San Francisco Peaks, Arizona (Page 2 of 2)

Sacred Lands, Controversial Uses

Skiing Snowbowl Ski Resort, c. 1947, prior to expansion. Photo 2205a, courtesy of Cline Library Special Collections, Northern Arizona University.

The San Francisco Peaks are sacred to thirteen Native American tribes, who strongly object to any development on the mountain. Nonetheless, widespread recreational use of the San Francisco Peaks dates back to the 1930s, when the Coconino National Forest built a ski lodge at the present location of Snowbowl Ski Resort, as well as an access road. Development of a full-scale ski resort with shops, restaurants and lodges was proposed in 1969, but community and tribal opposition rose in response.

In 1979, after years of debate, legal action, and government intervention, the Forest Service issued its final decision: a new lodge, four new lifts and fifty acres of trails would be added. In response to Native American protests, the Forest Service claimed that religious rights would be unimpeded, even facilitated by the ski lifts. Appeals to this decision went as far as the Supreme Court, but were denied.

In the early 1980s, Snowbowl underwent the approved expansions; today the resort hosts 30,000 to 180,000 visitors per year, depending on seasonal snowfall. In 1997, Snowbowl Resort proposed the addition of another 66 acres of trails, along with major upgrading of existing trails, stating that these developments are within the legal scope of the original 1979 Forest Service decision. However, the Forest Service, at least partially in response to continued opposition from Native Americans and conservationists, has ruled that before any new development is approved, a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be completed at the resort's expense. To date, Snowbowl has not begun this long and costly process.

The Peaks have particular spiritual and resource significance to the Hopi and Navajo. Both of these nations claim ancestral religious rights to the mountain. In the Hopi worldview, Katsinas (spiritual beings responsible for bringing rain and maintaining social and ceremonial order) live on the mountain, to which select tribe members make periodic pilgrimages for visiting sacred shrines. To the Navajo, the mountain is a physical manifestation of sacred forces and also a home to spiritual beings. Both tribes approach the mountain with the utmost respect, and only for ceremony or collection of medicinal plants. To the Native Americans of the Colorado Plateau, the San Francisco Peaks should not be used for personal enjoyment, economic pursuits or even scientific study, as these land uses betray and contaminate this sacred place.

The White Vulcan Pumice Mine

A highly controversial land use on the San Francisco Peaks has been the White Vulcan Pumice Mine, located on the eastern slopes of the mountain at 7500 feet in elevation. The 320 acres covered by White Vulcan mining claims are operated by Tufflite, a company that sells the pumice for preparing stone-washed denim, as well as for horticulture and making "redimix" and cement block. Pumice mining necessitates the complete removal of all vegetation and topsoil. The mine area covers 90 acres and is highly visible from many areas in the region. According to lawsuits files by the U.S. Forest Service against Tufflite, operations at the mine have violated the Clean Water Act and have destroyed five archaeological sites and damaged others, without legal clearance.

The White Vulcan Mine and the San Francisco Peaks. Image courtesy of the Sierra Club.

In 1998, a proposal by Tufflite to expand the mine in to an additional 30 acres served to unite Native Americans and local conservationists in opposition. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt joined the opposition in early 1999, and on August 28th an agreement was forged between Tufflite and the federal government to close the mine within 6 months, and guarantee full restoration of the site within 5 years. In addition, Tufflite agreed to relinquish all of their 49 mining claims, approximately 8000 acres, and withdraw their pending patent application to turn 20 acres of the mine into private land. Subject to appropriation by Congress, the government will pay Tufflite $1 million, and dismiss its pending legal action against the company.

The Forest Service has also recommended to Secretary Babbitt a 74,000-acre mineral withdrawal around the Peaks, which would prevent any new mining claims for 20 years. Finally, the Forest Service has filed a request to designate the peaks as a Traditional Cultural Property. This designation would permanently exclude mining on the mountain and is currently in review.

Research on the Peaks

Will Moir of the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station in Flagstaff is researching post-fire succession processes on the large Hochderffer-Horseshoe burn on the west side of the San Francisco Peaks. The burn, the result of a fire which blackened thousands of acres in the summer of 1996, includes both high-intensity crown fire areas as well as moderate-intensity fire sites. The study seeks to understand how ponderosa pine/bunchgrass communities recover after catastrophic and moderate-intensity wildfire. Despite the bleak appearance of charred black sticks following a major crown fire, native organisms and plants often quickly invade the site and recovery is underway. However, in many areas following these type of burns, invasive species are able to establish themselves, crowding out natives. The study will look at this colonization by non-native species, as well as the role of the pre-fire seedbank in post-fire succession.

The Forest Service is currently studying the factors leading to the loss of aspen communities on the Peaks. In the last thirty years, the number of acres of aspen has declined significantly. The two major causes of this phenomena are herbivory by the large herds of ungulates in the region, particularly elk, and decades of fire suppression. Elk and other browsers preferentially feed on the aspen saplings to the point that the young trees are killed. Fire is important for stimulating aspen regeneration as it creates the sunny openings that the aspen require to produce new shoots from the shallow root systems. The Forest Service has set aside 400 acres in the San Francisco Peaks district in which elk exclosures have been built to protect the young trees until they are at least two inches in diameter. Prescribed burning and other disturbance-creating methods such as cutting trees and roots to stimulate growth are being studied and to date have been highly successful. The Arizona Game and Fish Department is working in conjunction with the Forest Service to reduce the elk herd on the Peaks through increased hunting permits.

Other recent or ongoing studies on the San Francisco Peaks include a study of the paleobotany of the area around Walker Lake, and research into the decline of the southernmost Bebb's willow community growing on Hart Prairie along the mountain's western slope.

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--Researched and written by Shannon Kelly

Restoring Ecosystem Health in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Southwest. Restoration of ecosystem structure and reintroduction of fire are necessary for restoring rates of decomposition, nutrient cycling, and net primary production to natural, presettlement levels. The rates of these processes will be higher in an ecosystem that approximates the natural structure and disturbance regime. Adapted from a published journal article by W. Wallace Covington et al.

Changed Southwestern Forests: Resource effects and management remedies. Over 150 years of occupancy by northern Europeans has markedly changed vegetative conditions in the Southwest. Less fire due to grazing and fire suppression triggered a shift to forests with very high tree densities, which in turn contributed to destructive forest fires. Options to deal with these changes include prescribed fire, thinning and timber harvest to mimic natural disturbances and conditions. However, there are barriers to implementing these activities on a scale large enough to have a significant benefit. Adapted from a published journal article by Marlin Johnson.

Contribution of Roads to Forest Fragmentation. Increasingly, previously extensive, continuous tracts of forest are being reduced to widely dispersed patches of remnant forest vegetation by logging and road-building, but few measures of the effects of roads on forest fragmentation are available. This study looks at the importance of roads in delineating and quantifying landscape structure, including the proportion of the landscape occupied by edge habitat, and compares the effects of roads and clearcut logging on forest fragmentation. Adapted from a published journal article by Rebecca A. Reed et al.

Where have all the grasslands gone? Numerous ecological studies across the Southwest have documented the decline in herbaceous vegetation (grasses and non-woody flowering plants) while forests thicken and brush invades. Documenting the changes in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, ecologist Craig Allen considers the evidence that these patterns are tied to changes in land use history, primarily livestock grazing and fire suppression.

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