Parliamentary Acts, Italian House of Deputies, XIII Legislature
- Appendix B to the Record, pp. 16031-16033 -
Session of March 26, 1998

MOTION IN THE HOUSE:

WHEREAS, Dzil Nchaa Si An, "Big-Seated Mountain" in the Apache language, known as Mt. Graham, in the Pinaleno Chain of the National Forest in Graham County, Arizona, represents a unique legacy of biological diversity in N. Am., being one of the few undisturbed "Sky Island" ecosystems of the Southwest U.S. and Mexico;

WHEREAS, this area possesses five of the seven vegetation zones of N. Am.., which go from desert vegetation to virgin boreal spruce-fir forest, a vegetative association particularly rare for that latitude;  Mt. Graham RedSquirrel (Tamiasciuris hudsonicus grahamensis), a species designated to be at risk of extinction according to the federal Endangered Species Act;

WHEREAS, 17 other rare and endemic plant and animal species also live on the mountain, among them: Microtus longicaudus leucophaeus, Thomomys Bottae grahamensis, Orehelix grahamensis, Scaphinotus petersi grahami;

WHEREAS, until 1873, the year in which it was removed from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, which had been created just two years before, Mt. Graham had since time immemorial a central role in Apache culture;

WHEREAS, also after that date it continued to represent a place of profound sacredness for the traditional religious practitioners who continued to perform their ceremonies and prayers in great respect for nature in the most remote and uncontaminated sites of the mountain, where the sacred springs necessary for the carrying out of their ceremonies are found;

WHEREAS, the University of Arizona is the promoter of a project which initially proposed the construction of 18 telescopes on the mountain's peaks, subsequently reduced to seven;

WHEREAS, the Italian State, by way of Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, is directly involved in the construction of the most important of the telescopes in question, called the Large Binocular Telescope, which will be the largest optical telescope in the Northern Hemisphere;

WHEREAS, the approximately four hectares (10 acres) assigned to the first three observatories are located on one of the principal peaks, in the zone above 3000 meters--substantially undisturbed before work on the telescopes;

WHEREAS, the telescopes are considered a real desecration of the mountain top by traditionalists of the San Carlos Apache tribe;

WHEREAS, the Tribal Council, the official representative body of the San Carlos Apaches, has more than once declared its opposition to the telescopes' installation, also by way of official resolutions;

WHREAS, eight of nine Apache tribes in the U.S. have approved an inter-tribal resolution (Inter-Apache Policy on the Protection of Apache Cultures) in support of the San Carlos tribe;

WHEREAS, numerous tribal councils and Native peoples' organizations have supported the resolutions of the San Carlos Tribal council in defense of Mt. Graham, among them the International Indian Treaty council, the National Congress of American Indians, the American Indian Religious Freedom Coalition, the Tohono O'Odham Tribal Council and six other Indian tribes;

WHEREAS, the environmental impact of the telescopes has not yet been definitively and adequately established, insofar as all the studies required by U.S. environmental laws have not been completed;

WHEREAS, three of the seven telescopes wanted by the University of Arizona have received "special" legislative treatment with exemption from a number of environmental and cultural protection laws (National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act), through an amendment inserted in the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act (AICA), approved by the U.S. Congress in 1988;

WHEREAS, tree-cutting work, in preparation for the construction of the observatory [LBT], was blocked by the District Court of Tucson in July 1994 (a decision subsequently confirmed by the Ninth Court of Appeals in San Francisco) because it was done outside the area allowed by the AICA;

WHEREAS, the Univ. of Arizona and the partners in the project went back to the Congress once again to evade environmental and cultural protection laws, succeeding in April, 1996 with an Amendment to the Omnibus Appropriation Bill, and obtained an exemption also for the contested site;

WHEREAS, the General Accounting Office, an agency with oversight over Federal bodies, officially declared in 1990 that the Forest Service should redo the environmental impact studies required by the Endangered Species Act--given the bias of the previous ones-- studies which were never done because of the 1988 exemption;

WHEREAS, between April and May, 1996, a major fire burned around 2500 hectares (6000 acres) of forest on Mt. Graham rendering even more critical the Red Squirrel's long-term chances of survival, and even more necessary the studies of the impact of the telescopes not completed because of the legal exemptions;

WHEREAS, the two exemptions approved by the Congress in the form of amendments constitute a negative legislative and policy precedent for the safeguarding of the environment, enough to mobilize some of the principal U.S. environmental organizations (Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, National Audubon Soc., Humane Society of the U.S., Save America's Forests, Defenders of Wildlife, Student Environmental Action Coalition);

WHEREAS, in August, 1996, the President's Council on Historic Preservation, the agency charged with oversight authority on compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, urged the Forest Service to determine whether Mount Graham had the requisites to be protected under that law (keeping in mind that the Forest Service was supposed to do that for some time); and to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places;

WHEREAS, the fact that for the first time respected scientific institutions are promoters of a project which doesn't respect protection of the environment and the rights of Native peoples is a strong reason for concern and worry;

WHEREAS, prestigious national [Italian] organizations have joined the campaign in opposition to the Observatory construction, including ACLI [Catholic cultural association], ARCI [leftist cultural assoc.], Legambiente ["Environmental League"], Italian Wilderness Association, Friends of the Earth, Italian Committee in Defense of Mt. Graham, the national network in support of Native Americans, and the Italian sections of World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and Survival International;

WHEREAS, numerous American scientific institutions, including the prestigious Smithsonian Institution and Harvard Univ., have withdrawn from the project, redirecting their funds for the construction of telescopes in places seen as superior;

WHEREAS, 50 astronomers from universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Durham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sussex, etc. and various members of the int’l. scientific community, the Soc. for Conservation Biology and Scientists for the Preservation of Mt. Graham have signed an appeal to save the sacred mtn., asking "to find an alternative site to construct the telescopes so as to preserve a natural environment unique in the world and the sacredness of Mt. Graham";

WHEREAS, the construction of the telescopes clearly violates international accords for the protection of biodiversity which the Italian government has joined in signing at the conferences in Rio de Janeiro and Jakarta and in which traditional cultures are also considered to be eco-compatible, as indispensable agents for the safeguard of the environment;

WHEREAS, the choice of Mt. Graham is above all tied to economic motivations given its nearness to the University of Arizona's campus, but other sites exist which are fit to host the project.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS MOTION DIRECTS THE GOVERNMENT:

To restrict the use of the financing for the Large Binocular Telescope to the choice of a different site than Mt. Graham, a choice to be made with respect for the biology of the site and without violating the culture and religious sense of the interested people(s).

[83 Deputies undersigned]