Last week MDN told you about two radical anti-fossil fuel activists who built tree houses in the Jefferson National Forest and are living in them (for now) in an attempt to prevent the trees and the trees around them from being cut to make way for the legally permitted Mountain Valley Pipeline (see Radicals Go Up a Tree in Quest to Illegally Block MVP Construction). Their strategy is to stay up a tree until March 31, when the trees can no longer be cut due to bat season–a prohibition on tree clearing to prevent killing a threatened species of bats that may roost in those trees (season lasts until October). MVP needs those trees to come down now, before the end of the month, or the pipeline won’t get built this year. On Tuesday a judge agreed, granting an injunction that says the tree sitters have to come down. Just one problem–when MVP reps tried to serve the tree sitters with a summons, the radicals refused to identify themselves or “hear” the summons, hiding out in their magic tree houses so they couldn’t be served. What can MVP (and the Forest Service) do now to get them out of the trees?…
