Arizona Earth First!

Background information: www.rootforce.org

Public urged to protest and boycott retailers linked to Carlos Slim, investor in planned “La Parota” megadam

Human rights, indigenous sovereignty, environmental and anti-globalization activists are calling for protests and boycotts of three major US retail chains-CompUSA, Sears and Kmart-due to their involvement with plans for a hydroelectric dam that would displace tens of thousands of indigenous subsistence farmers in southern Mexico and destroy critical tropical forest ecosystems. A 2006 United Nations report listed the planned “La Parota” dam near Acapulco as Mexico’s top economic, social and cultural rights concern.

Endorsing the call are Root Force, Rising Tide North America, Arizona Earth First! and Florida-based Justicia Global.

“When consumers shop at these stores, their money goes directly to people who are profiting from violence and the destruction of threatened tropical forests,” said Ben Pachano of Root Force.

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, who Forbes lists as the third richest person in the world, owns a number of companies that have publicly expressed interest in financing and building La Parota. Slim also owns CompUSA (a computer retail chain) and Sears Roebuck Mexico. The owner of the Sears brand-Sears Holdings Corporation-in turn owns Sears and Kmart in the United States.

“Sears Holdings Corporation is ultimately responsible for the behavior of anyone who is authorized to use the Sears name,” Pachano said. “By withdrawing his right to use that name, it can place substantial pressure on Slim to end his involvement in La Parota.”

Great controversy has arisen over the planned dam, primarily due to its anticipated effects on local indigenous communities. Road blockades and lawsuits by these communities have stalled the project, but the cost to locals has been high. Internal conflict fomented by the Mexican government has led to the deaths of at least six people, while others have been beaten and arrested by local and federal police. On January 6, Benito Jacinto Cruz, a farmer opposed to the dam, was shot and killed by assailants unknown.

La Parota dam has also drawn fire for its anticipated impacts on soil and water quality, a particular concern given its placement in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range-globally renowned for its high concentration of rare and endemic species. In addition, environmentalists are concerned that the dam would contribute to the pace of global warming. Studies have shown that dams in tropical regions actually produce from two to 40 times as much carbon dioxide as an equivalent coal plant (http://www.irn.org/programs/greenhouse/resemissions.html).

“Slim is gambling with the very future of our planet, ” said Nina Williams of Rising Tide. “We hope shoppers of conscience will agree that no one should profit from that.”

Boycott organizers have stated that the campaign against CompUSA, Sears and Kmart will not end until Slim publicly guarantees that none of his companies will participate in the La Parota project in any capacity.

Featuring more than 100 vegan pies and true pie-o-diversity, the 4th annual All-You-Can-Eat Pie Party is being held on Saturday, April 22nd, from 7-10 p.m.

A benefit for the Earth First! Journal, this year’s pie extravaganza will feature more pies, new flavors, a larger location, and shorter lines!

Get your fill at the Dunbar School Auditorium, 325 W. 2nd St., Tucson, AZ.
Admission $7-$10 sliding scale. For more information, call 620-6900.

(gluten-free, raw, and sugar-free options available too!)

“Nothing as easily as pie stands for everything decent, good, honest, homey and American. Some people don’t eat pork. Some people don’t eat any meat. Some people don’t ingest caffeine or alcohol. Is there anyone who, as a statement of ethics or conscience, doesn’t eat pie?”
-Roger Welsch

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SUBSCRIBE TO EARTH FIRST!,THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNAL

Earth First! Journal, PO Box 3023, Tucson, AZ, 85702, USA
(520) 620-6900; collective@earthfirstjournal.org
http://www.earthfirstjournal.org

Subscriptions are $25/year (in the US), $22 for low income subs
US $40 for 1st class or to Canada and Mexico
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Rod Coronado (recently convicted for involvement in the Chuk’shon EF! sabotage of the Sabino Canyon mountain lion hunt) was arrested on Wednesday February 22nd by federal agents and has been charged with “teaching and demonstrating the making and use of a destructive device, with the intent that the device be used to commit arson” during a question-and-answer session following a speech he gave in San Diego, California in 2003. For more information, read the story on arizona.indymedia.org.

Rod is currently in custody in Florence, AZ and the judge is considering whether to release him on bail or not. He has had visitors and can make phone calls, and people have been working to support him and his family locally.

Chuk’shon Earth First! encourages everyone to find some way to support Rod through this case and also through his Sabino Canyon-related state charges and his sentencing for the federal Sabino Canyon case. As of now, Rod is asking that anyone who wants to help do so by donating money to help support his children while he is incarcerated.

Please note that Earth First! is not the same as Rod Coronado Support, which has formed to help support Rod and his family and to answer people’s questions about this case. So if you have any questions about Rod’s legal status, those should be directed there.

The website for Rod Coronado Support (www.supportrod.org) is now active. The group also has an active email address now, info (at) supportrod.org. Donations can be made via paypal at the web site, and they are in the process of setting up a bank account and PO Box to be able to accept cash or checks.

Over the course of his life, Rod has made many sacrifices for the wild and our animal relations. Now he needs your support.

Remember, there is a Game & Fish public meeting TODAY, FEBRUARY 9th from 7-9 pm. In spite of several location changes over the past few days, the meeting is STILL at:

Arizona Game & Fish Department Regional Office
555 N. Greasewood Rd. (west of I10, between St. Mary’s and Speedway)

For those who are concerned that the location might still change at the last minute, you can call the Game & Fish Office before you leave to confirm: (520) 628-5376. Also, Chuk’shon EF! will be carpooling from the Dunbar Spring Community Garden (at the corner of 11th Ave and University) at 6:30 p.m.

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MEETING. Please come and make public comments about the proposed hunt guidelines for the coming year. Game & Fish is a small agency used to rubbing elbows only with their hunting and ranching friends, and they need to hear from you!

If you wish to make a science-based comment, please refer to the post below about the reasons that Earth First! opposes the hunting of mountain lions, bighorn sheep, Gunnison’s prairie dogs and sandhill cranes. But remember that the most important thing is that you COMMENT, so if you don’t feel comfortable making ecological arguments, all you have to do is get up and say that you oppose the hunts, and that you are committed to seeing them stopped. As a public agency, Game & Fish must take your comments. And if you don’t feel comfortable commenting at all, even your presence will demonstrate to Game & Fish that opposition to their dangerous policies is growing.

To read the proposed hunt guidelines, visit www.azgfd.com/h_f/hunt_guidelines.shtml

And as always, we ALSO encourage everyone to submit written comments to Game & Fish before the March 1 deadline. MAIL written comments to Game Branch, Arizona Game and Fish Department, 2221 W. Greenway Road, Phoenix, Arizona, 85023; FAX them to 602-789-3929; or EMAIL them to azgamebranch@azgfd.gov.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department will be hearing public comment on February 9 about the proposed hunting regulations for coming year. They will be accepting written comments until March 1. We urge everyone to attend the Feb. 9 meeting AND submit a written comment. Even if you do not wish to make a comment in person, your presence at the meeting would be a big help.

Contact information for where to send written comments is at the end of this post. Also included is the information about the February 9 public hearing.

Below are some talking points about several of the hunts that we oppose. At the public meeting you may wish to touch on points about all the hunts or focus on only one. There is no set time limit (it’s at Game & Fish’s discretion), so the choice for how to organize your comments is up to you. In a written comment, we definitely encourage people to write about all the hunts that they oppose. Remember that with either a verbal or written comment, it is important to incorporate your own reasons and personality so that it doesn’t come across like a form comment.

For your convenience, we have included both No Compromise Recommendations and “Reasonable” Recommendations. For those who do not feel comfortable with the full, Earth First!, no-compromise demands, the “reasonable” recommendations are our idea of the bare minimum that Game & Fish should be doing.

For those who wish to find out more about Earth First!’s efforts to end ecologically senseless sport and trophy hunting, please join us on Wednesday, February 8 at 7pm at the UA College of Law in Tucson, 1201 E. Speedway (NW corner of Mountain and Speedway), Room 140 for a special event — Defending Mountain Lions: Earth First! and Rod Coronado. Rod will give an update on his recent conviction for interfering with the Sabino Canyon mountain lion hunt. EF! will talk about Game & Fish’s hunts for mountain lions, sandhill cranes, prairie dogs and bighorn sheep and how you can help stop the slaughter.

Also, the event will feature the premiere of our short film about the sandhill crane hunt and our efforts to protect them - you don’t want to miss it! The event is free, but all donations go toward legal appeals.

MOUNTAIN LIONS

No Compromise Recommendations:

1. Mountain lion hunting should be banned in Arizona, as it is in California. There are no reliable population figures for mountain lions anywhere in North America. Because of this, it is impossible for Game & Fish to scientifically manage the species — they are shooting in the dark and gambling with the future of our wildlife. Large predators like mountain lions fill keystone roles in any ecological system, and their removal places serious stresses on all levels of the ecology. With development increasingly destroying wildlife habitat, sport hunting is a pressure this species cannot afford - especially since large predators require vast amounts of habitat just to feed themselves.

2. If mountain lion hunting is allowed, the use of hounds should be banned. This would allow only the most skilled trackers to kill mountain lions, and would probably ensure a sustainable “harvest.”

3. Reducing predation on game species is not a valid reason to kill mountain lions. If a pronghorn or bighorn population is in danger, Game & Fish should ban hunting of that population and work to secure it more habitat and other protection. Scapegoating predators is not only unfair, it is foolish: you can’t protect an ecosystem by wiping out its predators!

Lions should not be killed out before the reintroduction of bighorn sheep. Instead, where reintroduction occurs on public lands, Game & Fish should work with the appropriate land management agencies to remove commercial livestock. Livestock, not lions, fragment habitats, forage on some of the same areas needed by bighorn sheep, and most importantly, spread diseases to bighorn sheep populations. Domestic sheep, not predation, are the problem.

“Reasonable” Recommendations:

1. Mountain lion hunting should not be year-round — a season must be imposed. The proposed season (for only those units with multiple bag limits) is insufficient.

The best time for a three month closure would be at the height of the summer (June-August), when most mountain lions are giving birth. Since the bulk of lion hunting occurs from November-March, another reasonable closure would be March-November. Having a year-round season allows hunters to merely buy a tag so that they can kill any mountain lion they might happen to come across in the course of the year. This casual approach to wildlife killing should not be allowed or encouraged by Game & Fish.

2. Mountain lions should not have multiple bag limits in any unit ( a “multiple bag limit” means that Game & Fish allows the killing of more than one mountain lion in a given region per year). There is no population or scientific justification for this practice. Multiple bag limits make it easy to overstress lion populations by killing too many animals. In addition, there is no way for lion hunters to be in contact with each other, to determine when limits have been reached.

Related Comment:

1. Lions must never be killed merely because they are found within close proximity to human populations. If lions appear near trails or other recreation areas frequently, those areas should be temporarily closed, or notices put up that individuals recreate at their own risk. Lions should not be destroyed just because developers are encroaching upon their habitats and forcing them to get used to human presence. Game & Fish’s response to the Stonegate and Queen Creek lion sightings in the Phoenix area was the right and professional one. That response should become the standard upon which all future Game & Fish/mountain lion interactions are based.

BIGHORN SHEEP

No Compromise Recommendation: The bighorn sheep hunt should be discontinued.

1. Bighorn populations over the long term do not appear to be stable. Bighorn habitats are fragmented and overgrazed, and domestic livestock are constantly spreading disease to native wild sheep with severe consequences (for example, the infection of the herds in the Peaks area for domestic sheep in the Herb/Reno Sheep Driveway in the mid-1990s) .

2. The Department has a tendency to blame local predators for unnaturally high bighorn mortality caused by disease. Game & Fish must take a stance against livestock grazing in areas where bighorns are found or introduced - currently, it is wasting too much time and money inoculating or killing diseased sheep without addressing the root problem.

3. Game & Fish uses declining or threatened bighorn populations as a pretext for mountain lion hunts, but then allows hunting of bighorns in the same units! If Game & Fish admits that the species is threatened, how can it justify ANY hunt?

4. Trophy hunts are evolutionarily dangerous, because they tend to cull the largest animals from a species. It has been repeatedly documented that when humans selectively kill the largest and most impressive members of the species, gene frequencies change within a few generations and the species as a whole becomes smaller and weaker. For a species as threatened as bighorn sheep, this practice is unjustifiable - especially since trophy hunters have been culling powerful bighorn males for centuries already.

“Reasonable” Recommendation: With a species so obviously threatened with extinction that even Game & Fish confesses to alarm over declining numbers, we feel that the only reasonable recommendation is the no compromise position taken above.

GUNNISON’S PRAIRIE DOG

No Compromise Recommendation: Hunting of Gunnison’s prairie dogs should be banned.

1. Gunnison’s prairie dogs (GPD) are on the verge of extinction. Efforts are under way to list the GPD as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. These animals have declined from 90% of their historic range in North America and 98% of their range in Arizona.

GPD are a keystone species in grassland ecosystems. They dig burrows that other animals depend on for shelter, including burrowing owls, foxes and prairie snakes. They are an important prey item for many types of predators. Their burrows facilitate the absorption of rainfall into the water table, aerate the soil and encourage the growth of certain rare plants.

All these functions are jeopardized by habitat loss, disease and hunting. A 9-month hunt with no bag limits is an unjustifiable stress on this species. We want Game & Fish to show some initiative and engage in proactive management for the GPD; we do not want to see the species go the way of the Mexican gray wolf, the jaguar, ocelot, and grizzly bear here in Arizona.

2. Gunnison’s prairie dogs are THE major prey item for the black-footed ferret in Arizona. The black-footed ferret is the most endangered mammal in North America and has been reintroduced in northern Arizona. It depends upon the prairie dog (in Arizona, this means the GPD) for 90% of its diet. Yet Game & Fish allows prairie dog hunting IN THE REINTRODUCTION AREA! The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Program’s national goal is to establish at least 10 self-sustaining ferret colonies by 2010. A federal wildlife biologist who worked with ferrets for 13 years believes that 100 breeding female ferrets are required for each population, and 10,000 acres of plague-free prairie dog colonies.

3. Of all the species that Game & Fish authorizes hunting for, the hunt for the Gunnison’s prairie dog is the most outrageous and reckless. GPD cannot be made into trophies. They cannot be eaten. They are killed and their bodies are left to rot, while their burrows are polluted with leftover lead shot. GPD hunting is a blood sport that involves hunters setting up lawn chairs and blasting away at stationary animals - there is no wilderness or tracking skill involved at all. This hunt betrays a sickness of mind and is all about killing defenseless animals for pleasure.

4. Game & Fish has no good population estimates, no bag limit, and requires no permit for GPD hunting. This means that they allow hunting for an animal when they have no idea how many exist, how many are being shot, or how many people are shooting them.

5. Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs have one of the most complex communication systems of any animal yet studied. They have a confirmed language complete with syntax, external communication, dialect, and the ability to create new vocalizations for alien introductions into their environment (for example, when a GPD witnesses an object that has never before been seen within its area, it will come up with a series of vocalizations to describe it to the other prairie dogs within the colony).

“Reasonable” Recommendation: Game & Fish should declare a complete moratorium on Gunnison’s prairie dog hunting until the federal government can rule on the Endangered Species Act petition and the black footed ferret recovery goals for Arizona have been met.

SANDHILL CRANES

No Compromise Recommendation: Game & Fish should ban the hunting of sandhill cranes in Arizona.

1. Sandhill cranes were almost wiped out by hunting and habitat loss in the first half of the 20th century, and they are still recovering from this brush with extinction. Hunting places an unnecessary pressure on a species that has had its genetic diversity so seriously compromised (although crane numbers have rebounded, they have done so from a small number of breeders, so the population remains vulnerable).

2. The greater sandhill crane subspecies is severely threatened and federally protected, yet it is impossible for hunters to distinguish between crane subspecies from the ground. All the stresses that hunting places on sandhill cranes are even more potent for the less common greater sandhills.

3. Game & Fish claims to closely regulate the number of cranes killed, but does not count birds that are crippled or killed by hunters but not recovered. In all, 24% of the country’s sandhill crane population is killed or crippled by sport hunters every year. Game and Fish should not contribute to this problem, but should instead take positive steps toward crane recovery by making Arizona a sanctuary state for these migratory birds.

4. Sandhill cranes are a highly intelligent and social species that mates for life (birds may find new mates if the old one dies, but there is no good data analyzing the effects of this death and mate change on the individual birds or the population). Yet Game & Fish allows a purely “recreational” hunt for them, despite the inevitable cruelty that must result. In 2005, Earth First! teams in the hunt area witnessed birds being wounded, smashed against farm equipment and strangled by hunters with poor aim. They also witnessed a crippled crane being surrounded and defended by its family members — and this was only in one weekend! The hunt is cruel and senseless and should be stopped — fun is not a valid reason for killing these birds.

“Reasonable” Recommendation: Game & Fish should place a moratorium on crane hunting until it can investigate the widespread hunting violations witnessed by Earth First! teams in the past 2 years. If Game & Fish wishes to continue this hunt, it must expand the no-hunt area around Whitewater Draw and Willcoz Playa, and must make sure that hunting regulations are actually enforced. Until Game & Fish has the will and capability to enforce its own rules, the hunt should not continue.

1. Earth First! observation teams, for two years in a row, have witnessed numerous hunting violations during the sandhill crane hunt. Steven Ward, a prominent hunting guide, was observed participating in a hunt from a vehicle, but Game & Fish took no action when a complaint was filed. Numerous hunters boasted to Earth First!ers of having hunted in no-hunt zones or from roads, and of flushing birds from the no-hunt areas. This behavior is widespread and has been repeatedly witnessed by Earth First! observers, yet Game & Fish patrols have been nowhere to be seen.

2. Hunters lie in wait at the edge of the no-hunt areas, especially Whitewater Draw, and shoot cranes as they are flying low in or out of their roosting areas. This unsportsmanlike behavior should be prohibited, and to ensure that cranes can not be killed while gaining altitude or coming in to roost, the no-hunt areas should be expanded.

3. Sandhill cranes bring vast economic benefit to southern Arizona through birdwatchers who enjoy the animals without killing them. The hunt is a black mark on Arizona’s reputation for these birders, who are almost always upset when they learn that Game & Fish hypocritically allows the pleasure killing of a species that it supposedly works to conserve.

OTHER SPECIES

Pronghorn antelope: Situation and arguments are the same as for bighorn sheep. The only difference is that disease is not a major threat to pronghorns as it is to bighorns.

Coyotes and black bears: Situation and arguments are the same as for mountain lions (consult the Game & Fish website if you’re interested in the specifics of bag limits, etc.)

HOW TO COMMENT

To read the proposed hunt guideline changes for this year, visit www.azgfd.com/h_f/hunt_guidelines.shtml

For more information on Game & Fish’s predator policy see the Animal Defense League site, www.adlaz.org, under campaigns. For more information on prairie dogs see the Forest Guardians website, www.fguardians.org. For more information about Earth First! campaigns to protect wildlife from Arizona Game & Fish, email Chuk’shon Earth First! (sabthebastards (at) hotmail (dot) com) or check out www.azef.org

The Game & Fish meeting on February 9 will take place from 7-9pm at the Game & Fish regional office in Tucson, 555 N. Greasewood (west of I10, between Speedway and St. Mary’s). For carpool information, email sabthebastards (at) hotmail (dot) com

MAIL written comments to Game Branch, Arizona Game and Fish Department, 2221 W. Greenway Road, Phoenix, Arizona, 85023; FAX them to 602-789-3929; or EMAIL them to azgamebranch@azgfd.gov.

There are two very important upcoming events in Tucson to mark on your calendars and tell all your friends about:

Wednesday, February 8th, 7-9 pm
Defending Mountain Lions: Earth First! and Rod Coronado.

UA College of Law, 1201 E. Speedway (NW corner of Mountain and Speedway), Rm 140

Rod gives an update on his recent conviction for interfering with the Sabino Canyon mountain lion hunt. EF! talks about Game & Fish’s hunts for mountain lions, sandhill cranes, prairie dogs and bighorn sheep and how you can help stop the slaughter.

Also, the special premiere of our short film about the sandhill crane hunt and our efforts to protect them - you don’t want to miss it! The event is free, but all donations go toward legal appeals.

AND THE NEXT DAY….

Thursday, February 9th, 7-9 pm
Arizona Game & Fish Department public hearing

Game & Fish office: 555 N. Greasewood (west of I10, between Speedway and st. Mary’s).

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MEETING. Game and Fish will be hearing public comments, in person, about the proposed hunt guidelines for this year. That means YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY to let Game & Fish know how you feel about their allowing recreational hunts for mountain lions, sandhill cranes, prairie dogs and bighorn sheep.

Last year, there were only 2 people representing a non-hunter point of view at this meeting. We can and must pack the meeting this year. Game & Fish is a small agency used to being ignored by the public: let them know how the people of Arizona REALLY feel about their cruel and ecologically senseless hunts!

Game & Fish will also be accepting written comments until March 1, and we encourage everyone to write in-depth comments (we will be posting talking points later this week). However, your attendance at this meeting is at least as important, if not moreso, than sending in a letter.

To read the proposed hunt guidelines, visit www.azgfd.com/h_f/hunt_guidelines.shtml

For more info, email Chuk’shon EF!: sabthebastards (at) hotmail (dot) com

MOUNTAIN LION DEFENDERS NEED YOUR HELP

In March 2004, the Arizona Game & Fish Department defied public outrage and closed Sabino Canyon in order to hunt and cage 4-5 mountain lions that it claimed were showing “insufficient fear” of humans. The Tucson community demanded that the lions be left undisturbed in their canyon home, and Chuk’shon Earth First! (CEF!) was the only group willing to translate those demands into action. CEF! activists openly declared their plans to prevent the capture of any mountain lions by entering the canyon and putting their bodies between the hounds and the lions if necessary. Due to a combination of public pressure and Earth First!’s efforts in the canyon, the hunt was called off.

Game & Fish promptly targeted two outspoken and effective CEF! organizers, Rod Coronado and Matt Crozier, for federal prosecution. Coronado had been arrested in the canyon in March, while Crozier was pulled out of his bed by FBI agents 9 months later. On December 13, 2005, Rod and Matt were convicted of felony conspiracy for their nonviolent efforts to defend the Sabino Canyon lions. They face up to 7.5 years in prison.

In the course of the trial, it came out that in addition to trapping and imprisoning “Sabino” the lioness (after falsely claiming that the hunt had been cancelled), Game & Fish had overseen the murder of four other mountain lions in the Sabino Canyon area since March 2004.

CEF! has been the only group to consistently criticize Game & Fish’s predator eradication policies, and the agency has retaliated by pursuing this vindictive prosecution. Game & Fish’s response to anything they don’t like seems to involve shooting it or sticking it in a cage—and Sabino, Rod and Matt are paying the price for this short-sighted attitude.

With this conviction, Game & Fish will be hoping that the opposition to its mountain lion policies will just go away. Now is the time to make it clear that Arizonans find these policies unacceptable—and it is just as unacceptable for Game & Fish to single out its critics for over-the-top prosecutions.

Some of the reasons that Game & Fish needs to hear from you:

* Game & Fish officer John Romero admitted on the stand that he could not see what the defendants were doing when he spotted them in Sabino Canyon, but insisted that he somehow knew that they were digging up a mountain lion snare. When repeatedly questioned by defense attorneys about the details of what he had seen, he continually said words to the effect of, “I can’t say what I saw them doing, I just know they were digging.” Sounds like Game & Fish instructed him to say whatever it took to get a conviction….

* Game & Fish continues to have a shoot-to-kill policy for any human/mountain lion encounters that are reported to them. In April and November 2004, Game & Fish agents killed two lions in the Catalina Mountains because they failed to run away from humans. Yet with urban sprawl continually encroaching on traditional lion habitat, it’s a certainty that such encounters will become more frequent. Why should execution be Game & Fish’s only protocol for a mountain lion who is guilty of nothing but curiosity? And how can Game & Fish claim that such a policy will not put a strain on mountain lion populations, especially when combined with ongoing habitat loss?

* Game & Fish allows year-round hunting of mountain lions at the cost of $10 each. Two mountain lions were “legally” killed near Sabino Canyon by hunters in this fashion. Sport hunting of predators unnaturally lowers their numbers, taking them out of a carefully balanced natural system. In addition, there are no reliable population figures for Arizona mountain lions—Game & Fish is gambling with the future of our wildlife.

* Game & Fish manages Arizona’s wildlife for the benefit of sport hunters and ranchers rather than conservation. This is made clear by the fact that they allow recreational and trophy hunting of bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, black bears, coyotes and sandhill cranes. Their policies are entirely inconsistent with their slogan, “Managing Today for Wildlife Tomorrow.”

* Sabino the mountain lion is still imprisoned for no good reason, and should be immediately released back into the wild!

Since Rod and Matt’s conviction, CEF! has been flooded by offers of help. At this time, there are three ways that you can help the most: write a letter to the editor, phone the Game & Fish Department to complain, or join us at the next two Game & Fish commission hearings on January 20th and 21st in Phoenix (contact information below). Feel free to make any of the points above, and add any other reasons that you may be upset about Rod and Matt’s case or Game & Fish’s wildlife policies. Our goal is to have those phones ringing off the hook—no fewer than 500 phone calls to Game & Fish in the next couple of weeks—and pack the room at their meetings in January. As Rod and Matt’s sentencing approaches in March, there may be more ways for people to help.

For more information, email CEF! at sabthebastards (at) hotmail.com. Visit our website: www.azef.org.

GAME & FISH CONTACT INFO

Tucson: 520-628-5376 (Regional Director: Gerry Perry)

Phoenix (Main Office): 602-942-3000 (State Director: Duane Shroufe)

Mesa: 480-981-9400

Flagstaff: 928-774-5045

Pinetop: 928-367-4281

Kingman: 928-692-7700

Yuma: 928-342-0091

Game & Fish website: www.azgfd.com

Several mainstream newspaper stories about the Sabino Canyon trial have been posted. To view them, click on “Mainstream Trial Coverage” on the right hand side of the main page, under “Pages.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 14, 2005

Chuk’shon Earth First! Statement in Support of No More Deaths Volunteers

Contact: Ben Pachano, 884-0283

Yesterday afternoon, a federal court found two Earth First! activists guilty of conspiracy to interfere with federal officials—a felony—as well as two misdemeanors. Their supposed crime was attempting to save the lives of mountain lions who were being hunted in a joint effort of the Arizona Game and Fish Department and US Forest Service.

We live in a culture whose values are profoundly screwed up. We live in a country where people are prosecuted for trying to save lives. And let’s be clear: “Prosecuted” is just a fancy way of saying that the government wants to put people in a cage – just like they do to mountain lions, just like they do to the migrants they round up in the desert and transfer to “detention facilities.”

Earth First! believes in the sanctity of life, and we proudly proclaim that saving lives should never be a crime. And when the government makes it one, those laws should be broken over and over again until the whole sick, twisted system is forced to change. For this reason and many others, we are proud to stand in support of Shanti Sellz, Daniel Strauss and the No More Deaths campaign.

The prosecutions here in Tucson are not occurring in a vacuum. Last week, the FBI arrested six people (most of them activists) across the country in a series of surprise raids, and is charging them with various acts of property damage in defense of Mother Earth. The government is making a concerted effort to intimidate and jail all those who challenge the demented equation that values property and law above life itself.

The government would like nothing better than for us to distance ourselves from those who put their freedom on the line to save lives. That’s why it’s more important than ever for those of us who value the sanctity of life to stick together and support each other, to not let them divide us with petty disagreements or fears.

Earth First! is proud to embrace Shanti and Daniel as our sisters and brothers in the struggle, and they can count on our support.

The jury’s verdict came back this afternoon guilty on all three charges for both defendants (Rod Coronado and Matt Crozier). Specifically, Rod and Matt were found guilty in federal court of:

Felony conspiracy to interfere with or injure a government official (max 7 years)

Misdemeanor interference with or injury to a forest officer (max 6 months)

Misdemeanor “depredation” (theft or destruction or the attempt to do so) of government property (max 1 year).

Remember, all three charges relate to an Earth First! campaign to prevent mountain lions from being captured or killed by hunters in Tucson, Arizona in March 2004. For details about the trial, including the way the prosecution alleged that using the media as part of a campaign now constitutes “conspiracy and intimidation,” see below. In the next few weeks, we will release a statement about the political ramifications of this trial and what it means for direct-action organizers around the country.

The prosecution asked that Rod be taken into immediate custody, but the judge denied the request. However, the prosecution might still file an official motion to that effect.

As of now, both Rod and Matt will remain free until their March 8, 2006 sentencing. They have expressed thanks for all the support they’ve received so far from the community. As more information becomes available about ways that you can support Rod and Matt, we will let you know.

Obviously, this is a serious blow to us personally and organizationally. Nonetheless, while we may be reassessing some of our specific strategies in light of this conviction, our commitment to defending Arizona’s wildlife with effective direct action will not change.

We also want to remind everyone that Sabino the mountain lion remains caged for life, and she was never given the “courtesy” of a trial. Chuk’shon EF! has never denied involvement in attempting to save Sabino Canyon mountain lions from hunters, nor are we regretful or ashamed. When wildlife has no one but us to defend them, we will continue to put our bodies on the line.

For more information, contact Chuk’shon Earth First! at sabthebastards (a) hotmail.com.

Till All Are Free,
Chuk’shon EF!