Save the Peaks!

Despite protest, the deadline stands for comments on Peaks snowmaking
View the article and picture at azdailysun.com
By SETH MULLER
Sun Staff Reporter
04/09/2004

In a tense public demonstration against snowmaking at Arizona Snowbowl, about 40 protesters led by the Save The Peaks Coalition gathered Thursday in front of the new Coconino National Forest Supervisor's Office during its open house.
Carrying signs with sentiments such as, "We don't desecrate your church, don't desecrate ours," the group was relegated to the sidewalk about 75 yards from the main entrance to the office.
However, a number of those who gathered wanted to go inside, and law enforcement would only allow them to enter the building in groups of five. The rule, which did not apply to people not part of the demonstration group, created unrest.
"I think this is an intense discrimination," said Janeda Benally with the coalition. "Everyone else is able to go in freely."
City of Flagstaff police and Forest Service law enforcement told the members of the protest group that if they entered the open house en masse, it would lead to crowding problems inside. The open house was set up during a two-hour time frame and the Forest Service expected people to filter in and out.
As the protesters entered the building in groups, Kelvin Long of Save The Peaks went in and was allowed to talk with Forest Service Supervisor Nora Rasure for two minutes. He also gave her a petition with more than 1,000 signatures.
"I expressed to her that this is a microcosm of what's happening globally to indigenous people," Long said of the proposal and of his conversation with Rasure.
Also, during the protest, Jones Benally shouted through a megaphone while standing on the sidewalk. He directed his cries toward the new building.
"Leave it alone! This is our sacred land! Forest Service, please respect our request! No yellow snow!" he announced in the megaphone.
Forest Service spokeswoman Raquel Poturalski said the agency will accept comments via e-mails and faxes dated up until midnight Tuesday for the record, and include them as part of the final study.
Anything sent through the mail must be postmarked by Tuesday, she said.
With the deadline of the public comment period looming, the Save The Peaks Coalition held the demonstration, in part, to seek a 60-day extension because of the size and scope of the study.
They also contend that some people on the reservation have limited access to computers, and therefore cannot comment by e-mail or retrieve the document from the Forest Service's Web site.
"The Forest Service has given us only 60 days to make comments on a proposal that will forever alter the mountain we've held sacred since the beginning of time," said Klee Benally of the coalition.
But the biggest concern of the grassroots group is the proposal itself, which calls for snowmaking at the Snowbowl using reclaimed wastewater from the city of Flagstaff. The Navajo, Hopi and eleven other regional tribes oppose the plan because they consider the San Francisco Peaks sacred.
The owners and operators of Snowbowl have said the upgrades, namely the snowmaking, are needed to keep the ski area financially solvent and operational. Persisting drought and the mounting cost of doing business have combined to create financial hardships on Snowbowl.
Supporters of the plan cite the fact that Snowbowl takes up less than 1 percent of the whole Peaks area and only one-third of the ski area's 777 acres will have snowmaking on it. Also, a court ruling in 1983 determined that the ski area did not infringe on tribal rights to practice religion.
While the protesters gathered outside of the building, a number of people went inside the building as part of the open house for the supervisor's office. The agency leases 29,000 square feet of the 49,000- square-foot, $5 million building at $550,000 a year.
It relocated the office from a building it rented in the Greenlaw area and nearly doubled its square footage to accommodate a growing human resources department that services four National Forest areas.
The protest in Flagstaff coincided with a press conference held by the Dine Mediceman's Association in Window Rock. All 147 members of that association signed a resolution opposing snowmaking during that conference, also held Thursday.

Reporter Seth Muller can be reached at 913-8607 or smuller@azdailysun.com. Submit comments to Forest Service

The public comment period ends Tuesday at midnight for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Arizona Snowbowl Improvement Project. To submit a comment to the Forest Service: e-mail comments-southwestern-coconino-peaks@fs.fed.us; write to Ken Jacobs, Team Leader, 5075 N. Highway 89, Flagstaff, AZ 86004; or leave a voice message at (928) 226-4601.

For more information on the DEIS, go to www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/publications/snowbowl/index.shtml