FROM PRISON to FIRELINE in One of the West’S Harshest Penal Systems, Incarcerated Wildfire Fighters Learn to See Themselves Anew by Maya L

COAL IN FREE FALL | LABOR TRAFFICKING | THOREAU VS. LANDLORDS

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West

FROM PRISON TO FIRELINE In one of the West’s harshest penal systems, incarcerated wildfire fighters learn to see themselves anew By Maya L. Kapoor August 5, 2019 | $5 | Vol. 51 No. 13 | www.hcn.org 13 No. 51 | $5 Vol. August 5, 2019 CONTENTS

Editor’s note Is this the best we can do?

The United States incarcerates about 2.3 million people per year, more per capita than any other country, a full quarter of the world’s total prison population. For every 100,000 people living in the U.S., 698 are in jail. We as a nation have chosen to deprive thousands upon thousands upon thousands of men and women of their liberty — one of our highest ideals — with little reflection or remorse. Imprisoned men and women suffer mental and physical breakdowns inside and the disintegration of family outside. Their children do worse in school, and their partners suffer emotionally and financially. Once they are free, most former inmates can’t vote (yet another ideal taken from them), and many have trouble finding meaningful work. America’s prison system represents a deep moral failure, but we appear mostly fine with Cebolla Lane in Vado, New Mexico, is among the worst of the roads the colonia residents try to maintain on it, and with the $80 billion per year we spend on their own, without the help of Doña Ana County. JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS corrections. FEATURES The problem is just as dispiriting in the West, if not more so. Montana, Idaho, Nevada, New 10 A Bumpy Road in the Borderlands Mexico, Wyoming and Arizona have even higher Vado, New Mexico, is another kind of small-town America By Jessica Kutz per capita incarceration rates than the nation as a whole, with Arizona at the top. Nearly 43,000 14 From Prison to Fireline people are imprisoned in Arizona, in a system that On the cover In one of the West’s harshest penal systems, incarcerated wildfire fighters is notoriously cruel, negligent and understaffed. In By Maya L. Kapoor Crewmembers learn to see themselves anew May, Democratic lawmakers called for the firing of from an Arizona Chuck Ryan, the director of the state’s Department Department of CURRENTS of Corrections. Corrections fire Yet amid all this comes a surprising opportunity: crew look out from a 3 The Latest: Military flights over Olympic National Park community bonfire, 5 wildland firefighting. As Associate Editor Maya L. where they managed With coal in free fall, Wyoming faces an uncertain future Kapoor writes in this issue, Arizona prisoners who As demand shrinks and the industry retracts, counties and the state are in the flames. are allowed to fight fires come to see themselves in LINDSEY RAISA FELDMAN an untenable situation a new way. Though they are severely underpaid for 6 Lessons in rural politics New Mexico Rep. Xochitl Torres Small won their work (yet another moral failure), prisoners find a conservative region by talking about concerns all Westerners share a new sense of self on Arizona’s firelines. The work 7 A win against labor injustice in Colorado A community stands up they do is important, and, because there is no prison to the human traffickers among them garb in firefighting, the public views them as heroes. Even their children look at them differently. DEPARTMENTS Maya’s story forces us to rethink our assumptions about prisons and those who are 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG kept behind their walls. But it also asks that we 4 LETTERS confront a glaring paradox: While the chance to do 8 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends meaningful work may be good for the prisoners, the low pay they receive is inexcusable. Yet if prisoners Complete access 91 MARKETPLACE to subscriber-only were paid fair wages, the entire prison system would content 22 PHOTOS In California, fireline aspirations By Christian Monterrosa collapse. The only ethical response is a review of HCN’s website 24 BOOKS the entire system, one of the worst in the world, hcn.org Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine. Reviewed by Jenny Shank and a stain on American ideals. The next time you Digital edition 25 ESSAY see news of a fire, or, worse, the glow of one on the hcne.ws/digi-5113 horizon, think about the men and women fighting By Kevin J. Kelley Dreaming of Thoreau, but dealing with landlords that fire. Ask yourself: How many prisoners are up Follow us 26 PERSPECTIVE there in the heat and dirt, dust and smoke, caught How partisan politics can make ballot measures undemocratic in a system so cruel that this is the best they can  News commentary by Alexander Simon and Steven C. Clark hope for? Then ask yourself: Can we not do better? @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston —Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief

2 High Country News August 5, 2019 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG

Trending Federal and tribal coalitions Can wolves challenge Canadian mining help stave The Stikine River, which flows southwest from off chronic British Columbia to Wrangell, Alaska, has wasting tribal leadership and at least eight U.S. sena- disease? tors concerned for public health. Upstream hardrock and coal-mining operations are The spread of chronic at the center of a decades-long struggle to wasting disease in Growlers. regulate international contaminants that deer, elk and moose is U.S. NAVY flow downstream and across the international dividing both hunters border. This is one of the first times state and conservationists. senators have elevated the B.C. contamina- Some argue that if THE LATEST tion concerns to the federal level, according to wolves are reintro- Michael Jamison, a senior program manager duced, then they can Backstory with the National Parks Conservation As- pick off the sick ani- For over a decade, mals, but others aren’t acoustic ecologist sociation. Meanwhile, the Southeast Alaska Transboundary Commission filed a human convinced. See Gordon Hempton “Can wolf reintroduc- has been fighting rights petition to the Inter-American Commis- sion, alleging that the mining sites release tion help stave off for natural quiet in chronic wasting dis- Washington’s Olympic harmful pollution that affects the health of Native communities, as well as the Stikine, Taku among Indigenous governments in the USA and A tailings dam at ease?” SAM BRASCH, National Park amid CPR NEWS the roar of U.S. Navy and Unuk rivers. In March 2018, representa- Canada” and agreement to protect their transna- the Red Chris mine fighter jets. Research tives from 21 Indigenous tribes and organizational river environments. in the Stikine River has shown that tions met in Washington state to sign a unity LIZ WEBER watershed. You say noise pollution statement, affirming “ancestral relationships Read more online: hcne.ws/tribal-river-mining KRISTA LANGLOIS MONIQUE VIDAL: can significantly “The wolf is an disrupt wildlife’s apex predator that ability to navigate, Photos belongs in the locate food and system. I would bet avoid predators. “It’s such a huge that CWD wouldn’t Noise pollution is be the epidemic it is even associated with step for a small if humans had not shorter lifespans. tribe in the Four eradicated wolves In 2018, Hempton Corners to make from the ecosystem in founded Quiet Parks this leap. We the first place. It will International, a be interesting to see campaign to promote give back to our how this all plays out.” noise pollution people through awareness. The Sockeye salmon in the Bristol Bay region. this project, but STEVE ADLER: “Recent Navy has tried to JASON SATOSHI CHING/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON this is not just for studies have proven minimize the jets’ that coyotes are disturbances, though us, this is for the spreading CWD, so their thundering can generations to why wouldn’t wolves? still be heard in the come.” Wolves travel greater park (“The roar of 62.3 million —Denise Lenahan, right, Approximate number of salmon that made distances and spread military jets triggers who is helping her Ute every other type of their way to Bristol Bay in 2018. Mountain Ute Tribe install a crusade for quiet,” solar panels in their quest disease. It’s tragic HCN, 5/13/19). for 100% renewable the state and federal energy — and energy wildlife agencies who Followup sovereignty. are extreme wolf In July 2019, 31 percent AVERY WHITE advocates avoid this Washington Portion of the world’s harvest of sockeye Read more online: like the plague!” Attorney General salmon that comes from the watershed. hcne.ws/ute- Bob Ferguson filed mountain-solar The Pebble Mine, a controversial gold and DAVE JONES: “Wolves a lawsuit against are native to Colorado. the U.S. Navy for copper mine proposed three decades ago for the headwaters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, We should bring expanding flight them home and let operations over has finally made some progress toward a permit. The permitting decision, which the complexity of the Whidbey Island, just natural world play east of the national hit a roadblock in 2014 under President Barack Obama because of Clean Water Act out. It’s not all about park. The Navy’s shopping malls, cars, environmental review restrictions, is set to be made in mid-2020. Conservationists say a mine will harm roads, cows, and for this expansion, tourists.” the lawsuit asserts, salmon returning to Bristol Bay’s clean “unlawfully” failed waters. “We do not believe the impacts and risks to fish and fish habitat have been SCOTT DAVIES: “I to account for the have an idea ... let’s wildlife and human fully described, and we disagree with many conclusions reached based on the available reintroduce wolves to impacts, according to your neighborhoods.” a press release. data and ecological knowledge,” the Alaska KALEN GOODLUCK chapter of the American Fisheries Society Read more online: said in a statement. hcne.ws/wolf-wasting LIZ WEBER The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe invested more than $1 million in a new and Facebook.com/ Read more online: hcne.ws/pebble-mine-saga solar project and got a matching grant from the U.S. Department of highcountrynews Energy Office of Indian Energy. AVERY WHITE

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 A FOREST SERVICE LOW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Paul Larmer I certainly agree with the article, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF “Forest Service might limit public com- Brian Calvert ments,” (HCN, 7/22/19). It is not that ART DIRECTOR Cindy Wehling they “might,” though, in my opinion, but DIGITAL EDITOR that they will. I have made personal Gretchen King comments to the agency, and I can see ASSOCIATE EDITORS how the U.S. Forest Service plans to Tristan Ahtone Emily Benson remove opportunities for public com- Paige Blankenbuehler ments by categorically excluding most Maya L. Kapoor projects. This is crazy and one of the ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR worst examples of Forest Service behav- Luna Anna Archey ior I have ever seen. This even outranks ASSISTANT EDITORS Carl Segerstrom actions under Ronald Reagan and Anna V. Smith George W. Bush. How low can you get? EDITOR AT LARGE Betsy Marston Brandt Mannchen COPY EDITOR Diane Sylvain Humble, Texas CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Graham Lee Brewer Ruxandra Guidi D.C. OUT OF THE WONK? Michelle Nijhuis Jonathan Thompson You’ve heard the old saying: “You can CORRESPONDENTS take the policy wonk out of D.C., but Krista Langlois, you can’t take the D.C. out of the policy Sarah Tory, Tay Wiles, Joshua Zaffos wonk” — or something to that effect KEVIN SIERS, THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, NC, CAGLECARTOONS.COM EDITORIAL FELLOWS (“Critics wary of moving BLM,” HCN, Nick Bowlin 7/22/19). I find it pretty humorous, the And crucial decisions happen in hall- FOR THE LONG-TERM ECO-GOOD Kalen Goodluck recent administrative trend to move way encounters. Distancing Bureau of EDITORIAL INTERNS Unfortunately, with most environmental federal agencies out of Washington, Land Management leadership from the Helen Santoro problems, agreement on solutions is not Jolene Yazzie D.C., as if moving headquarters closer to Washington, D.C., power center will easy to achieve (“Losing Lake Coeur DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR the land will really change the decision- weaken the BLM leadership’s impact. d’Alene,” HCN, 6/24/19). I encourage Laurie Milford making structure. If the head of a This plan puts BLM political appointees MAJOR GIFT ADVISER you to keep up your efforts to provide federal agency is a Harvard-educated in Washington (and preserves their Alyssa Pinkerton scientific and economic reasons why DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE Bostonian, is he likely to make more access) but exiles BLM professional staff we should continue to cooperate for Hannah Stevens favorable decisions about grazing if he with on-the-ground information and DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT the long-term good of all members lives in Wyoming? I’d argue no more scientific expertise. Not good! Carol Newman or society. I was born and raised in so than if you hire a fourth-generation DIGITAL MARKETER Katherine McCoy southern Oregon, lived most of my adult Chris King rancher from Dubois, Wyoming, and sit Buena Vista, Colorado life in San Francisco, and have resided EVENTS & BUSINESS PARTNER him in an office off Virginia Ave. Not COORDINATOR here in southern Chile for the past 15 Laura Dixon to mention the fact that such decisions WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPER LOVING LAKES TO DEATH years. Unfortunately, I see many of the insult the thousands of Bureau of Land Eric Strebel same eco-practices occurring here as I IT MANAGER Alan Wells Management employees that live and I grew up near the Cataldo Mission, did in the late 1940s and 1950s in the DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS work in rural communities throughout Idaho, in a dead zone (“Losing Lake Western states: clear-cutting of native Erica Howard the West. If folks want decisions that Coeur d’Alene,” HCN, 6/24/19). As a ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT forest eco-systems for replacement by are more local, the discussion needs to teenager, I held swans in my arms as Mary Zachman “exotic” species, such as Douglas fir, CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER be around organizational structure and they died from lead poisoning. I gradu- eucalyptus and pine for monoculture Kathy Martinez how decision-making within the agency ated in 1978 and ran track, so I have plantations. Mining in northern Chile CUSTOMER SERVICE can be moved down to regional, state felt the burn of sulfur dioxide in my Christie Cantrell (office has been a disaster for many of the and local levels while maintaining con- throat and lungs. I am now the water manager), Karen Howe, small agricultural communities, as Josh McIntire (IT sistency across the agency. Not an easy code administrator for the Confederated watersheds become polluted or even dry support), Doris Teel, task for an underfunded federal agency Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Rebecca Tiedeman, up — when the mines use the available Tammy York responsible for 248.3 million surface Reservation, where I have worked since water (usually upstream) to process the GRANTWRITER Janet Reasoner and 700 million subsurface acres. So December of 1992. My feeling is that the minerals. Large sections of some fjords [email protected] while moving headquarters west of the septic systems and overfertilized lawns and estuaries, where large-scale fish [email protected] Mississippi may sound like a stronger around the lake are a huge problem, [email protected] farming occurs, become polluted from [email protected] connection to the land, a large bureau- with the creation of the anaerobic the chemicals added to the salmon “fish [email protected] cratic agency is just that, no matter benthic zone that causes the release of food” to encourage their rapid growth. I FOUNDER Tom Bell what direction it faces. toxic mine waste. People are loving the BOARD OF DIRECTORS have seen my neighbor wash out his lake to death, so to speak. Enforcement Brian Beitner, Colo. Neil Crescenti tractor water tanks of the residue from John Belkin, Colo. is needed. I don’t know what I can do Boise, Idaho the fertilizer and weed-control poisons Seth Cothrun, Calif. to protect the lake that my grandpa Jay Dean, Calif. directly into the small creek bordering always took me fishing on, the lake that Bob Fulkerson, Nev. EXILING BLM STAFF my property. Anastasia Greene, Wash. his parents homesteaded on near Lofts Wayne Hare, Colo. Laura Helmuth, Md. Anyone with business experience knows Bay. Ron Pruitt that you have to be in the meeting Vilcun, Chile Samaria Jaffe, Calif. Craig Kvern Nicole Lampe, Ore. and at the table to influence policy. Marla Painter, N.M. Pilot Rock, Oregon 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. 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., Country 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 August 5, 2019 CURRENTS

Cloud Peak Energy’s coal mine north of Douglas, Wyoming. After the bankruptcies of Cloud Peak and Blackjewel, Wyoming politicians are figuring out how to collect back taxes and ensure that mine cleanup is completed. RYAN DORGAN/CASPER STAR-TRIBUNE VIA AP

once a company goes broke and the mine shuts down, the only funds for cleanup are reclamation bonds, which critics say are inadequate in Wyoming. The Powder River Basin Resource Council has been pushing Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality to look harder at the balance sheet of companies before it allows them to buy mines. This effort has kept cleanup obligations from being transferred to Blackjewel and then possibly going unfunded during the company’s bankruptcy. Williams-Derry called that a “heroically smart move,” because now the cleanup costs are staying with the mines’ former owner instead of potentially ending up with the state. In pushing for strong cleanup requirements, resource council Executive Director The coal free With coal in free fall, Wyoming Joyce Evans said that requiring mines to fall is likely to do proper reclamation would create more faces an uncertain future jobs for out-of-work miners. Still, she said be even worse she doesn’t expect miners to embrace the than the housing As demand shrinks and the industry retracts, prospect, even if the reclamation jobs counties and the state are in an untenable situation pay just as well as mining, because of market crash, Wyoming’s history of “social dependency because houses BY CARL SEGERSTROM on coal and energy.” Meanwhile, coal’s collapse is deliver- always retained ing a one-two punch of unemployment and ver the last few months, Wyoming’s towards proactive tax collection and unpaid taxes to Campbell County, where some value, while O struggling coal industry has gone from strong reclamation requirements, and more than one-third of all coal in the U.S. coal mines could bad to worse. In May, the third-largest min- risk becoming another factor pushing the is mined from the Powder River Basin. ing company, Cloud Peak, filed for bank- coal economy into oblivion. The Blackjewel bankruptcy put nearly 600 end up worthless ruptcy, leaving the pensions and future The depth of the current downturn miners out of work, and the county may if investors see of hundreds of employees in jeopardy. was unforeseen even a couple of years ago, never get $37 million in taxes owed by the Less than two months later, Blackjewel, said University of Wyoming economist company, which was run by Appalachian costs that outstrip Wyoming’s fourth-largest coal company, Rob Godby. The Obama administration’s coal executive Jeff Hoops. This is partly potential income, abruptly declared bankruptcy, idling mines Clean Power Plan, which sought carbon because of the county’s lenient approach and putting hundreds out of work. emission reductions from the power sec- to collecting back taxes. “We’ve been deal- according to one As the hits against coal pile up, so do tor, was expected to deal the industry only ing with delinquent taxes and Mr. Hoops energy analyst. questions about the future of Wyoming’s a minor blow, and it was discarded by the for several months in an amicable way to coal mines and the economy they support. Trump administration, anyway. Instead, try and resolve (the unpaid taxes) without With even the Trump administration’s it was cheap natural gas and to a lesser pushing them into what has happened regulatory rollbacks offering no relief, the extent renewable energy sources — and now and keep our miners working,” said largest coal-producing state in the country the resulting shrink in demand for coal — County Commissioner Del Shelstad in a is being forced to grapple with the decline that ended up knocking coal companies to July 3 meeting in Gillette. of the industry that has long undergirded their knees, said Godby. Now, creditors are in line before the its economy. The diminishing value of coal draws county to collect in bankruptcy court. For Wyoming’s politicians have gone to ominous parallels to the subprime mort- Gillette’s state Sen. Michael Von Flatern, considerable lengths to prop up the coal gage bubble that precipitated the Great an ex-coal miner, the delayed county tax industry. Now, the state is walking an Recession of 2008. But the coal free fall payments and ongoing dependence on increasingly threadbare tightrope as is likely to be even worse than the hous- minerals “is starting not to make sense.” it manages coal’s future. Lean too far ing market crash, because houses always He described the current bankruptcies as towards promoting mining, with lax tax retained some value, while coal mines could the canary in the coal mine for the indus- collection standards and cleanup require- end up worthless if investors see costs that try’s long-term decline. “We need to truly ments, and state and local governments outstrip potential income, said energy ana- diversify our economy,” Von Flatern said. may get stuck with cleaning up the mess lyst Clark Williams-Derry of the Sightline “We have a minerals, minerals, minerals the failed businesses leave behind. Tilt Institute, a sustainability think tank. economy.” But over next couple decades, With mines likely to close, Wyoming is it’s possible that there won’t be a market entering a new and untested paradigm for for Wyoming coal anymore, he said. “If Carl Segerstrom is an assistant editor at coal — reclamation without production. Wyoming can’t do what we need to do to High Country News, covering Alaska, the Pacific Typically, mines clean up their mess as diversify our economy and change our tax Northwest and the Northern Rockies from they go; if they don’t, then the state can structure, then we’ll be in the same place Spokane, Washington.  @carlschirps shut down operations until they do. But next time we go bust.”

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 XTS: We’ve seen a rapid change in circum- stances. If you look back at when I was Lessons in rural politics first elected, we were continuing to see New Mexico Rep. Xochitl Torres Small won a conservative region families voluntarily presenting (for asylum) along the U.S.-Mexico border. But the by talking about concerns all Westerners share numbers are growing so quickly, and the BY NICK BOWLIN resources are being depleted so quickly, that the burden of responsibility is being transferred more and more to churches ew Mexico’s 2nd Congressional to. And I think that’s something that hasn’t and local governments as these families N District has elected Republicans for happened on either side in Washington for are released without any plan. It’s becom- the past four decades (minus a two-year quite some time. So I think that’s the main ing a humanitarian crisis. blip 10 years ago). That changed last fall, lesson: Democrat or Republican, we serve For example, Jakelin (Amei Rosmery when Xochitl Torres Small, D, won. rural communities best when we work Caal Maquin), one of the first children The former water rights attorney now with anyone who will lend a hand. who died in (U.S. Customs and Border represents one of the nation’s largest dis- One of the local business leaders said Protection) custody, died after not being tricts, which covers more than half of New when introducing me (at a town hall), “I transported from a remote part of the bor- Mexico, from the Albuquerque suburbs to don’t always agree with her, but she shows der in time. That delay was a key factor the southern border. up and she says what she thinks and in her death. And when she finally got to Torres Small attributes her success doesn’t try to hide it, and she listens.” And the (CBP) station, they wanted to take her to her emphasis on issues her rural con- sometimes that’s the best you can do. blood oxygen level, but they didn’t have an stituents care about, regardless of party. instrument that was small enough for a HCN: You’ve introduced a bill on rural On several issues, she’s charted a middle child’s finger. health-care access, correct? course, breaking with her party to oppose These are things we should be able to gun purchase background checks, while XTS: It’s not the sexiest thing, right? fix, and we’re all responsible. voting to protect health care for people (laughs) HCN: How do you balance conservation with pre-existing conditions and restore When we talk about health care, we and human health concerns from oil and the Paris climate accord. have to talk about making sure that it’s gas drilling against an industry that is a High Country News recently spoke to affordable, but you should also be able significant source of revenue and jobs in Torres Small about her surprising win, to get to a doctor close to home. And that your district? immigration, and energy production. This accessibility factor is huge for rural areas. interview has been edited for clarity and It’s probably the issue that resonated XTS: A lot of things were able to occur length. most in my campaign. (during the most recent state legislative Sometimes the way to make change is session) because of the budget surplus we High Country News: What can your exam- making improvements where you can, and had, because of the oil and gas production ple teach the West about rural politics? At the U.S.-Mexico one of those is increasing physician resi- in the district. So being able to reinvest in border near Sunland Xochitl Torres Small: In the West, I think dency programs (which place doctors at education, in economic development, in Park, New Mexico, there’s a specific opportunity when it comes hospitals around the country for training). road safety can happen right now because Rep. Xochitl Torres to serving people in rural areas. The dis- It’s arbitrarily capped right now, and a bill of that revenue. Small meets with trict I represent has an independent streak I introduced would increase the program We need to work to make sure that we Border Patrol agents a mile wide. What (voters) are most inter- by 3,000 doctors a year for five years. The produce energy in a responsible way to to discuss some of the challenges ested in is seeing folks who are willing to bill also identifies priority areas where lessen the effects of climate change. Part of they’re facing, such as put in the work, and most importantly, put there are shortages, including rural areas. the reason why it’s so important to include in the work with anyone else who is willing everyone is that sometimes you need indus- recruitment, retention HCN: There are reports that the influx of try knowledge about how best to make the and the need for asylum seekers is straining local govern- improved technology. changes we need. I think New Mexico has Nick Bowlin is an editorial intern at ment services. How is your district being COURTESY OF REP. a pretty good example with the (Energy High Country News.  @npbowlin affected by federal border policies? XOCHITL TORRES SMALL Transition Act) that was just passed — zero carbon electricity production by 2045. It passed without opposition from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. HCN: Six months into your time in Congress, what’s the strangest thing that has happened to you? XTS: There’s definitely a Republican side and a Democrat side (on the House floor), and I spend a lot of time on the Republican side talking with folks. And sometimes I get some strange comments, like, “What’re you doing over here?” I was talking to some folks and one guy said, “You know, Xochitl, you’re my favorite Democrat,” and I said, “Thanks. …” And another guy said, ”I think you’re a lot of people’s favorite Democrat!” And another said, “You’re so many people’s favorite Democrat, you should just become a Republican!” And I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, that’s not the point!”

6 High Country News August 5, 2019 William Sackett at his market in Rocky Ford, where he and his wife, Leonida Sackett, forced Esmeraldo Echon Jr. and Maribel Echon to work. The Echons were awarded $330,000 last year in Colorado’s first civil human-trafficking trial. HYOUNG CHANG / THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

didn’t have enough food. Later, Adkins vis- ited the Echons at their home and saw a meticulously kept house with no toiletries and no food save for some old vegetables in the freezer. They had no heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer because Leonida (falsely) told them that it would drive up the electrical bill by thousands of dollars. To Adkins, it was clear the Echons needed help. “I knew it was illegal, but I didn’t know how to deal with it,” she said, referring to how the Sacketts controlled Esmeraldo and Maribel. Throughout the West, labor trafficking is as pervasive as it is invisible in a range of industries that rely on cheap labor: agri- A win against labor injustice in Colorado culture, construction, mining, logging, hospitality and domestic services. Nationwide, A community stands up to the human traffickers among them more than 8,000 human-trafficking cases BY SARAH TORY were recorded in 2017. In Colorado, law enforcement agents reported that 16 investigations were opened, all of them related to sex trafficking. But labor trafficking hyllis Adkins, 65, had known William Ford offers hope that rural Westerners receives far less attention and fewer law P and Leonida Sackett for six years can still sometimes count on each other to enforcement resources than sex traffick- before she met the people who would later protect those in need. ing, experts say, so those numbers don’t Throughout become their victims. Like the Sacketts, reflect the scope of the problem. “Most peo- the West, labor Adkins owned a farm in Rocky Ford, he Sacketts were well-known in Rocky ple don’t identify as a victim,” says Annie trafficking is as Colorado, a small, tight-knit community T Ford, an agricultural town in southern Fukushima, an assistant professor at the where neighbors are like family. Colorado with a population of less than University of Utah who specializes in pervasive as it So when Leonida was able to help her 4,000, famous for its sweet melons. They human trafficking and migration. brother, Esmeraldo Echon Jr., emigrate owned a farm, a market and 15 rental Immigrants are particularly vulner- is invisible in a from the Philippines in 2011, it looked properties. As Esmeraldo Echon’s offi- able, she added, with traffickers often range of industries like a cause for celebration. A year later, cial immigration sponsor, Leonida had to exploiting their undocumented or non-cit- Esmeraldo’s wife, Maribel, and their three agree to financially support the family izen status and lack of English skills and that rely on cheap sons joined him in Rocky Ford. so they would not need welfare or other support networks. labor: agriculture, The Echons saw their arrival as the government assistance. But she used that And the Trump administration’s tough dawn of their American Dream. Instead, legal obligation against her newly arrived anti-immigration policies have made it construction, they found themselves trapped by their brother and his family, forcing them to harder than ever for trafficking victims mining, logging, own relatives in a three-year nightmare work without pay to cover the cost of their to gain legal protection. Last June, U.S. of forced labor — until local residents like sponsorship and threatening to have them Citizenship and Immigration Services hospitality and Adkins began suspecting that something deported if they refused. released a new policy memo, which domestic services. was wrong. From April 2012 to June 2014, the warned that immigrant human trafficking Thanks in part to their testimonies, a Sacketts forced the Echons, who were victims who apply for a special T-visa and federal jury awarded the Echons $330,000 unaware of their rights, to work in their are denied could face deportation proceed- last year in Colorado’s first civil human- fields and at their market, as well as clean ings. “That would never happen before,” trafficking trial. “If it hadn’t been for those and maintain their rental properties Rodriguez said, noting that immigration community members (who spoke up), and do various other jobs. Maribel had enforcement used to focus on deporting this case would not have happened,” said to care for Leonida’s ailing mother, while people with criminal records. Rodriguez Jenifer Rodriguez, managing attorney Esmeraldo usually performed hard man- now feels she has a duty to warn potential for the migrant farm worker division at ual labor 10 hours a day, six days a week. clients about the risks they face. Colorado Legal Services, who represented He never knew exactly how much he owed In 2014, Maribel Echon sought help the Echons. or when it would be paid off. from Colorado Legal Services, which filed At a time when threats of immigration The Sacketts deny that the Echons a civil case for non-payment of wages. raids and mass deportations are mak- ever worked for them. “It was all a bunch Later, Adkins and four other Rocky Ford ing immigrants increasingly vulnerable of lies, all a bunch of malarkey,” William residents testified on behalf of the Echons, to exploitation, what happened in Rocky Sackett said in his deposition. helping secure a ruling in their favor. Adkins, a self-proclaimed “staunch The case is under appeal, but Rodriguez conservative,” realized something was believes it offers an important message for Sarah Tory is a correspondent for amiss when Maribel and Esmeraldo came immigrant trafficking victims elsewhere: High Country News. She writes from Carbondale, to the Community Presbyterian Church, “There are people who will help you,” she Colorado.  @tory_sarah which Adkins attended, because they said. “Justice can be served.”

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8 High Country News August 5, 2019 DEAR FRIENDS A cactus wren and her football-shaped nest. EMILY POOLE Accolades and some new roles BIRDNOTE: CHIRPS, QUIRKS, AND STORIES OF 100 BIRDS FROM THE POPULAR HCN is back after our summer that she decided to be a photo- RADIO SHOW, Edited by Ellen Blackstone Hardcover, 224 pages; $22.95. break — and what a few weeks journalist; she’s now pursuing a Sasquatch Books Seattle, 2018. it has been! journalism degree at Metropoli- First off, congratulations to tan State University of Denver. Why don’t baby pigeons waddle behind their parents like ducklings? What’s that business our Tribal Affairs Desk, whose Jolene also creates amazing about storks delivering babies? And how do cactus wrens outfit their nests with air condition- excellent work was recognized comic art that celebrates Native ing? BirdNote is a compilation of the odd but intriguing questions that anyone who shares with 19 (!) awards from the American women as warriors. space with our feathered counterparts has likely pondered. Adapted from a radio show that Native American Journalists Helen says her love of jour- features two-minute stories on avian life, BirdNote pairs short anecdotes with Emily Poole’s Association this month: eight nalism emerged from her earlier imaginatively spunky full-color illustrations. first-place, nine second-place and scientific pursuits. After gradu- This is not your standard pocket birding book; it’s filled with rich connections revealing how birds fit into our culture. And it’s equally rich in often-humorous trivia: One Western two third-place awards, ranging ating from Hamilton College raptor’s image, for example, appears to be etched onto Attila the Hun’s helmet. And we’d love from top features and environ- with a degree in neuroscience, to meet the fun-loving bird that so urgently demands, “Quick! Three Beers!” when it calls. In mental writing to best coverage she worked at Boston Children’s BirdNote, readers get an intimate glimpse into the interactions and relationships that birds of Native America overall. We’re Hospital, researching pain and have with their environment and each other. LUNA ANNA ARCHEY extremely excited for the desk, the human brain. There, she which was established just two found that she loved writing years ago to help HCN center about science more than doing Native voices for a Native audi- it, so she got a master’s degree in Thomas Breitkreuz | Centennial, CO Jeannie Patton | Lafayette, CO ence, and we look forward to science communication at Uni- John & Linda Buchser | Santa Fe, NM Peter Petrie | Aspen, CO more award-winning work. versity of California Santa Cruz. Mari Carlos | Tucson, AZ Pew Charitable Trusts | Andover, MA Meanwhile, HCN’s editorial She has a cranky 13-year-old cat Joe Casey | Newfane, NY Nancy Pobanz | Eugene, OR staff continues to adapt as we and probably the only dog in the John & Theresa Cederholm | Marion, MA Andrea Poniers & Leni Wilsmann | Boulder, CO work to deliver unparalleled world that’s a picky eater. Christian Childers | Los Alamos, CA Jane Poss | El Paso, TX coverage of the whole West. Kalen is Mandan, Hidatsa, Fran Colwell | Placentia, CA Stephanie Ridley | Grangeville, ID Maya L. Kapoor has been named Arikara and Diné from Albu- Don & Marilyn Davidson | Bend, OR William Riker | Cochiti Lake, NM associate editor of special querque, New Mexico. Before Michael Delaney & Catherine Viele | Ojo Gary Rothberger | Cambridge, MA projects, where she will focus joining HCN, Kalen interned Caliente, NM Jack F. Salter | Evergreen, CO on editing and writing science with NBC News’ investigative Sarah Dentoni | Fort Collins, CO John & Cherry Sand | Gold Hill, CO stories and overseeing essays, unit, where he reported on the Jennifer Devey | Bozeman, MT TimmieAnn Schramm | Mancos, CO reviews and perspectives. Paige medical device industry. He also Ivar & Phyllis Dolph | Port Townsend, WA David & Virginia Schroeder | Aurora, CO Blankenbuehler is now associate dug into right-wing extremism John Dunkum | Missoula, MT Mark Shapley | Pocatello, ID editor, overseeing the coverage through a project with Type David Elkins | San Jose, CA Joel Shechter | Missoula, MT of Arizona, California, Colorado, Investigations. Kalen attended Bryon Ellsworth | Chandler, AZ Gonnie Siebel | Bozeman, MT Utah, Nevada and New Mexico. Bard College in Annandale- Richard Engelmann | Boulder, CO John L. Smith | Las Vegas, NV We are also thrilled to wel- on-Hudson, New York, where Peter Gang | Petaluma, CA Robert W. Smith | Whitehall, MT come three new faces: editorial he grew to love writing and interns Jolene Yazzie and Helen graduated with a degree in Nancy Garcia | Loveland, CO Rick Stephens | Colorado Springs, CO Santoro and editorial fellow human rights. He also earned Kari Graceland Ritter | Paonia, CO Gary & Cindi Stuckey | Littleton, CO Kalen Goodluck, whose work a master’s degree in journalism Barbara Gulick | Billings, MT Dede Taylor | Bozeman, MT you’ll be seeing in these pages at City University of New York. David R. Hackathorn | Marana, AZ Stephen J. Thomas | Flagstaff, AZ soon. When not reporting, he enjoys Patricia Hackbarth | New York, NY Donald & Nancy Taylor | Denver, CO Kimberly Hamilton-Lam | San Anselmo, CA Jolene grew up in a small eating s’mores by the campfire. Harold Teasdale | Marine On Saint Croix, MN town in Arizona called Lup- Finally, we have a correc- Michael Helling | Victor, MT Wayne Thompson | Tucson, AZ Allen Hjelmfelt | Columbia, MO ton — Tsé si ani in the Diné tion from “The Columbia River Anne Townsend | Patagonia, AZ language. After receiving a B.A. treaty, six decades later,” (HCN, Wes Horner | Boulder, CO Ian & Sarah Turner | Wayne, PA in visual communications from 7/22/19). Under the treaty, the Mr. & Mrs. Rod Horton | Denver, CO Eric Twitty | Lafayette, CO Collins College in Phoenix, she U.S. sends hydropower to Cana- Rita Kester & Daniel Horton | Rio Rico, AZ Norma Van Nostrand | Granby, CO worked as a graphic designer for da, not the other way around. In Wayne D. House | Flagstaff, AZ Susan Vaniman | Hotchkiss, CO a variety of newspapers, includ- the same issue, “Development Jim Jacobs | Lewiston, ID Sandra Villavicencio | Bonsall, CA ing the Santa Fe Reporter and in Bozeman and the basin” Richard Kanner | Salt Lake City, UT Tom Viola | Berkeley, CA the Navajo Times. Since she was claimed a population of 112,000 Taylor Kiessig | Washington, DC Russell Volksen | Sacramento, CA little, Jolene has loved capturing for the city. The population is Bruce Lamberson | Casper, WY Millie VonBargen | San Jose, CA moments through photography, actually less than 47,000. We Frank Landis | Erie, CO Lowell & Peggy Wait | Littleton, CO but it wasn’t until an HCN regret the errors. Joel & Maxine Lautenberg | Stillwater, NY David E. Ward | Las Cruces, NM photo assignment not long ago —Nick Bowlin, for the staff Guy and Ann Leadbetter | Boise, ID Thomas Weaver | Lakewood, CO Marc Levesque & Susan Porter | Silver City, NM Susan Weeg | Pocatello, ID Don MacKendrick | Grand Junction, CO Betty & Bill Weida | McCall, ID Lisa Maher | Tucson, AZ Andrew Weiner | Albany, CA Brandt Mannchen | Humble, TX Marvyl Wendt | Tucson, AZ Ken & Pat Mesec | Littleton, CO Dorothy & Andrew Werner | Santa Cruz, CA Pat Meyers | Boulder, CO Karen Wetherell | Orinda, CA JoAnne & Paul Michaels | Boise, ID Mariamne Whatley | Madison, WI Carolyn & Rich Miller | Breckenridge, CO Douglas C. Wheeler | Denver, CO Dan Miller | Portland, OR Arlene Wilcox | San Francisco, CA Cecil & Lisa Moreno | Anchorage, AK Daryl Willmarth | Tucson, AZ Rob Morrison | Chicago, IL Penington Wimbush | Dillon, CO Marcia M. Mueller | Issaquah, WA Lawrence Witt | Moab, UT James Murphy | St. Clairsville, OH Laura Wolstenholme | Boise, ID Lindsay Nelson | Bellingham, WA Nelson & Deborah Woodard | Erwinna, PA Regan Nelson | Bozeman, MT Roy & Barbara Wright | Denver, CO Jolene Yazzie, Helen Santoro and Kalen Goodluck during the recent editorial Brian Parker | Spokane, WA staff retreat in Gunnison, Colorado. LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/HIGH COUNTRY NEWS www.hcn.org High Country News 9 FEATURE | BY JESSICA KUTZ

A Bumpy Road in the Borderlands Vado, New Mexico, is another kind of small-town America

n a hot Saturday afternoon something to fix the roads. But Lugo al- in May 2016, Sen. Bernie ready knew that the responsibility would Sanders found his way to probably fall on the residents, and that Vado, New Mexico, a quiet they would have to be resourceful and rural community on the make incremental improvements them- east bank of the Rio Grande, 35 minutes selves. That’s because Vado is a colonia Ofrom the U.S.-Mexico border. People — from the Spanish for “neighborhood” from urban centers like El Paso and Las — one of thousands of unincorporated, Cruces streamed into the town, eager to unplanned and generally impoverished see the presidential hopeful in one of the communities along the U.S.-Mexico three rallies he held in New Mexico that border initially settled by migrant farm- month. workers. Colonias like Vado receive little Flanked by locals standing on outside help at the best of times. metal bleachers, an expanse of farmland By the time Sanders left, Lugo and sprawling behind them, the Vermont his co-organizers had raised nearly Independent spoke about the challenges $1,000. Sanders, of course, did not win many towns face: the need for basic the nomination in 2016, and the presi- infrastructure, including “decent roads dency went to Donald Trump, who ran and decent bridges,” and a government on building walls, not fixing roads. Still, policy that had “ignored for too long the Lugo and the residents of Vado were de- needs of the people in rural America.” termined to make a go of repairing their For the residents of Vado, Sanders’ words own corner of small-town America. rang true. They have been fighting for decent infrastructure for decades — for LUGO FIRST CAME TO THE UNITED STATES water and sewage lines and, especially, from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, more than Lack of infrastructure in colonias, including Vado, New Mexico, means rainstorms can flood homes and make dirt roads like Cebolla Lane, above and to the right, impassable. JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS for roads. Every year, the streets of the two decades ago, at the age of 17. Most of town become nearly impassable, when his immediate family had already made monsoon rains turn the dirt roads into the journey, sharing a cramped two- Cut by the Rio Grande, the Mesilla mud pits. bedroom house with Lugo’s grandmother Valley stretches from southern New In fact, even as Sanders was speak- amid the pecan orchards in the small Mexico to west Texas. Despite its aridity, ing, a small group of organizers and town of Mesilla, New Mexico. Lugo told it is an agriculturally rich region, helped volunteers, some of them holding signs people his family had come “in search of by a monsoon season that runs from June that said “I Stand with Vado,” took the the American dream,” but it was also true through September. Moisture from the opportunity to sell burritos and water to that they were fleeing the violence that Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, car- raise money for road repairs, while at the continues to plague Juárez. ried by the winds of the Atlantic Ocean, same time raising awareness among local When he first arrived in Vado, Lugo, nourishes the fertile landscape. But that and state media. Among them was Ruben like most newly settled immigrants, rain also settles into the bottom of the Lugo, a longtime resident and organizer. worked in the fields, harvesting pecans, valley — and on places like Vado. Lugo’s Lugo, a soft-spoken middle-aged chilies and onions. After a few years, he home has been flooded twice. man, had been calling attention to Vado’s found a job in construction, building rock The annual downpours do more than roads for years, talking to reporters and walls, which paid better, enabling him to flood homes, however. They also inundate attending public meetings. Just a few buy a trailer in Vado and eventually the roads, turning them into a sludgy clay months before Sanders’ appearance, Lugo plot of land it sat on. Unfortunately, the mess that hardens into a cratered night- had led a community meeting in which cheap land, tucked into one of the lowest mare, damaging vehicles and impeding he confronted his county commissioner, lying parts of the Mesilla Valley, came travel. And because Vado is a colonia, demanding that government officials do with some unexpected downsides. there’s little help available. Colonias con-

10 High Country News August 5, 2019 Lack of infrastructure in colonias, including Vado, New Mexico, means rainstorms can flood homes and make dirt roads like Cebolla Lane, above and to the right, impassable. JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

UT CO stitute a special classification, according basic lack of respect. To be so ignored “is NV KS to the Department of Housing and Urban something that hurts a lot,” Lugo told me. Development. By definition, a colonia is Having a paved road, on the other hand, ARIZONA a community located within 150 miles of is a way of saying, “OK, you are part of NEW MEXICO CALIFORNIA OK the U.S.-Mexico border and characterized this community too.” by a lack of basic infrastructure. Nearly half a million people live in colonias in AT THE SANDERS FUNDRAISER, Vado Arizona and New Mexico. residents raised enough money to pay for In New Mexico’s Doña Ana County, a a project that the regional Environmental Vado TEXAS little less than half of the population lives Protection Agency had coordinated with a in one. Because most of these communi- local advocacy group. Local EPA officials Locations of colonias ties are unincorporated, they exist in a had partnered with an El Paso, Texas- kind of bureaucratic limbo. While they based recycling company, which donated Designated colonia fall under county jurisdiction, they often 60 tons of shredded roofing shingles for Dense concentration of 5+ colonias Total per state: have no formal governance of their own, improving Cebolla Lane, one of the worst MEXICO and they are seldom given much atten- roads in Vado. The recycling company had CA AZ NM TX tion by local, state or the federal govern- a surplus of shingles at the time and was 33 123 129 1,826 ment. The roads are a daily reminder actually in violation of a Texas regula- of their invisibility and of a certain tion for storing too much, so its decision SOURCE: U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ROBERT PETERSON, 2010

www.hcn.org High Country News 11 ated near the border. Owing to a combina- tion of developers in search of easy money and people in need of affordable housing, developments like Vado are the product of a simple, insidious scheme, where cheap land (most of it in floodplains) is bought, divided and sold at a markup, usually to recent immigrants. Oftentimes, residents were led into thinking infrastructure would follow their purchase, but these promises rarely materialize, leaving them to fend for themselves. As a result, the properties become a jurisdictional jumble. They are hard to govern or improve, and few resources are available to them. Billy G. Garrett, a former commissioner for Doña Ana County, served Vado and other colonias for eight years. He tried to make improvements, but was often frustrated and thwarted. “The money is not there,” he told me. “And the social support is not there politically in terms of the whole county.” One of the biggest hurdles has been logistical. Colonias like Vado were sub- divided in a way that makes most of the residents responsible for the roads adja- cent to their properties. These “private roads” are essentially public in their use, p Mague Lugo and but the New Mexico Constitution’s anti- her husband, Ruben, donation clause prohibits governments pose outside their from making “any donation to or aid of home in Vado, New any person, association or public or pri- Mexico. The couple vate corporation.” Because the roads are has been pushing for the county to privately owned, in other words, the gov- fund infrastructure, ernment can’t legally fix them. This leaves instead of citizens the roads and their maintenance outside having to foot the of the county’s responsibility, putting the bill. onus on colonia residents. Garrett said, it u A truck turns was hard for other people in the county to onto Ward Road, understand the scale of problems colonias one of two roads face. “I wanted to get to the point where paved by Doña Ana you can’t say you don’t know at least the County earlier this magnitude of (it),” he said. year using surplus county funds. So, in 2016, Garrett commissioned JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ an infrastructure report for incorporated areas including colonias in Doña Ana County. The assessment, released in 2017, was bleak. The county’s colonias needed an estimated $606 million in infrastructure projects, including wastewa- ter services, drainage and about $84 million for paving private roads. While bad to donate the material to Vado seemed supposed to last for two years,” Lugo said. roads might not seem like a big deal, they like a clear win-win for everybody. The “But in the end, it was counterproductive.” are, in fact, extremely tough on families. residents paid to transport the shingles So the residents came up with a new If roads aren’t passable, “people can’t get and for the use of a grader and roller, plan. One of Lugo’s neighbors worked at their kids to school, can’t get to work, and they also pitched in to help with the Cemex, a concrete supplier with head- can’t get to doctor’s appointments,” Kelly labor, using wheelbarrows to lay out the quarters just a few miles off nearby Inter- Jameson, a public information officer for material. state 10. The company agreed to donate the county, told me. But it’s nearly impos- But the shredded shingles turned gravel for the roads if the residents could sible to raise enough money to fix these out to be less than ideal for road repair. figure out a way to transport it and lay it problems when many residents outside of And ultimately the project, which was down. The necessary machinery was found colonias can’t comprehend the disparities, finished in July 2016, turned out to be and locals hauled the gravel in their own Garrett said. “If you truly want to have more trouble than it was worth. Even trucks. Each family had to contribute $120 every street paved, you’ve got to under- though it improved the road, it created toward the project, a significant amount stand this is a much bigger problem that new problems in the process: The shingles for a community where many residents you have to take on,” he said. “It has to do hadn’t been properly cleaned of roofing live below the poverty line. The gravel con- with changing how people view colonias; nails, and so residents started getting siderably improved some roads but was a (it) has to do with guaranteeing every flat tires. The axles on their vehicle were costly and temporary fix. community has all the things it needs.” no longer breaking, but driving wasn’t Garrett said it is unfortunate that getting any easier. Disappointed residents THE CEBOLLA LANE FIASCO shows how there isn’t any real long-term planning found themselves having to pull up all the hard it can to be to carry out even simple going on to address the needs of the colo- material they had just put down. “It was projects in colonias, which have prolifer- nias. “You can’t deal with good develop-

12 High Country News August 5, 2019 ment if every two years you are going to change how you are going to approach infrastructure,” he said. “Infrastructure is a multi-year process in priorities and planning and getting it built.” And infrastructure is made more complicated by the nature of things: Commissioners change, priorities change, funding changes — and the problems simply get worse. These issues are incredibly complex and costly, and expecting rural county governments to find all-encompassing solutions is not realistic. Federal funding is available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the EPA, but it usually requires a matching loan from a local entity, something that is seldom financially feasible here. The state does provide approximately $4 million a year for projects in the county’s colonias, but, as Garrett said, that’s a drop in the bucket. “The problems with rural Doña Ana County are the same as rural New Mexico, the same as anywhere in the West,” Garrett told me. “What we really need is a major initiative in Washington that says it is important to take care of our rural communities and our rural areas.” combined income, they had been able victory in so many ways,” Lugo told me. Blanca Isabel stands AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR, Vado to buy a house and plot of land behind “After so many years of fighting, it shows near puddles from saw a small victory. Two of its roads were Lugo’s. “We didn’t know it was in a flood that we can do it. We can bring change.” rainfall three days paved through surplus county funds — a zone,” she said, adding that during the With one goal more or less achieved, Lugo ago outside her one-off windfall that was designated for a monsoon season “a lake” forms in front of and his neighbors have others in mind. home in Vado, New “roads initiative” by commissioners. The her house. But other than that, she said They’d like to see streetlights and the Mexico. When it rains, Isabel’s front funding paved Ward Road, the main thor- she likes living there; it’s a tight-knit side roads paved, and a school bus that yard and the road oughfare in Lugo’s neighborhood. But, community. reaches their neighborhood. The county leading to her home as with the shingle paving and gravel When the place isn’t flooded, it’s dry would also like to see other improve- flood and she has dumping, the small gains come with big and dusty, and this contributes to another ments reach the colonia, including hook- to use a four-wheel caveats. When the monsoons hit, many of widespread problem: asthma. A lot of ing up Vado residents to a centralized drive vehicle; when the families on the side streets will still people here have it, Isabel said, includ- sewer system; severe septic tank failures the mud finally be stranded in mud. ing her. (According to the U.S.-Mexico can pose a serious health risk. Adequate dries, deep ruts In February, I traveled to Vado to Border Health Commission, asthma is a drainage infrastructure is also needed remain. see how residents felt about the road serious concern for communities near the to protect residents from annual flood- JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ improvements. Vado has a tranquil, border, where air quality is low and work ing. Lugo, who traveled to Santa Fe this sleepy feel, with just a couple of thousand exposure to chemicals and pesticides is year to talk with officials, believes Vado residents; the town is a patchwork of high. Doña Ana County reports that 10% is too far from the minds of policymakers. farmland, houses and roads that border to 12% of adults in the county suffer from “They think that we don’t exist,” he said. irrigation ditches. I followed Ward Road, the condition.) Her asthma worries her, “They don’t realize that we too are New with its shiny new asphalt, to branching she said. “If there is an emergency, an Mexicans.” side streets and clusters of homes and ambulance isn’t going to come (in time),” Indeed, this reminded me of my own trailers. she said. “I have to get sick somewhere trip to Santa Fe, a few days earlier. There, The colonia might suffer broadly from else where one can reach me.” I had hoped to learn about New Mexico’s structural negligence, but it was clear In much of the country, decent roads relationship to its border communities on that residents care about their homes. are taken for granted. There is some- “Colonias Day.” I had gone to the Capitol, Nopales, a type of cactus, lined the front thing very American in the idea of the where a press conference was scheduled. of some trailers, makeshift fences and open road and clean, safe streets — no I arrived early, waiting in a marble ro- rock walls enveloped others. I pulled up less so for places like Vado. Here, though, tunda, where chairs were set up in rows, to Lugo’s home, which has been enlarged it’s an ideal that still seems far from a podium in the front of the hall. It was over the years to make space for his reach. Here, where citizens often live a busy weekday, with visitors and school growing family, and was enthusiasti- with undocumented relatives, a kind of groups wandering the building as state cally greeted by his dog, Oso, a big, lanky isolation prevails. Border checkpoints legislators went from one meeting to puppy tangled in his yard tether. Mague, that lock people in from either direction the next. Above the rotunda, a crumpled Lugo’s wife, opened the door and led me are permanently set up on the two major banner hung from a second-story railing. into the kitchen, where her friend Blanca highways that connect Vado to the rest “Colonias Day,” it read. “Federal, state Isabel, wearing a pink shirt that matched of the state. The locals keep their cars and local government collectively work- Jessica Kutz, an the color of her eyeshadow, sat at a round meticulously clean, headlights in working together to improve social, health and assistant editor for High Country News, wooden table. ing order, to avoid any excuse for a run-in economic conditions.” The appointed hour writes from Tucson. Isabel had moved to Vado 16 years with police or Immigration and Customs for the press conference came and went.  jkutzie ago, she said, and now worked at a near- Enforcement in town. Better roads would The chairs stayed empty. After a long by processing plant, which produced chili connect people, give them mobility — and wait, I finally left. Outside, traffic buzzed This story was funded paste for popular hot sauce brands. Her also help them keep their cars in working by on well-paved city streets, as tourists with reader donations husband was employed at a dairy farm, order. came in and out of restaurants. Colonias to the High Country one of several in the region. With their For that reason, Ward Road was “a Day passed, and nobody noticed. News Research Fund.

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 FEATURE | BY MAYA L. KAPOOR FROM PRISON TO FIRELINE

14 High Country News August 5, 2019 FEATURE | BY MAYA L. KAPOOR FROM PRISON TO FIRELINE

In one of the West’s harshest penal systems, incarcerated wildfire fighters learn to see themselves anew

rnie Tilley began fighting wildfires seven years ago while in prison for a drug offense. He could have made twice as much doing something else, but most other Eprison work is menial. “There’s just not a lot of opportunities to learn and build experience doing something that’s worthwhile when you’re in that sort of environment,” Tilley, a circumspect man in his early 30s with blue eyes and short auburn hair, recently told me. In contrast, on a fire assignment, “You’re working hard, you’re in a good environment, you’re learning stuff, you’re building yourself, you’re making yourself better.” In time, he became a squad boss. “As a leader, it was a great experience getting all those people in that mindset, and getting them in the position to accomplish all those goals together,” he recalled. “It was fun.” Tilley, who was released from prison in 2017, spoke to me last summer from New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness, where he was working as a seasonal wildfire fighter. This summer, he started a perma- nent firefighting position in Alabama with the U.S. Forest Service. For prisoners like Tilley, wildfire crews are a rare spark of hope in a dark system. Arizona’s prisons are notoriously callous: According to Corene Kendrick, a staff attorney with the nonprofit Pris- on Law Office, as other states move toward restorative justice, Arizona is locking up ever more people — even first-time offenders — under mandatory sentencing laws for nonviolent offenses, such as drug use, shoplifting or drunk driving, with little possibility of time off for good behavior. Kendrick said that’s despite plenty of research showing that “extremely tough and long sentences, especially for low-level offenses, don’t reduce crime.” Arizona’s draconian policies mean that its state prisoners and county jail inmates have faced unusual mental and physical hardships — fewer than three meals a day, for example, or lack of

A firefighter from an Arizona Department of Corrections crew works a night burn. LINDSEY RAISA FELDMAN www.hcn.org High Country News 15 partment of Corrections, was a solution to A helicopter picks up an Arizona State two problems: the rising costs of wildland Prison Complex fire firefighting, and a shortage of firefighters. crew for deployment Prison firefighters make $1.50 an hour on near Tucson. fires, compared to $30 earned by profes- ARIZONA DEPARTMENT sionals. Each crew saves Arizona money, OF CORRECTIONS even as historic fire suppression and climate change make the state’s wildfires more frequent and catastrophic. (State officials did not provide requested information about how much money incarcerated fire crews save Arizona, but according to The New York Times, they save California some $80 million each year.) The program, which wasn’t designed with rehabilitation in mind, “is not black- or-white,” according to Kendrick. She’s spoken with incarcerated firefighters who really appreciate being able to camp and work outside, getting fit and giving back to society. “But on the other hand, it is exploitative, in that they are doing the same or tougher work as firefighters who aren’t prisoners, and they are getting paid a fraction of the money, and they “Once they see don’t get on-the-job protection like regu- lar firefighters do,” she said. what they can The fire crews are part of a wider do physically system that relies on cheap labor — a system that exists thanks to the U.S. and mentally Constitution’s 13th Amendment, which made slavery illegal, except as punish- when they’re ment for a crime. Arizona’s prisoners, many of whom are incarcerated owing on these to mandatory drug sentences, are on the crews, it really hook for at least 40 hours per week of hard labor for wages as low as 10 cents changes them. per hour — though they often receive much less after prison deductions. They They say, lack basic rights like workers’ compensa- ‘Wow, if I can tion or fair wages. Prisoners make only $1.50 per hour fighting fires, and less do this, I can when they are clearing brush — so little, Tilley explained, “you don’t really think do just about access to menstrual products. Indeed, ARIZONA’S CURRENT INMATE WILDFIRE about what you’re getting paid.” Kendrick’s organization and others have PROGRAM began with two crews in 1984. Still, the fire crews offer one of the anything.’ ” repeatedly challenged the state for failing Over the last three decades, approximate- few job-training opportunities available — Phillip “Flip” to make court-ordered reforms regard- ly 2,000 prisoners have gone through to prisoners. Indeed, in 2018, Arizona Elliott, assistant ing mental and physical care, such as the program. At its height, following the created the Phoenix fire crew, which em- fire management allowing mentally ill prisoners in solitary devastating 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire, ploys formerly incarcerated firefighters officer with Arizona’s confinement to leave their cells for an which burned more than 426,000 acres in as full-time state employees. But even for Department of Forestry adequate amount of time each day. northeastern Arizona, the program had prisoners who don’t want to keep fighting and Fire Management Last summer, prisoners in Arizona 15 crews; today, it has 12, including one wildfires after they get out — because joined others nationwide in protesting for from Arizona’s women’s prison, working they’re getting on in years, or don’t want everything from fair wages to more reha- year-round for far below minimum wage. to spend any additional time away from bilitation programs and an end to racially Away from the prison yard, in pine home, or can’t leave the state while on biased sentencing. In May, The Appeal, a forests and desert grasslands, Arizona’s parole — the program points to a hopeful nonprofit criminal justice news website, incarcerated wildfire fighters battle future, despite its fundamentally exploit- reported that Arizona prisoners who blazes; in towns, they clear flammable ative basis. overdose will now have to pay the cost of vegetation from around people’s homes. “A lot of them are like, ‘You know, this emergency medical intervention, includ- They work side-by-side with professional is the first time I’ve learned leadership ing overtime for prison staff. A local ABC wildfire fighters, assist with search and skills or I’ve learned to work on a team,’ ” affiliate reported in April that in one Ari- rescue, and even lead crews. Kendrick said. zona prison, cell doors have been unlocked The work is a way for prisoners to feel Several months prior to his release for years. Correctional officers have been they are giving back to society. It’s also from a state prison in May, Jeremy assaulted and one prisoner has died. hard, underpaid and dangerous: In 1990, Campbell effusively described the trans- But even amid these chaotic and op- five incarcerated wildfire fighters and a formation he’d experienced as a fire- pressive conditions, participants in Ari- correctional officer died in a blaze in Ari- fighter and squad boss. A polite man with zona’s Inmate Wildfire Program come to zona’s White Mountains. cropped red hair and brown eyes framed believe that they, and their future lives, According to Phillip “Flip” Elliott, an by brown glasses, Campbell applied to be can be different. It’s the rare program assistant fire management officer with on his first wildfire fighting crew about supported by prisoners and correctional Arizona’s Department of Forestry and five years ago. In prison for the third officers alike, notwithstanding the ex- Fire Management, the program, jointly time on a drug-related offense, Camp- ploitative system of which it’s a part. run by his agency and the Arizona De- bell hadn’t spent much time exploring

16 High Country News August 5, 2019 the outdoors, though he’d done similarly The Inmate Wildfire Program doesn’t space to maintain dignity in the prison hands-on work: construction, mechanics, create a space for restorative justice, labor system, Feldman said. “I wasn’t ex- metalwork. In prison, he missed the “rug- Clark explained, because it doesn’t hinge pecting that.” gedness” of those occupations. on a reckoning between crime victims Feldman’s research emerged in part “When you’re in prison, you don’t and offenders. from her older sister’s incarceration, have a whole lot of options where you can But in a state where ever more pris- which occurred throughout her own child- really feel like you’re doing something oners are locked up for nonviolent crimes, hood. She attributes the pushback she real with your hands,” said Campbell, perhaps it provides a space, however received from other academics when she speaking to me over a prison phone from flawed, for prisoner resilience. embarked on her research to unconscious Florence, Arizona. He was monitored by Above all, prison is dehumanizing. biases against prison populations. a correctional officer, but seemed to genu- But wildfire fighting resists that dehu- Feldman was initially skeptical that inely support the program. manization. Wildfire fighters must be a wildfire program, which pays so little When he initially signed up, “it was alert, making split-second decisions, for such dangerous, difficult work, could all about the job and the sort of things I questioning orders that may put lives benefit the men and women who took could do to entertain my time,” Campbell at risk, and taking responsibility for the part. To this day, Feldman opposes prison said. But the program was transforma- well-being of fellow crewmembers. In labor programs. “I personally can’t justify tive. “You get in, and you’re just working and doing really cool things, and before you know it, you’re really buying into the program. You begin to behave differently in a group and think differently. Your life changes.” Eventually, as squad boss, Campbell found himself responsible for the safety of others. Now in his early 40s, Campbell ac- knowledged that he’s made mistakes and lived a “selfish lifestyle” in the past. But thanks to the wildfire program, he believes he’s become a different person. “I would say that today, selfish is the very last thing I am, and I credit a lot of that to my time on this crew,” he said. Ahead of his release, Campbell had high hopes for his future, in large part because of his experiences as a wildfire fighter. Despite the low pay, Campbell said he did not feel exploited: “I feel empowered — not only with each day, I feel empowered about the rest of my life.” Being on a fire crew changed his thinking and behavior, from his first, frightening fire, to his eventual role as a leader. “I’ve learned to deal differently with conflict,” he said. “I don’t hold any sort of negative feel- ings.” Campbell said he rose each morn- other words, fire crews provide a place a prison labor program, just straight- A crew from ing in prison in a good mood. His attitude where prisoners can feel human again, up,” she said. “I think that anytime you Florence State was, “Even though we’re here, we’re mak- according to University of Memphis an- involve paying an incarcerated person so Prison works the ing the best of the situation.” thropologist Lindsey Raisa Feldman, who little or (nothing) at all, it’s already too Sawmill Fire in 2017 The work came with a prison rarity interviewed Arizona’s incarcerated wild- morally bankrupt.” But she came to recog- in southern Arizona. ARIZONA DEPARTMENT — respect. “Even though we are incarcer- fire fighters for her doctoral research at nize the complex reality of prison wildfire OF CORRECTIONS ated, we get to be treated like human the University of Arizona. crews. As part of her research, Feldman beings,” Campbell said. “We’re out on the “When a person goes to prison, their spent just over one year working as a fireline with professionals who are civil- identity is stripped to a very base level,” firefighter embedded with Department ians, and we’re looked at like capable fire- Feldman said. She described prisoners as of Corrections crews. (When Feldman ap- fighters — we’re not treated like inmates. socially “cauterized,” sealed off from the proached the crews for her research, pris- We’re treated like professionals out there rest of society. “They’re considered other, oners and correctional officers alike made to do a job and it’s …” Campbell paused. they’re considered less than, often ... and it clear that if she wasn’t fighting fires “It’s really nice. You know, you don’t often they’re kind of stripped to their bare non- with them, she wasn’t welcome.) Though get that when you’re back on the unit. It’s humanness, you know?” The fire program the system is unjust, Feldman saw men a really cool experience.” directly challenges that process, she said. transformed by respect, responsibility and Feldman’s research tracked such dif- freedom. “What I saw on the fire crews STEPHANIE CLARK, assistant director of ferences: Awaiting their parents’ return was incredibly powerful,” Feldman told Vermont Law School’s Center for Justice from prison, children of incarcerated me. Reform, said it makes sense that Ari- wildfire fighters sometimes only want She’d like to see more opportunities zona’s Inmate Wildfire Program could be to buy toy fire trucks. Local residents for that kind of personal transformation transformative. Not only does it give pris- give standing ovations to the prisoners among prisoners — minus the exploita- oners opportunities to change personally who defend their homes from flames. tion. “If you can have those things but through their work, it changes how other Watching them catch butterflies and not in a labor program, you can allow people view them. identify species, homeowners reconsider people to access dignity and complex Prisoners dress the same as and work the doubts they’ve harbored about the identity without the weight of the labor,” alongside other wildfire fighters. “That chainsaw-wielding prisoners who’ve come she said. is changing somebody’s lens of who they to clear their property of fire fuels. The program’s transformative power are. … No one will be evaluated based on The story of the Inmate Wildfire Pro- comes in large part from how the crews being an inmate,” Clark said. gram is really about how people carve out operate: Incarcerated wildfire fighters

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 massaging each other’s sore backs. One hot day, a fire crew clearing vegetation from an empty lot next to a Walmart found a nest of roadrunner eggs in a low- growing shrub, just starting to hatch. The sweltering day had been especially challenging, she said. “It was a relatively urban space, there were a lot of needles, a lot of beer bottles, and for these men who have problems with addiction, they very much loathe having to work in this place, because it was a constant reminder — like they’d be tossing to the side a Coors Lite (can), when they’re in prison for killing a friend, for a DUI car crash. So it Caption. CREDIT was relatively traumatic.” The man who spotted the eggs was in his late 50s and had been in prison for perhaps two decades. “If you looked at his rap sheet, he would look hor- rifying to a person,” Feldman said. “He had been in and out, he had committed violent crimes, like robbery and assault. He had tattoos all over his face.” But when the man found the nest, he yelled to the rest of the crew to stop everything and come look. Over the course of hours, crewmembers took turns sneaking up to check on the progress of the hatchlings, as their mother stalked about nervously. For some of the men, the little beaks and cracking eggs led to conversations about the rebirth and transformations they Members of an work side-by-side with non-incarcerated And as they work outside, clearing hoped to undergo. It struck Feldman pro- Arizona Department firefighters and correctional officers. Be- brush in town to protect homes, or camp- foundly. of Corrections fire cause of the high risks associated with ing in the desert waiting to be called out “Even within this inherently exploit- crew rest on the fires, they are encouraged by correctional on a blaze, crewmembers can experience ative system, which is the prison, individ- fireline. officers to think critically about orders nature in transformative ways. Outdoors, uals are very capable of finding meaning LINDSEY RAISA FELDMAN. SEE MORE OF HER PHOTOS IN AN and question authority. In other states, working side-by-side with other commu- in their lives,” Feldman said. UPCOMING PHOTO ESSAY IN THE JOURNAL CRIME, MEDIA, such as California, prisoners wear orange nity members, prisoners develop a new CULTURE. jumpsuits that stand out from their offi- sense of personal value. ONCE THEY LEAVE PRISON, the wildfire cers’ uniforms, even on fire details. In Ari- Being a wildfire fighter was even fighters face a host of challenges, from zona, prisoners and officers on the fireline transformative for Feldman. “I was never legal employment and housing discrimi- wear the same clothes. “If you’re fighting a thrill-seeker,” she said. “I wear dresses, nation, to disenfranchisement. In a 2017 fire and the fire’s gonna overrun you, fire I paint my nails, you know? I was not op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star, Arizona doesn’t distinguish between orange and planning on fighting fires.” On her first Gov. Doug Ducey, R, predicted post- brown,” Elliott said. fire, Feldman found herself slogging up release employment on the Phoenix crew He agreed that the crews are trans- a mountain toward flames in 115-degree would lower recidivism rates, saving both formative. “I think a lot of these guys weather, carrying about 60 pounds of money and property for taxpayers. Last have never been pushed to the limits equipment, a prison breakfast heavy in winter, an incarcerated crew harvested that they are when they’re on this crew,” her stomach, questioning her research the Arizona Capitol’s Christmas tree. Elliott said. “Once they see what they can choices. “The thing I learned, much to Because correctional officers listened do physically and mentally when they’re my chagrin, was that fires start on top in on most interviews for this reporting on these crews, it really changes them. of mountains, believe it or not, because with current and former prisoners, it’s They say, ‘Wow, if I can do this, I can do that’s where lightning strikes,” Feldman impossible to say whether any concerns just about anything.’ ” recalled. “I was like, ‘Fuck, I wouldn’t were stifled by self-censorship. Par- Feldman found that prisoners who have done this dissertation if I knew ticipants mentioned the low wages as fight fires come to think of themselves that!’ ” To her embarrassment, she threw something that they would like to see differently, developing a sense of identity up on the hike — but she kept going. “By changed, and Campbell suggested award- rooted in valuable work, rather than the the time we made it back down, the guys ing incarcerated wildfire fighters reduced identity of “inmate” the penal system were joking with me,” she said. “We were sentences, a policy that California has gives them. all laughing. They were like, ‘That’s so adopted. And, at the end of the day, par- For example, during fire details — awesome that you did it!’ ” ticipants still live in one of the West’s fast-paced situations where crewmem- Feldman believes that Arizona’s most punitive prison systems. bers rely on each other for safety — pris- Inmate Wildfire Program could inform Whatever the program’s potential oners can access emotions that are off- prison programs elsewhere, ideally by shortcomings, though, Campbell saw limits to men on the yard. “It’s an incred- encouraging opportunities for change each new crew member as “an opportu- Maya L. Kapoor is an ibly vulnerable job, because you’re at risk that don’t require underpaid labor. She nity to touch one more life.” Just as he associate editor for of dying every day,” Feldman said. “That believes this would lead to less recidivism hoped that his new sense of purpose and High Country News. vulnerability … lends itself to very close and greater success after prison, an idea direction would help him avoid future This story was funded relationships forming. … They have this she’s currently researching. drug offenses, Campbell believed that with reader donations space which is not the prison yard, where She frequently saw crewmembers everyone who makes it onto a crew can to the High Country they can show each other very close, very push beyond their designation as felons, “change the way they behave, so they News Research Fund. caring relationships.” whether by poring over nature guides, or don’t have to come back.”

18 High Country News August 5, 2019 MARKETPLACE

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www.hcn.org High Country News 19 MARKETPLACE

20 High Country News August 5, 2019 www.hcn.org High Country News 21 Job Sanchez feels his new buzz cut in shock the night before the academy starts. After quitting his full-time job as a bank teller, Sanchez needed to work nights and weekends to make ends meet during the three-month academy.

Two cadets time each other while carrying a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) during a physical agility test. Above, Dominic Ramirez catches his breath after completing the academy’s final hike, which included surprise medical emergency scenarios, shelter deployments and hiking with a chainsaw.

Right, Job Sanchez and Johnny Hernandez discuss their plans for the future after a grueling field day.

Lead instructor Ryan Carey, 35, was a Hotshot firefighter before a back injury ended his career. He has since taught four academies at Rio Hondo. “At the heart of it, I’m a teacher. I love the fact that even if they don’t continue on in their career, I can take pride in teaching them life skills.”

22 High Country News August 5, 2019 PHOTOS | BY CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA

In California, fireline aspirations Each year, close to 50 men and women graduate from the Rio Hondo Wildland Fire Academy in Whitter, California, starting careers as wildland firefighters. While it’s easy to assume that the recruits are drawn to wildfire fighting by its emphasis on traditional tropes of masculinity, such as physical strength, scrappiness and heroics, the reality is more complicated than that. Photographer Christian Monterrosa spent three months with men who recently graduated from Rio Hondo, learning their stories. Many said they were driven by complex situations, from wanting to provide for their families, to dreaming of doing meaningful work for society. Their ranks included ex-gang members, military veterans and recent immigrants. “I do it for my kids,” explained one graduate, Franco Barahona, whose wife, Jessica, gave birth to their third child, Samson, a day after his graduation. “I want them to grow up and be proud of me.” WEB EXTRA For more photos, see hcn.org.

Franco Barahona holds his newborn child, Samson, at a hospital in San Diego, California. His wife, Jessica, went into labor a day after his graduation from Rio Hondo. Barahona left behind a life surrounded by gang violence and a job as a roofer to become a firefighter.

Cadets pile onto each other during a “folded tarp” exercise where they must figure out how to stay on top of a shrinking surface area. www.hcn.org High Country News 23 BOOKS

Grounding and grandmothers in a gentrifying Denver

Many of the young female protagonists in Sabrina & Corina, Denver author Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s poised, rich debut story collection, grow up in fractured families, in which one parent leaves, dies or simply fails at the job. But these families’ roots run generations deep in Colorado, and often a grandmother brings stability through her staunch love and practi- cal caregiving, offering simple remedies derived from a Mexican-American or Indigenous heritage: garlic for warts, Sabrina & Corina potato slices on temples for headaches, Kali Fajardo-Anstine herbs instead of brain-addling fentanyl 209 pages, hardcover: for the pain of cancer patients, and for “a $27. cold or a broken heart … a warm cup of atole made only with blue corn.” One World, 2019. Although these women demonstrate abundant love, they are far from stereo- typical or saccharine characters. One, armed with a gun, defends her home from an intruder, and all of them tell it like is. The grandmother in the title story says her granddaughter’s absentee father “was a nobody — some white guy with a name like a stuffy nose, Stuart or Randall.” Fajardo-Anstine’s protagonists might struggle to pass their history exams or revert, for a night, to their youthful graffiti days, but they still feel grounded. They may not know exactly where they’re going, but they know who they are and where they belong as surely as they know the traditions that will mark KRYSTAL QUILES FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS each rite of passage. In the title story, Corina explains, “I had experienced her family endured. “The stories always meant for Tomi’s education, unexpectedly enough Cordova deaths to know one pot ended the same, only different girls died, becomes a good influence on him, though was filled with green chili, another with and I didn’t want to hear them anymore,” her brother is the only person who pintos, and the last one with menudo. she decides. believes she’s a decent person at heart. Deaths, weddings, birthdays — the In the haunting “Sisters,” Fajardo- In “Ghost Sickness,” Ana is trying menu was always the same.” They watch Anstine transports readers to Denver to make a better life for herself but is with a kind of astonishment as Denver in 1955, where teenage sisters Doty and in danger of failing her “History of the gentrifies, and neighborhoods known for Tina Lucero live in a duplex off Federal American West” class. “If she fails,” decades as the Westside or the Northside Boulevard. They moved to the city from Fajardo-Anstine writes, “she’ll lose her become the “Highlands.” “Since the new- southern Colorado when their mother scholarship, the displaced fund, given to comers had started moving to Denver,” took up with an “older Anglo rancher” the grandchildren of Denver residents, Fajardo-Anstine writes, “they’d changed who gave the girls unwelcome attention. mostly Hispano, who once occupied the the neighborhood names to fit their Now they are both working as reception- Westside neighborhood before it was needs, to sound less dangerous, maybe ists, and Tina is determined to marry plowed to make way for an urban cam- less territorial.” well to secure her future, while Doty “had pus.” Although historical facts elude Ana In many of these expertly crafted no interest in men.” But at a time when on the final, a Diné creation story her stories, there’s one woman whose life, men control most aspects of public life, wayward boyfriend once told her saves or untimely death, serves as a caution- pretty, Patsy Cline-loving Doty struggles the day. ary tale. In the title story, Sabrina is to escape a persistent suitor. In story after story, characters who strangled, and her cousin and former best In the affecting story “Tomi,” Nicole are on the verge of slipping into the abyss friend, Corina, contemplates her short life returns from La Vista Correctional are saved from it somehow, mainly by the and tragic death. Corina wonders why Facility in Pueblo, where she spent time profound pull of indestructible family ties she escaped Sabrina’s fate; was it because for crashing her car through “an elderly and shared culture in the form of stories, she was not as pretty and therefore per- couple’s picture window at four in the rituals and remedies. Wealthy newcomers haps not as self-destructive or attractive morning.” Nicole comes home to the may keep coming to Colorado, Sabrina to dangerous men? “These pretty girls,” Denver house her brother, Manny, inher- & Corina suggests, but their money can’t the funeral director tells Corina, “they ited when their father died. Manny’s wife buy the sense of heritage and intercon- get themselves into such ugly situations.” has left him, and his son, Tomi, is adrift nectedness shared by the Latino and Corina is determined to buck tradition — overweight, failing his reading class, Indigenous residents they’re displacing. rather than become yet another victim of and spending all his time playing video the “line of tragedies” so many women in games. Nicole, who years ago stole money BY JENNY SHANK

24 High Country News August 5, 2019 ESSAY | BY KEVIN J. KELLEY

Dreaming of Thoreau, but dealing with landlords

efore I rented my first house in of my neighbors, but it thrived in its own Boise, Idaho, a city with little wild way. precipitation and lengthy dry At the end of my two-year stay, my spells, I dreamt of having a xeri- landlord made me re-think Thoreau’s scapedB paradise complete with a pollina- maxim: He kept my deposit and billed me tor garden, raised beds of squash with for yard work performed on my behalf. drip irrigation, and a rain-catchment I drove by the property a few weeks system to store all the water I needed later. Everything but the grass patches for my yard. Ten years and three houses and oldest trees was gone. Without shade later, I am scattering seeds of Kentucky from the elms or groundcover, sunlight bluegrass and pellets of fertilizer, and cooked the dirt into dust. The landlord’s routinely using the sprinkler. What hap- mission to bring the land back to a mono- pened to my dream? cultured lot negated any environmental For renters like me, conservation can good I thought I had done. be difficult, or even impossible: According Landlords might install grassy yards to a recent University of Utah study, rent- to maintain property values or homown- ers of single-family houses in the state ers’ association rules, or they might were 94% less likely than homeowners to assume that grass is both more desirable make landscaping decisions. Meanwhile, and easier to maintain than other yard the Pew Charitable Trust estimates that types. In the arid West, about 70% of resi- the percentage of renters nationally dential water is used for landscaping, and is at a 50-year high. In the three most most of this water ends up on grass. Yet populous Western states, the percentage even during droughts, renters are told to of renter households ranges from more maintain thirsty lawns. than a third of Washington and Arizona Landlords might be surprised by how residents to almost half in California. attractive a more natural yard can be, In the yard of my first Boise rental, or by its other benefits. In addition to LUNA ANNA ARCHEY LUNA splotches of withered grass grew, but saving water, practices such as xeriscap- little else. The grounds were sprayed by ing can require fewer chemical inputs. a powerful herbicide that killed every- Pesticides can directly harm people, and ended up in the nearest dumpster. thing but the grass, and dust from the the Environmental Protection Agency I’m still inspired by Walden, but patches of empty dirt blew into my living estimates that between 40% and 60% of unlike Thoreau at his cabin on the pond, room. The landlord told me I could not the nitrogen used on lawns runs off into I have landlords who expect lawncare. transform the yard with rocks and mulch. rivers and lakes, harming fish and other Currently, at my new place in Denver, I Instead, I had to “maintain” it. wildlife. Smarter decisions about Western am being cautious. The houses around At the time, I was reading Thoreau’s yards can improve the health of people me sell quickly, and my current landlady Walden. I decided to put one of his ideas and the environment. floated news that she might be selling into practice: “A man is rich in proportion Even when landlords are flexible, soon. Luckily, with my lease signed for to the number of things which he can the impermanence of renting can get another year, I recently unboxed my com- afford to let alone.” I let new elm trees in the way of environmental dreams. poster. I might not be able to transform sprout to shade the yard. I let clover and After living for nearly a year in Laramie, the entire yard, but I am pulling weeds dandelions propagate to provide pol- Wyoming, in a 100-year-old house carved by hand, and I have sown pollinator len for bees and nitrogen for the soil. I into four apartments, I potted plants to plants in a small box built in the back- watered as little as I could, spread native attract lacewings and butterflies, I put yard. This will not become the xeriscape grass seed, pulled weeds by hand, and together a composter for food and yard paradise I dreamed of, and I won’t get put decorative rocks in front of the house scraps, and I built three large planter away with not watering the lawn, but at to reduce the space I needed to water. boxes — all with the permission of my least I know that this summer, a few but- After a year without fertilizers, pes- landlady. A month before I was due to terflies and bees might visit. ticides or mowing, the grasses grew tall, re-sign the lease for another year, the and they seeded new grass that sprouted landlady decided to sell the house. With Kevin J. Kelley is a writer and educator. the following spring. The yard did not no place to store anything and nowhere Find more of his writing at look like the conventional grassy lawns to replant any of my plants, everything authorkevinkelley.com.

www.hcn.org High Country News 25 PERSPECTIVE

How partisan politics can make ballot measures undemocratic A fight over wolf management in Alaska shows how lawmakers can undermine citizen-led initiatives

Ballot measures were originally developed as a way killing wolves from planes. But in 2003, the Legisla- for voters to enact laws that state legislators were ture reversed the measure, undercutting the voters’ either too cowardly or too corrupt to support. Ideally, decision by passing a bill to legalize the shooting. A these initiatives give concerned citizens throughout new governor, Frank Murkowski, elected in 2002, the West a direct voice on issues important to them. signed the bill into law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that federal In 2005, Joel Bennett and Nick Jans gathered courts may not intervene to prevent gerrymandering, enough signatures to, once again, put an initiative for instance, but ballot initiatives at the state level on the ballot to ban aerial wolf hunting. But this may be among the best ways to stop this undemo- time, Murkowski’s lieutenant governor was able to cratic practice. choose the wording of the initiative. “(We) were very Unfortunately, state legislatures and executive concerned about the wording of the ballot measure,” branch officials can employ a variety of tactics to Bennett recalled. “The deck can be stacked against subvert ballot measures, undermining this form of you by a hostile administration or just a sloppy job of direct democracy. For example, the only information drafting. It doesn’t take much — just the wrong word about initiatives that most voters encounter is a brief or word order can create confusion.” Their concerns description on the ballot. In most Western states, were well-founded: The data we gathered from either the attorney general or lieutenant governor — another group of undergraduate not the measure’s proponents — has final say over students indicated that less than that language. Thus, whichever party occupies those half — only 47% — correctly un- “The deck can be stacked offices can strongly influence citizens’ perceptions of derstood that the initiative was against you by a hostile NEWS an initiative — and, ultimately, the law. intended to decrease the number administration or just a COMMENTARY Everyone who values democracy should be of wolves that were killed. The BY ALEXANDER alarmed by the way lawmakers in recent years majority misunderstood it. sloppy job of drafting. It have attacked or repealed citizen-led initiatives on SIMON AND By the time the measure doesn’t take much — just the STEVEN C. lobbying restrictions, Medicaid expansion and other was voted on in 2008, Sarah issues. A long struggle over wolf management in Palin was governor. In addition wrong word or word order CLARK Alaska illustrates how entrenched political interests to misleading ballot language, can undermine the will of the people. the initiative’s proponents were can create confusion.” In Alaska, hunters can legally shoot wolves also fighting a $400,000 “public —Joel Bennett, who introduced a 2005 ballot from aircraft. Aerial wolf killing is not intended to education” campaign produced initiative to ban aerial wolf hunting preserve moose and caribou, or enhance biodiversity; by the Palin administration, rather, it exists to artificially inflate the numbers of which supported shooting wolves game animals available to hunters. In 1996, it re- from aircraft. The government’s talking points were ceived a lot of negative publicity, and public support virtually identical to the rhetoric employed by trophy declined. Then-Gov. Tony Knowles supported a ballot hunting groups that opposed the wolf-killing ban. initiative to outlaw the practice, and his lieutenant This time, unlike in 1996 and 2000, only 45% of governor approved the language that appeared on voters supported the initiative. Thus, for the first CAN HEAVY DUTY BE LIGHTER WEIGHT? the ballot. It was clearly worded and closely re- time in Alaska history, a citizen’s initiative to outlaw sembled the description written by the initiative’s aerial wolf killing was defeated. After the election, Alexander Simon proponents. Over 58% of voters supported the ban, Greg Brown, who owned a whale-watching busi- is a sociology and Women’s and aerial wolf killing was outlawed. ness in Juneau, remarked, “I work with a bunch of environmental Introducing All Seasons studies professor All Seasons In order to see how well the general public likely naturalists. Everybody decided they were going to Hemp Canvas Workwear Hemp Canvas at Utah Valley understood the wording on the ballot, we — two so- vote against aerial hunting. … It turned out nine of Bib Overalls cial scientists at Utah Valley University — conduct- the 12 ended up voting for it … because (of) the way University. Steven C. Clark is psychology Drawing its strength from industrial hemp, our newly developed ed a study. We gathered data from undergraduate it was worded.” professor and dean work cloth is a lightweight but remarkably durable material that students in Utah, most of whom were, we assumed, Ballot initiatives help ordinary people make sure of social sciences and requires no break-in and offers the resilience and freedom of unfamiliar with Alaska wildlife laws. Our results that laws reflect their values and interests, rather humanities at Utah motion needed to carry the day as temperatures rise. showed that over 82% correctly understood that the than having decisions imposed upon them by govern- Valley University. initiative was intended to decrease the number of ments and corporations. However, activists should This perspective WEB EXTRA wolves that were killed. In other words, the ballot’s be aware that elected officials can employ a variety is adapted from Michael O’Casey of the Oregon Natural Desert Association removes old Read more their forthcoming barbed wire fencing in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and transparent wording was effective. of tactics to subvert democracy. Citizens who respect Protection Area, allowing native wildlife to move freely through the land- from all our A complex series of legal reversals followed democracy — regardless of their party affiliations scholarly article, scape once more. SAGE BROWN © 2018 Patagonia, Inc. commentators at the 1996 ban. Despite the public’s clear opposition — should consider proposing initiatives that require “Ballot Measures and the Subversion of www.hcn.org to aerial wolf killing, the Legislature overturned nonpartisan bodies to vet ballot language for clar- Direct Democracy: A the initiative two years later, with a law allowing ity. They should also consider ballot measures that Case Study of Ballot We welcome hunters to resume the practice. Then, in 2000, while prevent governors and legislatures from repealing Measures to Outlaw your feedback. Knowles was still in office, activists placed a refer- legislation enacted by popular vote. After all, regard- Aerial Wolf Killing,” Men’s Send letters to endum on the ballot to repeal the law. The initiative less of our politics, we all at some point contend with in the journal Society All Seasons [email protected] passed; citizens once again succeeded in outlawing “representatives” who fail to represent us. and Animals. Hemp Canvas Double Knee Pants 26 High Country News August 5, 2019 CAN HEAVY DUTY BE LIGHTER WEIGHT?

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Michael O’Casey of the Oregon Natural Desert Association removes old barbed wire fencing in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, allowing native wildlife to move freely through the landscape once more. SAGE BROWN © 2018 Patagonia, Inc.

Men’s All Seasons Hemp Canvas Double Knee Pants www.hcn.org High Country News 27 HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY BETSY MARSTON

MONTANA now stresses mineral develop- Outdoor underachievers, rejoice: ment and the money it brings There’s a foot race especially for in: “Diverse activities authorized you. Held recently in Missoula, on these lands generated $96 the race was the eminently billion in sales of good and ser- doable, poetically titled “Lard vices throughout the American Butt 1K” — a mere .62 of a mile economy in fiscal year 2017 … — which has the tremendous supporting more than 468,000 advantage of offering doughnut jobs.” There’s precedent for the breaks instead of water stations scrubbed mission: In 2017, a along the way. Sponsor Krispy few months after Donald Trump Kreme urged competitors to took office, the BLM changed the “stop and enjoy as many as they banner on its home page from an wanted.” And for those who image of two boys hiking to one eschew sugar, there were beer of a giant coal seam in Wyoming. gardens at both the start and An agency spokesman defended end of the race. Four friends who the change, saying that several grew up in Montana came up photos would rotate on the site. with the idea, staging their first event in Seattle four years ago. THE WEST Since then, they’ve taken the If you’re dumb, writes John Kelly race on the road, holding two in in the Washington Post, “there COLORADO KURT NOLTE San Francisco before coming to Somewhere, a chairless camper stands un-a-moosed. are lots of good ways to have a Montana this year. Eric Hanson, bad time at a national park. … Dave Peppenger, Brent Baldwin, I’m amazed anyone gets out of who still live in Montana, and IDAHO Yellowstone alive.” Kelly asked Mark Peterson, who lives in Seattle, say their The Idaho Statesman headline caught the at- readers to share their most bizarre observations, goal is to get people to have a good time outside tention of reporter Dale Shrull — “Something so Bridget Collins recounted how she’d seen a in a “not-so-serious way,” reports the Missoulian. interesting: PETA cries fowl over road name” tourist stop his car and run across the road to The run was inspired by the T-shirts the group — so he followed it up in Colorado’s Grand take photos of a sleeping bison. “He was three designed and sold a decade ago, emblazoned with Junction Daily Sentinel. Tracy Reiman, execu- feet away at most,” she later told a ranger. “If the the artful logo, “Flat Tire Lard Butt Mountain tive vice president of the animal rights group bison attacked, I wanted to testify on behalf of Biking,” which proved so popular they created People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or the bison.” Another reader saw a family advanc- their own Lard Butt apparel company, “focused PETA, had written a letter urging the mayor of ing on a herd of elk, video camera in hand: “I on below-average athletes,” said Peterson. Their Caldwell, Idaho, to change the name of “Chicken hear a scream, I look down and see a bull elk Missoula run for weekend warriors featured Dinner Road” to one that “celebrates chickens with a camcorder hooked on his splendid rack three waves, the first inviting “showoffs” who as individuals, and not as things to kill, chop up, as he charged the tourists and chased them actually had “the audacity to run.” Second was and label as ‘dinner.’ ” Reiman was completely in across the meadow. I felt bad for the animal.” the “legends wave” for those weighing 250 or earnest, arguing that changing the name would Yet another described how a woman stepped off more pounds, followed by the “waddlers wave” for show compassion for chickens as well as respect the boardwalk to pose near a hot springs for a everyone else. Runners were encouraged to wear for other species. PETA would even help pay photo. If she’d broken through the crust, “she costumes; Hanson noted that “once a group of six for a new road sign, she added. Shrull assured would have been parboiled.” It’s not just Yellow- people wore full body armor suits like knights.” readers that he’d keep an eagle eye out for other stone, either. Maybe the scariest thing happened Peppenger added that some people have asked signs PETA had a beef with. at Nevada’s Hoover Dam: A mother wanted a if the 1K could turn into a relay, with doughnut dramatic photo, so she placed her screaming stations the handoff point. There’s more than fun THE WEST 5-year-old on a wall with a 700-foot drop. Luckily, involved, he added; money from the race goes to If you thought the Bureau of Land Management’s the child stayed upright. a community center in a “community give-back.” mission was to “sustain the health, diversity and Competitors were also encouraged to bring two productivity of America’s public lands for the use WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see or more items to the University of Montana food and enjoyment of present and future genera- hcn.org. pantry. Hanson called the 1K one of those rare, tions,” think again. The agency has dropped that Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and stress-free events, the kind “where you leave sweeping environmental goal from its press re- happy, and you don’t want a doughnut for a very often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag leases, reports the Huffington Post. The language photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram. long time, usually.” that appears at the bottom of press releases

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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 August 5, 2019