Support Urgently Needed for Earth First! Arrestees in Florida

On Saturday, January 10 of this year, seventeen Earth First! activists were arrested for entering the Barley Barber Swamp to demand the protection of Florida old growth ecosystems. The Barley Barber Swamp is one of the few remaining old growth cypress swamps in the Southeast. Several of the bald cypress trees in Barley Barber are over a thousand years old. They are the oldest in Florida and the entire Southeast region.

(click here to see a short video clip of Barley Barber and the 1100 year old bald cypress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUSjf4sdLNI )

Barley Barber Swamp is being killed by the massive 3750 megaWatt Martin County power plant that hovers over it and the seventeen mile cooling pond that surrounds it.

Following a five day standoff, six activists entered the swamp through a public waterway and chained themselves to trees. Eleven other activists were swept up by the police in a frivolous attempt to quell the protest. Currently, Everglades Earth First! is confronted with the immediate need to raise $18,000 to bail these courageous activists out of Martin County jail.

Direct action is a community effort that goes well beyond the risk of arrest. It requires broad support from those who wish to see grassroots efforts succeed. We hope to go to the jail on Monday with the funds to bail all seventeen activists out. We know times are tough but if everyone pitches in we can ensure that these folks don't sit in jail for the next thirty days. Can you contribute to this effort? Just go to our website at http://www.evergladesearthfirst.org/ and click on the "Donate" paypal link on the left hand side of the page or make out a check to Everglades Earth First and send it to 822 N C Street, Lake Worth, FL 33460

Another form of support that we would like to ask for is that those concerned call FPL and demand that they drop all charges against the Barley Barber 17 and that they reopen the Barley Barber Swamp to scientific and public scrutiny. Call 305-552-3888.

Any funding raised beyond bail will go towards the legal battle that we will carry out to fundamentally change the status of Barley Barber and to ensure its protection and public access much like the battles over Fisheating Creek in the 90's.

(See http://www.earthjustice.org/about_us/our_stories/a-snake-in-the-kitchen.html for more information about Fisheating Creek. The parallels between this story and ours give up hope!)

Click here to a video on the standoff on the mainstream news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNKUxy_zevI

For Love and Wild Liberty,

Everglades Earth First!