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The Kitt Peak National Observatory is hosting a special family night tomorrow for the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose tribe views sacred the mountain that hosts over two dozen research telescopes.
And as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, a science center there has been renamed in southern Arizona.
Long before the National Science Foundation looked to the starry sky, O’odhams like Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan stood atop I’oligam Du’ag, or Manzanita Shrub Mountain.
So the legend goes, the creator I’itoi would come from his home in a nearby cave and pluck food from this mountain’s bountiful slopes.
Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan is the education liaison for Kitt Peak National Observatory.
“And whether we were farming, wild harvesting or hunting, we use the night sky as a resource. You know, we used it to help teach directions. We used it to be able to count.”
The tribal council signed a lease in 1958 allowing astronomers to use this summit.
Since then, more than two million visitors have climbed the nearly 7,000-foot tall peak.
This spring, its science center was renamed after an O’odham word meaning a place of illumination and understanding.
“And since we opened Taṣogida Ki, our field trips have all been ramping up, which is really great and a big part of my job is just telling people, ‘Come visit. Call me, let’s set up a tour,’ and having that direct invite has brought a lot of our tribal members back to the mountain.”
Devil’s club grows in the understory of the Tongass National Forest in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo: Alix Soliman / KTOO)
Public comments closed Tuesday on a federal proposal to lift a roadbuilding ban in national forests across the country, including the Tongass National Forest, as KTOO’s Alix Soliman reports.
More than 370,000 people submitted comments online and 99% of them oppose a rollback of the Roadless Rule. That is according to an analysis published Wednesday by the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy group.
Many comments pointed to research that shows the Tongass holds more than 40% of all carbon stored in U.S. national forests, and called the forest the “lungs of the Earth.”
Adrian Lee is a representative of the Tongass Hub of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. She testified at the hearing that her small village of Hoonah is still recovering from issues brought by logging camps.
“The impacts with addictions and violence was huge in our community.”
While tribes and environmental groups have said millions of acres of Tongass forestland could be opened up to logging without roadless protections, some members of the timber industry disagree.
Sarah Dahlstrom is the director of public relations at Viking Lumber. Her family’s multi-generational sawmill is on Prince of Wales Island.
In an interview with KTOO, she said that timber sales likely will not open immediately if the Roadless Rule is lifted and an amendment to the current Forest Management Plan will be necessary to identify areas that could be available for roadbuilding and logging.
“I’m going to say it’s a very small amount of acreage that gets opened up that could have road building on that.”
The Alaska Forest Association is an industry group that advocates on behalf of timber companies in Southeast and supports lifting the roadbuilding ban. In an email to KTOO, the association estimated that around 188,000 acres of currently roadless areas could be considered suitable for logging under the Tongass Forest Management Plan, which is undergoing a revision. That is less than 2% of the Tongass.
The association says that is because most roadless areas of the Tongass have additional layers of protection, like a wilderness, natural area, or recreation designation.
The Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment.
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