Environmental advocate Jane Palmer is trying to deliver warm clothes to Samuel Jessup, a Montpelier man who, for two days, has been up in a tree to make a point.

"He's in danger. I mean that's not really a safe place to be," she said.

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But Jessup said he isn't worried.

"This is a first for me and I feel good about it," said Jessup, who is occupying a construction site for the Vermont Gas pipeline as a statement against the project, "because this is what has to happen. This is what people have to do if we're going to be able to move forward."

Jessup and several dozen others from an activist group called Rising Tide Vermont have been taking action all week, staging peaceful protests against the pipeline.

"The decisions that we make today around global warming, you know, energy supply, will directly effect the world of my grandchildren," said Amos Baehr, a climate change sympathizer who attended a protest parade in support of Jessup.

But officials at Vermont Gas said this demonstration hasn't delayed their deadline or effected the project's $154 million budget.

"There is no stopping this project," said Beth Parent of Vermont Gas. "Our focus is being able to deliver clean, natural gas service to 4,000 family businesses, institutions, nonprofits -- all of these folks are waiting for us to get down there and that's what's keeping us going."

Troopers have told Jessup that when he comes out of the tree, he'll be arrested for unlawful trespass and that the longer he stays up there, he could face more charges, including resisting arrest. But Jessup said being arrested and spending over 24 hours in a tree is a small price to pay.

"This pipeline, if it's built, represents a kind of energy policy that is not sustainable and it's not moral," he said.

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