Unicorn Riot

Blockading the Mountain Valley Pipeline: An Interview with ‘Nutty’

Giles County, VA – On Wednesday, May 23, a forest defender using the pseudonym ‘Nutty’ came down from her aerial blockade after halting construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for 57 days. However, before Nutty came down, another forest defender named fern Macdougal deployed another ‘skypod’ aerial blockade nearby on May 21 to continue to block MVP machinery.The ‘monopod’ (a small tent on top of a single pole suspended with anchors tied to surrounding trees) occupied by Nutty had obstructed the passage of vehicles up the forest service road – now obstructed by fern Macdougal. Fern’s blockade is three miles up the Forest Service’s ‘Pocahontas Road’ from where Nutty’s stand had been – effectively maintaining the same blockage of vehicle access to forests further up the road, where additional tree-sits prevent logging operations from being completed.The tree-sits further up the mountain stand in the way of MVP’s proposed drill-site to bore a hole through Peters Mountain for the pipeline.