El Nuevo Movimiento Across the West, Veteran Chicano Groups Embrace Undocumented Immigrants

CONGRESS PUNTS ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY | IDAHO WATER GRAB | PORTLAND’S GREEN WORKFORCE

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West

El Nuevo Movimiento Across the West, veteran Chicano groups embrace undocumented immigrants. It wasn’t always this way. By Gustavo Arellano March 4, 2019 | $5 | Vol. 51 No. 4 | www.hcn.org No. 51 | $5 Vol. March 4, 2019 CONTENTS

Editor’s note Making sense of things

There is an important debate unfolding in the pages of this magazine. I read it in your letters to the editor, in online social threads, and in the emails sent to me from readers far and wide. Broadly speaking, the debate involves our mission. Readers’ concerns vary, but they are generally tied to one of three things: our coverage of non-environmental or non-resource-related issues; our coverage of under- represented (or non-rural, non-white) communities; and our coverage of anything outside the Intermountain West. It’s a lively, and I think healthy, conversation, coming at a challenging time for journalism — amid a flurry of “fake news” and misinformation, mass layoffs and budget cuts, and growing threats to our democracy. Given all this, we need a magazine that makes sense of things. A lot of things. Utah Coalition of La Raza President Richard Jaramillo helps his organization bridge the gap between the The mission of High Country News is “to inform immigrant and Chicano communities. RUSSEL DANIELS FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS and inspire people — through in-depth journalism — to act on behalf of the West’s diverse natural FEATURE and human communities.” It’s a broad mission, but an important one, and it forces HCN’s editors to constantly ask two big questions: What, exactly, is 14 El Nuevo Movimiento the American West, and what does it mean to act On the cover Across the West, veteran Chicano groups embrace on its behalf? We ask these questions over and over, undocumented immigrants. It wasn’t always this way. Ingrid Ordóñez and sometimes they lead us to unexpected answers Campos poses for a By Gustavo Arellano and unexpected stories. portrait in the South Valley Academy in We do this because no matter what you love Albuquerque, New CURRENTS about the West, this place has always been under Mexico, where she threat from unethical forces — of greed, oppression, teaches a middle 5 Protected lands, neglected duties As Congress touts a bipartisan exploitation, or just plain carelessness. To counter school special needs these forces requires broad alliances of unlikely class. Ordóñez public-lands bill, it continues to punt on setting environmental policies Campos is a Southwest 6 Humanitarian aid as crime The toll of today’s border deterrence partners and a deep understanding of myriad issues. Organizing Project Climate change is tied to economic inequality, land board member, 6 The Latest: Oil and gas development in Greater Chaco conservation to environmental racism, energy to community organizer 7 In need of water, an Idaho town turns to its neighbors pollution, and on and on. The West is a vast web and DACA recipient. JUAN ANTONIO LABRECHE Does recharging an aquifer solve one of the West’s oldest water problems? of competing values and interests, and we at High FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS 8 Pinal County’s pain Central Arizona farmers contemplate a new future, Country News seek to cover them all. We do this not following a drought plan’s devastating cuts to their water from a sense of “political correctness,” as one letter- writer puts it in this issue, but because we believe 10 A Green New Deal at work in Portland How one community our readers want to understand the West as a whole. is building a green workforce to combat climate change In this issue, for example, you will read about 11 Get to know the Green New Deal how Chicano movements are beginning to embrace immigration as an issue relevant to their cause. You DEPARTMENTS will also read stories about a major public-lands bill just passed in Congress; a water grab in Idaho; a crackdown on humanitarian aid along the southern Complete access 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG border; and a Portland neighborhood that is already to subscriber-only 4 LETTERS adopting the principles of the Green New Deal. content Meanwhile, in Pinal County, Arizona, climate change 12 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends HCN’s website is forcing some tough agricultural choices. We also hcn.org 91 MARKETPLACE discuss why environmental victories don’t guarantee Digital edition economic justice, and we explore the surprising hcne.ws/digi-5104 23 BOOKS Because It Is So Beautiful: Unraveling the Mystique of the American West by Robert Reid. Reviewed by Eric Siegel challenges faced by women of color who simply want to mountain bike on public lands. I believe 24 PERSPECTIVE Healing the wounds from a war on coal Follow us each of these stories is important, and I hope you’ll By Jonathan Thompson find them informative or inspiring. It’s up to all of us  26 ESSAY Mountain biking is my act of resistance By Raksha Vasudevan to act on behalf of the West — however you define it. @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston —Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief 2 High Country News March 4, 2019 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG

Majorities in each state say living near public lands is a factor in choosing to live in the West 150 THE LATEST 120 Western voters care more

90 about climate change

60 than energy dominance 30 Climate concerns among Western

0 voters have jumped in the past two Total AZ CO ID WYUTNMNVMT years, according to Colorado College’s Significant factor Total factor annual Conservation in the West InIn everyevery Western state,state, votersvoters advise advise placing placing greater greater survey. The study also found that a 8080 emphasis on protectionprotection over over production production majority of respondents identified as 7070 “conservationists,” and two-thirds said 60 60 Woodland caribou. 50 they favor federal policy to preserve STEVE FORREST / USFWS 4050 public-land protection and access, and 3040 just under a quarter prefer the Trump 20 30 administration’s “energy dominance” Backstory 10 20 Woodland caribou, 0 policy of increasing extractive services AZ CO ID MT NV NM 10 Total WYUT on public lands. It is common for pub- which once roamed Public lands protection Energy production 0 lic opinion polls to find widespread from Maine to Total AZ CO WYUTNMNVMTID concern for issues involving climate Washington state, VotersPublic perceive lands a protection number of policy Energy changes production affecting Byland, wide water margins, and voters wildlife perceive as more a number bad than of policy good changes and the environment. But while these were protected as By wide margins, voters perceive a number of policy changes Removingaffecting national land, monument water and wildlife as more bad than good concerns exist, they “are often less endangered in 1983. Dying trees on U.S. Route 20 in Oregon’s By affectingwide margins, land, water voters and perceivewildlife as a more number bad than of policy good changes affectingprotections land, from waterlands and wildlife as more bad than good intense than those regarding other is- Eventually, they Cascade Mountains. USDA FOREST SERVICE containingBy wide archaeological margins, voters and perceive a number of policy changes RemovingRemoving national nationalIndigenous monument monument sites, that protections have protections oil, from lands all but vanished Removing nationalaffecting monument land, protections water from and lands wildlife as more bad than good sues,” said Christopher Borick, director fromRemoving whichlands national contain containing gasarchaeological monument and mineralarchaeological protectionsand deposits Native American from and lands from the Lower 48. whichIndigenouswhichsites, contain contain but also sites,archaeological archaeological have that oil, gas have and and Nativemineraloil, Native gas American deposits Americanand of the Muhlenberg College Institute Dead pine trees drive new Removingsites,sites, but nationalbut also Removingalso have havemonument oil, Clean gas gas mineralprotections and Waterand mineral mineral Actdeposits from deposits landsdeposits of Public Opinion. Whether climate Still, the tiny South protections from smaller herbicide rules in Oregon whichRemoving containRemoving archaeological Clean Clean WaterWater andAct Act Nativeprotections protections American from from concerns in the West outweigh more Selkirk herd hung Removing CleanstreamsRemovingBy wide Water and Clean margins, seasonal Act Water protections Actvoters wetlands protections perceive from from a number of policy changes smallersites, Removing streamsbutsmalleraffecting smalleralso have Clean andstreamsstreams oil, land, Water seasonalgas and and andwaterAct seasonal mineralseasonalprotections wetlandsand wetlands deposits wildlife wetlands from as more bad than good traditional political issues remains on along Idaho and A chemical known for killing trees across the smallerReducing streams public and comment seasonal wetlands Reducingsmaller public streams comment and periodsseasonal onwetlands proposed Removing nationalReducingRemoving monument public Cleanperiods comment Waterprotections on Actperiods proposed protections from on landsproposed from an open question. This study did find Washington’s northern country is exposing divides between state changes affecting public lands, such as oil and gas which containReducing archaeological publicchanges comment affecting and Nativeperiods public American on proposed changes affectingsmaller public streams lands, and such seasonalleasing as oil wetlands and or gasmining some evidence of a possible shift: border, ranging into and federal pesticide regulation, and between sites,Reducingchanges butReducing also affecting havelands,public public oil,public suchcomment gascomment lands, andas oil mineralperiods such and periods as gasdepositson oil proposed and ongas proposed changes affecting publicleasing or lands, mining British Columbia, environmental challenges on either side of AllowingchangesRemovingReducing increased affecting Cleanpublic oil public Water comment andleasing lands, Actgas protections periodsor productionsuch leasingmining as on oil or proposedfrom and mining on gas eighty Respondents were more worried about percentsuch of as smallerthreatened oil and streams gas sage and leasing grouseseasonal “critical orwetlands mining habitat” where perhaps 1,000 the Cascades in Oregon. State regulators Allowingchanges increased affectingAllowing oilpublic and increased lands,gas production such leasingoil asand oil oron and mining eighty gas water supply issues than economic Allowing increased oil and gas production on eighty percentReducing of publicthreatenedgas comment production sage periodsgrouse onleasing “criticaloneighty proposed or habitat” mining 0 10 20 30 40 50 60concerns 70 like80 wages and unemploy- animals remain. But are clamping down on a chemical that changes affecting public lands, such as oil and gas Bad Allowingchangepercent of increased threatened Neitherpercent oil goodof andsage threatened gas norgrouse production bad “critical sage Good on habitat” eighty change wide-scale timber federal regulators banned under one name, AllowingAllowing increased increasedgrouse oil oil and “criticaland gasleasing gasproduction habitat” production or mining on eighty ment. NICK BOWLIN on 80 percent of threatened sage grouse 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 AllowingBadpercent change increased of threatened Neither oil and good gassage productionnor grouse bad “critical Goodon eighty changehabitat”0 10 020 3010 4020 50 30 60 70 40 50 60 70 Read80 more online: harvesting, unchecked but continued to license under another. As percentBad change of threatened Neither sage good grouse nor“critical bad“critical Good habitat”habitat” change Bad change Neither good nor bad Good change hcne.ws/climate-change-poll recreation and climate environmental advocates from the Willamette 0 0 10 10 2020 30 30 40 40 50 50 60 60 70 70 80 80 Valley spearhead an effort to ban the chemical Bad Badchange change Neither Neither good good nor badnor bad Good Good change change change mean that the and reduce pesticide use overall, public works species continues to spiral downward (“In officials from central and eastern Oregon Why was a study on trafficking in Indian Country canceled? would like to keep using a chemical they say Canada, mountain is important for managing invasive plants In 2016, the National Institute of Justice crimes committed against minority groups. caribou recovery that threaten native ecosystems, agricultural awarded funding to a study on sex trafficking That doesn’t mean it isn’t needed. “The crisis is effort falters,” HCN, operations and roads. in Indigenous communities, the first federally intensifying, and we don’t fully understand the 10/31/16). CARL SEGERSTROM funded plan to research the issue. But in 2017, magnitude of what’s happening,” said Deleana Read more online: hcne.ws/herbicide after the arrival of the Trump administration, the Otherbull, executive director of the Coalition Followup study was killed. According to former institute to Stop Violence Against Native Women, about In January, Canadian researchers not affiliated with the trafficking trafficking in Indian Country. NICK PACHELLI officials captured study, the nix fits into a broader pattern of the Read more online: hcne.ws/trafficking-study the last remaining recent turn away from research into violent member of the South Harvey Weinstein and a broken Selkirk herd. That fe- promise in Indian Country male and two animals The film Wind River, which follows the aftermath from British Columbia of a Northern Arapaho woman’s death, was were transported to supposed to benefit the National Indigenous a breeding facility in Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) in Lame Revelstoke. The spe- Deer, Montana. When the filmmakers severed cies’ long-term fate ties with Harvey Weinstein, the film mogul remains uncertain, as who faced multiple accusations of rape, sexual the Canadian govern- assault and sexual misconduct, all further film ment faces pressure to royalties that would have gone to The Weinstein allow more logging in Company were to go to the resource center, caribou habitat. “You which works to support tribes responding to know it’s sad. We’re incidents of missing and murdered Indigenous still in mourning over women. In May 2018, though, Weinstein the whole situation,” was arrested for rape charges, leading to Bart George, a wildlife the company’s bankruptcy — and erasing its biologist for the obligation to the royalty agreement. Now, Kalispel Tribe, told the Lantern Entertainment, a Texas-based company, Spokesman-Review. owns The Weinstein Company’s assets and has “The Selkirks lost some not said whether it will honor the arrangement. of their magic.” “It’s all somewhat disappointing,” said Lucy (See our review of Simpson, executive director of NIWRC. But, as an Caribou Rainforest, organization used to operating on small budgets, page 13.) Simpson said they will “move on and keep doing JODI PETERSON what (they’re) doing.” ELENA SAAVEDRA BUCKLEY Families of missing and murdered Indigenous people join hands for a prayer at the start Read more online: hcne.ws/weinstein of an awareness drive in Gallup, New Mexico. CAYLA NIMMO

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 UNWARRANTED CRITIQUE SPURRED TO SUBSCRIBE involve research, face-to-face interviews, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER extensive travel and persistence when Paul Larmer I am very much enjoying your focus on Osiyo. We most respectfully have been confronted with less than cooperative EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Native American issues, and I thought spurred to subscribe for a year due to people, bureaucratic obstacles, and pas- Brian Calvert the “Nizhóní Girls” comic was marvelous your perspective commentary by Kim ART DIRECTOR sionate partisanship from multiple per- Cindy Wehling (HCN, 2/4/19). But I was disappointed TallBear. Wado. spectives. I come to expect that standard DIGITAL EDITOR with Kim TallBear’s critique of Sen. Eliz- Sarah Mix and Susan Strubel from you. The Nizhóní Girls story doesn’t Gretchen King abeth Warren, “Playing Indian.” ASSOCIATE EDITORS Citizens of Cherokee Nation meet your standards by any measure. As a former elected of- Tristan Ahtone, Maya L. Ashland, Oregon Kapoor, Kate Schimel ficial for the Green Party, Avram Chetron ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR I’m proud that San Miguel Ashland, Oregon EDITORIAL DRIFT Luna Anna Archey County, Colorado, adopted ASSISTANT EDITORS Emily Benson Indigenous Peoples Day I’m concerned about HCN MORE VISUAL STORYTELLING Paige Blankenbuehler in 1998, one of the first running a 10-page comic HCN’s effort to delve into visual storytell- Anna V. Smith government jurisdictions book as the cover story in EDITOR AT LARGE ing has been one of the most exciting things in the country to do so. In the magazine (“Nizhóní Betsy Marston I’ve seen in the many years I’ve been read- COPY EDITOR Diane Sylvain 2015, our county made Girls”). I have nothing ing my favorite magazine. You can’t please CONTRIBUTING EDITORS a formal government-to- against comic books. When Graham Brewer, everyone. I hope to see this trend continue. Cally Carswell, Ruxandra government apology to the I was a kid, I enjoyed the Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, Ute Indian Tribe of Utah debut of Spider-Man in Dave Bastion Jodi Peterson, Carl Segerstrom, for the forced removal of 1963. As a young man, I Grand Junction, Colorado Jonathan Thompson Uncompahgre Ute from enjoyed the revolutionary CORRESPONDENTS our county boundaries in underground comic books JOURNALISTIC INSANITY Krista Langlois, 1881. That apology was ac- of the late 1960s and Sarah Tory, Tay Wiles, I just received my Feb. 4 issue of HCN Joshua Zaffos cepted. We have followed up with cultural 1970s, such as R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural. and was surprised to see that the “envi- EDITORIAL FELLOWS exchanges with the three Ute nations in Lately, I collect well-done graphic nonfic- ronmental bi-weekly for people who care Elena Saavedra Buckley, our region, and offer free Ute youth ski tion books, including The March, a three- Jessica Kutz about the West” had morphed into Rolling days in Telluride. volume story of black congressman John EDITORIAL INTERN Stone. With Donald Trump in the White Nick Bowlin I’m aware of the continuing appropria- Lewis’ life and his role leading the civil House dismantling environmental regula- DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR tion of Indigenous identity by American rights movement against violent racist Laurie Milford tions, assaulting the Endangered Species culture. But isn’t having a family tradition resistance in the South in the 1960s. (The PHILANTHROPY ADVISOR Act, filling top spots with corporate pollut- Alyssa Pinkerton of ancestry a different thing than claim- third volume won a 2016 National Book ers and environmental destroyers, attack- DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE ing membership in a tribe, or any minor- Award.) What I see in HCN’s comic book ing national monuments and wilderness, Hannah Stevens ity group? I have a tradition of Hispanic glorifying an all-women Native American DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT bailing on global heatstroke — what the ancestry in my family tree that I’ve long rock band is: Almost no storyline, no char- Christine Maila Main hell is HCN doing committing its cover DIGITAL MARKETER maintained, but I don’t have “proof,” other acter development, ultimately no charac- and 10 precious pages to a Native Ameri- Chris King than oral history and some corroborating ters at all, no scenes worth remembering, EVENTS & BUSINESS PARTNER can female punk rock group that accom- historical research. But I always check no message, no significance. It seems rac- COORDINATOR Laura Dixon plishes zero for any critical environmental WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPER the “Hispanic” box these days, and often ist to me, the kind of racism that assumes cause? Please, put down the mind-altering Eric Strebel “other,” because I’m European-American, whatever any Native American does (a IT MANAGER and values-altering substances and return Alan Wells not “white,” anyway. rock band or a comic book) is automatical- IT SUPPORT TECHNICIAN to fighting the good fight on behalf of plan- Warren may have used poor judgment ly worthwhile. I think it’s the most obvious Josh McIntire etary survival and big wild things in big DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS in self-identifying as Native American example of HCN’s editorial drift into po- wild places. If it wouldn’t add to my car- Erica Howard in college directories, but an exhaustive litical correctness and narcissism in recent ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT bon footprint, I’d burn the current issue. Mary Zachman investigation by the Boston Globe last years, which other longtime HCN readers CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER year found she hadn’t used her ancestry to have also lamented on this letters page. Brian Peck Kathy Martinez obtain preferential treatment or benefits. Columbia Falls, Montana Ray Ring CUSTOMER SERVICE (Though it may have helped some of the Christie Cantrell (office Tucson, Arizona manager), Karen Howe, colleges she worked at to tout a diversity BRAVE AND BRAVO! Pam Peters, Doris Teel, that didn’t really exist.) Honoring a family MOVING STORY Integrating this form (comics/graphic Rebecca Tiedman, tradition of Indigenous association by list- Tammy York novel) into a journalistic outlet is brave; it GRANTWRITER ing it in faculty directories is not “playing “Nizhóní Girls” was an important and Janet Reasoner opens up a lot, formally. By amplifying an [email protected] Indian” to my mind, but rather choosing moving piece. I still can’t read it without Indigenous storyboard, HCN is strength- [email protected] to own up to the multicultural roots that tearing up. [email protected] ening its adaptive ability to meaningfully make up Warren’s own personal “herstory.” [email protected] Pauly Denetclaw respond to the myriad challenges we face, [email protected] Having an NFL sports team named Manuelito, New Mexico further opening the possibility of a maga- FOUNDER Tom Bell with a derogatory slur, or a national base- BOARD OF DIRECTORS zine that enacts the actual context of the ball sports team whose fans use a “toma- John Belkin, Colo. NOT UP TO STANDARD West, whose past, present, and future are hawk chop” chant — those are instances Beth Conover, Colo. ineluctably diverse. In fact, the power of Jay Dean, Calif. of playing Indian we ought to be working I appreciate Associate Editor Tristan the West rests in its diversity (both dis- Bob Fulkerson, Nev. to change. Ahtone’s account of the Indigenous story- Anastasia Greene, Wash. cordant and harmonious), of culture, of telling tradition, and I’m glad to hear of Wayne Hare, Colo. Art Goodtimes ecosystem, of expression. Bravo, HCN, for Laura Helmuth, Md. the success of these motivated and talent- Program Director, Telluride Institute’s uniting the West. John Heyneman, Wyo. ed girls, but journalism this is not. HCN Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico Ute Reconciliation Program has such a wonderful history of hard-hit- Rico Moore Samaria Jaffe, Calif. Norwood, Colorado Nicole Lampe, Ore. ting investigative journalism, stories that Fort Collins, Colorado Marla Painter, N.M. Bryan Pollard, Ark. Raynelle Rino, Calif. Estee Rivera Murdock, Colo. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post Rick Tallman, Colo. media organization that covers the issues that define the offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Andy Wiessner, Colo. High American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles Florence Williams, D.C. Country to act on behalf of the region’s diverse natural and human in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Luis Torres, N.M., communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: Director Emeritus 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 March 4, 2019 CURRENTS

Protected lands, neglected duties As Congress touts a bipartisan public-lands bill, it continues to punt on setting environmental policies BY CARL SEGERSTROM

fresh wilderness designation in south- A ern New Mexico. A new national monument in Los Angeles. Hundreds of miles of river protected in Oregon. A ban on new mining projects on Yellowstone National Park’s doorstep. These were a few of the crowd-pleasers the Senate tossed, with Oprah-esque glee, into a bipartisan public-lands bill that passed on Feb. 12. The bill’s passage set off a barrage of praise from many corners of the outdoor community, as groups like Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, The Wilderness Soci- amendments, including Sen. Lee’s push been patchworking our way ever since,” The Organ ety and the Outdoor Industry Association to give Utah veto power over the designa- said Sowards. Mountains of applauded the legislation. The Natural tion of national monuments in the state. Without Congress driving public-land New Mexico are Resources Management Act, which passed However, a few provisions drew criticism: management, policy is left to continuous among the more 92-8 in the Senate — Sen. Mike Lee, R- Alaskan environmentalists have decried wrangling between presidential adminis- than 1.3 million acres designated Utah, was the only Western senator to a program that expands offerings of pub- trations, with federal courts acting as the as wilderness in vote no — is expected to pass the House lic lands in the state to Alaska Native referees. One recent example of this dy- the Senate-passed of Representatives by the end of February. Vietnam War veterans. And Wilderness namic involves regulations concerning the Natural Resources Given the bipartisan brinksmanship of Watch, a nonprofit focused on preserving flaring of methane, a climate-warming gas Management Act. the current Congress, the passage of such designated wilderness areas, is opposing produced during fossil fuel drilling. Under CATHERINE LUCAS / STOCKIMO / ALAMY STOCK a far-reaching public-lands bill seemed like several provisions in the bill, including the Obama administration, the Interior PHOTO an amazing feat of détente. But underlying one that permits hang gliding in the Or- Department stipulated that oil and gas the expanded land protections is an issue gan Mountains Wilderness of New Mexico. drillers operating on public lands capture Congress refused to take up: updating pub- Cheers and jeers aside, the bipartisan rather than burn the methane generated lic-lands laws for the 21st century. legislation papers over the continued in- during extraction. Montana, Wyoming The Natural Resources Management ability of Congress to actually set laws and industry lobby groups challenged the Act is the largest public-lands protection governing how public land is managed. rule, but before the dust settled in the bill since 2009, when Congress passed the Rather than address the overarching is- courts, Donald Trump was elected and his Omnibus Public Land Management Act, sues facing public-lands management, administration walked it back. Now, that which protected more than 2 million acres such as wildfires, greenhouse gas emis- rollback is being challenged in court by of wilderness and designated more than sions and protecting wildlife corridors for California, New Mexico and environmen- 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers. The endangered species, the new lands bill is tal groups. Absent throughout this back- current bill adds more than 1.3 million “classic pork-barrel politics, where every- and-forth were the nation’s legislators, acres of wilderness, protects 367 miles of body is getting a little something,” said who could have passed laws providing rivers and creates four new national mon- Chris Klyza, a professor of political sci- clarity on how greenhouse gas emissions uments. All this is tied together by the ence and environmental studies at Mid- from public lands should be regulated. permanent reauthorization of the Land dlebury College. Rather than take up divisive issues and Water Conservation Fund. The fund, Pushing porky projects while neglect- in this bill, like regulating climate warm- which reinvests royalties from offshore oil ing environmental policymaking is a de- ing emissions, the Senate opted to pick and gas drilling into a wide range of con- cades-old tradition in Congress, explains and choose local projects and priorities — servation and outdoor-friendly projects, is Adam Sowards, an environmental histori- leaving the word “climate” out of its nearly a favorite of politicians on both sides of the an and University of Idaho professor and 700 pages. Despite the recent emergence aisle, who can show off the baseball fields the author of a regular “Reckoning with of climate-centered policy proposals, like and hiking trails that the fund pays for History” column for High Country News. the Green New Deal, this bill and the last when they’re out campaigning. Bedrock environmental laws that drive three decades of congressional inactivity The bill was widely seen as a compro- public-land policy, such as the Wilderness provide little evidence that legislators will mise that rejected more politically fraught Act, Endangered Species Act, National overhaul the nation’s environmental reg- Environmental Policy Act and Federal ulations anytime soon, said Klyza. That’s Carl Segerstrom is a contributing editor at Land Policy and Management Act, were because, despite this kumbaya moment of High Country News, covering Alaska, the Pacific all signed during or before 1976. With bipartisan dealmaking, “the gap between Northwest and the Northern Rockies from partisan divides on environmental poli- parties on the environment is as great as Spokane, Washington.  @carlschirps cies deepening since the 1970s, “we’ve just it’s ever been.”

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 THE LATEST Backstory ayer, who grew up in Montana and Northwest New M later spent time in Central America, Mexico’s Chaco moved to Sahuarita in 1998, drawn by the Canyon was the culture, language and food of the Sonoran hub of an Ancestral Desert — its climate, too. But once here, Puebloan civilization he found himself immersed in a growing extending hundreds humanitarian crisis. Four years previously, of miles. The region, then-President Bill Clinton had imple- which is sacred to mented a new border-enforcement policy Navajo and Pueblo tribes, holds extensive called “Prevention Through Deterrence,” ancestral sites and which helped militarize the border and remnants of ancient sealed off urban entry points, funneling roads. While 34,000 unauthorized migrants to more remote acres are protected and dangerous routes through the desert. as Chaco Culture By the time Mayer moved to Sahuarita, National Historical the Sonoran Desert had become the pri- Park, most of the mary migration corridor, and more and federal land in the more people were dying along its path. Greater Chaco region Small volunteer organizations like No has been leased for oil and gas More Deaths emerged as a response. Still, development. Native more than 3,000 bodies have been recov- Americans, New ered in the Arizona desert since 2000 — Mexico lawmakers though the true death toll is believed to be and environmental much higher. groups have fought to Scott Warren, left, speaks with No More Deaths volunteers in 2015, as they prepare to drop food At first, these organizations operated protect the remainder and water along a migrant trail that crosses Bureau of Land Management land outside of Ajo, with little interference from the Border (“Drilling Chaco: Arizona. Now he’s facing federal charges. ANDREW CULLEN Patrol and land managers, but their efforts What’s Actually have come under increasing attack — At Stake,” HCN, 4/13/15). especially under President Trump. For No Humanitarian aid as crime More Deaths, the turning point came in Followup June 2017, when the Border Patrol raided In February, the The toll of today’s border deterrence No More Deaths’ medical aid station in Bureau of Land Arivaca, Arizona, which had been in use for BY SARAH TORY Management pulled over a decade. In January 2018, No More about 1,500 acres Deaths released a damning report and vid- located within 10 hortly after Donald Trump became to prosecuting humanitarian aid volun- eos showing how Border Patrol agents have miles of the park S president, volunteers with the Green teers working to save lives along deadly routinely destroyed water caches and other from its March oil Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans, a humani- stretches of the southern Arizona desert. humanitarian aid supplies for years. Hours and gas lease sale. tarian aid group, sat in the U.S. Federal “I do think that they are trying to after that, Scott Warren was arrested. It’s the third time that Courthouse in Tucson, Arizona. Dozens make migrants criminal — that’s clear,” Amy Knight, Warren’s defense lawyer, the Trump administration has announced of migrants were on a fast-track trial for said Mayer, citing the recent revelation says that by charging her client with har- plans to lease parcels trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border ille- that thousands more migrant children boring two undocumented immigrants and near Chaco, then gally; these mass trials, which can be as had been separated from their parents conspiring to transport them, the govern- removed them. Ernie brief as 25 seconds per defendant, are part than had been previously disclosed. “All ment is attempting to treat humanitarian Atencio of the Na- of Operation Streamline, a 2005 policy these deterrent programs are focused on aid as human smuggling. Yet government tional Parks Conserva- meant to deter people from returning after ramping up the consequences” of migra- prosecutors have refused to divulge who tion Association said deportation. Two of the men facing a judge tion, he said. exactly they believe Warren was conspir- in a statement, “This that day were so afraid, they could barely In January, four volunteers with ing with. administration is … speak. They had been traveling separately, the humanitarian aid organization No playing a dangerous but their stories were nearly identical: A he hardening of national boundar- game of chicken with More Deaths fell prey to a similar tac- local communities and Border Patrol agent caught them in the tic: They were convicted of misdemeanor T ies transforms borders into spaces of tribes. This decision Sonoran Desert and told them to take off crimes for leaving water and food for exception, according to border scholars only reinforces the their shoes. “Run,” the agent said. So the migrants in southern Arizona’s Cabeza like University of Hawaii Ma¯noa professor need for permanent men ran — across uneven sandy ground Prieta National Wildlife Refuge without Reece Jones; they become places where protection of these laced with thorns — while the agent a permit. (On Feb. 21, federal prosecutors the usual laws are suspended — where lands.” tracked them down, as if for sport. dropped the criminal charges of four other human lives are seen as more expendable, JODI PETERSON In recent months, Randy Mayer, the No More Deaths volunteers, issuing fines lacking in political value. founder of the Samaritans and a pastor in of $250 each instead.) In late May, another And yet, there are exceptions, even Sahuarita, Arizona, has noticed a growing No More Deaths volunteer, Scott Warren, in difficult times. Mayer was shocked pattern of intimidation by Border Patrol will stand trial on much more serious when, a few weeks ago, a Border Patrol agents as the administration’s border pol- felony charges for helping migrants at an agent stopped by a Samaritan water drop icy becomes increasingly aggressive. This aid station in Ajo, Arizona, 43 miles north vehicle and told the volunteers that they so-called “deterrence” strategy is not new, of the border. If convicted, he faces up to were his heroes. He explained that he’d but under Trump, it has taken increasingly 20 years in federal prison. For the small found a 13-year-old girl who’d been aban- punitive forms — from detaining migrant nonprofits on the border and elsewhere in doned by her group and raped repeatedly; children in tent camps along the border, the West, trying to counteract the often- she survived thanks to one of the water deadly effects of deterrence, the trials stashes the group had left behind. The

KENT WILLIAMS Sarah Tory is a correspondent for High Country raise an unnerving possibility: Is the U.S. Border Patrol agent carried her for miles News. She writes from Carbondale, Colorado. government trying to outlaw humanitar- to safety. Mayer listened and thought to Chaco Culture National  Historic Park. @tory_sarah ian aid? himself, “This guy is our hero.”

6 High Country News March 4, 2019 years, they could pump less than half what they’re asking for, and during dry years, In need of water, an Idaho town they wouldn’t be able to pump at all. The Idaho Department of Water turns to its neighbors Resources is still considering Elmore County’s application. Late last year, Does recharging an aquifer solve one of the West’s the department convened a hearing oldest water problems, or perpetuate it? on it, after the city of Boise, the Idaho Conservation League and a coalition of BY EMILY BENSON irrigators in the Boise Basin contested the claim. The objections range from hen CS Beef Packers — a partner- its own basin, thirsty Mountain Home is environmental concerns to economic ones. W ship between agribusiness giant turning to a neighboring watershed. The project is expected to cost about $32.6 J.R. Simplot Company and Caviness Idaho, like most Western states, allows million to build; because of that and other Beef Packers, a Texas-based company — a city, irrigation company or other user factors, Boise estimated, in opposing the opened a 700-job, state-of-the-art cattle- to pump water up and over (or through) application, that the price of an acre-foot processing facility near Kuna, Idaho, in the ridge separating natural watersheds, of water — $304 — would be three times 2017, officials boasted of boosting the local a process called a trans-basin diversion. more than Elmore County farmers can economy. But to Mountain Home, 50 miles Such transfers have a long and fraught afford to pay. That means the proposal southeast of Kuna, that triumph looked history, from Owens Lake in California, may not be economically feasible, which more like a failure: CS Beef Packers had which the Los Angeles Water Board is grounds for rejecting a water right passed over Mountain Home after realiz- drained in the early 1900s to slake the application under the Department of ing the city didn’t have enough water to thirst of the growing city 200 miles to the Water Resources’ rules. support the new plant. south, to Colorado’s dozens of diversions, Allowing Elmore County to divert Like many Western communities, most of which funnel water across the water from the Boise River to replenish Mountain Home, a town of about 14,000 Continental Divide, from the wetter Mountain Home’s aquifer could also people in Elmore County, relies on western side of the state to cities and jeopardize the health of the South Fork groundwater to irrigate fields and supply farms in the arid east. of the Boise River and the fish that live homes with water. But the community’s In Elmore County, officials have there, the Idaho Conservation League needs — and its agricultural irrigators, in applied to draw up to 20,000 acre-feet of argues. That would be counter to the public particular — use more water than nature water from the South Fork of the Boise interest — another reason the department Elmore County, can replenish, and aquifer levels have been River each year; for comparison, that’s can deny a water right application. Idaho, hopes dropping for decades, drying up household enough water to supply about 40,000 The hearing also raised an existential to pump up to wells. Local leaders have been pursuing households, though it wouldn’t go directly question looming over towns across the 20,000 acre-feet additional sources of water for years. to municipal use. Instead, the county arid West: Should a community be forced per year from Now, that search has prompted a modern plans to pump it into a neighboring basin to live within the constraints of its natural the South Fork manifestation of an old Western practice: and let it seep down to recharge Mountain watershed? “You compare today’s world to of the Boise Having begun to exhaust the water within Home’s aquifer. But because so much Owens Valley, and we are in a different River (shown of the water in the Boise River Basin is place in how we think about water,” Alex below) into a neighboring basin Emily Benson is an assistant editor at High already promised to other uses, Elmore Maas, an economist at the University of to help recharge Country News, covering the northwest, the County would only be allowed to operate Idaho who specializes in water issues, its aquifer.  northern Rockies and Alaska. @erbenson1 its pumps when the river is flooding; most Please see Aquifer, page 22 USAF/SAMUEL MORSE

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 worth. The tribe, however, threw a wrench into the drought plan when it announced recently that it would not sign its part of the plan, because State House Speaker Rusty Bowers had been pushing for legislation that the tribe believes undermines its water-rights claims to the Gila River in eastern Arizona. Arizona’s metropolitan areas have emerged as the clear winners in the negotiations. Cities in Phoenix’s mushrooming Maricopa County — the fastest-growing in the U.S. — will receive higher priority. Meanwhile, the Shedds’ 500-acre farm sprawls within view of alternating patches of mesquite flats, now temporarily green due to El Niño-fueled heavy winter rains, while the cotton and wheat fields remain barren until spring planting begins.

inal has received more federal farm P subsidies than any other Arizona county — $571 million from 1995 to 2017, according to a database kept by the Environmental Working Group. The Pinal County’s pain Shedds were among them, gaining nearly A small group of central Arizona farmers are contemplating a new $2 million from a program that pays farmers when cotton prices fall too low. future, following a drought plan’s devastating cuts to their water Though they’ll lose a lot in the long BY TONY DAVIS run, farmers will get $22.5 million from the state and CAP’s governing district and potentially another $25 million from the A bit of cotton he furrows in a 60-acre patch of dirt on “We didn’t see this issue coming until federal government to build infrastruc- lingers on a plant T Rodney and Tiffany Shedd’s Arizona it was here,” Shedd said. He quickly cor- ture to access groundwater. That may from the Shedds’ farm still hold cotton scraps from last year’s rected himself, noting that the irrigation prolong their survival, but many environ- previous growing crop. This year, that patch will stay barren district to which he belongs had started mentalists and water experts see the well season. for the first time in recent memory, thanks leaving a small portion of its river water subsidies as a step backwards. ASH PONDERS FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS to the decline in Colorado River water for in Lake Mead a few years ago to delay the The fear is that with the CAP water farms across Pinal County, one of America’s day of reckoning. Still, the reality of the gone, farming will revert to its unsustain- cotton-growing centers. The farmers’ sup- larger cuts is just starting to sink in. able past — pumping out far more ground- ply was cut because Arizona’s growing cit- Only the timing should come as a sur- water than nature replenishes. That prac- ies are taking more water than ever. prise. Statewide, farmers use 70 percent tice has triggered major land subsidence “We will fallow from here to the white of Arizona’s water, but have long held the and ground fissures up to nearly two tank,” said Rodney Shedd, driving past lowest legal priority for river water. Under miles long. The farmers, however, say that the barren field and pointing toward a a 2004 settlement, they agreed to give up they won’t pump as much groundwater as water tower nearby. all their CAP water by 2030, in exchange they did before CAP arrived. And that’s just the start of water-slash- for cheap rates to buy it. But hotter, “This is the main industry for Pinal ing, due to drought, climate change and a drier weather, stoked by climate change, County,” Tiffany Shedd said. “By not (offer- proposed state plan to prop up the over- dropped Mead’s level much faster than ing subsidies), you are basically sending allocated Colorado River and its shrink- experts had predicted. this county into a major economic depres- ing reservoir. Lake Mead has supplied The drought plan, approved in January sion that would be almost instantaneous.” the Shedds’ farm for decades through the by the Arizona Legislature, reduces But why keep agriculture afloat in this $4 billion Central Arizona Project, or CAP. Arizona’s total CAP take by one-third in increasingly arid valley? Starting next year, deeper cuts to CAP 2020 and by nearly half by 2026, in hope Tiffany Shedd and other Pinal Count supplies are expected, and despite receiv- of delaying the day when Lake Mead’s farmers point to their history: The farming subsidies for wells to replace that water levels drop so low that Arizona can- ers were the first group to push for CAP’s lost water, 200 Pinal farmers will have to not use it. Before it takes effect, however, construction, back in the 1940s, and they fallow up to 40 percent of their lands by the state and water users must approve a used the water for many years before the 2026. The cuts to cities and tribes won’t set of legal agreements by a March dead- cities were big enough to justify taking it. be nearly as big — certainly not enough line set by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Plus, they know how to conserve their sup- to slow the development that has returned Commissioner Brenda Burman. ply. “We are 80 to 90 percent efficient on Arizona to a spot among the nation’s fast- Arizona’s water negotiations have water now. You’re talking about spending est-growing states. been painful for most involved. The Gila millions and millions to become 1 percent River Indian Community, for example, more efficient,” Tiffany said. “I do think has a right to the state’s biggest share of these wells, either ones we fix up or new Tony Davis has written for High Country News on CAP supplies and would have had to take ones we drill, are energy-efficient and will water, grazing, land use, mining and other topics a large cut. The tribe would have received make more efficient use of electricity.” But since the late 1980s. He’s currently the Arizona $92 million from the state and feds in ultimately, that sidesteps the real prob- Daily Star’s environmental reporter. compensation — far less than the tribe’s lem: More water rights were issued than  @tonydavis987 attorney, Jason Hauter, says the water is the Colorado River can support.

8 High Country News March 4, 2019 “I don’t see a lot of efficiency in the way they put water for the grass for front yards. Tucson doesn’t tear out their desert. They put the homes in the desert. In Phoenix, they take out all the desert plants, and put in the grass,” Shedd said. “I see the mentality up there: ‘As long as we have water, why not use it recklessly?’ ” With Picacho Peak in the background, But it’s not that simple: Despite its Rodney Shedd lawns and growing population, Phoenix turns a cotton field. has cut its water use 30 percent in the last According to the two decades. Shedds, getting loans for new equipment any local farming families have come will be difficult for M to view the drought negotiations as them under new a threat to their entire way of life. Frank drought negotiations. Shedd Jr., Rodney’s grandfather, started ASH PONDERS farming here in the 1930s. Now, the Shedds and other families in the area are being forced to adapt. “When you talk about fallowing our business, bankers are going to look at that and say, ‘No,’ ” to loaning money to farms to buy new tractors or install water-saving technology, Tiffany said. “The only reason we can stay in business is that we have very little debt.” Using mainly well water, the Shedds will have to find some productive winter crops, and not put everything in one crop, said Rodney. He noted that wells could be used year-round but that cotton isn’t grown in the wintertime. “If we plant all cotton, we plant everything in April and the first of September. You just can’t pump that much water in that time.” And so the Shedds, like other local farming families, have had to think about their future. Tiffany said they would love to start growing industrial hemp, a water- thrifty plant whose production was legal- ized in the recently passed federal farm bill. “We might be able to grow it really, really well,” Tiffany said. “But what infrastructure do we need? How do we get the financing to build that? Those things don’t happen overnight.”

he drought plan basically ignores the T population growth and sprawl that have charged Arizona’s economy since less than 2 years, eventually playing host Tiffany Shedd wouldn’t comment on Left, Tiffany and World War II. Phoenix-area cities are tak- to 119,000 homes and 300,000 people. Colangelo’s project specifically, but she does Rodney Shedd stand ing small-enough cuts that their custom- Project developer Jerry Colangelo has wonder if Arizona will be the same without on a makeshift bridge ers won’t be affected for at least seven called it the West’s largest planned com- the green spaces of farms surrounding its over the Central more years, when the plan expires and munity. He told a local TV station that the cities. Farms have been giving ground to Arizona Project canal must be rewritten. project sits atop a plentiful aquifer — a urbanization for decades; the only question that bisects their farm. Throughout this debate, Arizona lead- “100-year water supply.” is how fast it will continue. She has seen Above, dry mud lines ers from Gov. Doug Ducey, R, on down That may not be enough, though. the transition in her own backyard. the bottom of a ditch have stressed that the plan’s main pur- Such developments must prove they This year, some family friends opened a on their farm. ASH PONDERS pose besides protecting Lake Mead is to have access to a renewable water supply restaurant named the Cotton House, whose assure investors nationwide that Arizona such as the Colorado River — and as the windows look across the street towards the has enough water for continued develop- urgency of the drought negotiations has Shedds’ cotton fields. Its menu displays ment. That’s because a decade after the illustrated, that supply is far more diffi- paintings of people picking cotton. Just financial crisis killed its housing industry, cult to guarantee. two days after its Valentine’s Day open- Phoenix is booming again. “We rush out to this desert, pave it ing, Cotton House drew 900 customers. Douglas Ranch, a megaproject that over and use groundwater to sustain that But “pretty soon,” Tiffany said, “those fields had been on hold since the bust, will soon till when?” observed Kathy Ferris, a for- won’t be growing cotton anymore, and peo- break ground in the far-flung western mer Arizona Department of Resources ple will ask, ‘Why do they call it that?’ suburb of Buckeye. The developers hope director. “This is the mindset of Arizona. “We’re turning into historical dino- to have 1,000 home lots on the market in This is how we grow.” saurs.”

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 Local residents and food cart businesses discussed plans for Las Adelitas, an affordable housing complex, at a community workshop in the Cully neighborhood in 2017. COURTESY OF SALAZAR ARCHITECTS A Green New Deal at work in Portland How one community is building a green workforce to combat climate change BY JESSICA KUTZ

t’s a cloudy gray day in Cully, a neigh- On the surface, this housing complex installing baseboards, and adding finish- I borhood in northeastern Portland, and in one of the most rapidly gentrifying ing touches to buildings and houses. But the air is thick with the smell of burnt corners of the country will be much like when the construction industry collapsed, tires. The culprit? An asphalt manufactur- any other development designed to help so did Fletes Cortes’ job stability. He’d ing plant, where black rubble is piled into respond to the national housing crisis. But heard about opportunities in landscaping one long heaping mound, waiting to be dig a little deeper, and Las Adelitas has work but been reluctant to apply, associat- hauled off to areas across the city to fill in the potential to become a model for much ing landscaping with unskilled low-wage old potholes and pave new streets. more — a solution not only to the displace- labor. Then he heard about Verde. Cully is located in one of the city’s ment of longtime residents but to the lack The area nonprofit, which is also most culturally diverse pockets, but the of green investment in the low-income the lead organizer of Living Cully, oper- predominantly low-income neighborhood communities of color that are already ates a landscaping company called Verde is regularly subject to industrial pollution. on the front lines of the looming climate Landscaping. The business was started Automobile salvage lots, including one change crisis. in 2005 in order to train and employ resi- that caught fire and spewed toxic chemi- Dig deeper still, and Las Adelitas — dents to do sustainable landscaping for cals into the air last year, litter entire city together with the whole Living Cully affordable housing developments built blocks with old car parts and used tires. framework — begins to look a lot like the by Hacienda CDC, a Latino Community Across the street from the asphalt much-touted Green New Deal: a prelimi- Development Corporation. Hacienda is plant, a barren parking lot is cordoned off nary plan put forth by Democratic con- also a member organization of Living by a chain-link fence. This was formerly gressional members to create a “green Cully, and the owner of Las Adelitas. At the site of the Sugar Shack, a notorious workforce” that will build out green infra- Verde, wages start at $13.50 an hour strip club and adult video store that was structure and clean energy projects while and increase to $18.50 by the third year torn down less than two months ago. After bringing economic opportunities to vul- of employment, with paid training ses- the owners’ arrest in 2015 for tax fraud nerable communities. The long-term suc- sions and certification provided, as well and running a prostitution ring, the lot cess or failure of Living Cully could pro- as medical and dental benefits. So far, became a meeting spot for neighborhood vide a window into an ambitious national the program has trained over 200 area groups and community members. Now, program that’s still in the visionary stage residents in jobs like stormwater manage- thanks to a coalition of four local organi- today. ment and habitat restoration, according to zations called Living Cully, the site will Verde’s executive director, Tony DeFalco. soon be home to a new affordable housing hen the Great Depression hit in Ironically, as the economy has picked complex: Las Adelitas, named in honor of W 2008, Mateo Fletes Cortes, who lives up in recent years, it’s become harder to the women soldiers who fought during the in the town next to Cully, lost his job. recruit labor for the training program, Mexican Revolution. Originally from Nayarit, Mexico, Fletes DeFalco said. “You’ve got historically low Cortes moved to Oregon with his uncle unemployment, and so it can be really Jessica Kutz is an editorial fellow for in 2002, picking up work in construc- challenging to be competitive.” High Country News.  @jkutzie tion, building out wooden window frames, Through Verde’s workforce training

10 High Country News March 4, 2019 program, Fletes Cortes took English investments will be key to the project’s classes, received industry certifications, success. “(That) is a really simple recipe and learned that landscaping was indeed for proofing the community against green for him. “As fate would have it, I started gentrification,” he said. to work in habitat restoration,” something That experiment is coming together he’d previously known nothing about, in Las Adelitas: Verde Builds will con- Rep. Alexandria Fletes Cortes said. “I saw that (landscap- struct the building’s green features; green Ocasio-Cortez, ing) wasn’t just about working a lawn- roofs and walls, solar panels, water reuse D-N.Y., at the mower.” Rather, it could be about restoring systems are all being considered in the New York City wildlife habitats or redirecting storm- design. Verde Landscaping will provide Women’s March water to hydrate vegetation and native local skilled workers to build out green in January. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ/ plants and shrubs. stormwater infrastructure as well as sus- CC VIA FLICKR These days, Fletes Cortes spends a tainable landscaping. The housing project lot more time in the office, having been is expected to be completed by 2020. promoted to landscape crew supervisor. In addition to Las Adelitas, Living Cully Get to know the Green New Deal Bidding for landscaping contracts and partners are not only creating energy-effi- checking on equipment and crewmembers cient affordable housing but also preserv- Not long after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was elected last November, she began gathering support for a “Green New Deal,” keep him busy. He’s been with Verde for ing existing low-income housing, through mobilizing young climate activists and pushing Democratic leaders a decade, and today, he manages other initiatives like a mobile home weatheriza- to pursue the concept. The idea, which was first floated byNew York employees in the workforce program. tion program that aims to lower the bills Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2007, is modeled on Franklin D. When the Las Adelitas project gets fully of low-income residents who pay a dispro- Roosevelt’s sweeping Depression-era New Deal and proposes tackling underway, it will be highly skilled work- portionate amount of their paychecks to climate change as a massive job creator to boost the American economy. ers like Fletes Cortes who carry out the utilities. And there are other benefits: That In its current form, it also marries climate action with a host of other necessary landscaping and subsequent weatherization allows low-income resi- progressive aims. On Feb. 7, Ocasio-Cortez introduced a nonbinding maintenance work for the planned 140 dents to lower their energy use and there- resolution articulating what a Green New Deal might include, from affordable housing units and ground-level fore their carbon footprint. In August, the eliminating fossil fuels entirely to establishing universal health care and ensuring stronger rights for Indigenous people and nations. Here’s the commercial spaces. Portland City Council passed a new zoning proposal — and some context — by the numbers: designation to protect mobile home parks iving Cully’s motto can seem counter- in Portland from redevelopment, thanks to 68 Number of co-sponsors of the nonbinding resolution L intuitive at first: “Sustainability as organizing efforts by Living Cully partners as of Feb. 15. an anti-poverty strategy.” After all, it’s and other area organizations. now widely believed that the more green As Congress continues to figure out Zero Number of Republicans who have signed on. investments like parks and vegetation what a Green New Deal might look like appear in a neighborhood, the more desir- on a national scale, Cully could become a 35 Percentage of co-sponsors who come from Western able (and expensive) that place becomes, valuable and tangible model community states, including California, Washington, Colorado often pushing longtime residents out of to turn to for inspiration. “We are at a and Arizona. their homes and neighborhoods. The phe- place now, where — as a nation — we can Average hourly wage for a U.S. worker in January 1973. nomenon even has its own trendy name: no longer make an environmental invest- $4.03 “green gentrification.” This is certainly a ment without social and environmental $23.68 Equivalent hourly wage in today’s dollars, in terms of challenge in Cully, where, despite anti- justice outcomes,” DeFalco said. “What purchasing power. displacement efforts, housing prices are in we’ve been able to do here at a smaller fact rising. But DeFalco believes that pair- scale is basically to demonstrate how you $22.65 Average hourly wage of a U.S. worker as of July 2018. ing housing projects with environmental do that.” 457,169 Estimated number of jobs in the wind and solar energy industries as of 2017. 11.3 Estimated percentage of the energy Americans used in 2017 that came from wind, solar, hydropower and biomass. 80 Estimated percentage of the energy Americans used in 2017 that came from fossil fuels. Zero Percentage of the energy mix in the Green New Deal resolution that would come from fossil fuels. 10 Number of years the resolution proposes for achieving that goal. Just over Number of centuries fossil fuels have dominated U.S. one energy consumption. 8 Percent by which natural gas production is expected to rise in 2019, projected to be the highest year on record. $500 Projected annual cost of climate change to the U.S. billion economy by 2100, if temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or more. $1 Projected cost of climate change-related infrastructure trillion and coastal real estate damage in the U.S., if Now a landscape crew supervisor, Mateo Fletes Cortes, center, specializes in habitat restoration temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius at Verde Landscaping. NAIM HASAN (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or more. KATE SCHIMEL www.hcn.org High Country News 11 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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Since 1971, reader contributions have made Catherine Gorman & Phil Hedrick | it possible for HCN to report on the American Winkelman, AZ West. Your tax-deductible gift directly funds Brad Hall | Davis, CA nonprofit, independent journalism. Sarah Hamlin, Rise Together Giving Fund | Thank you for supporting our hardworking Lander, WY journalists. Joel Hurd | West Linn, OR Charles Jacobson | Silver Spring, MD Margaret Norman & Geoff Holton, Normandie Foundation | Berkeley, CA

12 High Country News March 4, 2019 DEAR FRIENDS

Mountain caribou use the sprawling forests of the region as a refuge from predators. DAVID MOSKOWITZ A new podcast, and a farewell CARIBOU RAINFOREST: FROM HEARTBREAK TO HOPE, By David Moskowitz. 192 pages, Is it spring yet? Winter has — and more. As Carl put it: “We hardcover: $29.95. Braided River, 2018 been great, but some of us covered some ground.” And out are already looking forward in Elko, Nevada, HCN Corre- The last caribou in the Lower 48 lived in a rare to warmer, longer days here spondent Tay Wiles participated sliver of North American rainforest that stretches in Gunnison, Colorado, where in panel discussions about the from western Canada into the Pacific Northwest. High Country News has an state of rural journalism in the Both the species and landscape are endangered. In editorial satellite office. Luck- American West during the an- Caribou Rainforest: From Heartbreak to Hope, biolo- ily, Assistant Editor Anna nual National Cowboy Poetry gist David Moskowitz mixes descriptions of caribou and their ecosystem with the history of industrial Smith, who is based in Portland, Gathering. logging, climate change and habitat loss. Mos- Oregon, flew out for a visit and Contributing Editor Cally kowitz’s photographs are real treasures — precious brightened up our lives. She Carswell, who is based in Santa glimpses of the vanishing mountain rainforest. managed to attend to some Fe, New Mexico, started a new Moskowitz looks with clear eyes at the important business too, lead- podcast called Hot and Dry, mountain caribou’s dire state. If they go extinct, he ing a training session for newer co-hosted by fire ecologist Collin writes, we should still strive to protect the remain- editorial staff members together Haffey. It covers the impacts of ing slivers of rainforest. But it’s too late for the with Associate Editor Tristan climate change on New Mexico caribou in the U.S.: In January, biologists captured Ahtone, who heads HCN’s Tribal and offers some thoughts about the last female woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains, where Idaho, Washington and British Affairs desk. We also welcomed how we need to respond. The Columbia meet, relocating it to a breeding facility another visitor to our Gunnison first season will focus on how in Canada. (See “Latest,” page 3.) If caribou in the office, longtime reader Chris the state’s new governor and Lower 48 are effectively extinct, Moskowitz’s book Mochulsky, who was first intro- Legislature are planning to becomes a fitting elegy for a lost world. duced to HCN way back in law tackle major climate issues. NICK BOWLIN school and said he’s especially (You can subscribe via your excited to see our expanded favorite podcast app or listen tribal affairs coverage. at: https://soundcloud.com/hot- In memory of Robert & Mona Enfield | Anonymous | Park City, UT Meanwhile, our dispersed drypod.) Santa Fe, NM Carolyn Allabashi | Aurora, CO editorial staff has been busy, Finally, we have some sad In memory of Lori Haugen | American West Glen K. Allen | Baltimore, MD meeting with readers and news to share. Patsy Batchelder, In memory of Patrick J. Kearns | Denver, CO Ethan & Corina Anderson | Flagstaff, AZ speaking to students in class- wife of longtime HCN board In memory of Athol Kennedy | Tahoe City, CA Forrest & Diane Anderson | Central City, CO rooms around the West. Associ- member Andy Wiessner, passed In memory of Don R. Mabey | Salt Lake City, UT Tom Baer | Steamboat Springs, CO ate Editor Kate Schimel video away peacefully at home in Old In memory of Ed Marston | Missoula, MT Robert & Jeanann Bartels | Tempe, AZ conferenced from Seattle to Snowmass, Colorado, on Feb. In memory of Guido Meyer | Basalt, CO Ted Beatty | South Bend, IN discuss her most recent feature, 9, with Andy and his daughter, In memory of Howard F. Schopman | Anna Beauchamp | Ashland, OR “What Killed Washington’s Mia, at her side. Patsy was a Los Altos, CA Donald A. Begley | Santa Fe, NM Carbon Tax?” with graduate fixture at HCN board meet- In memory of Andy Tyson | Victor, ID Linda Bell | Boise, ID students studying environmen- ings and hosted several events In memory of J.R. Udall | Carbondale, CO Keith & Atsuko Bennett | Palo Alto, CA tal management at Western for HCN in Old Snowmass as In memory of Mike Zerfoss | Denver, CO Debra Biasca | Boulder, CO Colorado University. Contribut- well as in Vail. A lively out- David Allan | Oak City, UT Ann Bieri & John Fleming | Seattle, WA ing Editor Carl Segerstrom was doorswoman and enthusiastic Bruce Anderson | Bainbridge Island, WA invited to appear on For Lands Vina Sue Bishop | Denver, CO dog-lover, armed with a radiant Robert Ballinger | Seattle, WA Sake, a radio program produced smile and boundless energy, she Gael Bissell & Dick Mace | Kalispell, MT Anne & Jim Banks | Bozeman, MT in Carbondale, Colorado, where fought for the environment and Willard Bissell | Longmont, CO Rick Beauheim | Grand Junction, CO the conversation bounced from nature throughout her life. We Virginia Black | Longmont, CO Mike & Stephanie Becker | Harrison, MT the new nominee for Interior will miss her. Dan & Janet Blair | Joseph, OR Karen Berger | Solana Beach, CA secretary to sage grouse and the —Jessica Kutz, for the staff Kari & Kathleen Blankenship | Seven Valleys, PA Harry Bissell | Palm City, FL impacts of the federal shutdown Karen Bonner & Eric Harvey | Bend, OR Katie Black | Springville, CA Jerry L. Brekhus | Red Lodge, MT Stuart & Margaret Black | Denver, CO Jo B. Brown | Morgantown, WV Jason & Dana Dedrick | Eugene, OR Joan Bruck | Monument, CO Ellen Ford | Millboro Springs, VA Alan Church | Monterey, CA Paul & Mary Holden | Providence, UT Dawn Z. Church | Monterey, CA Charles Schulz | Tucson, AZ David & Pat Eisenberg | Tucson, AZ Mr. & Mrs. Stan Shepardson | Bend, OR Robert & Pamala Jacobel | Northfield, MN David Steensen | Pine, CO Aric Johnson & Melanie Sutton | La Grande, OR Charles Kerr | Grand Junction, CO FRIEND Nancy Kerson | Napa, CA In honor of Sens. Dick Durbin & Tom Udall, champions in protecting Western public lands | Bill McCabe | Santa Fe, NM Salt Lake City, UT Terry & Melissa Stuart | Longmont, CO In honor of Lucy van L. Maas | St. Louis, MO Dave & Sue Thompson | Nederland, CO In memory of Christopher Doenges | Bruce & Martha Webb | Estacada, OR Salt Lake City, NV Anne & Dennis Wentz | Bozeman, MT In memory of Bradley R. Johnson | Thornton, CO Steve & Susan Woods | Shoreview, MN In memory of Don R. Mabey | Golden, CO Gayle M. Woodsum | Coalmont, CO In memory of Ed Marston | Paonia, CO Robert Workhoven | Tijeras, NM In memory of Cindy Roy | Aspen, CO David Zeemont | Fairacres, NM In memory of Tessie Siegal & Ruth Radskin | Mark Zimmerman | Deadwood, SD El Cerrrito, CA Patsy Batchelder and Andy Wiessner at St. Barts in the Caribbean. We Dave Zumwalt | Antioch, CA mourn her passing. COURTESY OF ANDY WIESSNER

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 El Nuevo Movimiento Across the West, veteran Chicano groups embrace undocumented immigrants. It wasn’t always this way. FEATURE | BY GUSTAVO ARELLANO

14 High Country News March 4, 2019 There’s a party going on outside Servicios de la Raza, a social ser- in fulfillment of their overall mission to health services for Chicanos in Denver vices nonprofit in Denver less than a mile help out those in need but also out of a but has since expanded to offer voter away from Mile High Stadium. Police desire for self-preservation. In an era education, HIV screenings and counseling block off a street to better accommodate when immigrant-rights groups and their for gang prevention, job re-entry and sub- the fiesta’s occasion: a Thanksgiving give- concerns now dominate the progressive stance abuse, and to run youth academies away for the city’s poor. Latino agenda, it’s hard to remain rel- across Colorado. But state law prohibits Four hundred or so families stream evant without the new outreach. Servicios from using government grants in for bags and boxes filled with food Interviews with the heads of four to help undocumented immigrants, and and clothes. Representatives from health Chicano nonprofits — Servicios, Utah that infuriates Gonzales. “It’s inhumane.” provider Kaiser Permanente offer free Coalition of La Raza (UCLR), the Instead, he relies on private donors flu shots and blood pressure tests; a DJ Phoenix-based Chicanos por la Causa and foundation money to assist that spins some hip-hop but mostly plays reg- and the SouthWest Organizing Project in population. Fortunately, the work has gaetón and conjunto norteño, the polka- Albuquerque — reveal another, deeper- drawn almost no complaints from the style music of northern Mexico. A large, rooted factor, however. They say escalat- Denver community. colorful mural of the Aztec calendar high ing anti-immigrant sentiment across the “We don’t get that as much here,” on the side of Servicio’s two-story build- Southwest over the past three decades, he says from behind his desk, while ing looms over the scene, along with the from state legislatures to the White employees bring checks to sign or reports organization’s name in English: Services House, endangers the social justice gains to review. “This is the land of Corky of the People. Mexican-Americans have made. Gonzales. He’d tell us, ‘They’re your Executive Director Rudy Gonzales “Me walking down the street with an brothers and sisters. They’re not aliens.’ works the crowd. Sharp in a black suit, undocumented friend, a gringo isn’t going And people remember that.” loafers and sunglasses, he tosses out to be able to tell the difference between Before the late 1960s, however, jokes and words of encouragement us,” Gonzales says indignantly. “They that position was outside mainstream in English, Spanish and enthusiastic don’t distinguish. We’re just Mexicans.” Mexican-American thought. Almost from Spanglish. “¡Buenos días, señora!” he To fight back is not just the right the end of the 1848 Mexican-American tells a weathered, middle-aged Latina thing to do: It’s necessary. And to try and War, many Mexicans who remained in before shouting, “Hey man, what’s up?” bridge the long-standing divide between the U.S. tried to align themselves with to a friend. African-American and white Chicanos and Mexican immigrants — Anglos in order to survive. They mar- families join in the festivities, but the related groups but with different histo- ried their daughters to white settlers, majority of the crowd is Latino — mostly ries and needs — is now more important and minted new identities — as Tejanos, immigrants, according to Gonzales. than ever. Californios, Hispanos — that emphasized More than a few are probably undocu- “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in the European side of their ancestry at the mented, but Gonzales doesn’t care. this country six generations and your expense of their Indigenous side. “We serve anyone who comes to our grandpa served in World War II,” says Many of these American citizens of door,” he says, as cheerful volunteers grab UCLR president Richard Jaramillo. Mexican descent joined whites in ste- boxes of donations from inside a garage “You’re still brown in this country. You’re reotyping the hundreds of thousands of stacked to the roof. “We don’t ask for still an ‘other.’ ” Mexican immigrants who arrived after documentation. We don’t ask for papers. the Mexican Revolution as “greasers” or No human being is illegal.” GONZALES’ OFFICE COULD be out of a “cholos.” Servicios, which was started in 1972, Hollywood screenplay for the executive The intra-ethnic antagonism con- has joined many similar, decades-old of a busy, idealistic nonprofit. Trophies founded outside observers. “The atti- nonprofits across the West in a historical and stacks of documents form mountains tude of the Mexicans who are American pivot to welcome new immigrants. For around the edge of his desk; awards and citizens toward the immigrant is a years, many of these groups, created at the Chicano art cover the walls. A couple curious one,” wrote Mexican anthropolo- height of the 1960s civil rights movement of pictures feature Gonzales’ father — gist Manuel Gamio in his 1931 study, to help Chicanos — American citizens of Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, a former feath- Mexican Immigration to the United Mexican descent whose families have deep erweight boxer who went on to become States, one of the first academic treatises roots in the United States — ignored and one of the founding fathers of the Chicano on the subject. “They speak slightingly sometimes even actively opposed more movement through his group, Crusade for of the immigrants … and say that the recent immigrants from Latin America. Justice. He brought an urban perspective immigrants should stay in Mexico.” Now they’ve begun to reach out, partly to el movimiento, rallying people against That schism endured for decades, police brutality and other inner-city especially among groups created to fight issues. Corky also wrote an epic poem, Anglo discrimination and segregation In 2008, Sonia Salazar, a UCSB student in “Yo Soy Joaquín/I am Joaquín,” which is against Mexican-Americans. Chicano Studies, joins over 1,000 people to still read in Chicano studies classes for The League of United Latin American commemorate the historic East LA student its lyrical depiction of the internal iden- Citizens explicitly barred non-citizens walkouts of 1968. Due to pressure from a new tity struggles of people who claim both from joining when it was founded in generation of leaders with a progressive pro- immigration stance, Chicano organizations Mexican and American heritage. 1927. The American GI Forum, formed by have been pushed to expand their agenda. His son has led Servicios for a decade Mexican-American World War II veterans ANNIE WELLS/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES now. It originally emphasized mental to combat hate against members on the

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 marginalized. I hate calling them immigrants. We’re migrants. They’re walking back to a historical homeland, and we’re here to help.”

ROBERT “ARCHIE” ARCHULETA distinctly remembers his first encounter with la migra — immigration enforcement. His godparents, Mexican nationals, were repatriated during the 1930s when he was a child, at a time when the Hoover administration forced over a million Mexicans, some of them American citizens, to return to their home country, putting them on trains or otherwise deporting them. His own family — whose roots in the American Southwest go back to the 16th century — soon fled Grand Junction, Colorado, for Pocatello, Idaho. He eventually moved to Utah during the 1950s to become an elementary school teacher. In the late 1960s, he co-founded one of the first Mexican-American civil rights groups in the state, the Spanish-Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity (SOCIO). “We were fighting for Chicano rights during the movement, but there was always this tinge of immigration,” says Archuleta, who’s now 88 but still active in the community. “Utah was always a cross- Chavez to tone down his anti-immigrant road for Mexicanos going to the mines or tactics, he refused to listen. farms here, or up to Washington or even “You (Chicano liberals) get these Wyoming. We enjoyed the same language hang-ups,” he told Dolores Huerta in and music and culture.” 1974, as recounted in Miriam Pawel’s He says that Chicanos in the state book, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: first truly aligned their cause with that of A Biography. “They’re wets, you know. undocumented immigrants in 1986, when They’re wets, and let’s go after them.” the Immigration and Nationalization By then, though, attitudes had begun Service deputized the Utah Highway to change. In the late 1960s, young activ- Patrol, Tooele County sheriffs and local ists began embracing the concept of Aztlán police to conduct raids in Wendover, — the idea that the American Southwest a small city on the state border with was the historical homeland of the Aztecs, Nevada. “They stacked children and and hence that all people of Mexican women and men in a jail cell,” he says descent were part of the same family, with disgust. “On television, there were regardless of where the current border images of truckloads of migrants stopped lay. This new generation — many of them by state patrol. People were just running children of the very “wetbacks” derided by in all directions and being hunted.” the Mexican-American old guard — felt Archuleta and other citizens hired Servicios de La Raza home front, published a pamphlet in 1953 that the assimilation strategy of the civil lawyers and successfully sued the federal executive director titled “What Price Wetbacks?” that claimed rights movement during the 1950s had government so local law enforcement Rudy Gonzales in his undocumented Mexicans were “the done little to improve their lives. They agencies could no longer be deputized to office. DANIEL BRENNER fundamental problem facing the Spanish- forged a new label — “Chicano” — to root act as migra. FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS speaking population of the Southwest.” them both in the U.S. and Mexico. “They’ve always denigrated us,” he A few Latino leaders, most notably This pro-immigrant outlook argu- says, speaking of his Anglo fellow citizens. A founding father labor organizers Bert Corona and Luisa ably had its debut at the First National of the Chicano “In elementary school, I fought nearly movement, Rodolfo Moreno, tried to soften this stance, but Chicano Liberation Youth Conference in every day. Seeing Mexicanos treated like “Corky” Gonzalez to no avail. Even the legendary Cesar Denver, a March 1969 convention hosted that brought back memories for many of (right) at the Chavez notoriously lambasted migrant by the Crusade for Justice. Gonzales — us.” National Convention workers almost from the start of his whose father was born in Chihuahua Multiple immigrants’ rights groups of the Raza Unida career, regarding them as perpetual — teamed up with the poet Alberto sprang up in Utah after the Wendover Party in 1972. threats to his unionizing efforts. His Baltazar Urista, or Alurista, to write El raids, as the state’s Latino population SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM United Farm Workers spearheaded an Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a manifesto for exploded. U.S. Census figures show that “Illegals Campaign” that asked UFW Chicano liberation that included the line Utah had just about 60,000 Latinos in members to report undocumented “We do not recognize capricious frontiers 1980; by 2000, the total stood at about immigrants to immigration authorities. on the bronze continent.” 200,000. (The population was estimated Chavez’s cousin oversaw so-called “wet Rudy Gonzales has fully embraced his to have passed 400,000 in 2015.) lines” in Arizona that monitored the father’s message. But even as Latino immigrants U.S.-Mexico border — a Chicano prede- “When you look at it, undocumented streamed into the West, politicians began cessor to the far-right Minuteman Project people are bearing the brunt of the to crack down on them. In 2010, Arizona militia of the mid-2000s. extreme racism occurring in this coun- lawmakers passed SB 1070, which sought When other UFW members urged try,” he said. “We look to uplift the most to push out undocumented immigrants

16 High Country News March 4, 2019 from the state by making it a felony for Organizing Project (SWOP) in land grants and water rights — cutting anyone to not have their identification Albuquerque. down fences, ripping up railroad ties and on them at all times. Other states passed Here in the West, New Mexico’s setting fire to barns. similar measures — including Utah. Mexican-American population has histor- That past, however, is not one that “Ten years ago, we were largely work- ically been the most adamant about keep- Mexican immigrants know about, let ing with Chicanos,” says UCLR presi- ing Mexican nationals at arm’s length. alone care for, Joaquín Luján believes. dent Jaramillo, who was mentored by To this day, many Hispanos in the Land “La gente de Mexico (the people from Archuleta. But “copycat laws” convinced of Enchantment insist they’re descended Mexico), they don’t come to join our UCLR to align itself with immigrants from pureblooded Spaniards, or even con- struggle,” he adds, noting that his family more than before. And the harsh words versos (Jews who hid their religion during has lived in New Mexico for hundreds and anti-immigrant actions of President the Spanish Inquisition) — anything but of years and keeps a farm south of Donald Trump, Jaramillo maintains, Mexicans. Residents even created a slur Albuquerque. “They come to make a bet- “We were were the final wake-up call Utah for them: surumatos. ter life for themselves.” fighting for Chicanos needed. “Colonization is alive and well among “A big thing is fear,” his son counters. “For years, we’ve struggled in the us,” says SWOP Executive Director “Someone who just crossed the desert Chicano Chicano movement to advance and reach George Luján with a sigh. isn’t going to be ready to join in the some type of equality,” he says. “We’ve The group isn’t Chicano-focused, per struggle.” rights failed to reach that Promised Land. And se. It works to engage ordinary people Founded in 1980, SWOP initially during the then you have this moment — this guy with issues ranging from gentrification to focused on environmental racism and stands up there and says this hateful the schools-to-prison pipeline via work- voter registration drives while creating movement, stuff, and becomes the embodiment of shops, community forums and lectures. ties with similar movements across Latin ‘Here’s why we haven’t made progress.’ ” It also has fostered partnerships with America. But members realized they but there Under Jaramillo, UCLR started Native American groups, renting out couldn’t ignore the tensions that existed know-your-rights workshops and joined storefront spaces near its headquarters between Hispanos and newly arrived was always with other groups to offer undocumented in a working-class barrio of Albuquerque Mexican immigrants. this tinge of people legal, medical and even housing to a Native American comic book store They see it especially at community assistance. He argues that this is in line and an incubator space. workshops, where SWOP tries to present immigration.” with the historical Chicano movement, Everything is a bit messy in the SWOP issues it feels the two groups can rally despite some pushback from older UCLR offices on a Monday morning because “we around. —Robert “Archie” members. Archuleta on the had a lot of events over the weekend,” “A Chicana once said, ‘We gotta stop founding of SOCIO in “I can already hear in my mind one jokes Luján. But the atmosphere is posi- them Mexicans from getting our welfare!’” the 1960s man, in his gruff voice: ‘This organiza- tive as a multiracial wave of volunteers Joaquín said with a laugh. “And then tion wasn’t for immigrants, it was for and workers rolls in a bit after 9. one time, an immigrant from Juarez told Chicanos,’ ” he says. “I know that senti- Luján officially started working for someone, ‘¿Que es Joaquín? ¿Que es él? Es ment is out there, but I think we’ve done SWOP in 2008, though he’s known the como un gringo!’ (‘What is Joaquín? What a good job bridging that gap between the organization his whole life. His father, is he? He’s like a gringo!’)” The woman evi- immigrant community and Chicano com- Joaquín, was a member of the Black dently thought Joaquín Luján was a well- munity. The hate isn’t just for one of us; Berets, a militant group that looked to meaning but patronizing Anglo American. it’s for all of us.” New Mexico’s own radical history of While SWOP works to unite adults, resistance for inspiration. They claimed it especially focuses on high school and BRIDGING THE DIVIDE between Chicanos as spiritual ancestors the Gorras Blancas, college students, encouraging them to see and Mexican immigrants has proved a Hispano secret society in the late 1800s beyond a citizen-or-immigrant worldview. particularly vexing for the SouthWest that fought Anglo encroachment on their One particularly effective tool has been

SB 1070 made failure to carry identification a felony. SWOP Executive Director George Luján. When it was founded in 1980, SWOP focused on environmental FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ racism and voter registration, but soon found that immigration issues couldn’t be ignored. COURTESY OF JOHN ACOSTA

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 Chicanos Por La Causa President David Adame (wearing glasses) cuts the ceremonial ribbon of a new Native Health Phoenix clinic at the CPLC Maryvale Community Service Center. COURTESY OF CHICANOS POR LA CAUSA

SWOP board 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years CHICANOS POR LA CAUSA (CPLC) presi- students to pay out-of-state tuition; in member Ingrid of Chicano History, a book edited by dent David Adame calls the rapproche- response, CPLC created the American Ordóñez Campos legendary Chicana educator Elizabeth ment between Chicanos and immigrants Dream fund, which raised over $5 mil- and fellow “Betita” Martinez, which tells the saga of “el nuevo movimiento” — The New lion for affected undergrads. The group community activists Mexican-Americans in the United States Movement. became a plaintiff in one of many federal discuss the script through archival photos and explana- “It’s important we work with these lawsuits against Arizona’s SB 1070. for an informational video on their tory captions. The 1990 volume explicitly groups,” Adame says from CPLC head- In the years since, CPLC has provided “Education not connected the struggles of Chicanos to quarters in an industrial section of rent-free office space for immigrant- Deportation” Mexican immigrants. Phoenix. “The immigrants — especially rights groups, helped to incubate new campaign. “ ‘Deport exploitation, not workers!’ is the younger ones — have this hunger, ones, sponsored events and hosted town JUAN ANTONIO LABRECHE our cry against the U.S. war on Mexican this ganas (will) to take on (hate). You halls. Nevertheless, some activists have FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS workers,” Martinez wrote in one passage, can’t just sit back and do nothing. We’re complained that CPLC is too corporate calling anti-immigration sentiment a here to learn; teach us! But we can teach and vendido (sell-out) because of its size “new attempt to divide us.” them, too.” and willingness to speak with politicians SWOP has sold 33,000 copies of 500 CPLC is unique among Chicano on both sides of the aisle. Años, and also turned it into a video nonprofits in the United States in that “I tell the younger people, ‘Go form and coloring book. The volume is consis- it’s part of the political establishment. your own groups, because that’s what we tently banned by school districts for its The group ended the 2017 fiscal year with did,’ ” Ortega says. “The criticism is good. unapologetically Chicano approach — or revenue of $75.7 million, $72.4 million in We were fighting discrimination; the new else stolen by students who want a copy expenses and $53.6 million in net assets people are fighting deportations. It’s a for themselves. But more than a mon- that include everything from health clinics new civil rights movement. But they need eymaker, it represents an opening for to charter schools — even real estate — to understand about the different ways SWOP. across Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. you can do it.” “You start with a connection first,” It started in 1969, with a grant by “We can use each other’s strengths,” says George Luján. “A shared value, then the Ford Foundation, a private entity adds CPLC Executive Vice President Max shared problems. History. Or chile. You that helped to fund many of the country’s Gonzalez. “Apply pressure from different start talking about chile — everyone can oldest Chicano groups. CPLC’s founders points, all for the same goals.” relate to that.” (One of SWOP’s logos is were Arizona State students who had That’s now the de facto strategy for two red and green peppers connected at pushed for affirmative action at their nearly all Chicano community groups and their respective tips and stem to form a university and organized walkouts at activists in the United States in the era heart.) Phoenix high schools to protest the bleak of Trump. The plight of undocumented “Then you can talk about troubles,” learning conditions. immigrants weighs heavily on la lucha Luján continues. “ ‘These people are In those days, the struggle “was — the struggle. Politicians are as likely coming and taking our jobs.’ You don’t nothing about immigration,” says Danny to speak in their defense as are high challenge it right off the bat, because Ortega, a past member of the CPLC school students. It’s as if they’ve absorbed that’s an argument. But you talk it out, board of directors and former chair of the the 1973 speech Corky Gonzales gave, and you make connections. You find when National Council of La Raza, the nation’s urging Chicanos to realize that they and to push or stand back. It’s work — it’s not largest Latino rights organization. (It Mexican immigrants were one and the a lecture.” now goes by UnidosUS.) “In some ways, same. “We’re not going to work out every- we forgot that our own family members “If I were to say, ‘Keep out Mexicans thing,” his father adds, “but we can march were immigrants.” without documents,’ then I would be put- together.” But CPLC adjusted with the times, ting a knife to my father’s heart,” he told Gustavo Arellano is SWOP doesn’t try to take the lead especially as border clampdowns in an audience in Los Angeles. “For us to try a features writer for on immigration issues in Albuquerque. California and Texas in the early 1990s to prevent Mexicans from coming across to the Los Angeles Times Instead, it assumes peacekeeping during forced undocumented migrants to enter a land which is theirs by historical right is and the author of Taco rallies and teaches other groups about the United States through Arizona. The to become part of the murderers.” USA: How Mexican their rights during protests. And SWOP group opened a branch in Somerton to Food Conquered (Editor’s note: Since the reporting and America. has offered a lot of training as of late. help migrants, which is still operating “Trump is a great organizer in the today. CPLC also took vocal stances in the initial online publication of this article, This story was funded Latino community because everyone last decade against the state’s increas- Robert “Archie” Archuleta has passed with reader donations hates his ass,” George Luján cracks. “A ingly vitriolic anti-immigrant actions. away. On Jan. 25, 2019, Utah’s House and to the High Country shared enemy is great. We all get a new In 2006, voters passed Proposition 300, Senate Democratic caucuses announced News Research Fund. awakening.” which forced undocumented college the news. He was 88 years old.)

18 High Country News March 4, 2019 www.hcn.org High Country News 19 MARKETPLACE

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www.hcn.org High Country News 21 The aquifer recharge Aquifer, continued from page 7 the case, asked the Department of Water flooding to keep sediment from clogging plan would replenish Resources to consider the history of the gravel where fish spawn. groundwater wells told me. “But in the end, there’s scarcity.” water use in Elmore County — the fact That might represent a workable that have dropped That means that, eventually, the water that more water rights have been issued compromise for Elmore County and the in recent decades, will go to the highest bidder, Maas said, there than can actually be fulfilled. “An Boise River Basin. County commissioners and provide water for irrigation around unless society decides to make an ethical unsustainable status quo is not made have indicated they’d be willing to accept Mountain Home. argument to protect, for example, the fish sustainable by doubling down on what conditions; as Bud Corbus, one of the LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/HCN. that live in the South Fork of the Boise. created the problem in the first place,” commissioners, said, their intent isn’t to SOURCE: IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES Marie Kellner, the league’s lawyer in Kellner wrote in a brief. In other words, harm the river, or the fisheries it supports. issuing a new water right may not be the “We’re a little neighbor that isn’t asking best way to solve a problem caused by for much, just a little drink of water,” he issuing too many water rights. “At some told me. “And there’s no reason that that point,” the brief concludes, “it has to stop.” shouldn’t be able to happen.” Mountain Home officials see recharging For her part, Kellner is concerned the aquifer with floodwater as a solution about the impacts of even a seemingly to the problem, not a perpetuation of it. If, small trans-basin transfer; still, she in some years, there’s more water flowing acknowledges that there are no easy fixes down the Boise River than others are for today’s water problems, rooted as they already using, why not let Elmore County are in more than a century of irrigation in boost its groundwater levels? “Mountain the West. “What do you tell these people Home’s just trying to survive,” the mayor, that have built up ag operations and Rich Sykes, told me. The city has also things like that, that are reliant on that?” instituted water conservation measures, She mentioned a tough question that and begun replenishing its aquifer by she’d asked Nancy Brletic, the president diverting water into gravel pits north of of the Mountain Home Chamber of town. Sykes testified during the hearing Commerce, during the hearing: Should that the Boise Basin seemed to be looking the city consider purchasing older water out for its own future water needs rather rights from farmers to free up water for than its neighbors — after all, the Boise new businesses, like the CS Beef Packers area is one of the fastest-growing regions facility? No, Brletic said: That would in the nation. amount to picking winners and losers, The Department of Water Resources and she couldn’t do that. “I respect that,” is expected to make a decision by mid- Kellner told me. “But I feel like those are March. It may deny the water right, or the kinds of conversations that have to grant it, or issue it with conditions, such start happening if we’re going to continue as requiring occasional high flows during to maintain a livable society, really.”

Celebrate And Explore America’s National Parks, Forests, Monuments And Public Lands

www.AmazingEarthfest.org

22 High Country News March 4, 2019 BOOKS

Caribou crossing a stream on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Alaska’s North Slope. THEO ALLOFS / ALAMY That certain slant of light How one writer’s point-of-view frames the American West

For Robert Leonard Reid, protecting wil- Topophilia — loving a particular land- — such as Oppenheimer. Reid under- derness is a literary act. The Carson City, scape and identifying with it deeply — stands the contradictory forces at play Nevada-based writer has spent 40 years might be innate in each of us, but it is in sacred spaces. In Los Alamos, “phys- roving Western landscapes in an effort not necessarily accessible to us. It is for ics and engineering became prayers to preserve them, primarily through his Reid, however. A formative experience and incantations,” as if the magnitude words. Reid’s latest work, Because It Is So with environmental writer Barry Lopez of scientific discovery was a manifesta- Beautiful: Unraveling the Mystique of the in 1979 fired Reid’s literary intuitions. A tion of the divine itself. A pilgrimage to American West, displays an almost claus- mountain climber and would-be writer, a back-to-the-lander’s remote cabin in tral curiosity: An exploratory spirit envel- Reid attended a wilderness preserva- Alaska’s Brooks Range — “eighty miles ops and propels him across the Arctic, the tion conference that Lopez keynoted. His north of the Arctic Circle, fifty miles Sierras, the Rockies, the sacred spaces of speech struck Reid like a bolt from the from the nearest neighbor, two hundred Native America and all the toeholds and sky. Lopez argued that wilderness activ- miles from the nearest road” — dovetails crags in between, from the High Plains of ists needed to tell their legislators “that a with a story about the elusive Porcupine Because It Is So eastern New Mexico to the Bugaboos in certain river or butterfly or mountain ... caribou herd, which migrates annually to Beautiful: Unraveling British Columbia. must be saved, not because of its eco- its calving grounds in the Arctic National the Mystique of the Reid writes with the flair of dare- nomic (or) recreational or historical or Wildlife Refuge. Reid tracks down the American West devil naturalist Craig Childs and the scientific value, but because it is so beau- caribou right as they give birth, unravel- Robert Reid philosophical quotient of nature essayist tiful.” Reid’s future as a writer flashed ing a mystical ecological process that had 320 pages, softcover: Edward Hoagland. The book functions into focus. Aesthetic value alone can save previously eluded him. $16.95. like an atlas; each essay is a wayfinding a landscape, but not unless it has a voice. Whether one agrees that awe and Counterpoint Press, tool, navigating the reader toward “the Reid builds that voice through beauty trump economics might be beside 2018. mystique of the American West” — some- sentences that construct landscapes the point for Reid. His writings are about thing that, despite the book’s subtitle, and court curiosity, as his lexicon shifts the larger point: the courage it takes to he seeks not to unravel but preserve: “A with the terrain. His diction bewitches pursue one’s ultimate aim, or telos. “To journey into the Sierra, even today, is even the sleepiest of readers: J. Robert save a wilderness, or to be a writer or a a journey into ambiguity and mystery Oppenheimer is a “Heldentenor in cow- cab driver or a homemaker — to live one’s ... any account of a wilderness journey boy boots”; the scientists at Los Alamos, life — one must reach deep into one’s that omits the ambiguity ... is bound to those “Kyries of Trinity,” are “hosannas.” heart and find what is there, then speak be false.” Mystique is his muse in these Reid is a craftsman: “Writers who hope it plainly and without shame.” There is essays, which blend wilderness and to reveal the essential matter of their an evolutionary quality to the way his adventure writing, environmental report- subjects must have the patience, the facil- ideas mutate and build in the book, each age, and historical and literary analysis. ity, and, not least of all, the good luck to successive essay refining his lens on the Drawing on three earlier books and previ- discover the proper light.” West. This makes sense. You can’t capture ously unpublished material, this career- Reid is keen on New Mexico, whose mystique; it continually enchants us and spanning collection was a finalist for the “wide skies and yawning spaces” remind then slips away. The more Reid interfaces 2018 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award him of the Judeo-Christian tradition of with it — the more peaks and passes he for the Art of the Essay. “seeking God in big empty country.” Such pursues — the more his essays (and he) A central question unifies the places attract people “drawn to grand unfold — and are re-framed. book: How do you truly know a place? vistas and soul-searching ruminations” BY ERIC SIEGEL

www.hcn.org High Country News 23 PERSPECTIVE

Healing the wounds

from the War on Coal Without a just transition, environmental victories will go up in smoke

ast year, climate-hawk billionaire Tom Steyer eliminate more than $50 million in royalties and forked out more than $23 million to support other revenue to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe. an Arizona ballot initiative that would have As a result, members of both tribal governments requiredL the state’s utilities to get half their power have fought to keep the plant open. They’ve sought from renewable sources by 2035. Arizonans for outside purchasers to no avail, and they’ve appealed Affordable Energy, a front-group for the state’s to the federal government, which owns 25 percent largest utility, Arizona Public Service, spent nearly of the plant, to intervene. And now the tribe’s own $38 million in opposition. The initiative — which Navajo Transitional Energy Company is looking to failed — was the most expensive ballot measure purchase both coal mine and power plant and keep it campaign in the state’s history. running — and polluting — for decades to come. NEWS Meanwhile, a group called Save Native American Indigenous opposition groups, such as Diné COMMENTARY Families, funded by the Navajo Nation, spent an CARE and the Black Mesa Water Coalition, have BY JONATHAN additional $785,000 opposing the measure. This made concerted efforts to stop the purchase, because THOMPSON might seem odd. After all, it’s becoming more and it would mean taking on financial risk while also more clear that the ravages of environmental allowing the plant and mine to continue to inflict degradation — climate change included — have harm. Meanwhile, the major outside environmental a disproportionately large impact on Indigenous groups that have badgered the Navajo Generating people, people of color and the poor. Station for years — and remain deeply invested Yet too often, the victims of the very efforts to in keeping the plant closed — are in a difficult stem that degradation come from disadvantaged position. Any interference with the plant’s purchase communities. A fuel tax takes a greater portion of would constitute an attack on sovereignty and a the income of someone driving an old beater between continuation of the same resource colonization that two jobs than it does from a wealthy, SUV-driving brought the power plants and mines to the Navajo gas-guzzler. If you don’t own a house, you can’t Nation in the first place. Yet if the environmental take advantage of rooftop solar incentives, and yet groups stand idly by, they risk allowing serious may have to pay for your wealthier neighbors via environmental and human harm to continue. increased electricity costs. And the great coal phase- There is a middle way, though. Environmental out has failed to faze coal corporation executives, groups can work with the affected communities, the who pay themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses polluting companies and the relevant governments while yanking health insurance and retirement to push the current owners to live up to their moral benefits out from under retired miners. duty and repair the damage they’ve done, to make This can be the result of badly crafted policies amends for historical land and resource theft, and to or of wily corporate polluters who have managed patch up the economic hole their departure leaves. to shift the burden of environmental policies onto They can help pave the way for a just transition those in the lower income brackets. Regardless, away from coal, one in which a solid framework the dynamic often results in environmental justice is provided for affected communities to exercise coming at the expense of economic justice. But it agency and move forward to a greener and more doesn’t have to be that way. economically robust future. Take the case of the Navajo Generating Station The initial pain of closure can be soothed by in northern Arizona. In early 2017, the majority ensuring that the corporate owners live up to their owner of the plant, the Salt River Project, announced legal obligation to adequately reclaim both the that it would shut down the plant at the end of this power plant and mine sites, a commitment that will year, forcing the closure of the Kayenta Mine on keep hundreds of jobs active for several years after Black Mesa, which is currently operated by Peabody closure. And even though they are not legally obliged Energy. The closure comes primarily because the to do so, the corporate owners have a moral duty to plant is no longer profitable, but pollution-control take the reclamation further by healing the damage requirements played an indirect role by increasing caused by dumping nearly 1 billion metric tons of WEB EXTRA the operating costs. It is a major environmental greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and poisoning Read more victory, keeping more than 14 million tons of the land, the air and the water — along with the from all our greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere annually people and other creatures — in the plant’s vicinity. commentators at along with a slew of other harmful pollutants. It also The damage can’t be reversed, nor can much of the www.hcn.org represents a dire threat to the communities that mess be cleaned up. But the corporations that are have come to rely on the revenue from the plant and responsible can contribute to the healing by creating We welcome the mine. The closure will do away with as many a just transition fund that could be used to retrain your feedback. as 900 jobs, 90 percent of which are currently held power plant workers, provide loans for green energy Send letters to by Native American workers, in a region where entrepreneurs in the affected community, or perhaps [email protected] unemployment hovers around 50 percent. It will also go toward tribally developed utility-scale projects,

24 High Country News March 4, 2019 A Peabody Coal such as the 300 megawatt solar plant recently tribes’ citizens out of billions of dollars. Company strip- constructed by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority The resulting cheap power lights up the neon mining rig on near Kayenta, Arizona. This healing process can of Las Vegas, while the Colorado River water that Black Mesa in begin by restoring water rights and transferring the plant’s electricity pumps has enabled Phoenix Northeastern transmission lines to the Navajo and Hopi nations as and Tucson to sprawl into the desert, enriching the Arizona, c. 1973. soon as the plant closes. operators of the Southwest’s growth machine: real LYNTHA SCOTT EILER / DOCUMERICA / U.S. Such an initiative does not come cheap. But the estate developers, mass-production homebuilders, NATIONAL ARCHIVES’ LOCAL IDENTIFIER: 412-DA-1885 money not only exists; it is owed to the tribal citizens the automotive industry, the corporate shareholders, who have been bilked by corporations for decades. the ratepayers and the executives. Arizona Public Peabody began mining on Navajo and Hopi land on Service, 14 percent owner of the generating station, Black Mesa in the 1960s, displacing families and raked in half a billion dollars in profit last year. destroying grazing lands and cultural artifacts, Peabody’s CEO is paid $20 million a year to run a sucking up groundwater at a rate of 1.3 billion company that just emerged from bankruptcy. They gallons per year, and shipping the coal — which was are all beneficiaries of outright theft. owned by the tribes — off to the Navajo and Mojave And then there’s that $63 million squandered power plants. In return, the tribes received just a on the renewable energy initiative campaign. 2 to 6 percent royalty for the coal, an amount that That money could have offset a year of the tribal was finally increased to the still-below-standard government revenue lost owing the plant’s closure. rate of 12.5 percent in 1984. There it has stood since, That same amount could have bought and installed another product of the bad-faith negotiations that more than 4,000 solar systems in low-income were facilitated by the federal government. households, providing hundreds of jobs while cutting Jonathan Thompson “Royalty” is a euphemism that is employed to emissions. Or the money could have been put into a is a contributing obscure what is really going on here: For nearly five just transition fund. Instead, it was squandered on editor at decades, these corporations have paid mere pennies public relations campaigns that certainly brought no High Country News. on the dollar to wreck tribal land, take the coal that environmental gain. He is the author of belongs to the citizens of the Hopi and Navajo nations The Navajo Generating Station and the coal River of Lost Souls: The and burn it in power plants that, in turn, poison the mines on Black Mesa were built on a foundation of Science, Politics and land and people of those very same nations. By not theft and colonialism. But closing them down will Greed Behind the Gold adequately compensating the tribes for their coal, not help unless it is done in a just way, one that King Mine Disaster. the coal company and its customers have cheated the heals old wounds rather than opening new ones.  @jonnypeace

www.hcn.org High Country News 25 ESSAY | BY RAKSHA VASUDEVAN Mountain biking is my act of resistance s an immigrant seeking a place to belong, I scared me, my sense of adventure troubled by visions couldn’t have felt more out-of-place than when of being attacked and left in the forest. In Fremont, I moved to America shortly before the 2016 California, a South Asian woman who went hiking presidentialA election. And as the vitriol escalated, I just a few weeks after the election returned to find never expected to find solace on two wheels. her car window shattered and a note calling her a Here’s how it happened: Nearing 30, I found “Hijab wearing b----” who should “get the f--- out.” I myself yearning for a previous life. As an inter- debated leaving, perhaps returning to Canada. But national economist, I lived and worked in Africa that seemed like a defeat, a confirmation that people for most of my 20s. But after a while, I longed for like me didn’t belong in the outdoors — or anywhere familiarity, to not be instantly labeled and treated in America. as an outsider because of how I looked and spoke: a Things began to change in the spring, when South Asian woman with a North American accent. a mountain-biking friend convinced me to try it. I missed, too, my home in Canada. Jobs in interna- “There’s nothing that makes you feel more alive,” he tional economics are rare in North America, so I was said. That’s what the outdoors had always done for delighted when I found one in Denver in September me — before it started to appear both inaccessible of 2016. Colorado seemed to offer everything I and hostile, reserved for people with specific levels of wanted: a short flight to my mom in Calgary, the material wealth and melanin. Partly to challenge my own perceptions, I rented a bike and started riding with him. Immediately, I was hooked: the searing uphill climbs, the adrenaline of hurtling downhill. There was no time for self-consciousness, no opportunity for other trail-users to ask, “Where are you from?” I started saving to buy a used mountain bike. But once again, in outdoor gear shops and biking groups, surrounded by pale-skinned people with visibly larger budgets, I felt not only poor but out of my depth. Despite the challenges, I kept biking precisely because I didn’t fit in on the trails or in the sports shops or groups. Yet I craved a future where I did. After all, people of color and immigrants also pay taxes that fund state and national parks. We, too, deserve the sight of forest green and sky interrupted only by mountain peaks — and to have a choice in how we experience the landscape, whether by foot, bike, horseback, kayak or some other way. But I wasn’t willing to wait for everything to become easily accessible for people like me — I had to start now. And perhaps by doing so, I’d help to create that future. Still, that dream is continually threatened. WHY BUILD WHAT Dyneema content more Recently, a friend and I traveled to western Colorado than doubles the fabric’s to bike, Mesa County’s trails being among the best in WON’T LAST? tear strength, and the organic the country. On the drive to the trailhead, we passed cotton is Texas-grown at least three trucks with MAGA stickers. I knew Though confident mountains, and a climate that made it easy to be Mesa County had voted 64 percent Republican in the while out riding outside year-round. Only after I arrived, in a daze 2016 election. At the trailhead, I sat in the car for a To make the most durable work denim possible, we turned to Hammer loop and large on trails, Raksha of reverse culture shock, did I look up the statistics: long time before setting off, filled with trepidation. the strongest lightweight fi ber in the world. drop-in utility pockets hold small tools and Vasudevan 80 percent of Denver’s population was white. I was On the trail, I stopped to take a picture of yucca The newest addition to the Patagonia Workwear line, our Steel larger phones constantly pushes nearly as much an outsider here as I’d been in Africa. clinging improbably to slanting canyon walls. A man ® up against a culture That sense of alienation only mounted after in a camouflage shirt walked towards me. As he got Forge Denim blends 92% organic cotton with 8% Dyneema , a of mountain fi ber that’s light enough to fl oat on water but 15 times stronger biking that is Donald Trump’s unexpected victory. The day after closer, he blinked noticeably, as if surprised to see Double-fabric knees predominantly white the election, I wanted desperately to go to the moun- someone like me there. But he nodded as he passed than steel. It’s used in crane slings, tow ropes and anchor cables, accommodate knee pads, and higher income. tains, far away from people who had chosen a leader by, and I released the breath I hadn’t known I’d been and now it’s helping us fuse a traditional fabric with advanced tech- with bottom openings COURTESY OF who seemed to hate people like me — people of color, holding. nology to build a more durable material that will withstand years that allow easy cleanout RAKSHA VASUDEVAN immigrants, women. But, like most women of color in All my worries — money, my U.S. visa, the per- of demanding work. Colorado, I’d realized after I got here that I earned a ceptions and reactions of others — were still with me disproportionately low salary. Given Denver’s grow- on the trail, sometimes bubbling up, but gradually Dyed with natural indigo grown in Tennessee, ing cost of living, I could only visit the mountains dissolving the longer I biked. The trail demanded my Timber framer Bodie Johansson chisels out fl oor joist housings in the Handcrafted Log & Timber yard in Ridgway, Colorado. BLAKE GORDON © 2018 Patagonia, Inc. replacing petroleum- when my few car-owning friends did — and none of attention urgently — jagged switchbacks, tree roots derived synthetic dyes them wanted to leave their homes that day. swelling up suddenly from the soil — and at other In the following weeks and months, as rheto- times, gently. The wind brushed my scalp through ric and violence against people of color escalated, my helmet vents. A jaybird call broke the slog of I hesitated to go beyond the city, into rural areas, pedaling uphill. A flash of red appeared as my front Raksha Vasudevan where diversity was likely to be even lower, making tire passed blooms of Indian paintbrush. I couldn’t is an economist and Men’s me all the more visible. The lack of crowds — some- have anticipated any of it, yet it was exactly what I writer living in Denver. Steel Forge Denim Pants thing I used to love about wide open spaces — now needed.  @RakshaVasudevan

26 High Country News March 4, 2019

PAT_F18_HighCountry-Denim-FP.indd 1 8/2/18 3:32 PM WHY BUILD WHAT Dyneema content more than doubles the fabric’s WON’T LAST? tear strength, and the organic cotton is Texas-grown

To make the most durable work denim possible, we turned to Hammer loop and large the strongest lightweight fi ber in the world. drop-in utility pockets hold small tools and The newest addition to the Patagonia Workwear line, our Steel larger phones Forge Denim blends 92% organic cotton with 8% Dyneema®, a fi ber that’s light enough to fl oat on water but 15 times stronger Double-fabric knees than steel. It’s used in crane slings, tow ropes and anchor cables, accommodate knee pads, and now it’s helping us fuse a traditional fabric with advanced tech- with bottom openings nology to build a more durable material that will withstand years that allow easy cleanout of demanding work.

Dyed with natural indigo Timber framer Bodie Johansson chisels out ﬂ oor joist housings in the Handcrafted Log grown in Tennessee, & Timber yard in Ridgway, Colorado. BLAKE GORDON © 2018 Patagonia, Inc. replacing petroleum- derived synthetic dyes

Men’s Steel Forge Denim Pants

PAT_F18_HighCountry-Denim-FP.indd 1 8/2/18 3:32 PM HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY BETSY MARSTON

COLORADO OREGON Michael Lausch can now truthfully claim If you’re considering housing a bison to have come back from the dead. The in your back forty, you need to think 39-year-old was skiing at Vail when about a few things first, said Jay he fell headfirst into snow so deep he McCleary, founder of Bela Animal almost disappeared from view, reports Legal Defense and Rescue in Victor, Mountain Town News. Another skier Oregon. “For bison to be happy, they witnessed the accident and began really need to be with other bison. frantically calling for help. “When I got … If they’re alone they tend to get there,” said Tom Nern, who was skiing in trouble.” A month ago in Corval- with a group from Vail Dermatology, lis, a bison named Tonto did get into “there were two ski boots sticking out trouble, busting out of the pasture of the snow.” In about 10 minutes, the where he lived alone and strolling rescuers managed to dig down and around the neighborhood near an free the Ohio skier, who weighed 270 elementary school. Tonto’s behavior pounds, from the 6-foot snow pit that got McCleary wondering if the bison buried him. But Karen Nern, a Vail der- needed companionship. Now Tonto, matologist, feared the worst when she a former rodeo performer who would looked at his face: “He wasn’t breathing. never be accepted by a wild herd, has He was purple. No pulse — nothing.” found a new home with other “misfit” Quickly, she and Beth McCann, a re- bison in Victor and is enjoying it just tired obstetrician-gynecologist, started fine, reports KPAX. “He’s adjusted CPR. After three sets of chest compres- perfectly,” McCleary said. “And the sions and six to eight breaths, Lausch female that was here just a second revived suddenly, and, “with a snorkel- IDAHO They can certainly be a wild bunch. PATRICK HAAS ago is kind of like his girlfriend now. ing kind of breath he was alive again.” … He’s the new head honcho.” When Lausch later spoke to the Vail Daily, Troy Westre, ranch manager of Bit- marveling at his close call. “It’s overwhelming to scraps and humans were linked. Three coyotes terroot Bison in Victor, gets calls from people know I was dead five days ago and I’m going to and two bobcats got the message loud and clear who want to buy just one or two bison, he tells make it to my 40th birthday. There were angels and began boldly approaching people for hand- them he only sells five at a time. Would-be own- on the mountain that day and those people were outs. One coyote even faked a leg injury to beg ers also don’t realize how much land is needed my angels.” Doug Lovell, chief operating officer for food, stopping traffic in the middle of a blind for each bison to roam, he added, and that when at Vail Mountain, said the dramatic save show- curve. Park rangers worried about the traffic they get bigger, “they eat 25 pounds of grass a cases the importance of training in CPR. hazard and also that the animal’s growing lack day.” of fear might make it aggressive toward humans. MONTANA They tried hazing it, said Park Superintendent WYOMING An unlikely resurrection also occurred in Kalispell, Mike Reynolds, but the wily coyote soon learned A snowplow driver got a rich surprise when, some Montana, when Fluffy, a 3-year-old outdoor cat, to identify Park Service vehicles and slip away. two hours south of Casper, he hit a black case was revived after being found frozen stiff in a Ultimately, rangers decided to kill it. and money came tumbling out of it. Just as he snowbank. Fluffy was brought into the Animal In a press release, park staffers said they was giving the case and its cash to state police, Clinic with no discernible temperature, but after spent 1,500 hours assessing damage from the reports KTVQ, three guys in a small Toyota went getting warmed and fed intravenously, the cat shutdown. Not surprisingly, many involved vault to a local state patrol office to inquire about their began to growl. Veterinarian Jevon Clark told toilets. With no funding to clean, stock or pump missing “luggage.” Big mistake: A drug-sniffing the Associated Press that because Fluffy was the outdoor bathrooms, “even well-intentioned dog gave the alert, whereupon police searched “normally a little crabby,” he knew the cat was people damaged the park.” At least 1,665 clumps the men’s car and found 81 pounds of marijuana, back among the living. of toilet paper and 429 piles of human feces had a felony amount of MDMA (ecstasy), and other to be removed, and that figure was incomplete. drugs. Felony charges are pending. CALIFORNIA “We estimate there was at least a half-ton of human waste deposited outside restrooms.” In a The lengthy government shutdown last month WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see coincided with Death Valley National Park’s masterpiece of diplomatic understatement, Reyn- hcn.org. busiest tourist season, so it wasn’t long before olds called the human waste, trash, vandalism garbage overflowed the waste bins. Soon, bits of and impacts to wildlife “disturbing.” Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and leftover meals were carried around the des- often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram. ert by the wind, signaling to wildlife that food

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High Country News covers the important issues and stories H igh that are unique to the American West with a magazine and a Country website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write News High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or For people who care about the West. [email protected], or call 970-527-4898. 28 High Country News March 4, 2019