Two activists from Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice engaged in a tree sit have halted blasting for a second day at a Massey Energy mine site in West Virginia. The two sitters established themselves on platforms over 80 feet above the ground near the Edwight mountaintop removal mine above Pettry Bottom, within 300 feet of a planned blasting zone.

Two individuals on the ground were arrested and cited for trespassing, but later released because they are the primary line of communication to the tree sitters, who claim they will not climb down until numerous conditions are met by Massey.

This is the thirteenth non-violent direct action and protest in the Coal River Valley this summer. Others include the June 23 protest at Marsh Fork School where NASA scientist James Hansen and activist/actress Daryl Hannah were arrested, and a June 18 civil disobedience action where four individuals scaled a 150-foot dragline on a Massey Energy mine site and unfurled a banner that said, “Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining.”

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