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FALL/WINTER 1999 / 2000

SAVE MOUNT SHASTA UPDATE
by Michelle Berditschevsky, Project Coordinator

Mount Shasta has become the symbol of an unconquerable spirit inspiring a community of people to affirm a sacred relationship to the land. Our successful decade-long struggle over commercial ski and condo development (Terrain Magazine called it one of "the three most significant conservation victories in California over the past two years") is a strong statement that money is not the ultimate aim of human life. The Mountain's expression of sacredness, natural beauty and silence must continue to teach us the primordial understanding that help us heal our relationship to the earth.

It takes time, because the whole of society is being educated to ecological values through important issues like these. The challenge to protect Mount Shasta is ongoing. There is still no permanent designation that encompasses the entire Mountain, and much of its slopes are vulnerable to "multiple use." Threats from commercialization and logging (the "Mountain Thin" timber sale is currently a threat) continue. The Mountain is in need of a holistic Cultural and Ecosystem Management Plan to protect and restore its spiritual and natural qualities. Positive change is agonizingly slow, yet rays of hope can be seen on the horizon.

CULTURAL AND ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

Our goals in protecting Mount Shasta from commercial development have been to preserve the Mountain for positive values leading to a modern-day renewal of the ancient values of respect and caring for the land. Many people now recognize that Mount Shasta's ecological well-being is also the surrounding communities' well-being. Forest Supervisor Sharon Heywood took a significant step toward ecological and cultural values in deciding against the ski area, and the scene is being set to form a partnership with the Forest Service in the ongoing stewardship of the Mountain.

The Forest Service is beginning to respond to the need to change its management of the Mountain to better reflect its natural and cultural values. We have been working on a Cultural and Ecosystem Management Proposal with the Native Coalition for Cultural Restoration of Mount Shasta. The Forest Service participated with the Native Coalition's Ethnobotanical Restoration Project, the H.O.M.E. Project (see the story in this issue), and has cooperated in other restoration efforts. A change in management is now in the talking stages.

One of the goals of a management plan (we prefer the word "stewardship") is to integrate Native American traditional practices into the caretaking of Mount Shasta. In Native American tradition, care of nature is seen as part of the sacred expression toward the land, part of the fulfillment of the role given to the Native people by the Creator. On a practical level, this translates into understanding nature's capacity for regeneration, and working within nature's limits. This is a far cry from prevailing policies which exploit and fragment the land until species are driven to the brink of extinction.

"Traditional ecocultural knowledge includes tribal myths and stories which contain important ecological information encoded in deep metaphors; detailed plant and animal knowledge; tribal remembrances in the oral tradition of climatic and other significant environmental changes in ecosystems; specific management practices…spiritual/ceremonial knowledge and practices of thanksgiving and world renewal. This knowledge is highly unique and ecosystem-specific," said Dennis Martinez, a Native American consultant who has helped us formulate what he calls "ecocultural restoration in collaborative ecosystem management."

Bioregionalism and Native American stewardship share common ground in approaches to stewardship (bioregionalism has made a point of learning from Native ways). Common concepts include the view of nature as an expression of the spirit of the earth and of the Creator, and in the sensitivity that different places lend themselves to different uses - from sacred places where the Creator's pattern is left as undisturbed as possible, to tended places where natural processes are enhanced through traditional methods, leading to increased abundance and diversity. These methods can include burning, pruning, digging, sowing, harvesting, transplanting, and water diversion, depending on the conditions.

Just a few of the goals of our proposed Stewardship Plan include assessing the conditions of the forest and wildlife, identifying desirable future conditions toward which stewardship will proceed, cultural and ecological restoration programs, conflict resolution procedures for resolving differences among user groups, and integrating ecosystem management with the principles of a more ancient and holistic approach to stewardship of the land.

"The reconnnection with the land must be re-established with prayer and spiritual health, and the land will respond," says Floyd Buckskin, Cultural Spokesperson of the Pit River Tribe. "It's about observation-relearning the plants, their properties, living with the stories of the land, seeing the pattern of the land, the interconnection of all parts." Working in this cultural way is inner spiritual restoration as well as ecological restoration.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

We continue to be assured that the National Register of Historic Places (Department of the Interior) will reopen the question of the Historic District boundaries. We took a new approach through the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and were assured that another meeting to discuss the boundary issue will take place.

The agencies are now talking about funding further ethnographic studies and field work on Shasta to make a stronger case-less vulnerable to the kind of criticism encountered before-for including a larger area of the Mountain into the Historic District. More extensive ethnographic work was done in the Medicine Lake Highlands than on Mount Shasta, and the evidence there supported the inclusion of a larger area.

By way of background, you will recall that in 1994 the entire Mountain down to the 4,000 foot elevation was designated as a Historic District based on its spiritual value to Native Americans and to people the world over. A few months later, political pressures responding to commercial interests pushed the boundary up to 8,000 feet at treeline. Since that time, we have been communicating with a number of agencies and taken trips to Washington in order to obtain review of this 90% reduction of the Historic District.

This time around, we plan to make it clearer that protection does not affect private property. Our new proposals leave out most of the private property. Federal guidelines make it clear that "There are no Federal designations that place Federal restrictions on private property owners (in Answers to Questions for Owners of Historic Properties, National Parks Service, PO Box 37127, Washington DC 20013. This agency can also be contacted for more info). What could be affected are larger scale commercial or industrial projects on federal lands, which most people don't want anyway. It is totally unfounded that private property could be confiscated, a fear tactic used in 1994.

The main issues here are that the reduction from 150,000 acres to 19,000 acres leaves out many of Shasta's significant places, denies that it is an interconnected whole, and was done illegally without consultations with Native American tribes whose cultural interests were affected.

Rather than take the issue to court, we continue to keep pressure on the agencies to do things right. We have received enough assurances that this will happen that we are still pursuing this line of action. However, we have decided that the new millennium warrants thinking bigger.

A LARGER DESIGNATION FOR MOUNT SHASTA AND THE MEDICINE LAKE HIGHLANDS

When it comes to protecting natural areas, we believe that bigger is better! We have learned that Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will consider a number of areas for protection before the Clinton administration's close in early 2001. Therefore one of our major goals for the next few months will be putting together a proposal for a larger protected area. This would encompass Mount Shasta and the Medicine Lake Highlands. We will also consider areas to the west of Mount Shasta (such as Mount Eddy and Seven Lakes Basin) that are important for their natural scenic beauty and biodiversity.

Our proposal will include what is still undeveloped of the varied yet unified sceneries on and around Mount Shasta. John Muir's idea for a Mount Shasta National Park in the late l800's comprised a large, diverse expanse containing a variety of intimate landscapes and broad vistas.

We will give consideration to wildlife habitat, botanical diversity, and a healthy ecology which includes biological succession and animal migration. We'll also include the cultural and aesthetic values needed for renewal, inspiration, and solitude. We'll project toward future population and use expansion, recognizing that the Mount Shasta Region is one of the few unprotected forested scenic environments remaining in the state of California. Protection of this larger area will be an important step toward assuring wildlife viability in northern California.

Besides writing the proposal, this strategy involves many other steps. We need a large letter writing campaign to Secretary Babbitt (see "Letters Needed" below). We will need to the support of environmental groups, Native American tribes, political leaders, and a large educational campaign. Funding will make or break this very positive endeavor.