JULIAN — A pair of environmental activists made an appearance in jail after a protest at Massey Energy’s regional headquarters.

Sheriff Rodney Miller said his deputies arrested EmmaKate Martin, 18, and Benjamin Bryant, 24, as they protested mountaintop mining at the U.S. 119 offices of the largest coal employer in West Virginia.

Miller reports the two members of Climate Ground Zero were charged with trespassing, conspiracy, obstruction and littering.

He says they left garbage near their platform over the road in Julian.

In addition, Martin built a structure suspended 30 feet over the road and Bryant chained himself to the flagpole at the Massey office.

The sheriff’s department said the pair resisted being removed from the site. Miller also criticized Martin’s choice of materials for the structure in which she was suspended.

“We found it was kind of odd that folks that would be protesting to save the environment, save the woodlands, would actually go and cut trees, destroy trees, in order to build a device, in order to protest the removal of the woodlands,” the sheriff said.

Bryant said the protest was worth the arrest because “maybe we made people more aware.” As of late Monday, the pair were still lodged in the Southwestern Regional Jail, in lieu of bond.

Climate Ground Zero told reporters they are consulting attorneys regarding the $100,000 bond set by Magistrate Porter Snodgrass.

Prior to their arrest, the pair posted an open letter to Massey shareholders on the Climate Ground Zero website: “I, EmmaKate Martin and I, Benjamin Bryant, are blocking the road to Massey Energy’s regional headquarters in Boone County, West Virginia in order to spotlight and oppose Massey’s egregious safety, environmental and human rights violations.

“It is our responsibility to stand in firm opposition to Massey’s corporate behavior. We willingly face the legal consequences of our non-violent action, for we know we are not alone; millions in Appalachia and across the nation are coming to see Massey for what it is.”

The organization’s website describes their actions in this way.

“Climate Ground Zero is not an environmental organization; it is an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience in southern West Virginia to end mountaintop removal.

“Here at Climate Ground Zero we believe that the irrevocable destruction of the mountains of Appalachia and its accompanying toll on the air, water, and lives of Appalachians necessitates continued and direct action.”