Unfrozen North Vast Stores of Carbon Are Locked in the World’S Permafrost

‘ORPHANED’ WELLS | COASTAL GUARDIANS | PUBLIC LAND SELL-OUT

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West

Unfrozen North Vast stores of carbon are locked in the world’s permafrost. What happens when it thaws?

February 19, 2018 | $5 | Vol. 50 No. 3 | www.hcn.org 50 No. | $5 Vol. 2018 February 19, By J. Madeleine Nash CONTENTS

Editor’s note Science matters In Idaho, a political battle over climate change education is afoot. Lawmakers there want to scrub information about the subject from statewide science guidelines, veering away from national standards and leaving public-school students in ignorance. After all, the facts are in: Humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, thereby trapping the sun’s energy and heating up the planet. That’s not a value judgment; it’s just science. But denying it is akin to denying the existence of gravity. For now, Idaho’s more sensible teachers and students are pushing back, and it looks like some vestige of reason will be restored to classrooms. However, it is unlikely we’ve heard the last of this sort of thing, as a full-on ideological war on science is underway in our country. Ideas once confined to shock jocks and Twitter trolls have entered national politics, and now the White House. As the venerable Scientific American recently reported, under President Donald Trump critical Wolverine Lake, near the Toolik Lake Research Natural Area, underlain by permafrost, science positions in federal agencies have not on the North Slope of Alaska. Thomas Nash been filled, science advisory panels are being disbanded, and science-based policies are being FEATURE undermined. These, too, are facts, verifiable and 14 Unfrozen North indisputable, and yet I get letters these days asking me to stop disparaging the president. Believe me, I Vast stores of carbon are locked in the world’s permafrost. wish I could. But Trump’s policies are endangering What happens when it thaws? By J. Madeleine Nash On the cover the long-term effectiveness of the Environmental A storm clears in CURRENTS Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control the late evening and Prevention, the Occupational Safety and during the summer 5 Bucking the ‘brain drain’ Health Administration, the National Oceanic and solstice in the valley Interior cancels protections for migratory birds Atmospheric Administration, and the National between Shublik and Aeronautics and Space Administration, to name Sadlerochit mountains 6 ‘Orphaned’ oil and gas wells are on the rise of the Brooks Range, Wells left behind by industry are overwhelming Western states just a few. In other words, this administration is in the Arctic National undermining the American institutions that make Wildlife Refuge. 7 The Latest: Washington rejects oil terminal our water and workplaces safe, cure diseases, and THOMAS NASH 8 Idaho protects the rights of faith healers. Should it? explore and study land, sea and space. A debate rages over the extent of religious freedom Why? I have no idea. But I do know this: The 9 The Latest: EPA restrictions on the Pebble Mine Earth’s massive systems don’t care a whit about you, me or Donald Trump. They will keep churning, 10 And now their watch begins In British Columbia, turning, spinning and grinding according to a coalition of ‘guardians’ enforces tribal and environmental laws universal laws, no matter what we say or believe. DEPARTMENTS Here on this tiny rock in an infinite cosmos, we are free to extinguish ourselves or not, according to the 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG rational (or irrational) choices we make. 4 LETTERS This issue’s cover story helps explain why these choices matter, why science matters. In it, writer 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends J. Madeleine Nash takes us to the Alaskan Arctic, Complete access 25 MARKETPLACE where researchers are trying to understand what to subscriber-only will happen when vast stretches of permafrost thaw. 28 WRITERS ON THE RANGE content Right now, no one knows for sure. What we do know By Pepper Trail HCN’s website To survive trying times, turn to the animals is that, as temperatures rise, ice thaws. (Try denying hcn.org 29 PERSPECTIVE that.) And when you defrost thousands of miles of Digital edition The big sell-out: America’s public lands By Jonathan Thompson muck, thousands of feet thick, something on our hcne.ws/digi-5003 30 BOOKS planet will change. If only it were the president’s Coast Range by Nick Neely. Reviewed by Lawrence Lenhart view of what actually makes America great: our Follow us power to reason, desire to discover and curiosity 1 3 ESSAY about the wonderful world we live in — at least  A Wyoming wedding By David Romtvedt while it lasts. @highcountrynews 32 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston —Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief

2 High Country News February 19, 2018 From our website: HCN.ORG

Monument reductions Trending threaten fossil discoveries Wild horses In 2016, as paleontologist Rob Gay scouted aren’t through Bears Ears National Monument, he came across hundreds of bones from overrunning prehistoric reptiles that lived 220 million the West years ago. That site is jeopardized by In an opinion piece, President Donald Trump’s move to cut the Ellen Phipps Price national monument by 85 percent. Trump writes that a wild has signaled he wants to shrink or modify horse management as many as 10 national monuments, each proposal by the Trump with conservation or historical importance. administration would The cuts put the national monuments at reduce populations risk of being developed for energy, or not to “extinction levels,” properly protected from looting. In Bears Ears and says that the and Grand Staircase-Escalante, leasing for plan lacks widespread uranium, coal and oil and gas exploration has public support. Price begun. “The rock layers of the monument are argues that the Wild like pages in an ancient book,” said David and Free-Roaming Polly, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Horses and Burros president, which is suing the administration Act is used more as over the shrunken boundaries. “If half of “a pest-control statute them are ripped out, the plot is lost.” that is designed to Tay Wiles Joe Sertich, from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, liberates a jacketed fossil in Utah’s benefit ranchers Read more online: hcne.ws/imperiled-fossils Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Twlom Fo ks/THE Guardian who graze livestock on the public lands where wild horses live.” Ultimately, Price recommends birth control as a 20,000 humane alternative to Number of marbled murrelets believed to slaughter. Congress’ inhabit California, Oregon and Washington decision on this proposal “may not only determine the Percent by which that population is future of our wild declining4 annually. A member of the horses, but also of the very public lands on Along the West Coast, the threatened marbled Murdered and Missing Indigenous which they live.” murrelet has remained elusive to researchers Ellie Phipps Price trying to aid in its long-term recovery. The bird Women’s (#MMIW) contingent leads — which forages in the sea and keeps a solitary You say nest, often in old-growth trees — was deeply the Seattle Women’s impacted by logging. Its precipitous decline March 2.0 in Russell Welch: triggered habitat protections and reduced January. Matt M. “Horses are OK on logging, but so far, murrelet numbers have not McKnight/Crosscut places like the Steens improved. Conservationists want to list the bird Range in Oregon, but as endangered, and researchers want to better “If this was a white woman’s issue, if there were white women murdered and missing they are murder on the understand why populations have stagnated. on this level, this would be a national issue. Something would be done about it.” desert ranges in west Eric Wagner/Hakai Magazine —Eve Reyes-Aguirre, an Izkaloteka Mexica woman running for Senate in Arizona, talking about missing Utah and Nevada. Read more online: hcne.ws/murrelet-recovery and murdered Indigenous women — the exact number of victims is unknown — and the rise of the They ruin water social media campaign #MMIW alongside the #MeToo movement, which some women of color regard sources and drive off as not inclusive or representative of their experiences. wildlife.” Read more online: Indian Country News hcne.ws/marginalized-voices Photos Jay Banta: “The contention that ‘horses are not over- Deaths per 100,000 people running the range’ Hidden health American Indians and Alaskan Natives are at greater risk than the general U.S. population of dying from cancer, accidents, diabetes, homicide or suicide. is not a view that inequalities is supported by a As a young Native American Indians and u.S., all races majority of qualified Alaskan Natives range ecologists on American woman, Diseases of the heart 189.7 182.8 Annie Belcourt realized Cancer 180.6 173.5 the topic.” that her family and Accidents 94.7 37.5 Brent Newman: friends were more Diabetes 63.6 21 “Feral horses are likely to die at an early Chronic lower resp. diseases 47.2 42.7 not only a drain on age. Now a medical Chronic liver disease/cirrhosis 43.7 9.1 taxpayers but also the professional, Belcourt Stroke 40.6 39.6 environment, as they Aaron and Dana Steege-Jackson sell vegetables blames the problem Influenza and pneumonia 26 16.5 spread invasive plants at the weekly market in Poulsbo, Washington. partly on lack of Kidney disease 24.2 15.7 Drug-induced 23.9 12.6 and wreak havoc on At their Around the Table Farm, they use only federal funding and Suicide 20.2 11.8 native plants and draft horses, rather than fossil-fueled tractors, access to medical care. Hypertensive diseases 18.9 18.7 animals.” to work fields and grow produce. Read about Annie Belcourt/ Alzheimer’s disease 17.9 24.2 them and see more photographs by Andria The Conversation Septicemia 17.4 11 Read more online: Hautamaki in “The allure of horse-powered Read more online: Homicide 11.6 5.5 hcne.ws/wild-horses farms.” hcne.ws/ and Facebook.com/ D aTA for U.S. population as of 2009. Data for American Indians and Alaskan Natives as highcountrynews See the photo story online: hcne.ws/old-ways health-disparities of 2008-2010. Source: The Conversation, CC-B-ND, Indian Health Service

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High Country News Working within the system Executive director/Publisher Paul Larmer Perhaps if Kayla Brown (“A Separat- Editor-in-Chief ist State of Mind,” HCN, 1/22/18) Brian Calvert had spent the last five years work- SENIOR EDITOR Jodi Peterson ing to reinvigorate “the Northstate” Art director instead of trying to divide the state, Cindy Wehling her husband might have a job in the Deputy editor, digital area she loves. She could have been Kate Schimel working with Extension Services Associate EDITORs Tay Wiles and community colleges to bring Maya L. Kapoor in educational opportunities for Assistant EDITORS retraining unemployed citizens. Paige Blankenbuehler Anna V. Smith She could have been pushing for WRITERS ON THE RANGE issues that would improve the area editor Betsy Marston to draw in more businesses. She Associate PHOTO EDITOR could have been lobbying businesses Brooke Warren to bring in business opportunities. Copy editOR Diane Sylvain She could have been researching for Contributing editorS federal and state grants to aid small Tristan Ahtone, Graham businesses. The winery could have Brewer, Cally Carswell, Sarah Gilman, Ruxandra started an internship program. She Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, could have been working to regulate M onte WolVERTON/Caglecartoons.com Jonathan Thompson marijuana-growing farms for the CorrespondentS Krista Langlois, Sarah legalization of recreational marijuana. grazing pastures for his cattle, in a way with great interest (“Bear Essentials,” Tory, Joshua Zaffos Why didn’t she start using the monthly prohibited by federal law. HCN, 12/25/17). I was especially struck Editorial Fellow digital newsletter to promote growth? Interestingly, (and curiously) Mr. by the idea of humans learning how Emily Benson She could have accomplished a lot by Calvert, in his “closing argument,” asks to interact with bears by figuring out Editorial Interns Carl Segerstrom using the system instead of fighting it. whether “we” (presumably the American what works for the bears, what their Jessica Kutz public) may be better served by asking language is, rather than trying to force Carol Fleshman Development Director “whether or not we are all in the same the bears to accommodate to us and our Laurie Milford Holyoke, Colorado Philanthropy Advisor boat after all,” and whether we may habitual way. “have more in common with these folks We would do well to utilize this Alyssa Pinkerton Separatism will be Development Assistant (the Bundys and white supremacists) general approach in all our interactions a footnote to history Christine List than you think,” vis-à-vis our dislike of with the natural world. How much do Marketing & Promotions With respect to the movement to create being represented by corporate inter- Manager JoAnn Kalenak we destroy and how much do we fail Events & Business Partner a state of Jefferson in far Northern Cali- ests? to notice or appreciate when we move Coordinator Laura Dixon fornia, the photo on the bottom of page For now, my vote is unequivocally heedlessly through our environment, as- WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel 17 says all that needs to be said: Those NO! The irony is palpable. I absolutely suming that only what meets our appar- Database/IT administrator promoting separation from California defend white supremacists’ right to ent needs or urgent desires is worthy of Alan Wells are overwhelmingly old folks. One was express themselves in any manner our attention or nurturing — when we DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT Gretchen King nodding out in the photo (“A Separatist consistent with the provisions and attempt to bend the rest of life, however A ccountant State of Mind,” HCN, 1/22/18)! proscriptions of the First Amendment. I large or small, to our will? Erica Howard I’ve lived in the area for over 40 also support Mr. Bundy’s right to bring It strikes me as strange, misguided A ccounts Assistant years. The young people have moved a claim against the government in and shortsighted to measure the intel- Mary Zachman Customer Service Manager on; many are marijuana farmers. Those matters where he believes he is being ligence of other beings merely by how Christie Cantrell promoting the state of Jefferson are a harmed. I part ways with Mr. Bundy well they conform to our immediate in- Customer Service lot like Donald Trump: Slick-talking and white supremacists, et al, on mat- terests and demands, how well they un- Kathy Martinez (Circ. Systems Administrator), salespersons with racist motives. At best ters that are not only abhorrent to my derstand our language and commands. Lisa Delaney, Pam Peters, they will get a footnote in the history fellow sentient beings’ feeling or sense Rather, we might also gauge our own Doris Teel, Tammy York books. of morality, but abhorrent to our demo- intelligence by how well we can learn GrantWriter Janet Reasoner cratic processes institutionalized and and respond carefully to the communi- Felice Pace [email protected] memorialized by our rule of law. cations of other species and individuals Klamath, California [email protected] Please count me as having abso- with whom we share our environment. [email protected] lutely nothing in common with those The lesson of McNeil is profound. [email protected] Agreeing — and disagreeing — [email protected] who view our constitutional tenets and Difficult as it may be, let us find ways to with Bundy FOUNDER Tom Bell proscriptions as simply tools to further apply it in all the places we inhabit and Board of Directors In his editor’s note, Brian Calvert an unlawful agenda or to support a plat- to all the creatures with whom we in- John Belkin, Colo. discusses the much-celebrated Cliven form that seeks to divide our citizenry. teract. Then we will have shown a truer Beth Conover, Colo. Bundy legal case, which was recently and more reciprocal intelligence. Jay Dean, Calif. Rudy V. Garcia summarily dismissed by a Las Vegas Bob Fulkerson, Nev. Gilpin County, Colorado Stephen S. Lottridge Wayne Hare, Colo. judge (“Rural white scorn,” HCN, Jackson, Wyoming Laura Helmuth, Md. 1/22/18). He reminds us of the issues John Heyneman, Wyo. Lessons of the bears Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico that resulted in federal charges brought Samaria Jaffe, Calif. against Mr. Bundy — that Mr. Bundy I read Christopher Solomon’s essay on Nicole Lampe, Ore. was using federal (public) lands as his visit to the McNeil River Sanctuary Marla Painter, N.M. Bryan Pollard, Ark. Raynelle Rino, Calif. Estee Rivera Murdock, D.C. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post Dan Stonington, Wash. media organization that covers the issues that define the offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Rick Tallman, Colo. High American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles Luis Torres, N.M. to act on behalf of the region’s diverse natural and human in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Andy Wiessner, Colo. Country communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: Florence Williams, D.C. News times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Printed on recycled paper. 4 High Country News February 19, 2018 CURRENTS

Montana migration by age bracket in the 2000s Bucking the ‘brain drain’ Region Net migration (moves in minus moves out) by 5-year age bracket Some youth return to their rural roots Statewide 10k Young adults By Eric Dietrich/Solutions Journalism Network 0k -10k Net loss of -4,889 residents 25-29 n much of rural Montana, brain drain has been a fact of life for University town 10k Bozeman and Missoula gained 12,147 residents 20-24 ... I decades. After high school, ambitious sons and daughters leave urban counties for college or simply head for new horizons. Few of them ever re- 0k turn to their small hometowns. and lost 4,936 aged 30-34 There are plenty of reasons young Montanans seek lives out- -10k side rural communities — better wages, larger dating pools, cul- Non-university 10k tural amenities. But if the state’s small towns are going to thrive, town counties they will need new generations of talent — families to keep schools (e.g. Flathead, 0k Yellowstone) open, health professionals to staff hospitals, leaders with the ener- -10k gy to start businesses, coach sports teams and run for town council. Montana does have a number of ambitious young residents who Rural 10k western MT have deliberately chosen small towns, returning home after college 0k or moving to an adopted place. They acknowledge the trade-offs in- (Mountains) volved, including having to hustle at multiple jobs to make ends -10k Rural counties lost ... but rural mountain counties saw meet or support entrepreneurial dreams. But many have a convic- Rural central and 10k many 20-somethings in-migration from older adults tion that their talents can make a difference to their community’s eastern MT future. “There have been people who put their blood, sweat and (Plains) 0k tears into keeping Anaconda alive,” says Kaitlin Leary, a fourth- generation local resident. “There was somehow honor in coming ho -10k -6,839 me.” Read more online: hcne.ws/mt-young-pros 0-4 5-9 75+ 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 Eric Dietrich is a Montana-based journalist and reporter for  Age bracketGraph: Eric Dietrich/Solutions Journalism Network Solutions Journalism Network. @eidietrich Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory

collaborate with the federal government of Damocles over a host of otherwise law- National Renewable on minimizing bird deaths. Now, indus- ful and productive actions, threatening Energy Lab researchers tries might end bird-friendly practices. up to six months in jail and a $15,000 release a bald eagle Interior cancels “It’s a complete giveaway, principally to penalty for each and every bird injured from a lift during the energy industry, but to industry writ or killed,” Interior’s principal deputy so- research to develop protections for large, at the expense of a resource that is licitor, Daniel Jorjani, wrote in the legal radar and visual systems that prevent precious and vulnerable,” says Dan Ashe, opinion. Jorjani is a Trump appointee who bird strikes with wind migratory birds who was Barack Obama’s Fish and Wild- came to Interior from Freedom Partners, turbines. life Service director. a political organization largely funded by Dennis Schroeder and A rollback prompts broad The new legal opinion shows how John de la Rosa/National the anti-regulatory, fossil-fuel-billionaire Renewable Energy Lab opposition from former officials Trump’s rollbacks attack fundamental Koch brothers. It will likely take several conservation principles long supported by months to develop guidelines on imple- from both political parties both Republican and Democratic adminis- menting the changes in the field. By Elizabeth Shogren trations. “This legal opinion is contrary to the long-standing interpretation by every administration since at least the 1970s, new legal opinion that seeks to allow who held that the Migratory Bird Treaty A the unintentional killing of most mi- Act strictly prohibits the unregulated kill- gratory birds has drawn unprecedented ing of birds,” the letter states. protest from a bipartisan group of top The old interpretation protected birds officials. without being too onerous for industries, Under the Interior Department’s new says Lynn Scarlett, deputy Interior sec- interpretation, the 1918 Migratory Bird retary and acting secretary under George Treaty Act, which prohibits the killing W. Bush. Companies were warned repeat- of any migratory birds without permis- edly before they were prosecuted. “The act sion, will no longer be enforced against and the way it has been implemented for industries that inadvertently kill a lot of many years has made people come to the birds, such as oil drilling, wind power and table and think about important actions communications towers. Now, only inten- to protect birds,” says Scarlett, now man- tional killing without a permit — such as aging director of The Nature Conservan- hunting birds for feathers — is forbidden. cy. “Narrowing that is going to adversely A Jan. 10 letter from 17 former wild- affect birds and diminish the motivation life officials urges Interior Secretary Ryan for creative conservation partnerships.” Zinke to suspend the “ill-conceived” opin- But the Trump administration says ion, saying it makes it nearly impossible the act was implemented too aggressively. to enforce the law. For decades, the threat “Interpreting the (act) to apply to inciden- of prosecution encouraged industries to tal or accidental actions hangs the sword

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 ‘Orphaned’ oil and gas wells are on the rise Wells left behind by industry are overwhelming Western states By Joshua Zaffos

n March 2015, Joe MacLaren, a state oil restoration. And since bond amounts set I and gas inspector in Colorado, drove out by states and the federal government rare- to the Taylor 3 oil well near the tiny town ly if ever cover real-world cleanup costs, it of Hesperus, in the southwestern corner can be cheaper for a company to forfeit a of the state. He found an entire checklist bond than to follow reclamation rules. of violations. Atom Petroleum, a Texas- Orphaned wells are more likely than based company, had bought out more properly plugged “abandoned” wells to than 50 oil and gas wells after the com- leak pollutants, including methane gas, pany that drilled them went bankrupt. which can contaminate groundwater and Now, Atom was pumping oil from those even trigger explosions. So it’s troubling wells, but Taylor 3 was leaking crude, that the number of such wells in the West and it was missing required signage as has soared. A downturn in energy prices well as screens on infrastructure to keep starting back in 2008 has led energy birds away from toxic gunk. Worse, the companies to orphan thousands of wells company had not performed safety tests across Colorado, New Mexico and Wyo- to ensure the well wasn’t leaking fluids ming. States are struggling even to tally underground. them, let alone remediate them. Officially, Over the following months, the state Colorado has 244 orphaned wells on its slapped Atom with fines, performed books, but state officials estimate another follow-up inspections, and demanded a 400 have yet to be located. And with a new $360,000 bond to cover the cost of shut- drilling boom tapping deep shale forma- ting down the wells, just in case Atom — tions along Colorado’s urban Front Range, hardly proving itself to operate in a trust- some worry that the next bust will saddle worthy manner — didn’t clean up its act. the public with thousands more. Indeed, the list of violations MacLaren and others discovered kept growing, yet n state and private land, major ener- Atom continued pumping oil and gas, and O gy corporations typically explore and did not pay fines or put up the $360,000 drill for oil and gas across large fields and bond. So in 2016, the state took a rare then sell parcels to smaller operators when step: It revoked the company’s drilling production dips. The little guys can still permit. Atom’s business, it said, was no turn profits, just not at the margins big longer welcome in Colorado. corporations need to satisfy shareholders. Atom didn’t bother to follow through But small companies tend to have phaned wells — and that’s just on state on one last important obligation, either. shakier financing and are therefore more and private lands. When companies cease production, they vulnerable to market swings. When gas “Wyoming is more ahead of the game are supposed to plug wells with cement prices plunged starting in 2008, it bank- than other states,” says Jill Morrison, to reduce the risk of leaks, and to restore rupted many small companies producing director of the Sheridan-based Powder vegetation and wildlife habitat aboveg- marginal amounts of methane from coal River Basin Resource Council. Even so, round. They recoup their bonds if they do seams, and thousands of coalbed methane the state “can’t keep up,” she says, and so, whereas if they don’t, the state cashes wells were orphaned. the higher bond rates still don’t fully them. In this case, Atom flouted its re- In Wyoming, the problem reached cover reclamation costs when a company sponsibility to plug and reclaim its wells, epidemic proportions. In 2014, under Re- orphans its wells. Reclamation on federal leaving the state to clean up its mess. publican Gov. Matt Mead, the state imple- lands in Wyoming, where there are thou- Colorado did claim a $60,000 bond Atom mented an aggressive strategy to identify sands of additional orphaned wells, has posted when it first started operating, but and plug orphan wells. To hedge against been even slower. the cleanup could cost taxpayers 10 times future busts, the state also significantly In Colorado, the state currently uses that. hiked the bonds companies must put up bonds and revenue from fines to cover The 50 or so wells Atom left behind before drilling. It based those increases cleanup costs for orphans. But that gen- comprise Colorado’s largest-ever “or- partly on well depth, since the deeper erates less than $850,000 a year, so the phaned well” case, according to the Colo- shale oil and gas wells now being targeted state has only plugged and reclaimed 52 rado Oil and Gas Conservation Commis- are much more expensive to reclaim than orphaned wells since 2013, at an average sion. But it’s not an isolated problem. conventional shallow wells. Wyoming cost of $82,500 each. According to a recent Companies that go out of business, become has since reclaimed 1,700 sites on state state analysis, dealing with all 244 of its bankrupt, or, like Atom, simply ignore the and private lands, using taxes and royal- known orphans will cost an estimated $5.3 rules, tend to skip out on cleanup and land ties paid by industry to chip away at the million annually over the next five years. backlog caused by the spike in orphaned This August, Colorado Gov. John Hick- Correspondent Joshua Zaffos writes from Fort wells and insufficient bond funds. But it enlooper, D, proposed several tougher Collins, Colorado.  @jzaffosle has also identified nearly 4,600 more or- rules for monitoring and reclaiming both

6 High Country News February 19, 2018 Steve Labowskie, THE LATEST the southwest field inspector and Backstory project manager for Between 2008 and orphan wells with 2013, the amount of the Colorado Oil and crude oil shipped Gas Conservation by rail from North Commission, walks Dakota’s Bakken around an abandoned oilfield increased oil well in Redmesa, almost twentyfold. Colorado. There are About 19 oil trains go 244 known orphan through Washington wells in the state. state each week; each Jerry McBride/ can be more than a Durango Herald mile long and weigh up to 15,000 tons. Since 2008, at least 10 have derailed in the U.S. and Canada, spilling crude, sparking fires, and causing injuries and deaths (“Trains carrying oil raise tough questions in Northwest,” HCN, 11/24/14). Followup In late January, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, D, rejected plans for the nation’s largest crude-by- rail terminal, citing earthquake risks and the dangers of a spill, fire or explosion. The facility at the Port of Vancouver, which environmentalists and tribal groups had fought for years, would have transferred 360,000 barrels of crude daily orphaned and properly plugged wells. The nies can choose to divert 1 cent for every ture lies directly beneath neighborhoods. from trains to barges. announcement followed a deadly house $100 of oil and gas they produce to a pro- With several small companies, some al- Michael Brune, explosion in a north Denver suburb last gram that restores orphaned wells. The ready cited for violations, currently drill- the Sierra Club’s April, which elevated concern about all state claims that 95 percent of operators ing and applying to drill for oil and gas in executive director, kinds of oil and gas infrastructure since participate and the program has restored Boulder and neighboring counties, Foote called the decision a it was caused by a severed methane gas 16,000 well sites since 1994. and others fear the next price crash could “historic victory.” The flow line mistakenly attached to a previ- State Rep. Mike Foote, a Boulder create a hazardous landscape rife with companies involved, ously idled well that had been made ac- County Democrat, says he would like to orphaned wells. And dealing with those Andeavor and Savage, can appeal until the tive again. Hickenlooper’s reforms includ- see higher bond rates in Colorado, but wells could be even more complicated end of February. ed creating a fund that would be used to he doesn’t expect much cooperation from than before, because industry is now tap- eliminate the state’s orphaned-well back- state Republicans. In a letter to the Colo- ping deep shale formations, where wells Jodi Peterson log within a decade. It would be bankrolled rado Oil and Gas Conservation Commis- are much more difficult and expensive to by energy companies, possibly through a sion, two state GOP leaders expressed plug, reclaim and inspect. property-tax increase, and could also pay concern over Hickenlooper’s proposal for According to the Colorado Oil and Gas for services like in-home methane moni- an orphan-well fund and disagreed with Conservation Commission, there are cur- tors for neighborhoods that are next to or his portrayal of the issue as a “vast” prob- rently 63 financially “distressed” operators even on top of old wells. lem. But without more money and regula- in the state, who collectively own almost Tracee Bentley, executive director of tory muscle, Foote says, the state is not 4,000 wells. These companies have either the Colorado Petroleum Council, acknowl- just ducking the current problem; it’s in- missed required safety tests or aren’t edges the need to “get ahead of a potential viting future calamity. producing much, signs that they may be problem,” but questions whether new tax- Since the deadly Denver house explo- running out of money and therefore more es are the solution. Instead, she says, the sion last spring, watchdogs have docu- likely to abandon their sites. If even a frac- state could direct existing tax revenues to mented an alarming number of poorly tion of those companies become deadbeats, the issue, or create a voluntary program monitored abandoned wells and flow lines the state’s problems will quickly multiply. The Port of Vancouver. for companies to help plug and reclaim beneath Front Range communities. Some Without broad action, says Foote, “It’s a Wikipedia Commons wells. In Oklahoma, for instance, compa- of this potentially perilous infrastruc- disaster waiting to happen.”

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 children die of treatable illnesses. Even as other states, including neighboring Oregon, have rolled back similar Idaho protects the rights protections for faith healers, Idaho has, in some ways, dug in its heels. Last year, in of faith healers. Should it? considering a 2017 bill to modify the law, Sen. Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, said Ida- A debate rages over the extent of religious freedom ho shouldn’t be “in the practice of taking in the face of preventable deaths away the constitutional rights of a small few in the name of goodness, correctness, By Leah Sottile medical appropriateness.” Laws protecting faith healing initially n March 2011, the county coroner ar- bodies gave up. Or they were stillborn — passed in the early 1970s. It took decades I rived at a Caldwell, Idaho home, to find carried to full term by mothers who never for lawmakers to revisit the issue, but so a pale 22-month-old boy dead in his moth- sought prenatal care. far, no proposed changes have passed. er’s arms. The child had been teething, his It’s not illegal to believe in faith heal- In October 2013, a 5-day-old baby boy parents said, when they noticed a rattling ing, to believe that God will heal his loyal born to Followers of Christ died of a bowel cough in his chest. They didn’t take him believers. But in many states, parents blockage in a Caldwell home. The child’s to a doctor. Instead, they told the coroner, who choose prayer over medicine can be father told the coroner there that the par- they prayed over him. charged with negligent homicide if their ents did not seek medical treatment de- The family belongs to the Followers of child dies. spite the fact that “the baby had not had Christ, a Christian sect, concentrated in Not in Idaho. a bowel movement” and had a scrotum Idaho, that doesn’t believe in modern med- For the past few years, a fierce debate swollen to four times the normal size. icine. When members get sick, even when over religious freedom has raged in Ida- Months later, in early 2014, Rep. John they’re dying, the Followers of Christ avoid ho’s Capitol. On one side are lawmakers Gannon, D-Boise, sought to allow the pros- doctors and rely solely on prayer. who fear that rolling back protections for ecution of parents who rely on faith-heal- Six days after the baby’s death, the faith healers could ultimately infringe on ing “whenever a child’s medical condition same coroner was called to a different other religious freedoms, and parents who may cause death or permanent disability.” home across town. There, she found a believe that no government entity should But Gannon’s efforts went nowhere. The 14-year-old boy in a brown cotton sleeper tell them how to raise their children. On Idaho Press-Tribune reported that Idaho — who’d also had a rattling behind his ribs the other are children’s health advocates lawmakers said, “There’s no room in this — dead on his mother’s lap. “There were and ex-Followers of Christ who worry that Legislature for debate on the measure.” no signs of trauma,” the coroner wrote. more children will die if something isn’t Later that year, a baby girl named A 2013 report by the Idaho Child Fa- done — and done fast. Fern was stillborn in Canyon County. The tality Review team noted that since state All this is happening at the confluence coroner noted, “It was apparent that she agencies don’t compile the necessary data, of several heated national conversations, had been dead for a while as the skin was “it is difficult to estimate the actual num- involving states’ rights, identity politics slipping off the entire torso of the body.” ber of preventable deaths to children of re- and religious freedom, one that’s playing Not all stillbirths are preventable, but ac- ligious objectors.” But at least 20 times in out now in the state with life-or-death cording to a nonprofit called Children’s the past 10 years, southern Idaho coroners consequences. Healthcare is a Legal Duty, which advo- have examined the dead children of Fol- cates for more stringent laws, there is lowers of Christ members. They died from daho, long a beacon for conservatism some evidence that stillbirths are higher treatable ailments: Babies had fevers, I and libertarianism, has the strongest among the Followers of Christ. In one Ida- teenagers had food poisoning, newly born protections for faith-healers in the West. ho cemetery owned by the sect, 35 percent Some of the infants gasped for air for hours until their It is one of just six states nationwide that of the graves from 2002 to 2013 are for mi- gravestones at Peaceful shield faith-healing parents from felony nors or stillborn babies. Valley Cemetery. Leah Sottile is a freelance journalist based out of charges — negligent homicide, man- In 2015, instead of rolling back protec- susankinidaho/Flickr Portland, Oregon.  @Leah_Sottile slaughter or capital murder — when their tions, Idaho legislators reinforced them,

8 High Country News February 19, 2018 passing a “parental rights” bill that en- every non-conservative point is under at- runaway medical profession attempting to sured parents “have a fundamental right tack,” he says. “Idaho, they feel, is one of bring state oppression to anyone opposing to make decisions concerning the care, the refuge centers for preventing this and their monopoly!” custody, education and control of their maintaining freedoms.” Three years ago, when a TV reporter children.” Attempts to reconsider faith-healing knocked on Sevy’s front door, he told the re- A month later, a full-term baby girl protections, he says, become “ideologi- porter, “Whenever you try to restrict on per- was stillborn in a Payette home. The next cal questions of ‘Do we have freedom of son or another in any fashion, then you’re echoforsberg, cc via year, Gov. Butch Otter, R, called for a task religion or do we not?’ ” chipping at freedom. Yours and mine.” wikipedia force to examine the issue. Critics and legal scholars argue that In some ways, that’s in line with the Finally, the bill put forward in 2017 protecting religious freedom is less im- libertarian and conservative religious po- THE LATEST failed, and the cycle continued: Lawmak- portant than saving the lives of children. litical culture of Idaho. In an essay titled ers dismiss attempts to protect children in “I think an argument that we don’t want “The Power and the Glory,” Jill Gill, a Backstory faith-healing communities, children con- to open the floodgates to scrutinizing reli- Boise State University history professor, One of the world’s tinue to die. gions misses the point. No one questions writes that “faith groups have strongly most valuable Months after Heider and 23 other leg- the right of faith healers to believe in shaped Idaho’s infrastructure, economics, salmon fisheries is in islators voted down the bill, a 3-year-old faith healing,” says Shaakirrah Sanders, politics, and cultures.” Southwest Alaska’s boy died in Parma, Idaho. an associate professor of law at the Uni- Historically, “Idaho has always been Bristol Bay. The When the coroner arrived at the re- versity of Idaho. But belief and practice seen as a refuge of sorts for religious proposed Pebble mote trailer, the mother said the boy had are two different things. “This is really groups that are not mainstream,” she says Mine in the bay’s seizures. He’d thrown up while he was about minors — individuals who don’t in an email. headwaters would extract gold, copper napping, she said, and she couldn’t wake have the capacity to make decisions for State Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, and molybdenum, him. themselves.” told High Country News that he has draft- but could devastate ed a bill on faith healing for the next ses- salmon by destroying inda Martin has binders filled with cor- n the summer of 2016, Daniel Sevy stood sion. And Gannon said in a statement that habitat and spilling L oners’ reports from Idaho dating back I at a wooden podium in a red plaid shirt, he’ll continue to push for his bill to be con- toxic mine waste decades. An ex-Follower of Christ who left a kerchief tied around his neck. As a mem- sidered this year. “I continue to support (“Worst place for a the church as a teenager, Martin has been ber of the Followers of Christ, a notori- my bill to require parents to get medical major mine?” HCN, one of the most determined opponents of ously secretive institution, he was invited care when a child’s condition may result 11/25/13). In 2014, Idaho’s legal tolerance of faith-healing. by lawmakers to speak about his beliefs to in permanent injury or death.” the Environmental And she fears that with a right-wing pres- the Children at Risk Faith Healing work- Faith-healers aren’t the bad people Protection Agency proposed restrictions ident in the White House, lawmakers will ing group. (Sevy declined High Country they’re made out to be, some legislators on large-scale continue to do nothing. News’ multiple requests for an interview say. “They are hard-working, dependable mining there, citing Last spring, President Donald Trump after discussions with other church lead- people,” Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R, said environmental risks; signed an executive order aimed at ers: “We wish our view could be covered last year. “They take care of each other in response, mining strengthening protection for religious peo- in a better manner than has been done so and they take care of themselves.” company Pebble ple in America. “We will not allow people far,” he wrote. “But we lack confidence in But Linda Martin believes that state- Limited Partnership of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced all forms of media at this time.”) ments like that miss the point altogether. sued. The 2017 anymore,” he said from the White House “This is a way of life. We live it day to Idaho legislators, she says, are shielding settlement included a rose garden. “In my opinion, when Trump day, every day. If we are injured, some- what amounts to a religious cult — a cult promise from the EPA got elected it, it actually empowered the times we just pick up and go on,” he told that endangers its youngest and most vul- to scrap the proposed restrictions. conservative religious Republicans in Ida- the group. And if it’s more serious? “We nerable members. ho,” Martin says. refer to the Lord to take care of us.” The church is “part of the community. Followup Bruce Wingate, founder of the Protect In emails obtained by High Country They’re hiding in plain sight,” she says. In late January, EPA Idaho Children Foundation, agrees. News between Sevy and Sen. Dan John- “You don’t know what’s going on behind Administrator Scott Idaho lawmakers “fear that America is son, R-Lewiston, Sevy was more force- closed doors unless you’re behind that Pruitt announced under attack, that the religious freedom ful: “If these people really had children’s closed door.” that after extensive of America is under attack. They fear gun welfare at heart, they would support the And what’s happening behind those negative comments control is under attack. They fear that rights of parents to protect children from a doors, she says, is deadly. from stakeholders, he will leave the Obama-era proposal in place while gathering more information on Pebble’s potential impacts on fisheries and other natural resources. “What (the Trump administration) figured out is that you can’t just immediately reverse actions that were taken by the previous administration,” Bob Irvin, president of the nonprofit group American Rivers, told the Washington Post. “You actually have to be able to justify your decision.” Jodi Peterson

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 them promote environmental stewardship And now their watch begins and protect their traditional territories In British Columbia, a coalition of ‘guardians’ from poachers, illegal loggers, and well- meaning tourists who don’t understand enforces tribal and environmental laws the rich cultural heritage of a place that By Krista Langlois looks, at first glance, like untouched wilderness.

lthough gauzy clouds often smother tal laws in a 250-mile-long puzzle of is- tretching from north of Vancouver to A British Columbia’s coastal rainforest, lands and fjords known as the Great Bear S the Alaskan border, the Great Bear they’re nowhere to be seen on this brilliant Rainforest. The blobs they’re examining Rainforest has gone by many names. September afternoon. The sky is stretched are made from the same inexpensive plas- Loggers call it the Mid-Coast Timber wide open; the ocean flickers with light. ter used to make dental castings. Now, Supply Area. The 27 First Nations who On a ragged scrap of land called Calvert however, the plaster has been poured over call it home have their own names for Island, the beach is threaded with tracks footprints and washed-up flotsam — the its islands and rivers, passed down in left by people, shorebirds — even wolves. kind of evidence the trainees might en- dozens of languages for 10,000 years At the end of the trail of human foot- counter on future patrols. or more. The Great Bear Rainforest, in prints, 11 students are gathered around Peal has poured her plaster over a comparison, is a relatively new moniker, a smattering of white blobs in the sand. rusty metal spike, used by loggers to coined during decades of negotiation be- Cyndi Peal, a member of the Nisga’a Na- drag timber across the beach to ships. She tween environmentalists, timber compa- tion who works seasonally on a commer- imagines a hypothetical scenario: Working nies and First Nations that culminated cial fishing boat, stares down at one with as a Guardian Watchman, she stumbles in 2016 with legislation to protect 85 her hands on her hips. onto an illegal logging operation. If a spike percent of the region from logging and “How do you tell when it’s ready?” she has initials or other identifying marks, development. It’s a name born of com- asks. maybe she can use her plaster cast to help promise, belonging to no one people. And Another trainee shrugs. “I don’t know. convict the perpetrator. after decades of government-sanctioned I’ve never done this before!” It may sound like an episode of CSI, clear-cutting and other environmental Peal and the other students are part but it isn’t outside the realm of possibil- degradation, it’s tailor-made for the eco- of a two-year training program to become ity. The instructor leading this training, a tourism that many First Nations have Coastal Guardian Watchmen — a net- retired Fishery and Conservation officer invested in as the foundation of their work of First Nations people who monitor, named Greg Klimes, once caught a man economic future. patrol and enforce tribal and environmen- illegally dumping drywall in the ocean by Technically, most of the traditional making a cast of the man’s four-wheeler territory claimed by First Nations and Correspondent Krista Langlois lives in Durango, tracks. He hopes arming Coastal Guard- now patrolled by Guardian Watchmen Colorado.  @cestmoiLanglois ian Watchmen with similar skills will help falls under the jurisdiction of the provincial or federal government. But tribes never ceded that land through treaties, Cyndi Peal cleans off a and in recent years there’s been a push by plaster cast of a logging First Nations to re-assert their authority spike that she found over the land and waters they were once on the beach during forced off of. the Coastal Guardian Watchmen training. Their efforts were emboldened by a Krista LanGLOIS groundbreaking 2014 Canadian Supreme Court case that granted the Tsilhqot’in Nation in British Columbia’s interior “aboriginal title” to 650 square miles outside the tribe’s reservation. The case set a precedent for other First Nations — including those in the Great Bear Rainfor- est — to take a greater measure of control over natural resource management in their traditional land and waters. Despite this progress, however, tribal authority isn’t always recognized by provincial or federal governments. Although nine First Nations banned sport hunting for black and grizzly bears in 2012, for instance, the British Columbia government issued trophy hunting permits for griz- zlies until November 2017, and continues to allow hunters to kill black bears for just their heads or fur. Even when Indigenous and provincial laws do align — as with the Great Bear protections — such protections “mean nothing without monitoring and enforce- ment,” says Doug Neasloss, elected chief of Please see Guardians, page 24 10 High Country News February 19, 2018 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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Since 1971, reader contributions have made Randy Crawford | Park City, MT it possible for HCN to report on the American Jennifer Durban | Healdsburg, CA West. Your tax-deductible gift directly funds nonprofit, independent journalism. Sam Enfield | Seattle, WA Mary Fabri & David Goldberg | Chinle, AZ Thank you for supporting our hardworking Juli & Michael Fahy | Evergreen, CO journalists. Maureen Gonzales | Chama, NM Larry & Nancy Hayse | Blue Springs, MO INDEPENDENT MEDIA GUARDIAN Kashmir Hill | San Francisco, CA Pam Solo | Newton, MA Kenneth Hill | Salmon, ID Tony & Karen Hinkel | Paonia, CO Switchbacks on the Big Oak Flat Road leading into Yosemite Valley, 1903. Philanthropist Myron & Susan Hood | Los Osos, CA Julius Boysen/NPS Spring to Life LLC | Salida, CO Dennis Johnson | Idaho Springs, CO Tamara A. Cohn | Independence, CA Kaye & Richard Klaucke | Reno, NV Nt a ional Park Roads Victoria Langenheim & Kevin Schmidt | By Timothy Davis. 330 pages, hardcover: $49.95. The University of Virginia Press and The Steward San Mateo, CA National Park Foundation, 2016. Anonymous Arnold Miller | Lynnwood, WA Jerry Mishler | Corbett, OR Most national park visitors view these beloved landscapes from inside their cars, driving GUARANTOR Gary Moore | Denver, CO down the roads that wind through them. How and why these roads came to be, the best Anonymous David & Gail Niebruegge | Vista, CA ones to tour, the trade-offs involved in building roads through scenic landscapes, as well as thoughts about the future of park transportation — these are the subject of historian Timothy Caroline Culver, Owl Peak Farm | La Madera, NM Tierney O’Dea Booker | Bend, OR Davis’ National Park Roads. Jon Klusmire | Bishop, CA Robert Daniel Olson | Boulder, CO The large-format book combines stunning photographs, both old and new, with historical Dave & Jody Larson | Santa Fe, NM Jeanne Panek | Berkeley, CA context and discussions of the purpose and place of park roads. University of Colorado Thomas Mendes | Eugene, OR Sara Pendergast | Snohomish, WA professor Paul Sutter comments: “Roads share the view, define the line between preservation Tom & Marita Neumann | Clarkdale, AZ Sarah Pitts | Fort Collins, CO and use, and demonstrate above all else that our national parks are landscapes where Rebecca Patton | Palo Alto, CA Gary Roberts | Tempe, AZ nature and culture intersect.” This book invites you to explore these intersections as you Lester Rowntree | Berkeley, CA Dave & Terry Ruiter | Grants Pass, OR journey through the history of travel in national parks. Carl Segerstrom George & Nancy Wallace | Fort Collins, CO Charles R. 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Becker | Boulder, CO Edie Zagona & Joe Prizio | Boulder, CO Al Cohn | Chicago, IL Mike & Caroline Gilbert | Indian Hills, CO William Greenberg | Solon, OH Bonnie Cohn | Hermosa Beach, CA Jamie Gilroy | Paonia, CO Bill & Janet Hunt | June Lake, CA Patron Beth Conover | Denver, CO Steven Glogger | Palm Springs, CA Arul Menezes | Sammamish, WA Anonymous (14) Laura A. Cotts | Cedar City, UT Martin Gothbart | Santa Clara, CA Mary Poss | Point Matilda, PA In memory of Martha E. Gentry | Gunnison, CO David Covey | Fraser, CO David M. Graber | Three Rivers, CA Forrest Pound & Mira Inbar | San Francisco, CA In memory of Tim Glashien Bryan Daneman | Fort Worth, TX Bob Gray | Buena Vista, CO Robert Stoldal | Las Vegas, NV In memory of my sister, Lori Haugen | Peter Davis | Snowmass Village, CO Mary Gringsby | Austin, TX American West Jim Struve & Jeff Bell | Salt Lake City, UT Dawn Decot | Cody, WY Griffin Hagle &K elly Forster | Utqiagvik, AK In memory of Bill Wright | Sedona, AZ Randy & D’Andrea Worrall | Midway, UT Thom Dedecko | Brisbane, CA David Hall | Bend, OR Mark, KontentFilms Charles Yoder | Baltimore, MD John Dilley Jeff & Susan Handwerk | Salt Lake City, UT Talitha Arnold | Santa Fe, NM Judith Dillman | Jamaica Plain, MA Frank Hanson | Taylorsville, CA Paul Ashby | Orinda, CA Sponsor Jennifer Duncan Nick Hazelbaker | Harpster, ID Grant Barnard | Red Lodge, MT Anonymous (2) Gregory Eaglin | Laramie, WY Darla Heil & Bob Harrington | Bishop, CA Chris Barncard | Madison, WI Robert G. Amundson | Portland, OR Steve Elfring | Alpine, TX Charles Hoover | Portland, OR John Behrens William Barton | Tacoma, WA Mike & Colleen Empey | Washington, UT Bill Hubber | Townsend, MT Ted & Molly Beisler | Reno, NV Kevin & Maggie Berkemeyer | San Francisco, CA Dianne Engleke | Millerton, NY Clark Huff | Parker, CO Jill Brandt | Seattle, WA Martha Betcher & Garth Pintler | Gardnerville, NV Benjamin & Cynthia Everitt | Ivins, UT Heather C. Huppe | Midpines, CA Gene Edwin Bray | Meridian, ID Ann Bieri & John Fleming | Seattle, WA Stephen Fischer | Los Angeles, CA John B. Ingleson | Murfreesboro, TN Virginia & Phil Campbell | Tijeras, NM Gail Blattenberger | Salt Lake City, UT Julie Fitzgerald | Kayenta, AZ Martin Allan & Cecelia Calkin Jackson | Odin Christensen | Flagstaff, AZ Lakeside, AZ Cathy Bleier | El Cerrito, CA Adrienne M. Fleckman | New York, NY Kenneth & Jane Cole | Albuquerque, NM Daryl & Judy Jennings | Dayton, WY Charles Bordner Jr. | Colorado Springs, CO Cornelia Flora | Ames, IA Richard E. Cooper | Caledonia, OH Ruth Marie Flucke | Bellingham, WA Todd Carmichael | David City, NE Continued on next page www.hcn.org High Country News 11 THE HCN COMMUNITY

12 High Country News February 19, 2018 DEAR FRIENDS

Ellen Fockler | Reno, NV Beverly McBrien | Buena Vista, CO Paul Fowler | Denver, CO Dee McCarthy | Park City, UT HCN welcomes a few new faces Glen G. Fredlund | Shorewood, WI Thomas McCray & Kathryn Hannay | Kelly Gallagher | Los Alamos, NM Moss Landing, CA Bill Gardner | Forest Ranch, CA James McCue | Idaho Falls, ID There are a few new faces Editorial intern Carl Seger- Dawn Gardner | Flagstaff, AZ Betsy & Jake McDonald | Bishop, CA around the High Country News strom grew up at the base of J. Pat Geis | Santa Rosa, CA Pat & Barry McEldowney | Fort Collins, CO offices here in Paonia, Colorado, California’s Sierra Nevada in Jessica George | San Carlos, CA Meaghn McGrath | San Francisco, CA as we welcome a new staff mem- a small mining and timber- Stephen Gerdes | Bozeman, MT Steve McLaughlin | Corvallis, OR ber and two interns to the fold. milling town. He developed a Lyndsey Gilpin | Louisville, KY Don & Joan McMillen | Portland, OR Mary Zachman, a longtime deep relationship with nature Katie Gnauck | Hotchkiss, CO Robert Menzies | Weed, CA subscriber, is our new accounts through hikes in Yosemite Craig Goodknight | Grand Junction, CO Nancy Meredith | Loveland, CO and office assistant. She and National Park and daily life her husband moved to town Paul Gordon | Helena, MT Gretchen Merrill | Cedar City, UT in a community dependent three years ago, and she’s on natural resources. As an Julie Gott | Chiloquin, OR Leah Meth | Los Altos, CA excited to join the crew at HCN. undergraduate, he studied Mark Govett & Lynn Buhlig | Boulder, CO Michael Meyer | Poplar Grove, IL “I love Paonia,” Mary says, es- conservation and resources at Wiser Grace | Urbana, IL Kathryn & Steve Mikol | Fraser, CO pecially the mountains and the the University of California at Scott Grasse | Long Beach, CA Dianna Moore | Ocean Shores, WA Mary Moorehead | Durango, CO music and arts scene. “We found Berkeley. All the while, Carl Lance Gray | Peñasco, NM our spot here.” knew his passion lay in journal- Barbara Griswold | Golden, CO Steve & Donna Morrall | Grand Junction, CO Tish Morris | Albuquerque, NM Originally from Littleton, ism, though he wasn’t sure how Debra Grove | Broomfield, CO Colorado, editorial intern to make a career in the field. Jack & Sally Morrison | Prineville, OR Ronald Guidotti | Minden, NV Jessica Kutz discovered her “out- A few years ago, Carl and John D. Mozer | Aurora, CO Linda Halstead-Acharya | Columbus, MT door bone” exploring the Rockies his partner, Emily Irwin, took Dawn Murphy | El Cajon, CA MIke Hamilton and hiking Colorado’s “Four- a road trip through the West, Claudia Newbold | Los Altos, CA Susan J. Harlow | Westminster Station, VT teeners,” the many peaks that meandering through Canada, Dick Harmon | Portland, OR Carter & Jenny Niemeyer | Boise, ID top 14,000 feet, as an under- down the West Coast, through Robert C. Harriss | Boulder, CO Nick & Ann Novich | Sheridan, MT graduate studying international the Rockies and eventually to Patricia Hartshorne | Tucson, AZ John & Sharon Olbert | Tucson, AZ affairs and media at the Univer- Paonia, where he visited HCN Clayton Hawkes | Portland, OR Ralph Osterling | Moraga, CA sity of Colorado Boulder. After in 2015. Shortly afterward, Carl Greg Heiden | Bertrand, NE Jo Overton | Philomath, OR college, Jessica spent time living earned a master’s degree in Vance Herring | Tucson, AZ Dave & Lisa Peters | Minneapolis, MN with the Indigenous people who journalism at the University of Terry Hiatt | Enterprise, OR Joanna Picchi | Dallas, OR run Nitmiluk National Park in Oregon and interned at the Eu- Lee Higbie | Portland, OR Mabel P. Pool | Gresham, OR Australia, teaching English in gene Weekly. At HCN he hopes Katherine Holloway | Tacoma, WA Jacob L. Pounds | Blue Lake, CA northern Chile and working on to merge his experience of the Matthew Holt | Portland, OR Caroline Pufalt | St. Louis, MO a microfinance project in rural natural world with his desire Ashton Hooker | Laramie, WY Fred W. Rabe | Moscow, ID Guatemala. She came to ap- to hold public officials account- Gerald G. Hooper | Golden, CO Don Rea | Albany, OR preciate the bonds that connect able, thereby raising awareness Joe Hoppe | Corvallis, OR Craig H. Reide | Langley, WA people to place, but felt she had of “lingering injustices” in the Thomas & Debra Intlekofer | Loveland, CO Gerry A. Roberts | Arvada, CO more to contribute back home. American West. Robert E. Jaeger | Golden, CO Duane Roller | Firestone, CO So Jessica decided to try Finally, a couple of correc- Michelle Johnson | Grand Island, NY Charles Rowland | San Leandro, CA journalism, starting with an tions. On the back page of our internship at the Telluride first issue of the year (“Heard James G. Jones | Evergreen, CO Berma Saxton | Helena, MT Daily Planet that soon turned Around the West,” HCN, Kate Jopson | Los Angeles, CA Andrew Scarborough | Durango, CO into a full-time job. She exposed 1/22/18), we incorrectly identi- Larry Kallemeyn | Spearfish, SD Shannon Schantz | Emmett, ID immigration status sweeps at a fied the location of a picture of Rajan Kapur | Boulder, CO Max & Gene Schloemer | Reno, NV local affordable housing project a carwash sign. The sign is in Daniel Karnes | Portland, OR Tania Schoennagel | Boulder, CO Kate & Charles Segerstrom | Sonora, CA and examined the gentrification Montana, not Colorado. In the Arthur Kessler | Carmel, CA pushing out local businesses same issue, a picture caption David Kipper | Lake Havasu City, AZ Kieth E. Severson | Isle, MN Julie Smith & Hilary Smith | Golden, CO for high-priced condos. At HCN, misstated the name of the art- Jo Anne Kiser | Crestone, CO Jessica is excited to leave the ist who sent us the charming Tim Smith | Portland, OR Alexia Klamon grind of daily news reporting sketch that appeared in this Robert Snow | Tucson, AZ A. 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www.hcn.org High Country News 13 Unfrozen North The world’s permafrost holds vast stores of carbon. What happens when it thaws?

14 High Country News February 19, 2018 Unfrozen North The world’s permafrost holds vast stores of carbon. What happens when it thaws?

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 By J. Madeleine Nash | Photographs by Thomas Nash

Like a giant dragonfly, the chopper skims over undulating swaths of tussocky tundra, then touches down at Wolverine Lake, one of a swarm of kettle lakes near the Toolik Field Station on Alaska’s North Slope. Even before the blades stop spinning, Rose Cory, an aquatic geochemist from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, grace- fully swings to the ground and beelines to the spot where, four years ago, a subterranean block of ice began to melt, causing the steep, sloping bank to slump into the water. The lake throws back a somber reflection of the clouds swirling above, its surface riffled by the wind. Cory has brought me here because the slump provides a vivid example of the ordinarily inaccessible stuff she studies. Slick with meltwater, the chocolaty goop brims with microscopic bits of once-living things that have not touched sunlight or air or flowing water for centuries, perhaps millennia. Deeper still lie plant and animal remains that could be tens of thousands of years old, dating back to the Pleistocene, when steppe bison and woolly mammoths wandered a treeless region that extended from here across the Bering Land Bridge, all the way to Siberia. For a moment we just stand there, staring down at the raw gash. Occasionally, Cory lifts her head to scan the shoreline for furry visitors. Despite our proximity to the field station, we are in a wild place, without roads or trails or protective shelter. For years, in fact, the lake was known to researchers only by a number. It earned its moniker in 2013, when a hardy trio of young researchers hauled their instruments nearly five miles cross-country to measure the just-discovered slump and spotted a wolverine circling a wounded caribou. Cradled by cloudberry, dwarf birch and willow, Wolverine Lake crouches in the shadow of the snow-streaked Brooks Range. A bit over a third of a mile across, it formed during the retreat of a giant lobe of ice that, 60,000 years ago, advanced from its stronghold in those looming mountains to fill the valley of the Sagavanirktok River — commonly called “the Sag” — into which the lake’s outlet stream now drains. The irregular shoreline still traces out the shape of the marooned ice fragment that molded the bowl-like basin. The buried ice that triggered the slump is yet another relict of this long-vanished world, as are soil-dwelling bacteria, to the nearly intact carcasses of Ice Age Previous page: the glacier-ground rock and organic debris now streaming into megafauna. The most important, however, is the carbon stored Caribou dot the the water. in the frozen layers of leaves, stems and roots that lie beneath landscape in the To those like Cory who know how to parse it, this slump is our feet. Tamayariak River a source of wonder. It offers a tantalizing portal into the hidden “Think of a cup of tea,” Cory suggests. The carbon-rich or- drainage on Alaska’s world of permafrost, the broad band of perpetually frozen soils ganic materials the slump is carrying into the lake are too small North Slope, that undergirds a circumpolar region more than twice the size to be removed with a filter, but substantial enough to impart a near the base of the Sadlerochit of the continental U.S. This region is now warming at twice the tinge of color and even flavor. The water samples collected from Mountains in the rate of the global average, with grave implications for the sta- the lakes, streams and rivers here indicate that the brew per- Arctic National bility of permafrost and all it holds. Both small and large things colating out of freshly exposed permafrost differs sharply from Wildlife Refuge. are poised to emerge from this gelid domain, from common the steep that comes from shallow layers of soil that thaw and

16 High Country News February 19, 2018 Caption. Credit

refreeze in accordance with the natural cycle of seasons. enough to drive the climate system into territory Earth has not The Toolik Field At first, this might seem little more than a bit of esoterica experienced for millions of years. Station on Alaska’s to tuck away for a trivia exchange in the Toolik dining hall. Yet But carbon travels an invisible highway with multiple on- North Slope, as seen discerning permafrost’s protean signature is one of the keys to and off-ramps, some of which lead into the atmosphere, some from an approaching understanding what this vast landscape’s transformation might away from it. Figuring out all of this entails an excruciatingly Robinson R44 Raven mean — not just for the Arctic, but for the whole planet. The complicated set of calculations. In order to plug in the numbers, II helicopter. research Cory conducts on a meticulous, molecular scale is just scientists like Cory must first understand the biological and part of a larger body of work aimed at answering an increas- chemical processes that control the routes carbon takes through ingly critical question. Globally, the frigid soils of the Far North soils and surface waters. As the preserved past thaws and be- store almost double the amount of carbon already circulating in gins to decay, Cory wonders, just how much of that carbon will the atmosphere in the form of heat-trapping carbon dioxide — end up in the atmosphere? And how fast?

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 A gleaming ice wedge in the permafrost within the Permafrost Research Tunnel north of Fairbanks illustrates permafrost’s geophysical Achilles’ heel. Once subsurface temperatures creep above freezing, the ice will melt and flow away. Visible surface of the wedge is about 8 feet wide. Holes near bottom are where ice samples were taken for scientific measurements.

If the To peek at permafrost from below, I toured the “permafrost Romanovsky notes, temperatures in the northernmost holes tunnel” bored into a hillside outside Fairbanks, Alaska, by started to rise, echoing the rise in air temperatures. Readings warming the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory of taken near Prudhoe Bay show that the permafrost there has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kept at a chilly 25 degrees now warmed by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit at a depth of trend Fahrenheit, it exudes a smell reminiscent of garden dirt. There, 65 feet and by 9 degrees Fahrenheit at a depth of 3 feet, where embedded in a matrix of frozen silt, I could see the bones of temperatures are now in the 20s. If the trend continues, Ro- continues, mammoths, the horns of bison and the roots and leaves of manovsky says, the permafrost close to the surface could reach permafrost sedges that grew here more than 30,000 years ago. I could also the thawing point by 2050. see rocks and gravels and dark wedges of ice glistening in the Even today, ice-rich permafrost can grow warm enough to close to artificial light. lose its structural integrity. Almost anything that insulates the This hard, heterogeneous composite has long been a bar- ground and blocks the flow of cold winter air can do it: a road, a the surface rier to economic development in both the Arctic and sub-Arctic. building, a big pile of snow. So can the destruction of vegetation, could reach The gold miners who flocked to the Alaskan and Canadian which shades soils from the summer sun. In 2007, an intense Yukon hoping to make their fortune around the turn of the 20th North Slope tundra fire stripped the landscape bare, creating the thawing century had to use wood fires, hot water and steam to thaw the a new landmark, the Valley of Thermokarsts. (“Thermokarst” gold-bearing gravels. “As resistant to excavation as a mass of re- is the technical term for thaw slumps and related phenomena. point by inforced concrete,” the general manager of one mining company Typically, karst topography, riddled with sinkholes and caves, complained, though the difficulty didn’t stop it from buying up comes from rain and snowmelt that trickles into the ground, 2050. and working a number of placer claims. dissolving underlying layers of limestone. In the case of thermo- Yet as the slump at Wolverine Lake illustrates, permafrost karst, water from ice melted by heat provides the erosive force.) has a geophysical Achilles’ heel. Once subsurface temperatures Areas adjacent to sun-warmed bodies of water — coastal creep above freezing, the ice it contains melts and flows away. In bluffs, the banks of rivers and lakes — are prone to thermo- the uplands, as around Wolverine Lake, this ice is often a glacial karst, especially when undermined by floods or the persis- legacy. Elsewhere it comes from rain and snowmelt that have tent action of waves. In Alaska, the first recorded sighting of gradually worked their way down through a network of surface a thermokarst event in progress comes from a 19th century cracks and refrozen. Some sections of permafrost contain the voyage along the Alaskan coast made by Otto von Kotzebue, a merest flecks of ice, barely enough to moisten thawing soils; lieutenant in the Russian Imperial Navy. At one landing site, he others are larded with massive wedges that can measure 10 or and his party came across “masses of … ice, of the height of a more feet across. hundred feet, which are under a cover of moss and grass. … The Until recently, worries about the stability of permafrost place which, by some accident, had fallen in … melts away, and focused on the more southerly boreal zone. But geophysicist a good deal of water flows into the sea.” Vladimir Romanovsky, head of the Permafrost Laboratory at Thaw slumps can occur in colder times — Kotzebue’s voy- the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has age took place towards the end of the centuries-long cold snap grown increasingly concerned about the permafrost on Alaska’s known as the Little Ice Age — but they are more likely to cold North Slope. For four decades now, the lab has tracked occur in balmy interludes. In 2005, a thaw-triggered landslide permafrost temperatures in a network of deep holes that near Toolik hit another lake known to scientists only as N14. field crews have drilled across the region. Beginning in 1988, It charged the water with so much glacier-ground rock that

18 High Country News February 19, 2018 the color “went from clear to milky blue,” recalls Feng Sheng For the first part of the journey, the Haul Road slices Rose Cory in front Hu, a paleoecologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana- through the boreal forest of the cold, dry Alaskan interior. Here, of the thermokarst Champaign. The same rock flour showed up as distinct deposits the permafrost is disconnected, creating a subtle mosaic in the of Wolverine Lake, in the 6 feet of cored sediments Hu and his colleagues obtained form of alternating stands of black and white spruce. White near the Toolik Lake from the deepest part of the lake. The sediments yielded a spruce mark the warmer, better-drained slopes that are often Research Natural thermokarst record that covers the past 6,000 years. Of 10 large permafrost free, while black spruce — funny little trees that Area on the North Slope of Alaska. slumps that occurred over that time span, seven coincided with look like dark green bottle brushes — sink their roots into the Cory, an aquatic climatic intervals marked by warmer cold, soggy soils above an impermeable geochemist from summers. layer of frozen ground. After you cross the P ermafrost in Alaska the University of Thermokarst events are the “high- Underlain by thick Arctic Circle and head into the Brooks permafrost Michigan in Ann speed trains of permafrost thaw,” ob- Range, the trees become sparser and Arbor, is studying Generally underlain by: serves Cory’s colleague, University of scragglier, then disappear. how much carbon Toolik Field Continuous permafrost will end up in the Michigan ecologist George Kling, and Station Discontinuous Beneath the tundra of the North there are suggestions they may be permafrost Slope, permafrost forms a continuous atmosphere as the increasing. In 2008, an aerial census Fairbanks Isolated masses of underlayment, extending from the Brooks permafrost thaws. around Toolik counted nearly three permafrost Range to the edge of the Arctic Ocean. At Generally free of dozen within a 230-square-mile area. permafrost Toolik, this icy substrate is 600 feet thick Two-thirds did not exist prior to 1980. from top to bottom, compared to 150 feet Bethel Anchorage How many of these might have occurred JuneauJuneau in the boreal zone. Farther north, beneath without the profligate burning of fossil the Arctic Coastal Plain, it extends to fuels is hard to gauge, but in the future, depths of 2,000 feet. according to an international team of Throughout this vast realm of frozen scientists, an estimated 20 percent of the Source: U.S. Geological Survey soil, thermokarst serves as a source area underlain by permafrost may become vulnerable to thaw- of ecological disturbance and renewal. On steep terrain it driven collapse as gears in the climate system continue to shift, causes landslides, bulldozing new clearings and replenishing ratcheting Arctic temperatures ever higher. the nutrients in waterways. (Along with carbon, permafrost also contains nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium.) On the flat, For a sense of how permafrost shapes Alaska’s northern it creates depressions that evolve into ponds, lakes and wet- reaches, you might drive to Toolik from Fairbanks, heading lands. In the boreal zone, along the Tanana River, successive out on the Elliott Highway to Livengood, then turning north episodes of thermokarst are now converting a birch forest into onto the Dalton Highway. This is the legendary Haul Road, the bogland. Thermokarst is impacting the built landscape as well. rough two-lane trucking corridor that parallels the flow of crude In Alaska, one of the most serious impacts of climate change oil from the North Slope through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to will be the billions of dollars in damage, already extensive, that the tanker terminal at Port Valdez. The route roller-coasters thermal erosion deals to infrastructure. through some of the state’s most scenic country. It is treacher- But until warmth awakens it, permafrost remains inert. The ous, with steep curves, virtually no guardrails, and, in places, a biological and chemical action takes place in the layer of season- slalom course of thaw-triggered potholes. ally thawed soil above it, the “active layer,” as it’s called. This is

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 where the root zone is, where microorganisms live, where rain and snow melt circulate, blocked from following pathways that would lead to deeper drainage. Along with the chilly air, which stymies evaporation, the impermeability of permafrost is the reason the Far North can be so dry — Prudhoe Bay gets less precipitation than Phoenix, Arizona — and yet so water-logged. A stunning example can be glimpsed from a bush plane flying northwest of Toolik, along the coastal plain. Everywhere, it seems, water puddles on the surface in geometric arrays. It twists and turns in sinuous ribbons. It collects in lakes that look like daubs of sky brushed across the tundra. These are the famous “thaw lakes,” scooped out of the permafrost by thermokarst. Many are too shallow to sustain fish, but nonetheless help support hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, including Brant geese, king eiders and buff-breasted sandpipers. This is a dynamic landscape, one highly responsive to climate change. Already the loss of ice along the coast is exposing the outer fringe of lakes and wetlands to seawater intrusion. In response, plants adapted to wet tundra are giving way to salt- tolerant species. Eventually, rising temperatures may combine with higher precipitation to cause a more rapid cycle of lake for- As permafrost mation and decay. In 2014, one thaw lake swollen with rain and snowmelt breached its permafrost-armored banks and drained thaws, its in the space of just 36 hours. The aquatic environments of the Arctic are not just ecologi- carbon will cally important; they are climatologically significant as well. also enter the Over 40 percent of the carbon dioxide currently entering the atmosphere from the Arctic comes from its surface waters. The hydrologic reason is simple: In addition to the carbon-rich detritus thrown off by algae and other aquatic organisms, Arctic lakes, rivers system, and streams also receive generous infusions of soil carbon becoming an that seeps into their waters from the active layer above the permafrost. As permafrost thaws, its carbon will also enter the increasingly hydrologic system, becoming an increasingly important part of the emissions stream. important But a carbon molecule drifting through water doesn’t magi- cally throw off carbon dioxide (or methane, a less common but part of the even more potent greenhouse gas.) First, it must be broken emissions down, most often by microbes that remain metabolically active year round. One of the curiosities around Toolik is the sudden

stream. release of CO2 that occurs each spring when the ice covering its lakes breaks up. This short-lived event is a bit like uncapping a soda bottle, without the audible fizz. It’s due to the fact that, under the ice, microbes have been busy consuming carbon-rich molecules, exhaling carbon dioxide as a byproduct. The addition of permafrost carbon to soils and surface waters adds a new layer of complexity. Not long ago, much of this carbon — dissolved organic carbon or “dead old carbon,” as Rose Cory calls it — was thought to be structurally so complex that it would take a long time for microbes to process it. Instead, Cory and her colleagues are finding, these tiny organisms lustily respond to fresh infusions of permafrost carbon, attacking tasty morsels with enzymes like nanoscale ninjas hurling dagger- summer, will be filled in the field with samples of water aswirl sharp stars. with carbon and brought here for study. Now 42, Cory first set foot in Toolik 15 years ago when she The Toolik Field Station, a compact jumble of pre-fab struc- herself was a student. Ever since, the arc of her career has tures, straddles a site that once housed construction crews for tracked rising concern about the fate of permafrost and the the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Operated by the University of Alas- carbon it contains. Trained in photochemistry, Cory often sees ka Fairbanks and funded by the National Science Foundation, things others do not. Previously, for example, scientists thought along with other government agencies, it has become a magnet mostly about the carbon dioxide released by microbes that, in for scientists involved in Arctic research. To avoid perturbing soils, operate totally in the dark. But from the moment she ar- the permafrost, many of the buildings here are elevated above rived at Toolik, Cory saw a landscape awash in light. For a few ground, as are long sections of the pipeline. months of the year, 24 hours a day, Arctic waters are quite liter- Climbing the steep staircase to Cory’s trailer lab, I find her ally sun-struck, which turns out to be relevant to the release of huddled with her graduate students in front of a computer. She carbon from permafrost. says it feels a bit serendipitous to find herself in a doublewide Starting in 2010, Cory linked up with Michigan’s George again. The shape and feel of the workspace evoke warm memo- Kling and Byron Crump, a microbiologist from Oregon State ries of the trailer in rural Montana that was her childhood University, to explore the biochemical and geochemical im- home. “I loved it,” she says. “You know the old expression, ‘You pacts of light. One set of experiments involved collecting water can take the girl out of the trailer, but. …’ ” Everyone has just samples from seven active thermokarst sites. After removing arrived, so the lab is a study in controlled clutter. This is where impurities with a filter, the team put the samples into plastic the team will spend hours doing tedious and painstaking analy- pouches and left them outside to bask in the sun. This “sun tea” sis. Still unpacked are boxes of plastic bottles, which, over the was then presented to bacteria sieved from the same thermo-

20 High Country News February 19, 2018 Thaw lakes and patterned ground surrounding the Colville River at the edge of the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope. More than 40 percent of the carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere from the Arctic comes from its surface waters.

karst-infused water. that will increase in importance as rising temperatures accel- This sunlight treatment, the scientists found, substantially erate the thawing of permafrost and the melting of sunlight- boosted the microbes’ ability to convert the dissolved carbon occluding ice. compounds in the samples into carbon dioxide. The mechanism? Climate is only one factor that affects the rate at which Light, ultraviolet light in particular, is a breaker of chemical carbon is wrested from organic material and released into bonds. Like a kitchen knife, it slices and dices organic molecules the atmosphere. Another is molecular structure. Soil samples into smaller, more palatable bits. A second series of experiments that Cory and a graduate student cored from the watershed focused on the microbial communities cultured from Arctic soils. of a major creek contained more than 2,500 different organic Most effective at decomposing light-treated organic carbon were compounds. Twenty percent were found only in permafrost; 30 those that emerged from thawed chunks of permafrost where percent, only in the active layer, with the remainder common they’d remained dormant, or even — as some believe — slug- to both. The masses of these compounds are known, as are the gishly active for centuries. identities of the atoms that compose them, but not the Tinker- But microbes are just part of the story. In a study of more toy-like configurations in which the atoms are arranged. than 70 lakes, streams and rivers, including the Sag, Cory and It’s a knowledge gap that bears directly on the question of her colleagues have established that exposure to sunlight alone how much additional carbon will end up in the atmosphere, can turn carbon into CO2 without any microbial involvement. and Cory and others are racing to fill it. Not all the carbon in The rate at which this happens varies with the cloudiness of permafrost will end up being converted to carbon dioxide. Some the sky, the thickness of the ice cover and the depth and clarity of it will be captured by sediments and swept by the Sag and of the water. But on average, they found, this abiotic conversion other rivers into the carbon graveyard in the Arctic Ocean. may account for about a third of all the carbon dioxide currently Some of it will prove difficult for microbes and sunlight to break released by Arctic surface waters. It’s a photochemical pathway down. “Without knowing the structures of these compounds,

www.hcn.org High Country News 21 Peering into carbon’s future An open-air experiment in the permafrost zone near Denali simulates a warmer North

Struggling to keep my balance, I tee- ing selected patches of tundra, Schuur’s then laboriously remove again in April. ter along a narrow plankway that wends open-air experiment aims to mimic the Snow is an excellent insulator, he ex- through the rolling foothills near Denali future, when air temperatures in Alaska plains: “It’s like a giant blanket.” Beneath National Park and Preserve. Just ahead, are expected to be significantly higher. By the drifts, Schuur and his colleagues have Northern Arizona University ecologist 2100, the state is projected to see an addi- found, the ground can stay a good 3 to 4 Ted Schuur, a lanky 6-footer, leads the tional warming of at least 4 to 5 degrees degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it does in way to Eight Mile Lake, his research field Fahrenheit over what’s already occurred, the unfenced control plots, thereby acceler- site since 2003. Occasionally I slip off the and that’s under the most optimistic sce- ating the warming that occurs in spring. planks onto the squishy vegetative carpet nario. Already, the tundra here is leaking The impacts of this manipulation are below. The feathery mosses, sedges and di- carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, accord- many. Triggered by the extra warmth, minutive shrubs that grow here — Labra- ing to recent satellite-based measure- subsidence caused by slumping permafrost has lowered the surface of the experimental plots by several feet. The depth to which the soil thaws at the end of summer has likewise increased, Pullout goes indicating that the top layer of what used to be permafrost has added more organic here quay matter to the microbial dining table. Most dramatic of all is the speed-up sans medium in the carbon cycle that Schuur and his 14/18 colleagues have observed. Plants in the experimental plots grow faster, and sop aligned up more carbon dioxide, than do plants in the cooler control plots. Soil microbes toward spine in the experimental plots have likewise —Tag increased their metabolic rate. But plants lock up carbon only during the growing season, whereas microbial activity continues year round. On an annual basis, the

CO2 microbes release more than offsets the amount removed by plants. Given the present rate of temperature rise, the imbalance between plant uptake

and microbial release of CO2 may well grow. By the end of the century, Schuur says, the amount of carbon the world’s permafrost zone transfers to the atmosphere each year could be in the range of 1 billion tons, comparable to the present- day emissions of Germany or Japan. Still unaccounted for, though, is the significant amount of carbon that appears to have vanished from underlying soils — about 20 times the amount Schuur and his colleagues have detected in the air. “Wow,” Schuur remembers saying to himself when he realized the size Ted Schuur with dor tea, low bush cranberry, bog rosemary ments. The question Schuur is hoping to of the discrepancy. “This is a surprise.” his permafrost — are well-adapted to wet, acidic soils. answer: As the region continues to warm, Perhaps water seeping downslope is fer- research monitoring Rounding the top of a knoll, we look just how much more carbon dioxide will it rying the missing carbon into streams, equipment at Eight down on an expanse of tundra that bris- contribute to the global pool? rivers and lakes, including Eight Mile Mile Lake study tles with so many sensors and cables that Along with terrestrial and aquatic Lake, or shunting it to swampy, oxygen- area, near Healey, it resembles an outdoor ICU ward. At the plants, the soil microbes that decompose poor pockets of soil ruled by microbes Alaska. Schuur mimics conditions center of the site stands a gas-sensing organic matter are major players in the that convert carbon to methane. expected in the tower that sniffs out the carbon dioxide global carbon cycle. In the lingo of climate How much of the carbon coming out future to monitor drifting through the air from as far away science, plants are “sinks” for carbon. of permafrost will be transformed into how much carbon as a quarter of a mile. At ground level, Through the sunlight-driven process of methane? That’s another question Schuur will be released in polycarbonate chambers placed atop the photosynthesis, they lock up more carbon is starting to tackle, for while methane is a warmer future tundra whoosh as their tops periodically dioxide than they release, thus keeping less abundant than CO2, it has 30 times Alaska. shut, then open, then shut again. Their it out of the atmosphere. By contrast, soil the heat-trapping power over the course job, I learn, is to trap the carbon dioxide microbes that decompose organic matter of a century. On the way back to the car, rising from the surface and shunt it to an are “sources” that burp out micro-bubbles Schuur points out a clump of cotton grass

instrument that measures the amount. of CO2 night and day, winter and summer. whose partly hollow stems pipe methane The objective is to keep a running Schuur draws my attention to the into the atmosphere. “What matters is

tally of CO2 as it’s inhaled and exhaled by stack of drift-catching snow fences that, not that carbon goes in and out,” he says. plants and soil microbes, but not merely come October, researchers will array “The important question is, what’s the in the here and now. By artificially warm- around half a dozen experimental plots, net effect?” J. Madeleine Nash

22 High Country News February 19, 2018 The Trans-Alaska Pipeline crosses the Toolik Lake Research Natural Area on the North Slope. In Alaska, one of the most serious impacts of climate change will be the billions of dollars in damage, already extensive, that thermal erosion deals to infrastructure.

it’s impossible to predict how many will get converted to carbon likely to make it into the atmosphere by the start of the 22nd dioxide, and over what time scale,” Cory observes. “Is it five century. seconds or a thousand years?” This might not sound like much, but 15 percent is equal

to the jump in atmospheric CO2 — from 280 to more than 400 Leaving Cory’s lab, I head out on the network of boardwalks parts per million (ppm) — that has occurred since the Indus- that lead from the field station to study sites scattered across trial Revolution. To avoid courting danger, any additional rise in miles of tundra. In one way or another, most of the scientists global mean temperature would wisely be kept below 2 degrees who work here are involved in tracking the changes rippling Fahrenheit, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli- through this region. On either side of the boardwalk, fields of mate Change (IPCC). That, in turn, means stabilizing carbon cotton grass prepare to carpet the landscape with silvery seed dioxide levels at 450 ppm, leaving little time to dawdle. This heads. What will this high-latitude ecosystem look like a cen- is why permafrost carbon is such a wild card. Even a modest tury from now? Will cotton grass, Toolik’s signature plant, still release will complicate efforts to step back from the brink. grow here in such profusion? So new is this concern that the global climate models used by The last time our planet confronted such a consequential the IPCC have not yet factored in permafrost. Likewise, the per- upheaval was around 12,000 years ago, when the last Ice Age mafrost models currently under development do not incorporate ended in a rolling thunder of warmth. On a geological time the potential for rapid, landscape-scale carbon release through scale, the changes that followed were fast — sea levels rose, thermokarst, which could cause projections to rise. But one weather patterns changed, species migrated pole-ward — but thing is clear, says the Permafrost Carbon Network’s Schuur: measured against the lifetime of an itinerant hunter-gatherer, By easing up on the pressure we’re placing on the climate sys- they would have been all but imperceptible. This time around, tem, we can reduce the potential for unpleasant surprises. “The the rate of transformation and its impacts on our densely set- more we push the system, the less control we have,” he says. tled planet are becoming obvious within a generation, especially in the Far North, where air temperatures have been rising at a As I head back down the Haul Road, the questions that clip of 1 degree Fahrenheit per decade. arose at Wolverine Lake seem more pressing than ever. Out J. Madeleine Nash The natural world is now responding in ways that amplify the side window, I watch the pipeline track along its 800-mile is a San Francisco- that warming. Dwindling sea ice is changing the color of the journey. Late last year, in an attempt to keep the pipeline at full based science writer Arctic Ocean, uncovering dark blue waters, which absorb solar capacity, Alaskan Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan who frequently heat rather than reflect it. The loss of ice is likewise exposing Sullivan tacked onto the federal tax bill a provision that opens covers climate issues. the permafrost-rich coastline, and the remote communities an ecological gem along the coast — the Arctic National Wildlife A former senior along it, to storms and frenzied waves. In the boreal zone, Refuge — to oil and natural gas exploitation. Signed into law correspondent at wildfires stimulated by record heat and drought have burned by President Donald Trump, the bill revives a long-simmering Time Magazine, through millions of acres of trees and released the carbon once controversy that pits economic interests against potentially she is working on a book about climate locked into wood; they have also turned thick layers of forest enormous environmental costs. change with her duff to ash, ripping away the summer insulation that once pro- Were it not for the pipeline, and the occasional 18-wheeler physicist-photographer tected the permafrost. lumbering by, I would feel as though I were traveling through husband, Thomas The good news, says Northern Arizona University ecologist an exquisitely rendered scroll painting, marveling at timeless Nash (nashpix.com). Ted Schuur, lead investigator for the Permafrost Carbon Net- vistas of craggy peaks, rolling hills and jewel-like lakes. The This coverage work, is that a sudden, catastrophic release of CO from perma- sweep of the terrain invites a sense of permanence, as if things 2 is supported by frost seems unlikely. The bad news is that a steady, incremental have always been this way, as if they will continue to be this contributors to the leak is plenty problematic on its own. Under the current warm- way forever. And, yet beneath the surface, a geophysical dragon High Country News ing trajectory, Schuur and his colleagues estimate, between 5 is stirring. A penumbra of clouds gathers above the pipeline, Enterprise Journalism and 15 percent of the carbon stored in the Far North’s soils is casting it into shadow. Fund.

www.hcn.org High Country News 23 This story was made Guardians continued from page 3 homeland. And, just as importantly, their government has closed to fishing. possible in part mere presence helps deter illegal activity. Cyndi Peal once thought she was too through the Institute the Kitasoo/Xai’Xais Nation and a former The watchmen lack the legal author- shy for such work, but two years of Guard- for Journalism and watchman. And with provincial budgets ity to make arrests. But they’ve found ian Watchmen training have convinced Natural Resources. shrinking, Coastal Guardian Watchmen that it’s often enough simply to teach the her otherwise. “Women are more able to are taking over monitoring and enforce- people they encounter about Indigenous get people to relax, to just talk,” she says. ment in corners of the Great Bear Rain- laws — which may not be recognized by And in Nisga’a culture, women are the forest too remote for provincial officials to provincial or federal governments — as keepers of certain kinds of knowledge, es- regularly reach. well as new protections put in place by pecially that related to wild foods. “This is the Great Bear legislation. As they walk, the same thing,” she adds. “A passing on he Guardian Watchman model began boat or paddle canoes through the rainfor- and sharing of knowledge.” T on a British Columbia archipelago est, they also record observations about Peal also likes the fact that work as a called Haida Gwaii in 1981, but only in salmon runs or bear activity that are later Guardian Watchman would allow her to the past decade or so has it spread across used by tribal resource managers. “The be closer to home, or at least offer more Canada. Although Watchmen are em- work Coastal Guardians engage in is work stability than the commercial fishing she ployed by their own tribes or communi- that First Nations people have been com- currently does. But that’s in the future; ties, the network has proven so success- mitted to since time immemorial,” says now, Peal decides her plaster casts are ful at curbing crime, creating jobs and Elodie Button, a training coordinator with ready. She watches several classmates ex- reconnecting people to their ancestral the network. “That’s why these resources tract theirs, then digs the spike from the homelands that, in 2017, the Canadian are still here.” sand with a piece of driftwood. The cast- government pledged $25 million to help Mostly, the work is peaceful. But oc- ing comes up cleanly, and she rinses it Two Coastal Guardian fund it. casionally — like the time Doug Neasloss with salt water and puts it aside. Watchmen from the In the Great Bear Rainforest, watch- came across a headless grizzly carcass — Next, she lifts another blob, one she Kitasoo/Xai’Xais Nation patrol part men jobs offer well-paid, long-term em- Guardian Watchmen may need to collect poured over her own footprint in the of their traditional ployment in a region with few such op- evidence or mitigate a conflict, perhaps sand. Briefly, she holds it to the blue sky, territory by canoe. portunities. They also strengthen First with people who insist they have the right the ephemeral shape of a human foot- Krista Langlois Nations’ ties to forgotten parts of their to take salmon from a river that a tribal print captured permanently in plaster.

24 High Country News February 19, 2018 MARKETPLACE

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26 High Country News February 19, 2018 Help our reporters spot the important stories.

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www.hcn.org High Country News 27 WRITERS ON THE RANGE

To survive trying times, turn to the animals

How are you doing? I confess that I’m having a rough time. Everything I care about is under attack by the regime in power. Whether it’s wilderness preservation, endangered species protection, action on climate change, the integrity of science, corporate accountability, separation of church and state, access to health care, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights — all, all are in danger of being torn to shreds. Trying to keep up OPINION BY with the litany of horrible news is like Pepper Trail drinking from a fire hose spewing toxic waste. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless, which is exactly what those in power are counting on. So, how to move past that trap? For our friends who are struggling, we need to be supportive and understanding — and also offer encourage- ment that resistance is helpful. I don’t try to deny my depression when it comes, but I try not to feed it. Usually, after a A “tiger” takes the megaphone at Portland’s National March for Impeachment in January. few days or a week, outrage cuts through Diego Diaz/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images the fog, and I’m awake again. But then what? Looking around me, I see three basic how many of us there are, working in coping strategies. I’d like to call them af- It’s easy to feel local networks to form a national resis- ter the species that best exemplify them: tance. Every week, I take at least three the armadillos, the tigers and the ants. overwhelmed and or four actions — I write a letter, make The armadillo is famously covered a call, go to a meeting. That’s a level of with an armor of tough scales, and when hopeless, which activity I know I can sustain. I focus on attacked it tucks its head under and environmental defense, while my friends rolls up into a protective ball. This is, of is exactly what and allies swarm into action on health course, the strategy of denial, and lots care, racial justice, immigrant rights, of people I know have shut down and those in power are and all the other issues under threat. In become armadillos. I’m lucky to live in a the long run, I believe it’s the collective beautiful small town, where it’s easy to counting on. work of these people, some of whom have feel insulated from unpleasant reality. If never been politically active before, that you never pay any attention to the news, will save our country from its present you can live here very happily, tending nightmare. your garden, going out for coffee, taking So, I say: Join us. Shoulder your a nice hike. a demanding practice, she still spends small burden, one that is not so heavy There are a couple of problems with hours every day telephoning not just our that it will leave you broken, and make being an armadillo, however. First of all, own worthless representative but also a path that works toward change. Don’t there are some very strong-jawed mon- leaders in Congress like Paul Ryan and forget to thank the mighty tigers who sters out there, and I submit that the Mitch McConnell. She goes to rallies inspire the rest of us, and as you pass current administration in Washington, and makes sure I come, too. She donates the armadillos, give them a little kick to D.C., is such a monster. Second, sooner money to an ever-lengthening list of wake them up. or later, every armadillo has to uncurl activist groups and promising candi- We have nothing to lose but our and go about its life. Like me, a lot of my dates. She gets, on a good night, four despair. armadillo friends are in their 60s, and hours of sleep. I am in awe of her passion I think they’re betting, consciously or and that of the other tigers I know. But Pepper Trail is a writer and retired not, that they won’t be around when the not everyone can be a tiger, burning so forensic biologist in Oregon. worst comes to pass. Perhaps that’s what brightly without burning out. WEB EXTRA counts as optimism these days. That leaves the ones like me, the Writers on the Range is a syndicated service of To see all the current Then there are the tigers. Tigers ants. Like our totem animal, we may High Country News, providing three opinion col- Writers on the Range are fierce and uncompromising. Some be small, but we are single-minded and umns each week to more than 200 media outlets columns, and archives, fearless people — my wife, for one — we are legion. The most encouraging around the West. For more information, contact visit hcn.org have become tigers. A pediatrician with discovery of this terrible year has been Betsy Marston, [email protected], 970-527-4898.

28 High Country News February 19, 2018 PERSPECTIVE

Oil drilling infrastructure surrounds Pierre’s Site, an archaeological site on a road leading out of Chaco Canyon. The site itself is protected, but the BLM plans to lease thousands of acres nearby for oil and gas development this year. Jonathan Thompson The big sell-out Even without wholesale land transfers, America’s public lands are being conveyed to industry at an alarming rate

Next month, hundreds of corporate a chance to comment or file a formal the regulatory framework that officials representatives will sit down at their protest. Quite often these protests fall must work within. This process repre- computers, log in to something called on deaf ears. BLM data show that over sents the last vestige of public ownership EnergyNet, and bid, eBay style, for more the last 20 years, the number of parcels over the leased land. than 300,000 acres of federal land spread protested has no bearing on how many But now Zinke is doing his best to across five Western states. They will pay were removed from bidding. The Obama blow that process to bits. The Interior as little as $2 per acre for control of land administration tried to give the public secretary has weakened regulation of in Utah canyon country, Wyoming sage a bit more say on the front end of the fracking, methane waste and other emis- grouse territory and Native American process with its master leasing plans, sions and reopened a loophole that was ancestral homelands in New Mexico. but Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke killed closed under Obama to reduce royalty AN alySIS BY Even as public-land advocates scoff at that rule, and public impotence appears fraud on public lands. Now, he’s looking Jonathan the idea of broad transfers of federal land to be worsening. A High Country News to ax older rules, too, many of which pro- Thompson to states and private interests, this less- analysis found that hundreds of protests tect wild spaces and cultural resources. noticed conveyance continues unabated. It were lodged against nearly all of the Under Zinke, industry will run over is a slightly less egregious version of the 1.4 million acres offered by the BLM the public’s land like it owns the place, land transfers that state supremacists, for lease in six Western states in 2017. and land-management agencies (public Sagebrush Rebels and privatization advo- A vast majority of those protests were employees on public lands) will have cates have pushed for since the 1970s. dismissed or denied. little power to stop it. So, while Zinke has This is oil and gas leasing, conducted From 1988 to 2016, an average of repeatedly expressed his vociferous oppo- under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. 3.43 million acres — or 5,300 square sition to wholesale federal land transfers, With President Donald Trump proclaim- miles — of federal land was leased out to his enthusiasm for leasing adds up to the ing in his Jan. 30 State of the Union energy companies each year. The leases same thing. The Interior secretary is run- speech that Republicans have “ended the vest the companies with property rights ning a de facto privatization scheme. war on American energy,” you can expect to extract oil, gas or other resources from Zinke’s zeal is now being tested in such leasing to ramp up in years to the land. Those rights are retained for northern New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, come. While title to the land is not trans- the term of the lease — 10 years or more where, as part of the March auction, the ferred, the power of public oversight — without development and indefinitely BLM is scheduled to lease 4,434 acres of which puts the “public” in public lands after production begins. If the land land that is culturally significant to the — is. Theoretically, leased land remains becomes a national monument or gains Navajo and Pueblo people. The BLM has under federal control, meaning that com- other protected status during the lease, received 120 formal protests against the panies are subject to federal regulations the property rights remain in place. By sale, including from the All Pueblo Coun- and oversight, public access to the land the end of the 2016 fiscal year, private cil of Governors — a consortium of 20 is retained, and the American public still interests controlled more than 27 million tribal nations — four Navajo chapters, has a say over what happens there. This, acres of federal land through leasing. the National Trust for Historic Preserva- however, is only theoretically. Before the leaseholder can scrape tion, eight environmental groups, the In practice, the public has very away a half-acre of vegetation and Pueblo of Acoma and numerous individu- little voice in the leasing process or the topsoil for a well pad and start drilling als. We have yet to see how the BLM will permitting of development that fol- miles into the earth, it must get a drill- respond to these official protests, but lows. After an energy company or the ing permit. While public input is typi- when it does, we’ll know who really calls Bureau of Land Management nominates cally not part of the permitting process, the shots and whether we — the public parcels for leasing, the public is given citizens have an indirect voice by way of — still own our nation’s public lands.

www.hcn.org High Country News 29 BOOKS

Collecting curiosities from land and sea

There’s a moment midway through Nick surprising that these wondrous pebbles from the personal to include Indigenous Neely’s nonfiction debut, Coast Range, in are sometimes “ruddy and skin-like,” as histories, trapper records and accounts an essay called “The Garden of Earthly dermal as the palms that cradle them. from Oregon’s first homesteaders. And de- Delights.” Neely apparently sets out to In this book, the difference between spite its breadth, it’s every bit as polished write about the fleshy madrones — the agate and skin, bark and flesh, nature as the micro-essay on 500 million-year-old “refrigerator trees,” he calls them — and human is sometimes imperceptible. chiton that opens the book. By “Home- that he encounters on the way to Lower This is most obvious when Neely is on a stead’s” end (the end of the residency, too), Table Rock in Medford, Oregon. But quick march through the wood. Dur- Neely is so thoroughly immersed in the he’s distracted by the mutilated bark of ing more extended wilderness sojourns, landscape that one can barely see him, the madrones on the trail’s periphery, though, humankind and mountainkind “(plunging) down the Rattlesnake, glis- carved with phalluses, hearts, initials are occasionally at odds. This is most sading through scales of scree and fragile and enigmatic phrases along the line of true in the 44-page penultimate essay, earth; catching trees with (his) hands and Coast Range “Jesus Team A. A+C =<3.” One might “Homestead,” in which Neely lives off- swinging (himself) around to temper (his) Nick Neely expect Neely, an environmental writer, to grid with his wife, painter Sarah Bird, in fall, (his) momentum.” Blink, and you 200 pages, softcover: rebuke the carvers, accuse them of being southern Oregon along the Rogue River, might miss this momentous caroming. $16.95 inane graffiti-scrawling vandals. Instead, as a participant in the Boyden Wilder- Blink, and the body is gone: pure land- Counterpoint, 2017. Neely realizes they’re his kind of person. ness Writing Residency. They begin as scape painting. As a testament of their “What is an essay, a book, but an incision interlopers, hanging one of those classic tenure, Sarah leaves some paintings in into a tree?” he writes, and he concludes hummingbird feeders, “plastic ruby-red the meadow and Nick leaves his words in the piece with photographs of the ar- with yellow florets. Without a doubt … the cabin, all a part of “the clay of vocabu- borglyphs. In this moment, it’s hard to the most garish object for twenty miles.” lary.” Neely is as agile a witness as he is a discern word from page, page from tree, Nick and Sarah watch the birds “parry custodian of the range. tree from word. each other’s jousts,” but this is a minor As a writer, Neely often behaves like Named after the mountain range project when compared to the daily work a shadow; in one essay, he stands by spanning the Pacific Northwest in Cali- that will be required of them. as hatchery technicians select diverse fornia and Oregon, Neely’s Coast Range In a single paragraph, they sweep broodstock. Rather than watch “disposed” is populated by chiton fossils, madrone needles, prune grapevines, pull thistle, salmon simply recede out of the frame, trees, salmon, steelhead, chanterelle eradicate poison oak, and mow grass for his impulse is to follow them, which leads mushrooms, hummingbirds, coyotes and a fire buffer. Weeding, clearing, shoring him to the kitchen at a nearby casino a cache of agates. The millions-year-old up? If these verbs aren’t for you, then and a ceremony for the Cow Creek Band agates, culled from Neely’s beachcomb- that particular residency is probably not of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. The shad- ing, are “comforts, pacifiers. Curiosi- for you either. Their human habitat is owing transcends the physical into the ties.” They sit on his desk as he writes, conspicuous amid the encroaching natu- realm of the psychic. He may not “speak displaced from the eternity that created ral world, and over the course of weeks, it salmon,” but his shadow gets so close to them. “Once an object joins a collection,” takes a toll on their physical and emo- the carcass it nearly “(becomes) the flies” Neely writes, “it tends to become more tional endurance. swarming above it. than itself.” It becomes sacred, carry- In this long-form essay, Neely strays Though Neely is a native of the ing layers of history and association. As California bounds of the Coast Range, it’s other objects join it, almost of their own clear he feels equally at home in Oregon; volition, the collection gradually grows it’s part of his “biological address” (to to “fill some part of the psyche.” Neely, borrow a term from environmental writer obsessed about ID’ing certain agates of Ellen Meloy). For the reader, the word distinction, reaches into the cubbyholes “range” might equally apply to the scope of his lexicon, deeming them “Ror- of this book’s roaming, the array of its schachian” and “amygdaloidal.” narrative approaches, or the They have crescents, crystals breadth of its collecting. Or and spots as they cobble the maybe range is just the lit- shore. Look at their stria- eral space between the first tions, their chemical and last page of this book, variations: One is a inside which Neely makes webbed lima bean, his meticulous incisions. while another is a Like arborglyphs in a pool of translucent stand of madrones, it blue. Consider- is “a coming-together, a ing Neely’s habit declaration of identity.” of handling the agates, it’s not By Lawrence Lenhart k r o1976/CC Fli c t ella j o1976/CC

Agates found at Siletz o: S Bay in Oregon. t

Alamy Stock Photo Ph o

30 High Country News February 19, 2018 A Wyoming Wedding On love, land and equality

Essay By David Romtvedt

n November 2016, my daughter and I played fiddle and tains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away trikitixa accordion for a Wyoming wedding — traditional everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may I Basque music on the steps of Cheyenne’s Cathedral of St. boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. …” Mary. The bride was descended from a sheepherding family of Basques, a group of people who came to northern Wyoming in The priest came forward. “This passage from Genesis pro- the early 1900s and built the nation’s largest wool industry, and claims one of the most radical doctrines of our faith,” he said, the groom came from a cattle-ranching family, so the wedding “the absolute equality of men and women. The Lord God made was as much cowboy as sheepherder. us of the same material and we stand as equal beings before the The bride wore a brilliantly white gown, the groom a white Lord and before each other.” suit and a white cowboy hat. The groomsmen and bridesmaids Oh, my God, I thought, that’s not the way they interpreted wore black, formal attire. One of the bridesmaids told us, “We the rib story when I was a kid. He’s talking about the president, feel lucky we don’t have to dress like cheerleaders applying for about attacks on the rights of women, Blacks, Latinos, Native jobs as cocktail waitresses.” It was unseasonably warm and we people, gays and lesbians, immigrants, refugees, Muslims — stood in sunlight, wearing white shirts, red neckerchiefs, and everyone. black berets. People smiled at us as they passed, relishing the “The absolute equality of women and men, that is what the sinuous, rapid-fire melodies of the old Basque songs — Zazpi Lord offers.” The priest paused. “And First Corinthians — we jauzi, Axuri beltza, Hegi, Tirauki. often hear this at weddings and it’s beautiful — you may have A bridesmaid delivered the first reading, from Genesis: all the things of this world, but without love, you have nothing.” He shifted to ranching: “The love of the land is the same love “The Lord God said: ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. scripture addresses, reminding us to care for the land and to I will make a suitable partner for him.’ So the Lord God treat humanely the animals who give their lives so that we may formed out of the ground various wild animals and vari- live. If we accept this gift but do not have love, we have noth- ous birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see ing.” No one stirred, but I’d like to believe everyone listened. what he would call them; whatever the man called each of Following the service, my daughter and I went outside to them would be its name. The man gave names to all the play another set of Basque tunes. The wedding guests lined the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; sidewalk to await the bride and groom, who would ride to the but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man. reception in a replica of an early Yellowstone National Park mo- So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while tor coach, with its long yellow carriage with black fenders and he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its running boards. Yellowstone, larger than Delaware and Rhode place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman Island combined, had been set aside forever. It’s as if the priest the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought had channeled Henry David Thoreau, who wrote, “I wish to her to the man, the man said: ‘This one, at last, is bone of speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness … r

k my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature.” c “woman” for out of “her man” this one has been taken.’ ” Each guest held a soap-bubble container in the form of a white plastic cowboy boot. Instead of throwing rice, we blew A groomsman read from 1 Corinthians: bubbles. The sun disappeared, and it was suddenly cold. People David Romtvedt is a writer and musician o1976/CC Fli o1976/CC j hunched their shoulders up in their coats. Kids jumped up and from Buffalo, “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have down. A young mother, baby wrapped in blankets in her arms, ella Wyoming, whose t love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if swayed in time to the music. As the priest passed, I thanked most recent book o: S t o I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries him. “About equality and loving the land,” I said. He smiled. The is Dilemmas of the

Ph and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move moun- cowboy-boot soap bubbles rose into the sky. Angels. www.hcn.org High Country News 31 U.S. $5 | Canada $6

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

OREGON UTAH Once you put your garbage in a can by the curb, Another wildcat has gone missing at the Salt whose garbage is it? For decades, the Portland, Lake City Zoo, reports The Associated Press. Oregon, police considered it free for the picking. Two years ago, a 60-pound leopard squeezed An old story from Willamette Week is making out of its enclosure and turned up snoozing on the rounds, detailing how police even swiped the a wooden beam near the ceiling. This time, an trash of a fellow officer to help build a drug case 8-pound Pallas’ cat, known for its glower, has against her. Multnomah County Circuit Judge escaped. Zookeepers plan to entice it home with Jean Kerr Maurer “rubbished this practice,” rul- yummy treats at night, when it’s active. ing that scrutinizing garbage is an invasion of privacy that requires a proper search warrant. THE WORLD After the district attorney’s office vowed to appeal After Environmental Protection Agency boss Scott what it called the “very unique” judge’s posi- Pruitt claimed that human activity was not a tion, two reporters at Willamette Week decided to “primary contributor” to climate change, the find out how elected officials would feel if their nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental own garbage was searched and cataloged. This MONTANA Rest in peace, Rosebud. Mike O’Connell Responsibility asked what evidence he relied on “junkaeological dig,” as reporters Chris Lydgate to make that judgment. Apparently, the public and Nick Budnick dubbed it, required thick will never learn about the reasoning, scien- Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 1 that Idaho’s “ag- gloves and a strong stomach, but their garbage tific or otherwise, that formed Pruitt’s opinion, gag” law is unconstitutional. The case stemmed gleaning was worth the effort. Police Chief Mark because the Justice Department — represent- from 2012, when Mercy for Animals, an animal Kroeker, for example, had stated: “Things inside ing the EPA — considers PEER’s Freedom of rights organization, went undercover to video- your house are to be guarded. Those that are Information Act request “a trap” that would tape cruelty to animals raised and slaughtered in the trash are open for trash men and pick- mean “an endless fishing expedition.” Paula in the state’s $2.5 billion dairy industry. Nation ers — and police.” But when the reporters spread Dinerstein, PEER’s counsel, said the request of Change reports, “Idaho felt a deep threat,” highlights from the chief’s own trash on a table was not all that complicated. “We presume Ad- so it passed a law in 2014 making it a crime to in front of him, he was appalled: “This is very ministrator Pruitt must have had some factual “surreptitiously videotape agriculture opera- cheap,” he complained. Some of the chief’s throw- basis for his public statements, and we merely tions.” But the court overturned it, saying it aways were highly personal: a summary of his seek to see what it is.” The agency did do one “criminalizes innocent behavior” and targets wife’s investments, “an email prepping the mayor very odd thing, despite refusing to search for free speech and investigative journalists. Ag-gag about his application to be police chief of Los efforts: It produced “links to large amounts of laws remain in place in seven other states, in- Angeles,” a note on a napkin “so personal it made archived material that had been removed from cluding Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, us cringe,” and a newsletter from the conserva- the agency website. However, all that mate- Kansas, Iowa and North Carolina, where it’s tive group, Focus on the Family. (When reporters rial contradicted Pruitt. … As such, it was not still illegal for activists to smuggle cameras into asked whether he was a member of the group, responsive to PEER’s request.” industrial animal operations. Chief Kroeker replied, “It’s none of your business.”) No whiff of scandal was detected, the re- COLORADO ARIZONA porters concluded, though they agreed that “there Bumper sticker seen on a truck in Basalt, in Too many extraterrestrial visitors can get on a is something about poking through someone western Colorado: “Trust everybody. But brand person’s nerves, reports The Week. An Arizona else’s garbage that makes you feel dirty — and your calves.” man said he has bumped into “dozens of aliens it’s not just the stench and the flies.” Rummaging trespassing” on his 10-acre desert property. Not through someone else’s garbage to build a case only that: He said they once tried to “draw (his WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see against them isn’t just an invasion of privacy, the wife) into the craft.” Now John Edmonds is fed hcn.org. dumpster detectives warn: “This is a frontal as- up and selling his ranch for $5 million. Caveat sault, a D-Day, a Norman Conquest of privacy.” Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and emptor: Prospective purchasers should be “well often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag grounded,” Edmonds warns, “because the energy THE WEST photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram. here has the tendency to manifest with what- When it comes to sneaking a peek at what goes ever is going on with you.” on inside factory farms, however, the 9th Circuit

High It’s been a long and lucrative ride, Country but the age of fossil fuels is ending, and failure News “ For people who care about the West. to plan for a realistic future is going to have severe High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a repercussions for folks across the West. magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write Jesse Alston, in his essay, “The power of fossil fuels is fading,” from Writers on the Range,” hcn.org/wotr High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

32 High Country News February 19, 2018