MTR Strip Mine Next to Kanawha State Forest has been Permanently Shut Down

The KD#2 Closes Following Two Years of Citizen Action

from Kanawha Forest Coalition

Charleston, WV – The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has ordered a permanent stop to mining on the controversial KD#2 mountaintop removal strip mine adjacent to Kanawha State Forest following two years of action by the Kanawha Forest Coalition.

The KD#2 permit, approved by the DEP in May 2014 over strong community objections and warnings of likely impacts to water quality, allowed for strip mining and explosive blasting within 588 feet of Kanawha State Forest and 1500 feet of homes in Loudendale, just outside Charleston city limits.

The Consent Order, signed by DEP’s Director of Mining and Reclamation following a year of negotiations with the Coalition and the permit holder, Keystone Industries, states that “No additional mineral removal activities may occur on this permit. Activity is exclusively restricted to actions necessary to achieve phased release of the permit”. Approximately 100 acres of the original 413 acre permit area was mined, but active mining had been temporarily suspended since early 2015, leaving 3/4 of the permit area undisturbed.

(more…)

Fish Farm Resistance Heats up in “BC”

from submedia

“Our roots go deep within these waters, deep within these territories How deep do your roots go?” Musgamagw Dzawada’enuwx hereditary chief Mike Willie

Confrontations between the salmon feedlot industry and indigenous communities continue to escalate. On August 23rd, the Yaakswiis warriors were arrested in Ahousaht, near Tofino, preventing the transfer of diseased smolts into a net pen. Their elected leadership has signed off on farms yet the community is growing in it’s resistance to the feedlots that kill their wild salmon.

On the other side of Vancouver Island there has been escalating tactics by the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuwx. In the past two weeks they’ve boarded several farms; documented infractions, served eviction notices and performed a cleansing ceremony. Their Nation is home to 1/3rd of the fish farm industry in so.called BC. They have never signed a treaty and have never given consent for the feedlots on their territory and waters.

Follow the updates of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuwx – www.cleansingourwaters.com
Follow the Yaakswiis warriors at AncestralPride.org

Camps Organize to Stay as Injunction Postponed

from Unicorn Riot

Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, ND – After Washington, D.C. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg decided to not rule on the injunction leveled against the Dakota Access Pipeline by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, camps continued to organize the next day, August 25th.

Yesterday the camps hoped their prayers would bring a good ruling over the injunction. Today, an all-camp logistics meeting was held in the kitchen area of the overflow camp.

The previous day it was announced that efforts were going to be made to bring everyone’s ideas to the table, and today saw the beginning of that process.

Vic Camp shares the news that the Federal injuction decision has been pushed back to Sept 9th. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/ugySdS9xKr

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) August 24, 2016

(more…)

Canada: Hundreds of Mink Freed

from Bite Back

received anonymously (click here for video from the action):

“A LETTER TO THE PUBLIC:

LAST EVENING WE TOOK A ROADTRIP TO LICHTY MINK FUR FARM 5531 SCHUMMER LINE LINWOOD ONTARIO WHERE THOUSANDS OF ANIMALS ARE NEEDLESSLY KILLED EVERY YEAR FOR THE STUPIDITY OF FASHION

WE CUT HOLES IN THE FENCE AND OPENED THE CAGES TO HUNDREDS OF MINK SETTING THEM FREE TO THE NIGHT

WE ARE PROUD THAT WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THESE ANIMALS

(more…)

The Real Culprits of the Mule Deer Decline in Colorado Are Not Cougars and Bears

by George Wuerthner /Counterpunch

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is proposing a study whereby they will kill mountain lion (cougars) and bears in the northwest portion of the state to see if it can help boost mule deer populations.

It must be noted that mule deer have been on the decline around the West for decades, and no one has really been able to pin point the reasons. Colorado’s highest population estimate occurred in 1983, when deer numbers reached an estimated 625,000 and today the population is under 400,000.

In the case of northwest Colorado, some suggest that on-going oil and gas development could be the cause in the recent deer decline. In 1989, there were 5,000 oil and gas wells in the state, and by 2014, the number had risen to 32,000.

Each of those wells requires a pad, and access roads, plus power lines, pipelines and other industrial support. All of this fragmenting mule deer habitat, blocking migration corridors, as well as creating human activity in what were formerly remote lands.

Research in other states like Wyoming have concluded that energy development does indeed harm mule deer.

Add in livestock grazing on public lands—especially in drought years when cattle and sheep can graze all forbs, grasses, and many shrubs to the ground– and you have an additional stress on mule deer.

(more…)

France: Cop’s Copter Targeted with Fireworks at Anti-Nuke Protest

from Attaque

poorly translated by Google Translate

Slowly but surely, the dispute on the sidelines of the future landfill site for nuclear waste in Bure (Meuse) hardens, thus casting tragic memory Sivens (where an anti-dam activist died). According to our information, a helicopter flying over the gendarmerie Sunday a protest against the controversial project was the target of a half-dozen of fireworks rocket fire. The projectiles did not reach the device, but forced its pilot to perform a delicate maneuver to avoid accidents. The prosecutor opened an investigation.

The collection, consisting mainly of anti-nuclear activists, had raised this weekend in the woods Lejuc, site chosen by the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra) to build a pit to contain hazardous waste. Hitherto protected by gendarmes, the area was deserted by the military on Saturday leaving the field to about 250 activists who destroyed the wall protecting the preparatory site. Among them, some virulent and masked individuals armed with iron bars and pickaxes.

If they are not directly intervened, the police have nevertheless kept an eye on Sunday’s event with a helicopter. In the afternoon, the aircraft was hovering when it came under fire. “It was fireworks rockets as we see July 14, said a source close to the matter. They rose above the helicopter, but the pilot had to make distance maneuvers. The unit and its crew halted the flight and returned to their base camp. ”

(more…)

Chile: “Fire and Bullets Against Hydroelectric Power” Mapuche Activist Found Guilty

from Publicacion Refractoria

translated by Earth First! Journal

On October, 2015, Francisco Lipiman Calpan, a 23 year old member of the Mapuche community, was found with a modified starting pistol, nine cartridges of 15-caliber ammo, four 12-caliber, and three 7.65 ammunition, as well as a canvas banner that read “Fire and Bullets Against Hydroelectric Power.”

Francisco is being detained […] and is prohibited from getting close to hydroelectric power stations. On August 10, 2016 his trial ended; he was sentenced to 3 years and 1 day for illegal possession of a weapon (modified fire arm) and 541 days for carrying ammunition. The total sentence must be served in prison.

The community member’s defense called for the cancellation of this sentence; the prosecutor Carlos Díaz declared that he hopes the sentence will remain firm and executed to emit the detention’s order.

Solidarity with Francisco Lipiman!
(more…)

New Online Trawler Tracking Tool Aims to Help End Overfishing

by Thompson Reuters Foundation / The Guardian

Anyone with internet access and a passion for seafood will soon be able to track commercial fishing trawlers all over the world, with a new tool that its developers hope will help end the overfishing that has decimated the world’s fish stocks.

Millions of people depend on fish to survive, and fish will be vital to feeding the world’s growing population that is predicted to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, the United Nations says.

But overfishing has diminished fish stocks, and illicit fishing is threatening people’s access to food in many poor countries, according to the United Nations.

“We currently have around 450 million people globally who get their primary source of food from the ocean. This is 450 million meals a day under threat,” said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe on Wednesday.

“To solve the overfishing problem, including illegal fishing, we want to create transparency in the oceans,” Gustavsson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Madrid.

Oceana, an international conservation organisation, together with Google and SkyTruth, a nonprofit group that uses aerial and satellite images to track changes in the landscape, are due to launch the Global Fishing Tracker within weeks.

The public, non-governmental organisations and local authorities will be able to use it to monitor coastlines and marine conservation areas, follow individual boats in near real-time and track what boats of a particular flag are doing.

(more…)

Canada: Banner Drop Against the Hydro Line and its World

from It’s Going Down

This morning we hung a banner on a hydro-line pylon in St-Alphonse-Rodrirguez where the high tension lines cross Highway 343. The banner states “NO to the line 735 and its world.” Hydro-Québec wants to contruct a new line capable of transporting 735,000 volts at a time beside the line that already exists.

We won’t stop in the face of this new project that Hydro-Québec and its world is trying to impose upon us. Solidarity with those who continue to resist being pushed out because of the new projects of Hydro-Québec.

The struggle continues…

Gov Orders Police to Cut Water Supply to Native Americans as Pipeline Protesters Skyrocket

from Warrior Publications

Thousands join protest camp as supporters are holding a rally in Washington D.C. on Wednesday outside of Army Corps hearing.

Growing in number and spirit, the Standing Rock Sioux protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline is swiftly gaining strength ahead of a federal hearing on the controversial project. Support has spread across the country, and thousands have descended on the peaceful “prayer camps” in recent days, prompting state officials on Monday to remove the demonstrators’ drinking water supply.

North Dakota homeland security director Greg Wilz ordered the removal of state-owned trailers and water tanks from the protest encampment, despite the sweltering heat, because of alleged disorderly conduct, according to the Bismarck Tribune, including reports of laser pointers aimed at surveillance aircraft.

(more…)