Above photo: Appalachians Against Pipelines Facebook Page.
UPDATE: The Roanoke Times reports that “At a brief hearing Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Ballou released Snell-Feikema on a personal recognizance bond pending an April 16 hearing. The charge of blocking, restricting or interfering with a Forest Service road carries fine of up to $500 and a maximum jail sentence of six months.”
Monroe County Circuit Judge Robert Irons rejected a request for an injunction by the company finding there was not sufficient proof that the tree-sitters were in an area where logging by Mountain Valley was permitted. Judge Irons found the public’s interest was more closely aligned with the tree-sitters as they “represent the interest of the public and the environment, such as the interest in protecting the waters underlying Peters Mountain, its flora and fauna, its view shed, the Appalachian Trail and similar interests that will or may be destroyed, if this request for a preliminary injunction is granted.”
NOTE: Yesterday police told the sitter in the monopod that they would be coming down that day, one way or another. This morning the blockade still stands! MVP has sent a work crew up the road on foot, but is still unable to bring in machinery.
We are all waiting to hear news from the arraignment, scheduled at an unknown time today, of our friend who was arrested yesterday afternoon near the gate in front of the blockade. They were taken with no warning, as the cops forced away all supporters and began attempting to work out how to extract the monopod. It’s no surprise the lengths police will go to defend corporate profits from those who dare to oppose the pipeline’s destruction; these are inherently colonial, racist forces no matter how “nice” individual cops at times try to act.
The police have not yet returned to the monopod but it seems extremely likely they will do so. Please keep following this page for updates, share what is happening here, donate if you can, and most importantly keep planning how to resist your local infrastructure project or institution of state violence. – from Appalachians Against Pipelines Facebook Page
Peter’s Mountain — She didn’t want to state her name, the woman who was sitting near the top of a 50-foot pole planted in the middle of a gravel road.
She did state her purpose: “I hope to make it a lot harder for MVP to do any work on this road,” she said, speaking from inside a tarp that covered a wooden platform attached to the pole.
Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline erected their latest roadblock to the company’s plans to build a natural gas pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest on Wednesday. It was the 30th day that fellow protesters have been sitting in two trees along the pipeline’s proposed route across the top of Peters Mountain, several miles away, in an effort to stop tree-cutting.
Stepping up their non-violent movement, pipeline opponents are now stationed at the top of the mountain and at its base on Pocahontas Road in Giles County, where a group of about 20 people stood guard not far from where the woman was perched on the pole.
Later in the day, law enforcement officers arrived at the scene and ordered the crowd to disperse, according to a post to the Facebook page of Appalachians Against Pipelines, which has been chronicling the tree-sit protest over the past month.
Most of the protesters left. According to the post, one was arrested on federal charges and taken into custody, while the woman remained at the top of the pole.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, the lead agency that is responding to the tree-sit protest, could not confirm those details late Wednesday.
Brian McGinn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Roanoke, confirmed that one person has been arrested and said additional details will likely come out after a Thursday court hearing.
Pocahontas Road is a key artery in two ways: The Forest Service road is being used by Mountain Valley crews to reach the pipeline construction area, and it would likely be the route taken by law enforcement officials if they attempt to extract the tree-sitters.
Cutting off that artery is the goal of the tree-sitters’ latest offensive.
“The fire is catching; no pipelines,” read a banner strung from the pole, which was anchored in a hole that had been bored into the ground and supported by guy wires strung from nearby trees and a metal gate on Pocahontas Road.
The gate marks the spot where the road was closed March 10 to vehicular traffic by the Forest Service, which said it was acting on an emergency basis to protect the public from the hazards of pipeline construction.
Before the police arrived, some members of the crowd said they hoped to block the road to heavy equipment needed for pipeline construction.
“If we can slow them down until this is not worth their while financially, because that’s all they care about, I think we have a shot,” said Becky Crabtree, who lives on a farm in nearby Monroe County, West Virginia, that would be bisected by the 303-mile pipeline.
And if the project is delayed or stopped, Crabtree said, “the earth wins” — a reference to fears by many that building a 42-inch diameter pipeline through scenic mountain lands and across clear-running streams would cause widespread environmental damage.
Emily Satterwhite, an associate professor of Appalachian studies at Virginia Tech, joined the protesters gathered just outside the gate, on the part of Pocahontas Road that remains open to the public. The pole and its anonymous protester were on the other side of the gate, where traffic is barred except for Mountain Valley and law enforcement officials.
“I’ve watched my neighbors and friends fight the pipeline for three and a half years through every legal means possible,” she said. “And I’m here because it was my turn to step up and take some of the load and stand in solidarity with them.”
Satterwhite, who had left by the time law enforcement showed up, said she probably would have walked away if ordered to.
But many people who have tried and failed to stop the pipeline by participating in regulatory proceedings, court actions and other traditional forums see the direct action taken by the tree-sitters as their last remaining hope.
“The law has failed us,” Satterwhite said.
It was unclear late Wednesday if the protesters would return to Pocahontas Road.
As for the woman up the pole, she said she was staying put.
“Quite a while,” she said when asked how long she might last. “I’ve got a massive amount of snacks” and water that supporters on the ground were supplying in buckets hoisted by ropes to her platform.
Unlike the tree-sitters at the top of Peters Mountain, the pole-sitter and her supporters are in a part of the national forest that is easily reached by road, allowing a prompt response by law enforcement.
Since Feb. 26, protesters have occupied two trees on the West Virginia side of the mountain, where the pipeline could cross under the Appalachian Trail. A Forest Service spokeswoman has declined to comment in detail. Officials are monitoring the situation, she said last week, and are committed to “an expeditious but cautious resolution.”
A Monroe County judge granted a temporary restraining order against the tree-sitters, but it expired March 18 with no action taken by Mountain Valley or the Forest Service.
A later request for a preliminary injunction was denied, after Judge Robert Irons ruled that the company had failed to prove that the tree-sitters were blocking the pipeline’s path.
On Wednesday, not long after the pole was put up on Pocahontas Road, a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild — a progressive bar association that advocates for human rights demonstrators — arrived at the scene at the request of the protesters.
Alan Graf said his assessment found no legal grounds to remove the protesters who were standing on a public road.
“The First Amendment is alive and well,” he said. “They have a right to assemble and protest.”
Statement from pipeline fighter atop the monopod:
“Exploitation and extraction have gone on far too long. The actions of companies like Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) LLC threaten land and lives in pursuit of power and profit. Their continued destruction endangers ecosystems and human communities—from those poisoned by fracking, to those trapped amid increasing storms.
We struggle against this pipeline on stolen land. No appeals to so-called authorities, who uphold the state and capitalist systems attacking Appalachia and the planet, can stop this destruction. MVP has its permits and the police forces “protecting” these so-called public lands defend the pipeline construction.
I didn’t climb this monopod under the illusion that my actions alone would stop this pipeline. I climbed it because I believe that if many more people find ways to confront this destruction and disrupt MVP’s unjust operations, we can make those operations impossible.
As I remember the local support the tree sits have received, and all the people already standing up against the destruction of their land and water along the MVP and ACP routes, I know we can be a strong force for a world without these pipelines. The flames of resistance are catching and they will spread.”