Saturday, September 8, 2007

The Name of My Mountain


I have discovered the name of my mountain. Behind me like a sentinel stands Mt Fagan. My house nestles with others on his broad shoulders. It is his face I see each morning as the sun rises in the east. In the evenings the gray-green slopes blush in the light of the setting sun. During the monsoon his face was shrouded in clouds or veiled by a curtain of rain. But when the rain passed the craggy face emerged once again, reflecting golden light.

However, perhaps Mt. Fagan will not be smiling for much longer. Even now plans are underway to deface his slopes. The W.R. Henderson Company wants to extract limestone from a site near Wentworth and Sahuarita Rd. according to the Empire-Fagan Coalition, while farther to the south and east Augusta Resource Corporation, a Canadian Company with no mining experience, wants to start an open pit copper mine that will be a mile across and 3,000 feet deep! This mine will be visible from Scenic Highway 83. It will destroy critical wildlife habitat as well as beautiful recreational areas. These mines will add pollution to our air, land and water. These plans will make a mountain weep poisonous tears upon the desert. Mt Fagan will be scarred forever. These companies will take their money and leave their mess for the residents of Pima County.

Questions

How much can our fragile ecosystem take?
Where will the Gila monsters go?
Will vultures rise on dusty thermals?
Will raptors hunt the fleeing mammals?
Will songbirds lose their voice in clouds of mining dust?
Will Mt. Fagan shudder with the blasting mines?
and when the Monsoon comes
will poison rain fall on the desert and run
down the washes to your house and mine?

If you want to help please contact http://www.scenicsantaritas.org/ or http://www.empirefagan.org/

Mining companies don't understand the voice of the Mountains, so we must speak for them. They don't care for the creatures that fly, hop or crawl. It is not their back yard that will be destroyed, it is ours, and it is not too late to stop them.

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