EEF! celebrates the Spring Equinox in the streets!
by Panagioti, EF! Journal
Last month, Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) announced that it would be putting land developer Kolter in the cross-hairs of its campaign against Scripps Biotech and the destruction of Briger forest in northern Palm Beach County. Yesterday, they followed up with a bold office demo and theatrical hell-raising. [Check out the local news coverage here.]
Even the devil came out to shame Kolter
EEF! was joined by members of the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition and Smash HLS, a South Florida-based anti-vivisection group. The demonstration, which included a menacing presence at the windows of Kolter employees, also entered the offices of Kolter and Kast (Kolter’s associated construction company) as well as their neighboring business, to let them know what is at stake if the Briger forest is lost.
A Kolter bulldozer aims for a young gopher tortoise
Though Palm Beach County politicians have declared the Scripps plan a done deal, Kolter has not yet closed on the deal to develop Briger. Likewise the South Florida Water Management District has not approved the needed Construction and Operation Permit (which requires presenting plans for protecting listed species such as hands ferns and gopher tortoises, as well as a hazardous waste management plan). The Scripps-Briger “Phase II” plan was slated to have begun construction years ago.
This condo costume came back out to the streets after having been created in the fight against Scripps back in 2005
This campaign against Kolter is only the latest stage of an anti-Scripps effort going on nearly nine years of organized opposition, when Jeb Bush first tried to ram through a scheme of biotech venture capitalism in Florida (funded by near $1 billion in corporate welfare hand-outs.)
Scripps Biotech was defeated in 2006 by a combination of protest and environmental lawsuits, after all the permits were approved and the developers (which at the time was Catalfumo famed domestic abuser and financial failure) had already poured concrete at Mecca Farms.
Joanne Davis of 1000 Friends on her trip with the New Times journalist who exposed Jeb’s original Scripps plan.
Over the next five years, a majority of the PBC County Commissioners who approved Scripps (four out of seven) were forced out of office for exposed corruption, with three of ‘em being sent to prison after pleading guilty to “Honest Services Fraud.” This County even landed itself a headline in Time magazine
From the perspective of having personally been there most every step of the way, I guess I would say “done deal” my fucking ass.
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Kids get revenge for the tortoise friend.