In large part because of the looming petrochemical buildout, the 28th Annual Heartwood Forest Council is coming to our area! T his year activists from across the Heartwood Region will gather at Camp Crestfield, just outside the town of Slippery Rock, PA in Butler County PA, close to the Ohio border. In addition to this being where the Coalfields meet Gasland, this is along the line of the Glacial Moraine in PA.
This region is on the edge of a new industrial revolution, with the threat of a massive buildout of the petrochemical industry looming like a storm, as the industries responsible for polluting the Gulf of Mexico seek to relocate in the headwaters of the Ohio and Allegheny River valleys, the heart of the new Gas Expansion empire. The program this year will focus on the issues surrounding the Shell ethane-cracker plant in Beaver, PA and the associated pipeline buildout that is currently in the permitting phases. From the JKLM frackwater treatment plant in Coudersport, PA, 50 miles upriver from the Seneca lands just across the NY state line, to the Appalachian Gathering Station on the Ohio River in southern West Virginia, this tri-state region is on the edge of a major transformation. The wave of fracking wells and injection wells is but a precursor to a full-scale relocation of these massive petrochemical facilites, from the Gulf Coast to the upper Ohio River valley. Creatures on the edge of extinction and people on the edge of society continue to be pushed over the edge by this relentless corporate expansion driven by fossil fuels and plastic waste.
This year, Heartwood is planning our 28th annual Forest Council to provide a forum for a Grassroots Tri-State Summit, an opportunity to organize on a multistate level to face this new threat to our forests and communities. This industrial onslaught may be unprecedented in scale, but the Heartwood model of real-time, on the ground (and in the forest!) person-to-person network building and grassroots organizing remains our strongest and most versatile tool in our activist tool box. Click here for more information, including a full schedule of workshops and speakers as it becomes available.
This weekend is a time for activists across the Heartwood region who work together over email and phones, to get together and let the magic happen face-to-face, get the work of The Work done in a beautiful natural setting, eat good food and dance to some great live bands, relax to some campfire music after a full day of intense workshop discussions on the topics closest to our hearts and minds. The weekend will end Monday with some sort of theatrical act of nonviolent protest, the exact nature of which will be determined and planned by attendees over the course of the weekend.
Heartwood welcomes any progressive grassroots organization, green business, or generous individual to cosponsor this event and join our family of member groups. Cosponsors illustrate the strength of our movement in a show of solidarity, and show the scope and scale of the gathering. Cosponsors help underwrite the event, and help us provide scholarships for activists to attend without concern for registration costs.
Contact gathering coordinator Tabitha at info@heartwood.org to find out more.
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