New Arizona Gun Law Targets Animal-rights Activists

The Arizona Legislature passed a new gun law that states walking into a hunter's gunfire will be fault of the person who gets shot, not the shooter.

With the passage of House Bill 2130, a person putting herself/himself in the line of fire can be charged with a misdemeanor. The law also forbids making a loud noise near a hunter about to shoot and expands the list of actions that constitute a class 2 misdemeanor for intentional interference, prevention or disruption of a legal hunt . The law takes effect Sept. 21.

Clearly, this new gun law is targeted at animal-rights direct action activists who have been using passive, non-violent tactics to protect Arizona's wildlife from hunters.

While the newspapers failed to look deeply into this new law, the fact sheet for Bill 2130 details that culprit behind the bill is the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) who want to stiffen the penalty for "interfering with hunters." The recent successful campaigns by Arizona Earth First! to protect wildlife from hunters - sandhill cranes, mountain lions, black bear, bighorn sheep, Gunnison's prairie dog - have driven AGFD to appeal to politicians for stronger laws.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals hears case Sept. 14, events

The efforts continue to protect the sacred San Francisco Peaks from ski area expansion and snowmaking with treated sewage effluent. On Sept. 14th the legal battle to save the Peaks will continue in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, CA. Support/Awareness events will be held in California and in Flagstaff.

FLAGSTAFF EVENTS:

Phoenix Earth First! Plans a New Campaign by Attacking Climate Chaos

Ever have an idea to stop global warming, but never knew how to put it into action? Can’t stand all our air pollution? Are you sick of corporations reaping huge profits while destroying the environment at the same time? Well if you said yes to any one of these then you will want to attend Earth First’s Climate Caucus meeting this Wednesday, July 19 at 7 p.m., held at the Willow House in Phoenix. All are welcome to attend.

Earth First! is standing up along with other groups such as Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty and Rising Tide in the battle against those destroying not only the Earth and it's species, but also the communities and people of the world they are in solidarity with. “An attack against this planet, its people and its species is an attack against all of us,” states Phoenix Earth First! Visit Earth First! Journal for more information or email phoenixef@excite.com

Creek's water used for hydro power for nearly a century

Full flows returned to Fossil Creek, east of Camp Verde and tributary of the Verde River, for the first time in nearly a century on June 18. Fossil Creek had been dammed in in 1908 to provide hydroelectric power to nearby boomtowns. Fossil Creek only supplied Arizona Power Supply (APS) with less than 1 percent of its total power supply. The creek is an important riparian area and is the home of many native fish. The freeing of Fossil Creek comes at a time when Congressman Rick Renzi leads a sham hearing in Pinetop to trash the Endangered Species and National Environmental Policy acts.

Full flows returned to Fossil Creek for the first time in nearly a century on June 18. Back-to-back celebrations took place that day—one sponsored by Arizona Public Service (APS), the utility that operated Fossil Creek’s dams, another hosted by the Center for Biological Diversity, who led the campaign to decommission the dam. Film crews captured speeches, giddy side conversations, and revelry at both events. The celebrations seemingly honored nothing more extraordinary than the flip of a switch. In truth, it was a big, joyful day for rivers.

At creekside, the play of light on water was more playful. The babble more insistent. The cool stream even more refreshing. People milled in the shade waiting for the waters to rise; they talked, laughed, and got wet.

Fossil Creek has always been special. But now everyone can see the creek in a new light, freed from the grief that seems to haunt wild places we’ve scarred.

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Earth First! Confronts the Arizona Game and Fish Department Organized Hunt in Northern Arizona

“This ain’t hunting...it’s just shooting.”

Each year, 45,000 Gunnison’s prairie dogs are blasted away by sport hunters. On the opening day of Arizona’s 9-month hunting season, Earth First! was in the killing fields in Northern Arizona to expose the senselessness and brutality of the hunt. Apparently, however, only people who kill animals are welcome on this land. After only one day, Arizona Game and Fish Department officials informed an EF! film crew that we were being permanently banned from the ranch.

The Gunnison’s Prairie Dog (GPD) is one of five species of prairie dog that inhabit North America. This foot-long, golden brown, colonial animal can be found in Arizona’s high deserts and mountain grasslands. Like all prairie dogs, the GPD is a keystone species, creating food and habitat for countless other species with its burrowing, feeding and excreting. A healthy prairie dog population is ESSENTIAL to a healthy prairie ecosystem.

The GPD has disappeared from 90 percent of its historic range across the United States. Of the suitable habitat that remains, 30 percent of it can be found in Arizona. Within the AZ territory only, the GPD has been extirpated from 98 percent of its former range. Historically, the GPD was found across four million acres in Arizona. Today that area has been drastically reduced to 100,000 acres. These facts strongly suggest that the GPD is treading the path towards extinction.

Forest Service Decides to Desecrate Sacred Peaks

In a conference call on March 8, Coconino National Forest Supervisor Nora Rasure announced a controversial decision that will allow Arizona Snowbowl Ski Area, located in the San Francisco Peaks, to make snow using reclaimed wastewater. This decision will also allow for an additional 66 acres of new trails, a 14.8 mile pipeline to transport the wastewater from Flagstaff to Snowbowl, and a snowplay/tubing facility.

Rasure's decision to allow Arizona Snowbowl to use reclaimed wastewater on the sacred peaks drew outrage from its many long-time opponents, who vowed to stop the plan.

"Ms. Rasure's decision flies in the face of facts in their own Draft Environmental Impact Statement, respect for ancient traditions and sound ecological and economic judgment," said Save the Peaks Coalition member Klee Benally. "The Coalition will be challenging this decision in hopes that her superiors will defend the mountain's natural and cultural values."

Leaders from fourteen Southwestern tribes who hold the mountain sacred met with Rasure in February at a summit hosted by the Coalition. They expressed their opposition to Snowbowl's plans for development on the San Francisco Peaks.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr.'s remarks underscored the mountain's great cultural significance and emphasized the severe adverse impacts the Snowbowl plan would have on Native peoples throughout the region.

" We want to share with you what it means when we say, 'the Peaks are us...it is Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Acoma.'" Shirley said. "When you build on it, 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.

Hundreds of Sandhill Cranes are hunted each year in Arizona - Earth First! hopes to get the hunt killed

Few Arizonans know about the thousands of Sandhill Cranes that migrate to the state each winter, and fewer yet know that Arizona Game and Fish issues more than 300 hunting permits to kill the magestic birds. Well after the November hunts, Game and Fish tries to redeem themselves by co-sponsoring Wings over Willcox, an annual fair where bird lovers flock to sunny southern Arizona to experience the sunrise shrieks of the Sandhills, as well as dozens of other birds.

Chuk'shon Earth First!, no stranger to Arizona's mountain lions, big horn sheep, bears and buffalo, added the Sandhill Crane to their list of threatened wildlife that need to be protected from sport hunters. EF!ers spent several days last fall hiding out in dried up cornfields, trying to keep the cranes from landing too close to nearby hunters. Then, armed with video footage and photographs of murdered cranes, they set up an educational booth at the Wings over Willcox festival to show fellow nature lovers something they probably didn't want to see ... dead Sandhills.

If the hunting of Sandhill Cranes, or any of Arizona's wildlife, gets under your skin, Game and Fish will have a public meeting in Tucson on February 2, 2005 where anyone can comment on the agency's hunting guidelines. The meeting is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. at AGFD Tucson Regional Office, 555. N. Greasewood Road.

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