Julia Trigg Crawford

Secretary

Farm Manager, Red’Arc Farm
Sumner, TX

Julia Trigg Crawford is the 3rd generation Manager of her family’s 650 acre farm in far northeast Texas. Purchased by her grandfather in 1948, Red’Arc Farm is named for the waterways that form two of it’s borders, the Red River and the Bois d’Arc Creek. Here on some of the finest land in the county her family raises Red Limousin cattle and grows wheat, corn and soybeans. Rich in archeological treasures as well, Red’Arc Farm houses a well documented Caddo Indian burial site within its boundaries.

In 2011 Julia Trigg refused TransCanada’s offer for an easement across their farm to build the Gulf Coast Section of the Keystone XL pipeline, so the land was taken through eminent domain. She appealed that condemnation all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. Even though that appeal was denied she continues to fight for property rights and eminent domain reform. Along the way she has testified to the U.S. Congress on federal eminent domain legislation, spoken out many times in Austin to the Texas Legislature, was arrested in front of the White House, joined with Native American and First Nations Peoples in protest, supported landowners in other states challenging pipelines and eminent domain abuse, and proudly stands at the ready to help wherever her story and experiences are needed.

A graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.A, Journalism, Julia Trigg was also a four-year letterman and Captain of the Women’s Basketball team. She lives and works in Direct, Texas, a community of 70 on the outskirts of Paris (Texas, that is).

Michele Fetting

Member

Program Manager, Breathe Project
Pittsburgh, PA

Michele is the Program Manager at the Breathe Project where she supports strategic campaigns to protect communities from air pollution, gas drilling and petrochemical development. She has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including work on campaigns and policies to protect U.S. farmland, the Florida Everglades and Gulf Coast, air and water quality and endangered wildlife. She has a deep commitment to environmental justice and building a clean energy economy. Michele co-authored The Challenge of the Environmental City: A Pittsburgh Case Study, a chapter in the book Toward Sustainable Communities(MIT Press), and her work has been published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Naples Daily News, the Philadelphia Enquirer, GoWorldTravel, American Birding and NEXTpittsburgh.

Michele has a BA in Journalism from Ohio State University and a Master’s in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. During graduate school, Michele worked in Kenya on a USAID project to improve nutrition and decrease childhood mortality, and improve the economic status of women. She remains deeply committed to women’s issues and access to healthy food in all communities.

Michele serves on the Board of Directors of the Climate Institute, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, P3R/Pittsburgh Marathon, Friends of the Riverfront and FracTracker Alliance. Michele can often be found running the trails or paddling the rivers around Pittsburgh.

Phil Pritchard

Member

Retired Environmental Professional
Asheville, NC

Phil is an environmental advocate, deeply influenced by the Lakota Sioux philosophy that we do not inherit this land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

His academic background includes a BA from Princeton, biology major. Work experience includes service in the United States Navy Supply Corps, promotion and fund raising for educational television, various teaching positions, drug abuse prevention programs for the United States Government, owner of a retail crafts store in the Finger Lakes of New York which featured area crafts and health foods along with a Finger Lakes Bed and Breakfast, and various positions in real estate.

He left real estate to work for The Nature Conservancy in South Florida where he negotiated acquisition of 50,000 acres of preserve lands with a total acquisition cost over $125,000,000. More recently he served as Director of Development for The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), the organization dedicated to restoring this magnificent tree to its native forests through a backcross breeding program. While there he was instrumental in establishing the cooperative relationship with the United States Forest Service and obtaining the first Federal Government funding for TACF.

Christine Yellowthunder

Member

Teacher
Retired Social Work Supervisor in Child & Family Services
Wisconsin Certified Tree Farmer (Conservation)
Writer and Poet

“I was raised to understand that we are interrelated to all things. We need to stand up and speak when something is so wrong.”

Since late 2008, Christine has been fighting the silica sand mining invasion in the sparsely populated, unzoned towns in western Wisconsin, the homeland of the Ho-Chunk people, her husband’s family, and her tree farm. She has spoken publicly to educate residents about the environment and to challenge local governance, and has worked to document and witness, podcast, write, photograph and organize at the local level. Christine says collaboration with many local groups across western Wisconsin has been key to effective communication and the sharing of research and resources.

Frac sand mining feeds fracking across the country, stripping away the hills and forested land, usurping the aquifers, and killing every living organism in its path. The land will never recover. The side effects of frac sand mining on life are frightening: air quality is diminished, groundwater is contaminated with heavy metals (arsenic, lead, copper, etc), mechanical noise wracks the area 24/7, and sand blasting fractures walls and leaks Radon gas—a silent carcinogen—into homes. Local governments were totally unprepared to protect life and land. Everyone suffered under the guise of providing more fossil fuel.

Currently, there is a frac sand mining “Stand Down” occurring, because of bankruptcy and loss of cheap transport. Christine remains vigilant to the side effects and losses, and  continues to grow trees and write poetry, with hopes our children will remember the Earth as it was.