On Thursday, Sept. 22, Land Stewardship Project members will be traveling to Boone County, Iowa, to stand with our allies, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI), against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Can you join us?

Energy Transfer Partners is trying to force through a massive (half-million barrels of oil a day) pipeline from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois. But resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline has been strong. In North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, thousands of Native Americans and allies have gathered to block the pipeline, which is now partially stalled. Our allies at Iowa CCI are leading resistance in Iowa and plan to block the pipeline’s route in Boone County, Iowa (about an hour north of Des Moines). Iowa CCI has called on allies to join them and we plan to be there.

We will leave Thursday, Sept. 22, at 6 a.m., from the LSP office in Minneapolis to arrive in Boone, Iowa, by 9 a.m. We plan to be back in Minneapolis by 9 p.m. We will make stops en route to pick people up. Contact me at 612-722-6377 or kdoody@landstewardshipproject.org to RSVP and for more information.

People are standing up against this pipeline and against an extreme energy extraction industry that profits at the expense of our rural communities. Fracking pollutes and depletes water resources, the fracked oil moves through rural communities via leaking pipelines and exploding rail cars, frac sand mining destroys farmland and pollutes air and water — the list goes on and on. This fight is part of the movement to stand up to corporate power and build healthy, sustainable and just rural communities.

Can you join us on Thursday? Some people plan to engage in civil disobedience, blocking the route and construction of the pipeline. We will be there to support their action but will not be risking arrest. Read Iowa CCI’s Action Page for the day’s plan.