A message from our member group, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas:
Dear Friends,
A motion hearing is set for our Freedom of Information Act case “Save the Scenic Santa Ritas et al v. United States Forest Service et al (4:11-cv-00094-FRZ)” this coming Monday, June 27th at 10am. The hearing provides a great opportunity for our members to gather in front of the courthouse for an old fashioned demonstration! The media will be there to report on the outcome of the hearing, so the more people we have gathered to demonstrate the need for an open and fair process regarding the proposed Rosemont mine, the better! The hearing will be open to the public (though with limited seating).
A group will be meeting on Saturday morning to make signs for the demonstration. If you plan to attend the demonstration/hearing on Monday, please let me know asap (email lisa@scenicsantaritas.org) so we can prepare enough signs (and if you would like to help with sign-making, let me know!). Demonstrators will gather before and after the hearing, and the hearing is expected to run about two hours.
Here are the details:
Monday, June 27th, 10am
Evo A. DeConcini U.S. Courthouse
Suite 1500
405 West Congress St.
(SW Corner of Congress and Granada)
No public parking is available at the courthouse. There is limited street parking (meters) available near the courthouse. For more parking information and for a parking map of downtown, go to http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/parkwise/where-can-i-park-downtown.
Consider carpooling to save gas and parking fees – if you need help finding someone with whom to carpool, let me know (email lisa@scenicsantaritas.org).
A bit about the lawsuit: SSSR along with 2 other groups filed a lawsuit back in February, asserting that the Forest Service violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) in preparing the environmental impact statement. FACA requires that committees established by a federal agency be open to public membership and participation. The Coronado National Forest allowed representatives of Rosemont Copper Co. to actively participate in closed-door committee meetings the Forest Service has held since early 2009 with other government agencies, excluding members of the public. The lawsuit requests that the court prohibit the Forest Service from relying upon the tainted document and that, in the future, the agency provide members of the public an equal seat at the table with Rosemont.
To read our original press release regarding the lawsuit go to our website at http://scenicsantaritas.org/news/litigation.
Thank you, and I hope to see many of you on Monday!
Lisa
Lisa Froelich, Coordinator
Save the Scenic Santa Ritas
520-445-6615
lisa@scenicsantaritas.org
www.scenicsantaritas.org