Tree of Life to Save the Most Species, Conservationists Might Do Best to Save the Common Ones They Depend on by Cally Carswell | Page 12 June 8, 2015 | $5 | Vol

TOXIC CHEMICALS | 5 | WATER LEASING | 6 | BULL TROUT | 8

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West Tree of Life To save the most species, conservationists might do best to save the common ones they depend on By Cally Carswell | Page 12 June 8, 2015 | $5 | Vol. 47 No. 10 | www.hcn.org 10 No. 47 | $5 Vol. June 8, 2015 CONTENTS

Editor’s note The precious common

Imagine a white burqa crossed with a beekeeper’s suit. At the end of one arm protrudes a pterodactyl-esque puppet head with a long bill, a blazing red pate and cheeks streaked a vivid black. But its golden eyes are flat and unmoving, like those of a specimen in a museum diorama. If you’re a whooping crane chick raised in captivity at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland, this is the costume worn by the human pretending to be your mom. Because your species numbered around 20 in 1941, scientists carefully selected your biological parents to avoid genetic problems. Once you hatch, your surrogate “crane” teaches you, by example, to eat crane kibble, and to swim in a pool and dash across the grass so that your legbones develop correctly. When you’re old enough, she teaches you to follow an ultralight aircraft on your first migratory flight to Piñon pines on a ridge in Sunset Crater Volcano National Florida’s Gulf Coast. She shapes you, in essence, to Monument, where Northern Arizona University scientists are an approximation of wildness, hoping that you will studying genetic diversity in plants. JEREMY WAdE SHOCkLEY one day mate with another whooper, and build a population that thrives without intervention in the world beyond Patuxent’s walls. Over the past half-century, we’ve gone to great FEATURE lengths to conserve rare species, with some success. There are now hundreds of whooping cranes, wolves 12 Tree of Life and grizzlies have reclaimed the Northern Rockies, To save the most species, conservationists might do best and certain salmon runs have increased. But today’s to save the common ones they depend on. By Cally Carswell conservation challenges are infinitely vaster than anyone could have imagined when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. We are driving Earth’s CURRENTS sixth mass extinction, radically changing habitat and the climate to which we are all adapted. Saving 5 The cost of compromise every struggling creature now will be impossible, 6 particularly if it requires draconian measures. Last-ditch effort “Conservationists need new strategies,” writes On the cover 6 The Latest: Wyoming ozone controls contributing editor Cally Carswell in this issue’s cover 8 Clackamas comeback story. And one of the most viable may involve looking Original illustration beyond rare species to some of the much more for High Country News 8 The Latest: Oilfield deaths common ones. by Bryce Gladfelter. Ecologists at Northern Arizona University have built a strong case that genetic diversity within DEPARTMENTS seemingly ordinary cottonwoods and piñon pines determines the biodiversity of the vast community 3 HCN.ORG NEWS IN BRIEF of creatures that live in those trees’ canopies and on 4 LETTERS their bark. That means saving a lot of species at once may be as simple — and as complicated — as ensuring 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends that the handful that form an ecosystem’s foundation 20 MARKETPLACE have the necessary genetic resilience to weather the Complete access 24 WRITERS ON THE RANGE coming crises. Protecting, and perhaps even directly to subscriber-only manipulating, their innate ability to adapt could give content Wyoming acts to discourage citizen scientists By Sharman Apt Russell everything else a better shot at survival. HCN’s website That‘s an unsettling vision of the future — like hcn.org 26 BOOKS playing God, as one biologist observes. But it’s not Digital edition Crow Fair by Thomas McGuane. Reviewed by Traci J. Macnamara all that different from what we already do with hcne.ws/digi-4710 Tom Connor’s Gift by David Allan Cates. Reviewed by Michelle Pulich Stewart whooping cranes, working desperately and with iPhone app an almost maternal devotion to ensure that this hcne.ws/wuZsWu 27 ESSAY Fungal Lust By Erin Halcomb graceful bird, with its nearly 8-foot foot wingspan, iPad app inhabits our future as more than just a carefully hcne.ws/NGtBYx 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston maintained artifact from a vanishing era. —Sarah Gilman, contributing editor 2 High Country News June 8, 2015 HCN.ORG NEWS iN bRiEF

The role of states in the ESA Trending This month, the Obama administration Prison proposed increasing the role states play in pipeline Endangered Species Act listings, hoping to A new study finds deter or pre-empt moves from congressional that Native American Republicans to overhaul the act and reduce students in Utah are protections for species such as the greater disciplined far more sage grouse and lesser prairie chicken. harshly than their Under the proposed changes, people peers. They’re almost wanting to petition the federal government eight times more likely to be referred to list a species would first have to send to law enforcement petitions to state agencies that manage and more than six that species. The state would then have times more likely 30 days to respond with data, such as to be arrested than population counts or comments, which white students — a ORG, WWW.TRINGA. would then be included with the federal phenomenon known in education circles petition. Today, petitioners don’t need to as the “school-to- provide any data, and state input comes prison pipeline.” The S. SPENd ELOW later in the process. The proposal also harshest discipline

COB would seek to make the listing process more takes place in schools JA transparent. ElizabEth ShogrEn closest to the state’s Lesser prairie chicken in Chaves County, New Mexico, a species that could be booted off the eight reservations. endangered species list if changes proposed by congressional Republicans go through. hcne.ws/ESAchanges KatE SchiMEl

You say A little drought relief for the Southwest lEa tuttlE: “You’re A rainy May drenched the Southwest this spring, on lingering effects from the longstanding drought not going to teach $157,000 the heels of a parched winter. That deluge, depicted in the region won’t disappear. For example, Lake anyone anything The amount Utah-based American Lands in the map below, is helping to keep wildfire risk Powell and Lake Mead are still facing dismal by punishing them Council — whose focus is taking back federal at normal levels. It’s also boosting a meager water inflows and reservoir levels on the Rio Grande for petty things! lands for states — collected in membership supply. But without a substantial winter snowpack, remain low. cally carSwEll hcne.ws/SWrain All this is doing is dues in 2013. hurting them — the cycle continues. TOTAL PRECiPiTATiON MAY 1-27, 2015 These schools are still to this day discriminating against Natives.” $134,000 The amount of those dues that came from w. FrEd SandErS: taxpayer-funded county commissions. “There are obviously large social and Since 2012, the American Lands Council has economic problems raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to resulting from history advocate and lobby for the transfer of federal and the isolation on lands to states. And much of that money reservations. Many has come from county memberships — that of these problems is, taxpayer-funded dues. “ALC comes in are not effectively and offers counties this incredible-sounding different from those deal: ‘We’ll get you these lands with minerals faced by all rural and timber and resources,’ ” Jessica Goad, communities in the advocacy director for conservation group West.” Center for Western Priorities, said. “But when you pull back the curtain a bit, (the ALC) is Monthly precipitation (inches) hcne.ws/studentsUT selling an idea that is actually a waste of <0.01 0.6-0.8 2.4-2.8 6-8 and facebook.com/ their time and (their) limited funds.” .01-0.1 0.8-1.2 2.8-3.2 8-12 highcountrynews Kindra McQuillan 0.1-0.2 1.2-1.6 3.2-4 12-16 0.2-0.4 1.6-2 4-5 16-20 COPYRIGHT © 2015, PRISM CLIMATE GROUP, 0.4-0.6 2-2.4 5-6 >20 OREGON STATE UNIvERSITY, PRISM.OREGONSTATE.EdU hcne.ws/fed-transfer-tax MAP CREATEd MAY 28, 2015.

GALLERY bug life Former HCN intern Marian Lyman kirst $950 has created an online photography Amount, in millions, offered to the Lax kw’alaam collection, “Bugonthumb,” which she calls First Nation by a Malaysian energy company a “celebration of insects and arachnids, to put a natural gas export terminal on tribal ancestral lands in Northern British Columbia. The those winged and legged wisps that run tribe declined because of the possible threat to its the world and rule my mind.” Some of our salmon fishery, even though it would have meant favorites can be found at $260,000 for each member. Sarah tory Mormon cricket. MARIAN LYMAN kIRST hcne.ws/westerninsects hcne.ws/tribes-energy www.hcn.org High Country News 3 LETTERS Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428.

High Country News SHALLOW UNDERSTANDiNG REMEMbERiNG ‘THE CREEk’ ExEcutivE dirEctor/PubliShEr Paul Larmer Reader Brandt Mannchen takes issue “The Wetland Wars” struck a chord with Managing Editor with rainwater harvesting as presented me. I went to Loyola Marymount Uni- Brian Calvert in a recent article (“Letters,” HCN, versity from 1960 to 1963. The campus SEnior EditorS Jonathan Thompson 5/25/15; “Tucson’s rain-catching revolu- was above and just to the east of Bal- Jodi Peterson tion” HCN, 4/27/15)). He deplores local lona Creek. In that era, it was known art dirEctor Tucson water expert Brent Cluff’s belief as “the creek.” After a long day, I often Cindy Wehling onlinE Editor that “water harvesting could support walked around the area to capture some Tay Wiles unlimited growth.” I know of Brent Cluff of the tranquility generated by that d.c. corrESPondEnt but have never heard of and certainly do urban oasis. Elizabeth Shogren not share this opinion. Mannchen’s fur- writErS on thE rangE Stephen McLaughlin ther characterizations of water harvest- Editor Betsy Marston Corvallis, Oregon aSSociatE dESignEr ing and of Tucson’s landscaping reveal a Brooke Warren shallow understanding of both. coPy Editor TRADE iMbALANCE Diane Sylvain Rainwater harvesting is designed contributing EditorS to irrigate gardens and landscapes and PETER OMMUNdSEN There is something missing from “Trade Cally Carswell thus reduce the use of potable sources winds blow through the West” (HCN, Craig Childs for these purposes, not to encourage 5/25/15). There is much talk about poor Sarah Gilman leum she was railing about. I don’t be- Judith Lewis Mernit lush lawns. Mannchen admonishes Rifle and other communities suffering Jeremy Miller lieve a jet engine has yet been invented Tucsonans to “Adapt to the desert. Don’t from depressed natural gas production, Sierra Crane-Murdoch that can run on organic fair-trade coffee. Michelle Nijhuis fight it.” My wife and I live about four and the hopes that the Trans-Pacific Josh Zaffos As we crusade on our high horses, can miles from downtown Tucson. Yesterday Partnership will once again increase corrESPondEntS we at least recognize our frequent hy- Ben Goldfarb we hopped on our bikes and surveyed production and, therefore, jobs in the pocrisies? Krista Langlois our and adjacent neighborhoods. In West. This is undoubtedly true. But Editorial FEllow Sarah Tory over five miles of biking, we spotted just Robert Michael what about the obvious fact that, for intErnS one residential lawn. Tucson is truly a Fort Collins, Colorado American consumers, natural gas prices Kindra McQuillan desert town. Kate Schimel will go up significantly? There has to be aSSociatE PubliShEr Mannchen asserts that too much WETLAND CLARiFiCATiON a balance here, but ignoring the con- Alexis Halbert harvesting will rob streams and aqui- sumer leaves a vast imbalance. A little clarification is needed to better dEvEloPMEnt ManagEr fers of needed recharge. He ignores the Alyssa Pinkerton understand the setting of “The Wetlands Chuck Saxton article’s reference to a study that esti- dEvEloPMEnt aSSiStant Wars” (HCN, 5/11/15). The Los Angeles Bennett, Colorado Christine List mated harvesting reduced water flow by River did not flow continuously through SubScriPtionS MarKEtEr a mere 3 percent. On our property, the the Ballona Wetlands previous to the CiTizEN PSEUDOSCiENCE JoAnn Kalenak total building footprint is roughly 3,500 wEb dEvEloPEr calamitous flood of 1825. A flood that square feet, compared to the lot size Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi’s legislation Eric Strebel had occurred 10 years earlier caused coMMunity EngagEMEnt of roughly 11,500 square feet. So if we to mandate use of local, county, state the river to shift westward, away from Gretchen King captured and diverted every drop of rain and tribal data in Endangered Species FinancE ManagEr the hundreds of square miles of tules from our roofs, we would intercept just Act decisions (“Sagebrush bureaucracy,” Beckie Avera into which it had previously flown. Such accountS rEcEivablE over 30 percent. Of course, we don’t, and HCN, 5/11/15) sounds like a reason- shifting back and forth occurred repeat- Jan Hoffman in heavy storms, much of the total rain- able idea, citizen science at its very edly over the millennia, extending back circulation ManagEr fall still ends up flowing into the street. grassroots. The more information that’s Tammy York to the end of the last ice age (as well as included, the better the decision, right? circulation SyStEMS adMin. Dale Keyes between ice ages). Kathy Martinez The devil, of course, is in the details. Tucson, Arizona There were no wetlands anywhere circulation I have no uncertainty whatsoever Doris Teel along what is now the Southern Califor- — not one iota or shred of doubt — that Kati Johnson HiGH-FLYiN’ HYPOCRiSY nia coast during times when ice covered advErtiSing dirEctor local, state and corporate “science” in large portions of the continent. That David J. Anderson In her May 11 “Writers on the Range,” my hometown of Winston-Salem, North advErtiSing SalES was simply due to the sea level being Kathleen Dean Moore laments the view Carolina, in the 1960s would have Jenny Hill hundreds of feet lower. The wetlands Margaret Gilfoyle of the North Dakota oilfields at night proven beyond question that cigarette were then left high and dry. However, grantwritEr from her jetliner window at 31,000 feet. smoking was good for you, or, at the very Janet Reasoner if ever there comes a repeat of the inor- And, admittedly, vistas with drilling least, a benign influence on your health. FoundEr Tom Bell dinate flood of spring 1825 through the rigs, pumpjacks and gas flares leave Thank goodness we had the relative Los Angeles Valley (the eastern flank [email protected] something to be desired, compared independence of Surgeon General Dr. of downtown Los Angeles), there will [email protected] with vast sweeps of virgin prairie. The Luther Terry and his momentous 1964 [email protected] be mountains of debris and thousands excellent article on Theodore Roosevelt report to counteract any pseudoscience [email protected] of bodies floating in the Pacific Ocean. National Park in the last issue explored cooked up by those motivated not by board oF dirEctorS The lowlands of the Los Angeles Basin this topic in depth (“Lost Frontier,” public health concerns, but by economic John Belkin, Colo. will have become one of the foremost Sean Benton, Mont. HCN, 4/27/15). and political self-interest. Enzi’s bill, the disasters in the nation’s history. The Beth Conover, Colo. But what was giving Moore the “State, Tribal, and Local Species Trans- Jay Dean, Calif. river could shift anywhere gravity and convenience of the “red-eye to Portland,” parency and Recovery Act,” is, by its very Bob Fulkerson, Nev. physics allow. Wayne Hare, Colo. and what was giving her that Olympian nature, an exercise in fog and obfuscation Laura Helmuth, Md. view from on high? What was keeping John Crandell designed to torque the scientific process. John Heyneman, Wyo. Nicole Lampe, Ore. her from an immediate death plunge Sacramento, California It’s transparently obvious. Wendy Pabich, Idaho into those same oil fields? Why, it was David Klinger Marla Painter, N.M. that very same evil Earth-raping petro- Lou Patterson, Colo. Boise, Idaho Dan Stonington, Wash. Rick Tallman, Colo. Luis Torres, N.M. Andy Wiessner, Colo. 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 Ave., Printed on Florence Williams, D.C. High independent media organization that covers the issues Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: recycled that define the American West. Its mission is to inform Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. 800-905-1155. All paper. Country and inspire people to act on behalf of the region’s rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. News diverse natural and human communities. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org 4 High Country News June 8, 2015 currEntS The cost of compromise New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall championed major chemical control legislation — and took a beating for it

by ElizabEth ShogrEn

en. Tom Udall prides himself on per- ico attorney general. His father, the late S sonally answering constituents’ ques- Stewart Udall, built an extraordinary con- tions. So the Democrat has spent a lot servation legacy as Interior secretary for of time recently assuring outraged New John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Mexicans that his bill to overhaul the na- He spent his post-government years fight- tion’s chemical safety law was not written ing for nuclear-testing downwinders and by or at the behest of industry, as critics uranium miners with lung cancer, and charge. “I can’t tell you how many times Tom, then a private lawyer, assisted him. I’ve been in one-on-one conversations on Given his history, the intensity of the the phone answering everybody’s ques- recent attacks came as something of a sur- tions,” Udall said in a recent interview in prise. his Capitol Hill office. “I don’t think it’s useful to the process The Toxic Substances Control Act, now of legislating to get personal or to attack of proof: The EPA couldn’t even regulate a New Mexico Sen. Tom awaiting a full Senate vote, might well someone’s character,” Udall said. “I care proven carcinogen like asbestos. Udall, D, shakes hands become the rare piece of major legislation about legislating on chemical safety be- Lautenberg died in June 2013, shortly with Oklahoma Sen. that makes it through one of the least- cause it’s something that’s so important to after introducing a bill with one of the James Inhofe, R, at a productive Congresses in history. But the people.” chemical industry’s biggest supporters, news conference on along the way, it’s opened an unusually After years of pushing a chemical Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, R. Udall, a the Chemical Safety Improvement Act in ugly rift among Democrats, while creating safety bill that attracted zero support co-sponsor, took Lautenberg’s place. The May. unexpected alliances among senators who from Republicans or industry and never bill was unpopular among Senate Demo- TOM WILLIAMS/CQ ROLL CALL/ rarely agree. even reached the Senate floor, Udall took crats, because although it gave the EPA AP Being accused of kowtowing to indus- a gamble. Following the lead of New Jer- new power to regulate chemicals, it broad- try is unfamiliar territory for any Udall. sey’s late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D, Udall ly limited states’ authority. Udall still Tom Udall, 67, has enjoyed a reputation embraced a bipartisan approach to fixing thought it was better than current law as an environmental and public-health the Toxic Substances Control Act. The and believed he could make it stronger, defender since he entered Congress in 1976 law was supposed to give the Envi- such as by requiring the EPA to consider 1991, and even before that, as New Mex- ronmental Protection Agency authority to health and safety but not costs when set- regulate toxic chemicals, but by directing ting standards for chemicals, and to pro- Correspondent Elizabeth Shogren (@ShogrenE), the agency to set the “least burdensome” tect vulnerable populations like infants, writes HCN’s DC Dispatches from Washington. requirements, it created too high a burden Please see Compromise, page 6

Snapshot A SAMPLiNG OF CLEAN AND DiRTY CiTiES, bY NUMbER OF POLLUTED DAYS FROM 2011 TO 2013

Seattle Clean or dirty? 10+ days WA 2, 5 Kalispell 5-9 days Spokane 0, 4 A Western air quality map 0, 1 MT 3-4 days Missoula 0, 21 1-2 days Portland OR hat’s the air like outside your window? Fresh and breezy? 1, 6 OZONE (.076 PPM+) OZONE (.076 City W Or stale and smoggy? If you live out West, it might be dirtier 0 days Eugene # days ozone, # days particle than you think. For years, the American Lung Association’s an- 0, 15 Boise ID +) WY nual State of the Air report has ranked Western cities as among 3 4, 12 the country’s most polluted. The aridity, dust and wildfire smoke 10+ days CA Pinedale Casper can create a haze made worse by agriculture and coal-fired power NV 14, 11 1, 1 plants, and the dirty air settles in urban areas between mountain 5-9 days ranges. In this year’s report, which covers 2011 through 2013, Reno UT cities in California’s Central Valley filled out the top five for both 3-4 days 4, 17 Salt Lake City 22, 56 CO particle pollution –– caused by wind-blown dust, coal plant emis- 1-2 days Boulder 13, 1 sions and even mold –– and ozone, created by reactions between 0 days Denver

NUMBER OF DAYS WITH UNHEALTHY LEVELS OF POLLUTION: WITH UNHEALTHY NUMBER OF DAYS Fresno sunlight and compounds produced primarily by burning fossil fu- (35.5 MG/M PARTICLE 24-HOUR 9, 3 193, 123 St. George els. Cities throughout the West saw some of the dirtiest days ever 3, 0 reported. On the other hand, many Western cities, even in dry Las Vegas AZ Farmington NM California, saw their average air quality improve, and several AK 61, 6 3, 0 ranked among the nation’s cleanest. Check out where the clean- Prescott Albuquerque Los Angeles est air is, and where you might end up short of breath. 1, 0 9, 8 Fairbanks 217, 77 KatE SchiMEl 0, 15.5 Phoenix 59, 19

*CITIES dETERMINEd BASEd ON COUNTY-LEvEL dATA www.hcn.org High Country News 5 Compromise continued from page 5 ter first wrote a draft and then asked for poor state, has no plans to regulate chemi- comment from industry groups and envi- cals. So California has much more to lose the elderly and chemical workers. ronmental and public health advocates, if states’ authority to regulate toxic sub- Many people, Udall said, told him they along with fellow senators, including Box- stances is pre-empted. worried about the chemicals in everything er. “I think it was an unwarranted, com- The criticism started to ebb only after from sippy cups to sofas. But ever since pletely false accusation,” he said. April 28, when four Democrats joined all A Wyoming DEQ- the EPA lost a 1991 court case, it’s failed But national media, including The 11 Republicans on the Senate Environ- Air Quality Division to regulate any of the tens of thousands of New York Times, questioned the donations ment and Public Works Committee to ap- monitoring station chemicals already in commerce. Udall had received from the American prove the bill. By then, it had moved clos- used to study ozone Meanwhile, however, the chemical Chemical Council, as well as a campaign er toward Democrats’ goals, significantly formation in the industry was rethinking its long opposi- ad the group sponsored. Those attacks got reducing restrictions on states. It was the Upper Green River tion to regulation. Fears about flame re- some traction, but Udall said he isn’t wor- first time in two decades that the commit- Basin. BLM tardants and compounds in plastics like ried about his reputation. “They have to be tee passed major environmental legisla- bisphenol A, better known as BPA, had true to mean anything to me. And none of tion with a bipartisan vote. THE LATEST eroded public confidence. A few states, in- them are true.” Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon White Backstory cluding California and Oregon, had begun Udall appeared undaunted, and be- House, D, one of the Senate’s most ardent For years, the regulating chemicals, and the industry hind the scenes, he pushed Vitter and environmentalists, marveled that he and smog over Sublette began to think that dealing with a single industry to accept a number of changes. senators on the opposite end of the politi- County, Wyoming, federal law would be easier than coping The bill the senators introduced in March cal spectrum supported the same bill. He has symbolized the with a patchwork of state regulations. was significantly stronger than the 2013 credited Udall with “a signal legislative impacts of the West’s Udall saw this as an opportunity. But Lautenberg-Vitter bill. For instance, it in- accomplishment.” oil and gas boom. It’s many public health and environmental troduced new fees for chemical companies Boxer, however, said that though the caused in large part activists thought he was compromising and increased the number of chemicals original Vitter-Udall bill “was slain,” the by the thousands of too much — betraying his principles by the EPA would be required to evaluate. new legislation “is still not a really good natural gas wells and giving the industry what it wanted. But the attacks continued. Boxer con- bill.” their accompanying California Sen. Barbara Boxer, D, told vened a press conference April 21 where Despite the beating he took, Udall infrastructure, but pipeline leaks, dirty reporters in March: “To be 100 percent public health advocates trashed the bill. could end up looking like an environmen- pump engines and candid and direct, their bill has been gen- Deirdre Imus, co-founder of the Imus Cat- tal statesman. His bill has at least 40 co- a thousand other erated by the chemical industry itself.” tle Ranch for Kids with Cancer, in New sponsors, and chances of a Senate vote sources have proven Computer coding, Boxer said, proved the Mexico, called it an “irresponsible pre- on it look good. If chemical safety reform difficult for regulators bill originated at the American Chemical scription for disaster.” ends up becoming law, Udall said: “I think to tackle (“Oil and Council. One substantive explanation for the it will be shown that all of us who worked gas drilling clouds Udall denies this. He said he and Vit- Boxer-Udall discord is that New Mexico, a on it did the right thing.” the West’s air,” HCN, 10/31/05). by 2008, ozone levels in the area had outstripped federally mandated share up to 10,000 acre-feet of water. “We limits. look at leasing water just like raising a Last-ditch effort crop,” says Schweizer, who is avoiding any Followup Colorado cautiously embraces irrigation water leasing potential conflict of interest by keeping his Although ozone own farm out of the pilot. “It is a source of pollution has been to keep farms alive income, and anybody who’s doing that can declining since 2008’s by JoShua zaFFoS have the water next year if they want to peak, Wyoming farm with it. And they are still in the valley, decided to take so the community stays viable.” stronger action to ohn Schweizer has spent most of his life water,” Schweizer says. “It’s gone forever.” Statewide, cities have acquired at prevent future spikes. raising corn, alfalfa and other crops and Schweizer is president of the 35-mile- least 191,000 acre-feet of agricultural On May 19, the state’s J Environmental Quality about 200 cattle in Otero County, along long Catlin Canal, which irrigates about water, eliminating farming and ranching Council approved a southeastern Colorado’s Lower Arkansas 18,000 acres of farms. He’s hoping that the on millions of acres. Water managers es- new rule requiring River. It’s never been easy, but the last trial run of something called the Arkansas timate Colorado could lose up to 700,000 operators to retrofit 15 years have been particularly tough on Valley Super Ditch will save the basin’s more acres by 2050. Like Schweizer, of- their equipment the nearly 81-year-old Schweizer and his remaining communities and farms. The ficials consider water leasing, also called and follow tight neighbors. Their corner of the state is dri- initiative is not actually a big ditch, but lease-fallowing or rotational fallowing, guidelines on any er now than it was during the Dust Bowl. rather a scheme that allows six of the val- a promising way to slow that loss while new construction. Meanwhile, growing Front Range cities ley’s irrigation canals to pool their water satisfying urban thirst, particularly since Just two other oil- are buying out farms and shifting their ir- rights and temporarily lease them to cities. alternatives like new dams and other big and gas-producing rigation water to residential use — a pro- Starting in March, five Catlin irrigators water-development projects face regula- states have similar regulations: Colorado cess called “buy and dry.” “leased” a total of 500 acre-feet of water, tory hurdles and environmentalist opposi- and California. But Cities have siphoned more than which would normally supply their fields, tion. Colorado’s draft water plan suggests environmental 100,000 acre-feet of ag water — enough to nearby Fowler and the cities of Fountain the state could meet up to 50,000 acre-feet groups say the for about 200,000 Colorado homes — from and Security, 80 miles away. Under the of its future water needs — and avoid rule doesn’t go far the Arkansas River Basin alone since the agreement, communities can use the farm more buy-and-dry — through such water- enough; it applies 1970s. In neighboring Crowley County, water to supply homes and recharge wells sharing deals. only to the Upper farming has vanished, school-class sizes for up to three years out of every decade. But it wasn’t easy to get anyone to com- Green River basin, are half what they were 50 years ago, and During those years, the irrigators will mit to even a trial run of the Super Ditch. and they say it should tumbleweeds from dried-up fields pile up have to fallow, or rest, some fields, yet will Farmers worry that leasing is just the apply to the entire state. along fences and block roads. “That’s what still be able to earn money from the water first step toward selling out, and cities are KatE SchiMEl they’re stuck with, because there’s no more itself and farm the rest of their land. leery of year-by-year arrangements. With Supporters believe the Super Ditch the pilot finally in motion, supporters hope HCN contributing editor Joshua Zaffos (@jzaffos) could eventually enable farms and cities to it will build enough trust to attract more writes from Fort Collins, Colorado. 6 High Country News June 8, 2015 ulation” scheme that could allow water to Arkansas Valley Super be auctioned off for non-agricultural uses Ditch President John every year — thus actually accelerating Schweizer stands near buy-and-dry and water diversions from an irrigation canal on one river system to another. his farm near Rocky Andy Jones, a Johnstown, Colorado, Ford, Colorado. He believes a unified water attorney who was involved with the approach to selling legislation, responds that the flex market water through leases is a “narrow, intentional exception” to the is the only way to stop state’s anti-speculation rule. But the op- cities from buying position hasn’t surprised him, considering and drying the valley’s the water plundering that’s occurred in farms. BRYAN kELSEN/ the Lower Arkansas. “I think the novelty THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN is a concern to them,” Jones says, “but I don’t think it’s justified in the sense that we’re really all on the same page, trying to create incentives for water to stay in agriculture.”

ther approaches to water sharing for O agriculture — and the environment — are having more luck. This spring, the nonprofit Colorado Water Trust and state Water Conservation Board established participants and inspire similar efforts threaten agriculture, rather than protect the state’s first permanent split-season elsewhere. Farmers and cities are watch- it, says MaryLou Smith, policy specialist water right, another legal water-sharing ing, says Schweizer, “without a doubt.” at Colorado State University’s Colorado option. It allows water from a ranch, re- Water Institute. But Smith says that if cently purchased by the Western Rivers ther Western states already tap into they don’t become more common, “agri- Conservancy to prevent subdivision, to be O lease-fallowing. California has had cultural water will be bought up and con- used for irrigation during the early sum- a major long-term program since 2004, verted to urban use. (Farmers) are going mer. After that, it will be returned to a designed to meet urban needs without to get run over.” once-dry stretch of the Little Cimarron drying up farms in the Palo Verde and Cities have also balked at leasing, say- River the rest of the year to benefit fish Imperial valleys, while Arizona began its ing it’s easier and cheaper to just acquire and improve water quality. “This project own pilot project in 2014. The combina- farmers’ water rights and build a “firm” shows the environment can have a place, tion of drought and urban growth in the supply than to invest in water that may or and it’s not a zero-sum game where you early 2000s spurred on Colorado’s discus- may not be available, depending on snow- take water from one use and it never goes sions. In 2004 and 2005, the city of Aurora, pack and farmers’ needs. Some urban wa- back again,” says Colorado Water Trust facing severe shortages, was able to lease ter providers argue that having access to attorney Zach Smith. water from farmers along the High Line water only in relatively wet years, when And following the flex-market setback, Canal, another Arkansas Valley ditch. In farmers are more willing to share, isn’t a new working group in northern Colorado 2007, the Legislature created a $4 million that useful, because urban supplies are is discussing a sort of land-and-water bank, grant program to study and support leas- also plentiful then. where farmers ready to call it quits could ing and other ways to avoid buy-and-dry, State lawmakers have eased some wor- sell their resources. The “bank” would leading to the establishment of the Super ries with a number of new laws, though. then broker conservation easements and Ditch Company in 2008. One 2013 bill, backed by Lower Arkansas land sales, allowing only a limited portion Previous Super Ditch pilot projects, water managers and others, clarified the of water to be sold to cities. The rest would however, failed to launch. Cities, rural rules for long-term water leases, helping go back to farms. “It has gotten people ex- power providers and some farmers and to keep irrigators out of water court. An- cited,” MaryLou Smith says. ranchers formally complained in Colorado other allowed the Colorado Water Conser- The long-awaited Super Ditch pilot water court that the project could “in- vation Board to authorize up to 10 pilot project and other efforts are hopeful signs. jure,” or deplete, their own water rights projects, giving the state an oversight But as demand grows and water supplies and supplies, or take more water than role. The measures helped finally launch dwindle, preserving farms in Colorado and allowed. Irrigators have also gotten “cold the Super Ditch this spring. much of the West will require more than feet,” says Jay Winner, general manager But other projects are still running gradual, piecemeal progress. The clock is of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Con- into opposition — including from some ticking: This spring, just as Catlin Canal servancy District, which backs the project. Super Ditch supporters. In northern Colo- irrigators finally began sending off Super In several years, project farmers feared rado, the Colorado Corn Growers Associa- Ditch flows, a developer announced plans they wouldn’t have enough water to both tion, Aurora Water and Ducks Unlimited to buy 14,600 farmland acres and connect- GLASS lease and raise crops, due to drought. tried to develop a “flex market,” where ed water rights from the nearby Fort Lyon HALF Agricultural water users also worry farmers could have their water rights Canal for $53 million, the latest massive that temporary transfers will diminish amended to allow them to be used for oth- selloff to rock southeastern Colorado. FULL their legal water rights. Under state law, er purposes. Then they could auction them “Once it’s sold, it will never, ever come an irrigator who wants to lease water typi- off in years when they weren’t planning to back,” says Schweizer. “We’ve had plenty cally has to legally repurpose his water use them, and cities, industry or conserva- of opportunities to throw our hands up rights in water court to enable municipal or tion groups could bid for the flows. But the and say, ‘To hell with it,’ but if I’d have This story is part of an industrial use. Theoretically, a water court Lower Arkansas Conservancy and others done that, I wouldn’t have been farming ongoing series that looks at the people and ideas could then re-measure and reduce those helped defeat a bill that would have au- for the last 50 years either. If what you helping the West better rights — although that isn’t the intent. thorized the market this spring. Winner think you’re doing is the right thing to do, understand and use its Some farmers believe that the deals says the setup looked like an illegal “spec- then you work for it.” water.

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 THE LATEST Backstory At least 89 workers died in the interior West’s oil and gas fields between 2000 and 2006 (“Fatalities in the energy fields,” HCN, 4/2/07). In jobs that require long shifts working with heavy equipment and toxic materials, often with little training or supervision, the hazards are numerous — and critics say industry sometimes neglects safety in its rush to produce. “(The oil and gas industry) treats employees like a commodity,” AFL-CIO representative kim Floyd told HCN in 2007. Followup The Centers for Bull trout migrating to spawn in a tributary of the Metolius River. dAvId HERASIMTSCHUk/FRESHWATERS ILLUSTRATEd disease Control is taking a closer look at fatalities seen in the river since 1963. Surveys con- involving hydrocarbon Clackamas comeback firmed that bull trout were gone. inhalation. A new That could have been the story’s end: CDC report says Just another local extinction, on a planet that between 2010 A bull trout reintroduction in Oregon proves what’s possible where such tragedies are depressingly and 2014, nine oil common. By the mid-2000s, however, and gas workers by bEn goldFarb the West had entered an era of rewild- likely died from inhaling toxic gases, ing. Wolves were again prowling Yellow- rather than of n a damp October morning, a troop this is about the right size for a bull trout.” stone, black-footed ferrets were scarfing “natural causes,” O of wader-clad scientists plunged into For the band of researchers canvass- down prairie dogs in Wyoming, California as reported. “The Pinhead Creek, an icy Oregon stream ing Pinhead Creek, a slim tributary of condors were swooping over Big Sur. The industry is trying to around 60 miles southeast of Portland, to the Clackamas River, every redd was an Clack’s wounds had healed: Fish pas- make improvements. search for fish nests. Finding those nests, auspicious sign. Since 2011, Allen and his sage through its dams was improved, and We’re moving in the called redds, was no easy task: The same colleagues have relocated 1,758 bull trout overfishing had been curtailed. In 2007, right direction,” kenny labyrinth of moss-bound logs that makes into the Clackamas watershed, an ambi- biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Ser- Jordan, executive Pinhead prime fish habitat also makes it tious — and, in some quarters, controver- vice, the Forest Service and the Oregon director of the Association of Energy a hellacious obstacle course for humans. sial — attempt to re-establish this threat- Department of Fish and Wildlife decided Service Companies, The crew spent that morning straddling ened predator to part of its former range. the Clackamas was ready for bull trout says. Still, recent downed cedars, crawling through alder, The redd surveys have become an autumn again. research shows the and getting slapped by the glossy palms of rite, a vital measure of whether the finicky Others, however, were less enthusias- industry’s death rate rhododendrons. “Both my feet are soaked,” fish are spawning — and whether this tic about this apex predator’s comeback. remains six to seven declared one surveyor, whose boots had landmark program can inspire bull trout When Allen and his colleagues proposed times higher than the sprung leaks. He sounded more cheerful reintroduction in other Western rivers. reintroduction, the National Marine Fish- national average for than the situation seemed to warrant. A lot, then, was riding on this four-foot- eries Service worried that bull trout would all jobs. The struggle, though, only made the wide patch of pale gravel tucked against a devour enough young salmon and steel- Kindra McQuillan discovery of the day’s first redd more re- fast riffle. Allen shrugged. “They don’t lay head to damage the Clackamas’ endan- Oil worker in New warding. Chris Allen, a fisheries biologist them in textbook places like salmon,” he gered stocks. Anglers — who in some wa- Mexico. BRIAN LEddY with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said. “Bull trout are weird that way.” tersheds once received bounties for every traced its outline in the streambed with a bull trout they killed — also balked. “At wading pole, like a conductor guiding an ike many salmonids, Salvelinus con- first I was dead against it,” said Bob To- orchestra. “Here’s the pit,” Allen said — L fluentus had a rough 20th century. man, a local fishing guide. “It’s still kind where the fish had scooped out a soccer Once abundant from the mountains of of scary to me.” ball-sized depression to deposit its eggs Montana to the rivers of the Pacific Coast, To alleviate concerns, the Fish and — “and here’s the mound,” where it had bull trout were classified as threatened in Wildlife Service agreed to label the rein- heaped the displaced gravel. 1998. The Clackamas, an 80-mile tribu- troduced fish as a “non-essential experi- I nodded uncertainly. Without narra- tary of the Willamette, was a microcosm mental” population, a designation that al- tion, the redd would have been invisible. of the fish’s plight: The river’s bull trout lowed for more flexible management and “It’s not an obvious one,” Allen said. “But were hammered by decades of overfishing, shielded anglers who accidentally harmed dam-building, and sediment runoff from bull trout from prosecution. The agency HCN correspondent Ben Goldfarb logging and road-building. In the 1990s, also designed a series of controls, many (@ben_a_goldfarb) writes from Seattle. biologists realized the fish hadn’t been borrowed from wolf management, that al-

8 High Country News June 8, 2015 lowed for the removal of individual bull trout, or even the termination of the project, if salmon and steelhead suffered. At last, with the Fisheries Service’s cautious blessing, the reintroduction could begin. On June 30, 2011, before a cheering crowd, Allen wrestled a gleaming adult bull trout from a blue cooler and into the Clackamas River. The moment was a personal triumph for the scientists involved, one that more than justified years of pre- paring permits and impact statements. Said Allen, sounding a smidge emotional: “It was the kind of professional highlight that happens only rarely in your career.”

he hard work, however, was just begin- T ning: The agencies had vowed to establish a spawning population of 300 to 500 bull trout by 2030. That presented a chal- lenge for Patrick Barry, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife biologist (now with the Forest Service) who was tasked with capturing juvenile, sub-adult and adult fish via nets and traps from the Metolius River, home of Oregon’s healthiest remaining population. For all their voraciousness, bull trout are delicate: They require frigid water, and the Metolius is three hours from the Clack. Picture technicians in a truckbed on a 90 degree day, frantically adding blocks of ice to a warming transport tank, praying their fish don’t go belly-up. “Boy, Researcher Kristen Harris with the Oregon we made a lot of ice,” Barry said. Department of Fish Barry and his crew gradually got bet- and Wildlife collects ter at keeping bull trout alive, and the fish juvenile bull trout in flourished upon release. Radio-tracking the Metolius River suggests that most of the 68 relocated to translocate to the adults and 204 sub-adults have survived Clackamas River, and stayed put in their new environs. Even above. Patrick Barry better, bull trout haven’t generally lurked with the Oregon near the dams, where juvenile salmon Department of Fish would be easy prey. Indeed, salmon and and Wildlife releases juvenile bull trout into steelhead runs have ticked upward since a headwater tributary reintroduction began. Though that’s prob- of the Clackamas, left. ably a credit to improved dam passage, it dAvId HERASIMTSCHUk/ also buoys scientists’ hope that bull trout FRESHWATERS ILLUSTRATEd may tilt the Clackamas’ scales in favor of chinook, coho and steelhead. After all, bull trout don’t exclusively eat young salmon: They also feast on mid-level predators, like cutthroat trout and sculpin. “Without a big boy on the playground, those other fish have been left unchecked,” said Barry. “The Clackamas was already a relatively healthy system, but now it’s a perils of climate change. As temperatures odds. By afternoon’s end, we’d counted complete system.” rise, warns Marci Koski, biologist at Fish 10 certain nests; another team saw five If bull trout indeed stabilize the Clack- and Wildlife’s Columbia River Fisheries more upriver. (Altogether, Allen and his amas’ food web, it could motivate similar Program, pockets of warm water may cre- crew found 35 redds in 2014, almost triple projects elsewhere — and not a moment ate thermal barriers throughout river ba- the previous year’s tally.) Improbably, the too soon. Bull trout reintroductions have sins, leaving some fish stranded. “We need survey’s least-trained member — me — thus far been few and far between: Be- to protect habitat that links populations spotted the only actual bull trout: a dark sides the Clack, the only significant effort at risk of being isolated,” Koski told me. torpedo that hugged the bank as it cruised occurred in Oregon’s Middle Fork Willa- “Otherwise, reintroductions and translo- downriver. mette River, where biologists have man- cations may become more commonly used “I have absolutely no doubt that re- aged to establish a small population of tools.” production is happening,” Allen said, sat- 20 to 30 spawning adults — encouraging Though the agencies will stop adding isfied, as he stepped out of his dripping WEb EXTRA progress, but not yet gangbusters success. bull trout to the Clackamas after 2016, waders. “There are juvenile bull trout See more photos of the Meanwhile, S. confluentus’ proclivity for October’s redd survey suggests that the swimming around down there. It’s just a bull trout reintroduction cold water makes it a poster species for the new population stands good long-term matter of catching them.” at hcn.org.

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 thE hcn coMMunity

RESEARCH FUNd Thank you, Research Fund contributors, for joining us on a wild ride

10 High Country News June 8, 2015 dEAR FRIENdS

A dory runs Hermit Rapid in the Grand Canyon. JOHN BLAUSTEIN Ch-Ch-Changes THE HiDDEN CANYON: A RivER JOURNEY John Blaustein and Edward Abbey As of May 26, associate editor four Western states, with read- 160 pages, softcover: brian Calvert takes over as man- erships of 30,000-79,000, for $29.95. aging editor of High Country “content, interactivity, design, Cameron & Company, 2015. News. Jodi Peterson, who did the navigation, multimedia and In the late 1970s, wilderness advocate Edward Abbey and job for five years, has decided community tools.” Good job, longtime river guide John Blaustein floated 277 miles of to focus on writing and edit- HCN! (If we do say so our- the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in small ing, so she’ll become our second selves.) wooden dories. At the time, the Grand Canyon was best senior editor, joining Jonathan known from the rims, far above; few had braved its wild Thompson but remaining here in A MAN AND HiS DOG depths. First published in 1977, The Hidden Canyon: A Paonia, Colorado. As for Brian, At well over 6 feet tall and River Journey documented the two men’s passage through what can we say but (cue the wearing a T-shirt decorated with Blaustein’s photographs and Abbey’s witty and lyrical jour- ominous background music): wolves, Dale Hawker stopped in nal entries, presenting a radical new view of the American “Your next stop is … the Twi- to renew his longtime subscrip- treasure. light Zone!” Congratulations (we This latest edition includes dozens of additional tion. Dale, who runs a sawmill photographs from Blaustein’s subsequent trips through think) to both Brian and Jodi. in Troy, Montana, population the Canyon. From majestic geological vistas to fleeting (maybe) 800, also makes lamps glimpses of wildlife, these timeless and stunning color HURRAY FOR EvERYONE! and tables, but is proudest of his images catch moments that touch the heart of every river- HCN contributor Ana Maria dog, Timber, a 170-pound mix wanderer. Spagna has just released a of Alaskan malamute and wolf, handbook for the post-oil world with fur as thick as dreadlocks. WEb EXTRA See more of rafting and landscape photos in called 100 Skills You’ll Need A lot of wolf-dog mixes have, the Grand Canyon at www.hcn.org. for the End of the World (As um, emotional “issues,” but Dale We Know It). She describes it assured us that his dog was just as “slightly tongue-in-cheek, shy, though you wouldn’t want to but earnest, too, a quirky “mess with his food” by attempt- Karen Jolliffe | San Francisco, CA alan & Janet Pohl | Everett, WA shift in thinking about what ing to take away a bone, for makes us human, what example, nor should you “come gregory a. Jones | Sausalito, CA robert Pung | Santa Ana, CA might help us survive.” Her near him with scissors.” Dale Kristal Jones | Lewisburg, PA James v. ralston | Los Angeles, CA suggestions include “canning” added that his dog possesses Joe Kerkvliet | Corvallis, OR henry raymundo | Woodland, CA and “bartering,” but also remarkable discernment: “If he christopher lagow | Bend, OR John w. regan & Marla bliss | Tucson, AZ “daydreaming,” “laughing” and doesn’t want to let somebody vicki reich | Sagle, Id bob landis | Gardiner, MT “staying home.” For details, see out of their car, it’s because he al larson | Concord, NH gary & Kathy reynolds | dayton, WY anamariaspagna.com. shouldn’t. He’s a good judge of Jennie lebreton | Oro valley, AZ ruth roland & david Petersen | Colorado Springs, CO Nick Neely, former HCN people.” We’ll take your word for nicole lee | Indian Hills, CO intern (winter 2010), recently william Schmidt | Centennial, CO it, Dale. But what about delivery Mont & Karen levy | Saint Louis, MO received a Food and Farming people? “No problem!” said Dale. tam & Sue Scott | Patagonia, AZ cynthia lippmann | Blue diamond, Nv journalism fellowship from the The UPS guy “always starts out luther Shetler | Bluffton, OH george lowery, SolE academy | UC Berkeley Graduate School of flinging dog biscuits.” Dale was Sandy Springs, GA Jason Shira | Yakima, WA Journalism. Nick plans to write in our area to attend the 75th gary Smith | San Francisco, CA howie Mallory | Aspen, CO about the way “excess hatchery birthday party of his stepdad, robert Marshall | Cerrillos, NM ryan Smith | Old Greenwich, CT salmon and steelhead in Oregon Tom Huerkamp, a former HCN Kim Marthens | Stevensville, MT Ed Snyder | Albuquerque, NM are delivered to food banks or board member. Spencer & Susan Martin | Park City, UT greg & gail Speer | Fort Collins, CO thrown back into streams as John Martinson | Paradise valley, AZ Kenneth P. Spies | Boulder, CO carcasses to enrich the ecosys- CORRECTiONS J.E. Mchugh | Yakima, WA John a. Sproul | El Paso, TX tem.” He first hatched this story Our May 11 cover story, “The Edmund Mcwilliams | White Oaks, NM c. & J. Stanley | Idaho Falls, Id idea while at HCN, he says. Wetland Wars,” said that Roy walter & Sally Miller | Salem, OR bob & nancy Stocker | denver, CO And finally, our own website, van de Hoek girdled eucalyptus Janis Minford | Coeur d’Alene, Id calvin & Mary Strom | Fort Collins, CO hcn.org, received first place for while still a Bureau of Land christopher Muller | Washington, dC linda Jo Sullivan | Olympia, WA “General Website Excellence” Management employee; he andrea l. nelson | Rockville, Md gene F. Summers & Mary Miron | Black Earth, WI in the Society of Professional actually did that two years after Mary noonan | Heber City, UT Marvin Sundstrom | Buckley, WA Journalists’ Top of the Rockies leaving that job. richard norgaard & nancy rader | Berkeley, CA amelia Symonds | Albuquerque, NM annual contest. We competed —Paul Larmer and norman norvelle | Farmington, NM Jane g. taylor | Sacramento, CA against other publications from Betsy Marston for the staff gary a. nowlan | Boulder, CO Kim taylor | Brighton, CO remy o’neill | Malibu, CA larry d. taylor | Carson City, Nv danielle okin | denver, CO beth thebaud | Wilson, WY Martin & Martha onishuk | Missoula, MT Peter thomas & rosie andrews | Berkeley, CA wendy Pabich | Hailey, Id Jake tornatzky | Fort Collins, CO donald Paine | Glenwood Springs, CO John & Marion vance | Woodland Park, CO Jared Pearce | Seattle, WA Karen weeast | Hobart, WA robert a. Pelak & laura walton | hartwell welsh | Bayside, CA Los Alamos, NM larry wiesner | Minneapolis, MN Joseph Perella | Huntington, vT christine williams | Green River, WY Sam Perry | Mancos, CO Dale Hawker Janette c. williams | McMinnville, OR shows off Samuel Perry & alisa bieber | Seattle, WA robley williams | Boulder, CO his wolf Kathy Peterson | Longmont, CO James & Kay wilson | Bishop, CA pride with a Peggy Petrzelka, utah State university | John winkel | Thornton, CO wolf-adorned Logan, UT Jeff winslow | Portland, OR T-shirt. Kenneth Piontek | Sheridan, OR BROOkE WARREN www.hcn.org High Country News 11 12 High Country News June 8, 2015 Tree of Life To save the most species, conservationists might do best to save the common ones they depend on

FEATURE By CAlly CARswEll

ack when he was in his 30s, Tom Whitham would tures rise and warp the local conditions to which organisms are have been leery of the meddlesome approach to adapted. What we need to know is: How do we take action to conservation that he is laying the foundation for sustain plants and animals through the turmoil ahead? today. Whitham came out West in 1973 to pursue a Whitham believes the answers lie in an unexpected place: doctorate in biology at the University of Utah. He The DNA of species so common we usually take them for had just finished a tour as an Army photographer at a hospital granted. As Whitham and his colleagues have researched the inB Hawaii filled with soldiers injured in Vietnam, a difficult ex- Southwest’s cottonwoods and piñon pines, they’ve introduced perience that had one positive result: He encountered buzzing, groundbreaking new ideas about how these trees’ genetic traits singing and tangled rainforests, and became enchanted with influence the community of surrounding organisms, and even wild places, which were rare in his native Iowa. He decided to shape entire ecosystems. If their discoveries hold true in kelp move to the American West because, he says, “we hadn’t plowed beds, coral reefs, tropical forests and desert shrublands — and it under yet.” so far, they have — they may transform our understanding of He imagined it as an untamed frontier. Though not naive how everything in the web of life is connected. about the human tendency to damage the environment, he That could make today’s restoration efforts more success- thought the West was still too big and sparsely populated to be ful, and even help managers take the kind of radical leaps that threatened in any existential sense. One good way to protect conservationists increasingly say are necessary to prevent or heal the environment, he believed, was to leave it extinctions: Moving species to more favorable habitats, for ex- alone. Given time and space, nature could often fix ample, without making things worse in the process. But for now, itself. the most revolutionary idea to emerge from Whitham’s work Today, Whitham is a meticulous and is perhaps the simplest: Saving a large number of species has accomplished ecologist based at Northern everything to do with saving the few they all depend on. Arizona University in Flagstaff. He wears round glasses, a gray goatee and, when out- Whitham greW up in the tiny toWn of agency, ioWa, with an doors, an oiled leather cowboy hat. His love oak and hickory forest nearby. His father, Lloyd, ran a whole- of nature hasn’t wavered. At last count, his sale nursery, selling big trees to banks, which paid good money home garden boasted 120 species of native for the image of stability that they imparted. Lloyd also bred conifers, poplars, shrubs and grasses. In the new varieties for landscaping, including a frost-resistant yew field, he always carries a camera, and even that could survive a couple hundred miles farther north than at sites he’s studied for decades, he still finds other varieties. A green thumb ran in the family: Whitham things worth photographing. But he thinks the studied nursery management and plant pathology in college. frontier is dead. He is no longer optimistic about And though he decided not to take over the family business, nature healing itself. The challenges — a climate his interest in trees — an inheritance, of sorts — inspired his in disorder, a looming sixth extinction, and people, future research. always more people, always seduced by short- A little way north of Salt Lake City, where the University of term gain — have grown too big, too fast. “We Utah is located, flows the Weber River. It originates high in the live everywhere and we’re affecting everything,” Uinta Mountains and gurgles through small farming and min- Whitham says. “My senior colleagues, some of ing towns before draining into the Great Salt Lake. Whitham them use the ‘f-word.’ Some of them think we wandered the Weber’s banks, which were lined with sun- can’t do anything.” speckled cottonwood galleries. The trees were familiar, though Whitham, however, prefers not to dwell on the in Iowa the cottonwood was considered “kind of a lowly tree,” he negative. “We don’t need another study to tell us remembers. “It produces a lot of debris, it’s not really long-lived. how bad things are,” he says. Lots of damaged If you plant one next to your house, the wind could blow it over.” landscapes need help right now, and that In the Southwest, however, the tree is special. Cottonwoods need will only increase as global tempera- are one of the few big deciduous trees that grow wild in the

Cottonwoods at the Northern Arizona University greenhouse, where seedlings with different genetic signatures are grown for field trials at experimental gardens under varying conditions.Jeremy Wade Shockley www.hcn.org High Country News 13 region, and, together with willows, they anchor native riverside habitat. Cotton- wood galleries are home to insects, birds and animals, and the trees themselves are beautiful — flushing a brilliant, glittering gold every fall. Though not endangered, they are vastly depleted, thanks to overgrazing by cattle, over- zealous cutting, and the damming and diversion of wild rivers, whose seasonal ebbs and flows are critical for cottonwood reproduction. Whitham began to look closely at the Weber River’s two resident species — Fremont and narrowleaf cottonwoods — searching for interesting patterns. A milky, soft-bodied aphid caught his eye. The bug attacks the trees each spring, forming a hollow gall just below the leaf, where it feeds, reproduces and hides from predators. Whitham noticed that one cottonwood might attract millions, while another tree of the same species, only feet away, had none. There were two possible explana- tions: There could have been something different about the trees’ environment, with one spot slightly drier or warmer, creating some change that the aphid preferred, perhaps in leaf shape or size. Or something in the trees’ DNA could have conferred natural pest resistance on some trees. “The trees were so close together, it almost had to be genetic,” Whitham says. “But I was still kind of surprised to see it in nature, because it was so striking. I always expected it to be more subtle.” He took cuttings from 81 cottonwoods and planted them all in a “common garden.” A few acres in size, it would ensure consistent growing conditions, removing the possibility that any differences that emerged were caused by soils, temperature or water supply. Sure enough, aphids swarmed clones of the same trees they attacked in the natural forests. The insects were responding to the trees’ genes. Whitham noticed other things, too: The aphids attracted other bugs that didn’t visit the resistant trees, and those bugs drew an unusual number of hungry birds. He began to wonder if a tree’s genetics might not only determine the pres- ence of one measly aphid, but indirectly, the panoply of creatures that frequented its canopy. For the next two decades, he and a formidable group of collaborators in- tensively studied that first garden and others, planted with diverse genetic vari- ants, or genotypes, with each tree DNA fingerprinted. They saw the influence of the trees’ genes almost everywhere they looked. Birds of various species preferred to nest in genotypes with particular branch and canopy architec- tures, for example, while spiders favored one with thickets of dead branches and dense foliage. Beavers selected a “sweet” genotype, with low tannin levels. Lichen attached to the trunks of a genotype with rough, topographically complex bark. On a stretch of the Weber where Fremont Tom Whitham plants cottonwood seedlings for an experiment at Cibola National Wildlife and narrowleaf cottonwoods naturally Refuge in Arizona. courteSy arizona Board of regentS 14 High Country News June 8, 2015 hybridized, the two species supported two distinct insect communities, while the hybrids hosted elements of both. The researchers dug into the soil and analyzed leaf litter in streams. Eventu- ally, they demonstrated that a single group of genes influenced not only the community, but the invisible ecological processes that helped sustain it. Tannin- poor and tannin-rich leaves decomposed at different rates, causing variability in soil fertility. The two leaf types similarly affected the nutrient cycle in streams, and with it the bacteria and bugs at the bottom of the food chain. Genotypes even differed significantly in their ability to sequester carbon in their roots. Based on the researchers’ hundreds of studies, it appeared that genetic diversity within cottonwood species influenced the composition and function of the entire riparian system — accounting for between 39 and 78 percent of the total biodiversity in the researchers’ cottonwood gardens. Parallel research in aspen, eucalyptus and piñon pine forests suggests that “foundation species” — that is, the dominant, habitat-forming plant on the landscape — do the same in other ecosystems. Genetic diversity — the raw mate- beat back some of the Southwest’s most lazily on one elbow, looking perhaps a rial of evolution — had long been seen familiar tree species. little drunk, its branches sprawled across as important, but scientists and conser- In the region’s piñon woodlands, the the cinder. vationists primarily considered it when crippling 2002 drought offered a grim Research pegged the difference to trying to protect rare and endangered preview, with 57 percent of the mature the Buddha trees’ genetic susceptibil- species. Without it, small populations are piñon in northern Arizona perishing. But ity to a moth that attacked each year’s especially vulnerable to extinction. In the there was a sliver of hope in the die-off, new shoots. The moths acted like hedge- event of a disease outbreak, for instance, and it taught scientists a new version of clipper-wielding suburbanites, cutting genetic diversity acts as an insurance the lesson they’d learned among cotton- the trees down to shrubs. Not only did policy: The more diversity there is, the woods: When it comes to who lives and the trees grow painfully slowly, there better the odds some individuals will car- dies, a tree is not a tree is not a tree. was also the matter of the sex change: Environmental ry genes that confer some resistance. But Piñon produce female, seed-bearing cones Genetics and for common species, beyond recognizing on a Warm September morning, in their crowns and male pollen-dusted Genomics Lab genetic diversity’s importance in keeping Whitham and Kitty Gehring, an NAU cones down their sides, but the moths Director Gery them healthy and abundant, nobody paid colleague who studies soil microbes, take chewed only the crowns, eliminating most Allan studies plant it much mind. Now, there was new incen- me to see a special stand of piñon trees, of the trees’ lady bits. “You look at them genetics at the molecular level. tive to care. a foundation species that, at this site, and go, ‘Poor things,’ ” says Gehring. Above, a hole “Almost everyone thinks a species supports roughly 1,000 species of birds, Gehring also found what appeared punch is used to is a species is a species,” says Jessica rodents, bugs, bacteria and fungi. The to be a subtler disadvantage. The moth- extract samples of Hellmann, a biologist at the University stand is about 30 minutes from Flagstaff, munched trees had much less — and cottonwood leaf for of Notre Dame who specializes in the eco- in Sunset Crater Volcano National Monu- different types — of a helpful kind of DNA sequencing. logical impacts of climate change. “Tom ment. The volcano erupted nearly 1,000 fungi than the resistant trees. Called Jeremy Wade Shockley has shown that there are differences years ago, smothering an 800-square-mile mycorrhiza, these fungi form little hairs between cottonwoods that matter. The area in lava, ash and cinder. Life rose around the trees’ roots and, in exchange identity of an organism influences every from the rubble, but its existence still for a supply of sugar, deliver nutrients other member of its community.” That feels improbable. The sandy “soil” the from the soil. Experiments showed that means that maintaining genetic varia- trees live in has all come from somewhere the trees’ genes determined which kind tion in a foundation species is “going to else, an accumulation of dust deposited they ended up with. Because moths were be critical for the associated community’s by the wind. There’s just a thin layer of attacking the shrubby trees, they couldn’t biodiversity and ecosystem function,” it, no more than one or two inches thick, afford to give their fungi much sugar. adds Gery Allan, a plant geneticist and a sandwiched between layers of jet-black Thus, Gehring assumed, the fungi would member of Whitham’s research group at basalt pebbles that radiate the day’s be “cheap and not very good.” She dubbed NAU. “We know it’s all tied together.” building heat. Growing here must be sort them “Wal-Mart mycorrhiza.” It’s necessary, then, not only to of like trying to eke out a living on a hot “These resistant trees seemed so understand how a foundation species’ tar roof. superior,” Whitham recalls, “that I would genes influence the whole community Right around the time Whitham have bet that they would have taken over of living things around it, but also to planted his first cottonwood garden, he the piñon world.” parse out what traits hidden in its DNA came to this place with a group of gradu- But he would have lost that bet. After might ensure its persistence, even as its ate students. They immediately noticed the 2002 drought, nearly 70 percent of world shifts. After all, species that are that the piñon grew in two distinct the “superior” trees perished, while less common today might not be so common shapes. One resembles a classic tree, with than 30 percent of their moth-attacked decades from now. Some models predict a canopy, a trunk and admirably upright neighbors did. Gehring suspects the fungi that within this century, torturously hot, posture. The other has a form reminis- made the difference. She’s discovered dry spells could kill off or significantly cent of a fat, laughing Buddha, reclining that the susceptible trees’ fungi stay

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 active and abundant when it’s dry, while others die or go dormant, perhaps depriv- ing trees of critical nutrients. “Maybe it’s cheap,” she says of the Wal-Mart mycorrhiza, “but it’s really good.” It was an encouraging sign: The piñons had vulnerabilities, sure, but also wells of resilience. The dramatically higher survival rate of one genetic vari- ant suggested that drought-hardiness was embedded in its DNA. “If you find populations like this one,” Gehring explains, “and if they reproduce or if you breed them intentionally, then you may not have a species that goes extinct in Arizona in 2080. It could survive.” But for Whitham, the scale of the die-off also underscored the urgent need for action: Since trees live for hundreds, even thousands, of years, they have to be adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. “If you see mortality in these really long-lived species, that suggests something fundamental is changing,” Whitham says. Climate change was no longer a distant threat: “It’s occurring right now.”

thiS Spring, the journal Science pub- Kitty Gehring lished a study that predicts one in six at Sunset Crater species globally will go extinct if carbon Volcano National emissions continue climbing on their cur- Monument near rent trajectory. Some scientists say that Flagstaff, Arizona, estimate is low; the number “may well be where she studies moth-resistant two to three times higher,” one told The piñon pines that New York Times. Neither estimate ac- look healthy (right) counts for the species that will die out in and those that are parts, but not all, of their range, thanks more susceptible to to local variations that pound some hungry moths (far areas with much more extreme climatic right) — and are changes. more resistant to other environmental The scale of the crisis seems well stresses. Below, a beyond the scope of laws like the Endan- piñon rises from the gered Species Act. As the national climate volcanic soil. change policy advisor for the U.S. Fish Jeremy Wade Shockley and Wildlife Service, Mark Shaffer, wrote in a recent editorial in the journal Con- servation Biology: “Tending to one species at a time in the face of thousands in need promises a long journey to closure.” Protected areas are one way to safeguard lots of species at once, but our current collection wasn’t designed to withstand a turbulent climate. Joshua Tree National Park, for instance, may become unsuit- able habitat for Joshua trees. And without protected corridors between these islands of preserved habitat, creatures may not be able to move or connect to other populations as their environments change. So conservationists need new strategies. Shaffer’s editorial introduced a group of papers focused on a novel approach dubbed “conserving nature’s stage.” It suggests ensuring that a wide array of geophysical features are protected — soils, topography, geology — “as ‘stages,’ ” Shaffer writes, “for the evolving cast of players sure to be on the move in an era of climate change.” Another option is “assisted migration,” where people pluck species or populations out of habitats they’re no longer suited to, and plop

16 High Country News June 8, 2015 them down in more hospitable ones. Yet Scientists are only beginning to study If Gates and her collaborator can Coral bleaching another is the idea of preserving genetic how genetic variation among corals develop resilient stock that can be suc- in Kaneohe Bay, diversity within foundation species. might affect all of the algae, fungi, plants cessfully planted in the wild in Hawaii Hawaii, last With any of this, there are practi- and fish associated with them. What they and Australia, they will then hurry to October. As in the cal problems. In a lot of places, we don’t already know, however, is that — just like see whether their methodology can be Arizona piñon and cottonwood yet know what the foundation species Whitham and Gehring’s piñon — some applied to a wide array of coral species trees, researchers are, nor can — or should — we relocate corals within the same species withstand around the world. “We’d have to make have found genetic every struggling species. We don’t know stress better than others. this a viable restoration strategy,” she variation among whether it would even work. And there “When you go on a reef that is in says. “We’re all in the race against time.” corals that leave are risks. A transplanted species could a stress event, usually from high tem- some healthy in the become invasive in a new environment, peratures, you’ll see some are completely it WaS With the goal of winning that face of stress (brown crowding out others that were doing fine colored, and the one next door will be race that Whitham refocused his research in the photograph) before humans intervened. “The idea of bleached,” which often leads to death, around enabling conservationists and and others bleached assisted migration comes up all the time,” Gates explains. She and a collaborator land managers to figure out how to keep white and more says Notre Dame’s Hellmann, a leading likely to die. in Australia, Madeleine van Oppen, are critical species like piñon and cottonwood, © Xl catlin SeavieW thinker on the approach. “But the leap now working to understand the survivors’ along with a little, or maybe a lot, of the Survey from starting to think about it to actually biology in order to develop stock able insects, birds, microbes and mammals implementing it is a big one. We prob- to endure and adapt to future climate they support. ably have five, 10, 15 years we can spend conditions, an approach they’ve dubbed Today, he and a laundry list of collabo- thinking about it,” before it becomes “assisted evolution.” rators — including the Bureau of Land much more common for species to blink “We need to see if we can manipulate Management, the U.S. Forest Service, The out in parts of their range. “We don’t have the system using selective breeding,” Nature Conservancy, the Flagstaff Arbo- much more time than that.” Gates says. “Or create environmental retum and the Arizona Game and Fish Scientists are thus rushing to under- treadmills, giving them experiences that Department — are creating a climate- stand whether species can move quickly will turn on certain genes.” It appears, focused network of 10 common gardens in enough to friendlier climes on their own, for example, that stress flips on genes Arizona, plus a number of satellite sites or adapt quickly enough to stay where in some coral that help them survive around the region, called the Southwest they are. And for critical species that are bleaching events, and that once those Experimental Garden Array. The 10 core already dying at alarming rates — such as genes are “on,” they stay on and can be gardens will span elevations from 5,000 corals — scientists are at the same time passed on to offspring. That’s an excit- to 9,000 feet above sea level — a gradient trying to devise ways to help them adapt. ing prospect, Gates says, because “these that can be used to mimic the effects of “Corals are foundation species, just changes happen in the same timeframe climate change — and feature a range of like trees,” says Ruth Gates, a marine that these radical environmental changes soil and habitat types, from desert scrub- biologist at the University of Hawaii. are occurring.” lands to aspen and mixed conifer forests.

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 tamarisks at the garden’s edge are now thick enough to hide a meth lab — which they have, in fact, been known to do — they are probably on their way out. In 2001, federal officials introduced a beetle to the West to kill the riparian invader, and it is making its way into Arizona. In- graldi must ensure that native vegetation becomes established in its wake rather than tumbleweeds, which now grow so big here they look ready to collapse under their own weight. Plus, trees planted for restoration projects often die. “People say it’s because of salty soils,” Ingraldi explains, or because the water table has dropped too low. Climate change doesn’t help, he adds. “That’s why we’re partnering with these guys. We want it to work.” After all, they’re on the hook. Once his agency replants the area, it must maintain it in perpetuity. Moreover, this restoration work will be a demonstration project for a larger vision: To restore the cottonwoods and willows that have been lost in much Northern Arizona of the 27,000-square-mile Little Colorado University graduate River watershed. “This is going to be the student Hillary jewel of the Little Colorado,” Ingraldi Cooper, above, says. “Hopefully.” and her study of Until now, restorations like this have drought-resistant typically been done with cuttings from grasses, such as local trees, on the theory that they are native grama grass the most likely to thrive, or with plants of and Arizona fescue, unknown provenance bought from a nurs- at the Flagstaff Arboretum, part ery. But “this place is probably going to of the Southwest get drier,” Ingraldi explains. “And if it gets Experimental drier and warmer, you would assume cot- Garden Array. tonwoods and willows from a drier climate Michael Ingraldi, would do better here. Well, is that true?” right, of the Arizona To find out, researchers have planted Game and Fish local cottonwood and willow genotypes Department at the in the garden, along with genotypes from Chevelon State lower and higher elevations, and more Wildlife Area, where southern and northern climes. They invasive tamarisk and other exotics track their growth and survival rates, thrive in the riparian and how different combinations of willow area. Jeremy Wade and cottonwood fare together, among Shockley other things. As Whitham explains it to Ingraldi, citing data collected at other sites: “If you tell me, ‘I want a tree that They’ll be big enough to support multiple “are the difference between life and death supports the greatest diversity,’ I can studies, and offer ready-to-go infrastruc- in a given environment.” guarantee you that we can select trees ture — fencing, data management, irriga- One of the gardens in the new ex- that maximize biodiversity. If you want to tion systems that can be controlled from perimental array will sit on the bank of maximize growth, we can do that.” afar — to encourage as many researchers a Little Colorado River tributary called That might sound like a potentially as possible to use them. Chevelon Creek, just south of Winslow, dangerous level of meddling. But Dan The methodology is not so different Arizona, on Arizona Game and Fish Simberloff, an invasive species expert from that of field trials to develop new Department land. The day after visiting at the University of Tennessee and a seed varieties in corn country. But where Sunset Crater, Whitham and I meet Mi- sharp critic of assisted migration, says agricultural experiments might focus on chael Ingraldi on the creek, where similar there’s little risk in moving cottonwood increasing the harvest from each acre, work is already underway in an estab- and willow genotypes around across here the metrics of success involve biodi- lished garden. Ingraldi, youthful-looking relatively short distances, and to already versity and long-term survival. at 50, inquisitive, a constant jokester, is a highly disturbed sites, within their native “The huge power of genetics is that research biologist with the state agency. range. There’s not a lot to mess up on the you can take a species like piñon or cot- Both men, it turns out, have species of tamarisk-lined banks of Chevelon Creek, tonwood and look at the variation over flies named after them, gifts of a kind as Whitham puts it, but there is a lot of their whole range,” Whitham says. “You from the friends who first identified opportunity to learn “the tools of a new can find areas where they’re adapted to them. Whitham’s namesake eats poop, trade.” much more severe conditions that reflect Ingraldi’s sucks blood. His confidence that this kind of what another area will become in the Ingraldi is in charge of removing restoration can work comes in part from next 50 years.” And you can quantify how tamarisk from some 55 acres around a proof of concept project on the Weber much environmental change different the creek and restoring its native cot- River 13 years ago. Simply planting stra- genotypes and populations can tolerate. tonwoods and willows. Sounds routine tegically selected cottonwoods has helped “Genetic differences,” Whitham explains, enough, but it’s no small task. Though the shift a site that was completely consumed

18 High Country News June 8, 2015 by invasive weeds to one composed of “The genetics stuff is getting sort of across the species’ Southwestern range. It nearly 40 percent native plants, and with science-fictiony,” Ingraldi observes after plots their reproductive success against some 700 species of bugs living in the a while. Whitham nods. The pie-in-the- the temperature shift they’ve experienced trees alone. The lesson of this project: If sky goal, he explains, would be to have going from their native environment to you build it, they may come. the genome of everything sequenced and their new home. Things were a bit different on the functionally parsed apart — the natives, “So let’s say we’re down at this Weber, though: Creatures didn’t have the invasives, the soil microbes. “Then low-elevation garden, and it increases 4 to go far to colonize the restoration site; we could say, ‘This is the gene in the tree degrees,” he explains, moving his finger they had intact habitat nearby. If manag- that’s interacting with the gene in the four steps down the graph. “According to ers plant genotypes from a hundred miles willow interacting with the gene in the our research, you can’t find a cottonwood away, or in places without cottonwoods tamarisk, and if you take this gene away that would tolerate a 4 degree increase and willows nearby, it’s unclear how it’s going to have these effects, negative down here. This would predict, well, much of the life they supported in one or beneficial.’ ” they’re dead.” The only way to maintain place would follow them. Kevin Grady, Ingraldi works it over in his mind: cottonwoods at that hot, dry edge, then, a restoration ecologist at NAU, is just “Once you understand these interactions, might be to genetically engineer them, beginning to tackle these additional lay- you’re saying then, we can play God, in a like a soybean. Unlike the near-term ef- ers of complexity in large research sites way. If I want this, just tweak this gene forts to shuffle cottonwoods and willows on the Little Colorado River, transferring here, or move this from the system, and around, “that is a controversial thing to understory grasses and even microbial you’ll get it.” do,” Whitham acknowledges. “But then, I communities with trees. “That’s true,” Whitham says. “And I have a choice. Would I rather have a ge- Already, it seems likely that economi- think it’s actually possible” — eventually. netically engineered one, or none at all?” cally expedient one-and-done plantings That kind of precise understanding of the Whitham doesn’t want to make that won’t last indefinitely. Climate models genetic basis of everything, as another choice. But the climate is already chang- predict that the Chevelon Creek site could NAU biologist touring the site with us ing faster than many scientists expected, warm by 6 degrees Celsius this century, quips, is “Tom’s Death Star.” and our emissions remain on a trajectory but new results from the garden show that promises extreme future warming. If that cottonwoods adapted to those higher after ingraldi departS for a tango nothing big changes — and soon — that’s temperatures don’t thrive here now. They lesson in Flagstaff, Whitham and I sit on bad news for a lot of life on earth. It leaf out too early and set their buds too a cooler a few hundred yards from the makes Whitham think that the day could cally carswell late, often getting nipped by frost, and creek, waiting for a group of grad students very well arrive when we have to make (@callycarswell), an HCN contributing they are more vulnerable to pathogens; scrambling to collect their last data of a many such decisions. It will be impera- editor, writes from some have died. Conversely, data from a research project. Cottony clouds on the tive, he believes, to have good science to Santa fe, new mexico. garden to the south show that the trees horizon begin to blush purple and pink. inform them. Saving species may “require that do well here now won’t thrive under Whitham pulls out a graph, deter- moving things around, and upsetting the this story was funded radically warmer conditions. That means mined to make sure I understand it. It’s natural order of things,” he says. “But we with reader donations that land managers may have to consider based on data from a garden in Yuma, made this problem. Now we’ve got to do to the high country planting new genotypes incrementally. planted with Fremont cottonwoods from our best to fix it.” news research fund.

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Enjoy private spaces and no neighbors. Guided backpacking in the Escalante Can- storage building with washer and dryer This home features wood floors, vaulted yons. All gear/food can be provided. Join hookups, bathroom with full shower. Five RV House and orchard for sale near Olathe, ceilings, views from every room, abundant Escape Goats for a true adventure! hookups, with one covered, 16-by-40. Water Colo. Land is agricultural and beautiful. 125 wildlife, fenced garden area; guest cabin is escalantecanyonguides.com. is pure, better than bottled water. New septic acres of rural acreage. Well-landscaped with an included bonus. Adjacent additional 20 system. PHONE CALLS ONLY: 360-357-4301. great view. 150 feet rural acreage, perked acres available for purchase if you want more Holliday Adventures Travel — Design- and approved. Town water. Utilities available. land. $225,000. Katy Mason 208-305-3899. ing unique travel experiences to Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Europe, South Ameri- ca and beyond. Adventures include safaris, hiking, biking, scuba diving, sailing, skiing. www.HollidayAdventures.com. 970-748-9818.

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

Citizen scientists observe tundra life in Glacier National Park. Citizen science like this could be outlawed under a new Wyoming law. Courtesy Glacier National Park

Wyoming acts to discourage citizen scientists I am a longtime and enthusiastic citizen their private land without permission. government agencies as well — sci- scientist. As part of various citizen-sci- Western Watersheds says it took samples entists can now explore large-scale, ence projects, I’ve banded birds, chased only from public land and public access continent-wide research questions. tiger beetles, counted frogs, monitored roads. For the citizen scientist, research archaeological sites, and documented the I don’t know all the details. But as questions can and do segue into envi- lifecycles of plants in my backyard. So the environmental group says, the bigger ronmental activism. Once you become I am particularly interested in Wyo- issue should be the bacteria, which is more engaged with the world — and fall ming’s new Data Trespass Bill, passed likely caused by too many cows in creeks more in love with the world — you want by legislators this March. While some and streams. E. coli is a public health to protect what you love. Citizen science say the bill simply toughens existing no- issue, known to cause serious human is not just about democratizing science OPINION BY trespassing laws, others charge that it illness and even death. and making science more accessible to Sharman Apt will criminalize citizen science. Tellingly, the Data Trespass Law the general public. Citizen science is Russell Specifically, the bill says that anyone specifies that data collected “illegally” also about citizenship — citizens not of who “enters onto open land for the pur- are inadmissible as evidence in any country but of place, citizens of a larger pose of collecting resource data” without court case. Not only that; the data will community, citizens of Earth itself. As the landowner’s permission can be fined be removed from any agency’s databases citizens, we have certain responsibilities and imprisoned for up to a year. More and certain rights. We expect our data to specifically, the term “collect” is defined inform public policy. We expect our infor- as acquiring or preserving any informa- Will I be fined $1,000 for mation to be welcomed, not censored, by tion, including photographs, “which is seeing and describing a our political leaders. submitted or intended to be submitted I am offended by the Wyoming Legis- to any agency of the state or federal red-breasted nuthatch? lature’s attempt to bully people who care government.” about the place and community in which But what is “open land?” Is it public and cannot be used “in determining any they live. I am offended by their efforts as well as private land? If I am hiking on agency action.” to prevent information from being freely state land and discover an illegal toxic What does this have to do, really, shared and used. dump, and if I then photograph that with citizen science? In my opinion, a lot. Trespassing on private land is not dump and give a copy of the image to an Citizen science is a partnership be- the issue. This law could have been “agency of the state,” could I be charged tween scientists and non-scientists that worded to specify private land. It did under this law? Maybe. What if I am has revolutionized how and what kind of once: An earlier version of the bill made observing birds for the Audubon Christ- research gets done. Over 6,000 Ameri- it clear that only private land was mas Bird Count, and Audubon passes on cans like me, for example, document cli- involved, but the language was changed that information for a government report mate change by monitoring the lifecycles in the committee process. Now, this law on climate change? Will I be fined $1,000 of plants and animals for Nature’s Note- is primarily concerned with making for seeing and describing a red-breasted book, a national online program partly resource data inadmissible in court. This nuthatch? Maybe. funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and law is about the fear of facts. This law is

The law is vague, badly worded and National Park Service, where amateur about discouraging citizenship. probably unconstitutional. Ultimately, and professional naturalists record their the courts will decide. But what does observations. Some 200,000 people track Sharman Apt Russell is the author of seem clear is that Wyoming legislators birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Diary of a Citizen Scientist and teaches are scared of data — of facts. Environ- their studies used by government agen- writing at Western New Mexico Univer- mentalists in Wyoming believe the bill cies to determine habitat restoration. (As sity in Silver City, New Mexico, and at is a response to the recent discovery by a matter of course, these citizen scientists Antioch University in Los Angeles. an environmental group of high levels of seek permission from landowners. No one WEB EXTRA E. coli bacteria in the riparian areas of wants to run afoul of trespassing laws.) To see all the current Writers on the Range is a syndicated service of public land leased by ranchers. A group Across North America, sampling the Writers on the Range High Country News, providing three opinion columns, and archives, of Wyoming ranchers is now suing that quality of waterways is also a common columns each week to more than 70 newspapers group, the Western Watersheds Project, and important citizen science task. With visit HCN’s Web site, around the West. For more information, contact hcn.org for allegedly taking water samples from the help of volunteers — and sometimes Betsy Marston, [email protected], 970-527-4898.

24 High Country News June 8, 2015

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Mail to: HCN Dad’s Gift, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. Go online at hcn.org/happy-dads-day or call 800-905-1155. BOOKS Grave dangers and satisfying ends

Gripping beginnings are said to be the facing grave dangers, including a lunatic dying father, and in the collection’s title key to successful short stories, but it’s guide, ravenous bears and death-trap story, two brothers take turns visiting the endings in Thomas McGuane’s Crow rapids. The differences between the two their mother at an assisted living facility, Fair that make this collection stand out. men become starkly apparent in their where her habit of “loudly free-associat- Punchy, surprising, nebulous and even reactions as they float away from their ing about her amorous adventures” gets shattering conclusions mark these sto- camp in a raft: “Tony thought that this her banned from the common room dur- ries, with finales that can be as spectacu- was nature at its most benign, shepherd- ing visiting hours. lar as explosions. McGuane has authored ing them away from the dreaded camp; In a collection that often seems preoc- more than a dozen other books, but he but Jack, looking at the dark walls of cupied with death, McGuane’s darkly hasn’t published a story collection since trees enclosing the current, the ravens in comedic style — together with a host the acclaimed Gallatin Canyon appeared, the high branches, felt a malevolence in of lively characters and surprise hap- nine years ago. his bones.” penings — keeps the tone upbeat. If the In Crow Fair, the longtime Montana Despite their vivid Western settings, knockout endings of these stories can Crow Fair resident writes from his home state, these stories contain the kind of unex- help us understand anything about our Thomas McGuane pursuing the themes you’d expect to find pected, quirky events that could happen lives, it’s that death can elicit a myriad 267 pages, hardcover: in such a sparsely populated region: isola- anywhere: from the struggle to cope with of unexpected responses: from sorrow tion, loneliness and rugged individualism. an aging relative to something as dra- and confusion to a little leap of joy — and $25.95. In “River Camp,” for example, two child- matic as getting duped into a drug deal. maybe, at times, just a feeling of relief. Alfred A. Knopf, 2015. hood friends who take a fishing trip to In “A Long View to the West,” a used car confront their faltering friendship end up salesman juggles his job with caring for a By Traci J. Macnamara

Bears run past pack rafts in Kamishak Bay, Alaska. Ground Truth Trekking

appreciating them; she’d become too Heart cracked wide-open frustrated by Tom’s half-crazy alcoholic instability. Now that grief has cracked Montana-based author David Allan Cates continuum of human experience from open her heart, she finds an unexpected plunges us into the raw grief of a recently ecstasy to bone-deep despair. Cates treasure in Tom’s words. She reflects, “I widowed doctor in his latest novel, Tom deftly weaves together three strands feel ashamed at how little I was able to Connor’s Gift. Janine has walked off her of life, using Tom’s old letters, Janine’s grasp of his struggle, not really to recon- shift in a Wisconsin emergency room and memories of her husband, and her cile, but to stay open, to love the world driven to a friend’s empty cabin in the present experience in a cold, remote so full of suffering and evil, betrayal and Rocky Mountains to confront the empti- corner of Montana. As she reads Tom’s injustice. And isn’t that the work of it? I ness of life without her husband, Mark. letters, she remembers where she was mean, for all of us? To be brave enough to She hopes that “the shell of my body when she received them, and memories spread our arms and open our hearts and will crack and the cold dust inside will of her marriage surface as well. The fill our lungs with the terrible beauty of blow away in the wind.” A stray puppy letters serve as a kind of road map as living? And isn’t that what he ... tried so appears to keep her company as she re- she journeys through her grief; she ends hard and for so long to do?” visits her past, reliving her marriage and up reliving her married life in all its With down-to-earth detail and a Tom Connor’s Gift reading old letters from a man named complexity, relishing both the bitter and refreshingly blunt narrator, Cates deliv- David Allan Cates Tommy Connor, who was her first love, the delightful. ers a tale of transformation that rises to 30 years ago. Meanwhile, outside the Tom’s letters recount the years he a crescendo with an unforgettable scene 334 pages, softcover: cabin, a curious grizzly bear lurks. spent living in Central America. He involving the bear. Tom Connor’s Gift is $19.95. This tautly written book, which the describes the poverty and unrest, but also a memorable reminder of the richness Bangtail Press, 2014. Independent Publisher Book Awards shares his philosophical meditations and available to a wide-open heart. just named the year’s best fiction from sexual escapades. Back when Janine first the Mountain West Region, explores the received these letters, she had trouble By Michelle Pulich Stewart

26 High Country News June 8, 2015 Essay | By Erin Halcomb Fungal Lust

ey, Hal, come look at this.” I peer into the open stem and look for ants. If necessary, I’ll “Is it a morel?” blow them out with a few short blasts of air before dropping the “H“No.” Hammer laughs. We are often laughing. morel into my cloth bag. We are only a few hundred feet from where we parked the Morels have been found in World War II bomb craters and truck, and Hammer is examining an orange cup fungus, a peel abandoned coal mines. They surged from the ash of Mount St. of neon on the forest floor. Seconds later, she is making pish- Helens soon after eruption, too gritty to eat. A scientist who ing sounds and coaxing surveyed the westward kinglets down from the spread of Dutch elm canopy. “You know,” I say, disease reported flushes of “maybe if you focused and these mushrooms around found more morels, you’d the base of dead and dy- be willing to experiment ing trees. Morels have a with them. Dress them up unique relationship with a touch.” disturbance. But aside Hammer’s a purist. from that, much about She doesn’t want to over- them remains a mystery. power the flavor of morel For me, that’s part of mushrooms. She sautés the appeal, the surprise them in butter, adds a of when and where they dash of salt, and serves fruit. Flecks of pollen them on a small side In temperate forests plate. But I am hungry around the world, fungal shimmer inside for a big dish of pasta, for threads bind detritus to its cocoa-colored the recipe with nutmeg grains of ancient bedrock. and Dijon and cream, and They wrap and weave pits. A silken therefore I need to cover around tree roots, forming web blocks the some ground. We spread loose sheaths; transport apart and move sidehill nutrients to a variety of entrance to one through spires of true fir. plant species; and function micro-cavern; I scan the ground us- in other ways yet un- ing the method I learned known. Beneath our feet, with the tip of as a fire lookout: I take in mycelial networks expand my knife, I pry swaths of 45 degrees and with the intricacy and un- examine near to far. As I predictability of in-cloud into the private move, I filter the flow of lightning. chamber and evict images — moss-covered I break the internal rock, cow pie, bark — tension of finding one by a grub. through the baleen grill calling out: “Come out, in my mind, searching for come out, wherever you only one thing. I follow are.” I say this as I turn the trail of phenology: the in a full circle and look wide white sails of trillium around. When I spot a and the pink canoes of whopper, a mushroom lady slippers. These pass- with a stalk large enough ing features combine with to stuff a prawn, I holler, the dappling of sunlight “Toad!” across the forest floor to No one responds. Ham- make it seem, at times, mer and I have parted as if the morel itself steps ways in the forest. I loop forward from the shadows. around and whistle our I stop. three-note call. I listen All else shies away. A morel mushroom. Danielle deLeon and wait. I begin track- Birdsong drops. I stare ing back to the last place as the honeycomb pattern emerges. Underneath a curtain of I saw her, stooped over a sewer plate-sized stump, no doubt scrubby chinquapin stands a small figurine of ribs and hollows. counting the growth rings and imagining the virgin forest. And “Morchella,” I say. then I find her. I kneel and compress the cap with my fingertips to test the She is half-hidden, frozen in a crouch beneath a young white integrity of its tissue. It’s firm. That’s good. The cavities are also fir with a full crown. Her bag lies open beside her. I can’t see the well-developed. I use this as a sign that the little spore factory bounty, but I can tell she has found a patch. She parts the low- has performed its reproductive duty. Perfect. I open my pearl- est limbs of the fir and looks out at me. Her eyes blaze with mis- handled pocketknife and cut the stem flush with the ground. I chievous delight, yet she whispers to me, as softly as possible. turn the morel over in my hand. “Hal,” she says, “I’m having a holy experience.” Flecks of pollen shimmer inside its cocoa-colored pits. A silken web blocks the entrance to one micro-cavern; with the tip of my knife, I pry into the private chamber and evict a grub. Erin Halcomb writes (and hunts) in southern Oregon.

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

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

THE SOUTHWEST cats, and the judge concluded that the outfit- A California condor with a yen for new places ters and their accomplices were motivated apparently got tired of southern Colorado. by greed. But Loncarich, the “brains” of the “N8” — identified by the number on the business, didn’t relish his work, according to GPS transponder on his wing — left Cortez one of his two daughters, who both worked and took off for New Mexico, a state that with him. “He would get upset because (the had never, in all its recorded history, had a clients) were too out of shape to hike and confirmed condor sighting. The appearance track animals, and they just wanted to shoot of the 2-year-old male in Los Alamos was animals without having to hunt them.” The an unexpected treat for Joe Fitzgibbon, an Utah Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish Audubon Society stalwart who was amazed and Wildlife Service, which cooperated in the to find the big bird in his backyard. Fitzgib- arrest, consider the case an anomaly in the bon told the Santa Fe New Mexican that he’d annals of hunting. recently spent more than a day driving to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim in hopes of COLORADO glimpsing one of the 71 condors that have Perhaps because of its eye for the telling de- been released there, but had no luck. So tail, a simply written obituary in the Grand having a condor loiter in his backyard for Junction Daily Sentinel caught our eye. a whole half hour left him “flabbergasted.” Betty Lou Hawkins, 80, of Molina, in western Condors can easily fly up to 200 miles in a Colorado, the youngest of eight children, day, said Eddie Feltes, field manager for ran a ranch with her eldest son, Daniel, for the California Condor Recovery Project. He 47 years. Described by her family as “a very IDAHO added that N8 appears to be flying solo, but Flying cars looked so much cooler in the old hard worker” — an understatement if there Jetsons cartoons.. Carlen Donovan is probably hanging out with fellow carrion ever was one — “she managed up to 50 head eaters — agreeing with turkey vultures and of cattle nearly alone. She cooked at the Pla- ravens that the dinner menu matters much less teau Valley School and Job Corps over 40 years. than the fact that the entrées are truly dead. COLORDO AND UTAH She cleaned condos and houses everywhere. One of the nastiest interstate poaching and When things went wrong, she would simply say, UTAH animal-cruelty cases came to trial this March af- ‘We just need to work harder.’ She made hun- There will be “no legal freebies” for San Juan ter a three-year investigation, reports Colorado dreds of quilts, sent thousands of cards to people County Commissioner Phil Lyman, chortled Outdoors, the magazine of the state’s Division of for every occasion, and never forgot a face or a a writer for Redrock Wilderness, the newslet- Wildlife. Mack, Colorado, outfitters Christopher name.” Hats off to Betty Lou Hawkins, a true ter of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Loncarich and Marvin Ellis did things to moun- Western heroine. After he led “a motorized column of cultic tain lions and bobcats that are difficult to read anti-governmental lawbreakers” into Recapture about without wincing. The men confessed to NEVADA Canyon to protest a road closure mandated by systemically trapping, wounding and confining When the 60-year-old Riviera hotel-casino closed, the Bureau of Land Management, Lyman, who hundreds of big cats so that they would be easy the Las Vegas Review-Journal dripped with nos- was charged with, and ultimately convicted of, prey for paying customers. Days before a hunter talgia: “No longer can you stay in the penthouse two misdemeanors, insisted he needed a public would arrive in Utah, the outfitters would spot where Sinatra once lived,” it reported. The real defender. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, lions by plane, then trap the animals and cage loss may be this, however: “No longer can you however, Lyman was anything but needy: He them, “shooting the cats in the paws, stomach or see the Sin City Roller Girls kick butt in the earned $50,000 a year in commissioner’s salary legs, or attaching leghold traps on them.” In one ballroom.” and owned property assessed at $650,000, plus case, a client from Connecticut was instructed an investment firm that manages $2.3 million in to shoot a lion from a distance of more than 100 WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see assets. From now on, said SUWA, Lyman “will yards so that he would not notice that it was hcn.org. not only have to pay his own legal freight … but pinned down by a leghold trap. These “hunts,” if must reimburse taxpayers for work his federal you care to call them that, weren’t cheap, costing Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and defender had already done.” as much as $7,500 for lions and $1,500 for bob- often shared in this column. Write [email protected].

High Rest assured, Pleistocene Parks Inc. is doing Country everything possible to recapture our escaped News “ For people who care about the West. ice age megafauna. Please back away slowly from High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a any African lion you encounter. magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write Ted Williams, in his essay, “The Pleistocene and the” present don’t compute,” High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or from Writers on the Range, hcn.org/wotr [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

28 High Country News June 8, 2015 MARKETPLACE

Notice to our advertisers: You can co-publisher Kirsten Allen. Oct. 3-5 in Torrey, for communities striving to live in balance Workinfarming.com — Where job seekers place classified ads with our online classi- Utah. See more at redrockwritingworkshops. with nature. Tickets at www.shiftjh.org. and farmers connect. Facebook Twitter Linke- fied system. Visit hcn.org/classifieds. June submittable.com/submit. din Google+. 8 is the deadline to place your print ad in visit Boulder, Colo., this June 11-14 for the June 22 issue. Call 800-311-5852, or Cortez farmers Market — Every Saturday “Bridging Divides: Spaces of Scholarship and the Powder Basin Watershed Council, e-mail [email protected] for help or in- morning from June through October. Locally Practice in Environmental Communication headquartered in Baker City, Ore., seeks an formation. 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Birds, fossils, wildflowers, park pio- Back, Looking Ahead: 40 Years with the Water mission to connect and protect wildlife habi- of our printed pages annually. neers, geocaching and archaeology, with un- Workshop.” We tackle challenging issues in tat from Yellowstone to Yukon so people and dergrad and graduate credit available. www. a friendly atmosphere. Scholarships available nature can thrive. The organization is seeking BusiNess OPPOrtuNities fossilbeds.org. 719-748-3253, extension 109. for high school, undergrads, graduate stu- a President passionately committed to large- dents and nonprofits. For details: scale conservation and possessing the vision, Conservationist? irrigable Land? Stellar Located in the extraordinary settings www.western.edu/water, or contact Jeff Sel- seed-saving NGO is available to serious part- skills and other attributes necessary to build of Grand Teton National Park and Jackson len at [email protected]. on past successes with new accomplishments. ner. Package must include financial support. Hole, Wyo., we are poised to host your next Details: http://seeds.ojaidigital.net. The successful candidate will report to the conference, meeting or special event. Campus eMPLOYMeNt Board of Directors and be responsible for buildings offer flexible meeting, dining and leadership of all aspects of the organization, CONfereNCes ANd eveNts flow restoration Coordinator — The lodging space for intimate groups or including fundraising, planning and pro- large conferences. Available year-round. Freshwater Trust, a nonprofit leader in river restoration, is seeking a Flow Restoration grams, fiscal management, personnel, admin- eWi 2015 — Environmental Writing Institute, www.TetonScience.org, istration and Board relations. The President led by David James Duncan, Sept. 9-13, 2015, [email protected]. Coordinator to support the development and implementation of streamflow restoration will also provide leadership within the con- in Missoula, Mont. www.umt.edu/ewi for ap- 307-733-1313. servation community at large. For a detailed plication and details. Deadline July 15, 2015. projects in priority basins throughout Oregon. Please see our website at job description, qualifications and details on Oct. 7-10, 2015, sHift festival, www.thefreshwatertrust.org for details on submitting an application for this position, Writing Workshop — Deepen the impact Jackson, Wyo. An in-depth exploration of how to apply. Full-time. Environmental non- visit our website: y2y.net. of your writing and learn how to keep your outdoor access, responsible recreation, con- submission off the slush pile with author servation leadership and youth engagement profit. Amy Irvine McHarg and Torrey House Press

www.hcn.org High Country News 21 MARKETPLACE

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PHONE CALLS ONLY: 360-357-4301. great view. 150 feet rural acreage, perked acres available for purchase if you want more Holliday Adventures travel — Design- and approved. Town water. Utilities available. land. $225,000. Katy Mason 208-305-3899. ing unique travel experiences to Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Europe, South Ameri- ca and beyond. Adventures include safaris, hiking, biking, scuba diving, sailing, skiing. www.HollidayAdventures.com. 970-748-9818.

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

Citizen scientists observe tundra life in Glacier National Park. Citizen science like this could be outlawed under a new Wyoming law. CouRTesy GlaCieR NaTioNal PaRk

Wyoming acts to discourage citizen scientists I am a longtime and enthusiastic citizen their private land without permission. government agencies as well — sci- scientist. As part of various citizen-sci- Western Watersheds says it took samples entists can now explore large-scale, ence projects, I’ve banded birds, chased only from public land and public access continent-wide research questions. tiger beetles, counted frogs, monitored roads. For the citizen scientist, research archaeological sites, and documented the I don’t know all the details. But as questions can and do segue into envi- lifecycles of plants in my backyard. So the environmental group says, the bigger ronmental activism. Once you become I am particularly interested in Wyo- issue should be the bacteria, which is more engaged with the world — and fall ming’s new Data Trespass Bill, passed likely caused by too many cows in creeks more in love with the world — you want by legislators this March. While some and streams. E. coli is a public health to protect what you love. Citizen science say the bill simply toughens existing no- issue, known to cause serious human is not just about democratizing science OPINION BY trespassing laws, others charge that it illness and even death. and making science more accessible to SHARmAN APT will criminalize citizen science. Tellingly, the Data Trespass Law the general public. Citizen science is RuSSEll Specifically, the bill says that anyone specifies that data collected “illegally” also about citizenship — citizens not of who “enters onto open land for the pur- are inadmissible as evidence in any country but of place, citizens of a larger pose of collecting resource data” without court case. Not only that; the data will community, citizens of Earth itself. As the landowner’s permission can be fined be removed from any agency’s databases citizens, we have certain responsibilities and imprisoned for up to a year. More and certain rights. We expect our data to specifically, the term “collect” is defined inform public policy. We expect our infor- as acquiring or preserving any informa- Will I be fined $1,000 for mation to be welcomed, not censored, by tion, including photographs, “which is seeing and describing a our political leaders. submitted or intended to be submitted I am offended by the Wyoming Legis- to any agency of the state or federal red-breasted nuthatch? lature’s attempt to bully people who care government.” about the place and community in which But what is “open land?” Is it public and cannot be used “in determining any they live. I am offended by their efforts as well as private land? If I am hiking on agency action.” to prevent information from being freely state land and discover an illegal toxic What does this have to do, really, shared and used. dump, and if I then photograph that with citizen science? In my opinion, a lot. Trespassing on private land is not dump and give a copy of the image to an Citizen science is a partnership be- the issue. This law could have been “agency of the state,” could I be charged tween scientists and non-scientists that worded to specify private land. It did under this law? Maybe. What if I am has revolutionized how and what kind of once: An earlier version of the bill made observing birds for the Audubon Christ- research gets done. Over 6,000 Ameri- it clear that only private land was mas Bird Count, and Audubon passes on cans like me, for example, document cli- involved, but the language was changed that information for a government report mate change by monitoring the lifecycles in the committee process. Now, this law on climate change? Will I be fined $1,000 of plants and animals for Nature’s Note- is primarily concerned with making for seeing and describing a red-breasted book, a national online program partly resource data inadmissible in court. This nuthatch? Maybe. funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and law is about the fear of facts. This law is

24 High Country News June 8, 2015

Go to hcn.org/happy-dads-day for the quickest way to order. GIFT TO: GIFT FROM:

REC P ENT S NAME (please print) MY NAME (please print)

Address Address

City State Zip City State Zip

Email (Required for digital gifts ) Phone Email Phone

Mail to: HCN Dad’s Gift, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. Go online at hcn.org/happy-dads-day or call 800-905-1155. BOOKS Grave dangers and satisfying ends

Gripping beginnings are said to be the facing grave dangers, including a lunatic dying father, and in the collection’s title key to successful short stories, but it’s guide, ravenous bears and death-trap story, two brothers take turns visiting the endings in Thomas McGuane’s Crow rapids. The differences between the two their mother at an assisted living facility, Fair that make this collection stand out. men become starkly apparent in their where her habit of “loudly free-associat- Punchy, surprising, nebulous and even reactions as they float away from their ing about her amorous adventures” gets shattering conclusions mark these sto- camp in a raft: “Tony thought that this her banned from the common room dur- ries, with finales that can be as spectacu- was nature at its most benign, shepherd- ing visiting hours. lar as explosions. McGuane has authored ing them away from the dreaded camp; In a collection that often seems preoc- more than a dozen other books, but he but Jack, looking at the dark walls of cupied with death, McGuane’s darkly hasn’t published a story collection since trees enclosing the current, the ravens in comedic style — together with a host the acclaimed Gallatin Canyon appeared, the high branches, felt a malevolence in of lively characters and surprise hap- nine years ago. his bones.” penings — keeps the tone upbeat. If the In Crow Fair, the longtime Montana Despite their vivid Western settings, knockout endings of these stories can Crow Fair resident writes from his home state, these stories contain the kind of unex- help us understand anything about our Thomas McGuane pursuing the themes you’d expect to find pected, quirky events that could happen lives, it’s that death can elicit a myriad 267 pages, hardcover: in such a sparsely populated region: isola- anywhere: from the struggle to cope with of unexpected responses: from sorrow tion, loneliness and rugged individualism. an aging relative to something as dra- and confusion to a little leap of joy — and $25.95. In “River Camp,” for example, two child- matic as getting duped into a drug deal. maybe, at times, just a feeling of relief. alfred a. knopf, 2015. hood friends who take a fishing trip to In “A Long View to the West,” a used car confront their faltering friendship end up salesman juggles his job with caring for a BY TRACI J. mACNAmARA

Bears run past pack rafts in Kamishak Bay, Al aska. GRouNd TRuTh TRekkiNG

appreciating them; she’d become too Heart cracked wide-open frustrated by Tom’s half-crazy alcoholic instability. Now that grief has cracked Montana-based author David Allan Cates continuum of human experience from open her heart, she finds an unexpected plunges us into the raw grief of a recently ecstasy to bone-deep despair. Cates treasure in Tom’s words. She reflects, “I widowed doctor in his latest novel, Tom deftly weaves together three strands feel ashamed at how little I was able to Connor’s Gift. Janine has walked off her of life, using Tom’s old letters, Janine’s grasp of his struggle, not really to recon- shift in a Wisconsin emergency room and memories of her husband, and her cile, but to stay open, to love the world driven to a friend’s empty cabin in the present experience in a cold, remote so full of suffering and evil, betrayal and Rocky Mountains to confront the empti- corner of Montana. As she reads Tom’s injustice. And isn’t that the work of it? I ness of life without her husband, Mark. letters, she remembers where she was mean, for all of us? To be brave enough to She hopes that “the shell of my body when she received them, and memories spread our arms and open our hearts and will crack and the cold dust inside will of her marriage surface as well. The fill our lungs with the terrible beauty of blow away in the wind.” A stray puppy letters serve as a kind of road map as living? And isn’t that what he ... tried so appears to keep her company as she re- she journeys through her grief; she ends hard and for so long to do?” visits her past, reliving her marriage and up reliving her married life in all its With down-to-earth detail and a Tom Connor’s Gift reading old letters from a man named complexity, relishing both the bitter and refreshingly blunt narrator, Cates deliv- david allan Cates Tommy Connor, who was her first love, the delightful. ers a tale of transformation that rises to 30 years ago. Meanwhile, outside the Tom’s letters recount the years he a crescendo with an unforgettable scene 334 pages, softcover: cabin, a curious grizzly bear lurks. spent living in Central America. He involving the bear. Tom Connor’s Gift is $19.95. This tautly written book, which the describes the poverty and unrest, but also a memorable reminder of the richness Bangtail Press, 2014. Independent Publisher Book Awards shares his philosophical meditations and available to a wide-open heart. just named the year’s best fiction from sexual escapades. Back when Janine first the Mountain West Region, explores the received these letters, she had trouble BY mICHEllE PulICH STEWART

26 High Country News June 8, 2015 ESSAY | BY ERIN HAlCOmB Fungal Lust

ey, Hal, come look at this.” I peer into the open stem and look for ants. If necessary, I’ll “Is it a morel?” blow them out with a few short blasts of air before dropping the “H“No.” Hammer laughs. We are often laughing. morel into my cloth bag. We are only a few hundred feet from where we parked the Morels have been found in World War II bomb craters and truck, and Hammer is examining an orange cup fungus, a peel abandoned coal mines. They surged from the ash of Mount St. of neon on the forest floor. Seconds later, she is making pish- Helens soon after eruption, too gritty to eat. A scientist who ing sounds and coaxing surveyed the westward kinglets down from the spread of Dutch elm canopy. “You know,” I say, disease reported flushes of “maybe if you focused and these mushrooms around found more morels, you’d the base of dead and dy- be willing to experiment ing trees. Morels have a with them. Dress them up unique relationship with a touch.” disturbance. But aside Hammer’s a purist. from that, much about She doesn’t want to over- them remains a mystery. power the flavor of morel For me, that’s part of mushrooms. She sautés the appeal, the surprise them in butter, adds a of when and where they dash of salt, and serves fruit. Flecks of pollen them on a small side In temperate forests plate. But I am hungry around the world, fungal shimmer inside for a big dish of pasta, for threads bind detritus to its cocoa-colored the recipe with nutmeg grains of ancient bedrock. and Dijon and cream, and They wrap and weave pits. A silken therefore I need to cover around tree roots, forming web blocks the some ground. We spread loose sheaths; transport apart and move sidehill nutrients to a variety of entrance to one through spires of true fir. plant species; and function micro-cavern; I scan the ground us- in other ways yet un- ing the method I learned known. Beneath our feet, with the tip of as a fire lookout: I take in mycelial networks expand my knife, I pry swaths of 45 degrees and with the intricacy and un- examine near to far. As I predictability of in-cloud into the private move, I filter the flow of lightning. chamber and evict images — moss-covered I break the internal rock, cow pie, bark — tension of finding one by a grub. through the baleen grill calling out: “Come out, in my mind, searching for come out, wherever you only one thing. I follow are.” I say this as I turn the trail of phenology: the in a full circle and look wide white sails of trillium around. When I spot a and the pink canoes of whopper, a mushroom lady slippers. These pass- with a stalk large enough ing features combine with to stuff a prawn, I holler, the dappling of sunlight “Toad!” across the forest floor to No one responds. Ham- make it seem, at times, mer and I have parted as if the morel itself steps ways in the forest. I loop forward from the shadows. around and whistle our I stop. three-note call. I listen All else shies away. A morel mushroom. daNielle deleoN and wait. I begin track- Birdsong drops. I stare ing back to the last place as the honeycomb pattern emerges. Underneath a curtain of I saw her, stooped over a sewer plate-sized stump, no doubt scrubby chinquapin stands a small figurine of ribs and hollows. counting the growth rings and imagining the virgin forest. And “Morchella,” I say. then I find her. I kneel and compress the cap with my fingertips to test the She is half-hidden, frozen in a crouch beneath a young white integrity of its tissue. It’s firm. That’s good. The cavities are also fir with a full crown. Her bag lies open beside her. I can’t see the well-developed. I use this as a sign that the little spore factory bounty, but I can tell she has found a patch. She parts the low- has performed its reproductive duty. Perfect. I open my pearl- est limbs of the fir and looks out at me. Her eyes blaze with mis- handled pocketknife and cut the stem flush with the ground. I chievous delight, yet she whispers to me, as softly as possible. turn the morel over in my hand. “Hal,” she says, “I’m having a holy experience.” Flecks of pollen shimmer inside its cocoa-colored pits. A silken web blocks the entrance to one micro-cavern; with the tip of my knife, I pry into the private chamber and evict a grub. Erin Halcomb writes (and hunts) in southern Oregon.

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

HEARD AROuND THE WEST | BY BETSY mARSTON

The souThWesT cats, and the judge concluded that the outfit- A California condor with a yen for new places ters and their accomplices were motivated apparently got tired of southern Colorado. by greed. But Loncarich, the “brains” of the “N8” — identified by the number on the business, didn’t relish his work, according to GPS transponder on his wing — left Cortez one of his two daughters, who both worked and took off for New Mexico, a state that with him. “He would get upset because (the had never, in all its recorded history, had a clients) were too out of shape to hike and confirmed condor sighting. The appearance track animals, and they just wanted to shoot of the 2-year-old male in Los Alamos was animals without having to hunt them.” The an unexpected treat for Joe Fitzgibbon, an Utah Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish Audubon Society stalwart who was amazed and Wildlife Service, which cooperated in the to find the big bird in his backyard. Fitzgib- arrest, consider the case an anomaly in the bon told the Santa Fe New Mexican that he’d annals of hunting. recently spent more than a day driving to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim in hopes of ColoRado glimpsing one of the 71 condors that have Perhaps because of its eye for the telling de- been released there, but had no luck. So tail, a simply written obituary in the Grand having a condor loiter in his backyard for Junction Daily Sentinel caught our eye. a whole half hour left him “flabbergasted.” Betty Lou Hawkins, 80, of Molina, in western Condors can easily fly up to 200 miles in a Colorado, the youngest of eight children, day, said Eddie Feltes, field manager for ran a ranch with her eldest son, Daniel, for the California Condor Recovery Project. He 47 years. Described by her family as “a very idaho added that N8 appears to be flying solo, but Flying cars looked so much cooler in the old hard worker” — an understatement if there Jetsons cartoons.. CaRleN doNoVaN is probably hanging out with fellow carrion ever was one — “she managed up to 50 head eaters — agreeing with turkey vultures and of cattle nearly alone. She cooked at the Pla- ravens that the dinner menu matters much less teau Valley School and Job Corps over 40 years. than the fact that the entrées are truly dead. ColoRdo aNd uTah She cleaned condos and houses everywhere. One of the nastiest interstate poaching and When things went wrong, she would simply say, uTah animal-cruelty cases came to trial this March af- ‘We just need to work harder.’ She made hun- There will be “no legal freebies” for San Juan ter a three-year investigation, reports Colorado dreds of quilts, sent thousands of cards to people County Commissioner Phil Lyman, chortled Outdoors, the magazine of the state’s Division of for every occasion, and never forgot a face or a a writer for Redrock Wilderness, the newslet- Wildlife. Mack, Colorado, outfitters Christopher name.” Hats off to Betty Lou Hawkins, a true ter of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Loncarich and Marvin Ellis did things to moun- Western heroine. After he led “a motorized column of cultic tain lions and bobcats that are difficult to read anti-governmental lawbreakers” into Recapture about without wincing. The men confessed to NeVada Canyon to protest a road closure mandated by systemically trapping, wounding and confining When the 60-year-old Riviera hotel-casino closed, the Bureau of Land Management, Lyman, who hundreds of big cats so that they would be easy the Las Vegas Review-Journal dripped with nos- was charged with, and ultimately convicted of, prey for paying customers. Days before a hunter talgia: “No longer can you stay in the penthouse two misdemeanors, insisted he needed a public would arrive in Utah, the outfitters would spot where Sinatra once lived,” it reported. The real defender. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, lions by plane, then trap the animals and cage loss may be this, however: “No longer can you however, Lyman was anything but needy: He them, “shooting the cats in the paws, stomach or see the Sin City Roller Girls kick butt in the earned $50,000 a year in commissioner’s salary legs, or attaching leghold traps on them.” In one ballroom.” and owned property assessed at $650,000, plus case, a client from Connecticut was instructed an investment firm that manages $2.3 million in to shoot a lion from a distance of more than 100 WEB EXTRA For more from heard around the West, see assets. From now on, said SUWA, Lyman “will yards so that he would not notice that it was hcn.org. not only have to pay his own legal freight … but pinned down by a leghold trap. These “hunts,” if must reimburse taxpayers for work his federal you care to call them that, weren’t cheap, costing Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and defender had already done.” as much as $7,500 for lions and $1,500 for bob- often shared in this column. Write [email protected].

28 High Country News June 8, 2015