Ana Rodriguez of Los Teques, Venezuela (left to right), Rachel Kijewski of Port St. Luci, Fla. and Nick Stocks of Missoula, Mont. wait at the welcome tent for the 2010 North Woods Round River Rendezvous hosted by Maine Earth First! last week. (David Hart photo) COPLIN PLANTATION — The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming yet serious and focused off the Kennebego Road in Coplin last week. Three individuals waited at the welcome tent to the 2010 North Woods Round River Rendezvous, a national annual event hosted this year by Maine Earth First! Running June 29 through July 6, the international movement came to Maine to camp, rally and offer workshops on property owned by Basil and Harriett Powers.

Last Wednesday nearly 100 people had already arrived and 300 to 400 more were expected before the event concluded.

Maine Earth First! staged a protest last fall when it occupied the Land Use Regulation Commission’s meeting at the Ramada Inn in Bangor to protest LURC’s decision to approve Plumb Creek’s development proposal in the Moosehead Lakes Region. According to MEF, six people were arrested for disrupting the planned vote which gave a green light to the largest development proposal in Maine’s history.

Earth First!s Will Neils of Appleton, is the law enforcement and media liaisons for the annual Round River Rendezvous held this year on private land in Coplin. (David Hart photo) One of the six arrested was Will Neils who took the time Wednesday in Coplin to talk in detail and provide a tour of the campsite. Neils was in charge of media relations and law enforcement for the gathering.

“We want to make sure our security is efficient and everyone here is safe and everyone in the community is safe,” Neils said.

Neils talked about the amount of time they spend building allegiances with local land-based communities and protecting those community interests from outside corporations.

Sisters Megan Coyote (left) and Lorea Blanco are part of the Earth First! gathering in Coplin Plantation. Blanco has been a part of Earth First! gatherings since birth. (David Hart photo) Here in Franklin County the concerns are extremely important, Neils said. “It is as important arguably as anywhere in the state right now, because it’s indicative of precisely the resource extraction that I’m talking about. It’s very indicative of that attitude that multinational corporations have,” Neils said.

He referred to Poland Spring no longer being a Maine water company, but rather a European stock holding company and noted the three water extraction sites in the area.

“Then you get into what are they doing, what are they actually doing for their interests. It’s clear where their interests are. Their interest is acquiring a natural resource and acquiring perpetual legal title to that resource and the ability to extract it as they see fit and not how the community sees fit.”

The fight over privatized water is really important, he explained. That fight will be way more important down the road then the fight they’re engaging with industrial wind power at the moment, he said.

“I believe that the wind power situation is exclusively a scam.” He said he believes it’s a scam set up by certain sectors of production, A climber ascends a rope during a workshop on climbing skills offered at the 2010 North Woods Round River Rendezvous hosted by Maine Earth First! Earlier, a picnic table was hoisted high in the air. (David Hart photo)machining and engineering, and is a way to grab hold of federal funds.

He asked if it could be called “Green energy,” when there are miles and miles of dirt roads, the construction of massive 450-foot high machinery, in a state that is already a net exporter of energy.

In terms of jobs, Neils said he understood that many of the jobs aren’t held by locals. “How does this benefit the community?” he asked.

Biomass and waste to energy are also serious concerns for this group. Clearing woods for chips and selling this resource in the cheapest form possible for energy makes no sense, he said.

Asked what were some of the actions this group might take in regard to commercial practices in the area, Neils responded, “My god, we’re not going to mess with the local lumber yard in town,” Neils said. “I mean we all have lumber yards, my family has been lumbering for generations,” growing up in Appleton.

“I would draw a line in the sand. That line would say your local companies, your local businesses that employ local people, have been here for awhile and are trying to do the right thing for the local communities, and trying to survive most of the time… we’re never going to have a problem with them.”

The question was asked if other corporations would be affected.

“Here’s the deal,” Neils said, “for as long as I’ve been going to these events for over a decade… every year we come out of these events as a group and we go somewhere and we tell some people that they’re doing the wrong thing and they need to stop. I don’t think this year will be any different.”

He stressed that there was an understanding that anyone at the event would be on a very bad list if they screwed with anyone in the local community, referring to his line in the sand.

“We’re all hosts; it would be very irresponsible for us to have anyone do anything inappropriate to the local community.”

When asked, Neils said he didn’t know what they’d do with those they disagree with. “Sometimes we just talk, sometimes hang a banner that will make a statement or other things.”

“We’re never violent. That’s one of the biggest misconceptions about Earth First. That is a misconception that is perpetuated by the state. When I say the state I mean the United States and the federal government. It’s propaganda generated by those who don’t like what we do and what we represent,” he said.

Neils said that he heard that the border patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation and many others (in tan vehicles) were called in to the Stratton area which unfortunately gives the locals a chance to make an assessment about their safety, he explained. Neils asserted that it is these agencies that spread the fear in the communities they organize in.

Meanwhile workshops were being conducted each morning and afternoon ranging from rope climbing skills to primitive survival techniques, medical tents that informed participants how to use local plants, minerals and other natural techniques to treat sickness and a host of other topics.

Everyone was welcome to join Earth First workshops or to conduct a workshop based on their own individual skills or profession, Neils explained.

Many business owners in town reported that business was up substantially with the group in town. “Their presence has been here for a couple of weeks,” said Stephanie Bigelow owner of the Loony Moose Café. “My opinion is that we’re all allowed our Freedom of Speech and as long as they keep it to that it should be fine… Business has been great,” she said. Many businesses in the area were contacted but were reluctant to comment on the issue or wished not to bring attention to their feelings concerning the Earth First presence.