UPDATE: At approximately 3:00 p.m. state police confirmed that both Nick and Laura had been arrested. They are now in Magistrate’s court in Beckley. A later post will detail the event.
This morning at 10 a.m. tree-sitter Nick Stocks plans to turn himself into state police after one week of sitting atop an 80 foot tulip poplar tree at the edge of the Edwight Mountaintop Removal site above Pettry Bottom, just down the road from Marsh Fork Elementary School. For one week, he and Laura Steepleton have halted blasting on that part of the site, and brought national attention to the knob above Pettry Bottom. After having the two ground support arrested last week, and Nick’s arrest today, Laura is continuing her mountaintop vigilance on her own.
Nick stated, “To this day the DEP has acted as a thin, weak delegate for big coal in West Virginia. They have circumvented, sidestepped, dismissed and lied to communities and individuals who look to them for protections that ought to assure healthy children, safe drinking water and a continued existence in the valley. To this day they have not done their job to even the slightest degree. When the government fails in its obligation to protect its people and communities are made unsafe and unlivable, it is the responsibility of all concerned people to turn attention to that failure and do all in their capacity to ensure the safety of the community. If the DEP doesn’t do it, we must do it ourselves, and we will go beyond. We will stop the devastation of this mountain and protect the communities below. We will end mountaintop removal.”
More update will be coming to you throughout the day at www.climategroundzero.org
Brave, brave folks! keep rollin, you inspire all of us outside the coal fields!
much love