Defend our Forests, Farms and Karst Geology

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, February 28, 2018

Chainsaw crews are cutting trees in Giles County, clearing a path for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. On a ridgetop high above them, protestors are waiting.

Since Monday, two self-described pipeline resisters have been sitting on platforms in two trees on Peters Mountain — about 60 feet off the ground and directly in the proposed path of the natural gas pipeline — with hopes of preventing the project from moving forward.

“We’re hoping to delay it, at least,” said Ashley Brown, speaking Wednesday by cellphone from one of the trees. “And I think we have the power to stop it.”

Brown is part of a loosely organized group of opponents who have taken a stand where the pipeline would cross the Appalachian Trail in Monroe County, West Virginia. The “tree sit” is being held just across the state line from Giles County, where Mountain Valley recently began cutting trees along a right of way for the 303-mile buried pipeline.

“It’s really beautiful up here,” Brown said. “Peters Mountain is stunning. The thought of a 125-foot right of way being blasted through this is really heartbreaking.”

The spot for a potential standoff with construction crews is on public land in the Jefferson National Forest.

“The Forest Service is reviewing the situation regarding the protesters and working to determine what our response might be to ensure everyone’s safety once Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC is authorized to begin tree clearing,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Jessica Rubado wrote in an email.

Monroe County Sheriff Ken Hedrick said he has been in touch with Forest Service officials and is not aware of any need at this point for law enforcement to intervene.

It remains unclear when, or if, the tree cutters will encounter the protesters.

Before Mountain Valley can cut trees on national forestland where the protesters are staged, the company must receive approval from the Forest Service and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

FERC has already given Mountain Valley permission to cut trees in certain parts of Giles and other counties in the Roanoke and New River valleys through which the pipeline would pass.

Natalie Cox, a Mountain Valley spokeswoman, said tree-cutting began in Giles last Friday, marking the first work on the pipeline in Virginia. Crews began felling trees several weeks ago in West Virginia, where the pipeline would originate before making its way to Pittsylvania County.

Although Cox did not respond to questions Wednesday about protesters, she addressed the topic in an email to The Roanoke Times last June.

“As a safety precaution, the MVP project team and their contractors will have security personnel available, in conjunction with law enforcement, to manage any potential protest-related activity that may occur onsite during construction,” Cox wrote at the time.

Pipeline resisters are making it clear that they have no plans to move out of the way.

Placing humans in trees would make it “impossible to cut the forest without threatening severe harm to those resisting,” a news release from the group stated.

Brown said she is willing to stay in her tree 24 hours a day for as long as it takes. Supporters are providing food and other supplies that are hoisted from the ground by ropes. She also receives a newly charged cellphone periodically to stay in touch with the outside world from a remote post that can only be reached by a long, uphill hike in the woods.

Members of the group were reluctant to talk about how many people are involved in the effort, or to discuss their strategies at length. A second person who, like Brown, is sitting on a platform in a tree did not want to be identified, she said.

Protesters say that at the least, they hope to slow down a tree-cutting operation that Mountain Valley is in a rush to complete.

Federal wildlife protections mandate that all trees known to be habitats for threatened bats must be felled by March 31, when the creatures begin to emerge from their hibernation caves.

If the trees are not down by then, Mountain Valley would have to wait until mid-November, when the bats hibernate again, before resuming work.

Company officials have said they are on schedule for construction to be completed by the end of this year, even though they still lack approval by Virginia state regulators of a sediment and erosion control plan. That plan would have to be in place before the next stage of work — removing the downed trees and grading the land — could begin.

In a news release and on the Facebook page of Appalachians Against Pipelines, which is not directly involved in the tree-sit operation, the pipeline resisters outlined the reasons for their opposition.

“The proposed pipeline would destroy water, mountains, forests and family farms throughout Virginia and West Virginia,” the news release stated.

Bill Hughes Photo — Clearcutting right-of-way for MVP in Wetzel County, WV