FOR MORE INFO on Scripps and the Briger Tract Forest check out Palm Beach Environmental Coalition

Palm Beach Post Article

Channel 12 Video

Channel 5 Video

Article from the Broward New Times by  Lisa Rab

Interview With a Tree-Sitter, Protesting Scripps Biotech Center

Rachel Kijewski has spent the last four days camped out 30 feet above ground, in the branches of a cluster of pine trees off I-95 in Palm Beach Gardens.

She and other members of the environmental group Everglades Earth First are protesting a plan to build a Scripps Research Institute biotech center, offices, and houses on 680 acres of vacant land. The group says it wants to preserve one of the last large tracts of forest in the area, and protect threatened species such as wild pine, royal fern, and ground lichens.

The Palm Beach Gardens City Commission approved the Scripps plan last spring, but Kijewski,25, and other activists are willing to go to great lengths to stop the bulldozers. They derailed a similar Scripps proposal in western Palm Beach County five years ago, and Scripps eventually opened a center in Jupiter instead. The Gardens project would be the second phase of the center’s development.

Kijewski and fellow protester Russel McSpadden have been camped out in the trees since Monday. The Juice asked Kijewksi how she’s faring.

What’s it been like up there?
It’s absolutely beautiful gazing into the forest.

Have you slept? Eaten?
Sleeping, eating, pooping — you name it, we’re doing it in the trees. We have hammocks for sleeping, we have a good food supply [fruits, dried goods, canned goods]. We have sort of a tree-sitters port-a-potty in regards to the important daily needs.

Have you gotten any positive response from cars or people passing by?
A good amount of honks, even at night.

Why did you volunteer for this?
I’m absolutely in love with slash pines and this particular type of forest.I enjoy climbing trees. This is one of the most direct ways I can put my skills to use.

How long will you be up there?
Not sure exactly. I’d like to stay up here until we get this forest actually saved. That’s my goal, but we’ll see what happens.

First-ever Florida Tree-Sit Erected to Defend Briger Forest Tract from Development

First Ever Florida Tree Sit

Everglades Earth First! activists Russ McSpadden and Rachel Kijewski took the issue of endangered species protection to new heights today! They are suspended 30 feet up in the air to protest the plans for development of the “FAU/Scripps Bio-tech City” on the Briger Forest Tract- the last living forest in Palm Beach County.

Law Enforcement with the Florida Department of Transportation and City of Palm Beach Gardens have promised to arrest the tree-sitters if they do not leave the sit. Both Russ and Rachel are holding tight!

A joint statement from the tree-sitters states, “As FAU graduates and Palm Beach County residents we are dismayed at the lack of protection for the Endangered Species on the FAU/Scripps development site. The Scripps “bio-tech city” plan promotes sprawl and will destroy endangered species located on the Briger Forest Tract. We have tried legal means to protect the site, but the developers and politicians have ignored our concerns. If the state and county refuse to protect endangered species then we must take action to preserve the remaining natural beauty of Florida.”

In conjunction with the tree sit, forty protesters converged at the existing FAU/Scripps Florida where Jupiter and FAU campus police briefly detained at least one person.

This will just be the first direct action of many to preserve the Briger Forest and the endangered species that depend on it. Everglades Earth First! activists plan to maintain a presence on the site to ensure no endangered species habitat is destroyed, and no animals are abused in the proposed vivisection labs.

Hoo-ray for Russ and Rachel! Stay tuned for more updates!

DONATE – to help us support the tree-sitters with future bail and legal costs! Donations can be made via Paypal to “lynnejpurvis@gmail.com”

HELP THE TREE-SIT – We will have an on-going vigil to ensure the safety of these brave activists. We can be reached by email or calling 561-249-2071

FOR MORE INFO on Scripps and the Briger Tract Forest check out Palm Beach Environmental Coalition

Palm Beach Post Article

Channel 12 Video

Channel 5 Video

FLORIDA FOREST TO BE DESTROYED FOR BIO-TECH CITY

February 14, 2011: Two FAU Alumni go to great heights to defend Endangered Species in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida suspend themselves 30 feet from the ground in the pine trees of the Briger Tract Forest in protest of the FAU/Scripps Bio-tech City plan.

Tree-sitters display banner reading “Defend These Forests”, visible to all Northbound I-95 traffic.

Media Contacts:

• Tree-sitters on Briger Tract site (561) 324-1033
• Ana Rodriguez, on site at FAU Campus Protest: (561) 374-3268
• Maya, on site at FAU Campus Protest:  (413) 695-2249

Two “Tree-sitters” on the Briger Tract Forest in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida suspend 30 feet in the air holding a banner reading to all of northbound traffic on Florida Interstate I-95 to highlight their concerns regarding the FAU Scripps Bio-technology.

Law Enforcement with the Florida Department of Transportation and City of Palm Beach Gardens arrived at approximately 9 am to the site located on the northbound side of I-95 just south of the Donald Ross exit.

FDOT and PBG Gardens police have told the FAU Alumni “tree-sitters” to leave the site or risk imminent arrest. The two FAU Alumni remain suspended 30 foot high from pine trees, holding a banner that reads “Defend These Forests”.

The tree-sitters sited on-going concerns about the proposed development which their group, Everglades Earth First, has been voicing at City and County public meetings over the past year.

One tree-sitter commented “As an FAU Graduate and Palm Beach County resident I am dismayed at the lack of protection for the Endangered Species on the FAU Scripps development site.  The Scripps “bio-tech city” plan promotes sprawl and will destroy endangered species located on the Briger Tract Forest.  We have tried legal means to protect the site, but the developers and politicians have ignored our concerns.  If the state and county refuse to protect endangered species then we must take action to preserve the remaining natural beauty of Florida.”

Further comment from the tree-sitters is available through the media contact.  The tree-sitters and their banner are visible from Northbound I-95, at the Donald Ross exit adjacent to proposed “biotech city” of the Scripps Research Institute.

In conjunction with the tree-sit, forty protesters are currently converged at the existing FAU/Scripps Florida building located at 120 Scripps Way on the FAU Honors Campus.  City of Jupiter police and FAU campus police are on site at the protest and have briefly detained at least one person.

“The Scripps Bio-tech City development violates the Palm Beach Gardens Comprehensive Plan.  said Ana Rodriguez on-site at the FAU/Scripps protest.  The government’s approval of Scripps’ Bio-tech city demonstrates that they are unwilling to protect critical habitat for Endangered Species.  We are concerned about the environmental impacts of the development and the hazards of bio-technology.  With bio-technology comes genetic engineering, infectious diseases and animal testing in our backyard.”

Bio-technology has been a controversial science receiving critique from farmers, the scientific community and residents globally.

The group says that the action marks the beginning of a collaborative campaign to stop the clearing of the Briger Forest, on the ground and in the treetops. Earth First! activists plan to maintain a presence on the site to ensure no endangered species habitat is destroyed, and no animals are abused in the proposed vivisection labs.

Protest at FAU to protect Briger Tract Forest

Protest for Briger Tract Forest from Scripps Bio Tech City

The view of the Florida Tree Sitters from I-95

Casting Call for Innovative Variety Show in Downtown Lake Worth!!!

Casting Call for Innovative Variety Show in Downtown Lake Worth

Casting Call for Innovative Variety Show in

Downtown Lake Worth!!!

We are looking for entertainers and artists of all genres to help create this project but to also showcase their talent. If you are interested please contact me and we can arrange a time for you to perform, or if you have any questions about the project please don’t hesitate to ask.

If you are interested Please contact 561-503-5743

Choreographers

Dancers

Musicians

Writers

Poets & Spoken Word

Multi-media artists

Burlesque Entertainers

Vaudeville

Actors

Drag Queens

Drag Kings

Location:

The Luna Lounge

129 Federal Highway

Lake Worth, FL 33460

561-503-5743

Oil reaches Louisiana shores

A dragonfly tries to clean itself as it is stuck to marsh grass covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in Garden Island Bay on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana near Venice on Tuesday, May 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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A Greenpeace activist steps through oil on a beach along the Gulf of Mexico on May 20, 2010 near Venice, Louisiana. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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A ship’s wake cuts through a pattern of oil near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico Monday, May 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) #

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Oil reaches the marshlands on the northeast pass of the Mississippi Delta May 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace) #

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A dead Northern Gannet covered in oil lies along Grand Isle Beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana May 21, 2010. A member of Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research tagged the spot of the location of the incident. (REUTERS/Sean Gardner) #

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A BP cleanup worker rakes oil from the beach on May 22, 2010 on Elmer’s Island, Louisiana. Authorities closed the popular tourist beach to the public and media wishing to visit the beach must be escorted by a BP official. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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Oil cleanup workers bring in a load of contaminated oil-absorbent booms from the Gulf of Mexico on May 20, 2010 near Venice, Louisiana. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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Bridget Hargrove of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, her four-year-old son Ayden and one-year-old daughter, Emma, wade in baby pools away from the oil contaminated Gulf of Mexico on Grand Isle beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana on May 21, 2010. Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle said the town has closed its beach effective from noon Friday due to the presence of oil on the beach. (REUTERS/Sean Gardner) #

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Specks of oil stick onto the foot of Maggie Grace Hurdle, 8, of Rosedale, Louisiana, as she walks along a beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana May 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Sean Gardner) #

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A reddish egret, its legs and tail feathers coated with oil, flies above the water in Grand Isle, Louisiana, May 20, 2010. (U.S. Coast Guard photo/Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley) #

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Natural gas siphoned from the BP oil leak burns off on the Discover Enterprise on May 21, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. Ultra-deepwater rigs and other equipment are being assembled at the site, preparing for a procedure called a “top kill” that BP hopes will stop the flow of oil from the well. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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Natural gas from the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhead is burned off by the drillship Discoverer Enterprise May 16, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast Louisiana. (Patrick Kelley/U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images) #

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Collected oil burns on the water in this aerial view seven miles northeast of the Deepwater Horizon site over the Gulf of Mexico, May 18, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace) #

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Oil is seen on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico about six miles southeast of Grand Isle, Louisiana May 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Sean Gardner) #

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Protective booms surround islands near mouth of the Mississippi River south of Venice, Louisiana from an oil spill Monday, May 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) #

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Oil floats around booms and through marshlands of the Mississippi Delta on May 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace) #

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Maura Wood, Senior Program Manager of Coastal Louisiana Restoration for the National Wildlife Federation takes a sample of water in a heavily oiled marsh near Pass a Loutre, Louisiana on May 20, 2010. (REUTERS/Lee Celano) #

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An oil-stained pelican leaves its nest as oil washes ashore on an island that is home to hundreds of brown pelican nests as well at terns, gulls and roseated spoonbills in Barataria Bay just inside the the coast of Louisiana, Saturday, May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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A Plaquemines Parish employee lays oil absorbent boom as pelicans leave their nests on an island in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Saturday, May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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A Louisiana Fish and Wildlife officer unsuccessfully pursues an oil soaked pelican in Barataria Bay, Louisiana on Sunday, May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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An oil-soaked pelican takes flight after Louisiana Fish and Wildlife employees tried to corral him on an island in Barataria Bay on Sunday, May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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Oil is scooped out of a marsh impacted by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in Redfish Bay along the coast of Louisiana, Saturday, May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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A sheen of oil sits on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico close to the site of the BP oil spill as a boat uses a containment boom to gather the oil to be burned off approximately 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana May 18, 2010 (REUTERS/Hans Deryk) #

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Crews try to clean an island covered in oil on the south part of East Bay May 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace) #

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A BP cleanup crew removes oil from a beach on May 23, 2010 at Port Fourchon, Louisiana. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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An oil-covered crab crawls past a blob of oil on the beach on May 22, 2010 on Grand Isle, Louisiana. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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A boat travels between marsh and oil-stained boom near the mouth of the Mississippi River south of Venice, Louisiana Wednesday, May 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) #

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Oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is seen clumped on roseau cane in the Northeast Pass of the Mississippi River on the coast of Louisiana near Venice, Tuesday, May 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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A ship maneuvers and sprays water near a rig in heavy surface oil in this aerial view over the Gulf of Mexico May 18, 2010, as oil continues to leak from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. (REUTERS/Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace) #

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These Kemp’s Ridley turtles, photographed on May 23rd, 2010, are considered the smallest marine turtles in the world and are being held at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts because they cannot be released in the wild, due in part to the Gulf Coast oil spill. (Dina Rudick/Boston Globe) #

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The sun rises over an oil-soaked beach on May 23, 2010 on Grand Isle, Louisiana. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

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Greenpeace Senior Campaigner Lindsey Allen attempts to save a small crab covered in oil walking along the shore of the breakwater in the mouth of the Mississippi River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, May 18, 2010. (REUTERS/Sean Gardner/Greenpeace) #

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An outboard boat motor breaks up a thick layer of oil as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser toured the oil-impacted marsh of Pass a Loutre on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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A shrimp boat is used to collect oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana on May 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) #

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Volunteers from the Grassroots Mapping project made a trip in a small boat (upper left) to the the Chandeleur Islands near Louisiana’s Misissippi Delta on May 9th, 2010, taking with them a balloon (green tether seen at left) and photo equipment to help document the impact of the oil spill. Public domain photo provided by Jeff Warren and Grassroots Mapping project. #

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Dr. Erica Miller, a member of the Louisiana State Wildlife Response Team, cleans a pelican of oil at the Clean Gulf Associates Mobile Wildlife Rehabilitation Station on Ft. Jackson in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, May 15, 2010. (REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Justin Stumberg) #

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A helicopter flies over surface oil in this aerial view over the Gulf of Mexico, May 18, 2010. (REUTERS/Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace) #

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A young heron sits dying amidst oil splattering underneath mangrove on an island impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Barataria Bay, along the the coast of Louisiana on Sunday, May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

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Boat captain Preston Morris shows the oil on his hands while collecting surface samples from the marsh of Pass a Loutre, Louisiana on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) #

Two amazing conferences are coming up that will have some excellent speakers AND are affordable.  I’ll be live blogging hopefully from both and of them and also will hopefully see you there!

The first is the Feminism and Climate Change conference at Barnard College in NYC on February 27th.  One of my favorite environmental leaders, Majora Carter, will be giving the keynote address.  For Barnard students, the conference is free but for everyone else the suggested price is $50.

The second is the annual Reproductive Justice Conference from April 9-11 at Hampshire College. It will be my first time attending, but friends of mine that have gone in the past say it’s an unbelievable experience.

I totally forgot about my Tuesday’s ritual in all the excitement of having a fondue party at home with my friends, so today I give you TWO women, both featured in Yes! Magazine.  The first is Otana Jakpor from California and the second is Lorraine Kerwood from Oregon:

At age 12, Otana Jakpor conducted a science experiment on her friends and took her results to the California Air Resources Board a year later.

She found that just two hours’ exposure to an indoor air purifier diminishes lung function. The board added her research to its evidence, and approved regulations making California the first state to restrict ozone emissions from indoor purifiers.

Otana, now 15, attributes her interest to her mother, a severe asthmatic. Since she was a child, Otana has helped her mother and tried to figure out the causes of her condition. Today, Otana works for environmental justice and awareness.

Otana has presented her research at conferences as a spokesperson for the American Lung Association, and she’s met with the head of the EPA and congressional officials to advocate national regulations for ozone emissions.

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Lorraine Kerwood turned a computer-repair hobby into a community endeavor. She is executive director of Oregon-based NextStep Recycling, which provides computers and job training to disadvantaged and special-needs people, and sells refurbished computers and other electronics at two ReUse stores.

Diagnosed with autism in her youth, Kerwood taught herself how to fix computers in college. While a social worker for the Oregon Department of Child Welfare, she began refurbishing old computers for people who couldn’t afford them, mainly her clients.

Demand was so high that in 2004 Kerwood quit her job and expanded her computer operation to a warehouse. NextStep refurbished 700 tons of electronics in 2008 and expects a 34 percent increase this year.