Pipeline protesters arrested, tree-occupation stretches into third day

• Reid Frazier
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  Reid R. Frazier is an energy reporter for The Allegheny Front, a Pittsburgh-based public media outlet covering the environment in Pennsylvania. His work has aired on NPR and Marketplace.

A pair of protesters remained in trees Thursday as a deadline neared for clearing a path for a $2.5-billion natural gas pipeline.
Elise Gerhart, 29, of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, remained in a tree platform 40 feet above the ground on her family’s property. Gerhart and another activist are protesting tree clearing on the property and a judge’s decision to award Sunoco Logistics an eminent domain right-of-way on the Geharts’ land to build the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Three protesters have been arrested for defying a court order to stay clear of cutting crews. Among them was Elise’s mother, Ellen Gerhart, 60, who was released Wednesday.
Ellen Gerhart said she had come onto the right-of-way Wednesday morning to warn the chainsaw crew about cutting too close to the tree her daughter was in.
“If they’d cut those trees down, it could have endangered her life,” she says. Gerhart says all but a dozen trees were cut down along the three-acre right-of-way. “We held them off from whacking everything. This is wrong, and you have to stand up to it.” Read more from The Allegheny Front.

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