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High Country ForN people whoews care about the West Salmon Power A historic legal victory could give Alaska tribes more control over their fish, wildlife and homelands By Krista Langlois July 25, 2016 | $5 | Vol. 48 No. 12 | www.hcn.org 12 48 No. | $5 Vol. 25, 2016 July CONTENTS FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG

Editor’s note On sovereignty and FBI nabs ­suspected BLM bomber On June 22, FBI agents arrested William Keebler, a Utah man, for allegedly subjugation orchestrating an attack on a Bureau of Land Management cabin in on Mount Trumbull northwest Arizona. The night before, the Patriots Defense In the 1970s, the Pacific Force militia planted a bomb at the facility with the intention of blowing Northwest was at war over it apart. Undercover agents apparently thwarted the attack by providing fishing. Tribal fishermen a faulty bomb, which failed to explode. Keebler, who leads the group, allegedly orchestrated the failed attack in response to what he views as insisted on their right to government overreach and the mismanagement of natural resources. Court catch more salmon, inspiring documents state that Keebler intended to blow up government vehicles a lawsuit against the state and buildings, not people, though he also wanted to create a second of Washington that 14 tribes eventually joined. In bomb that might be “used against law enforcement if they got stopped 1974, a white U.S. district court judge decided in while driving.” This recent bombing plot is part of a long history of violent threats toward federal-lands agency employees that stems from deep- their favor, granting them rights to half the salmon rooted disputes over public-lands management. catch. George Boldt’s courageous decision, which Keebler spent 13 days at the 2014 Bundy standoff, supporting Nevada angered many white Washingtonians, remains rancher Cliven Bundy against the federal agents who were cracking down a landmark in the push for tribal sovereignty. It on decades of grazing violations. The felony complaint against Keebler was also a validation of Native American civil states that he hoped to create a confrontation similar to the Bundy disobedience, led by a Nisqually man of similarly standoff. Keebler also knew LaVoy Finicum, the activist who was shot and killed by Oregon State Police in a confrontation at the end of the armed strong character, Billy Frank Jr. occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year. Too few people pass such tests of character. He scouted the location of the bomb attack with Finicum last year; the America is failing one right now. For despite our Mount Trumbull facility is near Finicum’s grazing allotment. The federal patriotic songs on the Fourth of July, this is not the government has been criticized for failing to respond adequately to previ- land of the free, nor the home of the brave. It is a Accused BLM bomb suspect William Keebler, photographed in February at the funeral for Arizona ous illegal acts associated with the Sagebrush Rebellion. Keebler’s arrest and the undercover action that led to it shows that it is now paying close land divided by those who benefit from a legacy rancher LaVoy Finicum in Kanab, Utah, who was killed during the Malheur standoff in Oregon. attention to such threats. TAY WILES MORE: hcne.ws/blm-bomb of privilege and those who suffer from a legacy of PATRICK BENEDICT/GEPHARDT DAILY subjugation. As I write this, the nation is in shock over Fish camp on the Kuskokwim, where Mike Williams’ family and other Alaska Natives have fished for generations. JOBS LOST IN WESTERN COAL MINES Trending yet more killings of black men by police and the Quoted 2012- JUNE 2016 KRISTA LANGLOIS Western coal jobs decline 511 jobs subsequent murder of five policemen in Dallas. In early June, 80 full-time employees lost from Wyoming wind FEATURE Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement are Having a compelling received layoff notices from the West Elk 3 mines MT resistance marching through American cities, including many Mine in Somerset, one of Colorado’s largest 12 In 2009, senior editor On the cover Salmon Power A historic legal victory could give Alaska tribes in the West, arguing in essence that unchecked coal producers. The mine is the last still in 677 jobs (for lost from Jonathan Thompson Isty Hlasny hangs more control over their fish, wildlife and homelands modern vision operation in the North Fork Valley on the power infringes on our fundamental sovereignty — a 2 mines wrote about Wyoming’s salmon in the smoke By Krista Langlois “ state’s Western Slope, where coal mining stutter-step adoption human being’s sovereignty over his or her own body, 1 to close house at fish camp public lands) is probably has been a mainstay of the rural economy WY over his or her own safety and security. of wind power. The on the Kuskokwim CURRENTS for nearly 120 years. Just five years ago, unusual alliance of River near Bethel, Understood this way, sovereignty is lacking for the best antidote to the approximately 1,200 people were employed 813 jobs the fossil fuel industry Alaska, in June 2014. 5 The path of lease resistance Escalating protests against public-land drilling many in America. It is lacking in other ways, as well. by three coal mines here. Now, fewer than 15 jobs lost from and environmentalists, BOB HALLINEN/ usher in online auctions For tribes, the issue has been addressed haltingly 250 people are. In April, Arch Coal and lost from 5 mines driven by economic ALASKA DISPATCH NEWS militias and legislators 1 mine 2 closed at best over the past 150 years. In Alaska, the Peabody Energy announced 465 layoffs at UT CO and wildlife concerns, 5 The Latest: Road runoff regs two major Wyoming coal mines, as both filed struggle is ongoing. As correspondent Krista Langlois stymied the wind indus- 6 Snapshot: The good, the bad and the ugly of drones who want to take for bankruptcy. Historically low natural gas prices 150 jobs try’s growth and halted reports in this issue’s cover story, a year-old tribal and stricter environmental regulations make it lost from projects in their tracks. 7 Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t Feds propose measures commission is working with the federal government over and privatize our harder for coal companies, and many have been hurt 2 mines The pattern has contin- to reduce Glen Canyon Dam’s impact on the Grand Canyon — a bit to give Alaska Natives more say in the annual by questionable business decisions and high executive ued in recent months: salaries and bonuses. According to HCN data compiled the state passed a new 8 Land transfer support The American Lands Council has galvanized harvest of salmon, on which their people and culture inheritance. NM from local media and energy industry reports, more than 2,600 depend. This hopeful development stems solely from wind tax at the same county commissioners to back federal-land transfers —Bill Hedden, from his essay “In praise of a coal-mining jobs have disappeared since 2012 across the West. time that it looked to the tireless efforts of a new generation of tribal 9 BLM moves away from landmark Northwest Forest Plan wild West: A 21st-century vision for Western For out-of-work coal miners, Western states have done little to provide a safety DATA COLLECTED wind to replace coal’s leaders, who have had to battle an entrenched state public lands, including” their role in solving net; so far, there are no statewide programs that provide re-training, counseling BY PAIGE BLANKENBUEHLER Conservationists, counties and timber companies raise alarms decline. government every step of the way. challenges like climate change” or economic development strategies. Some coal companies offer laid-off workers MORE: Help us gather 9 The Latest: Birth control for wild horses For the tribes, and indeed for communities MORE: hcne.ws/publiclands-vision a severance package, but former miners have few opportunities to find positions more data on other You say throughout the West, sovereignty and survival are that match their previous salaries — on average, more than $80,000 a year. coal-mine layoffs: DICK MARSTON PAIGE BLANKENBUEHLER MORE: hcne.ws/coal-layoffs hcne.ws/layoff-tip DEPARTMENTS inextricably linked. The horrendous events of recent “The fossil fuel industry in Wyoming weeks should make us reconsider the history of 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG is working hard to our nation and region, acknowledging how they 4 LETTERS “One man lost thwart new develop- were forged through violence and subjugation. Photos ment of wind energy.” Complete access two family 01 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends This legacy yet ripples through our society, in black DIANE FISHLEY to subscriber-only Unofficial border patrol members to content 91 MARKETPLACE communities who live in fear of police power, SPENCER “Schools TRILLION The Arizona Border Recon was founded and through tribes who lack control of their own drugs and could gain revenue HCN’s website 23 WRITERS ON THE RANGE 13 in 2011 to help patrol the U.S.-Mexico gallons of groundwater from wind resources in By Mike Baughman resources and heritage. border, collecting data on border- drug violence, hcn.org It’s long past time to free a man unjustly imprisoned that have been lost the same way they are We need people like Billy Frank Jr. and George crossing routes and turning back so he decided Digital edition In this season of fire, nix the campfire By Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff from the Colorado now tapping extrac- anyone members deem illegal. The hcne.ws/digi-4812 Boldt, people of character and conscience, now River Basin since NASA to head to the tive resources for tax 26 BOOKS group’s members are largely ex-military more than ever. It can start here, with each of us, satellites began col- border to help dollars.” The Land of Open Graves by Jason de León and Crossing the Line lecting data about it in or former law enforcement, driven to with the simple, courageous act of seeing things disrupt the MATT DYCHES “The Follow us by Linda Valdez. Reviewed by Jon M. Shumaker 2004. Heavy ground- join for reasons ranging from political as they are. Black lives matter. Native lives matter. narco trails.” wind causes a class 10 27 ESSAY water pumping played ideology to personal experience. What we say, what we do, what we don’t say, what a large role. See their portraits. —Photographer level of crazy there.” By Tom Taylor Cory Johnson  The Chickadee Symphony we don’t do — these, too, matter. SARAH TORY MORE: MORE: hcne.ws/unofficial-patrol MORE: Facebook.com/ @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston —Brian Calvert, managing editor hcne.ws/coriver-supply CORY JOHNSON AND NEIL KREMER highcountrynews 2 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 3 LETTERS Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. CURRENTS High Country News CONFRONTING THE TERRORISTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Paul Larmer In the June 27, 2016, edition, Paul “industry pressure to take the auctions MANAGING EDITOR Larmer wrote about the Malheur The path of lease resistance somewhere protests can’t find them.” Brian Calvert National Wildlife Refuge occupation: But others, like The Wilderness Society, SENIOR EDITORS “Where were all the folks on the other believe that online leasing could increase Jodi Peterson Escalating protests against drilling on public lands Jonathan Thompson side — the public-lands patriots — the transparency. Under the current system, ART DIRECTOR people who say they cherish our coun- usher in online auctions companies nominate parcels anonymously Cindy Wehling try’s rare birthright of a vast landscape, and often pay independent land-men to bid, BY JOSHUA ZAFFOS ONLINE EDITOR accessible to all Americans, no matter making it hard to tell who bought what. Tay Wiles where they live? So I emailed several This kind of information matters to com- ASSISTANT EDITOR Kate Schimel conservation leaders, asking them n a Thursday afternoon in May, hun- ated without public input. That has been munities, Culver says, because some com- Water eroding D.C. CORRESPONDENT whether they were going to the refuge to O dreds of climate activists jammed the changing under President Barack Obama. panies are more responsible than others. an unpaved road Elizabeth Shogren protest the protesters. ‘It might be best parking lot and lobby of a Denver Holiday Since 2010, the BLM has ushered in a se- Companies can also stockpile leases delivers fine WRITERS ON THE RANGE sediment to a creek EDITOR Betsy Marston if everybody just lets the locals keep the Inn, blockading the entrance and chant- ries of reforms designed to increase com- and then receive “suspensions” that allow pressure on these guys, or if the press ing, “We are unstoppable! Another world munity involvement, including in deci- them to hold onto parcels without develop- in California. PACIFIC ASSOCIATE DESIGNER WATERSHED ASSOCIATES Brooke Warren pays a little less attention to them,’ one is possible!” They were trying to halt a sions over where and how drilling occurs. ing them within 10 years — a delay that COPY EDITOR replied. ...” U.S. Bureau of Land Management oil and Now industry has its own complaints. can cost taxpayers millions of dollars in Diane Sylvain Letting the locals keep up pressure gas lease sale, but succeeded only in delay- Since 2010, the BLM has held fewer auc- lost rents and royalty payments. A 2015 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS THE LATEST Cally Carswell, Sarah on the Bundys was far from sufficient. ing it for a few minutes. Still, the protest- tions in order to save money, and fewer analysis by The Wilderness Society tallied Gilman, Glenn Nelson, Whichever “conservation leader” said ers left pleased that they had drummed up parcels have been offered, says Kathleen 3.25 million acres of suspended oil and Michelle Nijhuis Backstory that to Mr. Larmer misses the mark by MIKE KEEFE, CAGLECARTOONS.COM media coverage and riled industry repre- Sgamma with the Western Energy Alli- gas leases in the West, some dating to the CORRESPONDENTS Dirt and crushed Ben Goldfarb, Krista a mile. The current version of the Sage- sentatives. ance, an oil and gas trade group. Though 1970s. The practice also locks in develop- gravel from the West’s Langlois, Sarah Tory, brush Rebellion is far from emasculated. Lease sales, where energy companies production at existing wells has slowed ment rights, even if they conflict with con- hundreds of thousands Joshua Zaffos Kierán Suckling, executive director two groups elected. The problem is that valuable. Let’s start with a fee on the bid for the right to drill for oil and gas on due to the current glut of gas and oil, com- servation, recreation or other emerging EDITORIAL FELLOWS of miles of logging Paige Blankenbuehler of the Center for Biological Diversity, there are three districts, i.e., one-and- largest diversions and use the funds to federal land, used to be mundane events. panies need new leases to prepare for the local land uses. “All of that is very much roads often erodes Lyndsey Gilpin was there at Malheur during the Bundy a-half persons elected from each group, improve monitoring and reporting, and But lately they’ve become raucous, with market’s next uptick, Sgamma says. She shielded from the public view,” adds Cul- into nearby streams, INTERN Boys’ invasion. He confronted those which is not feasible. fund instream-flow enhancements. climate activists in Salt Lake City, Denver hopes online auctions will allow the BLM ver, whose group pored over paper files in where it can harm Anna V. Smith terrorists. There were a half-dozen or A more equitable solution would and Reno urging the government to leave to open more parcels to bidding. numerous field offices. “Once the lease is water quality and fish. DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Ronald J. Larson so other public-lands patriots there, be to have one predominantly Navajo fossil fuels in the ground. Eventually, they But protests are also a factor. The sold, it kind of disappears.” A web-based State regulation of Alyssa Pinkerton Klamath Falls, Oregon road runoff varies, so a DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT too. The chickenshits who stayed home district, one predominantly Anglo dis- hope to end public-lands drilling altogether. BLM first considered moving things on- database detailing leases and terms could 2003 Oregon lawsuit Christine List did not walk their talk. Paul Larmer’s trict, and the third district would be 51 In response, some industry leaders want line after climate activist Tim DeChris- make such trends easier to track. CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION, sought to require SUBSCRIPTIONS MARKETER column really should have honored percent Navajo and 49 percent other. auctions to move online — eBay style. The topher successfully bid on 14 parcels in The industry isn’t interested in creat- JoAnn Kalenak NOT WALLS federal regulation by WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel Kierán’s bravery and dedication. The third district would be the most BLM agrees, and will host its first online Utah in 2008 with no intention of paying ing an online information clearinghouse, the Environmental interesting: It would encourage greater The recent jaguar article (“Cats along sale this September. Explaining the move or drilling them. DeChristopher went to however, nor has the BLM suggested do- DATABASE/IT ADMINISTRATOR Ricardo Small Protection Agency Alan Wells participation in the election process, the border,” HCN, 5/30/16) highlights to Congress this March, BLM Director Neil prison for 21 months, and helped spark ing so. But even if online auctions com- (“Oregon ignores Albany, Oregon and Tucson, Arizona DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT since each vote could be the determining the importance of cross-border migra- Kornze said online sales are cheaper to host the campaign to halt public-lands drilling. pletely replace in-person sales and make logging road runoff, Gretchen King vote for the outcome. tion and habitat required by jaguars, and will speed up transactions. He added This fall, the BLM will begin phasing it harder to protest, Schwartz says activ- to the peril of native FINANCE MANAGER AN EQUITABLE SOLUTION fish,” HCN, 7/27/12). Beckie Avera Finally, it is possible to create a ocelots, coati, javelina, opossum, skunk, that the agency is on “heightened alert” in online-only lease sales. Some environ- ists won’t be stopped. FOR NAVAJO VOTING Despite some ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE computer program that would be able deer and Mexican wolves in order to and concerned about safety as a result of mental groups see the shift as further The Wilderness Society isn’t involved success in lower Jan Hoffman The article “Disenfranchised in Utah” in to determine equitable districts in such sustain viable populations. Donald incidents like the militia occupation at Or- evidence of industry’s undue influence with the protest movement, but Culver CIRCULATION MANAGER courts, in 2013 the Tammy York the June 13th issue was quite inter- cases. This program would be designed Trump’s 20-foot wall all along the bor- egon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. on public lands, since it could help screen agrees that the drilling dissenters are here U.S. Supreme Court CIRCULATION SYSTEMS ADMIN. esting. Finding an equitable way to to ensure significant minority groups der would preclude that possibility and “And so a situation that we are not used to out non-industry bidders, such as author to stay. “There is a general heightening of ruled that the EPA Kathy Martinez partition regions into voting districts would have representation in proportion cause enduring harm to that ecosystem — separating out who is a bidder and who and environmental activist Terry Tem- awareness of how much control the oil and is not required to CIRCULATION has been an interest of mine for many to their overall numbers. The data to do on both sides of the border. is not — gives us pause,” Kornze said. pest Williams, who bought parcels at a gas industry has in this process,” she says. control sediment Kati Johnson, Pam Peters, Doris Teel years. Gerrymandering is a serious this exist. The program to do this can be What is important is a designation So far, environmentalists are uncer- Salt Lake City sale in February. Jason And people are more engaged than they’ve from such roads. ADVERTISING DIRECTOR problem and has been used to entrench written. The only problem would be in of a border ecosystem by Mexico and the tain whether an online system will help or Schwartz, spokesman for Greenpeace ever been: “It’s a brand-new and not neces- David J. Anderson the existing power structure, as it has adopting such an approach. United States to ensure the continued hurt their cause. “If this is part of a broad- USA, argues that the agency is caving to sarily comfortable day for the industry.” Followup AD SALES REPRESENTATIVE been in this case. However, when you viability of flourishing populations of er effort to make BLM processes more ef- In July, the EPA Bob Wedemeyer Ken Young compare the existing situation with the both plants and animals native to that ficient and transparent, it’s a great idea,” upheld that policy. GRANTWRITER Janet Reasoner Petrolia, California proposal from the Navajo Nation, they area, with the cooperation and partici- says Nada Culver, director of The Wilder- The agency argued [email protected] both gerrymander, pretty much to the pation of local ranchers. Genetic diver- ness Society’s BLM Action Center. But if that streams are [email protected] VALUING WATER already adequately [email protected] same degree. This is obvious when you sity could be encouraged with cross-bor- it simply allows energy companies to es- protected by the [email protected] substitute “Anglo” for “Native Ameri- Thanks to Hillary Rosner and HCN der cooperation that facilitates stronger cape growing scrutiny, “it’s not progress.” [email protected] Clean Water Act and FOUNDER Tom Bell can” in the Navajo proposal. They both for the June 13 article on the plight of animal communities by an exchange of by regional programs BOARD OF DIRECTORS have one highly concentrated district south-central Oregon’s dying lakes and animals across the border. he BLM manages over 1 million square that tailor soil John Belkin, Colo. that is 93 to 94 percent for one group its adverse effects on migratory birds. Wildlife migratory corridors should T miles’ worth of underground minerals, erosion management Chad Brown, Ore. and apportions the other two groups Oregonians value water for food produc- be designated, hunting and trapping enough to cover Alaska, Texas and then according to Beth Conover, Colo. local climate and Jay Dean, Calif. more or less equally. The only difference tion, environmental services and the prohibited, and corridor movement some. The development process goes like John Echohawk, Colo. is in the bias toward one group or the recreational opportunities it provides. encouraged. this: The agency identifies areas it deems topographies. A Bob Fulkerson, Nev. other. However, existing water law, developed appropriate for drilling, and then indus- spokeswoman from John Shellenberger Wayne Hare, Colo. The overall percentages of popula- when horses were the main form of try nominates parcels up to 2,560 acres. the Environmental Laura Helmuth, Md. Bozeman, Montana Defense Center, which John Heyneman, Wyo. tion for the two groups are 51 percent transport, has lagged behind changing Those then go up for sale at quarterly auc- brought the suit, says Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico Navajo and 49 percent other (Anglo). values. Even Idaho has installed meters tions, where bidding starts at $2 an acre. the decision is “a lost Samaria Jaffe, Calif. An equitable solution would have equal on water diversions and reports water Environmentalists have long argued Nicole Lampe, Ore. opportunity for much- Marla Painter, N.M. numbers of representatives from the use. We need to act as if water was truly that the system is too accommodating needed improvements Raynelle Rino-Southon, to industry. For instance, the details of in water quality for Calif lease terms, such as exemptions from en- public health.” Estee Rivera Murdock, D.C. PAIGE Dan Stonington, Wash. vironmental analyses, are often negoti- High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Printed on BLANKENBUEHLER Rick Tallman, Colo. High independent media organization that covers the Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. recycled paper. Luis Torres, N.M. issues that define the American West. Its mission is POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All Correspondent Joshua Zaffos writes from Fort Andy Wiessner, Colo. Country to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines.  An oil and gas lease auction in Wyoming, where members of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, Florence Williams, D.C. Collins, Colorado. @jzaffos News region’s diverse natural and human communities. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians protested. WILDEARTH GUARDIANS 4 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 5 Snapshot larger over time, says Paul Grams, a U.S. A sandbar gained Geological Survey researcher, but moni- sediment after a toring suggests they can at least stop fur- controlled flood was The good, the bad, and the ugly of drones ther decline. released from Glen Canyon Dam in 2012. As the aerial technology grows in popularity, so do its impacts The new plan goes further by making U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY floods a permanent feature of dam man- he Zapata Ranch in southern Colorado is one of the few places that wildland firefighting, with at least a dozen pilot projects currently in the agement. “That’s a big deal,” says Ted Tbison can still roam freely. Until recently, scientists and volunteers works. Kennedy, a native fish biologist with the surveyed the herd the old-fashioned way: with binoculars and the naked But introducing new technology to wild areas is tricky. Drones may Grand Canyon Research and Monitor- eye. “It’s a shock how you can lose track of 2,000 bison on a 45,000-acre unduly stress wildlife, as a study of black bears in Current Biology last ing Center. “Those high-flow experiments unfenced pasture,” says Chris Prague, Colorado Nature Conservancy senior year demonstrated. Recreational drones have also endangered wildland were really hard to get implemented.” conservation ecologist. But last year, The Nature Conservancy counted the firefighting crews. The plan will also kick off new experi- herd using an increasingly ubiquitous conservation tool: an unmanned aerial And problems will likely mount as drone sales outpace regulations. From ments to help fish like the endangered vehicle, more commonly known as a drone. 2014 to 2015, recreational drone sales jumped from 430,000 to 700,000, humpback chub. These fish evolved in Drones can be cheaper, more efficient and safer than traditional according to the Consumer Technology Association. Although the Federal turbid desert rivers that could reach 85 manned aircraft, and may also provide more accurate data. A six-bladed Aviation Administration now requires owners to register recreational drones, drone and camera costs about $1,500, and can deliver imagery with public education remains one of the few tools to combat irresponsible users. degrees in summer. Today’s Colorado is resolution at the centimeter level. Government agencies and nonprofits In this technological Wild West, some drone uses are good, some bad, and a different world: The dam releases wa- are already exploring their use in conservation, land management and some downright ugly. KATIE VANE ter from Lake Powell’s cold depths, and near it, the river hovers around 46 de- grees year-round. There’s no way to warm The Good The Bad The Ugly these areas without either draining the reservoir, or adding expensive infrastruc- Surveying on land Oceanside scares Firefighting interference ture that lets the dam release water from In 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey used a Université de Montpellier researcher Elisabeth A recreational drone disrupted firefighting during warmer layers near the surface. Neither drone to count 15,000 roosting sandhill cranes Vas and her French colleagues used a small California’s 2015 Lake Fire in the San Bernardino option is currently on the table. in only four hours. By using an infrared camera quadcopter to test reactions in three waterbirds: National Forest. When pilots spotted a fixed-wing in the southern Colorado Monte Vista Wildlife semi-captive mallard ducks, wild flamingos and drone with a four-foot wingspan about 1,500 Dammed if you do, But there might be other ways to help Refuge at night, the drone avoided startling wild common greenshanks. They did not appear feet over the fire, firefighters had to call off three fish, Kennedy says. Chub spawn almost ex- roosting birds. This benefited both birds and to respond to the drone’s speed, color or number air tankers to avoid a mid-air collision. There clusively in the toasty Little Colorado, then surveyors, since manned aircraft often scare of approaches, but when it approached at a were 21 similar incidents that year. The U.S. dammed if you don’t move into nearby parts of the mainstem cranes into flight, potentially causing mid-air 90-degree angle, like a predator, most birds either Forest Service coined a new slogan, “If you fly, Colorado, where their growth is inhibited collisions. moved or flew off, potential signs of stress. we can’t.” Feds propose measures to reduce Glen Canyon Dam’s impact by chilly water. The water does warm as on the Grand Canyon — a bit the river twists further from the dam, but though it should be good habitat, few chub BY CALLY CARSWELL live in these downstream reaches. Scientists think that could be because f the San Juan River were a freeway, ally help the river when the dam itself there aren’t enough bugs to eat there. “It’s just I Glen Canyon Dam would be a 50-car imperils it? Scientists have explored this Aquatic insects lay their eggs at river’s pile-up. It forces the river to back up and question since 1992, and their research edge, and when the water level drops, as it a Band-Aid spread out for dozens of miles. As the river informs the Bureau of Reclamation’s draft does daily when water releases fluctuate on a gaping morphs into Lake Powell, the sand in its management plan for the dam’s next 20 with hydropower demand, the stranded current settles out. A rock overhang at years, released earlier this year. Conser- eggs shrivel and die. wound.” Grand Gulch where boaters once lounged vationists are optimistic that it will yield The plan proposes to eliminate flow —Eric Balken, is now buried more than 30 feet deep. improvements downstream, but only fluctuations on spring and summer week- Glen Canyon Institute Before the dam killed the current, the small ones. “You’re really just trying to ends, when electricity demand isn’t quite San Juan carried all of this silt to the Col- make the best of a bad deal,” says Utah as high, in hopes of keeping eggs wet and orado, which spit much of it through the State University watershed sciences pro- boosting insect numbers. More food might Grand Canyon, replenishing hundreds of fessor Jack Schmidt. help chub populations colonize and pros-

ILLUSTRATIONS: PABLO IGLESIAS PABLO ILLUSTRATIONS: sandbars. These expansive blonde beach- per in the river’s lower reaches. es, which form in eddies, are river runners’ his is the second such plan for Glen Eric Balken of the Glen Canyon Insti- Counting at sea favorite campsites, and they provide back- T Canyon Dam. The first, in 1996, al- tute is glad that the Bureau is trying to NOAA Fisheries biologist Wayne Perryman has water habitat for fish. But today, about 95 lowed managers to unleash experimental improve the river’s health. “But it’s just used drones since 2011 to count penguins, percent of the sediment that once washed floods to flush sediment from downstream a Band-Aid on a gaping wound,” he says. leopard seals and fur seals in Antarctic colonies. “Humans are just lousy at estimating,” says through the canyon sits at the bottom tributaries — the 5 percent not stuck be- “What we’re not happy with is that they Perryman. Last year, he integrated drones into an of Lake Powell, and the sandbars have hind the dam — through the canyon. They more or less ignored ideas that they con- annual gray whale survey off the California coast. shrunk: The Colorado erodes them, but hoped a rush of silty water would rebuild sidered outside-the-box thinking.” These The imagery is so good that scientists can track Sheep on the run doesn’t build them back up. sandbars. But the floods were politically include requiring Lake Mead to be filled individual whales and monitor their health — even The National Park Service temporarily banned This is one of the problems the 1992 and logistically difficult, since they re- before any water is stored in Lake Powell, determine whether females are pregnant. Drones drones after a 2014 incident, in which a Grand Canyon Protection Act was sup- sulted in lost hydropower, and the Bureau which would reduce the water lost to seep- may also save lives: From 1937 to 2000, two- recreational drone frightened bighorn sheep, posed to correct. It directed federal offi- had to complete complicated environmen- age in the system, warm the river, and al- thirds of all job-related deaths among U.S. wildlife Stressed-out bears separating a ewe from its young. Even with the cials to figure out how to manage the dam tal assessments before each one. Years low Glen Canyon to emerge from submer- biologists were attributed to aviation accidents. Researcher Mark Ditmer at the University of ban, Zion National Park reports that visitors have in a way that did less harm and even pro- passed between floods in 1996, 2004 and sion by draining much if not all of Powell. Minnesota’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife spotted several drones, and the park has found at tected the national park’s assets. In addi- 2008, limiting their efficacy. While they The plan, instead, represents “the art Starting prescribed fires and Conservation Biology discovered that even least one crashed machine. The agency is working tion to threatened sandbars, three of eight did boost sandbars, within six months or of the possible,” says David Nimkin, with This year, at Nebraska’s Homestead National when black bears exhibited no visible reaction to on new regulations. Monument of America, the Interior Department a nearby quadcopter, their heart rates rose, with fish species native to the Grand Canyon so, the beaches eroded again. the National Parks Conservation Associa- worked with the University of Nebraska and one bear’s quadrupling from 40 to 160 beats Fear by the bay have disappeared since the dam went up, Then, in 2012, then-Interior Secre- tion. He thinks it will yield positive, but the National Park Service to test a drone for per minute. Long-term stress could affect health, In 2014, two drones startled a herd of pupping and two are endangered. tary Ken Salazar authorized floods to oc- marginal, gains. “You can do more harm prescribed burns. The drone injects chemical- while fleeing animals risk dangerous encounters harbor seals in California’s Monterey Bay National But can altering dam operations re- cur whenever conditions were right until than you can do benefit with the dam,” he filled pingpong balls with glycol and drops them with traffic or other animals. Ditmer is currently Marine Sanctuary into the water. Fortunately, no 2020. Floodwater thundered through the says. “Glen Canyon Dam, for the time that into an unburned area, where they ignite within investigating whether black bears can become pups were separated from their mothers, trampled Contributing editor Cally Carswell writes from canyon in 2012, 2013 and 2014. It’s un- it operates, has a profound impact. And minutes. used to drones. or killed. Santa Fe, New Mexico.  @callycarswell clear if frequent floods can make sandbars that’s a fact.”

6 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 7 A male red tree vole in a Douglas fir. The species is one of many that received special Land transfer support, county by county protection under the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, due to its reliance on the Pacific Northwest’s dwindling old-growth forests. The American Lands Council has galvanized county commissioners to back federal land transfers MICHAEL DURHAM BY TAY WILES landscape, regardless of agency boundar- ies, says David Moryc, senior director of n 2012, after a series of land-man- “As long as this topic stays in the news,” group’s $336,524 total revenue for 2014, river protection at American Rivers. “If A wild horse foal I agement conflicts with the U.S. says ALC-supporter and Montezuma the latest data available. Another $59,729 we’re calving off a big section and look- amid the herd in the Forest Service, Elko County, Nevada, County, Colorado, Commissioner Larry came from other donors, according to tax ing at it differently, that will by its nature Cedar Mountains Commissioner Demar Dahl decided to try Don Suckla, “we will come to a conclusion records. It’s not clear how much of this is have major ramifications for the health of of Utah. a different approach: He helped launch where everyone gets on board.” also from member counties, or from sup- the ecosystem.” Worse, says veteran Or- HANNAH COWAN/BLM a national nonprofit whose mission is One way the ALC has tried to influ- porters like Americans for Prosperity, the egon forest advocate Andy Kerr, it seems to force the government to transfer fed- ence the public-land dialogue was to hire right-wing advocacy group funded by bil- like a bad omen for the Forest Service’s eral lands to state control. The American Utah Rep. Ken Ivory as president, a posi- lionaires David and Charles Koch. (Ivory approaching updates to its own portion of THE LATEST Lands Council (ALC) has since become the tion he held until last year. Through leg- has said ALC never received money from the Northwest Forest Plan. Backstory center of the growing land-transfer move- islative channels, he has pushed the idea the Kochs, though Americans for Prosper- Wild horses have ment. How it operates is not entirely clear, that the states should manage natural re- ity has appeared on its list of donors in the he BLM’s revisions have roots in the been federally but counties help fund the group’s cam- sources. Now, counties across the West are past.) T 1937 federal Oregon and California protected since paign by purchasing yearly memberships. divided over the controversial issue. A year ago, many of the ALC’s coun- Lands Act, which covers most of the 1971, and with about ALC memberships for government ty members were listed on its website. agency’s heavily checkerboarded west- 67,000 roaming Online Editor Tay Wiles is based in Paonia, Colo- entities like counties, individuals and That’s no longer the case, and the person ern Oregon lands. The “O&C Act” aimed public land — far rado, and writes about conflicts on public lands. businesses — which range from $50 to answering phones at the group’s head- to halt the turn-of-the century timber more than the land  @taywiles $25,000 — supplied $259,189 of the quarters in Utah says she is not autho- industry’s cut-and-run approach, denud- can support — they’ve rized to provide any information, about BLM moves away from landmark ing lands and then abandoning communi- become one of the anything. But High Country News has ties. It mandates that the BLM manage West’s most expensive Western counties and the American Lands Council begun compiling a complete list of ALC forests to provide a “sustained yield” of and polarizing natural Northwest Forest Plan resource problems. member counties. timber — never cutting more than can The Bureau of Land Our analysis reveals that Nevada and Imminent court showdown may force agency grow back annually, but also ensuring a Management uses ALC Member? Utah are ALC strongholds: At least 21 of steady supply in perpetuity. The federal about 7 percent YES SEATTLE SPOKANE Utah’s 29 counties, and 11 of Nevada’s to reconsider logging goals government was also supposed to pass 50 of its budget to FORMERLY 16, officially supported the land-transfer percent of net logging revenues to 18 west- manage them, and BY SARAH GILMAN NO group. Nevada now has its own land- ern Oregon counties to help make up for over 45,000 are HELENA held permanently ACTIVELY OPPOSE WA transfer nonprofit, which offers member- the lack of tax revenue from those O&C in corrals. Ranchers, UNKNOWN BILLINGS ships: the Nevada Lands Council, headed lands, though this function has since been by Commissioner Dahl. Three southwest- runching across a brushy, logged-over stroyed by logging. In 2009, though, the covered and augmented by a safety net environmentalists and MT horse-lovers agree the PORTLAND ern Utah counties — Iron, Washington slope near Corvallis, Oregon, Reed Bureau of Land Management proposed a law called the Secure Rural Schools and C population must be Information for WY and Kane — recently topped the list of Wilson points his trekking pole at an an- commercial project to thin younger trees Community Self-Determination Act. controlled, but the counties outlined in EUGENE high-paying ALC members, with either cient Douglas fir in a neighboring patch of here, ostensibly to restore more diverse The Northwest Forest Plan was ex- BLM’s methods remain yellow are from data BOISE “Gold” ($10,000) or “Platinum” ($25,000) forest. The tree is more than an armspan forest structure. And though the Benton pected to supply 1.1 billion board-feet controversial (“Is prior to 2015. If you memberships. in diameter, its toes decorated with sapro- Forest Coalition, to which Wilson belongs, from national forest and BLM land an- there a way through have more recent data Yet even in those states, some counties phytic orchids and millipedes. and two other environmental groups nually, including through clear-cutting the West’s bitter for your county, help OR ID have reduced their contributions. Daggett One of 117 behemoths among these forced the agency to leave intact forest old growth outside reserves. But logging horse wars?” HCN, us update it by send- County, Utah, for example, decided this otherwise young stands, this tree and 38 around most of the vole trees, several fluctuated with congressional appropria- 11/9/12). CA NV ing a letter or email to year not to renew its membership, which others also wear necklaces of pink tape. stand alone amid logging slash, their tiny tions, economic factors and environmen- [email protected]. CHEYENNE it had held for the last three years. And Tree-climbing citizen surveyors left them tenants marooned and more vulnerable to tal lawsuits, and the cut was lower than Followup SALT LAKE CITY in other states, opposition to the transfer to mark the presence of red tree vole predation. “This was native forest,” regen- anticipated. In late June, the BLM BOULDER idea is gaining momentum. Blaine County, nests, explains Wilson, a gray-haired local erating from a 1931 wildfire, Wilson says. Amid the scuffling, both the BLM and announced plans DENVER to study surgical RENO Idaho, and Arizona’s Pima and Coconino jeweler and activist. The tiny rodents de- “It hadn’t been logged before.” Forest Service shifted to timber programs sterilization to see counties have passed resolutions oppos- vour conifer needles and use the hair-like Now, the BLM is proposing a pair of that emphasized thinning younger forests, if it’s more effective ing a federal land transfer. Nine Colorado resin ducts to build pillowy abodes in the new management plans for its 2.5 million including those recovering from clear-cuts. than contraceptive counties have passed similar resolutions: trees’ branches. Most vole business takes acres in western Oregon. Several environ- This approach is less controversial than vaccines. One of the SAN JOSE UT CO Park, Pitkin, Eagle, Boulder, La Plata, San place high in the canopy — interlaced mental groups fear the plans could make clear-cutting, but the BLM supply will first projects involves Miguel, Ouray, Summit and San Juan. limbs offering access to other trees, food, it even easier to allow destructive logging run out in less than 10 years, says Mark removing the ovaries LAS VEGAS mates and new homes. The vole is also inside old-growth reserves. Brown, project manager on the agency’s of over 100 wild mares in Oregon. At a recent SANTA FE Intern Anna V. Smith contributed reporting. favored prey for the threatened northern They also signal the agency’s depar- plans. The BLM also faces new federal spotted owl, and its population here in the ture from the 1994 Northwest Forest spotted owl protections, including critical congressional hearing, ALBUQUERQUE SOURCES: UTAH.GOV/TRANSPARENCY, ARCHIVED WEBPAGES OF low-slung northern Coast Range is a can- Plan, which created the reserves in the habitat designated in 2012. “The balance however, that proposal prompted a shouting THE ALC WEBSITE, MEDIA REPORTS, ORIGINAL REPORTING. didate for endangered species protection. first place to help end a bitter struggle we’re trying to strike is fulfilling our re- LOS ANGELES match, with horse The federal government set aside this over Northwestern forests. The landmark sponsibilities under the O&C Act, while PHOENIX advocates angrily area as part of a 10-million-acre network agreement allowed some logging while also meeting our responsibilities under insisting that the of reserves in western Oregon, Washing- emphasizing ecosystem preservation on laws like the Endangered Species Act and NM animals be allowed to TUCSON ton and Northern California, largely to 24.5 million acres of federal land, 80 per- Clean Water Act,” Brown says. “When we roam freely without AZ protect species like spotted owls and voles cent of it overseen by the Forest Service fulfill all of those, we don’t have a lot of human interference. whose old-growth habitat was being de- and most of the rest divided between the decision space.” LYNDSEY GILPIN BLM and National Park Service. Part of The proposed plans would increase Contributing editor Sarah Gilman writes from the agreement’s strength was that it uni- the timber harvest more than a third over Portland, Oregon.  @Sarah_Gilman fied forest management across an entire Please see Forest, page 18

8 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 9 THE HCN COMMUNITY DEAR FRIENDS

RESEARCH FUND Our new intern and fellow During our publication break, as well the native bee decline. Thank you, Research­ Fund which just ended, we bid a fond She discovered HCN in college farewell to former intern Bryce and saw it as an ideal blend of Gray, who wrapped up his ses- social, economic, cultural and donors, for helping us sion at the end of June. He’s scientific coverage, all under the now the full-time energy and umbrella of Western environ- environment reporter at the St. mental issues. paint the story of the West Louis Post-Dispatch. Congrats Although she misses watch- to Bryce, and even more to the ing pods of orcas from her deck, Post-Dispatch: Y’all have landed Anna looks forward to covering Since 1971, reader contributions to the Re- David S. Henkel Jr. | Santa Fe, NM yourself a fine journalist! wildlife and recreation for HCN. search Fund have made it possible for HCN Marnie Hogan | Houston, TX Now we’re welcoming Anna She might even squeeze in some to investigate and report on important issues that are unique to the American West. Your Vicki Huff & Eric Boerwinkle | Houston, TX V. Smith for six months of time to explore the surrounding tax-deductible gift directly funds thought- Tom & Carlyn Jervis | Santa Fe, NM “journalism boot camp.” Anna, mountains and canyons. Or so provoking, independent journalism. Linda Kirkbride | Meriden, WY 23, spent much of her childhood she hopes. Welcome, Anna! Thank you for supporting our hardworking R.D. & Patricia Laird | Saratoga, WY in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Somehow, we managed to journalists. Carol Lubell | Colorado Springs, CO climbing trees, exploring gullies trick our other recent intern, and replanting and nurturing Lyndsey Gilpin, into sticking Joanne McInnis | Winthrop, WA Don Baker | Alvarado, TX DEATH VALLEY: PAINTED LIGHT PATRON more than 5,000 Douglas firs around for another six months Michael S. Messenger | Thermopolis, WY Rick Bauchman | Dallas, TX Photographs and text by Stephen E. Strom with her family, often knee-deep as an editorial fellow. The hiss- Anonymous (3) 184 pages, hardcover, $50. F. Alden Moberg | Keizer, OR Susan Baughman | Cedar City, UT in mud during torrential rains. ing rattlesnakes we surrounded STEWARD William Croft & Carol Toffaleti | George F. Thompson Publishing, 2016 Andrew Darrell | New York, NY Albuquerque, NM Charles B. & Denise Munro|Boulder, CO Helen Bendzsa | Las Animas, CO She left rural Oregon in 2010 her desk with may have influ- Frances Stevenson | Bend, OR Jane & Jack Davis | Danville, AR Piero Martinucci | Berkeley, CA Martin & Sylvia Bingham|Fruita, CO “Death Valley is a destination for the visually curious,” says essayist Rebecca Senf in her to attend the University of Or- enced her decision, but we’re C. Demarsh | Aspen, CO Harriet & James Neal | Placitas, NM Stephen S. Birdsall | Chapel Hill, NC introduction to Death Valley: Painted Light, a collection of photographs and ruminations by egon in Eugene, where she ma- sure it was genuine enthusiasm BENEFACTOR Dan Elsner | Grand Junction, CO Susan Nimick | Helena, MT Gina Bonaminio | McCall, ID photographer and author Stephen E. Strom and poet Alison Hawthorne Deming. Strom has been jored in environmental studies for the job. Congrats, Lyndsey! In honor of Marge Sill | Reno, NV Lenny & Susan Epstein|Fort Collins, CO Michael Notars Jr. | Lakewood, CO Stanley J. Brasher | Aurora, CO photographing the area for more than 35 years, and his strikingly minimalist images illuminate and journalism. She helped start (It’s safe to come out now; the its otherworldly shapes and geometric surprises. Many are simple texture shots, revealing the Myron Allen & Adele Aldrich | Laramie, WY Philip Ertel | Ivins, UT Bruce Paton | Englewood, CO Dan Brecht | Wheatland, WY the campus’ first environmental- snakes are gone.) She joins Martha Pavlat | Eugene, OR Michael Burr | Koosharem, UT desert’s unexpected nuances: The dimpled sand on a vast landscape, for instance, at first glance ly focused publication, Envision, Anna and our current fellow, Anne Beckett | Youngsville, NM Marilyn & Paul Felber | Alpine, CA resembles nothing more than a spackled sheet of old wallpaper. Deming’s poems are equally David & Linda Chipping | Los Osos, CA Michael Folsom | Englewood, CO Reola Phelps | Denver, CO Stan & Georgina Califf | Orange, CA a student-run print and online Paige Blankenbuehler, through sprawling and textured, using scenes of Death Valley to tap into deeper themes. “Sometimes it magazine, serving as web editor December at the magazine and Charles Dekeado & Shari Fox | Applegate, OR Candace M. France | Yakima, WA Dorothy & Rush Robinett | Albuquerque, NM Don Campbell | Grand Junction, CO seems as if time is the material of which we’re made. Grain by grain we add up like sand ground from 2012 to 2014, and covering website. Stuart Feen & Carol Sonnenschein, Prairie Judith Gearhart | Colorado Springs, CO Milly Roeder | Lakewood, CO Lester E. Campbell | Broomfield, CO down to gritty beads by an archaic sea.” PAIGE BLANKENBUEHLER the rural-urban divide regarding A few corrections: In our Crossing | Grayslake, IL Jeff Geiger | Evergreen, CO Ellen Rosenau | Berkeley, CA Barbara A. Chapman | Las Vegas, NV wolf reintroduction. recent feature on Oregon’s ter- Gail & John Heyer | Sedona, AZ Anthony Gilbert | Marshall, CA Melanie Roth | Nathrop, CO Gary Clark | Santa Fe, NM Hillsides, Panamint Mountains, left. Detail, Saline Valley Dunes I, center. Salt Peggy Kavookjian & David Nora | Westcliffe, CO Tom & Katie Rubel | Glenwood Springs, CO Edward Clebsch | Norris, TN outcroppings, Devil’s Golf Course, right. STEPHEN E. STROM Anna often felt pulled be- minal waterways, we misidenti- Jane Gilsinger | Bailey, CO tween science and writing, but fied the birds in a photo, calling Dennis & Judy Knight | Laramie, WY Charles & Becky Goff | Gold Canyon, AZ Tony Ruckel | Denver, CO Skip Clopton | Broomfield, CO Robert & Kay Moline | St. Peter, MN Jack F. Salter | Evergreen, CO Elena Court | Brisbane, CA an internship in Central Africa them barn swallows when they Al Gray | Puyallup, WA Alan R. Kasdan | Washington, DC Robert R. Reitz | Fountain Hills, AZ Richard & Kathleen Sayre | Los Alamos, NM Peter E. Sartucci | Lafayette, CO Janet Welsh Crossley & Phil Crossley | in 2013 with the Smithsonian were most likely cliff swallows Darcy Gray & Tom Bihn | Winthrop, WA Judith Kelly | Missoula, MT Lee Rimel | Edwards, CO John Willard | Cortez, CO Angie Schmidt | Cheyenne, WY Gunnison, CO Institute’s Gabon Biodiversity (“Water to dust,” 6/13/16). And Alyson Hagy | Laramie, WY David Kimball & Anne Austin Taylor | Gerald Robertson | Gallup, NM Program convinced her that she the ancestors of Stacy Bare, Steven & Mary Wood | Seattle, WA Judith Shardo | Mercer Island, WA Peg Cullen | Sheridan, WY Joan Hansen | Seattle, WA Mill Valley, CA David Sage | Story, WY preferred writing about science profiled in our annual Outdoor Fred Smeins | College Station, TX Lynda Daley | Fresno, CA John T. Heimer | Boise, ID Larry Koth | Mukwonago, WI Mike Samuelson | Eureka, CA to conducting it. Recreation issue, were given SPONSOR Daniel Smith | Chelan, WA Larry Dalton | Sacramento, CA Mary & Ed Husted | Fairbanks, AK Charlene Larsen | Astoria, OR John Santangini | Denver, CO After graduating in 2014, land in West Virginia, not Penn- Susan F. Baker | Waitsburg, WA Steve Smith | Swanlake, ID David E. Dixon | Mountainair, NM Randy & Jessica Jones | Midway, UT David A. Lennette | Alameda, CA Molly Shepherd | Missoula, MT she began reporting for Eugene sylvania. Our apologies. Eric R. Carlson | Livermore, CA Todd Soller | San Francisco, CA Carol Doell | Westwood, NJ Arthur Kull | Idaho Falls, ID Phyllis Lindner | Clarkdale, AZ Todd Sherman | Logan, UT Weekly, where she wrote about —Paige Blankenbuehler, Terry Coddington | Berkeley, CA Robert Sparrow | Salt Lake City, UT Chris Eastwood | Bend, OR Kay Ledyard | Evergreen, CO Chuck & Francie Link | Boise, ID Luther Shetler | Bluffton, OH local struggles with homeless- for the staff C. Jay Dorr | Hailey, ID Bill Strauss | Big Lake, TX Gerda Gustafsson Edwards | West Linn, OR Brian Loughman | Grand Junction, CO Russell Livingston | Golden, CO Jeannie Siegler | Huson, MT ness and affordable housing Ralph & Judy Friedemann | Jerome, ID John Taylor | Boulder, CO Megan Estep | Pine, CO William Lukasavich | Aspen, CO Michael Locklear | Salt Lake City, UT Rich & Gretchen Sigafoos|Highlands Ranch, CO Sidney Mackenzie Fulop | New York, NY Lloyd Throne | Eureka, CA Bruce Fauskee | Powell, WY Bob & Sandra Lyon | Issaquah, WA David J. MacDonald | Reno, NV Barbara Sims | Missoula, MT From left, editorial Dale E. Gray | Vernal, UT Leland Trotter | Tacoma, WA Patricia Ferguson | Santa Fe, NM Dale & Jackie Maas | Prescott, AZ Stephen A. Macleod | Burlingame, CA Sally Ann Sims | West Chester, PA fellow Paige Carol A. Haller | Corrales, NM Sophie R. Turon | Bozeman, MT Marjorie Fischer | Lakewood, CO Blankenbuehler, Suzanne Marshall | Coeur d’Alene, ID Marie Magleby | Redding, CA Andrea & Hall Skeen | Denver, CO Arthur Hanson | Salem, OR Lillian & Jim Wakeley | Dolores, CO Dirk Frauenfelder | Yuma, AZ new editorial intern Donald Martell | Denver, CO Beverley Manley | Truth or Consequences, NM Ellie Slothower | Colorado Springs, CO Nick & Linda Hattel | Erie, CO Andrew Wallace | Prescott, AZ Gustav & June Freyer | Monument, CO Anna V. Smith and Jack Massey | Grand Junction, CO Brandt Mannchen | Houston, TX Stephen P. Starke | Arvada, CO Edward Weydt | Larkspur, CO Chuck Gamble | Scottsdale, AZ new editorial fellow Don J. McKernan | Ridgecrest, CA Catalina Steckbauer | Pocatello, ID Howard J. Whitaker | Gold River, CA Thomas B. Gottlieb | Arvada, CO Lyndsey Gilpin, David McMillan | Neosho, MO T.H. Steele | Ogden, UT who will all write Patrick T. 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The days of want and stealing are coming.” —John Active, recounting a traditional Yup’ik story

Salmon Power A historic legal victory could give Alaska tribes more control over their fish, wildlife and homelands

FEATURE AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY KRISTA LANGLOIS

ike Williams meets me at the airstrip on a drizzly go around. But since 2010, the number of chinook, or king June evening, his vast girth squeezed behind the salmon, returning to the Kuskokwim River has fallen by half, Mwheel of a Toyota pickup. He wears blue sweatpants, from an average of 260,000 each year to 123,000. Scientists running sneakers, and a triple-XL Columbia rain jacket. “Wel- don’t fully understand the reasons for the drop, but for come to Akiak,” he says, tossing my backpack into the bed of subsistence fishermen, one factor stands out: commercial his truck as if it weighs nothing. Then we go to the river. bycatch. In 2007, fishermen in the Bering Sea tossed out Akiak, Alaska, hugs the bank of the Kuskokwim, the lon- 130,000 dead chinooks they accidentally caught in their nets. gest undammed river in the United States. The Kuskokwim Not all of those would have returned to the Kuskokwim, rises from the Alaska Range and parallels its better-known and biologists emphasize that bycatch represents a fraction cousin, the Yukon, through hundreds of miles of boreal for- of the total fish mortality. But the numbers still chafe: In est and tundra. Just before the two rivers dissolve into the 2015, when commercial fishermen threw 125,000 chinooks Bering Sea, they fan out like tree roots over a wilderness the overboard, fishermen on the Kuskokwim were allotted size of Maine, an unfenced expanse speckled with ponds and 15,000. That’s roughly four fish per household; families say spider-webbed with game trails. Most of the area falls inside they need 50 to get through the winter. the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, but here and there Mike Williams has five children, 11 grandchildren, one tiny islands of civilization appear — Yup’ik villages on trib- great-grandchild and 50 sled dogs. He finds it unfathomable ally owned land. Their residents live a largely subsistence that commercial operations waste salmon while he scrambles lifestyle, picking berries in August, hunting moose in the fall, to put food on the table. The closest real grocery store is 400 netting whitefish from beneath the winter ice. Each month is miles away in Anchorage. Lately, the Williamses have had to its own season. supplement their diet with species they usually feed to their June, Williams tells me as we rumble down the dirt road, dogs. is fish-camp season. The smokehouses should be bustling, But the balance of power may be shifting for Alaska Na- the town nearly empty as families scatter to their traditional tives. In 2013, a federal district judge set in motion the big- camps to catch, dry and smoke the chinook salmon just be- gest change to Alaska land management in decades by grant- ginning to surge past. ing Alaska tribes the right to put land into a trust overseen But the smokehouses are empty. People mill impatiently by the federal government — a right already granted to all on the roads, waiting for the government to allow them to tribes in the Lower 48. Ceding land to the feds might sound set nets. They mutter about distant bureaucrats managing like a cession of authority, but for the people of Akiak, it’s the a fishery they don’t understand. Old women speak of cutting opposite. It means that this summer, as the rule stemming salmon like it’s a physical longing, an ache in their muscles from the decision goes into effect, they could gain the power that can only be eased by the repetitive motion of slicing to manage their own fish and wildlife, as tribes in the rest of through piles of bloody fish. “We’ve always lived here,” Wil- the country can. liams says, gesturing at the delta. “The land was always here For the Williamses and other families, that can’t come and it was always ours. No matter when, how or where, it soon enough. Across Alaska, a changing climate and other was available to us.” pressures are stressing migrations of caribou, salmon, walrus Thomas Carl, Mike Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in charge of and other wildlife. And many Alaska Natives believe that Williams’ son-in- law, takes a break the land outside the village, and the migratory salmon that their own knowledge –– honed over generations –– can sus- around midnight pass through are governed by the Alaska Department of Fish tain these animals and protect Indigenous interests better from fishing for and Game, with some federal oversight. Tribal governments than state or federal managers alone. “We want the fish to chinook salmon like Akiak’s have fought to be involved in decision-making, survive,” says Ivan Martin Ivan, chief of Akiak. “Just like the on the Kuskokwim with little success until recently. trees, the grass, the people. We’ve managed these resources River. For years, it didn’t matter: There were enough salmon to for many thousands of years, and we want to do so again.”

12 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 13 tribal law supersede state law.) Alaska Native villages have some of the than jail time. State troopers would be As the 1970s unfolded, several nation’s highest rates of sexual violence, required to enforce decisions made by laws and court decisions laid ANCSA’s domestic abuse and suicide — higher tribal police or courts, which they aren’t limitations painfully bare. First was the than most reservations in the Lower 48. currently. Alaska tribes with Indian historic 1974 Boldt Decision, spurred by “Instead of respecting (tribal) sov- Country would also be able to set hunting Billy Frank’s activism. It gave Northwest ereignty and self-government as other and fishing regulations on land held in tribes that had signed 1850s-era trea- states routinely do, Alaska tries to police trust for them and negotiate with state ties the right to 50 percent of the region’s and judge Native citizens from afar using and federal agencies on a government- total salmon catch, and laid the ground- too few people and resources,” Eid wrote to-government basis to manage fish and work for other tribes that wanted greater in a 2014 editorial for Alaska Dispatch wildlife on surrounding land. authority in managing fish and wildlife, News. He calls the system “colonialism on Troy Eid, of the Law and Order both on- and off-reservation. the cheap.” And it’s not just outdated, he Commission, notes that creating Indian The Boldt Decision was also a “thun- says — it’s dangerous. Country isn’t the only way for Alaskan derbolt” that set off a new era of tribal tribes to gain such authority. The state sovereignty, says legal expert and histo- MIKE WILLIAMS KNOWS THIS from experi- could voluntarily work with tribes. rian Charles Wilkinson, who’s writing a ence. He was serving in the army in Ko- But it has routinely chosen not to, Eid book on the decision. In 1975, Congress rea when ANCSA became law, and when says. Seven independent commissions passed the Indian Self-Determination he returned home in 1973, he fell into the have concluded that putting law enforce- and Education Assistance Act, which pro- same black hole that would ultimately ment in the hands of Native villages vided federal funds for tribes to run their claim his six brothers. would make them safer, but the state The Alaska own schools, courts and natural resource “They were famous drunks,” remem- maintains a centralized judicial system. departments. Soon after, the Confeder- bers one friend. Like other bush villages As a result, dozens of Alaska Native Constitution ated Salish and Kootenai Tribes created at the time, says Williams, Akiak had no communities have no law enforcement the nation’s first federally designated police officers, no judicial system and no whatsoever. In all of rural Alaska, there requires that tribal wilderness, secured in-stream flows social services. In the course of a single is only one women’s shelter. And when it an Anglo for fish, and began negotiating for control generation, the Yup’ik had been trans- comes to fish and wildlife management, of a nearby dam. formed from a semi-nomadic people, tribes have only an advisory role, with lawyer in In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled traveling with the seasons and living off little actual power. Some tribal members, that hunting and fishing regulations set the land, to shareholders in a corporation for instance, would like to receive hunt- Anchorage by tribes on reservation land trump those and permanent residents of an impover- ing and fishing priority when wildlife receive the set by the state. New Mexico’s Mescalero ished village. Most had few opportunities populations are low. But although village Apache Tribe responded by creating for employment. residents have priority on federal lands, same access hunting rules that differed from the In 1974, the Williams brothers started the state Constitution requires that an state’s and charging non-Natives to hunt dying. Sitting in his living room after Anglo lawyer in Anchorage receive the to fish and the reservation’s impressive elk herd, bol- a meal of whitefish, tundra greens and same access to fish and game as a Native stering economic development. Tribes can akutaq (lard or seal oil with berries hunter who lives in the bush with little game as a also operate their own police forces and and sugar), Mike ticks them off for me. access to other food sources. Native hunter prosecute certain crimes on reservations, Ted was the first: “He’d just returned So in 2006, Williams and some friends even those committed by non-Natives. from Vietnam and was not well. He had coordinated with the Native American who lives in Though socioeconomic problems continue nightmares. He started drinking heavily, Rights Fund to sue the Department of the to plague many reservations, Sarah and one night he over-drank alcohol and Interior on behalf of four Native villages the bush with Krakoff, an Indian law expert at the Uni- didn’t wake up. So that was Ted.” Wil- — including Akiachak, just downriver little access versity of Colorado Boulder, says these liams holds up one stubby finger. “The from Akiak — to remove the Interior changes represent undeniable progress second one, Frankie, he went to Bethel Department’s “Alaska exemption,” which to other food toward self-governance. with his snow machine and bought booze. prevents Alaska tribes from putting land Mike Williams and his MIKE WILLIAMS WAS 7 IN 1959, when the kept tribes from their traditional fish- for each tribe. Corporations could profit Yet because they apply only to “Indian On the way back, he drank so much that into trust. After Alaska Natives prevailed, sources. grandson, Kohle, in the Territory of Alaska became a state. The ing grounds. The clashes became known by developing the minerals, timber or oil Country” — a legal term for the land that he fell into an open hole in the ice and Interior finalized a rule striking the family’s living room in federal government required that Alaska as the Fish Wars. Frank was a hero on their land. Each tribe also formed its the federal government holds in trust for drowned. And that’s Frankie.” He holds exemption. “We believe that deleting the Akiak, Alaska. Natives get a formal education, but Akiak that Williams could relate to: a Native own government, and many would come Native Americans, including all reserva- up two fingers. Then a third for Timmy, a Alaska exemption is consistent with law had no high school. So, like many Yup’ik, American fighting the cultural subjuga- to own land transferred to them from vil- tions in the Lower 48 — Alaska Natives fourth for Gerald, and a fifth for Bucko, and consistent with the Obama adminis- Williams attended Bureau of Indian Af- tion Williams had already experienced lage corporations or through other means. have been largely excluded. Alaska tribes who shot himself in the head after drink- tration’s strong intention to restore tribal fairs boarding schools hundreds of miles through the boarding school system. The Village corporation profits went to tribal technically possess the same sovereignty ing homebrew. homelands,” Kevin Washburn, then-assis- south. Teachers confiscated his tradition- two became friends, and Frank a mentor. governments, while those from regional as Lower 48 tribes, but without land on Williams gazes at the ceiling with tant secretary for Indian Affairs, said in a al clothes, cut his hair and forced him to Meanwhile, back home, Frank’s corporations went to individual tribal which to exercise that sovereignty, it’s of pouched brown eyes and raises a final 2014 speech in Anchorage. speak English. “I felt violated,” he says. activism would also prove important: It members, under a shareholder system. limited use. And Alaskan officials remain finger for Walter, who passed out and The momentum toward putting land But efforts to strip away Williams’ helped demonstrate that being corralled This worked well for some tribes, stubbornly opposed to recognizing tribal died of smoke inhalation from a pot left into trust stalled while the state appealed Yup’ik-ness only strengthened it. It was into federally managed reservations had particularly those in regions with rich oil sovereignty, Krakoff says. “It’s kind of on the stove. “That was pretty hard on the decision, but on July 1, the D.C. 1971, and the Red Power Movement was stripped Lower 48 tribes of their power. and natural gas deposits, like the North mysterious. In a state like Alaska that’s me, losing all of them and being the only Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Alaska in full swing: Native Americans were As the Alaska Federation of Natives, Slope. But many in the Yukon- so far-flung, you’d think they’d embrace one standing,” he says. “That’s why I’m Natives’ victory. Unless there’s a further fighting for stolen lands in court, march- the state and the federal government Kuskokwim Delta felt shortchanged. (tribes taking control).” causing trouble like this land-into-trust appeal to the Supreme Court or a request ing on Washington, D.C., and occupying negotiated the division of Alaska’s land Their wealth wasn’t in oil or minerals, This affects more than natural re- issue. Because I’m trying to make life for a second opinion from the Court of Alcatraz, California, which they saw as a and natural resources, they sought an but in fish, birds and other animals. And sources. The state also retains authority here better for people.” Appeals, which both seem unlikely, any of symbol of their oppression (see essay page alternative. Eventually, they agreed that while ANCSA deeded land to Native over regulating alcohol and prosecuting Williams has been sober for 28 years Alaska’s 229 tribal governments will soon 23). As student body president of Or- Alaska Natives would assume land own- corporations, that land remained under and punishing perpetrators of sexual and and is now a substance abuse counselor. be able to apply to have its land taken egon’s Chemawa Indian School, Williams ership themselves, and adopt a Western state control. Just as private businesses domestic abuse, even in remote villages He’s mushed the Iditarod 15 times to into trust. met tribal leaders from across the West. business model to manage it. and property owners must adhere to located hundreds of miles from the near- raise awareness about sobriety. If Akiak It’s not clear how many tribes would Everyone was talking about land rights. The federal Alaska Native Claims rules and regulations set by their state est court, jail or state trooper, says Troy and other dry villages were Indian Coun- opt in, but the impact could be sweeping: One of the loudest voices belonged to Settlement Act of 1971, or ANCSA, governments, so, too, must Alaska tribes Eid, chair of the bipartisan Indian Law try, he says, they could go after bootleg- Forty-three wrote to the Interior Depart- Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually leader who deeded 44 million acres to Alaska Na- and corporations accede to state law and Order Commission. The commission’s gers without waiting for state authorities, ment in favor of the rule, and several have staged a series of “fish-ins” in Wash- tives, divided among 13 regional corpora- enforcement, hunting seasons, bag limits 2014 report found that this has contrib- and perhaps address the problem with re- already begun the application process. ington state to protest regulations that tions and 229 village corporations — one and more. (On reservations, federal and uted to major public safety problems: storative, community-based justice rather Akiak isn’t far behind, Williams says.

14 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 15 The Williams family fish camp near Bethel, Alaska. From left, 2-year-old Megan gets a close look at the beating heart of a freshly killed salmon, while her mother, Sheila Carl, filets chinook. Below, salmon for the extended Williams clan hang to dry. Last year, each family ALASKA only got about four chinooks; they say they need 50 to get through the sub-Arctic winter.

shake. When we reach a nameless slough er walled in by high grassy banks, Williams iv R cuts the motor. on k On a cold gray day after a winter of

u Y disuse, the fish camp isn’t much to look at. Akiachak Akiak It consists of a plywood shack with a rusty wim Rive woodstove, peeling linoleum and 30 years’ Bethel ok r sk worth of accumulated mosquito corpses. Ku Bering Anchorage Outside are cottonwood drying racks, a Sea smokehouse and two plywood tables. Still, our arrival feels like a homecom- ing. Soon after we climb ashore, Williams’ daughter, Sheila, who’s five months pregnant, hauls a 30-pound salmon The people onto one of the plywood tables. With an of the Yukon- uluq, a moon-shaped knife, she slices off the head, to save for fish-head soup. Kuskokwim She makes an incision the length of the salmon’s white underbelly and pulls out Delta dream a fistful of guts. Carefully, she hands the stomach to her 15-year-old sister, Chris- of a time tine, who will flatten it into jerky. The when the rest goes into a bucket. She scrapes dark blood from inside the salmon’s ribs. knowledge The fish then goes to Maggie, who’s ready at the second table to do the they’ve more intricate work of filleting it to dry. collected over Depending on the fish, she’ll process it in any number of ways — into long, thin generations strips, perhaps, or meaty steaks. Maggie Williams has been putting up salmon for is considered “Seems to me But there are still critics who argue mental jurisdiction.” The state could lose where the officers sat, spilling out of the them into Yup’ik at village meetings. allotment over last year’s. Chinook runs as long as she can recall. Like Christine, that Indian Country would add addi- its ability to impose “land use restric- room, craning their necks to hear. There He tells the other fishermen that they are still far below historic numbers, but she began with the guts and took on as valid this system tional layers of federal bureaucracy to tions, natural resource management were strict limits on everything from how have to make sacrifices now so their they’re steadily inching upward. greater responsibility with each passing as science Alaska’s already-complex land manage- requirements, and certain environmental many salmon each family could take to grandchildren will know what it’s like to The state of Alaska isn’t formally part year. “I remember when my mom first is tough on ment. Tribal corporations sitting on oil or regulations.” And most significantly, in a the size of the nets and the dates that haul a massive chinook from the depths of this collaboration, but John Linderman, taught me to do this,” she says, deftly gathered in a us. Next year, gas deposits are unlikely to transfer their place already wary of federal oversight, fishing was allowed. Fishermen had to fish of the Kuskokwim. But Williams also regional supervisor for the Alaska Depart- nicking a strip of meat. “I made such a land, since federal oversight could make “trust land in Alaska would diminish the within the legal window, regardless of the believes in action, so instead of waiting ment of Fish and Game, says he and his mess! She said, ‘It’s OK. It’ll still dry.’ ” few seasons. if you come it harder to develop those resources. And state’s authority.” weather. If they had the wrong-sized net, for resolution of the Indian Country fight, agency “acknowledge and respect” the Cutting the fish is essential to its some fear that if Native villages put land That, say many opponents, is an out- they’d have to travel to the town of Bethel in the spring of 2015 he helped form the Intertribal Fish Commission and are open proper drying. So is the weather: Too around, don’t into trust, it could impact development, come that must be avoided. –– an all-day trip –– to buy the right one. Kuskokwim Intertribal Fish Commission, to engaging with them. Like many officials, early, and it might be too damp. Too late, too, because regional corporations often And because only a handful of “desig- modeled after the Washington-based Linderman is genuinely concerned for both and flies will lay eggs inside the flesh. tell us what own the subsurface mineral rights below IN JUNE 2012, AKIAK FISHERMEN were so nated fishermen” were allowed to set nets, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. the salmon and the tribes’ survival. But These are the kinds of decisions the to do! I don’t villages. Scholars writing in the Ameri- desperate for salmon that they staged an residents feared that skills and cultural The Kuskokwim commission seeks to when it comes to the kind of unified man- people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta can Indian Law Journal concluded that act of civil disobedience, modeled after traditions would no longer be passed down give tribes more sway in managing the agement that the Intertribal Fish Commis- want to make: when to fish, how to fish. go into your corporations’ mineral rights wouldn’t Billy Frank’s fish wars. Salmon runs to the next generation. fishery, and Williams serves as its chair. sion wants, his hands are somewhat tied. They want to be able to carry on their be impacted, but uncertainties over the were, at the time, the lowest ever record- Listening to the rules with wide eyes, Now, a year later, it’s making head- He and other state wildlife managers are traditions without armed outsiders con- country and rule’s implications remain. ed, and state and federal wildlife manag- the Akiachak fishermen grew agitated. way. As long as chinook runs remain low, obligated to comply with the state constitu- fiscating their gear. They dream of a time tell you what Given that, regional corporations ers denied Yup’ik advisors’ recommenda- “Seems to me this system is tough on tribes can petition the federal govern- tion, which gives all residents equal access when the knowledge they’ve collected should be able to weigh in on, or even tion for a brief fishing window. So Akiak us,” one elder said. He spoke for a few ment to take over management from the to fish. “That’s something that none of us over generations is considered as valid as to do! It’s not veto, tribes’ applications for trust land, elders instructed people to fish anyway. minutes in Yup’ik, his tone rising. Then, state, which they did again this year, to have any control over,” Linderman says. science gathered in a few seasons. says Aaron Schutt, president and CEO As subsistence gillnetters illegally pulled in English again, he burst out: “Next year, ensure tribal members get priority for “It’s not our place to make law. It’s our While the women cut fish, Williams right.” of the regional Doyon corporation — one chinooks from the river, officers swarmed if you come around, don’t tell us what to the subsistence harvest. Then, in May, place to implement law.” rests in a duct-taped chair, explaining the of the largest landowners in the United the river. Twenty-three fishermen were do! I don’t go into your country and tell the Intertribal Fish Commission and the year’s fishing rules in Yup’ik for perhaps —Yup’ik elder, States, with more than 12 million acres. arrested and fined, and thousand-dollar you what to do! It’s not right.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a BY MID-JUNE, fish camp season is under- the sixth time that day on his cellphone. speaking at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife “We generally support the concept of nets were confiscated. At subsequent Unfortunately, there’s no easy fix — memorandum of understanding giving way. Mike Williams’ wife, Maggie, bustles Hanging up, he pushes his glasses up his meeting outlining trust land in Alaska,” Schutt says. “But court hearings, grown men wept as they no dam to remove that will cause the tribes more power during those times around the house, filling a cooler with forehead and rubs his eyes. Juggling all fishing restrictions in I think the benefits are overstated. … described the impact of the salmon de- fish to come swarming home. And there when management is under federal con- Ziploc bags of caribou and goose meat these court hearings, testimonies, meet- Correspondent Krista Akiachak last year When you go on other reservations in the cline on their families and culture. are so many culprits to blame –– climate trol. The memorandum mandates weekly and packing a duffel with clothes. Several ings and negotiations is exhausting. He Langlois lives in U.S., you can see that it doesn’t solve all Each year since then, dozens more change, overfishing, changes to the ma- meetings between commission members grandchildren toddle underfoot, chasing a sometimes thinks about giving up. But Durango, Colorado, their issues.” fishermen have quietly broken the rules. rine environment, commercial bycatch. and federal officials, and requires Fish miniature poodle that Maggie’s daughter then he looks out the window and sees and frequently covers Other critics, including several Alaska Each year, officials catch some and haul Putting land into trust might help, but and Wildlife officials to provide a writ- ordered off the internet from Montana. his two young granddaughters, watch- Alaska. lawmakers, oppose the rule more sharply. them to court. And each time, the fisher- it won’t give individual tribes autonomy ten explanation for any decision they Relatives stop by to grab lunch from a ing seriously as their auntie and grand-  cestmoiLanglois Alaska officials declined to comment men’s resolve strengthens. over a fishery that stretches hundreds of make that goes against the commission’s simmering pot of moose stew. mother butcher the salmon, and he takes for this story, but the former attorney Their anger was palpable at a meet- miles and is already governed by a tangle recommendations. Lew Coggins, a federal Eventually, we load up Williams’ a deep breath and starts over. Akiak and This coverage general wrote in the state’s appeal that ing at Akiachak’s village offices last June, of state and federal laws. fisheries biologist at Yukon Delta, says fishing boat — five adults, one teenager, other tribes will continue to advocate for is supported by having pockets of Indian Country scat- where uniformed U.S. Fish and Wildlife of- Mike Williams knows this. He’s made that the real-time data collected by tribal a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old and a dozen a greater voice in managing their fishery, contributors to the High Country News tered across Alaska’s patchwork of state, ficials explained the restrictions placed on it his mission to learn everything he can members and organized by the Intertrib- dead fish. We push into the current. The Williams tells me. And maybe someday Enterprise Journalism federal and private land would create subsistence users’ 2015 salmon harvest. about salmon. He reads scientific papers al Fish Commission has helped fisheries outboard motor churns through the river soon, the state will have no choice but to Fund. “widespread uncertainty about govern- Subsistence fishermen crowded the table and government rulings and translates managers double the 2016 subsistence like a blender cutting through a chocolate listen.

16 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 17 MARKETPLACE MARKETPLACE

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Seattle, Wash., may Rural School payments, and direct O&C Executive director, Eastern Sierra inquiries. Excellent compensation package. that communications and marketing activities be considered. For more information, please payments will be much lower, given tim- Interpretive Association — Great job with Candidates should submit résumé and cover are focused, that outreach to members, the visit our website: www.wilderness.org/ca- ber revenues’ slump. Four O&C counties a great organization in a great location. Info: letter to: [email protected] public and opinion leaders is consistent and reers-and-internships. go to esiaonline.org, or call 760-873-2411. are on a state watch list for financial dis- Web site: www.nationalforests.org. effective, and that we grow our audiences. To view the full job announcement and apply, tress. They have some of the state’s lowest Executive Director, New Mexico Wild- Executive Director, Pacific Biodiversity Muleshoe Ranch Preserve Steward – visit www.idahoconservation.org/about/ property taxes, but have been unable to life Center — Wildlife rehabilitation hospital Institute — Seeking a visionary and creative The Nature Conservancy’s Arizona Chapter job-openings/. and science education center near Santa Fe, raise rates to make up for shortfalls. Al- leader with a passion for informing and inspir- is hiring a Preserve Steward for the Muleshoe N.M. nmwildlifecenter.org/content.php?con- ready, 17 O&C counties plan to sue. The ing conservation actions through scientific Ranch to assist in the day-to-day operations, tent=events. O&C Act, they argue, requires the BLM to research and education. See pacificbio.org/ which will include the maintenance, manage- offer at least 500 million board-feet annu- jobs/ED.html. ment and general oversight of the preserve ally, with all O&C timberlands available for “permanent forest production.” The lawsuit and others to come may force a court reckoning over just how much timber harvest the 1937 law requires. “I think the counties want to know and the forest products industry wants to know and the environmental community wants to know: What does the O&C Act real- ly mean?” says Travis Joseph, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a Northwest timber trade association. “Does it mean what it says? Or has it been cir- cumvented by other acts of Congress?” Environmentalists feel confident in their legal interpretation: After all, the O&C Act mandates protecting watersheds Logging truck driver tions. For one, they shrink stream buffers safeguard. and recreation alongside timber produc- James Griffin tightens that have significantly improved water- But environmentalists’ strong ob- tion. “We read the O&C Act as Congress’s the chains securing sheds by, among other things, limiting jections raise doubts about whether the first attempt to do a multiple-use stat- a full load of logs logging that contributes to sediment run- BLM can achieve its new timber targets. ute,” says Kerr. The BLM, he and others he’s taking to a mill off. The buffers also gave streams room to The Pacific Northwest may be at a point believe, has discretion to prioritize more from a burned area where logging is socially unacceptable un- conservation. And if the plans stand, Kerr in Washington. shift course, and maintained connections Environmentalists between habitat patches for species like less it has clear ecological purposes that says, “I’m looking forward to them trying oppose salvage logging spotted owls. Inside old-growth reserves, outweigh economic ones, observes Norm to cut old growth and having people sit in of burned forests the new plans would drop prohibitions Johnson, a forestry professor at Oregon trees again.” because it can damage against cutting trees over 80 years old, State University and a Northwest For- Reed Wilson might be up for that. habitat, slow natural and allow logged openings up to four acres est Plan author. In the BLM’s “moder- Originally from Texas, he got involved in recovery and increase — eight times the size currently allowed. ate intensity” logging areas, companies public-lands activism through a famous erosion. ALAN BERNER/ And though managers are expressly di- could cut 85 to 95 percent of trees, which tree-sit to save 94 acres of old growth at THE SEATTLE TIMES rected to maintain habitat for threatened seems likely to incite controversy even in central Oregon’s Fall Creek. “It lasted five spotted owls and murrelets, another im- cases where it’s ecologically defensible. years, through the winter and everything,” periled bird, they’re permitted to remove “If your harvest can be identified with he says. “It was wonderful.” Up on the plat- or downgrade it, through fuel reduction or clear-cutting, you’re sunk. The public forms, flying squirrels would sometimes other treatments, for “the overall health of hates clear-cutting on federal land,” John- land on protesters. “They’d try to take the the stand or adjacent stands.” Such vague son says. The BLM is “really testing the food out of your hand,” Wilson says. “We’d language invites abuse, says Chandra ground for changes to the Northwest For- see them launch. They’d go to the edge of LeGue, western Oregon field coordinator est Plan. And if the BLM can’t do it, it says the platform and just, choooooo.”

18 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 19 MARKETPLACE

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20 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 21 WRITERS ON THE RANGE

Leonard Peltier remains imprisoned after being convicted in connection with the shooting deaths of two FBI agents in 1975. Supporters of Peltier say he is a political prisoner. KARPOV/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

aire philanthropist David Geffen, among others, was expected to grant executive It’s long past time to free clemency. But after several hundred FBI agents, along with the dead agents’ fam- ily members, demonstrated outside the a man unjustly imprisoned White House, Clinton on his last day in office pardoned a financier named Marc So much time has passed that many her testimony, claiming that the FBI Rich instead. Rich had been indicted for Americans have forgotten, if they ever had threatened to take her child away tax evasion and illegal oil deals, includ- knew, what happened to an American if she didn’t sign the affidavit, the judge ing a purchase of $200 million worth of Indian named Leonard Peltier, who has refused to hear her testimony. oil from Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran while spent more than 40 years confined in var- Amnesty International classifies 53 Americans were being held hostage ious federal penitentiaries. This summer, Peltier as a political prisoner. Some of his there, and selling oil to the apartheid a group of his family members and friends other defenders include Nelson Mandela, regime in South Africa despite a U.N. are traveling the country in an attempt to the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond embargo. Geffen called Rich’s pardon “a salvage what remains of his life, and to re- Tutu and Robert Cantuar, a former sign of corrupted values.” mind us all that no statute of limitations archbishop of Canterbury. Michael Apted On my last trip to South Dakota, pertains to the application of justice. produced an acclaimed documentary film I visited the Pine Ridge Reservation. OPINION BY Peltier’s ordeal began when two FBI exploring the case, Incident at Oglala, In the town of Pine Ridge, I talked to MIKE agents, Ron Williams and Jack Coler, which was narrated by Robert Redford. the man I’d come to see and then drove BAUGHMAN were shot to death on South Dakota’s Despite the FBI’s fraudulent evi- north to Wounded Knee, where I spent Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. No one dence and perjured testimony, Peltier the long afternoon alone. There was a familiar with the details of the case remains in federal prison. He went in as pleasantly cool north wind and a clear believes that Leonard committed the a 31-year-old and is now 71. He’s been blue sky. I walked and thought. This murders, and Peter Matthiessen ex- transferred often, from Leavenworth, quiet place was where, in 1890, the U.S. plored this miscarriage of justice in his Kansas, to Terre Haute, Indiana, to 7th Cavalry surrounded an encampment 1983 book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to Canaan, of Lakotas, and for no justifiable reason Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart Pennsylvania, back to Lewisburg, and opened fire. By some estimates, as many at Wounded Knee, called Matthiessen’s finally to Florida. Everywhere he’s been, as 300 Indian men, women and children book “the first solidly documented ac- inmates have jumped and beaten him, were slaughtered by the time the firing count of the U.S. government’s renewed likely with the collusion of guards. Now finally stopped. To make a foul deed even assault upon American Indians that he is going blind from diabetes, suffers worse, at least 20 of the soldiers who began in the 1970s.” from kidney failure and is susceptible to participated in this senseless massacre The plain truth is that with two FBI strokes. Ed Little Crow, a Lakota living were awarded the Medal of Honor. agents shot dead on an Indian reserva- in Oregon, says that all Peltier wants There’s nothing anyone can ever do tion, the government needed a convic- “is a chance to see his family and work about what happened at Wounded Knee. tion. At Peltier’s trial before an all-white on old cars. If that dignified black man But, though very belatedly, something jury, prosecutors used false testimony who’s president doesn’t pardon him, he’ll can still be done about Leonard Peltier. against him, some of it obtained through die in prison. This is his last chance.” I hope President Obama sets this man torture. One particularly repugnant When Peltier was sentenced, the free. example: The FBI produced affidavits applicable law stated that an inmate by a woman named Mabel Poor Bear, with a good record should, after 30 years, Mike Baughman is a writer in Ashland, who said she was Peltier’s girlfriend and be released. His record was good, but, Oregon. claimed to have seen him shoot Williams instead of freedom, his parole board gave and Coler at close range. But Poor Bear him another 15-year sentence. His next WEB EXTRA Writers on the Range is a syndicated service of To see all the current had never met Peltier, didn’t even know hearing is scheduled for 2024. what he looked like, and was proved to High Country News, providing three opinion col- Writers on the Range Before his second term ended, Pres- umns each week to more than 200 media outlets columns, and archives, have been nowhere near the scene of ident Bill Clinton, under pressure from around the West. For more information, contact visit hcn.org the murders. When she tried to recant Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye and billion- Betsy Marston, [email protected], 970-527-4898.

www.hcn.org High Country News 23 WRITERS ON THE RANGE

leather, clothing, or leftover food. The doused fire itself contains charcoal that In this season of fire, nix the campfire will last for thousands of years. I have carried the remnants of count- In 1972, Grand Canyon National Park smoke also fills the whole camping area. I didn’t have a fire tonight?” No one would, less discarded campfires out of the Grand outlawed campfires in the backcountry. can see and smell a campfire from a mile and that was the beginning of the end of Canyon. This requires a frame pack, a Backpackers like me considered this an away. my fascination with campfires. shovel, work gloves and several high- outrage. After all, the only people who Note: Fires stink. I became notorious for my refusal to grade garbage bags. carried those fancy little stoves back Fires are a survival tool. Everyone let my companions build an illegal fire at It is, of course, possible to build a then were people incapable of building a who goes into the backcountry knows to the bottom of Grand Canyon. And then, to leave-no-trace fire. It takes a fireproof fire. I bring this up because we are living carry waxed matches, so that in an emer- let them build a fire anywhere. We had a blanket spread on cleared ground cov- through another explosive fire season in gency, you may bask in the warmth of a stove; we had warm clothing. Why did we ered with a mound of mineral soil. This the West. fire. I once spent the night at 10,000 feet want to destroy old wood and leave an un- shields the soil from being sterilized. A Of course, popular campsites back in midwinter and 14 feet of snow, hud- holy mess? We didn’t, everyone decided. small fire built from wood no larger than OPINION BY then looked a lot like parking lots. No dled near a fire, but not basking. I would There is a person in the Sierra Club the size of one’s finger is allowed to burn MARJORIE downed wood, no dead (or live) grasses, much rather have had my down parka. (who shall remain nameless) who is still to ash. As soon as you leave, any pieces of no bushes, no bark on the trees as far up The wood kept burning up, and someone, not speaking to me because I would not charcoal must be crushed to powder and “SLIM” as you could reach. When a dozen people usually me, had to stumble around in the let him build a fire on an overnight trip, scattered to the winds. For light, it is far WOODRUFF a night are building campfires, anything snow gathering new fuel. and he had not brought a stove. I volun- easier to use a solar lantern, or a candle. burnable vanishes pretty quickly. Note: Even survival experts admit teered the use of my stove, but no, he had I spent a week car camping in Yel- Note: Fires denude the camping area. that the value of a survival fire is mostly to have a fire, and I wasn’t going to build lowstone with a friend, and we –– well, I I had a stove. I remember setting psychological. one. He ate cold, dry food for three days. –– chose not to waste money purchasing up my tiny SVEA, putting the pot on to One day, I found myself hiking in I discovered that if one is not blinded firewood. There was some grumbling, but boil, and turning to organize my sleeping the mountains right at tree level. It was by a fire, there are stars. Small animals I rose above it. place, because when cooking on a wood a lovely meadow with delicate alpine creep about. There is a distinct lack of At the end of the week, my friend fire, it takes forever for the pot to boil. flowers –– a verdant hanging valley. I stench in clothing –– well, it smells like said, “I did kind of miss a fire, but when But my pot boileth over. More quickly pictured myself dragging the weathered a sweaty human body, but not combined you aren’t looking for wood and tending than I expected. wood into a ring, starting a fire, killing with stale smoke. the fire, and staying out of the smoke, Note: Stoves are more efficient than the fragile plants underneath, and then, Soon, I began to clean out abandoned and cleaning up after the fire, you sure WEB EXTRA wood fires. in the morning, dealing with the debris campfire rings, realizing that there is a have a lot of spare time.” Indeed. Writers on the Range is a syndicated service of A Forest Service employee monitors an abandoned fire in To see all the current High Country News, providing three opinion col- the Coconino National Forest in Arizona. U.S. FOREST SERVICE Writers on the Range A fire is convivial, although I usually and blackened soil. persistent belief that anything thrown umns each week to more than 200 media outlets columns, and archives, don’t sit next to it: I spend a lot of time “No one would mind, would they,” into a campfire will vanish. It doesn’t. Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff lives and works around the West. For more information, contact visit hcn.org skulking around to avoid smoke. Said I asked my fellow backpackers, “if we Cans don’t burn. Nor does glass, plastic, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Betsy Marston, [email protected], 970-527-4898. big ideas Inaugural Tour from High Country News Travel A Journey through Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota September 16-26, 2016 Join us for this very special issue and reach: NATURAL RESOURCE EDUCATION AD OPPORTUNITIES: • Print, eNewsletter and Web advertising. • 120,000 policy-makers, educators, students, public land For more information, visit: hcn.org/wildroad managers, environmental professionals, outdoor enthusiasts and • Print & digital packages, and à la carte options available. others who care deeply about the future of this unique region. Call toll-free: 877. 992. 6128 ISSUE COVER DATE: September 19, 2016 • Affluent, highly educated, environmentally and socially SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINE: August 29, 2016 conscious educators and those looking for continuing education. AD ART DEADLINE: September 5, 2016 10 percent of all proceeds from this tour will be donated to the sanctuaries and preserves we visit. • 390,000 additional people through our website Visit hcn.org/BigIdeas or contact David Anderson: and eNewsletter. 800-311-5852 or [email protected]

24 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 25 BOOKS ESSAY | BY TOM TAYLOR

Love and death on the border

The Mexican-American border has in- to “Prevention Through Deterrence,” boyfriend’s suicide resulted in a story- spired its own literary genre, unleashing a strategy in which the Border Patrol book romance when she met the man of a flood of poetry, reportage, nature writ- clamped down on major immigration her dreams, Sixto Valdez. ing, crime fiction, novels, essays and even corridors to force would-be crossers into They could not have come from more coffee-table photo books. Together, words parched and dangerous lands, deputizing different backgrounds. He grew up in a and pictures paint a sharp portrait of a Nature as a tool of law enforcement and house made of cactus ribs, mud, and corru- landscape caught between delicate light sidestepping any responsibility for what gated tin in Sinaloa. He was kind, decent, and terrifying darkness. happens to people out there. a rock-solid partner. But as a poor Mexi- Two recent books bring unique per- Between October 2010 and September can man, he couldn’t get a visa. So one day spectives to this invisible slash across 2014, the bodies of almost 3,000 dead in 1988, he simply popped through a hole cultures, and to the dreams of the people migrants were recovered in southern in the fence and safely reached the other who yearn to be on the other side of it. Arizona alone. Hundreds remain uniden- side. It was, of course, a very different bor- Jason de León’s The Land of Open tified. Countless others vanish entirely, der in those days than the one so painfully The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant consumed and scattered by animals and documented in de León’s book. Graves: Living and Trail is a disturbing book about an im- the elements. Those who succeed are fre- Later, after Sixto finally received his Dying on the Migrant mense human tragedy. But somehow it’s quently scarred — physically as well as papers, the couple returned to Sinaloa to Trail the pigs I can’t get out of my head — and psychologically — by the experience. Most visit his family. Valdez describes a lumi- not just the pigs, actually, but the hor- have been subjected to rape, robbery, nous day at the beach: Jason de León rible reality of what they represent. De and other unimaginable forms of cruelty, “Right now, in the water, in the sun, 384 pages, softcover:

León buys a pig and hires someone to kill violence and suffering on the journey. All there was only this moment — and it POOLE EMILY ILLUSTRATIONS: $29.95. it. Shot in the head, the animal struggles this in order to take dangerous, crappy would remain warm and joyful years lat- University of California mightily as the author rubs its belly, jobs no one in this country wants. er, even in the dark of winter, even when Press, 2015. mumbling, “It’s OK. It’s OK.” The dead De León uses science to expose this getting along was hard work instead of pig is then dressed in underwear, jeans, federal policy for what it is, “a killing-ma- child’s play. T-shirt and tennis shoes and dumped chine that simultaneously uses and hides “We sparkled in the water. Sea beneath a mesquite. The researchers step behind the viciousness of the Sonoran jewels.”­ The Chickadee Symphony back to record, with scientific precision, Desert.” It has created a hugely profitable The book describes Sixto’s crossing, exactly what happens to it over the next “border industrial complex” where every- their marriage, their families, the chal- two weeks. one involved — lobbyists, contractors, law lenges of dealing with immigration bu- n my land in the Black Forest, north of Colorado Springs, band used in “Burning Love.” (The chickadees would have to The pig represents the body of an enforcement, private prisons, smugglers, reaucracy and how they created a happy O Colorado, the black-capped chickadees are up to something. work on the rhythm; they’re funky, but not that funky.) undocumented immigrant, de León and vendors of “crossing supplies” — bicultural life together on both sides of They don’t migrate, but the notes in their spring song have. It As the years passed, Variation 2 came on the scene. In Varia- writes, part of an experiment to under- makes money, with the notable exception the border. Sixto eventually earned a may be a stretch to say that the chickadees are composing, but tion 2, the top two pitches have both migrated down a half step. stand what happens to those who die of the immigrants themselves. master’s degree and became a teacher. over the nearly 30 years I’ve lived here, their spring song has This variation sounds like “Three Blind Mice,” or, to listeners of and disappear in the Sonoran Desert. He A very different border tale unfolds Valdez, now an editorial writer for the evolved in a way that I, as a composer, can appreciate. a certain generation, the Three Stooges theme. repeats this violent process four more in Linda Valdez’s thoughtful, important Arizona Republic and a Pulitzer Prize Scientists have found that bird songs are affected in various times and writes a scientific paper about new memoir Crossing the Line: A Mar- finalist, has written a humane cross-cul- ways by altitude, region, stress and many other environmental it. The conclusion is stark and inevitable: riage Across Borders. She has written a tural odyssey of love, family, commitment factors. I’m an artist, not a scientist, but I’ve yet to see data The desert eats poor people. As director love story about immigration, and it is a and devotion that revels in the tenacity of showing specific pitch shifts resulting in a different melodic Crossing the Line: A of the Undocumented Migration Project, well-crafted antidote to de León’s border- the human spirit. shape. What I’ve heard on my land is exactly that. Variation 2, it turns out, is quite close to the Carolina chick- Marriage Across Borders de León is conducting a long-term study induced despair. These books show us two opposing I’ve kept a journal for many years. My first entries of the adee song. Variation 2 came late to the party on my land, from using the tools and methods of anthropol- Valdez was an asthmatic 11-year realities of the border: Where Valdez chickadees’ song, from 1988, note three pitches reminiscent of a where I don’t know. Perhaps it’s an emergent property; when Linda Valdez ogy to understand undocumented migra- old middle-class German-Irish girl celebrates life, de León’s work is mired in blues lick that I often play on the guitar. For many years, that conditions are right, the birds give out the Three Stooges theme. 192 pages, softcover: tion between Mexico and the U.S. from Ohio’s Rust Belt when her mother death. He graphically bears witness that was the chickadees’ only tune. At present, on my land, we seem to be firmly in the develop- $22.95. A couple hundred thousand or more brought her to Tucson seeking a des- not everyone makes it, and that even for Classical composers often divided their symphonic move- ment section of our Chickadee Symphony. This is where compos- Texas Christian University migrants are apprehended each year at ert cure. After a bumpy transition to those who do, the fairy-tale ending all too ments into three chunks: exposition, development and recapitu- ers have the most fun, playing all kinds of musical games with Press, 2015. the border. But some of those who cross adulthood, Valdez became a newspaper often is a desert mirage. lation. In the exposition, they laid out a brief musical theme the themes they established at the outset. Beethoven, in his into the U.S. perish in the desert thanks reporter. A chance trip to Mexico after a BY JON M. SHUMAKER or themes. Most composers, including Mozart, used only two famous Fifth Symphony, enraptures us to this day with a seven- themes; Beethoven splintered the so-called rules by using how- minute elaboration on a four-note theme: da, da, da, DUM. (I ever many themes he wanted. We might think of the blues lick don’t have to notate that one, do I?) It sounds a bit like a bird- as the first theme or exposition of a Chickadee Symphony: call, which makes sense, since both the Fifth and Sixth Sympho- nies recall the sounds that the increasingly deaf composer once heard in nature. The development section of the Chickadee Symphony re- ally gets cooking with a seemingly random amalgam of the The tonic, or “home,” pitch for the chickadees is close to our three melodies, their texture and interest enhanced by false “F” note. The note varies only slightly here and there. But ever starts and added vocal stops — not unlike what bagpipers do so gradually, the top two notes of the lick, the B flat and the A to separate notes from the constant air stream. As the three flat, have migrated in two distinct ways. variations skitter across, around and through one another, the The first variation appeared alongside the original, almost birds create an almost Bach-like web of counterpoint. Quite as if we were entering the development section of the symphony. beautiful. In this new melody, the A flat has migrated down a half step I may need a few more decades to see where this (the distance between a white key on the piano and its adjacent Chickadee Symphony is headed. Will there be a recapitula- black key) to a G: tion, where the birds return to just the original blues lick? Probably not. I’ll be expecting something new, because unlike human art, which is bounded, nature is always in a state of becoming. Above, vultures scavenge a pig carcass five days into a post-mortem decomposition experiment in the Sonoran Desert. Left, a young immigrant gets first-aid treatment after getting caught on If it were four octaves lower, the notes in the new melody Tom Taylor is a composer, guitarist and recording artist who a barbed-wire fence while running from the Border Patrol. COURTESY JASON DE LEÓN would sound like an old R&B bass line of the sort Elvis Presley’s also teaches jazz at Colorado College. 26 High Country News July 25, 2016 www.hcn.org High Country News 27 U.S. $5 | Canada $6

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY BETSY MARSTON

UTAH cookies. The extreme heat also brought tragedy: Few Bureau of Land Management rangers patrol Three hikers and a mountain biker died when the vast Bears Ears region of Utah, so it hasn’t temperatures rose above 120 degrees. been hard for grave robbers to loot Native American artifacts, or for vandals to carve their COLORADO names on sandstone petroglyphs. But Utah Re- Careless campers in southern Colorado have been publican Rep. Mike Noel is a staunch opponent forgetting something important: They start camp- of any federal management of public lands, and fires without any trouble but neglect to put them he holds humanity blameless. The real culprit, out. Forest rangers found 30 unattended or aban- he said recently, is the small but fearless badger: doned campfires during just one weekend, which “All we can see today are badger holes,” he told doesn’t bode well for the hot dry weeks coming the Salt Lake Tribune. “We have to get a handle up. Over the last decade, “careless human acts” on these badgers because those little suckers are of that sort have caused nearly half the costly, de- going down and digging up artifacts and stick- structive fires that have ravaged national forests ing them in their holes.” The nonprofit Center and grasslands, says the Pueblo Interagency Dis- for Western Priorities expressed no little amaze- patch Center, including one started in early July ment at this notion of badger prowess, observing near Nederland, Colorado. Putting out campfires that Rep. Noel seems to believe that badgers isn’t that hard; you just need water, a shovel and can “operate a rock saw to steal petroglyphs, a little patience. Or better yet, maybe don’t start spell and carve ‘F**k You BLM’ into rocks, and one at all. (See page 24.) shoot firearms into petroglyphs.” You’d think ARIZONA We thought they were called “dirt that, with talent like that, one of these days an bikes.” GREG WOODALL CALIFORNIA ambitious badger might even run for the state There’s an intersection in the town of Hayward, Legislature. Mail-Tribune. “I wasn’t going to catch him on in Northern California, that’s been reverently foot. I just don’t run very fast.” Borba, who uses watched by geologists for almost five decades, COLORADO a rope every day to make a living, said of his says the Los Angeles Times. Over time, the curb “She was able to pry the cat’s jaws open,” said lasso: “If it catches cattle pretty good, it catches at the corner of Rose and Prospect had slid dra- a deputy sheriff in western Colorado. “She’s a a bandit pretty good.” As Borba slowly dragged matically askew, with the eastern half wrenched hero.” He was talking about the fierce mother 22-year-old Victorino Arellano-Sanchez across a foot north, and the other side pulled south, who went head-to-head with a mountain lion the parking lot, Arellano-Sanchez must have thanks to clashing plates belowground. The –– and won. The mom, whose name has not felt like he’d landed a part in a Hollywood horse Hayward fault, which runs beneath Hayward, been released, heard her 5-year-old screaming opera. Looking up from the pavement, he asked Berkeley, Oakland and Fremont, is a “tectonic in the backyard of their home in Woody Creek, the mounted cowboy, “Do you have a badge to time bomb,” according to the U.S. Geological Sur- near Aspen. Running outside, she saw that the do this?” David Stepp, who watched the action vey, and geologists said the town’s “faulty curb” lion had her son’s head gripped in its jaws. She from his car, couldn’t stop laughing: “I’ve seen it served as a vivid indication that an earthquake yanked one of its paws down and then went for all, but I’ve never seen anything like that in my was ready to blow at any time. Yet town officials its jaw, forcing it to open wide enough for her entire life.” Adventure Journal reports that the had no idea that the curb was famous — geologi- child to escape. After the lion fled, reports CBS erstwhile bike-napper was charged with misde- cally speaking. “We weren’t aware of it,” said Denver, both mother and son were treated in a meanor theft. Kelly McAdoo, assistant city manager. So not hospital for cuts and bruises. long ago, the town replaced the unsightly curb THE WEST with a wheelchair-accessible ramp. But what OREGON The early-summer heat wave that set records can you say? It wasn’t really their fault. Let’s give a whoop and a holler to honor Oregon across parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Califor- rancher Robert Borba, who pulled his horse out nia inspired residents to attempt legendary cu- WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see of its trailer, leaped into the saddle, and brought linary achievements, such as frying eggs on the hcn.org. down an escaping bike thief with a lasso to sidewalk, says The Week magazine. One woman Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and the ankle. “I seen this fella trying to get up to in Phoenix was more ingenious: She turned often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag speed on a bicycle,” Borba told the Medford her parked car into an oven hot enough to bake photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram.

High Our efforts to prepare for climate change are even Country weaker than our efforts to prevent it. News “ For people who care about the West. Pepper Trail, in his essay, “There’s no Brexit from our climate problems,” from Writers on the Range, hcn.org/wotr” High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

28 High Country News July 25, 2016