Tag Archives: pennsylvania

Urgent Call to Action – Support the Treesitter blocking Tennessee Gas Pipeline

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Reposted from hudsonvalleyearthfirst

Tree clearing has already begun for the Tennessee gas pipeline in Milford, PA where a base of local support has already been organizing. We’re asking folks to come throw down! – Let us know of your availability, the sooner the better.

If you can come down to help out on the ground or make a donation of anything on the list, it’d be greatly appreciated…we are especially in need of folks with medic or direct action experience, but these skills are not necessary to help out.
Below is a list of supplies that we might need:

  • Warm clothes (wool stuff, socks, gloves, hats, scarves)
  • Food
  • Legal Funds (click here to donate)
  • Climbing Gear (new prussiks, ropes, carabeeners, harnesses)
  • Outdoor store(s) gift cards (gander Mtn, cabellos, eastern mountain sports, etc
  • Rain Gear
  • tarps
  • Camping GearU-Locks, Bike Locks, handcuffs
  • Cement
  • PVC Pipe
  • Chicken Wire
  • 55 gallon drums metal or plastic
  • Water Filtration
  • A Truck or other vehicles for donation (junk cars ok)
  • very long aluminum poles or logs
  • banner materials (sheer or parachute material)
  • truck rope
  • small bed frames
  • Yurtsrocket stoves

For more info visit: http://www.notennesseepipeline.blogspot.com

or contact us at: notennesseepipeline@gmail.com or 845-542-7541

PDATE 2:13 pm: Ground supporters are released from detention by Police officers.

UPDATE 12:24 pm: Ground Support for Gifford have cooperated with police to leave the park and are being detained by two officers who had placed them in their vehicle handcuffed, but indicated that they are not under arrest. Gifford remains in the tree and is strongly committed to staying and protecting the area from fracking and the Pipeline.

UPDATE 9:24 am: An independent contractor,Mike with TGP’s Michle has informed protesters that law enforcement has been called but no felling would take place unless “it’s safe.”

UPDATE 8:15 am: Protesters contacted by surveyors,

Milford, PA, February 19 2012 – Neighboring Orange County, NY resident Gifford Pinchot, has erected a tree stand to prevent the designated clear cutting required to for construction of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) Upgrade between Foster Hill and Cummings Hill roads.

The Northeast Upgrade would transport additional Marcellus Shale gas west to east  from hydraulically fractured wells along Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier. Hydrofracking, or fracking, has become a controversial method of extracting natural gas due to its reputation for contaminating local waterways, dangerously disposing of ‘frack’ waste, and other social, economic, and environmental concerns.

Pinchot said, “I’m concerned that the TGP ‘s project  is set to go through six sensitive wetlands on its way to Cummins Hill, clearing through mature forest and important ecological habitat, including endangered species.” Cummins Hill is a cultural icon for Milford, being home to at least one bald eagle’s nest as well as being an economic resource for ecotourism. Pinchot added his frustration with the statement, “These gas executives just want to extract from our communities- take what they can and leave us to deal with ecological devastation.”

Simultaneously a large banner reading, “No Pipeline!” in bold black and red lettering was dropped in solidarity, over the interstate 84 overpass on Cummins Hill Rd to display support for the blockades that have been ongoing since Monday. A  lock down on Monday and Tuesday to a Delaware State Forest gate that blocked access to the slated clear-cut is now in it’s third day with Alex Lotorto and Cornelia Pinochot. Trained Emergency Medical Technicians are on site for both actions.

These actions are part of a campaign opposing the Tennessee Pipeline in the Delaware River Basin. The direct action campaign is taking place after nearly two years of local political leaders and grassroots opposition in the courts, public comment, and protest.

This week will culminate with family friendly events, including a vigil on Friday at 5PM at the traffic light in Milford (intersection of Broad and Harford, also Rte 6  and Rte 209, where the Yale School of Forestry was founded and a sidewalk march Saturday afternoon  from the Milford traffic light  across the Milford Bridge, over the Delaware River, to Montague NJ. All are welcome to attend.

At 1pm-3pm Deleware River Keeper is hosting a public meet-up at the Water Wheel Cafe in Milford to help residents watchdog TGP Pipeline tree-clearing activities.

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Contact:

Alex Lotorto, Pike County, PA Resident 570-269-9589 / alotorto@gmail.com

Fracking site bows to Earth First! Convergence

Reposted from WagingNonviolence:

by | July 11, 2012

Following their annual week-long Round River Rendezvous, occurring this year in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest, Earth First! activists from across the United States successfully shut down a hydraulic fracturing site in the nearby Moshannon State Forest. The action on Sunday, July 8, marked the first time protesters have managed to shut down a hydrofracking site in the U.S. The blockade is part of an escalating direct action campaign in Pennsylvania, led by groups like Marcellus Earth First! and Occupy Well Street, who are targeting the so-called “fracking” industry. The campaign most recently included the 12-day blockade from June 1 to June 13 of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park in Jersey Shore, Pa., by residents and activists.

Roughly 100 people disrupted work on the fracking site by blocking the only access road to the location with tree-sitters, who stopped all traffic on the road by stringing anchor ropes across the length of it; any vehicle coming through the anchor lines would have put the lives of the tree-sitters at risk. They were defended on the north and south by piles of logs and debris, forming barricades that stretched for a mile and a half. About an hour into the blockade, workers on the site were approached by 20 or so activists, who informed them that the site was closed to vehicular traffic indefinitely. They offered to safely escort workers across the barricades on foot, or on rented ATVs, and assured them that their target was the fracking industry, not the workers. After confirming that the site and its 70-foot tall drill rig were indeed shut down for the day, the Earth First!ers headed back to the road to reinforce their blockades. Continue reading

Video

Riverdale Evicted for Fracking Water Withdrawals

Volunteers Evicted from Riverdale

At noon today a Huffmaster crisis response security team, hired by Aqua America, arrived at Riverdale Mobile Home Park to clear the way for Aqua America’s planned construction. The private security team began to dismantle the barricades at the entrances of the park and to erect a security fence across the entire front of the park. Volunteers attempted to block these efforts by reconstructing barricades and standing in the way of the fence, but the Pennsylvania State Police arrived shortly thereafter. After 12 days inside the park, volunteers and supporters were given 20 minutes to gather their belongings and vacate the park, and warned that any who remained would be arrested for trespassing. A group of volunteers, hoping to slow this incursion into Riverdale, decided to not comply with the police. The volunteers held one of the entrances with their bodies, and a banner reading “This is a Beautiful Place, People Live Here.” As 40 state police moved in with handcuffs, several of the remaining residents stepped in, asking the volunteers to stand down, and move out of the park. The volunteers complied, and gathered in the public right of way to stand witness as construction equipment began to move into the park.

Aqua America buys land of mobile home park and evicts everyone

Join The Riverdale Free State & Stop Fracking Water Withdrawals

Consider yourself invited to join the eviction resistance at a Pennsylvania fracking site.

A week into the resident-led occupation of a mobile home park in Jersey Shore, PA, the following message has been circulated by the fine folks with Occupy Well Street. Basically, it’s on…

Save Riverdale: Urgent Call for Support

“I was here to protect my home.  Within a week I realized why the hell would I protect a house with water I can’t drink.  It’s still about the house, but it’s more about this land and that water. As long as you’re willing to stand, stay here, and bring more: this isn’t over yet” –Riverdale Resident

For 7 days, Riverdale Mobile Home Community and our group of volunteers have impeded the construction of a water withdrawal site on the Susquehanna River, in Jersey Shore, PA. In the process, our concept of community has developed, as this community on the frontline and its supporters have come together to creatively meet their needs. This place means more to all of us than we could have possibly imagined. It is a truly rare opportunity to fight for community and environmental rights. Continue reading

Update on the summer Rondy!

2012 EF! Round River Rendezvous location, almost

After a grueling search for the ultimate EF! Round River Rendezvous (RRR) site that took us to the ends of the universe, we believe we have found it! Less than 70 miles north of Edward Abbey’s childhood home on a little half million acre forest just down PA Rt. 666 (Allegheny National Forest). We will camp with excellent swimming holes and giant trees under one of the most star filled skies in the North East. The nearest major cities are Pittsburg, Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY. Continue reading

Occupy Well Street Blockades Fracking Rig in PA

On Saturday, May 19th, members of Occupy Well Street and friends blockaded a drill rig move from entering a frack site for 2 hours in rural Lycoming County, PA.  This drill rig blockade happened as part of the Day of Action Against Extraction.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading