THE MOUNTAIN

Photo by Susan Altman

This is the mountain that stands guard over our town. Home to kachinas, diverse and beautiful wildlife and one disgruntled ski resort owner who has divided the town with his plan to make snow with reclaimed wastewater. Native tribes in the area consider the mountain sacred and an important part of their cultural and spiritual heritage and do not support his proposal, along with many locals who feel it is not an environmentally sound or safe thing to do. The owner, who bought a ski resort located in the desert (despite the abundance of pines, it IS a desert) now threatens to pump water from a nearby aquifer at the rate of one million gallons a day to make snow if he is not allowed to go forward with his original plan. There seems, at this point in time, no meeting place of the two sides.

Photo by my neighbor, Susan Altman, a poet/wizard with the camera. She has some incredible wildlife shots of elk, eagles, deer and flowers. To contact her: saltman@uneedspeed.net

Thanks, Susan!