Illustration by Josh Hagler

Tuesday October 16, 2001

Sweat, tears, cold handcuffs.

Late Friday morning, 27 individuals were arrested and charged with class five rioting - a felony. It all started when the group of about 35 people representing various environmental and Native American organizations wanted to deliver a letter. Innocent enough. The destination of the letter was the Mirror Casting Laboratory at Arizona Stadium; the recipient was intended to be Mr. Buddie Powell, the associate director of the Steward Observatory.

This is where things went sour. The protestors reportedly forced their way past two UA employees into the lab. Not good. Officers arriving to the scene removed the protestors from the lab and instructed them to go to Speakers' Corner on the UA Mall. Good. But when they got there, back-up officers were ready to apprehend them. Then it all went down in front of the library. Not good.

So what about the letter? According to Roger Featherstone of the Mount

Graham Coalition, the letter was successfully delivered. It was a written protest against the two and a half UA telescopes already on Mount Graham.

Although Friday's incident was exciting, I didn't understand why those 27 people were willing to get arrested. Luckily, I came in contact with Dr. Robin Silver, a physician and photographer who is part of the Mount Graham Coalition. He has been part of the fight since it all began.

Now, it all makes sense.

It all started about 16 years ago when UA proposed to construct a large observatory complex atop Mount Graham, located 75 miles northeast of Tucson in the Pinalenos Mountain Range. A uniform cry arose from the environmental community claiming that the area was too unique - nowhere is there such a continuous old-growth spruce-fir forest. The San Carlos and White Mountain Apache peoples spoke out to protect the area because of its sacred value. A biologist also found a few red squirrels, previously thought to be extinct.

Thus, in order for UA to build its telescopes, it needed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other laws permitting the development. But UA knew it couldn't prove its observatory construction would be in line with the federal laws, so it went to Congress.

Silver, who has been fighting the university for a long time, believes UA bought Congress. Through the "ownership" of Jim Kolbe, Dennis DeConcini and John McCain, UA got exempted from those laws. A rider to the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act of 1988 gave immediate authority for the construction of three telescopes, an access road and "related facilities" on Mount Graham. These lawmakers, Silver says, were bought out.

UA didn't listen to the concerns of the cultural, biological and ecological community, especially when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - the agency responsible for the enforcement of the ESA - cowered to pressures from above.

In 1993, UA found itself at another roadblock. It knew it needed a scientist to say that the red squirrel would not be harmed. First, UA went to the biology department, but not one scientist agreed to do false science. Finally, in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, Paul Young was hired to do the work needed.

The ESA is designed to protect endangered species and their habitat while the NEPA states that all other alternatives to endangering species must be considered. UA wouldn't consider alternatives. Why? Because alternatives wouldn't be as profitable.

And again, in 1994, UA got its second exemption from the ESA and the NEPA. And again, it ignored the concerns of the community.

Only this time, more than 1,000 old-growth trees were cut down.

Last April, some frustrated individuals took it upon themselves to halt the construction. "Eco-terrorists" used sledgehammers and crowbars to damage construction vehicles and equipment and cut a power line that provided power to the observatory. This caused over $100,000 in damage and only set back construction by a day.

And now the Friday incident is the latest development among the groups protesting the telescopes on the peak.

Now comes the big question: Why is UA buying out Congress, as Silver believes, and causing such a ruckus for the Mount Graham observatory? MONEY.

The way it works: the UA Steward Observatory makes the lenses for the telescopes and sells them to the observatory. Then, it collects rent for them. All this cash includes getting a 40 percent payback on all grants the astronomers write.

Under our Constitution, we have the right to be pissed off. We also have the right to protest. Although the protesters' means of delivering the letter was inappropriate, it should not mask their cause.

Folks, UA is a disgrace. By digging into its pocketbooks, it has fragmented the environmental movement, silenced the Native American communities and stained our good name.