Let me get this straight: we’ve got a record drought in the Southwest, so what better time to let greed lead the way to even more water drain? Dry up the Grand Canyon’s Havasu Falls and replace this attraction with … a mega-mall? Because, gosh, we’ve never seen a mega-mall anywhere else before! What planet do multinational developers live on? Clearly, they don’t care about this one. I signed the linked letter to Deirdre McLaughlin of Kaibab National Forest, but if anyone knows which multinational developer, I propose a letter and phone campaign to them promising a full on multinational boycott of their stores and products. If money talks, let’s make sure ours shouts, whispers and murmurs protections of our land, water and those who live in harmony with Mother Earth.
UPDATE: See comments below for more info RE: who else to contact.
From the Center for Biological Diversity Newsletter:
A multinational developer is trying to capitalize off the Grand Canyon by building a huge mega-mall in the small town of Tusayan, Ariz., just south of the park. We need your help to say: Not now, not ever. 
This sprawling “mega complex,” as Stilo Development Group calls it, will overwhelm the park’s already crumbling infrastructure, threaten water supplies, and suburbanize America’s greatest natural treasure. Just the idea of it is sickening: 3 million square feet of commercial lots, 2,100 residential units, hotels, shops — and all just a mile outside the park boundary.
Grand Canyon National Park’s superintendent calls this proposal one of “the greatest threats to the Grand Canyon in the 96-year history of the park” — and rightly so. The water it will take to feed this sprawl will diminish flows at sacred Havasu Falls and at springs within the park, including Indian Gardens on the Bright Angel Trail.
The development cannot proceed, however, without right-of-way access from the U.S. Forest Service.
Act now to urge the Forest Service to stop this project in its tracks. Any proposal that does harm to the Grand Canyon is not in the public interest.
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If you can’t open the link, go to http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17299.
Donate now to support the Center’s work.
Photo of Havasupai Falls (c) Robin Silver, Center for Biological Diversity.
Laura Bruno's Blog 
Posted by Karen on May 5, 2015 at 1:34 pm
Laura, it looks like it’s Stilo Development Group. They’ve entered into this agreement with the school in the area to sweeten the pot: http://westerntimesnews.com/?p=1997
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 1:41 pm
Thanks, good sleuthing. Oh, man! Looks like they are pulling out the big bribes. That pot is very sweet. Time to get the Fae in on the deal like the Elves in Iceland who break machinery trying to do the redevelopment. Free iPads for everyone — but not a drop to drink……….
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Posted by Karen on May 5, 2015 at 1:40 pm
Stilo is in Italy and is using PDG in Arizona to manage their public relations locally: http://policydevelopmentgroup.com/portfolio-view/tusayan/
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 1:51 pm
I just sent PDG this comment on their contact us form:
In the midst of a historic drought and in a country that is losing more and more of its wild places to mega-malls and commercialism, your company ought to be ashamed of yourselves in helping Stilo to build a positive image on the ground in Tusayan. Free iPads for everyone, but not a drop to drink when their mega-mall and housing development puts even greater strain on the already strained to the max water supplies.
Clearly, someone’s throwing around a lot of money, but guess what? You can’t drink it. Native Americans think forward to the seventh generation. You folks aren’t even thinking beyond the next few years. What world do you live in? Do you think the desert has unlimited water supplies? Do you think a free education decades down the road will make up for destroying a national park and draining the water to unlivable levels? Anything for money, right?
And what will you all in Phoenix do when all the water runs completely dry in your area as it already is in some towns in California? Las Vegas is running out of water, can’t get it from there. your mountains are being plundered, can’t get enough from there — and with this Stilo project, you’re exacerbating an already big problem.
Wake up, people: you can put all the positive spin on this in the world, but you can’t drink money. What will you do when the economy crashes and you need to live with yourselves and on your own land?
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Posted by Tania Marie's Blog on May 5, 2015 at 1:53 pm
sheesh that’s crazy!! did i tell you that the first day we go to arizona at end of may/beginning of june, were visiting the grand canyon? will add some protective energy there while visiting. also dawn vierra was just there a few days ago too. it was her first time. we must have been drawn there to help out too. definitely need the fae in on it like the elves in iceland
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 1:56 pm
Oh, good! Yes, crystal and Reiki that place up! Glad Dawn was there, too. xoxo
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Posted by Tania Marie's Blog on May 5, 2015 at 1:57 pm
aye aye captain! will do 😉 xoox
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Posted by Tania Marie's Blog on May 5, 2015 at 2:03 pm
Reblogged this on Tania Marie's Blog and commented:
If you love Mother Earth and want to help sustain natural harmony, please help get your voice heard to save the Grand Canyon from this crazy mega-mall project. You can sign the linked letter and if called to, can read through the comments to get the direct link to the company so you can personally write your message to them.
I’m heading to Arizona and the Grand Canyon in a few weeks so I’ll be sure to Reiki and Crystal grid the area as much as I can too.
Thanks Laura for bringing this to our attention.
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 2:25 pm
This makes me so angry I have to go plant more flowers to calm down!
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Posted by Tania Marie's Blog on May 5, 2015 at 2:32 pm
🙂 go, go, go!! sacred acts to counter balance! i got flowers yesterday. hoping to plant today and tomorrow.
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Yes, we do what we can to counter it all. If the Grand Canyon isn’t enough to inspire beauty over “jobs,” then I don’t know that cold hardy gladiolus will, but hey, we do what we can. 🙂
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Posted by Tania Marie's Blog on May 5, 2015 at 4:38 pm
btw, i sent the link to someone i know that is very connected to the grand canyon and spends tons of time there. she and her husband also just happened to embark on their rv adventure a couple months ago. anyway, she said that there is also a gondola proposition on the Navajo reservation that will lead to the bottom of the canyon that will affect the Hopi’s. and this is very sacred ground. 😦
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 4:48 pm
What are they thinking?!
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Posted by sophiaschildren on May 5, 2015 at 3:35 pm
It boggles the mind, truly, for so many reasons.
I found this from Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/grandcanyonmall.asp
The article/summary includes mention of the specific developers, as well as some very short references to and comments from those supporting and those opposed to the development plan: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/grandcanyonmall.asp.
The Snopes piece excerpts news reports that Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly supports it and plans to ‘greenlight’ the huge expenditure required of the Navajo/Dine nation for the project. You’ll see more in the Snopes piece.
As usual, support for the project and justification of huge expenditures center around ‘jobs’. Follow the Snopes article trail for more on the story, perspectives etc.
I think the developer ‘lens’ isn’t “How can we preserve this beautiful piece of land” but rather what can be built, how can it be exploited, and ultimately how can it make money … probably for a very few people rather than the many ‘jobs’ benefits it promises and the enormous resources it’ll require (those will be more evident in the aftermath).
Sigh. Thanks for sharing this story, Laura.
Jamie
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Posted by sophiaschildren on May 5, 2015 at 3:47 pm
p.s. Another recent article from Common Dreams –
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/27/grand-canyon-crosshairs-risky-mega-development-moves-forward
Interestingly, some articles list R. Lamar Whitmer and the Confluence Group, Arizona developers, and others (like the Common Dreams post above) list the Italian development group, Stilo.
Here’s a link to the Arizona-based group:
http://grandcanyonescalade.com/confluence-partners-llc/
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 4:21 pm
Thanks for the additional links, Jamie. Perhaps it’s a free for all. We have a friend who lives in PA — a poet, whose latest book is all about fracking in PA — and she told us that there’s a great deal of support for it in PA due to jobs. No one wants to farm, because it’s considered hard work. Well, yes, it IS hard work, but what are they going to eat gas and drink the fire that comes out of their faucets? It truly does boggle the mind. It’s not all the big corporations. Unfortunately, it’s also generations of non-creative and lazy people who can’t be bothered to find ways to live in more sustainable ways. 😦
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 4:28 pm
It’s even more complex, too, when you factor in that the UN now owns most, if not all, of our national parks … “for protection.” Multinational corporations are people, too, I guess……
Life is looking more and more like Starhawk’s novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing.
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Posted by Tania Marie's Blog on May 5, 2015 at 4:57 pm
they’re not
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Posted by Karen on May 5, 2015 at 5:55 pm
Here’s more information and the name of the Stilo spokesperson – Tom DePaolo. Forest Service is taking public comments through June 3rd at
https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public//CommentInput?Project=46776
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 5:59 pm
Thanks so much!
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Posted by DW on May 5, 2015 at 6:46 pm
You could say that an escalation of the bulldozing of the West may speed up our destruction, thereby creating space for Earth to heal without us….
But what the frack? The mighty temple of capitalism, with a view of the Grand Canyon?
Tandem thoughts:
– The Los Angeles Unified School District (second largest in the US) brokered a deal with Apple for student iPads. Guess what? They bought in bulk, but paid more than retail, allegedly for the “educational software.” Maybe that’s legit, but I’m unclear on why public education systems are shelling out extra money to corporate Apple. Does Apple then take a tax break for educational “bulk pricing”?
– For many (most?) Americans, National Parks ARE malls. When I lived/worked in Grand Teton National Park, tourists would stop in just to ask the way to Yellowstone (generally not observing/appreciating the magnificent mountain range — no foothills! — right behind them). Nice and quiet where we were. If you set foot on a hiking trail in Yellowstone, it was very unlikely to run into any other humans. They were all at the paved lookouts or attractions.
– In 2012 North Carolina’s 8000 job openings for farm jobs yielded 10 citizens who finished the growing season. (250 U.S. workers applied for the jobs, but 70 never showed up, and about 180 quit in the first two days.) http://fw.to/IerH0QM My cousin’s friend working in fracking in PA says it’s “not that harmful,” that that’s a misperception, which I interpreted as the company party line, which haunts me a little.
Sorry, that wasn’t an uplifting addition to this topic. But you did ask what are they thinking! (There’s also a mass development of absurdly-priced condos popping up all over Los Angeles, where there is NO water….what are they thinking??)
Thanks for posting this, and for all the further info in the comments.
Dayna
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Posted by laurabruno on May 5, 2015 at 6:58 pm
Thanks, Dayna. What in the world???? People are actually building new condos in L.A. now? Truly absurd.
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Posted by karenjamison5 on May 21, 2015 at 6:58 pm
NPCA – National Parks Conservation Association – has a letter we can send. All comments are due by June 2nd
https://secure.npca.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1443&autologin=true&AddInterest=1084
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Posted by laurabruno on May 22, 2015 at 2:01 am
Thank you for the continuing efforts and information! 🙂
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Posted by TPP, the Pope’s Encyclical, Mama Earth and You | Laura Bruno's Blog on June 24, 2015 at 2:14 pm
[…] military-industrial complex’s insane uptick in the War on Nature (i.e. Olympic Peninsula, the Grand Canyon, and more) makes sense in this larger context. When humanity aligns with Mother Earth, we can […]
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