Pagan, pipeline opponent and frequent participant at the VT Witch Camp, Karen ’River’ Bixler:  “We proudly call ourselves witches, tho many who come to witch camp have to hide the fact.  Our beliefs are similar to indigenous beliefs.  We don’t even try to steward the land.  We just get out of the way.  She recommends Sheri Mitchell’s book Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change.  Women will carry the trauma of the witch burnings in our genes, until we heal. The burnings were essential to the rise of capitalism: Read Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici

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Witches say we are ALL ENERGY. At Standing Rock we learned that there is no ‘other’.  They pray for us to find our way.   We are in the birth canal and we must go through it.

Beth Adams, a WILPF member from Northampton MA is a passionate supporter of  “Stand4Forest”: A Unified Call for Forest Protection in the U.S.

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She said “Every acre of cut forest jeopardizes our future.  We need to support efforts to stop the growing pellet burning industry (often called ‘bio-fuel or bio-mass).”  (note: Burlington VT relies on wood pellet supplied energy for much of its electricity.  The McNeil Generation Station is one of the largest pellet stations in the country)

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See 17 minute film: TED TALK:  U.S. Forests and the Climate Emergency-Danna Smith. Go to Stand4Forests for additional resources.

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Beth is doing trauma therapy from some aggressive activist opposition.

Beth shared her time with Rochester librarian Jeannette Bair who is very concerned about the Robinson Integrated Resource Plan in the Bingo Basin / West Rochester being proposed by Green Mountain National Forest, Rochester Ranger District.  "This started pre-Trump.  Plans are to cut 18,000 board feet of saw timber and 57,000 cords of pulpwood in both clear cutting, group selection cuts, and thinning on over 9,000 acres.   They plan to auction off many of the areas’ trees.  They have done it in the Hancock and Granville areas.  They talk it up saying they are creating ’View Sheds” but actually they will be cutting significant amounts of trees for profit. Up to 1/3 of this 30,000 acre section of the Bingo Basin will have logging, prescribed burning in clear cut areas and application of herbicides on over 4,000 acres.  Jeannette is questioning the Environmental Impact Statement's lack of adequate analysis of the loss of  carbon sequestration due to the planned "harvest."  The film: “Burned” by Vermonters Alan Dater and Lisa Merton is an excellent resource, and makes the point that New England is the only part of the country so far not deforested.  Jeannette will contact the filmmakers and try to arrange a screening at the Rochester Library in the fall.

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Many of the people who live in the area have strong support of the USFS.   We must work locally if we hope to modify this program.