Welcome Aidan, our new Environmental Justice Field Organizer! Also: Regional Pipeline Resistance Efforts

Written By Haw River Assembly

Hi all you Fierce Fossil Fuel Foes! 

I’d like to (re)introduce myself to folks as I step into the role of Haw River Assembly’s first-ever full-time Community Organizer.  I graduated from UNCG in 2024, earning a BA in Sociology with a concentration in Communication Studies. 

Inspired by my passion for education and love of the natural world, I began organizing my community around Environmental Justice issues and networking with local environmental groups.

Since graduating, I have worn “two hats”; representing both Haw River Assembly and 7 Directions of Service (“7DS”, Indigenous-led organization focused on environmental justice and grassroots power, operating on the ancestral homelands of the Occaneechi-Saponi in rural North Carolina). 

The mission of 7 Directions encompasses the seven directions of service: protecting Sacred Places, advocating for the legal recognition of the Rights of Nature, and establishing a land, language, and cultural center grounded in traditional Yesah teachings. As some of the original and continued stewards of the Haw River, the 7DS team and mission play a vital role in our community's success.  From various roles of volunteering, to interning, to part-time positions, both of these organizations have been, and will continue to be, immensely important parts of my life’s journey.

I want to say a huge thank you to Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck, Jason Crazy-Bear Campos-Keck, and my entire 7 Directions of Service Team for years of support, training, love, and radical acceptance. Through my work with Crystal and Jason, I've learned the importance of value-based organizing across lines of difference, centering frontline voices, and grounding environmental work in intersectional justice. I bring these values into my new role as EJ Community Organizer, grounded in coalition-building and cultural shifts toward environmental justice and Indigenous visions of the future. I remain radically dedicated to being a powerful voice for the lands, waters, and the interconnected more-than-human world.

From fracked-gas pipelines to data centers, community meetings with elected officials, resisting oppression and imagining the just, sustainable future we deserve, I show up and show out. Please reach out to aidan@hawriver.org if you'd like to discuss current justice issues in the watershed, brainstorm how we can cause some good trouble together, or just say hi.

Need to catch up on Chatham County's resistance to the proposed Enbridge fracked-gas pipeline? Check out some of these news stories: 

Feel called to action? Add your voice to our petition to oppose any additional fossil fuel infrastructure that harms our community's farmland and our future! 

Curious about hyper-scale data centers? Folks all across our watershed are resisting this extractive infrastructure and advocating for local municipalities to take the time to create strong regulations that protect our collective health and safety. Check out this one-pager tailored for Guilford County! (Flyer below.)

Are you in Guilford? Are you in Alamance? There's active organizing happening in these two counties! Email me to get looped in! 

Take care of yourselves and each other, 

~ Aidan Loretz (she/her, they/them) aidan@hawriver.org

Haw River Assembly Community Organizer & 7 Directions of Service Pipelines Campaign Manager

Communities Over Pipelines! Communities Over Corporate Profits!

Haw River Assembly
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