Protect the Peaks! Week of Action – AUG 4-9 – Flagstaff, AZ

From Indigenous Action Media:

How long will we allow the destruction and desecration to continue?

Take action for Sacred Sites, Human Rights, Environment, Public Health, Community, Respect!

PROTECT THE PEAKS!
WEEK OF ACTION
August 4-9, 2011
Flagstaff, AZ

ALL EVENTS RAIN OR SHINE!
(Please come prepared with rain gear)

Thurs. 4th – BANNER MAKING – 5:30PM
At Taala Hooghan Infoshop – 1704 N 2nd St.

Fri. 5th – AWARENESS MARCH – 5:30PM
Meet at Heritage Square downtown Flagstaff. We will walk through downtown and hand out flyers.

Sat. 6th – DAY OF PRAYER – ALL DAY
Organized by Youth of the Peaks. Pray where you are.
A gathering will also be held near Snowbowl parking lot by Humphrey‘s Trail at 11AM.

Sun. 7th – MARCH FOR THE PEAKS! – 12:30PM
Meet and start in Wheeler Park downtown Flagstaff, AZ. Bring banners and signs.

Mon. 8th – RALLY AT USFS OFFICE! – 12:30pm
At Coconino Forest Service Office – 1824 S. Thompson St. Flagstaff, AZ (Near AZ Daily Sun off of Old Rt. 66)  Come on your lunch hour.  Bring banners and signs.

Tues. 9th -PROTEST HIGH DESERT INVESTMENT & CITY HALL!
PROTEST HIGH DESERT INVESTMENT – 12:30PM
504 E Butler Avenue (across from New Frontiers)

PROTEST CITY HALL – 4:00PM
Meet at Flagstaff City Hall on Rt 66 side.  Bring banners and signs, drums and song.

ADDITIONAL WAYS TO TAKE ACTION:

Join the encampments!
Join a current camp or start your own.
Come camp for a day or more, or just visit to support the encampments.

Donate supplies or funds.

MORE INFO: www.TrueSnow.org
Contact: protectpeaks@gmail.com
(928) 600-0856

Call for Decentralized Action in Defense of the Sacred San Francisco Peaks

A call for decentralized action from TrueSnow.org

Editor’s note: This came in over the email system with a request to post for all the world. This is from the second affinity group to form and start their basecamp. They are calling themselves wage slave.

Take to the forest. Set up shop and start your plans. It has never felt so good to take your own power back. They can’t stop you from camping in the woods – it is not illegal. Set up your basecamp now. Become what your heart desires. All walks of life in Flagstaff look to the mountain for all kinds of relief. From the most necessary medicines to a playful romp in the snow, she gives it all. It is time we give back. The earth cannot handle the strain we are placing on her and further artificial means will only hasten her demise. Help stop the madness now.

We hear you grumbling in offices, restaurants and coffee shops about how much like Mr. Burns (the Simpsons tv show) Eric Borosky is and how much you would like to tear down the ski area. And we know you are not anarchists or dirty punks or some overheated kiddies. You are just a normal old lady in her mid 50’s or 60’s who grew up with the mountain. You are a 30 year old mother of two who’s children are not guinea pigs. You are a medicine man who relies on the mountain to keep his family and community healthy. You are the 23 year old dude who just does not want a mouth full of toilet water every time he faceplants while snowboarding. You are the Snowbowl employee that realizes you will be forced to WORK IN POOPWATER EVERY DAY, and that is a risk nobody should have to take.

Organize now, before it is too late and we all have to live with the decisions of one greedy business owner who thought he could play god. If the mountain really is a sacred place worth defending, that time is right now!!!

Start an anonymous twitter page and start tweeting with the hashtag #nopoopsnow and we can start to talk to each other. Besides truesnow.org you can go to http://hashtags.org/nopoopsnow to see this hash’s feed. You can also make more hashes and use hashtags.org to aggregate them on the fly and see how it all works.

Decentralize…mobilize…take your power back!

Clear-cutting has begun on the Holy San Francisco Peaks

Take Action Now!

FLAGSTAFF, AZ — Owners of Arizona Snowbowl ski area have started clear-cutting rare alpine forest for new ski runs on the Holy San Francisco Peaks.  According to an Environmental Impact Statement more than 74 acres are slated to be cut.  Owners and operators of Arizona Snowbowl began partial development of a 14.8 mile pipeline last month.

If completed, the pipeline will transport up to 180 million gallons of treated sewage effluent from the City of Flagstaff to the ski area for snowmaking.

The treated sewage has been proven to contain contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and hormones. Currently this matter is subject of a lawsuit asserting that the Forest Service, who manages the Peaks as public lands, did not test or seriously consider impacts if humans ingest the fake snow.  Snowbowl started development in May even though the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to make a decision on the current case.

Development of the pipeline was temporarily halted on June 16th when six individuals locked themselves inside the pipeline trench and to construction equipment.  After holding off construction for nearly 5 hours, the direct action ended with the arrests of those involved.

The San Francisco Peaks are held holy by more than 13 Indigenous Nations.  Former Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. made the point clear when the Forest Service initially approved the development in 2004, “When you build on [The Peaks], when you talk about putting wastewater on it, you are desecrating our life. You are chipping away at our way of life and committing genocide”

Please read the statement from the six protesters who literally placed themselves in the trenches.

For background information also see: Saving the peaks zine 2010 and saving the peaks zine 2011