Bloomfield Couple Protest Pipeline By Hunkering Inside Wooden Possum

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Who needs a Trojan Horse when you have a giant possum?

Jane Califf and Ted Glick – a married couple from Bloomfield, New Jersey who have been together for 45 years – recently had a unique idea to raise awareness about a controversial gas pipeline in Virginia: use a huge, wooden possum to block construction crews from accessing the site.

On Wednesday, Califf and Glick locked themselves inside the wooden critter on Honeysuckle Road in Roanoke County, temporarily blocking work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Here’s some background on the project, according to its website:

“The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project is a natural gas pipeline system that spans approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia – and as an interstate pipeline will be regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission … With a vast supply of natural gas from Marcellus and Utica shale production, the MVP is expected to provide up to two million dekatherms per day (two billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day) of firm transmission capacity to markets in the mid- and south Atlantic regions of the United States. The MVP will extend from the Equitrans transmission system in Wetzel County, West Virginia, to Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company’s (Transco) Zone 5 compressor station 165 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia … As designed, the pipeline will be 42 inches in diameter and will require approximately 50 feet of permanent easement (with up to 125 feet of temporary easement during construction). The MVP project will require three compressor stations, located in Wetzel, Braxton, and Fayette counties of West Virginia.”

After being delayed for years by legal and permitting challenges – and seeing its estimated cost more than double to upwards of $7.6 billion – the project is back on track for completion this year. Supporters say the pipeline will help to meet a crucial need for domestic energy, the Cardinal News reported.

But according to opponents such as Glick and Califf – who have echoed the call that other protesters are making against the pipeline – it would have serious environmental consequences for the people living nearby, many of whom live in low-income, rural and underserved communities.

Califf and Glick said they are concerned about the impact that a fracked gas pipeline will have across 303 miles of Appalachia.

“We are taking action together as elders deeply concerned about the future facing our 3-year-old grandson, all children and all life on Earth,” the married couple said in a joint statement. “That is why we have joined with many others to stop the destructive and abusive Mountain Valley Pipeline, as well as any new fossil fuel infrastructure.”

This week, they climbed inside their wooden possum – with a sign reading “Defend This Land!” – blocking the MVP’s access to the pipeline easement, a work yard and two access roads for more than six hours.

According to a statement from advocacy group Appalachians Against Pipelines, Califf and Glick were eventually arrested and charged with three misdemeanors. They were assigned bail for $3,000 and were released from jail later that day.

It isn’t the first time that Califf and Glick have put their freedom on the line at a protest. Glick, an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, and Califf, a retired teacher, have been longtime activists since the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War.

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In 2021, Califf and Glick were among more than a dozen seniors who were literally arrested in their rocking chairs during a rally in Wilmington, Delaware.

Blocking a street in front of JP Morgan Chase credit card headquarters, the environmental advocates held a peaceful sit-in to demand that Chase Bank shift its investments in fossil fuels to renewable energy to ward off a “full-blown climate crisis.”

• See Related: NJ 'Rocking Chair Rebels' Arrested At Climate Change Protest

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