Re: They can't be serious

Our Mission - Western Watersheds Project

Western Watersheds Project has a link in its Board of Directors to Earth First!

The link:  Director ~ Dr. Bruce Hayse (one of the Directors of the Western Watersheds Project)

Bruce maintains a family practice in Jackson, Wyoming and has worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho.  Dr. Hayse earned Master’s degree in plant ecology from the University of Wisconsin before graduating from the University of Oregon medical school.  He  co-founded Earth First! a group that advocated extreme measures in fighting for conservation.

So, "Big Deal", eh?  Only if you understand the history of Earth First! and it associated "Strike Team", the "ELF".

In summary, Earth First! and ELF have a long history of "extreme measures" in the world of "environmental activism".

Some examples...

"Sabotage

Fairfield Snowbowl Ski Resort

Earth First! member Mark Davis was sentenced in Federal court to six years in prison for malicious destruction of property at the Fairfield Snowbowl Ski Resort near Flagstaff, Arizona, in concert with David Foreman, Ilse Asplund, Margaret Millett, and Mark Baker.[65] Davis had been charged with "using a torch to cut around the base of the top pylon of the main chair lift at Snowbowl on October 25, 1988."[66]

The resort attack, sabotage at Energy Fuels' Canyon uranium mine (6 miles southeast of Tusayan, Arizona), and attempting to cut down power-line towers leading to the Central Arizona Project aqueduct, were characterized as dress rehearsals for attacks on nuclear plants.[65]

Telluride Ski Resort[edit]

On August 10, 1991, vandals identifying themselves as members of Earth First! forced the closing of the Telluride Ski Resort in Mountain Village, Colorado using a chemical to write messages on 11 greens, such as "Earth First!", "Hayduke lives" and "Ron you pig".[67] In relation to the incident, the Telluride Times Journal received a letter signed "Earth First" stating that the ski lift had been sabotaged with a welding gas applied to the lift cable that weakens the metal.[67]

Aspen Pipeline Sabotage[edit]

A gas pipeline In Aspen Colorado was sabotaged turning off heat to 3,500 people on December 29, 2020. The perpetrators wrote Earth First! on the pipeline.["

The above exerpt comes from:  Earth First! - Wikipedia

The Western Watersheds Project, Earth First! and the ELF have, in the past, exhausted both legal and extralegal means in the name of their "enviromental activism", so it is such a small thing for The Western Watersheds Project to appeal to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have a snail used in their bevy of obfuscation and delay tactics to prevent the construction of the Thacker Pass Project.  

Don't delude yourself to think for one moment that their petition to have the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service list the Kings River pyrg under the Endangered Species Act is anywhere near the "bitter end" in this fight in their minds.

These groups are seasoned verterans of what they perceive is a war against the establishment and they view themselves as holy warriors taking up the fight that less steadfast and less committed "environmental activists" are either too lazy or too luke warm to do.  All of the other less committed groups are the "Sunshine Patriots" so to speak in their life long crusade.

This stuff doesn't end if/when Judge Du gives the go ahead for LAC to start construction.  In their view the present situation regarding Thacker Pass is nowhere near the "bitter end".

Spend a few minutes researching the past history of the Western Watersheds Project for a starter, but don't stop until you have also looked at past actions by Earth First! and the EFL.

Just sayin'

Okiedo