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Website postings: DC Trip Update, MTR Environmental Impact Statement and More Bushwhacking
Judge Haden Rules! Why Not Thank Him?
Janet Fout to Speak at Memorial Day Heartwood Gathering
Wow. What a week -- and what a welcome to work for our new OVEC organizer, Dave Cooper! THE DC TRIP IS ON, and Dave has done a bang-up job getting tons of details together. Talk about hitting the ground running!
FLOODS We extend our deepest sympathies to those coalfield residents who lost loved ones in the latest devastating floods to hit southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Please know that we will not stop working until there is an end to mountain-range removal, which we believe exacerbates runoff during heavy rains and therefore worsens floods. We are watching to see what kind of relief efforts are developing and will keep OVEC volunteers posted.
We hope those of you not directly dealing with the flood’s aftermath are staying up-to-date with all that is happening, as West Virginia takes the national spotlight. We try to make it easy for you to stay current, by continually updating the website. Please check in often!
--AN UPDATE ON THE DC TRIP. If you can’t go, but want to help, please send a donation to: OVEC PO Box 6753 Huntington, WV 25773-675. Please write “DC trip” in the note line of your check. Many thanks to those of you have already donated!
--MTR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT AND BUSHWHACKING Be sure to visit the above link to keep up with the latest on the MTR Environmental Impact Statement and more of the Bush Administration’s shenanigans.
FLOODS AND SLUDGE --Info on the latest deadly floods and people’s beliefs that out-of-control mountaintop removal (MTR) and logging have increased the severity of floods. Plus, news on how another sludge impoundment fouls-up the Tug River.
BUSH AND JUDGE --News on the Bush Administration changes to the Clean Water Act definition of “fill” to legalize valley fills and Judge Haden’s ruling that stops Bush from gutting the Clean Water Act (though coal companies can still follow procedures to get a valley fill permit).
Thank Judge Haden After you’ve digested all of today’s news, why not send a note of thanks to Judge Haden? Thanks him for his courage in upholding the law in this “climate of lawlessness” (an earlier quote of his). Judge Haden rocks!
Send your note of thanks to: Chief U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II Southern District of West Virginia 300 Virginia St. Charleston, WV 25301
Personal Note I was gone this last week attending a conference and taking a couple of days off. I heard some of the news Saturday, but didn’t know all that was going on. I got home about midnight yesterday and stayed up all night, unable to sleep, attempting to catch up on all that has happened. It’s enough to make a person manic-depressive. Our trip to DC is more important now than before I left. I know Dave has received scores of e-mails from folks going on the trip, or folks wishing us well. Absolutely every one of you bearing witness to the massacre of our mountains and taking action—from signing a petition to an all out obsession—to end mountain-range removal, absolutely everyone of you is tops. Thank you, and hug yourself!
Also, I’m sure many of you couldn’t help thinking about the late OVEC organizer Laura Forman during this tumultuous week. I found myself imagining phone conversations we would have had, riding the troughs and peaks of devastating news, victorious news. We would have run the gamut of emotions and perhaps used a few choice words. OVEC co-director Dianne Bady, after Bush’s Friday Night Massacre of the Clean Water Act, thought something like, “OK Laura, your sabbatical is over. Do what you can.” Then came news of Judge Haden’s ruling that mightily spanks Bush for his attempt to legalize valley fills. Now we can’t say the judge is influenced by angels, for he certainly is an independent and sage student of the law, but we have no doubt that, if she was able, Laura was watching the judge pen his decision.
An extra special thank you to OVEC’s web lackey, Don Alexander, for taking over my news-hound duties while I was gone (and fixing my mega-melted desktop computer). Who woulda thunk there’d be so much news?
Click here for schedule and registration info .
OVEC’s Janet Fout will speak at this event-always an awesome gathering. Save the date! 12th Annual Heartwood Forest Council May 24-27, 2002 Memorial Day Weekend in beautiful Southern Indiana at Camp Rivervale, on the East Fork of the White River.
Heartwood, a regional network of forest protection organizations, is hosting a National Forest Council May 24-27 in southern Indiana. This will be an empowering weekend of workshops and strategy sessions about forests, energy, reclaiming democracy, community organizing, and more (see schedule below).
This year, we are inviting forest activists from across the country and seeking a common cause with friends from other movements and networks. Our hope is to further integrate and coordinate diverse efforts, to recognize threats and opportunities for justice and renewal shared by all citizens and activists, and to provide participants with tools and priority actions they can take back to organize in their local communities.
In this spirit of unity, we welcome a variety of keynote speakers and special guests, including president of IEER, Dr. Arjun Makhijani; Lokota elder, Ken Cane; Ancient Forest Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace, Mike Roselle and many more.
There has never been a more compelling need for real defenders of our homeland to share the knowledge and experiences gained from throughout the nation, and to combine our forest protection efforts with the larger movement for peace, justice, and ecological wisdom.
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