Earth warriors are praying for a little precision volcanism to stop a proposed ski center expansion on the sacred San Francisco Peaks, Arizona's highest mountains. So far, these 12,000-foot sleeping volcanoes have been silent. But activists are making plenty of noise.
Arizona Snowbowl operates under a special use permit seven miles north of Flagstaff on Coconino National Forest land. "At this point we're using the system - consciousness-raising, the media and legal process - to stop this," said local Earth First!er Roxane George. "But we're prepared to put our bodies on the line."
George and about 30 other activists held a vigil on Snowbowl Road February 28 to remind a weekend crowd rushing to the slopes that the peaks are more than a winter playground.
Members of the Dineh (Navajo), Hopi and Hualapai tribes held banners that read "Help Save Our Church" and "Oppose Desecration." Tree-huggers brandished signs defending rare species that live on the mountain.
Some skiers jeered or flipped the bird; others waved or honked horns in tepid "support." Stern-looking civil servants in unmarked vehicles snapped pictures of activists and their dangerous signs. The sun smiled down on us all.
The protest was sponsored by Flagstaff Activist Network (FAN), which is also fighting a proposal to expand a pumice mine elsewhere on the peaks. (Arizona's Tufflite Inc. wants to enlarge its 90-acre strip mine so Americans can buy jeans that look old when they're brand-new.)
Snowbowl plans to "improve recreational opportunities" (and its profit margin) by cutting 66 acres of new ski runs, an "upgrade" in Snowbowl's terms. Native Americans whose deities live on the peaks have a sharper word for it.
"It is desecration," said Klee Benally, a young traditional Dineh and FAN member. "Having a ski resort on Doko'osliid (the peaks) is like setting up a skateboard park in the Sistine Chapel." In early February, the first of four prayer vigils for the mountain drew about 60 Native Americans and others. The next vigil is scheduled for spring equinox.
A 6.5-acre cut in the ski area was done in August 1997 (see photo above). The Forest Service says it sought but did not receive public comment on that stage of the expansion.
Snowbowl general manager J. R. Murray claims the new trails and a new lift aren't intended to attract more skiers, but to relieve overcrowding and shorten lift lines. In other words, the business wants to spend about $2 million just to be nice. Right.
Snowbowl's lease area is 777 acres, bordered on three sides by designated wilderness. About 130 acres are currently termed "skiable." The expansion was originally approved on the basis of on an environmental impact study (EIS) completed in 1979. Federal law requires an Environmental Assessment (EA) to update that study before the Peaks District Ranger can decide on the proposal. The draft EA will be released this spring. But, tree huggers say, the EA cannot adequately update the 1979 study. Grand Canyon Trust and the local Sierra Club have called for an entirely new EIS, citing changes in environmental law since 1979, chiefly the federal listing of the Mexican spotted owl as a threatened species. The expansion would cut old-growth spruce-fir forest, prime owl habitat. Spotted owls have been observed on the mountains, which also have strong populations of black bear, elk and deer.
If the Forest Service approves the plan, activists will probably sue to stop it. FAN is working with Tucson-based Southwest Center for Biological Diversity on legal strategy. The Endangered Species Act is an obvious tool, as are the American Indian Religious Freedom Resolution of 1991 and President Clinton's 1996 Executive Order, laws intended to protect Native American sacred sites.
Several hundred Navajos have signed a petition against the expansion circulated by Alfred Yazzie, cultural advisor to the tribe's Historic Preservation Department and a traditional healer. "We have prayers and songs that relate to the mountain," Yazzie says. "As chanters, we are charged to protect the mountain. We're willing to defend what needs to be defended."
The Forest Service tried to limit public comment last fall to a single weekday-afternoon hearing at Snowbowl two days before Thanksgiving. Enviros complained and got a second hearing in December, which put the issue on the front burner. More than 500 comments have been received, with more than 2-1 opposed
Pioneer ecologist C. Hart Merriam completed the first biological survey in the Western US on the San Francisco Peaks in 1889. He found a unique biological island that includes several life zones, including Arizona's only alpine tundra. Thirty-eight plant species living on the mountain exist nowhere else in Arizona.
The fight for the peaks is an old one. Developers with Aspen-style wet dreams were overwhelmed by public opposition in the early 1970s when they pushed for a luxury condo "base village" and golf course on Hart Prairie, at the foot of the ski terrain.
Lawsuits based on religious freedom statutes, filed by Navajo and Hopi groups, failed to block expansion of the ski area in the early 1980s. A series of appeals and reversals ended in 1984 when the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Letters opposing the Snowbowl expansion/Peaks desecration should be directed to John Nelson, Peaks Ranger District, 5075 N. Highway 89, Flagstaff AZ, 86004. For information contact Flagstaff Activist Network, POB 429, Flagstaff AZ, 86002; e-mail: avb@dana.ucc.nau.edu.