This summer the annual Earth First! summer gathering is happening in the PNW, near Chehalis, WA, July 3-9. We're going to have a group camp for Alliance members during the gathering!
If you aren't familiar with Earth First!, it's a decentralized, radical environmental movement that's been around since 1980. Operating without formal leaders or hierarchical structures, it champions biocentrism—the belief that all living things have intrinsic value—and relies on nonviolent direct action. Earth First! activists have been central to many forest defense campaigns across the PNW over the last 40 years, though most folks know of it in this region for tree-sitting and blockading logging on public lands (like the Warner Creek campaign, the 30th Anniversary of which is coming up in August).
The Earth First! summer gathering is an annual campout convergence of hundreds of eco-activists. There are workshops, skillshares, panels & discussions, and more! It's a great place to connect with others fighting environmental destruction across North America. We (the PNW Forest Climate Alliance) will have an informal group camp, so you'll be sure to see some familiar faces to camp and spend the gathering with. A volunteer kitchen provides three meals each day. It's a very free-form gathering--go to workshops and trainings, go for a hike in the woods, or hang out and chat with others working to defend wild places. You can attend for a day, several days, or the whole week. It's similar in many ways to the Deep Roots camps that the Alliance has been part of organizing the last few years, but with more activists from across the continent.
Also, the organizers are fundraising to support BIPOC activists from frontline struggles to attend the gathering; please consider chipping in a donation. Ensuring that BIPOC frontline community can deepen personal ties within a vastly wide network of environmental activists means we are weaving the web that is holding us together despite and in defiance of the ongoing desecration of our sacred earth.
Contact Alex (alex@forestclimatealliance.org) for more info!