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GUESTS: Klee Benally, volunteer with The Save the Peaks Coalition, Howard Shanker, Shanker Law firm

The Ninth Circuit Court has allowed for a review of its previous decision to protect the San Francisco Peaks of Northern Arizona. Located just north of Flagstaff, the mountain had been designated for an expansion of a small privately owned ski resort that would use reclaimed waste water to artificially produce snow. Several concerned indigenous tribes and environmental groups filed a lawsuit saying that the ski resort’s proposal would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. More than thirteen Native American Nations consider the San Francisco Peaks a sacred site and see the expansion of the resort as desecration. The Ninth circuit’s initial ruling protecting the mountain was appealed by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service. The rehearing of the case that was recently granted could ultimately reverse the decision in favor of the ski resort. The Save the Peaks Coalition is currently organizing a delegation to Pasadena, California where the case will be reviewed on the 11th of December.

For more information, visitwww.savethepeaks.org