Activist climbs 80-foot-tall tree in Lincoln and refuses to come down in protest of pipeline company's plans to cut down trees near Cambridge reservoir

A new group called Protect the Lincoln Forest launched itself early this morning when a member climbed up a tree on a quarter-acre site off Rte. 2 and created a "tree-sit" to protest an agreement between Cambridge and a Texas pipeline company to cut down at least 24 trees on a lot meant to protect a major Cambridge reservoir - so the company can park trucks and equipment there while it replaces a pipeline facility next door.

Cambridge, which owns the lot as part of the reservoir watershed, had initially refused to sign off on the tree chopping, but then Algonquin Gas Transmission of Houston - also known locally as Enbridge - sued, citing a federal law that gives pipeline companies the right to simply take property by eminent domain, something normally reserved for government entities.

At first, Cambridge asked the judge to block any work until it and the town of Lincoln could get assurances the tree cutting would harm neither the city's reservoir nor the town's conservation easement on the parcel. But last month, Cambridge and Algonquin reached a deal under which the company said it would try to cut down only 23 trees, but maybe as many as 40, to plant new trees and to take care of the trees - including doing weeding - for three years.

Protect the Lincoln Forest, however, says Lincoln was not made part of negotiations and that, in any case, the work on a neighboring "meter and regulator" station, which is supposed to measure natural gas and keep it at the proper pressure as it flows towards Cambridge, is really part of a much larger company plan, called "Project Maple," to increase the supply and use of fracked gas in the Boston area.

Enbridge is once again showing its true colors as a bad neighbor, disregarding the Town of Lincoln, the City of Cambridge, and the Commomwealth of Massachusetts and all their residents. Enbridge's ecocide is well known to water and climate protectors at Line 3, Line 5, the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline, the Weymouth Compressor. Now Cambridge, Lincoln and communities across the Northeast are under threat by Enbridge's Project Maple. With our voices and our bodies we have a chance to save this magnificent forest and the precious biodiversity it nurtures. In honor of the spirit of forest protector Tortuguita and in solidarity with all of those who continue to fight for the decolonization of Indigenous land, please come to bear witness and protect the forest.

The unidentified group member said in a statement the action is part of a larger effort against militarism, colonialism and Zionism:

All fossil fuel fights must be anti-militarist. We are not only against these individual projects, but the entire fossil fuel industry and the largest polluter on the planet: the US military. Solidarity to the protesters in Cambridge shutting down Elbit Systems, the Zionist weapons company profiting from the genocide of Palestinians. From the black birch trees of the Lincoln Forest to the Palestinian Olive Groves, glory to all struggling for a free and breathable world.