MONKTON — After sitting in a tree in Monkton along the construction path of the Vermont Gas Systems natural gas pipeline for two weeks, Burlington resident Addie Herbert climbed down from the white pine on Friday, April 15.
Herbert was cited for criminal trespassing and released, the group Rising Tide Vermont announced late last week.
“I chose to stop construction because fossil fuels are forcing society into an existential climate crisis,” said Herbert in a press release. “Our neighbors in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New York have shown us that mass resistance to the corporate agenda works, and I want to build that resistance locally.”
“This action has been the most successful construction stoppage in the history of this ill-fated project,” she continued. “I chose to come down after two weeks because I felt it was important to join with hundreds of others at the Vermont People’s Convention this weekend to share ideas about how to take effective direct action.”
Herbert, a flower farmer, folk singer and activist, agreed to come down from the tree on the terms that her supporters would be present to ensure safety, and that she would not be arrested. She says she will continue to fight the pipeline.
“Since this pipeline was first proposed in 2012, our state government has failed the residents of Vermont every step of the way,” said Monkton resident Jane Palmer in the Rising Tide press release. “This June, we’ll be taking on the responsibility that the state has been shirking, and enforcing a public stay of construction, where hundreds of people are going to shut down pipeline construction sites across the project. Addie’s been an inspiration to all of us, and now it’s time to follow her lead and finish putting nails in this pipeline’s coffin.”