Navajo’s Planned Grand Canyon Development Draws Concerns

"Some of the strongest concerns about the development plans have come from the Hopi Tribe. With the help of the National Park Service, the Hopi maintain, use and protect a Hopi Salt Trail leading to the Colorado. The Confluence is also the site of their Sipapuni, or place of emergence..."

By Anne Minard March 30, 2012

Photo above by NPS Photo by Erin Whittaker

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

In 1966 the Sierra Club exclaimed, "This time it's the Grand Canyon they want to flood," and asked, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" Perhaps the same can be said today when I comes to the development of this scenic & most sacred areas to the Hopi people?

Leonardo 

The jubilant announcement of a Navajo Nation plan to develop the East Rim of the Grand Canyon for tourism is getting a chilly reception from tribal residents of the area, the Hopi tribe and Grand Canyon National Park.

The president signed a memorandum of understanding on February 17 with the Phoenix-based development group Confluence Partners, LLC, formerly Fulcrum, LLC.  Early plans include a resort hotel, restaurant, a tramway leading to a gondola and an RV park. 

The development will be set within sight of the place where the Little Colorado River flows into the Colorado River, a place known as the Confluence and considered sacred to the Hopi, the Navajo and other tribes.

“It’s beautiful,” Shelly said. “It’s beautiful if we can get it done. It’s going to bring money, and it’s going to bring visitors here. It’s going to be something to see, something to visit.”

But as word has gotten out about the proposed development, concerns have arisen from both Navajo and non-Navajo neighbors...

And Kuwanwisiwma said part of the sentiment at Hopi includes dismay at what he calls a “political irony” on the heels of vehement public protests by the Navajo and other tribes against snowmaking for a recreational ski area on sacred mountains near Flagstaff, Arizona.

“On one hand, the Navajo Nation is very visible in trying to protect the San Francisco Peaks, saying it’s sacred land,” he said. “On the other hand, they should consider this area very important.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/30/navajos-planned-grand-canyon-development-draws-concerns-105638

It is time to Stopping Mining in the Grand Canyon?

“The Grand Canyon’s watershed is a complex groundwater flow system that extends miles north and south of the National Park’s boundary,” reports the non-profit Wilderness Society. “If contaminated by uranium mining, those aquifers would be impossible to clean up—a point acknowledged by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
From: www.HealthNewsDigest.com 


Just imagine having this sign replaced with the words: Welcome to Grand Canyon NP, do not drink the water.
Leonardo

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Yes, in January 2012 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the federal government was prohibiting new mining claims for the next two decades across more than a million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park...

In the face of increased uranium mining in the area, environmental advocates have been pushing for the prohibition to stave off the industrialization of the iconic wild lands flanking the park, fearing that new roads, mines, exploratory drilling, power lines and truck traffic would compromise the natural experience most visitors seek, let alone directly pollute and alter the region’s fragile ecology. Pre-existing claims can continue to operate in the parcels in question, but they will have only about a tenth of the surface impacts and a third of the water usage of what mining in the area would cause without the ban on new claims...

Of course, the mining and uranium industries in the U.S. are not lying down so easily. In February the National Mining Association, a trade group representing the interests of the U.S. mining industry, filed suit in federal court to try to overturn the prohibition. While the challenge works its way through the legal system, environmentalists can breathe easy as the ban remains in effect. But only time will tell how long they can keep resource extractors at bay in and around our national parks, especially in light of the lucrative revenues that can be made from uranium mining, logging and other destructive practices.

CONTACTS: Wilderness Society, www.wilderness.org; National Mining Association, www.nma.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Navajo Nation plans large-scale Grand Canyon development

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Generations of Navajo families have grazed livestock on a remote but spectacular mesa that overlooks the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. This is the East Rim of the majestic Grand Canyon -- the last with no significant development.
by FELICIA FONSECA


It hard to imagine resorts, hotels, spas and RV parks among the red rocks of the eastern flank of the Grand Canyon yet the push to "improve" the landscape seems to be moving forward.
Leonardo

by FELICIA FONSECA

AP Posted on March 24, 2012 at12:20 PM

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- Generations of Navajo families have grazed livestock on a remote but spectacular mesa that overlooks the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. This is the East Rim of the majestic Grand Canyon -- the last with no significant development.

But ancestral tradition and the tranquility of the landscape could be subject to change if the Navajo government's plans are realized for a resort and aerial tramway that would ferry tourists from cliff tops to water's edge.

The vast 27,000 square-mile Navajo reservation abuts Grand Canyon National Park, and tribal leaders say they're losing out on tourist dollars and jobs for their people by leaving the land undeveloped. Navajo President Ben Shelly recently signed a nonbinding agreement that lists the gondola, a restaurant, a half-mile river walk, a resort hotel and spa and RV park among the attractions of a proposed development that he says will bring up to $70 million a year in revenue to the tribe and 2,000 jobs to the impoverished reservation.

"We want people from all over the world to visit Navajo land and the Grand Canyon," Shelly said. "We have many of the world's wonders in our midst."

True enough, but the National Park Service already is voicing objections to the large-scale development on its eastern flank. Environmental organizations and some Navajos who call the area home also oppose the project.

"This is just one more thing that is going to chip away at the solitude of the area, and it's really not the appropriate type of development for that area," said Alicyn Gitlin of the Sierra Club...

http://www.kmov.com/news/national/Navajo-Nation-plans-large-scale-Grand-Canyon-development-144091076.html

Jets not affected by rules for Grand Canyon tours

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press

Posted:   03/14/2012 01:18:04 PM PDT

Updated:   03/14/2012 01:18:29 PM PDT

WASHINGTON—New rules planned for air tours of the Grand Canyon would not affect commercial aircraft flying over the park, under a measure approved by the Senate.

Photo by George Cuen

 www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

It is good to finally see both sides of the policial spectrum coming to an agreement on issues concerning America's Best Idea.

Leonardo

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press

A deal brokered by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., clears the way for the National Park Service to develop rules that set new limits on the number of sightseeing flights over the canyon while reducing noise pollution. The measure was included in a broad transportation bill approved Wednesday by the Senate.

McCain and Reid said they were concerned that passenger jets flying high above the park on the way to Las Vegas and other airports could be negatively affected by the Park Service plan, which is intended to increase the number of air tours over the Grand Canyon while at the same time making the environment quieter...

Nearly 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon each year, and tour agencies do a brisk business in offering helicopter and airplane flights over the park.

But hikers and tourists on the ground have complained that the aircraft noise interferes with the feeling of solitude and overall natural appreciation of the canyon.

The Park Service's goal is to restore natural quiet to 67 percent of the Grand Canyon...

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_20173230

Conservation groups, tribe defend feds in Grand Canyon uranium mining lawsuit

"A coalition of conservation groups and a Native American tribe are backing the U.S. government in its battle to block new uranium mining in Arizona’s iconic Grand Canyon..."
By Troy Hooper 
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Photo by Michael Quinn, NPS Employee

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Most people understand that radiation contamination is costly and can make some places (Chernobyl: is uninhabitable because radiation levels around the plant are still so high that authorities do not expect the area to be inhabitable for between 180 and 320 years) unsafe to visit. Thus, do we really want to take this risk with the Grand Canyon? Now I understand we are not talking about a power plant but what if uranium gets into the river or ground water - then what? 


"Japan's international-tourist numbers have plunged this year, hit by the double whammy of a record-breaking high yen and the lingering radiation concerns from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Eight months have passed since the devastating earthquake and tsunami, but many tourists are still hesitant about traveling to Japan. 


Connie Yang, a Singapore-based lawyer, says her family usually takes a ski holiday in the winter on the northern island of Hokkaido, but they won't be going this year. "We definitely decided not to come to [Japan] this winter due to radiation scares because we have young children, and [we] decide where we are going about eight months before our actual trip," she says. 


Many others likely have the same question on their minds: Is it really safe to visit again?"
By Lucy Birmingham / Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2099119,00.html#ixzz1p7Tx4QrT

The lure of the Grand Canyon

BY MONIQUE POLAK, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

"..many of those who take the first steps to descend below the canyon rim, something magical happens. Despite all the beautiful parks and places to discover on Earth, they’ll decide this is the place they have to return to, again and again."

 

www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

I have seen the Grand Canyon (over 800 times) from South, West & North Rims, and from the bottom (5 times) and from above. Each view has its rewards!

Leonardo

Across Arizona Tours

The lure of the Grand Canyon

 

 

BY MONIQUE POLAK, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

Most visitors to the Grand Canyon don’t stay long. They emerge from cars or tour buses to peer out from the rim and pose for photographs. Sometimes, they stay for a picnic or to have lunch at one of the rim lodges. Then they’re gone, the once-in-a-lifetime visit checked off their bucket list. According to Grand Canyon National Park officials, the average visit to this Arizona attraction lasts just two hours.

The Grand Canyon can be a disappointment. 

Viewed from the top near one of the visitors’ parking lots, the fissured network of buttes and desert plateaus that make up one of the world’s largest river gorges can appear almost like a two-dimensional painting. More than one spectator has called it overrated.

But for many of those who take the first steps to descend below the canyon rim, something magical happens. Despite all the beautiful parks and places to discover on Earth, they’ll decide this is the place they have to return to, again and again...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/lure+Grand+Canyon/6272073/story.html

Traveler's View: Republican Presidential Contenders' Dim View of Federal Lands Is Short-Sighted

* “I don’t know why the government owns so much of this land.” -- Mitt Romney, during an appearance in Reno, Nevada, on February 2.

I started this blog to warn the public that our National Parks & Monuments are protect only because we the people want them to be - BUT do not be fooled into thinking that they are safe for all time! America's Best Idea, can be eliminated by a few powerful people if we let them.

Leonardo A. Gem
Photo below by Michael Quinn

 www.AcrossArizonaTours.com

Submitted by NPT Editors on February 27, 2012 - 1:11am

Valley of the Gods in southern Utah is part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management landscape. Should it be sold off or given to the state to manage? Kurt Repanshek photo.

Though national parks, per se, haven't come up during any of the debates among the Republican presidential candidates, their statements on federal lands in general look down upon the public landscape.

* “I don’t know why the government owns so much of this land.” -- Mitt Romney, during an appearance in Reno, Nevada, on February 2.

* “I want as much federal land to be turned over to the state(s) as possible.” -- Rep. Ron Paul, during an appearance in Elko, Nevada, on February 2. Mr. Paul also has called for the elimination of the Interior Department.

Sadly, these views are shortsighted.

Were it not for the foresight of earlier Congresses that retained key parcels of land as states were carved out, we would not have places such as Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier, nor would we have invested in landscapes that became Acadia, Great Smoky, and Shenandoah national parks...

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/02/travelers-view-republican-presidential-contenders-dim-view-federal-lands-short-sighted9528