Reflections on an Epic Direct Action Against MTR

It’s March 3^rd!

You know what that means? That means that all the fines I accrued from participating in a direct action last June are due to the West Virginia magistrate… and then I’m free! I feel like this is a good time to reflect on that action, as it was a pretty amazing one.

Very early in the morning on June 18^th, 2009, fourteen activists, including myself, entered Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mining site near Twilight, West Virginia. We had one goal in sight: to stop all mountaintop removal operations on that site for as long as possible. The trek onto the site was difficult, to say the very least. What used to be a beautiful, tree-covered mountain had turned into a desolate moonscape. The roads we walked on were made up of dust and rubble and at times we had to climb up hills of loose rocks. Basically, it was one of the most terrifying and exciting things I’ve ever taken part in.

To stop mining operations on the site for the day, we aimed to board Massey Energy’s dragline machine. A few years ago, I wrote a thesis paper on mountaintop removal mining and described the dragline machines as such:

Once the rock has been loosened by the explosions, an enormous machine, known as a dragline, is used to remove the rock. Draglines are often as tall as a 20-story building and can cost up to $100 million. To put the size of this machine in perspective, the bucket on draglines can hold 26 Ford Escorts and can move 110 cubic yards of earth in a single scoop. Utilizing this machine increases efficiency in the mining process and cuts labor costs. The rock separated out by the draglines is then dumped into nearby valleys, a practice referred to as “valley fill.”

When we finally arrived at our destination – the beast of a machine – we were greeted by several workers who were not excited by our presence. Some of the people in our team quickly deployed a ground banner, while six of us continued on to the dragline. By some stroke of luck, the six of us managed to climb onto the machine. My adrenaline was pumping so much that I can barely even remember how it all happened. Once we got on the machine, four well-trained climbers ventured on to the crane portion of the machine to get to work deploying a 15×150 foot banner that read “Stop Mountaintop Removal.” My job, in the midst of all the madness, was to stand in front of the walkway that lead up the crane and to deter any miners from going after the climbers. It was pretty intense. There were about three miners that were on the machine with me and a couple of them really wanted to get past me. I tried to talk them down and explain that our climbers were well-trained and that it wouldn’t be safe to follow them. I attempted to explain why were there and that this protest wasn’t against them, it was against this terrible practice.

It took the police about an hour to show up to the site. Once they did, most of us were brought around the back of the dragline machine and handcuffed. We could no longer see the climbers and just had to wait to see what happened. As we waited, we looked around the lifeless land and realized how quiet it had become. Every single one of the trucks and bulldozers on the site had stopped working. We knew that no matter what happened with the banner deployment, our action had been successful.

Not many photos were released from this action, but this one is by far my favorite. All the bulldozers... stopped.

The banner deployment was seriously hindered due to some workers who climbed up onto the crane and ripped down portions of it at a time. Eventually, the climb team came down on their own terms. We had a videographer and photographer with us on site, but were arrested and had most of their footage confiscated.

Notice what it looks like behind and below her. A total moonscape.

We were all taken to a jail in Boone County, West Virginia while we waited for a meeting with the magistrate. One long, tiring afternoon later, and most of us were released on bail with charges of conspiracy and trespassing (the climbers got a few other charges, unfortunately). We went to court on September 3^rd, and plead no contest to the charges, which means we had to pay the maximum fines. Collectively, our “dragline 14” owed West Virginia over $23,000. Whew.

This video gives you a good look into what the site looked like and what were were up against:

Just as I finished up writing this post, I got an email confirming that Boone County, WV has received our fines. We’re officially done with this one… now on to the next! Big thanks to RAN, Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, and all of the amazing activists involved in this action.