion.

As the number of radical herbalists grows we see Rad Herb as a space to explore together how our work with plants & healing fit into our political work and how these can intersect and support the work we are doing to build the world in which we want to live.

This gathering will provide an opportunity for radical and community minded herbalists to meet each other and share skills, resources, knowledge and experiences. To share time and space, food and medicine, our ideas and our selves, and to talk about how and why we are doing this work. To explore how we could do it better and hear about what others are doing. To build networks of support and inspiration for each other.

As we come together to build and learn, we also recognize a simultaneous ‘unlearning’ process we participate in by calling ourselves radicals. This can take on different forms where certain people “get” some specific language, terms or social signifiers that are indicators of knowledge ( cultural capital ) in radical, herbal and other niche circles. it happens.

Rad Herb welcomes folks from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences in their work with both plants and radical politics, and in that vein, we ultimately want to hold one another accountable at this gathering by committing to co-creating a safer space for all of us to share, learn, network and to interrelate across differences in ways that build our connectivity and community. That doesn’t mean that we avoid conflicts or pave over differences in an attempt to keep it safe, but rather that we are committed to knowing ourselves, our boundaries, our needs and that we all make mistakes. We can recognize that by participating in this gathering, we are attempting to co-create a container and safer space to share, learn, ask and be vulnerable, to build our radical rhizomatous networks and seek to better understand ourselves, our histories, communities and connections to the land and to the plants.

We begin by recognizing that we as organizers come from a colonial settler history in the continued occupation of native and indigenous lands by the US government and with this in mind, all are invited to come together to be accountable to our histories, unearned privileges, relations to power, people and land.

With these recognitions as a foundation, all peoples are welcome as we recognize where we are coming from in order to dream together where we are going.

Read more at http://radherbsw.wordpress.com/

Rad Herb South West

View original post

Black Mesa – Film Trailer

 

Read more about this film work in progress, and the work of Bahe Katenay of Big Mountain and the filmmakers at blackmesafilm.com

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

This is what education should become in the future, sharing the voices of Dine’ grassroots people who know the real story of Black Mesa, and the real history of Peabody Coal, corrupt politicians, the dirty coal industry, and how it resulted in Navajo relocation.

This is also what the media should become, uncensored and reporting the voices of truth.

Bahe Katenay was one of those censored by Indian Country Today, before I was terminated as a staff reporter. In that interview, Bahe spoke about the oil and gas drilling in Dinetah, the sacred place of origin, and the role of the “puppet” Navajo Nation Council, which signs energy leases, is coopted by the US government and threatens future generations of Navajos with water rights loss, pollution from dirty coal power plants, and destruction of the earth.

In the interview censored by Indian Country Today concerning those oil and gas leases, Bahe Katenay said, “I am also saddened when I think that, because these lands were given away for profit, the rest of our sacred lands everywhere are being desecrated, today: Mount Taylor, San Francisco Mountains, and Big Mountain.”

Click here to read more…

Support the 2013 Fall Caravan in Solidarity with Indigenous Resistance Communities of Black Mesa

Click here to donate!

All funds will go directly to purchasing supplies, tools, food, and building materials for Dineh (Navajo) elders and families at Big Mountain who are in their fourth decade of resisting forced relocation and coal strip mining on their ancestral lands.

To be clear, these donated funds will *not* be used to cover transportation/food/etc costs for the supporters/organizers (us) who will be heading out to the land to volunteer our labor. We will each be paying our own costs out of pocket in order to be self-sufficient on the land.

This fundraiser is hosted by Santa Cruz Indigenous Solidarity, in partnership with Black Mesa Indigenous Support. If you have any questions, please email sheepandsagebrush [at] gmail.com – Your donations are so greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Click here to donate!

VICTORY! Colorado mink farm raided, forced to close

Owner announces the farm will close after every animal is released at a small Colorado mink farm.

By Peter Young, Animal Liberation Frontline

“I won’t be doing the mink anymore. I can’t afford to… get back into it. I’m really tired of fighting.” – mink farm owner Doyle Checketts

In a communique received by Bite Back, the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for releasing 200 mink Thursday night from the only known fur farm in Colorado. The owner of the farm immediately announced the farm would shut down.

“We’re done. I’m too old to start again.” – farm owner Doyle Checketts

Existence of farm first made public just 3 days ago

The raid comes just 72 hours after the existence of the farm was first made public in an article headlined “Moffat County mink farm relocation proposal causing a stink.” The article, published Tuesday, covered resistance to the farm’s attempt to expand on a new property. Prior to the article, there were no known fur farms in the state.

While the article did not list the farm’s address, it did offer several clues to the farm’s location, including the name of it’s owner. This raid is a testimony to both the investigative ability and quick action of animal liberators, who located a farm within 72 hours with only a name, and then shut it down.

The communique revealed the exact address to be 622 Valley View Drive in rural Moffat County, 8 miles west of Craig, Colorado.

Address of future mink farm location also revealed

The ELF also determined the property where the farm had applied to relocate, and published it in their communique as:

35591 North Hwy 13
Craig CO

The owner of this property, James Gore, states he still intends to open a mink farm on this property, despite the closure of the farm that was attempting to relocate there.

With Animal Liberation Front (and Earth Liberation Front) so quick to raid newly discovered farms, and the ELF publicizing this address in their communique, the odds are very much against James Gore in opening this farm without intervention from animal liberators.

A quarter of the mink remain free

While figures directly from fur farmers are never to be trusted, the owners reported that 50 of the 200 mink remain free as of Friday.

Losses estimated at $250,000

The raid caused a massive amount of financial damages for a release of only 200 animals. While the value of their pelts was estimated at only $10,000, the farmer had a contract to sell the breeding stock to a Danish company for $250,000. Because the breeding stock have intermixed with non-breeding stock, and the farmer can no longer tell them apart, he is unable to sell them as breeding stock and is out a quarter of a million dollars.

Fur farm siege continues

This hugely successful raid comes after 9 previous fur farm raids in four months, the biggest surge of activity since the 1990s. The last animal release occurred in early October, when a lone activist took credit for releasing 450 mink from a farm in Minnesota. Additional liberations took place in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

The takeaway

With only a name in a newspaper article to work with, courageous individuals were able locate a mink farm in less than three days, and shut it down in one night.

The communique

“On the night of November 14th, the Earth Liberation Front visited the previously unknown Colorado mink farm of Monte Ages, located at 622 Valley View Drive in Moffat County. This is one of the smallest mink farms in operation, so opening nearly every cage took very little time. The mink understood our mission and quite literally flew to the ground to make a dash for freedom. To cause the deranged Mr. Ages more financial trouble, breeding cards were removed and strewn about, and thrown in the piles of mink waste.

Michael Whelan will offer the same tired lies in response to this action. He advises farmers to ‘sympathize with the poor, lost animals.’ The lost wild animals who are now able to move freely, who will no longer be subject to Michael and his friends preferred methods of execution in the pelting season just two weeks away.

The truth is that mink are not domesticated. They are captive bred, and only for the quality of their pelts. Mink are aquatic animals who are solitary in the wild and travel several miles per day. The surrounding area of Moffat County is pristine wildlife habitat. The ones who escaped this wildlife prison will now live out their lives along the Little Snake and Yampa Rivers.

Mr. Ages has plans to move and expand his operation to 35591 North Hwy 13 in the town of Craig. This will not be tolerated. Your dreams of despoiling Northwest Colorado, contaminating our drinking water, and exploiting native american wildlife will turn into a nightmare. There will be consequences when darkness falls.

We send a salute to those courageous few who continue to fight alongside the earth and animals, even as your work is overshadowed by the bloggers, video editors, and all manner of self-aggrandizing activists.”

Related posts:

1. The two most-raided fur farms in the U.S. close down
2. VICTORY: Activists Shut Down Oregon Mink Farm
3. Another Fur Farm Raided: 300 Mink Liberated in Oregon

ELF Claim Responsibility for Colorado Mink Farm Raid

Received anonymously / Bite Back

“On the night of November 14th, the Earth Liberation Front visited the previously unknown Colorado mink farm of Monte Ages, located at 622 Valley View Drive in Moffat County. This is one of the smallest mink farms in operation, so opening nearly every cage took very little time. The mink understood our mission and quite literally flew to the ground to make a dash for freedom. To cause the deranged Mr. Ages more financial trouble, breeding cards were removed and strewn about, and thrown in the piles of mink waste.

Michael Whelan will offer the same tired lies in response to this action. He advises farmers to ‘sympathize with the poor, lost animals.’ The lost wild animals who are now able to move freely, who will no longer be subject to Michael and his friends preferred methods of execution in the pelting season just two weeks away.

The truth is that mink are not domesticated. They are captive bred, and only for the quality of their pelts. Mink are aquatic animals who are solitary in the wild and travel several miles per day. The surrounding area of Moffat County is pristine wildlife habitat. The ones who escaped this wildlife prison will now live out their lives along the Little Snake and Yampa Rivers.

Mr. Ages has plans to move and expand his operation to 35591 North Hwy 13 in the town of Craig. This will not be tolerated. Your dreams of despoiling Northwest Colorado, contaminating our drinking water, and exploiting native american wildlife will turn into a nightmare. There will be consequences when darkness falls.

We send a salute to those courageous few who continue to fight alongside the earth and animals, even as your work is overshadowed by the bloggers, video editors, and all manner of self-aggrandizing activists.”

7/22 STOP SUNCOR FROM BUILDING A PIPELINE THROUGH OUR BACKYARDS

JOIN US AT THE ADAMS COUNTY COMMISSIONER PUBLIC HEARING TO SAY NO TO SUNCOR PUTTING OUR HEALTH & HOMES AT RISK!

MONDAY, JULY 22, 6:30PM 4430 South Adams County Parkway, Brighton 80601
or email your comments to CLaRue@adcogov.org

On June 27th, at the Adams County Planning Commission public hearing, Suncor asked for a conditional use permit to allow construction of a 16-inch diameter crude oil pipeline through Adams County. This pipeline would carry oil and tar sands from Cheyenne WY to the refinery in Commerce City. The planning commissioners heard from many concerned community members and after much discussion they voted 5 to 1 against Suncor. This means that they are officially recommending to the County Commissioners that they deny Suncor’s request! The final decision however is up to the County Commissioners at their public hearing on Monday July 22nd. Please come and let your voice be heard during the public comments section of the hearing, urging them to consider the overwhelming recommendation from the planning board to DENY this hazardous project! To listen to the audio of the 6/27 hearing click here and scroll down to Planning Commission 6/27/13 Audio, the Suncor case starts at 1:45:30.

Suncor held two ‘community meetings’ in December 2012 where there were 5 and 14 people in attendance. Many people who spoke during the public comments cited that they had not received any notification of these meetings, even though their homes are directly in the proposed route.

We are not counting on Suncor to inform us about the impact on our community, or to care about the health, safety or well-being of the people along their proposed route and surrounding areas. They have a distinct track record of devastating pipeline spills and dumping chemicals in Canada and the US. They like to say that their top priority is safety, but they are responsible to their shareholders and committed to making a profit above all else. They have not shown themselves to be accountable to the people of Adams County or anyone else downstream. When asked why they did not choose a route through a less populated area, Suncor’s response was “cost”.

And why are they proposing building a new pipeline when their last ecological disaster is still causing benzene levels in the South Platte River to be 33 parts per billion, which is over 6 times the minimum acceptable levels? Why is Suncor so ready to exercise their right to eminent domain in residential areas just so they can save costs? If you or any of your community members are facing condemnation of your home, or have any questions or concerns about the environmental dangers of this pipeline, please come and have your voice heard!

Colorado Extraction Resistance is committed to fighting poisonous energy industry processes such as hydraulic fracturing & tar sands extraction.

Website: http://ColoradoER.tk
Twitter: @ColoradoER
Like us on Facebook
SMS: text “@DenverDOS” to 23559 to receive notifications on upcoming direct actions. Text “@NoFrackCO” to receive fracking specific updates. Or sign up online at http://Cel.ly

7/11 JOIN US! STOP THE FRONT RANGE NATURAL GAS PIPELINE

THIS THURSDAY the Adam’s County Planning Commission is meeting to decide if it is in their interest to allow a Natural Gas Liquids Pipeline to transport natural gas from Greeley, CO to Houston, TX, the largest natural gas liquids market in the United States.

This is EXTREMELY ALARMING. When natural gas pipelines fail, they explode!

Tell Adam’s County not to allow this hazardous project!

THIS THURSDAY July 11th

6PM Planning Commission Public Hearing

4430 South Adams County Parkway, Brighton 80601

Please email comments (in addition to attending if possible!) to mweaver@adcogov.org and urge the Adam’s County Planning Commissioners not to endorse this environmentally devastating project!

This pipeline is being developed by Enterprise Products Partners, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and DCP Midstream. Their plan is to craft a 16 inch diameter pipeline to travel from north-east Colorado to Skellytown, TX where it will cross the Mid-American Pipeline (operated by Enterprise). At this point it will turn into the “Texas Express Pipeline” and end at Enterprise’s natural gas liquids fractionation and storage complex.

In total, this will be a pipeline of a THOUSAND miles in length. The pipeline has a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day (“BPD”), which could be readily expanded to approximately 230,000 BPD. The Front Range Pipeline could begin service in late fall 2013.

How many more explosions and spills will it take?  Join us to make sure their plans are nothing but a pipe dream.  Let them know Colorado says NO!

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A PDF of the application is available on the Adam’s County website.

Environmental Analysis of the project

The pipeline’s website

Map of the proposed pipeline route from Greely, CO to Houston, TX