The Changing Face of Woods Work Guest Workers and Economic Realities Mean the End of an Era for Local Forest Workers by Hal Herring CONTENTS

UTAH CENTRISTS | COLORADO RIVER PACT | INDIAN COUNTRY FILMS

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West October 30, 2017 | $5 | Vol. 49 No. 18 | www.hcn.org 18 49 No. | $5 Vol. 30, 2017 October The Changing Face of Woods Work Guest workers and economic realities mean the end of an era for local forest workers By Hal Herring CONTENTS

Editor’s note Whither the restoration economy? In the early 1990s, as overcutting and the endangered northern spotted owl put the kibosh on the West’s timber bonanza, forest managers began to dream of a more modest woods-based economy. Though jobs cutting old growth-trees and replanting clear-cuts were vanishing, perhaps workers could restore forests that had grown dense and flammable due to fire suppression, bugs and drought. A vibrant forest-restoration economy, based on thinning and controlled burning, could spring up around public lands, providing good blue-collar jobs and fiber for mills that would otherwise close. Unfortunately, that vision has never been fully realized. As Montana writer Hal Herring, a veteran of the timber boom, explains in his cover essay, the budget of the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 191 million acres, has never been big enough to support more than a small stream of restoration work. In recent years, it’s been consumed by spiraling firefighting costs and starved by Republican-led Congresses eager to weaken federal An H-2B visa holder, Miguel, who didn’t give his last name but said he’s from a small town south of Mexico agencies. City, works a thinning project in the North Fork Thompson Creek in Montana’s Lolo National Forest. Herring, whose last feature profiled the armed T ony Bynum occupiers of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife FEATURE ESSAY Refuge, has a knack for telling uncomfortable stories that challenge the assumptions of both liberals and 12 The Changing Face of Woods Work conservatives. This one is no different. Guest workers and economic realities mean the end of an era He takes conservative Western lawmakers to On the cover for local forest workers By Hal Herring task for blaming environmentalists for this year’s destructive fire season (nearly 9 million acres burned Members of nationwide in 2017, as of this writing), and reviving the Hoedads the idea that we need to greatly accelerate logging cooperative, which CURRENTS operated in the in order to save national forests and the towns along Pacific Northwest their borders. Even if we had the money to carry out 5 Sharing a shrinking Colorado River The U.S. and Mexico sign large-scale logging, we lack the infrastructure to do in the 1970s and an updated water pact to deal with drought early ’80s, replant an it — the number of mills in the West has plummeted, Oregon forest after a 5 The Latest: Longview coal terminal and those that remain struggle to find markets for logging project. their products. It’s also unclear whether it would Bkac ground photo of 6 Will the Colorado River again reach the sea? Smaller targeted flows work: The warmer temperatures and deep droughts Lolo National Forest by Tony Bynum; Historic may do more environmental good than repeating a Delta-wide water release of this era of climate change — denied or ignored by photo by Bruce some of those same lawmakers — fuel fires so intense Piepenburg, courtesy of 7 Gina McCarthy holds out hope on climate policy The former head Jennifer Nelson that they burn right through recently treated areas. of the EPA isn’t despairing despite Trump administration rollbacks Herring agrees with forest managers that we 8 Utah centrists get a new political party Can United Utah provide need to put people to work in the woods. What if a political refuge for the disillusioned? this year’s horrific conflagrations spurred Congress to work with the Forest Service, local governments, 8 The Latest: Klamath River farmers’ lawsuit loggers and environmentalists to thin and burn lands around vulnerable communities? Could it jumpstart the restoration economy, providing meaningful jobs DEPARTMENTS for struggling Americans? Herring says no, especially if labor laws aren’t changed. Ultimately, he says, it 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG comes down to money: The budget-starved agency Complete access will always turn to large private contractors eager to to subscriber-only 4 LETTERS make a good profit. So any jobs will go, as they have content 9 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends for decades, to immigrant laborers brought in under HCN’s website the H-2B guestworker program, who have no option hcn.org 12 MARKETPLACE but to work for far less money than Herring’s crews did years ago. Digital edition 24S REVIEW hcne.ws/digi-4918 The politics of forest management, labor, Neither Wolf nor Dog, directed by Steven Lewis Simpson, and Wind River immigration and rural economies are dense and directed by Taylor Sheridan. Reviewed by Jason Asenap fraught with painful contradictions. We hope this Follow us 26 ESSAY issue spurs some difficult conversations around your dinner table. By Geneen Marie Haugen  Wild Allegiance —Paul Larmer, executive director/publisher @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston

2 High Country News October 30, 2017 From our website: HCN.ORG

Dispatch from Tribes flee Other news California massive fires wildfires Large-scale October wildfires forced The massive wildfires Percent of tribal members in permanent40 National Park in Northern California Northern California Service employees who in mid-October forced to evacuate. “The fire thousands to quickly reported some form of was on both sides harassment in their jobs evacuate their homes of the road, and we as the fires advanced over 12 months, a new could feel the heat,” survey found. on neighborhoods said Robert Geary, a Lyndsey Gilpin and wineries. The member of the Elem American Red Cross More: hcne.ws/ Indian Colony of parkservicesurvey set up makeshift Pomo Indians. After evacuation centers leading a convoy in veterans’ halls, of tribal members, churches and schools including elders and to accommodate the small children, through hundreds seeking in the smoke, Geary and groundwater1 30 wells refuge, some who had others returned to aid in the West went dry lost everything. firefighters and begin Firefighters from between 2013 and 2015, A woman walks through the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California, on Oct. 11, cleanup. Some tribes according to a new study. other states and as were not directly hit, where hundreds of people evacuated from the fire took refuge.Ro byn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Emily Benson far away as Australia like the Middletown More: hcne.ws/dryingup came to fight the Rancheria of Pomo blazes, whose cause is still unclear, and President Donald affected by the fires themselves. Jodi Alton, normally an Indians, who sheltered Trump approved emergency disaster relief funds to help fight administrative assistant with the city of Santa Rosa, was people affected by the the blaze that spanned hundreds of thousands of acres. Over helping run an evacuation facility. “Yesterday morning I could fires in their casino 40 people lost their lives. see flames from my house and could hear propane tanks (at resort in partnership Donations poured in from all over the country to places people’s houses) blowing up,” she said. “It sounded like a war billion barrels with the Red Cross. of20 oil lie below the like the Grace Pavilion at Sonoma County Fairgrounds in zone.” Alton’s sister in-law, a deputy sheriff, had been called to “We’ll be here as long Arctic National Wildlife Santa Rosa, where 700 people slept one night in October. One patrol evacuated neighborhoods to deter looting. as it’s needed,” said woman who was staying at the shelter, Toni Anderson, had Red Cross shelter site manager Roy Pitts, also a local Refuge’s coastal plain, Chairman Jose “Moke” and it should be drilled been awoken at 4 a.m. and given five minutes to evacuate. resident, oversaw the Grace Pavilion shelter, helping direct new Simon III. Debra “They were worried the ammunition store nearby was going to arrivals and handing out donations. “The number-one question to reduce the national Utacia Krol debt, according to Rep. blow,” she said. for people,” he said, “is, ‘When do I get to go home?’” Tay More: hcne.ws/ Many of the volunteers at the ad hoc shelters were Wiles More: hcne.ws/fireevacuees Don Young, R-Alaska, firerefuge who helped convince his House colleagues to include a push for Some of the 58 crosses set up Our readers reflect: drilling in a new budget to memorialize victims who resolution they passed died in the mass shooting on “We need a system to do better background in October. the Las Vegas Strip in early checks. I think the momentum has started to do Rebecca Worby October. this. Regretfully, it’s too late for the victims of past More: hcne.ws/ ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images shootings.” —Fritz Kindberg refugedrilling “For those of us that choose to make Las Vegas home,

In the aftermath it is comforting to see how we have banded together ns of Las Vegas during and after this terrible tragedy. We are a small h island of private land surrounded by an ocean of On the night of Oct. 1, a public land, and we care deeply about our community gunman opened fire from the and the people that make it special. Sadly, it has Jo Louise Mandalay Bay Resort onto a taken an event like this to help others recognize the crowd gathered at the Harvest same thing.” —Mike Ford Music Festival in Las Vegas. By the nights end, 59 people had “I know people who were there and escaped. I used died, including the gunman, to live nearby in Las Vegas, but after Sandy Hook, and 546 were injured. The officers, teachers, tribal members and veterans. and so many others, it all gets too relentless to feel. victims and survivors of the deadliest shooting To share your thoughts with us about how the As a country, we do not need to feel distanced and “This family’s search in recent American history spanned ages and shooting affected you as a Westerner, go to: apart from these tragedies; we need to own what is for balance in a demographics. They included students, police hcne.ws/shootingresponse happening.” —Anonymous landscape is both courageous and In memory of those who died in Las Vegas, from around the West and beyond uplifting, leaving me Hannah Lassette Ahlers, Beaumont, California | Heather Lorraine Alvarado, Cedar City, Utah | Dorene Anderson, Anchorage, Alaska with hope for a future Carrie Rae Barnette, Riverside, California | Jack Reginald Beaton, Bakersfield, California | Stephen Richard Berger, Minnesota Candice Ryan Bowers, Garden Grove, California | Denise Burditus, West Virginia | Sandra Casey, Redondo Beach, California that values working Andrea Lee Anna Castilla, Huntington Beach, California | Denise Cohen, Carpinteria, California | Austin William Davis, Riverside, California with the wild.” Thomas Day Jr., Corona, California | Christiana Duarte, Torrance, California | Stacee Ann Etcheber, Novato, California | Brian S. Fraser, La Palma, California —Louise Johns, who has Keri Galvan, Thousand Oaks, California | Dana Leann Gardner, Grand Terrace, California | Angela C. Gomez, Riverside, California | Rocio Guillen, Eastvale, California photographed Hilary Charleston Hartfield, Las Vegas, Nevada | Christopher Hazencomb, Camarillo, California | Jennifer Topaz Irvine, San Diego, California Zaranek-Anderson and Teresa Nicol Kimura, Placentia, California | Jessica Klymchuk, Canada | Carly Anne Kreibaum, Iowa | Rhonda M. LeRocque, Massachusetts her range-riding family Victor L. Link, Orange County, California | Jordan Mclldoon, Canada | Kelsey Breanne Meadows, Taft, California | Calla-Marie Medig, Canada | James Melton, Tennessee Patricia Mestas, Menifee, California | Austin Cooper Meyer, Reno, Nevada | Adrian Allan Murfitt, Anchorage, Alaska | Rachael Kathleen Parker, Manhattan Beach, California in Montana’s Tom Miner | Jennifer Parks, Lancaster, California | Carolyn Lee Parsons, Bainbridge Island, Washington | Lisa Marie Patterson, Lomita, California Basin over the last four John Joseph Phippen, Santa Clarita, California | Melissa V. Ramirez, Los Angeles, California | Jordyn N. Rivera, La Verne, California years. See a selection of Quinton Robbins, Henderson, Nevada | Cameron Robinson, St. George, Utah | Tara Ann Roe, Canada | Lisa Romero-Muniz, Gallup, New Mexico her photographs: Christopher Louis Roybal, Aurora, Colorado | Brett Schwanbeck, Bullhead City, Arizona | Bailey Schweitzer, Bakersfield, California | Laura Anne Shipp, Las Vegas, Nevada hcne.ws/familyranch Erick Silva, Las Vegas, Nevada | Susan Smith, Simi Valley, California | Brennan Lee Stewart, Las Vegas, Nevada | Derrick Dean Taylor, Oxnard, California Neysa C. Tonks, Las Vegas, Nevada | Michelle Vo, Eagle Rock, California | Kurt Allen Von Tillow, Cameron Park, California | William W. Wolfe Jr., Pennsylvania

Never miss a story. Sign up for the HCN newsletter at hcn.org/enewsletter. www.hcn.org High Country News 3 Letters Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428.

High Country News Geography needs in Montana,” HCN, 9/4/17). As ed. Executive director/Publisher cartography we experience this creature, so rv ese Paul Larmer we discover the spirit of song, r Editor-in-Chief I am a former archaeologist ts and whelping dens that have gh Brian Calvert and currently a professional i r SENIOR EDITOR youth within. The cycle of sea geographer, so I especially en ll Jodi Peterson sons. Where in the spring? Now joyed the recent feature article Art director te. A

have they dispersed. a Cindy Wehling “Following Ancient Footsteps” Deputy editor, digital These are the songs of the

(HCN, 10/2/17). Among the yndic Kate Schimel rural. Experienced on the edge, S many highlights was the small s Associate EDITORs r Tay Wiles, but then, not quite. Unless o but effective map that put the t Maya L. Kapoor a one explores, and finds the e

Assistant EDITORS whole story into a geographic Cr Paige Blankenbuehler, places. The spaces of changing perspective. nd a

Anna V. Smith patterns. Coyote. The mischie

Unfortunately, I have found g D.C. Correspondent vous one. in Elizabeth Shogren that maps in feature stories r ee

WRITERS ON THE RANGE are the exception. I have read Todd Teicheira D n editor Betsy Marston numerous features that don’t Bend, Oregon h Associate PHOTO EDITOR include a map of the area, most Brooke Warren Copy editOR recently “A Weird and Perfect Is it High Country News or

Diane Sylvain Wilderness,” “Los Promotores” just White Country News? ission of Jo

Contributing editorS and “The Elwha, Unleashed.” rm I’ve learned a lot from HCN Tristan Ahtone, Graham As Westerners, we are defined e pe Brewer, Cally Carswell, in the last few years, and it’s h t

Sarah Gilman, Ruxandra by our geography, and our geog h Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, responsible for my year-long de it raphy is illustrated in maps. w Jonathan Thompson tour to Grand Junction, which Every one of HCN’s excellent CorrespondentS will always be a life highlight. used

Krista Langlois, Sarah stories is rooted in a place, w But I’m increasingly tired e Tory, Joshua Zaffos whether small or large. Why r

Editorial FellowS of your magazine’s world-weary e B not include a map for each g Emily Benson, white man’s editorial perspective, and

defense’s objections were frequently An

one? The photography of people and r

Rebecca Worby t

without merit under the law. Although I what appears to be a lack of commit S Development Director places is always powerful, but even a am not legally trained, I could see that: ment to reflecting and representing the Laurie Milford small map can add context to an already Many of the defense objections were diversity of identity and experience in Philanthropy Advisor engaging story. Maps tell and distill Alyssa Pinkerton simply objections to negative evidence the West, even the Interior Mountain stories. When you add a map to a story, Development Assistant being presented about the defendants. West. it paints a picture and helps put the Christine List Well, that is how a trial works: Each There’s no doubt you publish the oc Marketing & Promotions reader in that (or those) places. Manager JoAnn Kalenak side tries to present its own witnesses casional solid piece of reporting on com Events & Business Partner Chris Wayne in the best possible light, and the op munities of color or immigration, but Coordinator Laura Dixon Chiloquin, Oregon ponents in the worst, although their never are you really inside these stories. WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel evidence does need to be hard evidence It’s not hard to know why, and the Database/IT administrator Alan Wells Game of trials? — facts, not opinions. screen capture of the thank-you video I Being fair does not mean “keep just saw gave me a tremor of regret. DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT In your short article, “Why the Bundy Gretchen King ing score” evenly, but using the same In the next years, I hope to see a few crew keeps winning in court,” you stated Aocc untant standards to judge each side, and that things: that some of the trial attenders felt that Erica Howard standard is the law. Aocc unts Receivable the judge was prejudiced against the • you wrestle with your own Jan Hoffman defense (HCN, 9/18/17). Marian Rhys whiteness and complicity as you Customer Service Manager Christie Cantrell I attended much, although not all, Portland, Oregon blame the Trump administration Customer Service of the Bundy trials here in Portland, for everything bad Kathy Martinez (Circ. Oregon, and had an opportunity to over A poem for Coyote • several new editorial voices, Systems Administrator), hear some conversations among defense Pam Peters, Doris Teel, Coyote, not tokenism supporters, and occasionally to talk with Tammy York the adaptable one. GrantWriter Janet Reasoner them directly. I think that some of those • a hiatus from reviewing/ Never listening perceptions come from their misunder featuring books about middle- [email protected] to what you think, [email protected] standings of how court proceedings aged white people trying to find Save to leave [email protected] work. For example, they thought that themselves in nature [email protected] when he can Judge Anna J. Brown was unfair to [email protected] to avoid danger. I believe in your mission and think a FOUNDER them because she overruled more objec Tom Bell The howler to the moon, strong HCN is good for our society. You tions from defense attorneys than those Board of Directors to the train, have a unique platform — please act John Belkin, Colo. from the prosecution attorneys. They the plane, with urgency to reflect the times we’re Chad Brown, Ore. seemed to think that the trial was some Beth Conover, Colo. and most certainly, in. sort of game, where you keep score for Jay Dean, Calif. the siren. Bob Fulkerson, Nev. each side. Matt King The longing croon. Wayne Hare, Colo. Yet the reality is that, although San Jose, California The desert, Laura Helmuth, Md. they were technically right — the judge John Heyneman, Wyo. our home. Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico did overrule more objections from Samaria Jaffe, Calif. defense attorneys than from prosecu Thank you, Julie Lue. I so appreci Nicole Lampe, Ore. Marla Painter, N.M. tion attorneys — that is because the ated your essay on Coyote (“Overheard Bryan Pollard, Ark. Raynelle Rino, Calif. Estee Rivera Murdock, D.C. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post Dan Stonington, Wash. media organization that covers the issues that define the offices.POST MASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Rick Tallman, Colo. High American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles Luis Torres, N.M. to act on behalf of the region’s diverse natural and human in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Andy Wiessner, Colo. Country communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: Florence Williams, D.C. News times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Printed on recycled paper. 4 High Country News October 30, 2017 StrAnge Brew used with the permission of John Deering and Creators Syndicate. All rights reserved. and expands the previous agreement — and expandsthepreviousagreement — That deal, called “Minute 323,” extends ever, signedanewpactinlateSeptember. expires attheendof2017. Officials, how dressed otherriver ment thatmadetheflowpossibleandad altered it. The 2012 international agree do’s importance—andhowhumans have people throughoutthebasinofColora time sincethelate1990s. That reminded allow therivertomeetgulfforfirst below through theparched riverbedtoaquifers er wildlifepopulations. willow saplingsandboostingbirdoth several weeks, nourishingcottonwoodand This “pulse flow” courseddownstreamfor river’s drydeltaattheGulfofCalifornia. Mexico border Dam ontheColoradoRiver, attheU.S. O People RiverDelta. inMexico gather Colorado to moves watch across thedry flow asthe2014pulse High Countr E mily Benson is an editorial fellowmily Bensonisaneditorial at Though mostofthewater soaked dam operators lifted a gate on Morelos dam operatorsliftedagateonMorelos n asunnyMarch morningin2014, , enoughremainedabovegroundto The U.S. and Mexico signed an updated water pact y News. . Water gushedtoward the  Sharing ashrinking @erbenson1 - management issues management issues Colorado River Colorado to deal with drought By E mi - l y Benson lows theU.S. tocurtailwater deliveriesto of a dry one. That international accord al the bountyofawetyearand the shortages ly statehowthetwocountries shouldshare Mexico does notdefinethatphrase. The 2012U.S. ico ifthere’s an “extraordinary drought,” it the U.S. toreducewater deliveriestoMex “minutes,” sinceitwas firstsigned. by hundredsofsmalleragreements, called vague orunaddressed, hasbeenupdated downstream toMexicoeach year. ing howmuch water theU.S. mustsend sions complex weboflaws, treatiesanddeci of farmland. It’s managedaccording toa water, anditirrigatesmillionsofacres millions ofpeoplerelyonitfordrinking cial resourceforbothcountries: Tens of through theU.S. andMexico. It’s acru faucets dry. ter shortagethatcouldleave fieldsand and reducetheriskofacatastrophicwa For example, thoughthetreatypermits The treaty, which leftmanydetails The ColoradoRiverwinds1,450miles , including a1944treatyspecify agreement was the first to explicit - River programs manager at the Central River programs managerattheCentral act,” says Chuck Cullom, the Colorado they dotoday iftheLowerBasinfailsto all, “(Mexico) wouldn’t oweanymorethan for finalizingtheLowerBasin plan. After ment fromMexicoaddsanextra incentive River water. Still, theconditionalagree Sea inCalifornia, which isfedbyColorado ers anddisagreementsovertheSalton conflicts between Arizona water manag also begintofacerestrictions of Arizona, NevadaandCaliforniawould ger pointatwhich theLowerBasinstates below 1,075feetabovesealevel, thetrig Mexico if the surfaceofLake Mead drops mid the droughtcontingencyplanfinishedby leap. While water agencieshopetohave least afewmonthsaway fromtakingthat at thesametime.” “It onlyworksiftheyalljumpinthepool josa serves as the co Country NewsboardmemberOsvelHino 323 environmentalworkinggroup. (High gram andU.S. co Audubon Society’s ColoradoRiverPro Jennifer Pitt, the director of the National for thesuccessofbasin the “droughtcontingencyplan.” called Basin statesalsoagreetosimilarcutbacks, tions onlygointoeffectiftheU.S. Lower when Mead drops. But those extra restric water usebeyondthose specified in2012 would committovoluntaryreductionsin Na tion The Lower Basin states are still at The LowerBasinstatesarestillat That kindofcooperationiscritical Under thenewagreement, Mexico - 2018, al C Geo gra URR obstacles abound, including p h ic Cr e a - ti chair oftheMinute v - e /A chair from Mexico.) - lam EN wide plans, says y . 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Arizona Water Conservation District. conservation projects in exchange for al agreement is that it bolsters transnational That would leave the U.S. to face addi most 230,000 acre-feet of water. (A typical cooperation as urgency mounts in the face tional water shortages on its own. household uses about half an acre-foot of of climate change. In August, the Bureau Other provisions of the new agree water per year.) Some of that water will of Reclamation announced that there’s “no ment, which will last for 10 years, tackle stay in the Colorado system to maintain chance” of water cutbacks in the Colorado lingering logistical issues of international reservoir levels or help the environment. River Basin in 2018. Yet the Colorado will river management. Minute 323 maintains Minute 323 will also build upon pre continue to shrink in the coming decades. Mexico’s ability to store water in U.S. res vious environmental work, including the Minute 323 could help the basin meet that ervoirs and addresses concerns like salin 2014 pulse flow. The new pact doesn’t challenge. ity levels and irregular flow, which can explicitly call for another single large re “It’s one river,” says Tina Shields, a damage infrastructure. The new agree lease, allowing scientists flexibility in de water manager at California’s Imperial ment also stipulates that several U.S. ciding how best to deliver water to resto Irrigation District. “We don’t want to op water agencies and the federal govern ration sites (see map below). erate it separately, and we need to have a ment pay Mexico $31.5 million for water Perhaps the biggest win of the new common understanding.”

Will the Colorado RIVERSIDE RESTORATION SITES Miguel Aleman River again within the Colorado River Delta U.S. reach the sea? MEXICO Smaller targeted flows may do more environmental good than repeating

a Delta-wide water release DETAIL By Emily Benson

uman demand for the Colorado River More than El Chausse H Delta’s defining feature — water — 90 percent of the has devastated its ecosystem, leaving water released much of it desiccated. Once, “a verdant Laguna Grande wall of mesquite and willow separated during the pulse the channel from the thorny desert be yond,” Aldo Leopold wrote in “The Green 0 10 20 flow seeped Lagoons,” describing a 1922 canoe trip kilometers into underlying in the Delta. “Fleets of cormorants drove their black prows in quest of skittering aquifers. mullets; avocets, willets, and yellowlegs

dozed one-legged on the bars; mallards, SOURCE: SONORAN INSTITUTE widgeons, and teal sprang skyward in alarm.” Today, invasive plants like tamarisk ously cleared. “Water is a scarce and very the pulse flow and more than 50,000 ad have moved in, and farms have replaced high-priced commodity to have it be do ditional acre-feet for smaller releases over most of the wilderness Leopold explored. ing stuff that you could do mechanically,” five years. Irrigating specific restoration Only small and disconnected pockets of says Carlos de la Parra, an environmental sites with targeted releases is one possi wetland and riverside habitat remain. policy expert at El Colegio de la Frontera bility for the future. That would deliver Environmental groups hope to protect Norte in Tijuana, Mexico. water to reaches where it can nurture and further restore those places by keep Changes to the Basin’s hydrology plants and keep it away from areas with ing water in the Delta. also meant that more than 90 percent of deep aquifers — but it wouldn’t have the A large release of water, known as a the water released during the pulse flow symbolic heft of a large release that wets “pulse flow,” in 2014 (see main story), was seeped into underlying aquifers. Where the entire length of the Colorado. meant to mimic one of the Basin’s historic groundwater levels were already low, the Will there be a repeat pulse flow in spring floods. Before Hoover and Glen extra water did little to support continued the next few years? “I wouldn’t write Canyon dams were built, those deluges plant growth. “(Those water-table levels) that off yet,” says Karen Schlatter, who were big enough to erode banks and de are so deep that they’re beyond the reach manages ecological monitoring and res posit sediment. That cleared the way for of the roots,” says Patrick Shafroth, a plant toration programs in the Colorado River new cottonwood and willow seedlings to ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. Delta for the nonprofit Sonoran Insti take root and left the ground wet enough The timing and size of releases under tute. “Connecting the river to the sea is a for them to flourish. a September update to the U.S.-Mexico big achievement.” The 2014 release went The limited amount of water set aside treaty that governs Colorado River man beyond ecological gains: The flow of long- for the 2014 pulse flow meant that it was agement are yet to be determined. The awaited water highlighted the social many times smaller than historic spring agreement includes 210,000 acre-feet of benefits of bringing the basin’s commu floods. It didn’t create much of the bare water over nine years for environmental nities together as their residents swam, ground that native plants need, so they projects. An earlier agreement, signed in worked on restoration projects and oth thrived only in areas that had been previ 2012, included about 105,000 acre-feet for erwise enjoyed the river.

6 High Country News October 30, 2017 Gina McCarthy holds out hope on climate policy The former head of the EPA isn’t despairing despite Trump administration rollbacks By Brian Calvert

Gina McCarthy was the head of the En- be emitted into rivers and streams from world in that area. It was not an easy Gina McCarthy, on a vironmental Protection Agency under power plants. decision to actually move forward, and it visit to Shenandoah President Barack Obama, starting in July It’s pretty clear they haven’t really was complicated science. We did a lot of National Park, in 2013. Under her leadership, the agency been selective in their thinking, and per work. October 2016. undertook an ambitious climate change haps that’s the most discouraging thing. To have this administrator sort of by Shenandoah National Park agenda, curbing emissions from vehicles It’s not easy for me to watch, but I’m not pass all those issues and simply talk to and working toward the Clean Power Plan, despairing in any way. People are step somebody from the industry — by himself, an effort to further cut U.S. greenhouse gas ping up. When the U.S. government in as far as I know — and then come back emissions. Many of those regulations are Washington has fallen asleep, the rest of and make a decision, was really disre now being undone by her successor, Scott the country tends to wake up big time. spectful of all of the work that had gone on Pruitt, who as attorney general of Okla- before. It was an unheard-of step to take homa initiated multiple legal challenges HCN News outlets are reporting that the and a process that certainly didn’t seem to EPA regulations. High Country News current EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, to involve any of our career scientists or caught up with McCarthy in September, met with Pebble Mine representatives be staff or anybody that actually worked on in Lander, Wyoming, as she prepared to fore announcing they could go ahead with the issues that would know what we did address a crowd at the 50th anniversary of a massive mining proposal on Alaska’s and why we did it. the Wyoming Outdoor Council. Bristol Bay. What does this incident tell you about the current EPA, and what kind HCN Given an administration whose High Country News In terms of their im of danger does this pose to the bay’s salm policies are ambivalent or hostile to “ You can’t pact on Western states and Alaska, what on runs and other ecological values? science, what’s the greatest danger to the accomplishments at the EPA were you agency right now? bring politics GM The entire administration, almost most proud of, and which of these are since day one, when President (Don GM I think a lot of people are continuing to into science most threatened by the current adminis ald) Trump started issuing executive stay at EPA, knowing that they’ve made a tration? or science orders, made it very clear that the only career there. They are the ones that know Gina McCarthy Well, at this point, I’d say thing they were interested in looking at most, and it’s just kind of sad that this into politics. ” that the current administration is re with environmental decisions was what administration doesn’t realize that the ca —Gina McCarthy, former head of the considering just about every decision the immediate business cost was, instead reer staff are more than open to different Environmental Protection that’s been made under the Obama ad of looking at the full cost-benefit. What policy inclinations and directions. That’s Agency ministration, and I think they’ve made does it mean for people? What does it what they’re trained to do. It’s just that it clear that they want to rethink all the mean for the larger economy, even? you can’t bring politics into science or sci climate efforts. They’re also really going Bristol Bay was not a cut-and-dried, ence into politics. after things like the Clean Water Rule, “We have environmentalists over there I think the greatest threat that we which is intended to make sure that the and we have the whole business com face really is twofold. One is the outright millions of people who rely on rivers and munity over there.” We actually acted attack on science: taking science informa streams that are currently unprotected there because there were huge portions tion off the EPA’s web page; Congress try get those rivers and streams protected. of the economy, of not just Alaska, but ing to change the peer-review process to They’re also going after things like the Oregon and Washington, threatened by give more stature to industry. And you amount of toxics and effluence that can Pebble Mine, if that mine could not be have science itself at the agency being constructed in a way that would protect proposed to be eliminated by the budget. Brian Calvert is the editor-in-chief at High Country the salmon resource. I mean, it’s almost So it’s really this attack on science News.  @brcalvert half of the wild salmon population in the Please see McCarthy, page 23 www.hcn.org High Country News 7 “Usually, the party that is considered Utah centrists get the dominant party in national politics stirs up more third-party offshoots,” notes James Curry, assistant professor of politi a new political party cal science at the University of Utah. The Can United Utah provide a political refuge for the disillusioned? emergence of United Utah is therefore no surprise; a Republican stronghold where Dead salmon on the By Rebecca Worby Trump performed poorly is a logical place Klamath River after for a centrist movement. “For someone the fish die-off who wants to make noise,” says Curry, in 2002. im Bennett, a congressional candi values of many Utah voters, the majority “it’s a signal that this is a good state to MICHAEL BELCHICK/ date in the upcoming special election Northcoast Journal J of whom belong to the Church of Jesus do it.” in Utah’s 3rd District, always considered Christ of Latter-day Saints. “In terms But history has not favored third par himself a loyal Republican. But that be of what people actually believe, Utah is ties. They tend to be short-lived, and they THE LATEST gan to change in 2010 when his father, quite moderate,” he says. “We’re not in rarely win major elections. Most voters Backstory three-term Sen. Bob Bennett, lost the lockstep with the party on issues like im are staunchly partisan — more so than party’s nomination, blocked by Tea Party migration or public lands or health care.” they think — and those attachments prove The Klamath River, in southern Oregon and Republicans who didn’t find him conser Mormons typically don’t vote Democratic, hard to break, says Curry. Even when vot Northern California, vative enough. Jim Bennett, who ran his though, because candidates “take too ers express doubt about candidates early once hosted the West father’s final campaign, grew increas many positions that are too liberal for the on, most revert to familiar party lines on Coast’s third-largest ingly frustrated with his party’s direction. districts in which they are running,” says Election Day. The moderate, well-liked salmon run, until “Right when Donald Trump secured the Jeremy Pope, co-director of the Center for Republican candidate, Provo Mayor John dams and irrigation Republican nomination,” he says now, “I the Study of Elections and Democracy at Curtis, is favored to win the special elec disrupted it. During decided I didn’t want to be a Republican Brigham Young University. tion. If a farther-right candidate had won severe drought in anymore.” The 2016 presidential election clearly the primary, it might’ve created more 2001, the feds shut Meanwhile, a Utah professor was also showed that Utah voters wanted another space for Bennett. As it stands, Pope sus off farmers’ water to feeling politically disillusioned — but option: Trump’s apparent morality did pects Bennett will take more votes from save endangered fish and uphold tribal with the Democratic Party, which he felt not align with LDS beliefs. A damning the Democratic nominee, Kathie Allen. water rights. The had moved too far to the left, and which speech by 2012 Republican presidential United Utah is both a symptom and farmers sued for $29 has long lacked power in this mostly red nominee Mitt Romney, a Mormon whom a result of nationwide dissatisfaction million plus interest state. Richard Davis, who teaches politi many Utahns revere, solidified their op with both parties, so what percentage of for the federal cal science at Brigham Young University, position: “Donald Trump is a phony, a the vote Bennett receives will be instruc “taking” of their contacted Bennett last year about the fraud,” Romney said before the primary. tive. The party’s emergence, according to water. In 2002, they prospect of creating a centrist party. “For Trump earned 46 percent of the vote in Curry, indicates that we’ll soon see some got to irrigate, but those who are moderates in either party, the state, with 21 percent going to Evan shifts in the Republican coalition as the the resulting salmon or just Independents, there was no po McMullin, a center-right independent GOP grapples with its growing fissures. die-off enraged tribes. Stakeholders litical home,” says Davis. Thus began the candidate. And McMullin did particular “It’s a sign,” says Curry, “that you’re go eventually negotiated United Utah Party, with Davis as party ly well in Utah’s 3rd District, which in ing to see some strife and upheaval in the an end to the chair and Bennett as executive director. cludes Provo, Orem and Price as well as Republican Party in the next four to eight fighting (“Peace on Calling itself “Practical Not Partisan,” Moab and Monticello. years.” the Klamath,” HCN, United Utah is courting voters who, like 6/23/08). Bennett and Davis, have grown disillu sioned with the two major parties. The na Followup scent party originally hoped to begin field In late September, ing candidates in state and local races in Federal Claims 2018, but its first foray came sooner and Judge Marian Blank at a higher level than expected: It was still Horn ruled that collecting signatures to become a quali the government’s fied party when Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R- actions did not require Utah, announced plans to step down. The compensation. While United Utah team lurched into high gear, acknowledging the eager to use the Nov. 7 special election to farmers’ hardships, introduce itself to the state — and particu Horn said the water larly to Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. cut-off was forced by Bennett, who thought he’d left politics be senior rights held by hind after the tumult of his father’s failed the Klamath, Yurok re-election bid, knew the party needed a and Hoopa Valley candidate who was “willing to stick their tribes. The decision will help “protect neck out.” He volunteered to run. the economies and traditions of ome of the planks in United Utah’s tribal and coastal S platform tilt to the right: pro-Second communities that Amendment, anti-abortion with certain rely on salmon and exceptions. But others lean left: support other fish,” saidT odd for increased funding for public education, True, an Earthjustice a more liberal stance on immigration. senior attorney, in a According to Bennett, this mix reflects the statement. Jodi Peterson Jim Bennett, center, has helped organize a new, moderate party for disillusioned Republicans Rebecca Worby is an editorial fellow at and Democrats called the United Utah Party. He is also the party’s candidate for the special High Country News.  @beccaworby election to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Steve Griffin /The Salt Lake Tribune

8 High Country News October 30, 2017 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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Since 1971, reader contributions have made Thomas Gerstenberger | Denver, CO it possible for HCN to report on the American Maria Globus Trust | Albuquerque, NM West. Your tax-deductible gift directly funds nonprofit, independent journalism. Craig Gullixson | Sunspot, NM Douglas Henry | Medford, OR Thank you for supporting our hardworking John Herrman | Placerville, CA journalists. Samaria Jaffe | San Anselmo, CA Lane Leckman & Deborah Hall | Albuquerque, NM Publisher’s Circle Robert Maddox & Katie Hirschboeck | RCG Fund Tucson, AZ Charley & Lanora Rosenberry | Vashon, WA Russell & Janice Martenson | Ranchos de Taos, NM Steward Kathy Martinez | Greenwood Village, CO The U.S. Charitable Gift Trust, Campizondo Edel & Thomas Mayer Foundation | Foundation | Indianapolis, IN Albuquerque, NM Katherine Borgen | Denver, CO Steven McLaughlin & Jan Bowers | Big Pine, CA William D. Hamann Charitable Fund | Grand Junction, CO Chip Miller | Missoula, MT Tree Ring Counter: Dendochronologist John King blends in with tree branches on a John Heyneman Jr. & Arin Waddell | Steve & Randi Murray | Evergreen, CO 1,000-year-old juniper in Yellowstone National Park. Steve Horan Sheridan, WY Len Pavelka | Richland, WA Alan Marks, Center For Education | John & Carolyn Ramsey | Eagle Point, OR People of Yellowstone Albuquerque, NM Mike Raymond | Gallatin Gateway, MT Ruth W. Crocker. Dennis & Trudy O’Toole | Block Island, RI 188 pages, hardcover: $29.95. Elm Grove Press, 2017. Scott & Barbara Robertson | Boulder, CO Constance Pope | Hillsboro, OR Kathleen & Hal Robins | Salt Lake City, UT Bill & Carol Smallwood | Phoenix, AZ A backcountry ranger stands behind a downed log, one hand resting on the wooden Ellen Rosenau | Berkeley, CA Nancy Hamill Winter | Woodstock, VT handle of a saw. Her thick braid is slung forward over her shoulder, obscuring the badge on Wayne Roth & Kathleen Alcala | her National Park Service uniform. The image is one of 87 contemporary black-and-white Bainbridge Island, WA photographs by Steve Horan collected in People of Yellowstone, which portrays some of the GUArantor Kenneth Smith | Saratoga, CA many women and men who have lived and worked in the iconic national park in recent years. Anonymous (2) Douglas Spencer & Kathleen Parrish | A profile by Ruth W.C rocker accompanies each portrait. The subjects, who include In memory of Elaine, from Tim & Juergen Evergreen, CO rangers, scientists, artists and others, have studied the wolves and fish ofY ellowstone, gazed On behalf of Lou & Nancy Patterson Bruce Struminger & Isabel Dora Constable | at its geysers, shoveled snow off the rooftops of its buildings, and wrangled horses for trail Albuquerque, NM Connie Adler | Albuquerque, NM rides. But above all, they have shared their love of the park’s natural landscape with its many Jim & Anne Taylor | Billings, MT Carol Brewer & Paul Alaback | Berthoud, CO visitors. As one backcountry ranger in says, “People have no idea how wild Yellowstone Mark & Amy Tercek Foundation | Emily Benson Charles DeKeado & Shari Fox | Applegate, OR Washington, DC really is.” Loyal Durand | Aspen, CO John Willard | Cortez, CO Lamar Empey | Cody, WY Richard Winterbottom & Kathryn Monaco | Chauncey & Emily Hall | Salt Lake City, UT Albuquerque, NM Brian Deutscher | Gilroy, CA Tam & Barbara Moore | Medford, OR Carol & Len Harlig | Ketchum, ID Joe Alcorn & Sylvia Wittels | Bernalillo, NM Caroline W. Duell | Carbondale, CO John C. 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Warrington | Cincinnati, OH Anonymous (2) In memory of Charlotte Hope | Duluth, MN Donna R. Hickman | Payson, AZ Polly Wiessner | Salt Lake City, UT In honor of The High Mountain Institute In memory of Aglaia Ihle | Mission Viejo, CA Georganne Hunter | Lingle, WY In memory of Eric Dissel, Mountain Man Bo Baggs | Port Arthur, TX Jane & Bill Janke | Ophir, CO Patron In memory of Philip Rule | Paonia, CO Jerry & Terry Beckwith | Bakersfield,C A Michael & Donna Johnson | Grass Valley, CA Anonymous (7) In memory of Carroll Wood Stewart | Barbara L. Brown | Orcas, WA Dianna Klineburger | Lynnwood, WA In honor of Andy Mitchell | Soledad, CA Santa Fe, NM Marilyn Bruner | Loveland, CO Wade & Kristi Laster | Flagstaff, AZ In memory of Pat Chatfield In memory of Sandy Thompson Janis Burger | Port Angeles, WA Richard Lyon | Bozeman, MT In memory of Thomas & Betty Ela | Santa Fe, NM Steve & Ellen Adelson, Stephen Adelson Trust | Bonnie Mercer Cohn | Hermosa Beach, CA Tulsa, OK Ann Mahoney | Healdsburg, CA In memory of Susan Epstein Janene Colby | Borrego Springs, CA Russell & Carol Atha | Steamboat Springs, CO William McCarvill | Salt Lake City, UT In memory of Paul Meismer | Missoula, MT William Croft & Carol Toffaleti | John McKean | Corrales, NM Susie Adams | Livingston, TX George Chesley | Bend, OR Albuquerque, NM Bob Davis | Somewhere in the West Anne & Jack Middleton | Mount Vernon, WA Continued on next page

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 THE HCN COMMUNITY

Don Hall | Yreka, CA John Platt | Bellevue, WA Patricia Hallin | Monterey, CA Ray Powell | Los Ranchos, NM Congratulations to staff Mark Halstead | Peyton, CO Donna C. Pozzi | Sacramento, CA M.C. & P.J. Hart | Phoenix, AZ Carol & Francis Raley | Grand Junction, CO members, old and new Russell & Billi Hart | Chattaroy, WA Boni Randall | Kelso, WA Pat Havard | Nevada City, CA Craig H. Reide | Langley, WA Autumn colors have lit up the tions: Former HCN contributing Everett Headrick | Hayden, ID Glenn Rhodes | San Francisco, CA aspen and scrub oak around editor Glenn Nelson won second A. David Hedine | Cheyenne, WY Daryl Rice | Perkasie, PA Paonia, High Country News’ place in the Society of Envi Norma Heinz | Denver, CO Judith Roberts | West Linn, OR home, but snow dusting the ronmental Journalists’ annual Eric & Susanna Henley | El Cerrito, CA Maria Katherman & Will Robinson | Douglas, WY mountaintops above town awards, in the “outstanding Kathryn Hiestand & Neal Miller | Bozeman, MT Jon Rosenfield | Berkeley, CA reminds us that winter is on beat reporting, small market” Robert Hiester | Oak Creek, CO Lin Rowland | Flagstaff, AZ its way. Before it got too cold, category, for a series of HCN our board and several staff Susan Hittson | Pagosa Springs, CO Angelina Sanchez | American Canyon, CA stories on race and diversity members convened in Boulder, in the outdoors. Former edito James Holahan | Winter Park, CO Berma Saxton | Helena, MT Colorado, for a productive board rial fellow Lyndsey Gilpin was Marcia Hudson | Monmouth, OR Mark Sazenbach | Fairlawn, VA meeting. Meanwhile, more than recently elected to the society’s Gail Isaacs | Dubois, WY Peter Schertz & Andrea Avantaggio | a few leaf-peepers stopped in to board. Well done, Glenn and Bob & Pam Jacobel | Northfield, MN Durango, CO Charlynn Schweingruber | Evanston, IL see us in Paonia. Lyndsey! Al & Pat Jefferson | Longmont, CO In mid-September, Anne and We’re also happy to wel Chris Johnson | Pollock, ID Robert & Nada Scofield | Jacksonville, OR Otto Seller | Las Vegas, NV Mike Crowley, who live outside come our newest staff member, Martin & Janet Johnson | Grand Junction, CO nearby Crested Butte, and Laura Dixon, who will help us Virginia Johnson | Denver, CO Mike & Jean Sewell Charitable Trust, Renaissance Charitable Foundation Janice and Rich Shaughnessy with advertising, sponsorships Gail Jordan | East Wenatchee, WA Robert Shattuck | Mendocino, CA of Whidbey Island, Washing and event planning as our new Richard Kanner | Salt Lake City, UT Kris Shepherd | Spokane, WA ton, came to call. Subscribers events and business partner Janet Killeen | Grand Junction, CO Joann L. Smith | Los Angeles, CA Emery Cowan and Campbell coordinator. Laura moved Julie Scott Kirk | Benton City, WA Robert W. Smith | Whitehall, MT Morrissy from Flagstaff, Ari here from Seattle, but she’s no Carol Kirkegaard | Aurora, CO Neal & Carol Sorensen | Salt Lake City, UT zona, also stopped by — while stranger to Colorado’s Western Asta & Edward Klohe | Tucson, AZ on their honeymoon, no less. Robert E. Sorenson | Sequim, WA Slope, having lived in nearby Ted Klump | Vancouver, WA Congratulations, you two! Basalt for several years before B.J. Stanley | Helena, MT Eugene Koppy | Great Falls, MT Longtime reader John An- decamping for Portland, Maine, Connie & Jim Steele | Victor, ID Eileen Kortas | Santa Rosa, CA drick of Buena Vista, Colorado, then Seattle. Laura says she Donald Steuter | Phoenix, AZ Rosemary Krawczyk | Mankato, MN visited while in town for “veg loves HCN because it keeps Mark Stevens | Denver, CO Ramsey Kropf | Boulder, CO etables and leaf peeping.” Tim her connected to the West and Richard Stopol | Hailey, ID Aryn LaBrake | Albuquerque, NM Welch from Littleton, Colorado, “takes me on journeys to places Harold H. Stowell | Tuscaloosa, AL Jim & JoAnne Lafferty | Boise, ID dropped by on a sunny Sep I haven’t been.” Welcome, Michael & Anne Sudmeier | Wilson, WY John F. Lake | Boaz, AL tember day. Tim says he enjoys Laura! John Sullivan | Grand Junction, CO Lori Lauriano | Bernalillo, NM reading the magazine cover to Finally, we have a few Alex Takasugi | Eagle, ID Francis Legerski | Sheridan, WY cover and to “keep up the good corrections. In “Buying Time” Donald & Nancy Taylor | Denver, CO Hal & Kathi Lewis | Amity, OR work.” We’re trying! (HCN, 9/18/17) we incorrectly John Taylor | Fair Oaks, CA Sandra Lilligren | Clarkston, WA Subscribers Taylor and Bill identified Ramón Gallego as Marcus Taylor | Central Valley, UT Eric & Suellen Lodge | Solana Beach, CA Goforth of Olympia, Washing a student at the University of Douglas Temkin | San Jose, CA ton, stopped by with friends Washington; he is a postdoctoral Richard Logan & Nancy Howard | Curlew, WA Eric G. Thiel | Ketchum, ID from Crested Butte. From fellow. We also described climate Elizabeth Loy | Poulsbo, WA Charles L. Thomas | Eugene, OR Centerville, Utah, came Sheldon change as being a contributor Manfred Luehne | Centennial, CO H. Virginia Thompson | Eagar, AZ and Elaine Wood, subscribers to ocean acidification; climate George Lynn | El Sobrante, CA Wayne Thompson | Tucson, AZ for at least 10 years. Beth Bartel change and ocean acidification Ethel Major | Quemado, NM Christine & Dave Throgmorton | Rawlins, WY and Rebecca Haacker of Boulder, are both the result of excessive Walter Major | Lawrenceburg, KY Lucy Thulin | Centennial, CO Colorado, said howdy during a greenhouse gases in the atmo Craig Markham | Dundee, OR Ken Till | Post Falls, ID late September visit to the area sphere. In “Following Ancient Donald Martell | Denver, CO Wayne & Kathy Treibish | Levittown, NY to admire the leaves and sample Footsteps” (HCN, 10/2/17), Isa Barbara Maximovich | San Jose, CA Jeffrey Tufts | Medford, OR our local wine. Kathleen Capels iah Viarrial of Pojoaque Pueblo, Cathy Mayweather | Phoenix, AZ John & Nancy Ullmann | Los Alamos, NM and Terence Yorks of Smithfield, not Jake Viarrial, was pictured Pat McCabe | Bend, OR John Ursu | Salem, OH Utah, also came through, sport at an archaeological site. And Roger & Edith Miller | Seattle, WA Richard Vineyard | Sparks, NV ing “original” HCN T-shirts and an Aug. 7 Heard Around the Scott Mincemoyer | Helena, MT Glen Ward | Heppner, OR deep ties with the magazine. West item about a canny crow Michael W. Mitchell | Taos Ski Valley, NM John D. Watson | Durango, CO In early October, Laura Getts of researcher misspelled the re Jerry & Chris Moore | Bend, OR Pueblo, Colorado, dropped in to Gerald P. Weisensee | Monmouth, OR searcher’s last name. It is Kaeli Larry Morgan | Sterling, CO say hello. Swift, not Smith. LaMona Wells | Lovelock, NV Keith Moser | Flagstaff, AZ Now for some congratula —Emily Benson, for the staff Dorothy & Andrew Werner | Santa Cruz, CA Carroll Munz | Paradise Valley, AZ Michael & Colle Werner | Kimberly, ID William Myrick | Sonora, CA Karen Wetherell | Orinda, CA Kathleen Capels Robert & Sue Naymik | Medford, OR and Terence Yorks Brett Wheeler | Berkeley, CA David & Betsy Nazare | Park City, UT sport their retro Wallace L. White | Durango, CO John Offersen | Santa Fe, NM HCN shirts. Sarah Wiggett | Chico, CA Brooke Warren/ Beth Offutt | Sahuarita, AZ Steve M. Wilson | Seattle, WA High Country News John Olson | Aurora, CO Kent Winterholler | Park City, UT Paul O’Rourke-Babb | Chico, CA Diana Wood | Sacramento, CA Jo Overton | Philomath, OR George Wright & Jodie Kavanaugh | Vernon Page | Clifton, AZ Grand Junction, CO Mike Phillips | Belgrade, MT Kenneth & Michele Wunderlick | Roswell, NM Edwin Pister | Bishop, CA Susan Yager | Aztec, NM Tom A. Pittenger | Dolores, CO Gary Zadra | Superior, WY www.hcn.org High Country News 11 The Changing Face of Woods Work

e were somewhere in Benewah County, Idaho, Spanish. Davis, a wild-haired, wild-bearded man of about 40 who Guest on a resplendent late April afternoon in 1993. lived in his truck in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley when he wasn’t I had planted the last of my trees for the working, was an anarchist and rabble-rouser who believed in the workers and day, shouldered my hoedad and was walking international brotherhood of laborers, and he fell right in with down a skid trail, eyes on the fertile valleys the obreros, although he didn’t speak Spanish. economic spread out below us, the coil of blue silver river, the great yawn After five weeks planting in Idaho and Washington, some of Wof gentle mountains, patched with clear-cuts like the one we’d the crew came to my house in the Bitterroot Valley to celebrate realities been working in, but still possessed of a surpassing beauty, rich, the good season, drinking and shooting pool at the Rainbow Bar rain-drenched forests of a thousand shades of green shimmering in Hamilton and hanging out on the river. mean the in the sunlight and shadows of passing clouds. None of us knew it then, but we were witnessing the end of I was singing, happy in the way of things then, with a hard a long era of Western woods-work, the end of tree-planting, tim- end of an day’s work behind me, near the end of a month of swinging my ber-thinning and most other manual labor on the public lands, hoedad — a flat-bladed tool designed for tree-planting — on at least by American citizens like Davis and me. We had gotten era for steep slash-strewn ground. I’d be home soon, with money to on that crew by responding to an ad for planters in a Montana burn, adventures planned, a bed to sleep in and a wife to share newspaper, driving almost four hours in my gas-hog 1977 Ford local forest it with. A couple of fellow planters boot-slid down the cutbank 150, loaded with camping gear, hoedads, and groceries. But and joined me. Miguel, a wiry planter from Michoacán, Mexico, when we arrived at Evergreen’s offices, the white American man asked me, “Te gusta mucho trabajar, no?” “Claro que si,” I an- we spoke with grinned and said, “We don’t actually hire Ameri- workers swered. Yes, indeed. I love to work. cans for these jobs, you know. The ad was just there because the Of my many seasons of working in the woods of the West, I law says we have to place it.” I was dumbfounded. Davis, who remember that one best. My work partner, Barry Davis, and I came of age working on the big tree-planting co-ops where every were the only English speakers on that crew. Neither of us mind- planter was a part-owner and dissent and the power of the ed, since everybody’s wages were more than decent. We were rabble were celebrated, looked the man dead in the eye. With pulling down $500 to $700 a week at a time when the minimum an almost gleeful smile, he threatened to report him to the local wage was $4.25 an hour, and that crew, run by a company called Better Business Bureau. We were hired immediately. Evergreen Forestry of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was an uncommonly But no rabble-rouser could stop the trend, and it became good one: a band of uncomplaining, hard-working, hard-partying clear that no Better Business Bureau or government agency and often very funny obreros — workers. I had some good times would try. By the time I quit forestry in the late 1990s, after in Mexico when I was younger (I majored in Latin American nearly 20 seasons, few U.S. citizens of any ethnicity were work- studies in college), and I was working hard on regaining my ing forestry jobs in the West. A new narrative had entered the

12 High Country News October 30, 2017 The Changing Face of Woods Work FEATURE Essay By Hal Herring A crew of H-2B visa holders works a thinning project in the North Fork Thompson Creek in Montana’s Lolo National Forest. Clockwise from left: Miguel, who didn’t give his last name but said he’s from a small town south of Mexico City, sharpens his chainsaw. Sawyers fuel chainsaws and put on safety equipment, then load tool belts with oil, fuel and tools; the crew chief, Eduardo, who didn’t give his last name, fells a fir tree. When the crew he manages for Imperial Forestry Inc. of Medford, Oregon, is working smoothly, he fills in as an extra sawyer. Tony Bynum Facing page: The Hoedads crew takes a break from tree planting during the boom times. Bruce Piepenburg photo courtesy of Jennifer Nelson

American conversation: Tree-planting, like thinning timber, of the staunchest advocates for the public lands seem relatively picking cherries or peaches, milking cows, tending strawber- uninterested in the future management of those lands. And two ries in pesticide-laden fields, and so on, were all declared jobs important questions go almost unasked: Why are so many rural Americans won’t do. Manual labor, even skilled manual labor, Westerners, surrounded by public lands, some of the harshest has become the province of desperate men and women imported critics of the Forest Service? And why are they among the loud- from foreign lands. est voices calling for transfer of federal lands to the states, or for The narrative reveals hypocrisy in our national politics on their outright privatization? both the left and the right. As I write this, the smoke has just cleared from one of Montana’s worst fire seasons. The state’s Hal Hartzell not only lived in the golden age of Western new congressman, Republican Greg Gianforte, is planning a forestry contracting; he helped create it by co-founding, in 1972, “Forest Jobs Tour” to promote the idea that the fires resulted the legendary crew known as the Hoedads. Now the co-owner — from a combination of U.S. Forest Service inaction and environ- with his wife, former tree-planter Betsy Hartzell — of Kalapuya mental litigation that has shut down public-lands logging and Books in Cottage Grove, Oregon, Hartzell chronicled his time in thinning. Absent is any discussion of the Republican Party’s the forests in the book, Birth of a Co-Operative: Hoedads, Inc., A relentless efforts to strangle the budget of that same Forest Ser- Worker Owned Forest Labor Co-Op. vice. No one mentions the fact that, should a vast renaissance in Reforesting logged-over lands was once the province of drift- thinning timber occur, none of the jobs would go to locals, since ers, drunkards looking for day-labor cash, and migrant workers the H-2B guest-worker program — which President Donald unable to get better work. They often did a poor job, but nobody Trump and Republican congressmen want to expand — already really cared. At least not until 1971, when the Oregon Forest boasts 9,434 forestry workers, many of whom work on public Practices Act mandated effective reforestation of logged areas. lands adjacent to Western communities with soaring unemploy- That was followed by the National Forest Management Act of ment rates. 1976, which required that cut-over federal lands be replanted On the left, the concern with the rights of immigrants, docu- within five years. That opened up an abundance of work that ap- mented and undocumented, contrasts with an apparent indiffer- pealed to a new generation of Oregonians with strong backs and ence to the fate of native-born Americans in places like Clear- a love of the outdoors. Planting trees is the “hardest physical water County, Idaho, or Superior, Montana. Disappearing are work known to this office,” read a notice posted by the Oregon the debates environmentalists once had about immigration and State Employment Office back then. “It actually is a good job for the impacts of overpopulation. There is not enough discussion some.” of how the millions of marginalized, hungry people in the labor In the summer of 1972, Hartzell was home from a two-year market suppress wages and displace American workers. Some Peace Corps stint in West Africa. And, as he writes in his book,

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 Hal Hartzell and Jerry Rust with their hoedads, circa 1974. Bruce Piepenburg photo Hoedads Cooperative Inc. records, Collection #322; Box 9, Folder 7; Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon

he was “wandering around town trying to up to larger contracts on the Umpqua They set their own working times and get used to the fast pace of Eugene,” Or- National Forest. They called themselves conditions, and decided whether they’d be egon, when he met Jerry Rust and John the Hoedads. paid by the number of trees planted, by Sundquist. They had learned hoedad “There were 10 of us when we started the hour, or some combination of the two. tree-planting in the winter of 1969, work- out,” Hartzell told me, “and wages were There were all-female crews, and mixed ing for a contractor on private timber- not OK then. We changed that, by having male and female crews, tree-planting land. It was while working that job that a cooperative of worker-owners who were competitions, rancor, conflicts and epic they realized that not only was the work getting the work done, and were totally parties. “We had a lot of college grads,” being done poorly; the contractor was tak- empowered to say yes or no to the jobs.” Hartzell said, “a lot of people who just ing home the vast majority of the money. By 1976, the Hoedads were each mak- wanted to work for themselves, be out- Their plan, as Hartzell later wrote, was to ing an average of $100 (or $400 to $500 side, and have fun.” assemble a group of workers committed in 2017 dollars) per day. “We started At its height, Hoedads Inc. had about to planting trees that would survive to expanding to everything you can do in 600 core members, and an estimated become forests, and to conduct business the woods,” he said, “thinning timber, fire- 3,000 people worked for it over the years. as a worker-owned cooperative, where lining, firefighting, all done cooperative- “We kept it going for 10 or 15 years, and every member was paid according to how style.” we brought all of our money home, spent much he could produce. The small crew The business’ growth was, if not it all locally,” Hartzell explains. “We started with federal Bureau of Land explosive, still extraordinary. By 1978, weren’t sending it off to Mexico or wher- Management contracts and soon moved 18 crews were working in eight states. ever. And it was damn good money.” The

T op 10 occupations for H-2B visa N ational forest timber sales and timber cuts, 1980-2016 (temporary non-agricultural) workers Cut volume Cut value Number Percent Position certified of total 15,000,000 Thousand board feet (MBF) $3,000,000 Thousands of 2016 dollars Landscaping and groundskeeping workers 44,981 37.7 Forest and conservation workers 9,434 7.9 Maids and housekeeping cleaners 7,751 6.5 Amusement and recreation attendants 6,992 5.9 10,000,000 $2,000,000 Meat, poultry and fish cutters and trimmers 5,447 4.6 Construction laborers 5,237 4.4 Waiters and waitresses 3,426 2.9 Cooks, restaurant 2,161 1.8 5,000,000 $1,000,000 Helpers (production workers) 1,974 1.7 Non-farm animal caretakers 1,636 1.4 Source: Figures for FY 2016 from Office of Foreign Labor Ceritification, 0 0 U.S. Department of Labor 1980 1990 2000 2010 2016 1980 1990 2000 2010 2016 Headwaters Economics 14 High Country News October 30, 2017 Scenes from the early days of the Hoedads, a worker cooperative that grew to 600 core members, with up to 18 crews working in eight states, top left and right. Another Oregon crew, Rock Creek Reforestation, lower left, run by the Stokes, circa 1986-’87. Lower right, forest worker Doreen Stokes in her van or “crummy,” in forest-worker lingo. Bruce Piepenburg photos, top, courtesy of Jennifer Nelson. Bottom photos courtesy of Doreen Stokes

money the crews brought into the rural Reforestation Contractors (ARC), created anywhere near the wages and work- “We kept (the economies where the work was done, and specifically to challenge the worker- ing conditions that the co-op workers to Eugene, where the co-op was based, owned business model. ARC claimed the achieved. Hoedads) made Hoedads a potent political force. co-ops had an unfair advantage because As soon as the Hoedads and other pio- going for ten Jerry Rust was elected Lane County com- they were exempt from workers’ com- neering co-ops opened the doors to a new missioner in 1980, a position he held for pensation and other expenses. “A lot of way of forestry contracting and working, or fifteen years 20 years. Robert Leo Heilman, in a 2011 brouhaha started when the ARC sued us,” they were followed by a flood of hungry and we brought essay about the Hoedads in the Oregon Hartzell said. ARC won the suit, and then competitors determined to take over Quarterly, wrote: “Beneath the beards, disbanded in 1985, “having fulfilled its the niche they’d created. For decades, all of our money beads, long hair, and odd forms of dress mandate of contesting the threat of tree- migrant workers were an integral part home, spent it and speech, the hippies were merely planting cooperatives on public lands,” ac- of agriculture in western Washington young people who wanted to live accord- cording to Brinda Sarathy’s book Pineros. and Oregon. As tree-planting and other all locally.” ing to the sorts of things they’d been Other factors also contributed to forestry work increased, it was natural brought up to cherish: freedom, equality, the fall of the co-ops. The Knutson-Van- for these workers, accustomed to hard —Hal Hartzell, one of the founders of kindness, honesty — all the noble Sunday denberg Act of 1930 had mandated that outdoor labor and often lacking winter the Hoedads worker school and scouting values that, as chil- revenues from public-lands logging be set employment, to seek out those forestry cooperative dren, they’d been taught to believe in, and aside for a range of reforestation opera- jobs and frequently excel at them. But which, they later discovered, were so very tions. The model was successful while they soon found themselves in the same often either ignored or routinely violated the timber industry boomed, but when position as the co-op workers, as unscru- in the conduct of our nation’s governance logging declined on public lands during pulous forestry contractors swamped the and business practices.” the 1980s and ’90s, the funds slowed to market with undocumented workers who The Hoedads’ successful 20-year a trickle, leaving less money to pay for were far less capable of negotiating for run was never without strife. The co-op forestry and for anything else that the higher wages or better working condi- almost dissolved as early as 1983, and Forest Service needed to do. That, and tions, or much of anything else. there were annual issues with unwise the unwillingness of Congress to fully According to documents posted online bids and cash flow. Bookkeeping, given fund the agency to make up the differ- by the organization Pineros y Campesi- the co-op model, was always a nightmare, ence, opened the doors to contractors who nos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, an especially in the face of an increasing would work more cheaply. Oregon-based group that advocates for thicket of state and federal regulations And the “brouhaha” that Hartzell de- the rights of Latino immigrant laborers, regarding labor and wages. scribes? It was the smoke from what was the same labor contractors that supplied By 1994, Hartzell said, “We decided becoming a raging battle for the future Oregon’s farmers with migrant workers to call it quits. The foreign crews had of forestry contracting. It was a take-no- began to bid on government reforesta- started showing up in the 1980s, and it prisoners war that would eventually take tion contracts in the 1970s. Since they had been getting harder and harder to down the local planters and sawyers in paid immigrants lower wages, they could compete with them.” Further hastening rural communities as well as the hippie intentionally underbid other contractors the co-op’s demise was a series of law- co-ops. It also destroyed the chances of — specifically those with Anglo crews suits from a group called the Associated migrant forestry workers to command — with some of the bids dropping by as

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 much as 50 percent. PCUN president employees, and proud of that.” smaller, more local ones. Ramón Ramírez stated in the documents As the model shifted, and the jobs And with forest fires devouring over that these new “Russian … and Tejano increasingly went to contractors, Pennick half of the Forest Service’s annual bud- contractors … were hiring undocumented — now retired — became a contracting get, the agency has little choice but to go workers and they were violating not only officer, and worked first with the Hoe- with the cheapest option. “We’re robbing minimum wage laws, but all kinds of dads and Small Change, and then with Paul to pay Peter every year with these labor laws.” migrant crews. The early years of that budgets,” said Pennick. “With the H-2B Thom Sadoski of Sandpoint, Idaho, transition were extremely rough, Pennick crews, it is true that gas, food, lodging, is was an early member of Small Change said. “The big contract guys that came in, the only money that is coming into the Inc., a forestry co-op that followed the running 20 man crews or more, with a community — it is like Wal-Mart in that Hoedads model. Now 68, he has a small lot of them never getting paid, not being way, there are people working there, but organic truck farm and still works as a taken care of. We had Immigration (en- the profits are going elsewhere. But for tree-planting inspector for the private forcement agents) come in and the whole the resource, for getting the work done, timber company Potlatch. He has been crew would just take off, the contract go after the main troubles were worked involved in almost every evolution of for- into default, the work not getting done. It out, these big crews have benefitted the estry contracting for over three decades. was terrible.” forest. Sadoski loved the work, and the lifestyle: Over and over, I heard stories about “Let’s be honest, a lot of the H-2B “I answered an ad in the paper for tree- “the transition,” mostly from retired crews come from that culture — don’t planters, got that job, and never looked Forest Service employees like Pennick. complain, work hard in a tough world, back — even though I had a degree in Roger Thomas, a retired Forest Service get it done. The white crews were always marine biology. Thirty years later, I think contracting officer living in Missoula (and negotiating, always complaining. The only I’ve planted a million trees, seven or eight an agency historian), said one catalyst time I’ve ever been threatened in the field square miles of forest. I’m proud of that.” was the budget cuts resulting from the was with a white crew that couldn’t pass “We were But in the early 1980s, loving the logging decline, making the lower bids inspection — one guy came at me with a work was a lot easier. “We were pulling offered by contractors running migrant tire iron and smashed out the windows in pulling down down $1,500 a week, $300 a day, easy.” crews even more attractive to an agency my truck. That would never happen with $1,500 a week, Even on tougher contracts, with harder trying to get the work done as cheaply a Hispanic crew.” terrain or bad site prep, the money was as possible. “Those budgets have been But as anyone who has ever been $300 a day, still better than on almost any other reduced pretty much every year since involved in a struggle for higher wages easy. We were labor job. “We were a small, tight-knit 1985, and I retired in 1994, and it’s still or better working conditions can at- crew, and we knew how to work our asses going down,” Thomas said. “We tried to test, the inability to complain, whether a small, tight- off for that 45-day season. … (It was) the work closely with the INS (Immigration because of fear or language barriers, does knit crew, and best time of my life.” and Naturalization Service) to make sure not make for a secure work situation. And then cutting corners and fall- everything was legal, and they’d haul Employers have exploited H-2B workers we knew how to ing wages became the norm. “The white whole crews off to the jail in Kalispell.” since the program began. In 2007, the work our asses workers just stopped coming,” he told The lawlessness and the outright Southern Poverty Law Center’s Close to me. “I was working as an inspector in the abuse of migrant workers eventually Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the off for that late 1980s, and by that time most of the attracted the attention of an alphabet United States outlines a multitude of 45-day season. workers were illegal. I remember once, in soup of regulating agencies. But it would abuses. The SPLC filed a 2005 lawsuit on Bonner’s Ferry, we lost an entire crew to be years before those agencies, and their behalf of 4,000 H-2B tree-planters from … (It was) the an immigration raid, and that crew was regulations, began to have an effect on Guatemala and Mexico, that, in 2012, best time of my the lowest of the low, making a couple the industry, and those were some of the produced a record-breaking judgment of of cents per tree, with their motel bill most eventful years, as far as labor mar- $11.8 million against forestry contractors life.” coming out of their pay. And even then, kets and the movement of workers were Eller and Sons Trees Inc. of Franklin, on that crew, there was one guy (from concerned, in U.S. history. Georgia, with the judge ruling that the —Thom Sadoski of Mexico) who was an agronomist, with a In 1986, President Ronald Reagan workers had been systematically cheated Sandpoint, Idaho, an college degree, up here planting trees to signed the Immigration Reform and out of their wages for years. early member of Small Change Inc. support his whole family.” Control Act (the famed “Reagan Amnesty” A 2015 Government Accountability A desperate workforce is a vulnerable still decried by anti-immigration activ- Office report on the H-2A (agricultural) one. My partner and I saw nothing amiss ists), which legalized almost 3.2 million and H-2B (non-agricultural) visa pro- while we were working for Evergreen migrant workers living in the U.S., most grams documented a number of abuses, Forestry Inc., a white-owned business. of them from Mexico. The act also led to such as third-party recruiters charging Yet the company would be found re- the creation of the H-2B Visa program, prohibited fees to prospective visa hold- sponsible for the deaths of 14 pineros or which allowed for a maximum of 66,000 ers, and employers providing inadequate “men of the pines” in a September 2002 non-agricultural laborers to be imported or false information about jobs, working van crash in Maine. Tom Knudsen and for seasonal work in the U.S. (The Trump conditions and wages. From 2011 through Hector Amezcua, in their 2005 exposé of administration has lifted that cap to 2013, according to the report, the Nation- the forestry industry for The Sacramento 81,000, a blow to the nativist voters al Human Trafficking Resource Center Bee, reported that the U.S. Department critical to Trump’s election.) By 1991, the received over 1,400 complaints from H-2A of Labor fined Evergreen $17,000 for forestry contracting industry was using or H-2B workers alleging labor violations. violations related to the accident. Van 21 percent of all H-2B visas. Such abuses are prevalent in the crashes were one of the leading causes The H-2B program was supposed to West’s forests, where H-2B workers are of death for forestry workers at the time, rein in some of the lawlessness of the era cowed into not reporting bad conditions or according to the reporters: “They are the when crews were made up almost en- even injuries, Carl Wilmsen, executive di- byproducts of fatigue, poorly maintained tirely of undocumented migrant workers. rector of the California- and Oregon-based vehicles, ineffective state and federal And in some ways the situation did im- Northwest Forest Workers’ Center and co- laws, inexperienced drivers and poverty- prove, for a while. By 2005, said Pennick, author of the 2015 study Working in the stricken workers hungry for jobs.” “The Border Patrol had cracked down, Shadows: Safety and Health in Forestry and the Forest Service had a better line Services in Southern Oregon, told me. Jeff Pennick started working in the on all of it, everybody had pretty much About one-third of the workers sampled woods for the Forest Service in 1973 as cleaned it up.” Still, the economics were by the center were afraid to report work- a tree-planter, brush piler and sawyer. the same as before. The H-2B workers place injuries, Wilmsen said, and seven “In those days, all our work was done in- were willing to work for less money, and out of 51 workers who were injured were house,” he told me. “We were government so the bigger contractors could outbid the later fired. “It is about threat, retaliation,

16 High Country News October 30, 2017 Thom Sadoski, left, a retired tree planter who was part of the Small Change forestry cooperative in the 1980s, holds the tool of the tree- planter trade — a hickory handled, steel-bladed, hoedad — on his farm in Sandpoint, Idaho. Below, Doreen and Jim Stokes, who owned a tree- planting contracting company during the boom days, continue to work in the forests any way they can, despite the lower pay and reduced opportunities. On their property near Thompson Falls, Montana, is one of the vans known as a “crummy” they used to haul workers in their early forest contracting days. Tony Bynum

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 yew trees for the cancer drug Taxol on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National For- est near Pierce, Idaho. For about $15 per hour, our team would go in to the cutting units and fall and buck enough yew trees to keep a band of 20 or so bark peelers, also making $100 or more per day, busy. The Stokeses live on their Eagle Creek Farm about 20 miles from Plains, with a comfortable home they built themselves, fruit orchards, barns, hayfields and gardens, close to the Clark Fork River. They’ve been there 33 years, and they’ve been a team, contracting tree- planting and thinning, and working at whatever would pay the bills, for a lot longer than that. Jim is a farrier and a contract horse logger, and the couple still contracts reforestation and restoration work on state and private lands. When I worked for them, they were always headed to somewhere exotic at the end of every forestry season — Zanzibar, Costa Rica. Doreen has been travelling to Tan- zania for tree-planting and rural water supply projects in recent years, taking students from the U.S. and showing them how to plant trees and introducing them to the Maasai people. Their SUV sports bumper stickers declaring a preference for organic farms and an unequivocal distrust of our current president. Jim has missed only one year of Along the once- fear, and the bosses really use that.” “These (low-bid) contracts planting trees since 1980. He and Doreen, bustling streets of “These (low-bid) contracts would at the height of their contracting work, Superior, Montana, be barely profitable if they were done would be barely profitable if they planted about 1 million trees per year, men who hold H-2B right,” he says. “They have to cut so many were done right. They have to running crews of 16-18 people, all U.S. visas for contract corners to make any money — no protec- citizens or documented foreign workers. work for Imperial tive equipment, no training, all kinds of cut so many corners to make any They both planted on the big Oregon- Forestry of Medford, violations going on all the time. The H-2B money — no protective equipment, based tree-planting crews of the late Oregon, walk back program replicates the power relation- 1970s and early ’80s, and Doreen started to their hotel after ships of indentured servitude. Break your no training, all kinds of violations contracting for herself and her crews very a quick trip to the grocery store. contract, and don’t leave the country, you going on all the time.” early on. Like the rest of the contractors Tony Bynum become a criminal. … You can’t have a I interviewed for this story, the Stokeses program where workers are held like that. —Carl Wilmsen, executive director of the left most federal public-land contracting They have to be able to compete in a free California- and Oregon-based around 1994. (I doggedly stayed on as a labor market if you want higher wages.” Northwest Forest Workers’ Center freelance woods-worker, working for less In 2012, fresh outrage erupted when and less money each year, even as the the Department of Labor’s Inspector cost of housing in the Bitterroot Valley, General revealed that at least $7 mil- of labor can rely on American workers. where I lived, was soaring. I gave up, too, lion of federal stimulus money had gone Hawkinson’s assertion that manual in the late 1990s.) to pay the wages of 254 H-2B forestry labor such as tree-planting, thinning tim- “We were so successful for so long,” workers in parts of rural Oregon where ber and fuel-reduction logging is the kind Doreen told me. Then, in 1991, the the unemployment rate was around 20 of work that no modern Americans want competition from foreign labor kicked in percent. According to Charles Pope in to do comes up over and over again. There and it all went away. Doreen said their The Oregonian, the companies using the is, of course, a built-in conundrum in the company did everything by the book, but H-2B workers technically complied with question: As long as we have thousands of it didn’t matter. The Forest Service never the law by advertising job openings, but poor migrants, willing to plant our trees checked, so other contractors could cut did so by placing ads only in small-town for $13.85 per hour or less, and as long as corners and sometimes even report their California newspapers. local Americans are actively discouraged own crews to immigration officials — Deb Hawkinson of the Forest Re- from taking such jobs, we’ll never know deported workers don’t need to be paid. sources Association Inc., a Washington, the answer. But I do know that at one “They broke every rule there was. How D.C.-based lobbying group that repre- time, when wages were comparatively could anybody compete with that?” sents loggers and other forestry-related high, I preferred woods-work over any Since there’s no way contractors like industries, refused to go on the record for other employment, and I knew plenty of the Stokeses could ever bid low enough to this story. But her organization’s stance people across the West, and in the South, get a Forest Service contract, it’s impos- is summed up on its website, where one who felt the same way. sible to test Hawkinson’s assertion that of its top priorities for 2017 is: “Overregu- Americans refuse to do these jobs. “As lated: H-2B Guest Workers in Reforesta- I drove to Plains, Montana, to visit long as we have these visa programs, tion.” During a short interview, she told Jim and Doreen Stokes, whom I’d last bringing in these workers, we’ll never me that the kind of labor for which H-2B seen a quarter-century ago, in the pour- find out,” Doreen said. “The bids on tree- workers are recruited does not appeal to ing rain on a tree-planting contract in planting now are ridiculous. There is no American workers, and that there is no the Bitterroot Mountains. I worked as a way to make any money on them.” way that businesses who need this kind sawyer for their company in 1993, cutting “I don’t personally know anybody who

18 High Country News October 30, 2017 wants this kind of work for the wages work here. The project originally was up with the crew. Alber clearly itched to that it pays now,” Jim told me. He worries designed with options to award contracts keep up with them, holding his saw blade about how using cheap imported labor to local workers. There was also a com- down, tip in the dirt, like a walking cane affects communities like Plains, where mercial logging component on about 225 or a broadsword, and rocking it back and there is already a serious lack of jobs. A acres, where the timber needed thinning, forth as he talked. “I think about what couple of years ago, Jim asked a Forest but the trees were too large for workers it would be like to be a kid in Darby (a Service official if the agency would use lo- to cut up, pile and burn. The sale of that town in the Bitterroot). He’s living there, cal labor for a nearby project. The official timber would have brought in some all that land around it, he can’t buy a wouldn’t answer. Jim added: “And then money to help pay for the project, and al- job. There’s something like $3 million in a woman stood up and said, ‘Well, we’ll low for flexibility in awarding the bids to thinning contracts on the Darby Ranger have to take the lowest bidder, but there locals. But some local environmentalists District these past years, he can’t even will be more work here for waitresses at vigorously objected to commercial logging bid on it, and nobody will hire him to the cafes, and for the gas station.’ I mean, on the project. “There had already been work on it. … None of that money stays how do you respond to that?” so many delays,” McIver said. “The Forest in Darby — these guys won’t even buy a Perhaps the best hope for a response Service just had to take the easiest path.” set of tires there.” is in Missoula at the University of Mon- By the time work began in 2016, the com- Now Alber has given up on public- tana’s Forest Industry Research Program mercial logging aspect of the project had land contracts. “I pay my guys $17 an at the Bureau of Business and Economic been dropped. So had any attempts to hour, and I pay workman’s comp, insur- Research. Chelsea McIver, a research award contracts to local workers. Impe- ance, all of it. I believe that if you are specialist there, is Jeff Pennick’s daugh- rial Forestry of Medford, Oregon, got the working, you should be able to buy tires ter and a veteran of 13 seasons’ working main $1.75 million contract. This year, for the Forest Service on trails and other the company received 114 H-2B visas labor jobs. She grew up around Hope, for forestry work with a $10.23 per hour Idaho, as a self-described “Forest Service base pay rate, according to the Bureau of Pullout goes brat” who planned a career in the same Labor Statistics. here quay agency. But it didn’t work out, in large At least one local contractor, using part because the Forest Service is not the locally sourced crews, would have liked a sans medium robust, forward-looking agency that it piece of the project: Mark Alber, of Miller once was. Creek Reforestation, an old-school thin- 14/18 McIver has spent years now outside ning and firefighting contractor with a aligned the agency, “getting deep into the weeds” dedicated crew based out of the Bitterroot of public-lands contracting and the kind Valley. toward spine of rural economics that she knew from I called Alber this summer, and he her own experience, but that she found told me to come out and meet him: “You —Tag lacking in contemporary discussions and can’t miss us: a bunch of Stihls, gas jugs, conflicts over public-land management. bunch of crazy-looking people — you “I think part of my interest in all of this know, a thinning crew!” I found them at came from my disappointment over not 5 a.m. at a truckstop near Missoula, and finding the career I’d planned on in the followed the line of trucks east an hour or Forest Service,” she said, “and I think so, then up into the Flint Creek Range to part of what has driven me since is that where they were “brushing” a road on the I grew up in a timber community, in a Beaverhead/Deer Lodge National Forest. Forest Service family, with a father who The Forest Service had made a small was both a former logger and a member timber sale, and the mill that was going of Greenpeace.” Her former husband to log it was paying Alber’s crew to clear for your truck, have a beer or two, go to Chelsea McIver, who was, and remains, a forestry contractor. the sides of the road. “The Forest Service a dentist and get your teeth fixed if you grew up as a “Forest “I’ve seen firsthand how many sacrifices doesn’t have any money for this,” he said. need it. So, we can’t compete. Not on the Service brat” and people will make to do what they love, “I was just reading where fire was taking bids. On the work, we’ll compete with any planned a career working in the woods, living in these 58 percent of all their funding. No thin- crew, anywhere. That’s just the truth.” with the agency, rural communities.” ning, no planting, no fuels reduction. So When I asked him if he thought that looks for new ways to help foresters and McIver echoed the point that the then it burns.” most U.S. citizens didn’t really want these their communities Forest Service, starved by budget cuts Alber, a hyper-fit 51-year-old, is still jobs anymore, he responded with disgust. in her job for the and firefighting costs, typically awards sawing long days, “although I have to “Nothing pisses me off more than hearing Forest Industry multi-year contracts to bigger, out-of- break away from the crew, tell them I that BS. It is insulting, and it is not true. Research Program state, low-bid contractors that use the have phone calls to make, business to Look at these guys. … This is what they at the University of H-2B workers because it has little choice. take care of, so I can rest without looking want to do. We feel sorry for people who Montana’s Bureau The agency does not give preference to bad.” He has a degree from the Univer- have to work in town in some office.” of Business and local crews. That may be more efficient, sity of Montana in recreation manage- Alber said that, a few years ago, long Economic Research. she said. “But efficiency was only one ment, but started thinning timber and before the Marshall Woods project, he’d Tony Bynum factor in the equation — what do you tell planting trees when he was in his 20s. decided to make a fight of it. “I couldn’t the people in Mineral County, Montana, “Once I learned the job, I was making stand it anymore. I was going to change about jobs and schools, where it is 93 $35 an hour in the ’80s, or working on it.” He contacted Montana Sen. Jon percent public land, and what work is a logging job, bumping knots for $130 a Tester, the Forest Service and all of his getting done on those lands isn’t avail- day,” he said. “This was when you could local legislators. “We’re in Ravalli County, able to anybody who lives there?” buy a house in Missoula for $45,000. Now right? Very conservative, build that wall, McIver and I toured the Marshall that house has gone up 700 percent and all of that,” he says. He told them about Woods Project, over half of which is on the wages for that job are, what? $14 an the millions of dollars spent on the for- Lolo National Forest land north of Mis- hour? ” ests nearby, and about how all of it just soula, including the Rattlesnake National Alber’s crew raced forward, six or went right back out. “Our own tax money. Recreation Area, one of the city’s most seven saws going full out, a small team They didn’t care anything about it.” popular playgrounds. It’s a 13,000-acre following them and throwing the brush There is a reason for that lack of car- project, with 4,000 acres of thinning, off the road. Every once in a while, ing, and like the complex ecology of labor planting, weed control, brush-piling and someone broke off, water bottle in hand, markets and their effect upon human controlled burning. There are years of and bumped up the pickup trucks to keep lives, it is not immediately obvious. For

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 Mark Alber uses markets and bald statements of profit a gas-powered and loss. It’s a profound contradiction, pole saw, right, one that has resulted in fewer and fewer to trim branches American citizens working on our own along a road in public lands. the Beaverhead- Deerlodge National We can argue about whether a poor Forest, Montana, man from Honduras or Mexico, lured clearing the way here to work on our public lands, is being for a scheduled exploited or being given opportunity, timber harvest. or both, but we cannot escape the fact Alber, who owns a that the model we have embraced has forest-contracting resulted in lower wages and far fewer firm in Montana’s opportunities for all the people — of Bitterroot Valley, whatever origin or ethnicity — who says that since actually live in the West. We can shrug he’s committed to paying his workers a it off as the global free market at work, living wage, his bids but there is little doubt that it is hollow- for projects can’t ing out communities like Pierce, Idaho, compete with those and Darby, Montana, and no doubt at all from big, outside that it is fueling the booming anti-public- firms that use H-2B lands movement. Lost are generations of visa workers and young people who take pride in their own other low-wage strength and abilities, drawing decent laborers. Below, Chit wages from the use of muscle and com- Wood and Andrew the last 20 years, I’ve been a reporter and and uncertainty, and import laborers in Dziadosz catch a mon sense to solve problems and improve ride on the tailgate writer focused on our public lands, par- areas of high local unemployment. These their own public lands. Swept into this of the crummy after ticularly efforts to transfer Forest Service goals may not be part of a vast right-wing vortex is the economic connection that clearing brush with and BLM lands to states or into private conspiracy, but they serve the goal of small communities once had to the feder- Alber’s crew. Irish hands. The Republican Party’s platform eventual privatization just as surely as if ally managed public lands that surround setter Maria is a includes a long-term goal of privatizing they were. them, and that, increasingly, are seen fixture on the crew. public lands. The short-term goal is for Strangely enough, we Americans have as hampering, rather than encouraging, Tony Bynum the system of public lands not to work; made the decision to embrace a libertar- economic prosperity and quality of life in to strangle the budgets and diminish ian, devil-take-the-hindmost capitalist the West. the role of once-proud agencies like the approach to labor and contracting on our Forest Service, make sure that Western public lands, the same lands that are This story was funded in partnership with the communities do not profit from or engage perhaps our best remaining example of Food and Environment Reporting Network and with the public lands that surround a shared national vision, a vision that with reader donations to the High Country News them, ensure a constant level of conflict defies the raw and bloody arithmetic of Research Fund.

Hal Herring, a contributing editor at Field and Stream, wrote his first story for HCN in 1998. He covers environment, guns, conservation and public-lands issues for a variety of publications. halherring.com.

20 High Country News October 30, 2017 MARKETPLACE

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www.hcn.org High Country News 21 MARKETPLACE

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22 High Country News October 30, 2017 McCarthy, continued from page 7 half of the administration, and we moved GM EPA needs to keep continuing on an onto the utilities after. And so the lesson aggressive path to really align closely that could have more legs as well as the is, you’ve got to follow the science and the with our state counterparts and the budget of the agency. The president’s law. Congress needs to step up, as well. counterparts in our cities and counties, budget cut EPA by 31 percent. It was the One of the things that was so disappoint- meaning all of the environmental regula- highest percentage by far of any agency. ing about abandoning the U.S. involve- tors, because it is a robust enterprise. It It really was specifically directed at re- ment in the Paris agreement, where the has to happen at all levels. We worked ducing the staff to levels that were not whole world is fully behind it, is that it hand-in-hand with the car industry and seen since the 1980s. So the EPA itself really makes us an outlier in what should with utilities to come to a really reason- is at risk. be a tremendous economic opportunity for able decision that every state and every us — not just a defense mechanism, but city could get behind. And I think it shows HCN Many of Obama’s climate change pol- an offense. We know that clean energy is in how these rules were laid out. They icies were executed without the support inexpensive; it is competitive against fos- did not get an immediate gut reaction of of the Legislature, and many are being sil fuels. We’re not asking people to sac- “crazy EPA, there they go again,” because rolled back by his successor. Given this, rifice or to spend more money anymore. we worked it. what would you advise future presidents We’re all trying to race to the finish line The disappointing thing is that that on policy-making? to figure out how you can innovate and does not seem to be recognized by this GM We came close in the first half of the grow jobs like we’re doing now in clean administration. They don’t really care administration to getting a climate bill energy and turn it into a future that we whether it was well received. It’s part of through the Legislature. We missed by two can all embrace and not just think we their party platform. Now it’s part of their senators. We were still under obligation have to sacrifice and sacrifice. That’s not promises. But I feel very confident that by interpretation of the Clean Air Act by what it’s about. It’s about investing in the because this administration has taken the Supreme Court, who told us that cli- future. these issues, in such a dramatic fash- mate change is resulting from greenhouse ion, backwards, that you are going to see gas emissions, and those emissions should HCN The EPA is one of the most conten- quite an effort in the near future to keep be regulated under the Clean Air Act tious agencies in the federal government, that progress moving forward. We’ll re- if they posed a hazard. So we wanted to prompting very emotional, sometimes vit- group; we’ll rally. We just have to not de- move forward on climate change, because riolic, responses to its work. Why do you spair, and we have to start acting. Com- we understood its implications and how think that is, and what can the agency do ment on rules that come in, be a citizen important it was to work fast. But the to mitigate that kind of response in the fu- of science, find out what’s going on in your courts also understood that. ture and even work toward reclaiming a own community, get active in your own We regulated the vehicles in the first legacy of bipartisanship? life — and we’ll be OK.

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www.hcn.org High Country News 23 REVIEWS Why do white writers keep making films about Indian Country? Try as they might, two new films can’t escape old tropes

The road to Indian Country is littered a trickster figure who sets the film in with the crumpled bodies of white men motion. Nerburn, played by the agree- who have attempted to make their Native able Christopher Sweeney, has his own film pet projects. Johnny Depp’s deadpan issues, including the recent passing of his performance as Tonto in the 2013 version father. He is unsure whether to help Dan of The Lone Ranger did not endear him to until he sees a vision while unpacking his the Indigenous crowd at large (though he father’s box of possessions: an old Army was embraced by the Comanche Nation). bag emblazoned with the words “Service Adam Sandler’s Netflix original movie, before Self.” And so, with fate practically Ridiculous 6, was largely ridiculed and knocking him over the head, Nerburn declared flat-out racist in some circles. leaves Minnesota for Indian Country. The popular animated film Pocahontas Once he gets there, Dan more or less Neither Wolf nor Dog is pure fiction; the real Pocahontas was kidnaps him, with the help of Grover, Director: Steven Lewis arguably kidnapped by white men and played by Richard Ray Whitman, a Simpson raped in captivity. There have been some darling of indie Native cinema. There is partial successes; Kevin Costner made a a chemistry between these two Native Roaring Fire Films, decent, financially successful, critically actors, who play off each other well. They 2017 acclaimed film set on Lakota lands, Danc- drive Nerburn into the deep rez, forcing es with Wolves. And then there’s James him to see firsthand the post-colonial Cameron’s Avatar. Yes, it’s a sci-fi picture, problems of modern Lakota life. but you don’t get to recruit Cherokee The film means well. Unfortunately, actor Wes Studi to be a blue chieftain in even if you are tired of “white savior” your film without some passing reference narratives (à la Costner), an anti-white- to Indians. These are textbook examples savior film like this one is not neces- of “white savior” films. Costner out-Indi- sarily any better. Simpson’s film puts ans the Indians and in the case of Avatar, all of America’s injustices squarely on Sam Worthington out-Na’vi’s the Na’vi. poor Nerburn’s medium-build shoulders. Both save the day. After all, he’s just a writer trying to tell “Anglos” get in trouble writing about a Native elder’s story. Yet for the entire ritory, or be flat-out unrealistic. In Hell Native Americans when they focus on second half of the film, Nerburn wears a or High Water, an ex-con and would-be their own agenda and projections and permanent grimace. It’s odd to watch and bank robber sits at a poker table and disregard the old adage, “Write what not entirely as satisfying as you might asks a Comanche if he is still “Lord of the you know.” How can you really know a think. I’d prefer that my white friends Plains.” The Comanche replies “Lords thing when you are not a part of it? This choose to be decent people and learn Wind River of Nothing.” That’s a lot to swallow. No is an enormous challenge to non-Natives about these things on their own accord. Director: Taylor Comanche (and I am one) would ever ut- striving to create such work. Somehow, It’s a hell of a thing to be tricked into the Sheridan ter such a defeatist thing. Comanche are though, it never stops them from trying, back of a car — and asked to buy the gas, The Weinstein way too proud. and this year, we have two films that to boot. Wind River is just as exciting as Sher- Company, 2017 aptly demonstrate this principle. Wind River, meanwhile, has garnered idan’s other two films. The story opens Steven Lewis Simpson opens his well- many accolades, was screened at Sun- with a young, bloodied Native woman intentioned film, Neither Wolf Nor Dog, dance and Cannes, and was basically running for her life in the moonlit snow. with sepia-toned images of the Northern hailed as a great achievement for the suc- Who, or what, is she running from? This Plains, which dissolve into teepees, which cessful writer and now director, Taylor question drives the film, as does U.S. further cross-fade into a rundown shack Sheridan. Sheridan, who is also white, Fish and Wildlife agent Cory Lambert on a rez. Right off the bat, you know you is on a hot streak with 2015’s superb (Jeremy Renner). Lambert, who has a are going to be knee-deep in historical Sicario, the following year’s Hell or High poker face like no other, is a determined trauma. Water, and now Wind River. He deserves tracker in every sense. He begins the Simpson, who is Scottish, essentially every bit of praise coming his way. The hunt for the killer, with the assistance of doubles down on white men writing man can write a screenplay. rookie FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth about Indians by adapting his screenplay Sicario was set in the great Ameri- Olsen). Together, the two must brave the from the biography of another white man can Southwest and Mexico, Hell or High stark lands of the Wind River Reserva- writing about Indians, Kent Nerburn. Water in the flatlands of Texas. Sheridan tion, home to Eastern Shoshone and The title of the film comes from a phrase decided to set Wind River, his directo- Northern Arapaho. The snowy landscape ascribed to Sitting Bull, referring to rial debut, in the frigid high country of acts as one complicated character among “agency Indians,” or those who have lost Wyoming. All three films feature men of many. Wyoming is a harsh land where their status as warriors and surrendered strength who struggle through adversity, the residents know how to survive and if to the U.S. government. and the last two heavily reference Na- they don’t, they will quickly find out the Neither Wolf Nor Dog is a modern-day tive American culture. Sheridan seems Jason Asenap is a hard way. As Lambert says to a beat-up captivity narrative. Nerburn is invited to genuinely interested in the contradic- Comanche/Muscogee Banner, “Luck don’t live out here.” Lakota Country by the sweet and seem- tions of contemporary Native life and all Creek writer and The stalwart actor Graham Greene ingly harmless wise “elder,” Dan, played of the harsh realities that go along with filmmaker based in makes a welcome appearance as a tribal by Dave Bald Eagle, who asks the white it. While this is admirable, his dialogue Albuquerque, New cop, Ben, a role he is not unfamiliar with, writer to tell his stories. Dan is actually can sometimes tumble into cornball ter- Mexico. having played a similar part in Thunder-

24 High Country News October 30, 2017 Caption. Credit

Dan (Dave Bald Eagle) and Grover (Richard Ray Whitman) take author Kent Nerburn (Christopher Sweeney) on a road trip around tribal land in South Dakota in Neither Wolf Nor Dog. Neither Wolf Nor Dog Trailer heart in 1992. Greene, who also played Kicking Bird in Dances with Wolves, practically utters the phrase “been there, done that” with the slouch in his face alone. Ben has the thankless task of patrolling a reservation the size of Rhode Island, with six cops. The film is a thriller, but it’s a thinking person’s thriller. Wind River does its best to avoid clichés and say something new. Yet while it’s great to see Native people portrayed with some depth, they are, for the most part, incredibly sad and, in the case of some, dead. Most everyone wants to leave the reservation. Those who work there hate it. And one character laments that there was no one around to teach him his culture. From the standpoint of content and politics, Sheridan is on the right side. His interest in writing and directing a film about the problem of missing Native women is admirable, and he is putting his platform as a heavy-hitter in Holly- FBI Agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) examines the body of a young Native American woman (Kelsey Asbille), wood to good use. Sheridan is also clearly as part of a crime investigation at the center of the plot of Wind River. Wind River Trailer interested in the ridiculousness of how federal, tribal and state agencies work with, against and among each other. It is son and Sheridan are invested in making bad to be Indigenous in the 21st century? a fascinating subject to those unfamiliar us see how America has screwed Native Does a positive message redeem poor nar- with it, which is basically anyone without people, even to the point of rubbing it in rative? Does having a good cause free you an Indian law degree. our faces. Is it so terrible to live in one’s from obligations to the culture you are In both films, alas, we return to the own homeland? It may be hard to get out, telling stories about? And finally: When point that, at least in Hollywood, the In- but it certainly feels condescending for a do the Indians win? dians die. To this day, the Indians die, and non-Native to write as much. And so both not just physically, but culturally. Simp- films raise the same questions: Is it so By Jason Asenap

www.hcn.org High Country News 25 Wild Allegiance

E ssay By hen I stopped standing for the national anthem poisoned water, desecrated land, and more. I write letters to and Pledge of Allegiance, no one noticed. Not only government officials; I sign petitions; I make modest donations. Geneen Marie was I not famous, I wasn’t even popular. But it was For years now, though, my opposition to the politics and policies Haugen alreadyW clear to me — almost 50 years ago — that I was primar- that undermine our life-support system has shape-shifted into a ily a citizen of a planet, not of a nation, especially not one using different kind of participation in the world — a kind of deep lis- young people as fodder in a baffling war, a nation that dimin- tening to the wild earth, practices of sacred reciprocity, and the ished women and demonized people of color, although I would lived exploration of our capacity to bring forth a new human/ not have had that language then, only images from the cauldron earth relationship. of civil rights courtesy of television and Life magazine. While wandering in wildish places, I often play a wood flute My lack of small-town fame or adolescent popularity guar- or sing, as if simple music — offered intentionally to the ears of anteed invisibility when I didn’t rise at assemblies for what earth and water, chickadee and unseen cougar — matters, as I saw as the perplexing Pledge of Allegiance. I didn’t get the if the manner in which I participate with my fellow creatures, ritual of allying with, or idolizing, a flag. And though the idea of including human beings, makes its own difference. At the least, “liberty and justice for all,” was noble, in practice it was a farce it’s a way of participating that changes my own awareness, — the words just subtle propaganda that, if they were repeated brings keener perception and greater intimacy to my experience: enough, people might believe had been achieved. Maybe know- My body notices the sudden silence of song sparrows as the ing that I was basically invisible gave me the courage to resist raptor’s shadow cruises overhead. Sometimes my imagination the flag-waving agenda. Perhaps I was slightly odder than ignites, or I find myself awash in palpable waves of vitality, or other 16- or 17-year-olds. I’d grown up a little wild and a little awe, or grief. dreamy, by a lake in the remnant forest of Washington state, Since the breakdown of civil discourse and rise of anony- and so I felt allied with the earth, with land and creatures. I mous internet bullying (and worse), it’s risky to be regarded felt allied with the planet — not its political boundaries — well as “unpatriotic” — a word with multiple interpretations. For before the first Earth Day in 1970, and long before the language some, patriotism involves protecting water or the integrity of and concepts of biodiversity and ecology became widespread. wild ecosystems, or creating resilient communities; for others, In recent months, sports players, protesting racial injustice, it means strip-mining or clear-cutting to create jobs. For some, have made headlines for “taking a knee” during the national patriotism is entrenched with religion, politics or borders. Some anthem. I admire the courage of risking a career in public dis- patriots focus on the common good; for others, self-interest may sent. Sometimes I feel like a privileged coward. I don’t attend be primary. In the rural West, patriotism may run in the Bundy events that include the national anthem or flag allegiance these direction. days, so I have no occasion to demonstrate my opposition to Disparate views and voices clash with intent to dominate, them. But there are plenty of atrocities that have been enacted intimidate or silence the less powerful. Respectful listening is no in our names without my visible protest: torture, drone assas- longer a high priority, if it ever was. Yet democracy depends on sinations — even of children and other innocents — institu- the flourishing of a spectrum of voices. Biodiversity, as well, is tionalized intolerance and fear of people unlike “our own kind,” robustly expressed by an orchestra of wild voices.

26 High Country News October 30, 2017 Over decades, the bio-acoustic engineer Bernie Krause has I want to honor the quiet speech of the most vulnerable. I recorded natural sound habitats all over the world. His careful want, especially, to honor and offer wild prayers for the con- listening led to the discovery that creatures vocalize in rela- tinued howls, creaks, grunts, chitters and caws of the Others. tionship to one another, in a specific frequency and timeframe In the early days of the new American regime, I go out on skis — or acoustic bandwidth — in which their voices can be heard. to sing to riparian conifers and willow, to hidden moose and Krause proposed the once-radical idea that, if a species’ particu- coyote. I sing praises to creek waters; I praise snow and glaci- lar vocal niche is lost, the creature can no longer survive in that ated granite peaks hidden in the clouds. I call out devotions as ecosystem, and will move on, or die out. Today, many of the if the wild ones lean forward, listening, willing to participate Too many once-thriving wild habitats that Krause has recorded have gone in conversation from which I am ever the learner. I ski through mute, overcome by human activity, including a changing climate the bottomland forest with unspeakable gratitude for all that voices are with its companion events of extreme weather and drought. remains of the world’s wild intelligence, even now. absent, In our tweet-infested social media maelstrom, dominant Somehow, nearly 50 years ago, I recognized that my primary voices are often mistaken for those that contribute meaning- allegiance was to a planet, to the land, to the wild Earth — not disregarded, fully to the cultural conversation, mistaken for offerings that to a nation-state or flag. I did not have Gary Snyder’s poet- or so soft nourish our collective ecosystem. Numbers of likes and followers philosopher sensibilities, or even his poem “For All,” which may are mistaken for genuine significance. And too many voices are not have been written yet. But when I came across the poem that few hear absent, disregarded, or so soft that few hear them: the impover- decades later, I resonated, and still do, with Snyder’s vow: them: the ished, exiled, elders, children and more — including the voices of the wild earth. I pledge allegiance to the soil impoverished, In divisive times, it’s challenging to refrain from demonizing of Turtle Island, exiled, elders, those with different views. But one who accepts the subjectivity and to the beings who thereon dwell and intelligence of stone and water and aspen plummets into a one ecosystem children philosophical quandary when refusing to accept the diversity of in diversity and more — human perspectives. It’s easy to regard others as uninformed or under the sun somehow deficient. Easy, and about as fruitful as adding motor With joyful interpenetration for all. including the oil to compost. voices of the Healthy ecosystems include predators and prey, grass and When the trail disappears in rubble, or when there are a grass-eaters, bacteria and hosts. Ecosystems self-organize, or thousand plotlines to choose from, or when the conditions are wild earth. attempt to self-organize, in response to disturbances in the field. divisive and the dominant voices are clashing, it’s essential to Does any species but our own engage in such divisive conduct have some kind of compass, some allegiance, to steer by. and yet remain a single species? Is there is a more ecologically coherent response to our moment than bludgeoning one another Geneen Marie Haugen’s writing appears in Spiritual Ecology: with opinions, shouting over the shy ones, cordoning off those The Cry of the Earth and in various other publications; she whose views disagree with our own? guides for Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org).

Photos: K Danko/CC Wikimedia, top; Jim Patterson, bottom

www.hcn.org High Country News 27 U.S. $5 | Canada $6

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

SOUTH DAKOTA and two cubs looking very much at home in the It’s hard not to wax rhapsodic about the poet night kitchen, reports the Denver Post. After and essayist Linda M. Hasselstrom, whose ripping a window out of a wall, the bears moved 17th book, Dakota: Bones, Grass and Sky, was to the refrigerator, opened the door, and began published this year. Her mostly short poems are eating pizza dough. They followed that feast frank yet lyrical, and their subjects range from with plates of salami and a visit to a trash can. the appearance of her own aging body to repris- The next day, the restaurant’s owners had a ing the worth of an old cow found frozen stiff on surprising message for wildlife officers: “If bears the range. Nothing about her life — which, to break into our stores, please don’t shoot them. an outsider, seems close to a never-ending slog Every dumpster in town is now bear-proof. … I — is sentimentalized. In an essay about learn- believe it would have been much better to have ing ranching from her father, she said he told left the old dumpster tops in place because they her that a life spent working the land imposed wouldn’t become desperate enough to break into stark choices. For example, he said she could UTAH Where seldom is heard a discouraging houses or businesses.” watch all the barn kittens freeze to death in the word, and the deer and diplodocus play. harsh South Dakota winter, or she could take Thomas C. Bunn THE WEST responsibility. A feminist and a conservationist, WEB EXTRA This was among the entries in the Caroline Slater, a retired California professor who Hasselstrom made her choice. Here’s the end of HCN photo contest. See a gallery with more of our worked for decades in multicultural education, her poem, “Spring”: favorites at hcne.ws/photos-17. made news recently by acting to right a historic wrong. She gave $250,000 to the Ute Indian It’s spring; Tribe in Utah in an attempt to compensate for Time to kill the kittens. for both parties.” Hatch’s bill has support from land belonging to the tribe near Craig, Colo- Their mewing blends with the meadowlark song. Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons as well rado, that was stolen by white settlers in 1881. I tried drowning them once; as Republican Sens. Cory Gardner, Colo., and After the Utes were forced at gunpoint to move It was slow, painful. Thom Tillis, N.C., reports the Huffington Post. to Utah, some of the land they’d occupied in Now I bash each with a wrench, Hatch spoke about a friend in Utah with sei- Colorado ended up in the hands of Slater’s great Once, hard. zures who must take 17 pills a day. Marijuana grandparents. The property was sold decades could “significantly help my friend,” Hatch said, Each death makes a dull sound, later, reports The Associated Press, with the “and help him lead a regular life.” Going deep in the ground profit going to Slater and her siblings. Now, Without Slater’s check will help pay for construction of a THE WEST Reverberations. new tribal high school. Flying a small, single-engine plane, Todd Rudberg The poem “Handbook to Ranching,” which is had just touched down at Nehalem Bay State THE NATION dedicated to her father, offers more of his spare Park in Oregon near the Pacific Coast, when an Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has what you might approach to raising cattle: “Don’t spend any obstacle came into view: It was an elk running call an interesting view of history, as reported in money,” “Don’t get caught in a storm,” “Get the in front of his still-moving plane. According the Washington Times. When asked on Fox News calves fed and watered before noon,” “Never call to the Oregon State Police, Rudberg could not whether Confederate-era monuments should be a veterinarian if you can avoid it,” and finally, a avoid hitting the animal. To add to the pilot’s removed, he said that none should be destroyed: warning: “You can never tell what a bobtail cow landing difficulties, another elk appeared and “Since we don’t put up statues of Jesus, everyone will do.” ran into the plane’s left wing. The collision is going to fall morally short. I think reflecting spun the plane around until it stopped, totaled, on our history, both good and bad, is a powerful UTAH although Rudberg and his passenger were statement and part of our DNA.” In an announcement sprinkled with puns, 83-year- unharmed. Both elk were killed, but the police old Republican Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said report ends on a positive note, since wildlife WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see it was “high time” to back medical-marijuana officials were able to salvage “a large quantity of hcn.org. research. And because Washington is so much elk meat.” at war with itself, he had “high hopes” that his And in Estes Park, Colorado, a video cam at Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and bipartisan bill could be a “kumbaya moment Antonio’s Real New York Pizza caught a bear often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram.

High Westerners don’t fear these restrictions, even when Country their right to bear fishing poles isn’t secured for eternity News “ For people who care about the West. in the Constitution. But when it comes to the High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a right to bear arms, the reasonable limitations magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write of fishing are swept downstream with sanity. High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or Marty Jones, in his essay, “In the West, fishing is more regulated than buying a gun,” [email protected], or call 970-527-4898. from Writers on the Range, hcn.org/wotr” 28 High Country News October 30, 2017