Shipping tote dislodged during the Japanese tsunami washed ashore near Seal Rock, Ore. in late November. It was covered with about 200 blue mussels. | credit: Oregon State University
Winter storms off the Oregon and Washington coastlines are expected to bring a new wave of debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Scientists say objects are already washing ashore – with potentially invasive organisms riding along.
In March, 2011 an earthquake and tsunami devastated a large swath of eastern Japan. The tsunami reached heights of over 100 feet in some places, washing large quantities of manmade materials out to sea. Japanese officials estimate that about 1.5 million tons of debris floated out into the Pacific.
Oregon State University marine scientist John Chapman questions the accuracy of that number, but says current tallies of what’s washed ashore on the U.S. West Coast are much lower than that.
“If we look at the amount of debris that we’ve found on the shore. And we try to estimate the poundage of debris and add it all up, it’s not even close,” he said. “So, where is it?”
Chapman says it very well could still be out in the ocean, waiting on the right combination of currents, winds and other factors to bring it ashore in the Pacific Northwest.
So far the tsunami debris has come over in waves. It started with buoys, polystyrene foam and two massive floating docks. The next winter, it was building materials, like lumber. Last winter, a parade of small boats started washing up.
And now the first large object of the season – a 4-by-5 foot shipping tote – has washed up near Oregon’s Seal Rock.
The common feature of all these items is the presence of coastal marine organisms that hitched a ride over from Asia.
“This is the biggest experiment in marine invasion ecology that’s ever happened. It’s unprecedented,” Chapman said.
He said open oceans are the marine equivalent of deserts: there’s nothing out there. At least, nothing of substance, nutrient-wise that coastal organisms would need to survive. This was the prevailing thought among marine scientists – until that first Japanese dock section washed up in June, 2012 on the Oregon Coast.
“That was the first time that anyone ever considered that marine organisms could drift across the ocean. It wasn’t as if they didn’t think about it, we assumed that it wasn’t possible,” he said.
As the years passed and the debris continued to circulate in the North Pacific, Chapman assumed the amount of living coastal organism would decrease. Again, he’s been proven incorrect.
“We’re still finding species that we haven’t seen before. It doesn’t make sense to us,” he said. “We shouldn’t be doing that, but it seems to be happening.”
The plastic shipping tote that washed up in Oregon in late November was covered in about 200 blue mussels.
Yet, just because non-native marine organisms are washing up on the West Coast doesn’t mean they’re establishing populations here; it doesn’t mean they aren’t, either.
The question is currently being studied by several groups using a variety of methods, from visual surveys to genetic testing.
But the organisms are very tiny and the West Coast is very large. And so far none have been found that can specifically be connected to the tsunami.
“If it was a herd of bison that came across, it would be a no-brainer; we could go out and find it if they got here,” Chapman said.
“But these things aren’t bison. They’re little tiny things – sometimes diseases and parasites. And even if they are here, sometimes we don’t find them for years.”
Despite the challenges facing scientists, Chapman said the waves of tsunami debris present an unprecedented opportunity. Between now and May, he expects to see another round data wash ashore on the coast of the Pacific Northwest.
Scientists determined this weekend that the dead orca that washed up on Vancouver Island last Thursday was pregnant when she died.
The young female was a member of the endangered southern resident killer whale families of Puget Sound.
Experts who conducted the necropsy on the whale said her fetus was between 5 and 6 feet long – about a half the length of the mother. The fetus was already decomposing, suggesting to scientists that the mother was attempting to expel her stillborn calf when she died.
Ken Balcomb is the head of the Center for Whale Research and helped conduct the necropsy.
He said the loss of a female of reproductive age is a blow – especially since the babies aren’t surviving.
“Over the last two and a half years we have not had any calves survive and of course 100 percent mortality in offspring is not good for future,” Balcomb said.
Balcomb and others believe that lack of food and high levels of pollution in the orcas bodies are to blame for the low survival rates of the young.
He said whales are now swimming one thousand miles or more in search of salmon to eat — a species that is also endangered.
“So when they don’t have a lot of food they have to metabolize their body fat, their blubber, and that’s when it starts affecting their reproductive and immune systems,” Balcomb said.
He said the dead orca, known as J32 or Rhapsody, was “not in great condition. The fat content seemed to be quite low and her blubber layer was not that thick.”
There are just 77 southern resident killer whales left.
The bodies of the orca and her fetus have been taken to Vancouver for further testing.
MSNBC screen shot U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell tells MSNBC host José Díaz-Balart, ‘They know their lands better than we do’ when asked about the Keystone XL pipeline.
By: Indian Country Today
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell invoked not only tribal sovereignty but also environmental expertise when she spoke to MSNBC’s José Díaz-Balart about the Keystone XL pipeline, which many tribes oppose.
“I think the fact that the tribal nations are standing up saying, ‘We are concerned about this. We are concerned about water quality. We’re concerned about tribal sovereignty. We’re concerned about what this pipeline may do for our lands and our rights,’ needs to be heard,” she said when he asked her to put tribal opposition to Keystone in context.
“In my role as secretary of the interior we will make sure that there’s a platform for those tribal voices to be heard,” she said. “And I think they will make a very effective case because they know their lands better than we do.”
In the end it will all come down to the State Department, she said, which will make the pipeline decision “by listening to all of the facts and information they have,” including tribal voices.
Jewell also spoke about Native youth, the centuries of oppression that have led to the current state of affairs regarding mental health, education and poverty, and on how it is time to make things right.
“We have destroyed much of the hope and the pride and the future for a lot of Native youth,” she said. “This is the time to turn that around.”
Her full chat with Díaz-Balart can be seen at MSNBC.com.
The pipeline threatens many tribal lands, especially Sioux territory in South Dakota, given that the proposed route traverses the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. Last month tribal President Cyril Scott said that if the pipeline passes it would be considered “an act of war,” and promised to fight it all the way.
Swinomish staff and OSU students sample clams on Kukutali Preserve.
By: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) are studying shellfish contamination on the Swinomish reservation and nearby Fidalgo Bay.
Both the Swinomish Tribe and Samish Nation have partnered in the project with OSU’s Superfund Research Program, focusing on clam contamination on tribal lands.
Butter clams were sampled from sites in Fidalgo Bay near an oil refinery, and from the relatively pristine Kukutali Preserve. Kukutali is co-managed by the Swinomish Tribe and the state of Washington.
“We predominantly are looking for chemicals that come from fossil fuels,” said Blair Paulik, OSU Ph.D. candidate. “We were interested in seeing sites that were the extremes within the area. We expect if there’s going to be an area that’s more contaminated it will be near the refinery. We expect Kukutali to be less contaminated.”
The samples are being analyzed in Professor Kim Anderson’s lab at OSU’s department of environmental and molecular toxicology.
Swinomish clam digger Benny James helped the OSU researchers locate butter clams on Kukutali. Butter clams specifically were sampled because they are an important part of the tribe’s traditional diet.
“The information will help us understand how much of these types of chemicals are already in the area, and how much we will have to clean up in the event of an oil or coal dust spill,” said Jamie Donatuto, Swinomish environmental health analyst.
The OSU team also tested a way to measure contamination using passive samplers. At each site where a clam was sampled, the team placed a small membrane in the sediment to soak up the chemicals. The results from the passive samplers will be compared to the data from the clams.
“Down the line, this could be used if you were worried, like the tribe is, about whether or not your seafood is contaminated,” Paulik said. “You could just put out our samplers instead of removing clams from the food source.”
SEATTLE (AP) – The death of an endangered Puget Sound orca found on Vancouver Island in Canada might have been related to pregnancy issues, a research group said Friday.
The 18-year-old female that washed ashore Thursday was a member of the J-pod, one of three families of southern resident killer whales that spend time in the inland waters of Washington state and Canada.
“There were 78. There are now 77. We’re going down, and it’s tragic,” said Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research, which keeps a census of the animals.
Balcomb planned to travel to British Columbia to assist Canadian authorities in a necropsy Saturday to determine the cause of death.
From photo observations, he said, the whale’s “belly looks low and extended, and it could be that the fetus died in utero.”
Stephen Raverty, a veterinary pathologist with Canada’s Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, will lead the necropsy. He said he has seen two photos of the stranded orca and also believes it was pregnant.
“Based on historical information and clinical observations, the whale’s death may have arisen from pregnancy or complications of birth,” he said.
Balcomb said the death was another blow to the population that was listed as endangered in 2005.
A newborn orca born in early September was recently presumed dead. Two additional whales were confirmed missing and presumed dead earlier this year.
The population numbered more than 140 animals decades ago but declined to a low of 71 in the 1970s when dozens of the mammals were captured to be displayed at marine parks and aquariums.
Despite a decade of research, protection and recovery efforts, the animals continue to struggle primarily due to lack of food, pollution and disturbances from marine vessels.
Scientists will exam the organs and take tissue samples of the whale found dead on Vancouver Island. Along with determining its cause of death, they’re interested in tracking diseases and other issues to understand health implications for the entire population.
The striking black and white whales have come to symbolize the Pacific Northwest.
Individual whales are identified by slight variations in the shape of their dorsal fins and distinctive whitish-gray patch of pigment behind the fins, called a saddle patch.
The whale found Thursday was last seen in Puget Sound in late November and last photographed with her family on Nov. 26 east of Victoria, according to Orca Network.
“We cannot express how tragic this loss is for this struggling, precariously small, family of resident orcas of the Salish Sea,” the group said in a statement.
Use of fireplaces and uncertified wood stoves is prohibited until air quality improves
Due to stagnant weather conditions and rising air pollution, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency issued a Stage 1 burn ban for King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, effective at 1pm on Sunday, November 30th.
This ban is still in effect.
The purpose of a burn ban is to reduce the amount of pollution that is creating unhealthy air usually due to excessive wood smoke. The Clean Air Agency will continue to closely monitor the situation.
During a Stage 1 burn ban:
No burning is allowed in wood-burning fireplaces, uncertified wood stoves or fireplace inserts. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled.
The only exception is if the homeowner has a previously approved ‘No Other Adequate Source of Heat’ designation from the Clean Air Agency
No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.
It is OK to use natural gas and propane stoves or inserts during a Stage 1 burn ban.
The Washington State Department of Health recommends that people who are sensitive to air pollution limit time spent outdoors, especially when exercising. Air pollution can trigger asthma attacks, cause difficulty breathing, and make lung and heart problems worse. Air pollution is especially harmful to people with lung and heart problems, people with diabetes, children, and older adults (over age 65).
For up-to-date burn ban information for the Puget Sound area, download the free app: “Burn Ban 411.”
For more information:
Visit the “Frequently Asked Questions” tab on our Burn Ban Status page
Approach could be used for other extinction fights
By Keith Ridler, Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Strategies used to bring back from the brink of extinction a population of central Idaho sockeye salmon have been so successful they could be used as a blueprint to prevent other extinctions, fisheries biologists say.
Thomas Flagg of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Paul Kline of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game published their findings earlier this month in the journal Fisheries.
Scientists said a key strategy has been maintaining genetic diversity that has resulted in a greater number of sockeye with better survival skills, resulting in more fish returning to Redfish Lake.
“The survival advantages and apparent rapid increased fitness demonstrated by Sockeye Salmon hatched in Redfish Lake have allowed the development of realistic population triggers for the program’s expansion effort,” the report said. “This type of natural rebuilding scenario is the hoped for result when conservationists intervene to rescue depleted populations.”
Depleted in this case has a very precise number — 16. That’s how many wild adults — 11 males and five females — returned to the Sawtooth Valley from 1991 to 1998 and, through hatchery programs, ultimately produced more than 10,000 adult descendants.
The results showed this fall as some 1,400 endangered sockeye made the 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to the lake in the Stanley Basin. That’s more than in any previous year going back nearly six decades.
The report estimates that at one time some 30,000 salmon made the trip to the 6,800-foot elevation Redfish Lake and several other lakes in the valley.
The numbers started declining, the study said, with intensification of commercial fisheries in the lower Columbia River.
A dam on the Salmon River built in the early 1900s blocked salmon for several decades from reaching Redfish Lake, itself named after the red-colored sockeye that once arrived there in abundance. Additional dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers added to the fish’s challenges in succeeding years.
The run was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. That kicked off a hatchery program that scientists in the report said was able to retain about 95 percent of the genetic variability remaining in the population.
Besides genetic diversity, biologist also devised systems to raise the salmon in captivity.
“Although easily overlooked, a major program accomplishment was simply the development of fish culture protocols for rearing Sockeye Salmon full term to maturation,” the report said.
Captive sockeye have been reared at two locations. One is the Eagle Fish Hatchery in southwest Idaho run by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Fish have also been raised at the National Marine Fisheries Service facilities at the Manchester Research Station in Port Orchard.
While the program has relied on fish that never made the perilous trip to the ocean and back, it also produced an estimated 3.8 million eggs and fish for reintroduction to Sawtooth Valley lakes. Besides releasing young fish to head for the ocean, called smolts, releases also included adults let go annually to spawn naturally in Redfish Lake.
The report concluded that Redfish Lake could eventually produce enough naturally raised young fish to head to the ocean that enough would survive and return as adults to exceed “self-sustainability.”
Ultimately the recovery plan is to have 1,000 or more fish spawning in Redfish Lake for multiple generations, and at least 500 spawning in one of four other lakes in the basin.
The report said that when enough adult salmon start returning to Redfish Lake, efforts could begin to bring sockeye salmon back to nearby Pettit and Alturas lakes.
The Keystone XL pipeline may be in political limbo, but that hasn’t stopped another Canadian company from quietly pressing ahead on a pipeline project that will ramp up the volume of tar sands oil transported through the U.S. What’s more, the company, Enbridge, is making those changes without a permit, and environmental groups say it is flouting the law.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge is the same company that spilled more than 1 million gallons of thick, sticky tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010. The spill was the largest of its kind in the U.S. and took four years to clean up.
Enbridge applied for a State Department permit two years ago for its latest project: a bid to increase the capacity of its “Alberta Clipper” pipeline from 450,000 to 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude per day. The Clipper crosses the border from Canada into the U.S. in North Dakota, so a presidential permit from the department would be required by law.
But, frustrated with the lengthy approval process, Enbridge engineered a work-around that appears to get the job done—without a permit. By running a connection between two parallel Enbridge pipelines right on the border with the U.S., the company will be able to swap the contents of each. As the crude approaches the border with Canada in the Alberta Clipper pipeline, it will be diverted into the parallel Line 3 pipeline, recently replaced with new pipe for the purpose, and swapped back into the Clipper once it reaches the U.S. Enbridge tells Newsweek it began pumping oil through the swapped section at the beginning of November.
It’s a slick move that is projected to increase capacity to 570,000 barrels per day, taking advantage of unused capacity on Line 3. But by the middle of next year, Enbridge attorney David Coburn tells The Washington Spectator, the pipeline will transport 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian tar sands oil into the U.S. with “no additional permit,” by adding new pumping stations to push more crude through the existing pipe. By comparison, the much-contested Keystone XL pipeline is projected to move 830,000 barrels per day.
Enbridge refers to the line-switching move as “temporary interconnections” while it awaits the State Department’s review of its original expansion application. But in an email to Newsweek, Enbridge spokesman Graham White says the work-around will be permanent if the State Department does not approve the application. In short, Enbridge found a way to increase its capacity just as much without a permit as it would have with one, and the State Department doesn’t mind.
In a June letter to the State Department, Enbridge’s lawyer made clear its intention to press ahead with the plan without the presidential permit.
“As we explained, the unforeseen Line 67 Project permitting delay at the department of over a year has led Enbridge to recently assess options for achieving this additional capacity.… Enbridge intends to construct the interconnections and Pump Upgrades, and to operate those facilities to increase the flow of oil on the Line 67 south of border segment, whether or not a new Presidential Permit is issued by the Department.” (Emphasis added.)
The next month, State Department staff member Patrick Dunn said in a letter to Enbridge that the work-around did not legally require federal authorization. The State Department declined Newsweek’s request for an interview with Dunn, whose position is not available on the department’s website but who is identified in a February letter obtained by DeSmog Blog as a deputy director at the Bureau of Energy Affairs. In 1997, Dunn graduated from a training program at the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA), a prominent industry group. PESA’s Foreign Service Officer Energy Industry Training Program is funded in part by the State Department.
Environmental and Native American groups claim Enbridge’s move is illegal, and are suing the State Department for violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its own regulations by approving the work-around with neither a permit nor an environmental assessment.
“They’ve made this Orwellian decision that this crisscross magically alleviates them from going through the NEPA process. We think it is pretty clear that they’ve got their conclusions wrong,” says Jim Murphy, a senior counsel with the National Wildlife Federation who is litigating the suit. “It basically authorized the doubling of capacity without environmental review.”
In the midst of a highly publicized struggle over the Keystone XL pipeline, Enbridge would be wise to keep a low profile in its pursuits, and it appears to have worked, says Doug Hayes, a staff attorney at the Sierra Club who is also involved in the suit. The fight over the Alberta Clipper has barely made a ripple in the national press, perhaps because the minutiae of a legal battle over an adjustment to an already-existing pipeline is harder to digest than a plan for a brand-new pipeline like Keystone, he says.
But, Hayes notes, there is little difference. “What Enbridge is doing is building an entirely new pipeline in the same right-of-way and calling it ‘maintenance,’” he says. “Frankly, I don’t think this has ever happened before, where the State Department is deep into doing its full analysis while simultaneously allowing the project go forward before they’re done with their review process.”
Unless the legal challenge is successful, it appears Enbridge will meet its goals without the public upheaval that has marked TransCanada’s Keystone XL efforts.
Unlike Keystone XL, which would create several thousand temporary construction jobs (though only 35 permanent ones after one or two years of construction dry up), there are few or no job creation prospects from Enbridge’s small border-crossing project. Even if some Americans got temporary work, construction is already over. So could the U.S. at least stand to gain tax revenue from Enbridge’s expansion?
Not as much as you might think.
Enbridge Inc. announced in September it would be transferring a 66.7 percent interest in the Alberta Clipper to Enbridge Energy Partners, its subsidiary. Enbridge Energy, which already held a 33 percent interest in the pipeline, operates as a master limited partnership (MLP), or what Forbes describes as “income and a tax shelter rolled into one investment.” Enbridge states on its website that Enbridge Energy is designated an MLP “for federal income tax purposes.”
“Accordingly, they do not, as an entity, pay federal income taxes. This allows for a higher potential cash flow payout to unitholders.” Tax is paid by the unit holders.
How much Enbridge’s taxes on the Alberta Clipper will decrease remains to be determined, according to White, Enbridge’s spokesman, but “it will be consistent with all laws and regulations,” he says. Enbridge does not pay taxes or fees per barrel of oil it transports, but increasing the flow does increase Enbridge’s profits, so the U.S. will see some additional tax revenue on whatever part of its profits, if any, are still taxable.
The Alberta Clipper begins in Alberta, crosses the Canadian border into North Dakota and continues for 327 miles to Superior, Wisconsin, crossing Minnesota along the way. The oil would be stored in holding tanks before flowing to Cushing, Oklahoma, and then to the Gulf Coast for refining and export, as determined by shippers and refineries.
Alexandra Klass, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, told Inside Climate News that Enbridge’s strategy isn’t surprising. “This happens in environmental reviews all the time. You seek approval for smaller pieces, which on their own don’t seem like they’ll have a big environmental impact. But considered cumulatively, they do.”
For Winona LaDuke, a prominent Native American activist from the White Earth Ojibwe tribe of northwestern Minnesota, the State Department’s Alberta Clipper decision amounts to a violation of several long-standing treaties between tribes and the U.S. government.
“All of the tribes in Minnesota have their own treaty areas. Those are all traversed by these pipelines. The Supreme Court upheld our rights to fish, harvest and live within those treaty areas. The Clipper traverses one of our best rice harvest areas. The federal government is required to consult with us on a nation-to-nation basis. With Keystone, the State Department asked to consult with the tribes. But in this case, the State Department didn’t even uphold the need to,” LaDuke says.
LaDuke’s tribe and dozens of other Minnesota tribes are fighting not only the Alberta Clipper, but two other major Enbridge pipelines that cross over Native territories. Enbridge’s track record of more than 800 spills between 1990 and 2010, according to the company’s own records as compiled by the National Wildlife Federation, make harm almost inevitable for the tribal land in the pipeline’s path, she says.
“Say you live someplace for 8,000 years. You are the poorest people in the state of Minnesota. But it is a good life, it is the life the Creator gave you. You can drink the water from a lake in northern Minnesota. Then the Enbridge company comes through, and they say they’re going to put in their pipeline. They say, Don’t worry, we’ll pay you some money. But you say, No, that will change the ecosystem. They say, Don’t worry about it. They mow everything down. They have spills,” LaDuke says. “The interest is not a public interest, it’s a private interest. So this is eminent domain. It’s a combination of the worst choices for us.”
The tribes surrounding the Great Lakes have been harvesting wild rice for thousands of years, a livelihood LaDuke says is threatened by the risk of spills from Enbridge’s pipelines. “We’re going to fight them. We have no choice. Wild rice is our life. It feeds our people. With them threatening to damage our rice, we have no choice. You’ve seen the Native opposition to the Keystone XL. Ours will be just as big.”
Inmate Adrianne Crabtree and ODOC Captain Chad Naugle plant violets in a meadow of the Siuslaw National Forest to support recovery of the threatened Oregon Silverspot butterfly. | credit: Larkin Guenther Institute for Applied Ecology
In a growing number of Northwest prisons, inmates are rearing endangered plants, butterflies, turtles and frogs for release in the wild.
It started just over a decade ago at a minimum security prison near Olympia. Now inmates at four Washington prisons and three in Oregon are raising dozens of different types of plants, insects and animals to use in restoration, many of them rare or endangered.
Tom Kaye directs the Institute for Applied Ecology, one of the partners in the Oregon Sustainability in Prisons Project. He said the advantages of working in prisons outweigh the security complications.
“The inmates are capable of giving more attention to these organisms than anyone else because they have more time to commit to it,” Kaye said. “They can really nurture and take care of these animals. The same thing is true for these plants.”
In Oregon, inmates at the state prison near Ontario are growing sagebrush to support habitat restoration for the greater sage grouse. Inmates at a correctional center in Salem are rearing threatened golden paintbrush on the prison grounds for seed production. Female inmates at Oregon’s Coffee Creek prison grow the early blue violet, which provides sustenance for rare butterflies when out planted on the Oregon Coast.
Oregon Department of Corrections sustainability coordinator Chad Naugle said, “There is huge interest on the inside” to get these work assignments.
Kaye described gardening as a “calming” activity for inmates, who in addition can acquire vocational skills while they help to rehab the environment. “There are substantial gains on all sides,” said Kaye. “We’re able to get so much more done for ourselves in the mission we are trying to accomplish… it really helps us extend our capacity.”
Prison nurseries in the older program in Washington state have raised 64 different plant species for restoration of South Puget Sound prairies according to Sustainability in Prisons Project program manager Kelli Bush. The Washington program has also partnered with Northwest zoos and state and federal agencies to rear endangered animals as well.
“Since 2009, over 700 federally-threatened, state-endangered Oregon spotted frogs have been reared from eggs to adults at Cedar Creek Corrections Center,” wrote Bush via email from Olympia. “Frogs are released into Pierce County wetlands each fall. To increase the sustainability of this project, crickets are raised as a supplemental food source.”
The minimum security Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women near Belfair raises the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly from larvae for release into the wild.
The Washington prison program was co-founded by The Evergreen State College and Washington State Department of Corrections in 2003. Participating inmates are paid a nominal rate for their labor. Federal and foundation grants cover most of the program costs.
Thousands of people turned up to voice their opposition to the Enbridge pipeline Joint Review Panel last year in Vancouver, British Columbia last year. The demonstration, organized by Rising Tide and endorsed by 50 groups, marched from Victory Square to the hotel where the closed-door meeting of the government panel was taking place. (Photo: Caelie_Frampton/flickr/cc)
Can a First Nations-led, people-driven movement really have the power to stop Big Oil?
The folks behind the Pull Together campaign think so. The Pull Together initiative supports First Nations in B.C. who are taking to the courts to stop Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project.
Led by the Gitxaala, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xai’xais, Nadleh Whut’en, Nak’azdli and Haida — nations united in their fierce opposition to tar sands oil endangering their traditional territories — Pull Together’s involvement synchronized with a very active movement against tar sands pipelines in B.C. and community-based opposition Enbridge in particular. The campaign is using a new model of online fundraising that, combined with real-world, grassroots organizing, is delivering solid results.
It’s a model where Indigenous leadership combines with cutting-edge organizing strategies — online, on the land and on the streets. Through a unique blend of real-world events and online fundraising, Pull Together has raised an astonishing $250,000, and is looking forward to realizing a goal of $300,000 by the end of 2014.
B.C.’s opposition to Enbridge is strong and growing. While the company is delaying the project, and investors are growing uneasy, according to RAVEN’s Susan Smitten, “Stopping the project will take a court-ordered resolution, because Enbridge has no intention of giving up on the project.”
While First Nation’s constitutional rights can be a powerful tool to ensure affected communities have a stake in projects in their traditional territories, Smitten points out, “First Nations stand as a last and inviolable line of defense against environmental destruction — if and only if the nations can afford to uphold those rights in court.”
“I know First Nations have an incredible amount of power on that legal side of things,” says Jess Housty, of the Heilsuk First Nation council. “But… I know what tribal government’s resources are and I know what our responsibilities are. And they are really broad! We’re responsible for virtually every aspect of the welfare and the development of our community.”
“The thought of a lawsuit added on top of that is such a huge capacity strain. I have a huge amount of admiration for my community, and for many other communities, that never hesitated to take on court challenges. But I wondered where and how and when the support would come.”
The support Housty and other First Nations leaders are enjoying has been building, with involvement by many people and groups over many years.
Pull Together has tapped into a powerful anti-tankers and pipelines movement that represents the majority of British Columbians who don’t want the Enbridge project to proceed. The campaign has motivated organizers, businesses, and community groups who understand the power, and principle, of standing with First Nations opposed to oil and gas development on our west coast.
“The Pull Together campaign is driven by people who care and are politically astute,” said kil tlaats ‘gaa Peter Lantin, President of the Haida Nation. “They can see how the future of the country is shaping up and want to be part of it.”
From Haida Gwaii to Nelson, Kitsilano to Kitgaatla, B.C’s creative, tough, and committed culture is coming out in full force to fight Enbridge. Alliance building between NGOs — Sierra Club B.C. and RAVEN have joined forces on the campaign– offers a way forward for an environmental movement that has suffered from fragmentation in the past.
Who knew stopping a pipeline could be so much fun?
While the goal of stopping a pipeline is deadly serious, the means to that end are less of a struggle, and more of a celebration.
With over 40 events, 100 online fundraisers and 30 businesses involved, Pull Together is lighting up B.C. The campaign got its start with a spaghetti dinner hosted by Friends of Morice-Bulkley Valley in Smithers.
From that original $2,000 fundraiser, the campaign gained steam with an Island All-Stars gala on Pender Island, featuring Daniel Lapp, Mae Moore and Lester Quitzau that brought in $8,000. Salt Spring Island’s “Only Planet Cabaret” brought in $5,000 over three sold-out shows in Victoria and on the islands, while tickets to the Pull Together show at St. Barnabas in Victoria, featuring headliners Compassion Gorilla and Art Napoleon, sold fast.
Says Sierra Club B.C. campaigns director Caitlyn Vernon, “It’s incredible to think that Pull Together began in the summer with a community group in Terrace raising $2,000, and now we have raised a hundred times that!”
The campaign has inspired artists, from Kitgaatla nurse and photographer Paulina Otylia, who donated family portrait sessions for the campaign, to Franke James of “Banned on the Hill” fame who has contributed limited edition prints. At last weekends’ East Side Culture Crawl, Shannon Harvey’s Monkey 100 studio is featuring “Wish You Were Here” woodcut postcards with proceeds to Pull Together.
Businesses are pulling too: Salt Spring Coffee held a “Lattes for the Coast” fundraiser this week, while the B.C. Kayak Guide Association has assembled an online fundraising team comprised of kayak guides and outfitters. Moksha Yoga B.C. have raised nearly $10,000 for the campaign by holding fundraising karma yoga classes and in-studio film screenings. Led by Eric Mathias, Moksha have extended their reach to include 25 yoga studios all across B.C. who have pledged to “Stretch Across B.C.” and fundraise for Pull Together.
The fundraising initiative is rapidly spreading both online and off, as people recognize this is a strategic way to stop Enbridge — and send a powerful message to Ottawa.
“It’s a big undertaking, but we’re not alone,” says Marilyn Slett, elected chief of the Heiltsuk First Nation. “We have people supporting us, really good people from all over the world and from B.C.”
“It’s a good feeling knowing that were standing together united in solidarity with British Columbians at large.”
There’s a saying among B.C. First Nations: many paddles, one canoe. Who knew stopping a pipeline could be so much fun?
