Tim DeChristopher

DeChristopher visited Wendell Berry at his home in Kentucky in summer 2019. Their conversation appeared in Orion Magazine in March 2020 entitled "To Live and Love with a Dying World."

Prosecutor John W. Huber told the media that DeChristopher was looking for "a prominent venue for his global-warming show — a platform from which he could educate the masses," and asserted that DeChristopher had overlooked legal methods of protest. DeChristopher responded in court to the assertion that he could have filed written protests against certain parcels:

DeChristopher has expressed the need for similar tactics to end mountaintop removal mining in his home state of West Virginia. In 2013, he and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning, and DeChristopher spoke in the University of Vermont's Ira Allen Chapel. In a 2014 climate change protest on Wall Street, DeChristopher expressed his view that "[b]eing serious about tackling the climate crisis means we have to be willing to confront corporate capitalism and the system that is driving that crisis."

According to a Peaceful Uprising press release, in March 2012 DeChristopher was moved from a minimum security camp to a restrictive "special housing unit" because an email he sent to a friend contained the word "threaten," triggering an alert from the inmate correspondence monitoring system. DeChristopher was released on April 21, 2013, a day before Earth Day.

A "Special Treat" Q&A session was held following the 7:10pm May 17, 2013 "Theatrical Opening" of Bidder 70 at Quad Cinema in NYC. DeChristopher spoke on topics relevant to activist causes, his prison experience and why he plans to attend Harvard Divinity School in the Fall. DeChristopher notably described himself (for first time?) as an "anti-government activist". Notable among questioners was Gasland director Josh Fox. A complete lightly annotated cell cam video of the session was published on YouTube on May 20, 2013.

DeChristopher was interviewed on television by David Letterman on the Late Show on 25 June 2013.

Bidder 70, a documentary film about DeChristopher directed by Beth Gage and George Gage, was released in 2012.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros singer Alex Ebert recorded a music video "Let's Win" showcasing popular support for DeChristopher and scenes from a Salt Lake City protest in March 2011.

DeChristopher was named an Utne Reader visionary in 2011.

TreeHugger named DeChristopher 2011 Person of the Year on December 16, 2011.

A December 17, 2011 article in The Salt Lake Tribune named DeChristopher as one of 16 candidates selected by their Editorial Board to be named 2011 Utahn of the Year.

DeChristopher's actions garnered national attention for later government auctions of public land leases in the final days of the Bush administration. In January 2009, Judge Ricardo Urbina of the District of Columbia federal district court temporarily halted the sale of 77 parcels, citing BLM violations of environmental laws protecting air quality and historic preservation. In February 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar shelved 77 disputed lease parcels – including some on which DeChristopher had bid in 2008 — and criticized Bush administrators for conducting a "rush review" of the contested lands.

In a 2009 indictment DeChristopher was charged with two felonies: violations of the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and making false statements. He faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.

Timothy Mansfield DeChristopher is an American climate activist and co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising. In December 2008, he protested a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Utah's redrock country by successfully bidding on 14 parcels of land (totaling 22,500 acres) for $1.8 million with no intent to pay for them. DeChristopher was removed from the auction by federal agents and taken into custody, eventually serving 21 months in prison.

DeChristopher was born on November 18, 1981, in West Milford, West Virginia and grew up in Pittsburgh. After graduating from Shady Side Academy, he attended Arizona State University, and moved to Utah in 2005 where he worked as a wilderness guide for troubled and at-risk youth. As a guide, DeChristopher emphasized self-reliance skills and respect for the natural world. His interaction with at-risk youth groups led him to reject what he viewed as a political and economic system that concentrates wealth in the hands of a privileged few while ostracizing vulnerable and impoverished citizens in the U.S. This conviction later inspired him to study economics at the University of Utah, where he received a bachelor's degree in 2009.