Whats New?

• Sept. 2007 - MGIO Forest Service Lease up for Renewal
  The Mt. Graham International Observatory sits on publicly owned land - specifically Forest Service land. MGIO holds a lease to that land, which needs to be renewed periodically and is up for renewal in Fall of 2008. Please contact the Coronado Nat'l. Forest and let them know it's time to deny the MGIO lease and revegetate the top of the tallest and only Sky Island with the endangered (especially with global warming) spruce/fir life-zone.
  (520) 388-8300 -- mailroom_r3_coronado@fs.fed.us
  
• Sept. 2007 - LBT Still not Functional after 100's of Millions of Dollars
  After more than 20 years and hundreds of Millions of dollars of Univ. of AZ money, the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), the mainstay of the Mt. Graham International Observatory, is still not functional. In two separate accidents the smaller secondary mirrors needed to complete the scope were broken.
  
• Regents Face Tests on Mount Graham
  Editorial by Dwight Metzger of the Mount Graham Coalition urging the University of Minnesota's Regents to review their involvement with the telescope project. From the University of Minnesota Daily, June 15, 2005.
• White Mountain Apache Chairman Urges UofM Regents to Divest
  On June 8, 2005, the Chairman of the White Mountain Apache tribe, Dallas Massey Sr., sent a letter to the Regents of the University of Minnesota. In the letter, Chairman Massey takes a University vice president to task for writing a memo that completely misrepresented the issue and calls upon the regents to divest from the telescope.
• Leafleting at American Astronomical Society (AAS) Meeting
  On June 1, 2005, Mount Graham Coalition and Preservation Alliance members leafleted outside the biannual meeting of the AAS in Minneapolis. The issue also got a front page article in the local alternative weekly (see below).
• Star Struck: the Astronomical Abuse of Indigenous Sacred Sites
  Original version of an article written by Joel Helfrich (MGPA), Dwight Metzger (MGC), and Michael Nixon (MGC's Lawyer) on the occasion of the biannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Minneapolis. An edited version appears as the cover article in the June 1, 2005 Pulse of the Twin Cities.
• San Carlos Apache Oppose Microwave Towers on Mt. Graham
  January 31, 2005 letter from the San Carlos Apache Tribal Council to the Supervisor of Coronado National Forest
• Yavapai-Apache Nation Stance On Dzil Nchaa Si'An
  January 26, 2005 letter to the Supervisor of Coronado National Forest
• University Should Divest from Observatory
  The Minnesota Daily published a letter by Mount Graham Coalition Lawyer Michael Nixon on October 25, 2004.
• San Carlos Rejects UA Proposal
  On April 13, 2004, the San Carlos Apache Tribal Council rejected $120,000 of education assistance from the Univerisities of Minnesota and Virginia offered as "compensation" for the telescope. From the April 18, 2004 Eastern Arizona Courier.
• University of Minnesota Students Organize the Mount Graham Preservation Alliance, Launch Divestment Campaign.
  During Fall Semester of 2004, U of M students organized a registered student group whose mission is to get the U of M off of Mount Graham. They recently discovered that the U of M can legally break its contract with the LBT project and get all of its money back if the telescope is not finished by June 30, 2005. They can be reached at mgpa@umn.edu.