“Are YOU ready to SHAKE THE EARTH?”

This question is a direct quote from the Trident website, promoting its obstacle course race at Colt State Park. That goal, to “shake the Earth,” was achieved on July 25, 2015, when Trident sprayed copious amounts of orange paint on the wooded trails, claiming that permission had been granted by the Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Parks and Recreation.

This toxic paint is categorized both as a Class 1B carcinogen (cancer-causing) and Class 1B mutagenic (gene-altering) agent. Scaffolding was bolted into living maple trees; hundreds of marine invertebrates were killed when gallons of seawater were dumped onto dry ground; and large volumes of fresh water were wasted for a “Slip and Slide.”

Letters to DEM raising questions about environmental stewardship have yielded no responses. Photographic evidence was provided by concerned citizens, who documented the presence of paint-coated vegetation contaminating the wetlands.

Yet Trident has been given permission to conduct another race at Colt this summer. What environmental ethics are we teaching the children who observe this for-profit event? Are they learning that YOU should aspire to SHAKE THE EARTH? Is our fragile Earth not shaking enough already? Please consider this alternative maxim, if we are to be responsible stewards of our threatened planet: Think globally, act locally.

Deirdre Robinson

Bristol