Climate Change

September 18, 2017 | $5 | Vol. 49 No. 16 | www.hcn.org H igh igh

No hoax How West the isconfronting reality change the ofclimate C ountry Special i ss ue N For peoplewhocare West aboutthe ews Left: A pinhead-sized pteropod, its shell corroded by ocean acidification, seen through a scanning electron microscope. Pteropods form the basis of a marine food web that includes everything from seabirds to Pacific salmon.

Center: A child from the Iñupiaq village of Selawik walks near the shore in northwest Alaska. The community faces coastal erosion from climate change.

Right: Farmer Jenni Medley checks on seedlings beneath a grow light in Homer, Alaska. Along with climate change and concerns about food security, new technology is expanding the possibilities of what can be grown in the Far North. 12 Coure t sy Natasha R. Christman/ Washington Ocean Acidification CenteR Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

No hoaX How the West is confronting the reality of climate change Editor’s note This summer, we met our new reality

Climate change is no longer a fighting more than 40 active wildfires in Montana alone. hypothetical threat from some distant Well over 600,000 acres have already burned there, with no future. This summer, it showed up in end in sight. force. Hurricanes and wildfires are real threats to life and In Texas, Hurricane Harvey property. They cost lives and money, and while they cannot pummeled the Gulf Coast and be prevented, they can be prepared for. But doing so inundated Houston, dumping many requires acknowledging that these extreme weather events trillions of gallons of water in rain and causing so much are bound to get worse, and that is something our current damage it will take years for the state to recover. There is policymakers can’t seem to do. The president insists that no definitive science saying that climate change causes climate change is a “hoax” and won’t allow government specific hurricanes. But what we do know is that global agencies to even mention it. warming has raised sea levels, which strengthens hurricane In this issue, we’re asking a seemingly obvious question: storm surges. It also increases precipitation, the real What if — just what if — climate change is not a hoax? destructor in Texas. That’s because warmer air holds more What if there is no global conspiracy of scientists (or the water, which falls as rain — in the case of Harvey, record- Chinese) manipulating data to trick people into reducing breaking rain that has caused perhaps $180 billion in the use of fossil fuel? Who in the American West accepts Complete access damage. the reality of climate change and is working to lessen its to subscriber-only Montana, meanwhile, has a different problem. In the impact? We sent writers across the region, from the Pacific content past century, the state has warmed by about 2 degrees Coast to Alaska, Arizona to Wyoming, to see where and HCN’s website hcn.org Fahrenheit. Heat waves are more common than they once how climate change is affecting the West, its people and Digital edition were, and drought has killed trees, dried soil and increased its politics. What we learned is that though the West is hcne.ws/digi-4916 the risk of wildfires. The Environmental Protection Agency extremely vulnerable to a changing climate, it is also full of estimated in 2016 that the number of above-100-degree people who are determined to address it. If only that were Follow us days that Montana experiences each year is likely to true of our national leaders, flying over flood-stricken Texas  double. This summer, drought and dry weather have created or fire-ravaged Montana and wondering why in the heck a terrible fire season. At the time of this writing, 4,000 things seem so out of control. @highcountrynews firefighters, 125 aircraft and 350 National Guard troops are —Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief

2 High Country News September 18, 2017 Contributors

Maya L. Kapoor is an associate editor with HCN. She writes about science and the environment in the urbanizing West.

KAPOOR

Sarah Amandolare is a freelance journalist published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Scientific American Mind and elsewhere. AMANDOLARE

Paige 6 24 Blankenbuehler Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Krista Langlois is an assistant editor at HCN.  @PaigeBlank No hoaX How the West is confronting the reality of climate change BLANKENBUEHLER Lyndsey Gilpin writes on climate CONTENTS FEATURES and environmental justice and is the 12 Buying Time How the Pacific Northwest is confronting editor of Southerly, the threat of ocean acidification By Maya L. Kapoor a newsletter for the American South. INSIDE  @lyndseygilpin GILPIN 6 Tribes commit to uphold Paris climate agreement Western nations take action on climate change — and push for self-governance By Lyndsey Gilpin HCN correspondent 8 Going home again A young climate change researcher fights invasive plants Krista Langlois on her ancestral lands By Paige Blankenbuehler lives in Durango, 9 As cleaner fuels overtake the electricity market, Colorado, and Wyoming’s coal conundrum frequently covers By Joshua Zaffos can coal remain a linchpin of Wyoming’s economy? Alaska. 23 The Seri return to their roots Climate change threatens  @ traditional ecological knowledge By Sarah Amandolare cestmoiLanglois 24 Farming the Last Frontier As climate change strains food security and LANGLOIS lengthens the growing season, more Alaskans are taking up farming By Krista Langlois On the cover Correspondent A pteropod, or sea 24 By the numbers The economics behind food security in the Frontier State Sarah Tory writes butterfly, collected By Krista Langlois from Paonia, Colorado. She by scientists from 30 Why religious communities are taking on waters off the West Greening the Gospel covers Utah, By Sarah Tory Coast, with a shell climate change environmental corroded by ocean justice and water acidification. Signs issues. include white DEPARTMENTS  @tory_sarah lines, white spots TORY and pock marks. 4 LETTERS In extra-acidified water, the small 5 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG Correspondent snails don’t die right Joshua Zaffos away. Instead, they 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends writes from crumble, exhausting Fort Collins, their resources 8 1 EDUCATION MARKETPLACE Colorado. trying to repair  @jzaffos their shells. 28 MARKETPLACE Ntia onal Oceanic and Atmospheric 32 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston Administration ZAFFOS

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 More on distributed less accessible) public Executive director/Publisher generation lands and trails, both Paul Larmer federal and state, are Editor-in-Chief I am a member of one of managed for motorized Brian Calvert those California Sierra Club SENIOR EDITOR recreation. There are chapters that Jonathan Jodi Peterson very few refuges in the Thompson mentions in Art director state for those who are Cindy Wehling his excellent feature, “The seeking a quiet, natural, Deputy editor, digital Bid for a Big Grid” (HCN, non-mechanized experi- Kate Schimel 8/21/17). Our concern has Associate EDITORs ence free of the imme- Tay Wiles, been more about the fact Maya L. Kapoor diate and/or lingering that up to 25 percent of the Assistant EDITORS impacts and conflicts of Paige Blankenbuehler, power transmitted long motorized recreational Anna V. Smith distances via high-voltage D.C. Correspondent vehicles like snowmo- power lines is lost dur- Elizabeth Shogren biles and ATVs. We’d be WRITERS ON THE RANGE ing transmission. Several surprised if most HCN editor Betsy Marston California chapters have readers were aware, for Associate PHOTO EDITOR long argued for a Sierra Brooke Warren example, that — due to Club policy that promotes Copy editOR what we firmly believe distributed generation — Diane Sylvain is a misinterpretation Contributing editorS local power generation for of a provision in the Tristan Ahtone, Cally local needs. Carswell, Sarah Gilman, Alaska Lands Act — Distributed generation Ruxandra Guidi, recreational snowmobil- Michelle Nijhuis, has the advantage not only Jonathan Thompson ing is generally allowed, of cutting transmission CorrespondentS even in congressionally losses; smaller targets are Krista Langlois, Sarah designated wildernesses, Tory, Joshua Zaffos less appealing to terrorists, including those in na- Editorial FellowS and the consequences of Emily Benson, Chris Wildt/Artizans tional parks. Especially terrorist attacks on energy Rebecca Worby in winter, don’t count Development Director infrastructure would be on a wilderness experi- Laurie Milford much more limited. ence — or even a fully Philanthropy Advisor Distributed generation has a long Like the brothers Nunn in Thompson’s Alyssa Pinkerton natural one — on Alaska’s public lands. history and has been well studied. article, perhaps a whole new genera- Development Assistant Motorized recreation in the 21st Christine List In fact, even the U.S. Department of tion of “pinheads” will gain excitement, century certainly has its place — but Marketing & Promotions Energy has a report on the subject, pub- get the wheels turning, and keep on not seemingly everywhere. The adverse Manager JoAnn Kalenak lished in 2007: The Potential Benefits trucking to something sustainable. The WEB DEVELOPER effects of poorly regulated motorized Eric Strebel of Distributed Generation and Rate- Nevada article delightfully made it Database/IT administrator recreation are many. Natural sounds Related Issues That May Impede Their clear that many of these new pinheads Alan Wells and natural quiet are of course de- DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT Expansion. are women. graded, as are clean air and water, soils Gretchen King I would have liked to see the distrib- Kate Niles and vegetation, wildlife, and intangible Accountant uted generation option discussed in Jon- Erica Howard Durango, Colorado values like wilderness character. Even athan’s article; it is compatible with a Accounts Receivable Alaska’s spectacular scenery can be more integrated grid. Even better would Jan Hoffman Too many motors badly marred. Many otherwise beautiful Customer Service Manager be a follow-up feature that explores the snowscapes are a maze of snowmobile Christie Cantrell advantages and disadvantages of big, The Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition Circulation Systems admin. tracks as far as the eye can see, and centralized power generation as com- (AQRC) was delighted to see Krista Kathy Martinez in the non-snow seasons, innumerable pared to decentralized generation. Langlois’ very informative article “Trail Circulation landscapes are seriously scarred by Pam Peters, Doris Teel, Blazing” (HCN, 6/26/17). It deals with a “ Felice Pace ever-widening ATV trails — many, if Tammy York topic that is dear to our hearts — pro- GrantWriter Klamath, California not most, of those trails unplanned and Janet Reasoner viding high-quality opportunities for virtually unregulated. [email protected] human-powered recreation on Alaska’s Fossil-fuel-free future The Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition [email protected] public lands. We certainly agree that certainly supports efforts to provide [email protected] Thank you for Jonathan Thompson’s encouraging the development of more more — in fact, many more — high- [email protected] article on “The Bid for the Big Grid,” hiking, cross-country skiing and biking quality opportunities for human- [email protected] as well as Elizabeth Shogren’s on the trails could create significant economic powered recreation in Alaska. It’s our FOUNDER Tom Bell Nevada power situation (HCN, 8/21/17). benefits for rural and other Alaskan mission. But until Alaska’s state and For the first time, perhaps, I am reading communities. And the opportunities Board of Directors federal public-land managers agree to on the “how to” of switching to renew- would seem to be boundless on Alaska’s John Belkin, Colo. allocate a more reasonable percentage Chad Brown, Ore. ables instead of endless sorrow at what public lands — 224 million acres of of the public lands to non-motorized rec- Beth Conover, Colo. the United States seemed incapable federal and 104 million acres of state- Jay Dean, Calif. reation, visitors seeking a quiet, natural of doing — a vision of moving forward owned land. Bob Fulkerson, Nev. experience hiking, skiing or biking in Wayne Hare, Colo. without fossil fuels. I hope this gives But there’s an elephant in the Alaska will be sorely disappointed. Laura Helmuth, Md. others an inkling of vision as well, room. The article never mentions one John Heyneman, Wyo. Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico so that some of the despair around of Alaska’s most basic and unyielding Brian Okonek, president Samaria Jaffe, Calif. climate change, even for those who do recreational problems: The vast major- Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition Nicole Lampe, Ore. not understand it much, dissipates. ity of reasonably accessible (as well as Anchorage, Alaska Marla Painter, N.M. Bryan Pollard, Ark. Raynelle Rino, Calif. Estee Rivera Murdock, D.C. Dan Stonington, Wash. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Printed on Rick Tallman, Colo. High independent media organization that covers the Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. recycled paper. Luis Torres, N.M. issues that define the American West. Its mission is POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All Andy Wiessner, Colo. Country to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Florence Williams, D.C. News region’s diverse natural and human communities. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org 4 High Country News September 18, 2017 From our website: HCN.ORG

Why the Bundy crew Trending keeps winning in court In late August, a Las Vegas jury acquitted Big blazes Ricky Lovelien of Montana and Steven and politics Stewart of Idaho for their parts in the Montana has been 2014 armed standoff between the federal hit hard by wildfires government and supporters of rancher Cliven this year, which have Bundy. The jury found co-defendants Eric caused evacuations Parker and Scott Drexler not guilty of most and burned over charges, but deadlocked on some. When it half a million acres. comes to trying the Bundy family and their Republican politicians supporters, federal prosecutors have a terrible have laid the blame record, winning just two convictions after on “environmental two trials of six defendants in Nevada this extremists,” saying they year. Last fall, Bundy’s sons Ryan and Ammon are causing misman- Bundy and five others were acquitted of agement through charges stemming from the armed takeover restrictive lawsuits that of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge limit logging. Remov- in early 2016. ing dead trees and The recent acquittals in the Nevada case thinning forests are raise big questions for prosecutors. Some common tools for help- legal experts say the nation’s current political ing to prevent wildfires. climate, characterized by distrust of federal But scientists have authorities, may be one reason juries keep shown climate change siding with the Bundy crew. is increasing tempera- In 2014, a court ordered the federal tures and triggering government to round up Bundy’s cattle, Cory Chappell holds a sign during a rally outside the Nevada Federal Court in August after a judge longer wildfire seasons. which were illegally grazing on public land cut short the testimony of defendant Eric Parker during the Bundy standoff retrial in Las Vegas. President Donald near Bunkerville, Nevada. Bundy felt the feds © Joel Angel Juarez via ZUMA Wire Trump’s proposed were overreaching. In the tense face-off that 2018 budget calls ensued, hundreds of armed supporters forced for a $300 million Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service employees to and U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro. That conflict took its own form reduction to the U.S. end the roundup for fear of violence. The Bunkerville stand-off trials may outside the courtroom, too: Bundy supporters observing the trial have called Forest Service’s wildfire- have set off alarms for the average juror. Jurors are instructed to use their Navarro “biased” for months. “The public has become more and more aware fighting programs. “common sense” when evaluating evidence. Today, an estimated 80 percent of the power of the judiciary. As a result, there’s been kind of a political Chris D’Angela/ of Americans say they distrust the federal government at times. (That’s up arms over appointments, which has resulted in more distrust,” said Ian HuffPost via from 66 percent in 2000 and 27 percent in 1958.) The recent verdict was Bartrum, constitutional law expert at the University of Nevada. “Couple that Climate Desk not a result of jurors’ sympathy for the Bundys, Lovelien’s attorney, Shawn with recent conservative rhetoric and presidential rhetoric, and I guess you Perez, concluded. “This is not a rogue jury. It is a failure of truth on the part get the current climate.” You say of the government.” Similar dynamics may come into play in the trial of Cliven Bundy Ha tchett Jim: “Let The most recent trial, a retrial after the first jury deadlocked, was himself, which is slated to begin Oct. 10. Tay Wiles it burn, that’s part of marked by a persistent push-and-pull dynamic between the defense team More: hcne.ws/distrustful-acquittals the natural cycle of Western forests. The cost of fighting fires should be paid for by You can get a the people that build their houses in these lot of votes by Number of cars it obviously vulnerable “ would90,000 take to create as much greenhouse gas as areas.” being tough is emitted, in the form of methane, by western Colorado’s West Elk coal mine each year. Russell Welch: on illegal “Strange how the privately managed immigration, stands of timber and Arpaio to R oyalty rate in the Northwest 8%reduction the mine’s5% owner, Arch Coal, has never seem to suffer came to the requested from the Bureau of Land Management, insect devastation or conclusion that which holds the leases. catastrophic fires.” Stacy Philbrick this was good Kandel: “We try to politics. manage our forests Loss in $4revenue, over million five years, Colorado would with selective logging and reduction of fuels. —David Berman, face if the royalty rate is reduced, according to Nearly every time a a political” science Gov. John Hickenlooper, who says he’ll agree to harvest plan is submit- professor at Arizona Pete Seeger serenades the Snake River in Hells Canyon in August 1972. the loss, if Arch agrees to capture the methane. Boyd Norton ted, ‘environmental State University, extremists’ sue to stop who has studied Arch Coal is struggling in a declining coal market it claiming logging the influence of Joe A return to the Snake River and has asked the federal government to reduce ‘may’ hinder an animal Arpaio’s rhetoric on coal royalties at the West Elk Mine in Colorado, In the late 1960s, a ragtag group of outdoors people, including legendary that ‘may or may not’ voters. More on how the state’s largest methane emitter. The state musician Pete Seeger, took a trip on the undammed Snake River. Those live in the area. It’s “America’s toughest was willing to agree to the discount in exchange photos helped persuade politicians to establish the present-day Snake River ridiculous.” sheriff” galvanized for methane capture. But the final decision by Wilderness. The personality of the river, captured in those old photographs, is the Bureau of Land Management, expected this More: hcnews/blam a movement among juxtaposed with recent river trips in 2010 and 2017. The collection colorfully month, may not require it. Elizabeth Shogren ing-environmentalists Arizona Latinos: hcne. shows the then-and-now of the Snake River’s Hells Canyon section. ws/arpaio-pardoned More: hcne.ws/methane-discounts and Facebook.com/ Cameron Scott More: hcne.ws/river-revisited highcountrynews

Never miss a story. Sign up for the HCN newsletter at hcn.org/enewsletter. www.hcn.org High Country News 5 Community joined the Standing Rock Tribes commit to uphold Sioux Tribe, the Quinault Indian Nation, and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in commit- Paris climate agreement ting to support the agreement. The Na- Western nations take action on climate change — tional Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund did so and push for self-governance as well. By Lyndsey Gilpin Their decision to publicly announce their support is more than symbolic, experts and leaders say: It tells the United he Swinomish Indian Tribal Though Indigenous communities have Nations that tribal nations are climate T Community started planning for cli- a small carbon footprint, they are often leaders and intend to remain part of the mate change a decade ago. Located on the the most severely impacted by climate global conversation about climate change. southeastern peninsula of Fidalgo Island change. There are 567 federally recog- “Tribes have already taken a lot of on Puget Sound in Washington, the reser- nized tribes in the U.S. — 40 percent of leadership in planning for the negative vation is surrounded by water and at high them in Alaska — and climate change impacts of climate change,” said Kyle risk from sea-level rise. A destructive 100- threatens many of them. In California and Powys Whyte, a member of the Citizen Po- year storm event in 2006 led tribal leaders the Pacific Northwest, tribal nations are tawatomi Nation and professor of philoso- to research and fund climate programs, at increased risk of sea-level rise. Coastal phy and Indigenous studies at Michigan and the Swinomish became the first tribal communities like the Quinault Indian Na- State University. “It’s really important nation to adopt a climate adaptation plan. tion in western Washington and at least that some tribes begin to take the lead on So when President Donald Trump an- 31 Alaska Native villages, including the what it means to have the biggest possible nounced his decision to withdraw the U.S. Shishmaref village near the Bering Strait, energy-saving impact in the area they from the United Nations’ Paris climate face coastal erosion. Already, several have live, and to exercise self-governance.” agreement, the Swinomish reacted swiftly been forced to relocate. Though tribes and states are sover- and — together with other tribes — pub- Around the American Southwest, heat eign entities within the U.S., they are not licly committed to uphold the accord. and drought are baking streams and shift- allowed to enter treaties or negotiate with In the West, where many tribal coming sand dunes, leaving the Navajo Nation foreign nations. Under United Nations munities and reservations are on the and other tribes and pueblos with fewer policy, Indigenous people are treated as frontlines of climate change, tribal leaders resources, while wildfires endanger tribal self-determining when it comes to cultural are determined to move forward and act nations from eastern California to the issues, but lack the political self-determi- as sovereign nations, despite budget cuts, Rocky Mountains. Primary food sources, nation of member nations. climate denial and inaction. “We came to- like salmon and other endangered fish, The 2008 United Nations Declaration gether with one another to raise the level are dying from warming rivers and acidi- on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples al- of environmental awareness,” said Debra fying oceans. lows tribal communities to participate in Lekanoff, governmental affairs director On June 3, just two days after Trump U.N. matters. Signing an agreement like for the Swinomish. “We can’t just pick up made his announcement on the Paris the 2015 Paris climate accord, however, and move the places where we live.” Agreement, the Swinomish Indian Tribal would require changing policies at the

Quinault tribal member Sonny Curley canoes through Sea Breeze Field after seawater flooded the tribe’s lower Taholah Village in March 2016 during a storm. In response to repeated flooding due to sea-level rise and anticipated tsunamis, the tribe is moving its lower village to higher land and rebuilding the sea wall. Larry Workman/ Quinault Indian Nation

6 High Country News September 18, 2017 U.N. and in the U.S. Tribal leaders say Snapshot it’s possible. “Just to have them recognize a moratorium on fishing for the season, as was evident at the us was a step in the right direction,” said annual Salmon Festival. Usually, the festival features a chinook Brian Cladoosby, president of the Nation- Imported salmon meal; this year the salmon came from Alaska, parts of which al Congress of American Indians. This year’s fall chinook salmon return on the Klamath River have also cancelled their fishing seasons.T he West Coast as But changing the law is an arduous pro- in Northern California is the lowest ever, which means that a whole is seeing massive drops in salmon populations due to cess, so tribes in the U.S. are taking a short the Yurok Tribe, whose reservation hugs the river on both climate change and dams; 200 miles of coastline have been cut: working more closely with Indigenous sides, has received its lowest fish allocation ever, at 650 fish. closed to commercial and recreational salmon fishing for the In order to help the species, the tribe has voluntarily imposed season. Anna V. SMith More: hcne.ws/salmon-fest populations from around the world through programs like the United League of Indig- enous Nations, which has its own climate program, or the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. “Tribes are really trying to get out there and represent themselves, and become stronger partners in agreements where U.S. representation isn’t necessar- ily good for them, like the Paris Agree- ment,” Whyte said. According to Whyte’s research, more than 50 U.S. tribes have engaged in formal climate change planning, and many have had climate adaptation plans approved by their councils. In addition to assessing larger climate goals, tribes are working on the ground to address the impacts. The Swinomish have partnered with the Skagit Climate Consortium to protect the region’s salmon from pollution and warming waters. In Southeast Alaska, the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes are monitoring ocean acidification levels and harmful algae blooms while adapting buildings and infrastructure to cope with rising sea levels along rivers and the coasts. Since 2008, the Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico has been working on small and utility-scale solar projects, as well as biomass Oscar Gensaw tends the fire as salmon cooks on redwood sticks — the Yurok Tribe’s traditional way of cooking salmon and geothermal energy projects. Last Sep- — while his brother, James, readies more yew wood to feed the flames. The salmon was served for the Klamath Festival tember, the Samish Indian Nation in Wash- luncheon, at $15 a plate. Jolene Nenibah Yazzie ington landed a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for climate adaptation planning and education. But funding is increasingly uncertain: Another Department of Energy grant that arrived this summer was five months later than expected. “What happens in the future is anyone’s guess at this point,” said Todd Wood- ard, director of natural resources for the Samish. “Tribal country funding has never been so murky as it is now.” Trump’s federal budget proposal would cut tribal climate resilience award money by $9.9 million, and in June, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had scrubbed all references to “climate change” from the agency’s website about the Tribal Climate Resilience Program. Whyte noted that many tribes may not be able to start renewable energy projects alone; usually, an investment from the federal government is needed. “It behooves tribes to find ways for their climate change plans to be part of discussion,” Whyte said. “By publicizing them as much as they can and getting in- teractions with as many parties as possible, we can see if that begins to build trac- tion, so parties at the U.N. begin to see Cooked strips of salmon sit seasoned and ready to eat, left. Because of a shortage of salmon from the Klamath River, them as what they are: sovereign entities organizers had to purchase fish from Alaska. A pile of wooden skewers used to roast salmon near the fire pit, right. that should be able to self-determine.” The word for salmon in Yurok is ne po y’, which means “that which is eaten.” Jolene Nenibah Yazzie

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 Going home again A young climate change researcher fights invasive plants on her ancestral lands By Paige Blankenbuehler

Uncommon nside a lab on the fourth floor of the Westerner I Science and Engineering Building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Ka- Name Ka-Voka Jackson Voka Jackson pulled from a brown sack a dried seed head of the invasive plant Age 25 called ravennagrass. She slowly maneu- vered the brittle branch out, and from its Current position wispy ventricles tiny seeds poofed into the Graduate student at the air, across the counter and onto the floor. A University of Nevada, Las couple of them latched onto her long black Vegas hair. “Each of the seed stock plumes can produce thousands per plant,” she said, as The work Restoration she shimmied it back into the bag. “It’s a ecology research prolific seed bearer. They are very light, and they can travel by wind, float on the She says “I’m out to water. And it seems to spread very effi- protect the little guys ciently in this area.” – the vulnerable ones. Jackson, a graduate student in the Because those plants, School of Life Sciences, was raised on the willows and the sage, the Hualapai Indian Reservation in Ari- Ka-Voka Jackson monitors plots of ravennagrass that have been treated with herbicide. Part have a tougher battle zona. Her ancestral lands span 1 million against climate change of Jackson’s research is testing to see how manual removal compares to spraying herbicide in square miles along the Colorado River. stopping the plant’s spread throughout Glen Canyon Recreation Area. Brad Jorgensen than the invasive grasses Since 2016, after completing a degree in do.” Salt Lake City and moving to Las Vegas, she’s been studying how to eradicate Sac- The work Valley of Fire charum ravennae. The bushy plant, some- Hualapai’s cultural resources depart- create a bridge between tribal nations and State Park times called elephant grass, grows up to ment, took her on river trips down the federal agencies, so that tribes can de- Favorite non-work 14 feet tall, in bunches nearly half as wide. Colorado. The year she was 5, she spent velop their own long-term ecological res- activity Mountain It was introduced as a decorative land- a total of seven months sleeping outdoors. toration plans. Eradicating ravennagrass biking in the desert scaping plant in Ohio in the 20th century, She graduated from the University of completely will be difficult, but Jackson and by 2001 had reached the Southwest. Utah and went to graduate school at the thinks a paradigm shift in land manage- Most rad battle scar While its beauty and resilience make it University of Nevada, Las Vegas. As part ment is imminent. “Tribes still use these An artificial incisor that a popular accent amid rock gardens and of her graduate research, in collabora- plants ceremonially, to build certain ob- replaced a tooth that succulents, ravennagrass can push out tion with the National Park Service and jects, medicine and food sources. We’re not was lost in a biking native plants, like white sagebrush and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, dependent on them now; we have modern accident last year. willow baccharis, that play a role in the Jackson is now assessing dozens of plots, society and can go to Home Depot instead ceremonial and medicinal practices of the 100 square meters each, in five different of building from thatch. But it’s more Hualapai and other Southwestern tribal canyons. about keeping the culture alive.” nations. In April, she took a team of techni- The challenge is mighty. Climate When we met at the University of Ne- cians into the canyons to kill or pull up change is increasing the harshness of the vada’s plant seed control room in August, ravennagrass and replant native plants. Southwest. Recently, Jackson and a tech- it was nearing 100 degrees, and Jackson Jackson is also investigating whether pas- nician from the Park Service revisited her was dressed entirely in black, including sive re-vegetation — allowing the native plots that had been treated this spring. canvas Toms shoes and rounded black plants to come back on their own — can They entered a canyon where a park tech- glasses. Half a dozen tattoos decorated work. Over the course of her program, she nician had sprayed herbicide a few years her calves and forearms. With the South- will return to monitor her plots, recording earlier. As they wended their way through west’s climate on a trajectory for pro- details from each to give land managers thickets of brush and shrub oak, Jackson longed drought and weather extremes, insight into which methods could work saw a delicate hanging garden of native Jackson navigates the deep backcountry best for Glen Canyon National Recreation flora — in view of a bunch of encroach- near Glen Canyon, around the Arizona- Area. “Given that the climate is dry and ing ravennagrass. “We were both just like Utah border. Here, back home, she is this is truly a desert, finding even one or ‘NOOOOOO!’ ” she said. “It was really up- working to eradicate prolific and climate- a few techniques that restore native eco- setting to see that even after the Park Ser- change-resistant invasives and restore systems would be a huge success in this vice had thought it eradicated some of the native vegetation. type of difficult environment,” said Scott ravennagrass in the canyon, it came back.” Abella, an associate professor who is over- Still, she remains hopeful. “I myself am rowing up in the early 1990s, Jackson seeing the research. not going to eliminate all of the ravenna- G took an early interest in the natu- While Jackson’s research will help grass in Glen Canyon,” she said. “But I can ral world. Her mother, the head of the land agencies, she hopes the project can figure out the best way to get rid of it.”

8 High Country News September 18, 2017 achieved large-scale commercial success, partly because it’s easier and cheaper to Wyoming’s coal conundrum just use petroleum. Highly touted efforts As cheaper, cleaner fuels overtake the electricity market, to capture and store emissions from coal plants have also fizzled because costs spi- can coal remain a linchpin of Wyoming’s economy? raled out of control. Even in Wyoming, it’s By Joshua Zaffos hard not to wonder: Is it smart to keep betting on coal?

earing a blue construction helmet, Yet with roughly 6.6 billion tons of re- n the last day of March 2016, Gillette W Dennis Thorfinnson stands in the coverable coal still in the ground, and an O miners traded anxious phone calls, shadow of a 500-foot-high chimney, and economy hooked on mining and burning trying to figure out who still had a job. stares up at a sharp blue sky filled with it, Wyoming can’t seem to quit it. Instead, Following months of declining coal prices, puffy summer clouds. “What do you see?” state leaders are trying to clean it up and mining companies laid off more than 500 he asks me. It seems like a trick question; find new uses for it. Wyoming workers. By the end of the year, I see nothing. Near where Thorfinnson and I stand, another 500 had lost their jobs. Thorfinnson grins proudly. Not a sin- a construction crew is setting beams for The bust hurt more than Gillette and gle visible trace of pollution floats from the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, other mining towns; it hammered the the stack of Gillette, Wyoming’s Dry Fork where researchers hope to capture carbon whole state. Taxes on the minerals dug power plant, even as it burns coal. This is dioxide emissions and eventually turn from the earth, along with property taxes one of the country’s newest — and clean- those emissions into plastic, carbon-fiber paid by the energy industry, account for est — coal plants. The engineers who built materials, concrete or fuels. Wyoming has 50 to 65 percent of Wyoming’s total tax it in 2011 tailored its pollution controls put $15 million into its construction. A revenue, bankrolling schools, roads, hos- to the particular chemical composition of private utility company will test new car- pitals, police and emergency services. coal from the neighboring Dry Fork Mine. bon-capture technologies and pursue uses Coal mining, specifically, has recently That means it releases less sulfur dioxide, for the carbon, while five smaller research contributed more than $1 billion annually nitrogen dioxide and even carbon dioxide teams compete for $20 million in industry to state and local budgets. than older coal plants do. prize money, offered to commercialize “ad- When production crashes, so does the But it still releases invisible carbon di- vanced coal” products. state’s budget. The decline of coal was a oxide, which contributes to climate change. During a 30-year career, Thorfinnson major factor in lawmakers’ 2016 deci- And Wyoming’s leaders know that’s a has seen technological advances reduce sion to drastically cut funding for public problem. Forty-two percent of the domestic power plants’ output of mercury, sulfur schools, suicide-prevention programs, coal supply is mined in the state, much of dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, virtually health-care services, and fish and wild- it from large mines around Gillette. In re- eliminating problems like acid rain. Cap- life management. And this time, few are cent years, the coal industry has employed turing and using carbon emissions is the banking on coal’s full comeback. one in every 10 workers in Gillette and natural next step, he says. Capable, con- So last November, Gov. Matt Mead, surrounding Campbell County. But coal is fident and affable, Thorfinnson has me R, launched ENDOW, an economic declining as a power source. It can’t com- believing, too. diversity initiative designed to attract new pete with cheaper, cleaner natural gas, and So far, though, most “clean coal” ini- manufacturing and technology businesses eventually, climate change regulations are tiatives have failed. Carbon-based rub- and create work for young Wyomingites. expected to worsen its prospects. bers, asphalts and chemicals have never Please see Coal tech, page 29

Train cars to be filled with coal move through a loading area at Peabody Energy’s Rawhide Mine, outside Gillette, Wyoming. The Dry Fork power plant, where researchers will soon begin experimenting with turning the plant’s emissions into useful products, operates in the background. K ristina Barker

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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Our staff enjoyed David O’Kane | Lacey, WA Park Willis | Salt Lake City, UT able; Joan noted that she saw a nerdy chat with Tim and Kate Beverly Palm | Driggs, ID Sara Leigh Wilson & Marty Wilson | the moss roses shut when the about net metering, which we Sharon Paul | Arvada, CO Crooked River Ranch, OR sky went dark. Matthew has covered in a feature story in our Jim & Linda Pinkerton | Fayetteville, AR Kent Winterholler | Park City, UT been an HCN subscriber for 30 Aug. 21 issue. Janna Treisman, a Thomas Plawman | Anchorage, AK Barbara Wise | Salt Lake City, UT years, and he appreciates that retired teacher from Washing- Ken Plotz & Carol Peeples | Denver, CO Liz Wise | Vernon, AZ we cover a lot of stories “other- ton and a longtime subscriber, Richard Quackenbush | Oregon City, OR Jane York | Nevada City, CA wise missed by everyone.” came by for her second visit in Subscriber Dan Groth of two years. She thanked the staff Durango, Colorado, also dropped for “keeping her sane.” Thanks in on his way home; he watched for coming back by, Janna! It’s Spoken Through Clay: Native Pottery of the Southwest the eclipse with his brother and visitors like you who keep us By Charles S. King. 352 pages, hardcover: $125. Museum of New Mexico Press, 2017. his family in Laramie Peak, sane. Spoken Through Clay features the artwork and stories of more than three dozen Native Wyoming. Robi Mulford and Ian We’re clearly big fans of the American potters from the American Southwest. Photographs of clay vessels — their sides Swift from Los Alamos, New pages you’re currently holding, painted or carved with designs ranging from abstract motifs to Mexico, came in post-eclipse but we also hold dear the trees realistic depictions of people, butterflies, fish and other crea- after finding a nice quiet spot they came from. That’s why, tures — form the heart of this gathering of contemporary down a farm road — also in starting in October, we’ll be clay art, carefully chosen by author Charles S. King. Wyoming. Robi works at a participating in “PrintReleaf,” Vignettes describing the meaning and inspiration medical clinic where HCN is a program that plants trees to behind the pieces accompany the images. Each selection the “only coffee-table reading,” offset the paper we use to print of vessels, grouped by artist, begins with a portrait of so she reads it at work quite HCN. About 80 trees will be the potter by Diné photographer Will Wilson. Narrative accounts of each artist’s personal experience and creative happily! She renewed her own planted for each issue, totaling process, written by the potters themselves, add depth and subscription while she was here, about 1,760 trees per year. Now nuance to the collection of vessels and their histories. As so now she’ll be able to read us that’s a forest we’d like to see! one Pueblo artist writes, “You can look at pottery — and see at home, too. —Emily Benson, Jacquie Stevens there’s a story there.” EMily Benson Les Namingha Three-year subscriber Jane for the staff

www.hcn.org High Country News 11 Buyingaylor Shellfish Farm’s Quilcene Time fish, including oysters and clams, are also ery staff. Yesterday, workers had spawned hatchery perches on a narrow seriously affected. With the disappear- Pacific oysters, which within hours built peninsula that juts into the sinu- ance of many of these sea creatures, oce- their first shells from seawater calcium. ous waterways of Washington’s anic food webs will be irrevocably altered Throughout the hatchery, millions of baby Puget Sound. On the July day I by century’s end. bivalves grew from mere specks to iden- Tvisited, the hatchery and everything sur- People have harvested shellfish in tifiable mollusks, fated to gleam on half How the rounding it seemed to drip with fecundity. the Pacific Northwest for thousands of shells in trendy Seattle oyster bars, or be Clouds banked over darkly forested hills years. Today, the industry generates more whisked off to Asia by FedEx flight. Pacific on the opposite shore, and a tangy breeze than $270 million annually in the state “Oysters are our number-one product, blew in from across the bay. But the lush- of Washington alone. A decade ago, the then geoducks, then Mediterranean mus- Northwest is ness hid an ecosystem’s unraveling. region’s shellfish growers were already sels,” Pederson said, guiding me between Climate change is altering the very reeling from harmful effects of climate shaded storage tanks. “We’ve also done chemistry of surface seawater, causing change, so they have been in some ways some research work with scallops.” confronting ocean acidification, a chemical process at the forefront of climate adaptation. I’d For more than 250 years, since the that is lowering the amount of calcium driven to Taylor Shellfish Farm to learn Industrial Revolution’s beginnings, the the threat marine organisms can access. Acidifica- how they were working, with scientists ocean has absorbed approximately a tion is a relative term; the oceans are not and others, to save their livelihoods and third of the carbon dioxide that humans of ocean actually turning into acid and will not the coastal ecosystems they’re built on. have produced, slowing the impacts of melt surfboards or sea turtles anytime Dave Pederson, the hatchery man- climate change on land. But since 1750, acidification soon. Still, with enough acidification, sea- ager, met me in a bright building full the average acidity of its surface water water becomes corrosive to some organ- of burbling saltwater tanks of assorted has increased by almost 30 percent. The FEATURE By isms. Hardest hit are calcifiers, which use mollusks. A tall, fit man with a graying ocean is acidifying 10 times faster now Maya L. Kapoor aragonite, a form of the mineral calcium beard, Pederson led me outside behind than it has in the past 50 million years. carbonate, to make shells, skeletons and the hatchery. Two hundred feet below us, Scientists don’t yet understand what this other important body parts. Examples of glittering blue water splashed against the means for sea life, but ocean acidification calcifiers include crabs, sea urchins, sea steep cliffside, while inside the hatch- already affects Pederson and others who stars, some seaweeds, reef-forming corals, ery, tiny oysters, mussels and geoducks rely on the ocean. He and other farmers, and a type of tiny floating marine snail, — pronounced “gooey ducks” — filtered along with researchers and policymakers, or pteropod, called a sea butterfly. Shell- algae soups, carefully concocted by hatch- are searching for lasting solutions to the

12 High Country News September 18, 2017 Buying Timeregional climate change impacts they are change, the organisms of the Pacific North- affect most sea life. But in coastal areas, witnessing. Meanwhile, worries about the west lived at the edge of their tolerance for it’s clearly compounding other threats, planetary implications of ocean acidifica- acidity. Now, though, surface water absorbs such as farming pollution and city sew- tion keep growing. so much atmospheric carbon dioxide that age. To McAfee, this introduces a para- by the time it upwells again, its acidifica- doxical sliver of hope: If regional actions Humans have lived along North tion will reach problematic levels. exacerbate a globally produced problem, America’s West Coast for millennia, in “This is something that’s roaring up perhaps regional responses can help as- part because of a maritime phenomenon on us that can’t be stopped and is really suage it. McAfee acknowledged that there that occurs in only a few places on Earth: kind of freaky-scary,” Skyli McAfee, direc- is no returning to an ocean untouched seasonal coastal upwelling. First, surface tor of The Nature Conservancy’s North by human-caused acidification. Instead, seawater near Japan sinks into a deep-wa- American Oceans Program, told me. “We she focuses on resilience. As more people ter current well below sunlight. That cur- know that we already had an unusual move into coastal communities, more and rent carries the water to North America, and acidified system, and to pile all this more nutrients flush into coastal sys- a trip that takes between 30 and 50 years. on top of it — we’re not certain what kind tems. Extra municipal and agricultural A worker tends the Decaying pieces of marine plants and ani- of impacts we can expect to see.” runoff create the potential for more “dead tanks outside the mals come along for the ride, providing a Because of the long voyage that zones,” such as in the Gulf of Mexico. “It Taylor Shellfish Farm hatchery feast for carbon dioxide-releasing bacteria Pacific seawater takes, this problem sets off a chemical reaction that is analo- in Quilcene, that naturally acidify the surrounding wa- won’t stop anytime soon, McAfee added. gous to ocean acidification,” McAfee said. Washington. ter. Eventually, this deep current reaches “Even if we stopped all carbon emissions McAfee believes that coastal communi- The tanks hold the West Coast, where a southerly wind tomorrow, we’d be getting the signals that ties can protect themselves by keeping various types of blows the surface water out to sea. Then have already been entrained in the water, their marine ecosystems as healthy and algae that help the the nutrient-rich water from the North over the next several decades,” she said. diverse as possible, helping to prepare bivalves bred at Pacific rises, nourishing the seaweed “Twenty years from now, we’re going see for ever-more-acidic upwellings. This will the hatchery grow and phytoplankton that thrive in sunlit waters that contain a signal from the require working with farms and cities to to a size at which surface waters. That growth is the founda- atmosphere 20 years ago. So we kind of cut back on runoff, for example, and pre- they can survive the increasingly tion for the West Coast’s incredibly diverse bought the cow.” serving as many coastal protected areas acidified coastal food web, which supports some of the most The study of ocean acidification is as possible to give marine life safe places waters into which productive fisheries in the world. still a young field, and scientists don’t yet to grow from vulnerable babies into they’ll be seeded. Even before human-caused climate know how the phenomenon is going to adults. Ultimately, if coastal ecosystems Cameron Karsten

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 get help with regional stressors, they will cruise, shellfish farms throughout the years, though, Dale’s oyster seeds died be in the best possible shape for surviv- Pacific Northwest were failing. About two before they ever left their tanks. In some ing global stressors. McAfee calls this days after hatching, all 2 million oysters in cases, their tiny shells seemed to dissolve. “managing for resilience.” a set would die. Whiskey Creek hatchery Feely’s keynote presentation explained “It’s not all doom and gloom,” she — one of the industry’s largest suppliers what Dale and the other growers were assured me. “At the end of the day, what of shellfish larvae to farms — produced witnessing at their hatcheries: Before the the story is, is: We have the tools, we have only 2.5 billion “eyed” larvae in 2008, just Industrial Revolution, the upper ocean’s the science, we have the fortitude. We just 25 percent of what it normally produced average pH was 8.2. The pH scale, which need to do it.” in a season. As one bad season stretched measures acidity, goes down as acid- into two, farmers focused on the usual ity goes up. It’s now 8.1, a deceptively A decade ago, most people — including suspects. Thinking a bacterium called small-sounding difference: The ocean is scientists and shellfish growers — had Vibrio tubiashii was to blame, growers actually 30 percent more acidified. And in never heard of ocean acidification. But would halt operations, clean out their the summer of 2008, because of seasonal in 2007, following a hunch, National tanks, and add new water and new stock, upwelling, hatcheries recorded seawater Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration only for their oysters to die again. The pH levels as low as 7.6, which explained oceanographer Richard Feely put to sea growers were mystified. Then, in 2008, the havoc shellfish farms were experienc- ing. If carbon dioxide emissions continue increasing as predicted, by the end of this century the ocean’s surface may become on average 150 times more acidified than it was before the Industrial Revolution, with a pH of about 7.8. This would be di- sastrous for a lot of marine life, especially in areas such as the Pacific Northwest. Word of the researchers’ findings spread. Pacific shellfish growers quickly went to work with state and federal biologists to adapt, so their stock could survive in a changing ocean. They tried filling their water tanks in the afternoon, rather than the morning; this improved the baby oysters’ chances of survival because photosynthesizing plants took up some of the seawater’s carbon dioxide. Shellfish continued to die, but there was enough improvement to suggest that things were headed in the right direction. Next, researchers put the same pH and carbon dioxide sensors they had had on their ship into hatcheries. Scientists also taught farmers how to add calcium carbonate — soda ash — to seawater coming into their hatcheries, raising the pH in tanks. Hatcheries even shortened their spawning season to avoid the acidified late-summer conditions of the sound. Scientists and farmers were able to work together because Sen. Maria Dave Pederson, on a research trip off the West Coast of Feely and the other researchers published Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, hatchery manager North America. Feely had found dissolved their findings. Later that year, the Pacific supported their collaboration. “She se- at Taylor Shellfish carbon dioxide levels in surface waters Shellfish Growers Association invited cured $500,000 of stimulus money to buy Farm in Quilcene, of the continental shelf off Northern Feely to present his research at its annual pH sensors and put them into the hatch- Washington, holds California that were much higher than meeting. The reality, the growers learned, eries,” Feely said. “So for that $500,000 a geoduck — the he’d expected. While Feely thought those was much worse than a common bacte- investment, we saved that industry from hatchery’s second high recordings hinted that an upwelling rium: Essentially, as their baby oysters dying off. We saved that industry $35 biggest seller, after event was happening, he had no idea of oysters — grown struggled to pull enough calcium from million in one year’s time. That’s a clear mostly for export to the magnitude or extent of the acidifica- acidified seawater to form shells, they ran example of how science and government Asia. tion he was about to discover. out of energy and starved to death. can work together to save an industry, David Ryder/Bloomberg Feely assembled a group of marine re- Greg Dale, southwest operations and that felt pretty good.” via Getty Images searchers who sailed from Canada to Mexi- manager at Coast Seafoods Company Which is not to say that the tools they co, collecting and analyzing water samples in Northern California, watched Feely’s used were pretty. Tracking the mea- along the way. They had a bet going about presentation. Raised in a fishing family surements that shellfish growers rely when they would see ocean acidification. from Alaska, Dale began working at an on — such as carbon dioxide levels and All of them turned out to be wrong, be- oyster farm as a student at Humboldt aragonite saturation levels — in real time cause it was everywhere: Corrosive waters State University. At first, it was just a is complicated. Burke Hales, an ocean- registered from Vancouver Island all the job, but he ended up loving the work. At ographer with Oregon State University, way to Baja California. Feely and his col- Coast Seafoods, Dale raised oysters both constructed a device, resembling a plastic leagues estimated that by the end of the to sell as baby “seeds” and as ready-to-eat travel trunk sprouting machinery and century, marine creatures throughout the adults. The adults were transferred to colored wires, that hatcheries could entire ocean would have access to dramati- tidal mudflats, where they grew individu- install to monitor conditions. Now, when cally less calcium carbonate because of ally in baskets of powdered shell, or on conditions are bad, growers don’t spawn ocean acidification, with regions of coastal pieces of shell stuck in braids of rope that oysters. The co-owner of another hatchery upwelling hit especially hard. trail up from the bottom of the ocean like named the contraption, which has since Even as Feely conducted his 2007 underwater vineyards. For two terrible been trademarked, the Burke-o-lator.

14 High Country News September 18, 2017 The economic calamity caused by p Oceanographer ocean acidification in 2007 and 2008 Richard Feely stands on caught the attention of many people, the deck of the research including then-Washington Gov. Christine vessel Wecoma during Gregoire. Washington’s seafood industry a 2007 research cruise. generates more than 42,000 jobs and Using canisters and $1.7 billion a year, from industry profits sensors lowered by winch into the sea, scientists and employment at neighborhood seafood recorded corrosive waters restaurants, distributors and retailors. from Vancouver Island to What’s more, shellfish have significant Baja California. and growing cultural and resource value National Oceanic and for the region’s tribal communities, espe- Atmospheric Administration cially as salmon stocks plummet. Gregoire created the Washington State Blue Ribbon t Pacific oyster larvae Panel on Ocean Acidification in 2011. Five from Taylor Shellfish Farms. Shellfish develop years later, the panel would become the normally in low dissolved springboard for the International Alliance carbon dioxide levels, to Combat Ocean Acidification, which has left. In high dissolved united local, tribal and national govern- carbon dioxide levels, ments from around the world, though the right, seawater becomes U.S. government has yet to join. acidified. Shellfish Today, the Pacific shellfish industry is struggling to pull enough at 50 to 70 percent of historic production calcium from seawater for levels. “We’re all really freaked out about shell formation run out ocean acidification,” Dale said. “What we of energy and starve to realized is that it’s not going to change death. Oregon State University in our lifetime — the causes of acidifica- College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, NFCC www.hcn.org High Country News 15 tion — so what we want is tools to manage everything — the whole food web, our side; two dolphins swam in our wake. The around it.” For the past decade, NOAA weather, clouds.” Neither is acidification water that Cliffy nosed through turned provided many of those tools through its the only climate-change-related concern; teal blue, provoking excited speculations Integrated Ocean Observing System, or rising sea levels, warming ocean tem- about a “coccolithophore” — a one-celled IOOS. But research and management pro- peratures and hypoxia complicate life phytoplankton — bloom. “I haven’t seen grams depend on the political climate as for coastal communities even more. Dale this in 40 years of sampling here,” one well as the physical one. As NOAA funding mentioned the “Blob,” a huge, persistent researcher told the others. has decreased, Pederson told me, scientists patch of unusually warm water that lin- Much of the collecting was on behave come to rely more on industry data. gered off the West Coast from 2013 until half of researchers not present; the A graduate student conducting research 2016. “That really just drove everything boat bunked only six, with two spots at the Quilcene hatchery showed me a into the ground,” he said. “Our salmon, reserved for undergraduate volunteers. Burke-o-lator in a cramped plastic shed. harmful algal blooms, birds starving. The The scramble to collect everything at The device was broken, and hatchery per- ocean is just goofy right now.” each stop didn’t let up, even when a cold, sonnel had neither the time nor expertise steady rain began. For lunch, researchers to fix it. Hales, I was told, was working It was an overcast Thursday dawn slipped into the galley briefly in ones and to create a new version that was more when I boarded the Clifford A. Barnes, twos and slapped together thin sandwich- mobile, user-friendly and affordable. a 65-foot research vessel anchored in a es, then ducked back into the lab built on Because of ocean acidification, mul- Puget Sound marina. “Cliffy,” as the ship the deck. Washington Ocean Acidification Center, or WOAC, research cruises ply Puget Sound three times a year, collecting water chemistry data and dragging plankton tows, a combined effort to study chemical cause and biological effects of “The ocean ocean acidification. drives On this cruise, postdoctoral student Ramón Gallego collected floating DNA everything samples, or eDNA, from the water to find out what had passed by recently for a — the whole new collaboration combining that data food web, with ocean acidification research. “We think that areas with less ocean acidifica- our weather, tion will have more species richness,” he said. Gallego used a preservative to kill clouds.” any living organism in the water sample, so that small microscopic bits of life didn’t —Greg Dale, southwest eat the even smaller bits before he’d had operations manager at Coast Seafoods a chance to analyze them. Originally from Company in Northern the Canary Islands, Gallego spent several California years in Madrid in mainland Spain during his 20s. “I don’t want to live away from the ocean anymore,” he said. The biology of ocean acidification is a new field, though it’s growing quickly. Laboratory studies of ocean acidification Geoducks by the millions grow in specially formulated algae mix and protected from acidified reveal direct and negative consequences ocean water at the Taylor Shellfish Farm hatchery in Quilcene, Washington. N aomi Tomky on larval mollusks and juvenile fish, but tiple Pacific Coast hatcheries have tried is affectionately called, belongs to the Na- things get complicated in the field. Terrie relocating their operations to Hawaii, tional Science Foundation. As I stumbled Klinger, co-director of WOAC, focuses though they’ve struggled there as well. onboard, most of the crew, led by Chief on the biological consequences of ocean Some hatcheries are researching another Scientist Marine Lebrec, who wore green acidification. “The chemical evidence of approach: selectively breeding oysters waterproof boots and a sky-blue down acidification is unequivocal,” she told me that are more tolerant of lower pH levels. jacket against the chill morning air, were by phone from her Seattle office. Still, It’s possible, too, that growing shellfish hustling to cast off or hunched silently “it’s very difficult to do lab studies on near seaweeds and seagrasses — which in the small galley over phone screens multiple species at one time and then take up carbon dioxide — could help. I and steaming mugs. Under the captain’s have them bear any resemblance to what spoke with two senior scientists — one watchful eye, Cliffy quietly motored out of happens in nature.” Some of the most in California, one in Washington — who the dock and into the mist rising from the surprising discoveries have come from have experimented with growing kelp and slate-colored waters. observing juvenile fish. A research group are now analyzing their results. But it Later, when we were underway and in Australia first noticed that juvenile may take years before researchers know caffeinated, the researchers — who were fish behave strangely in acidified water. whether planting kelp in coastal waters living onboard in cramped bunk beds — Ocean acidification affects a particular helps. There are no easy solutions to ocean began their grueling routine of hauling neuroreceptor in the fish that is sensi- acidification for the shellfish industry. In in sampling gear and nets at mapped tive to carbon dioxide levels — a receptor the meantime, as acidity levels increase, locations, rushing to preserve and process that’s found in virtually all vertebrate shellfish become ever more vulnerable. samples, and resetting the gear for the species. With increased acidification, “fish Right now, only baby shellfish struggle in next stop. In between, they showed are less able to smell their predators,” the Eastern Pacific’s acidifying waters, but me what they’d gathered from the sea: Klinger said. “They are sometimes less eventually, adult shellfish may, too. assemblages of tiny crustaceans to be able to smell food; they don’t eat as well. Of course, the ocean holds much more sorted, pteropods to be checked for corro- In coral reef habitats where they have than shellfish. Oysters, however fasci- sion, water to be analyzed for everything very strong homing behaviors to crevices, nating, tasty or economically important, from dissolved oxygen content to chlo- they can lose their homing behavior.” comprise a very small part of the sea’s rophyll levels, crabs for dinner. A pair of Funding limitations hamper biological life at the end of the day. “It’s honestly bald eagles gripping the bare branches of monitoring, even though researchers must quite scary,” Dale said. “The ocean drives a snaggled tree passed on our starboard study complicated factors in combination:

16 High Country News September 18, 2017 marine species reacting to changes in pH and temperature and hypoxia together, for example, or looking at more than one organism at a time in the field, which is tricky. WOAC funds laboratory experiments on the effects of ocean acidification on salmon, black cod, crab, copepods, euphausiids, oysters and other Washing- ton species. Still, “we’re limited in what we can do at this time,” Klinger admitted. Because it’s very difficult to do lab studies that resemble the natural world, some of the best studies from the field come from underwater seeps. Just by chance, the natural carbon dioxide leaking from underwater volcanoes into seawater mimics the expected change in pH due to ocean acidification. When carbon dioxide levels cause enough acidification at a seep, the area becomes overgrown by seaweeds, and animals disappear.

Back on Cliffy, as the sun broke through, crewmembers stripped off their rainclothes. Expensive vacation homes began to dot woodsy hillsides, glowing in the late afternoon light. Everyone looked forward to the end of the workday, when Cliffy would dock at the only place the researchers would be able to shower for the entire voyage: an extremely expensive resort, some of whose guests arrived by seaplane and private yacht. I wondered how much the guests in that idyllic setting WOAC, at her University of Washington her life’s work. “I carry a responsibility Aboard the research understood about the biogeochemical pro- office, a fifth-story room warmed by the to make sure people understand it more, vessel affectionately cesses happening around them — because late sun angling through a bank of win- because it does have implications for gen- known as Cliffy, of them. Because of all of us: Perhaps a dows. Tall, with clear frameless glasses on erations on down,” she responded. “The researchers haul in small quantity of the carbon dioxide that an open face, Newton had her long gray more that people see what the response the canisters and sensors that take acidified these waters emerged from the hair pulled loosely into a ponytail. At the of what we’re doing is, the more they can readings as they tailpipe of the moving truck that my par- start of the interview, she paused to scan make decisions. I feel like when I give a collect samples ents drove from New York City to my New her smartphone for photos of her new talk on (acidification), it’s just so depress- in Puget Sound, Mexico birthplace some 40 years ago. grandchild. “What I love about oceanog- ing, and people go, ‘Well it’s just going to Washington. The fate of the oceans can’t easily be raphy is that large system,” she said. “I’m happen, and we’re screwed.’ But which Courtesy predicted, but ominous signs are floating thinking about global atmospheric pro- world would you rather live in? We are Marine Lebrec all around us. You could scoop up some of cesses as well as down on a cellular level, actively making that choice every day as the most telling into your hands, but they and integrating all of that. I just love a global community.” are so small they would drip through that.” Though the walls of Newton’s office Regional solutions necessary require your fingers without your noticing. In a were plastered with research posters and triage. The ocean might recover on its rare moment of downtime toward the end she had two desktop computer monitors own from ocean acidification through of the cruise, scientist Natasha Christ- in addition to a laptop, the many freckles slow planetary processes: the weathering man showed me image after image taken on her arms testified to long hours spent of rocks and dissolving of calcium carbon- by scanning electron microscope of tiny on the water. “There’s a real joy, I think, ate in marine sediments, mixed into sea coiled shells in different stages of dis- to studying natural systems,” she said. water by ocean circulation patterns but solution. Microscopic planktonic snails “Now ocean acidification is just this really this would take up to hundreds of millen- with body parts like wings, pteropods horrible situation, but what’s interest- nia. — or sea butterflies — are as delicate ing about studying ocean acidification After we docked Cliffy and ate freshly and beautiful as their name suggests. is you have to understand everything to boiled crabs — cracked open with pliers Pteropods are exceedingly sensitive to understand it.” from a toolkit, so sweet we skipped the acidification, so researchers use them as Because ecological knowledge about butter — I joined the crew in walking to indicators. In extra-acidified water, the ocean acidification is in its infancy, solu- the resort, where they would shower and small snails don’t die right away. Instead, tions-based endeavors are, too. But there’s have a drink and I could text a cab for they crumble, exhausting their resources a growing enthusiasm for finding those the long drive back up Puget Sound. On trying to repair their shells. By 2050, solutions. Newton also focuses on refining the way to the resort’s outdoor bar, we as much as 70 percent of the pteropods the information that WOAC provides to passed a wedding party gathered on a on the outer continental shelf may be shellfish growers. She wants them to be green lawn that stretched to the water’s destroyed by upwelling events, up from able to look up acidification predictions edge. The adults chatted and laughed about 50 percent currently. Before the for their localities on their smartphones together over drinks in the setting sun. Industrial Revolution, upwelling events as easily as they do weather predictions. A few small children clambered over a harmed only about 11 percent of ptero- “Knowledge is enabling,” she said. stone walkway to the beach, where they pods, which form the basis of a marine I wondered, at this point, what she crouched in the fading light, picking food web that includes everything from hoped this knowledge would enable peo- through the rocks in search of shells. seabirds to Pacific salmon. ple to do. I felt personally overwhelmed The day before the cruise, I’d met by ocean acidification, and we’d only been This story was funded with reader donations to with Jan Newton, the other co-director of discussing it for about an hour; it was the High Country News Research Fund.

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 2017 EDUCATION MARKETPLACE 2017 High Country News Bell Prize for young writers Honoring the spirit of our founder, Tom Bell, we want to hear from aspiring essayists, ages 18 to 25, on conservation topics frequently covered by High Country News. The winning essay will receive $1,000 and be awarded the Bell Prize. Essays should be no longer than 800 words. Consider the conservation topics you’re familiar with and why they’re important to you: water, energy & industry, wildlife, public lands, climate, communities, sustainability, justice, politics — you decide.

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22 High Country News September 18, 2017 of the ironwood tree, a keystone species and important “nurse plant” for many other desert plants. The women study desert ecology and botany and document the environmental changes that they see. Maria Luisa Astorga Flores, an elderly woman dressed in a long skirt and colorful shawl, gestured out across the sparse, sandy expanse of the arroyo. “There used to be many more plants here,” she said, peering over her wire- frame glasses. Because of the site’s loca- tion near running water, mesquite trees and plants once flourished here, including broomrape, which has an edible lower stem, and lantana, used to relieve dizzi- ness, Astorga Flores explained. But Odile battered the arroyo, and some plants have not yet recovered. At least 20 percent of Mexico’s plant Seri artisan Carolina species are found in Sonora, whose two Félix harvests the fruit annual rainy seasons contribute to North of the senita cactus America’s richest desert ecosystem. But in El Desemboque, the hotter, drier conditions of recent Sonora, Mexico. The years have thwarted the growth of peren- fruit can be eaten fresh, and the Seri have nial grasses, flowering plants and mes- used the cactus wood quite trees in some areas. Meanwhile, Pa- to build shelters. cific Ocean storms arrive earlier and with deborah small greater frequency and strength, washing away crucial habitats. Marine life is also vulnerable to climate shifts. Ocean The Seri return to their roots warming and acidification pose risks to the shelled organisms, like saltwater Climate change threatens traditional ecological knowledge clams and blue crab, that Seri fishermen depend on, as well as to the entire Gulf of By Sarah Amandolare California ecosystem — home to nearly 900 fish species and the source of about n September 2014, Hurricane Odile as the coastal wetlands that help support half the production volume of Mexico’s I barreled across the Baja California the fish that Seri fishermen rely on. national fisheries. Peninsula, sending 30,000 tourists to And time may be running out to pass Seri villages are especially vulner- evacuation shelters and killing 11 people. down the traditional ecological knowl- able compared with more socioeconomi- Odile weakened as it swept into Sonora, edge that could help the Seri and other cally diverse Northern Gulf locations, Mexico, but its torrential rains still regional Indigenous communities, such as such as Puerto Libertad and Puerto washed out the dirt road connecting the the Yaqui, become more resilient in the Peñasco. Mexico’s National Commission tiny coastal village of El Desemboque to face of climate change. With such knowl- of Natural Protected Areas has assigned the highway. Local residents, all mem- edge, said Rodrigo Renteria-Valencia, Indigenous women to be climate change bers of the Seri Indigenous group, were an environmental anthropologist who’s educators in their communities, including stranded for three days without food worked with the Seri for more than a El Desemboque, and sent four Seri wom- or water. Finally, someone managed to decade, “better science is possible, better en to India’s Barefoot College for solar charge a computer with a car battery and programs for sustainability are possible, engineering training in 2016. To Rent- posted a plea for help to Facebook. and a better understanding of what the eria-Valencia, these examples show the That message reached Laura Monti, a Sonoran Desert is, is possible.” community’s capacity to adapt, whether research associate in arid lands cultural by rearranging social hierarchies, learn- ecology with Prescott College and the n June, at a parched arroyo just out- ing new technologies or incorporating University of Arizona. It brought the I side of El Desemboque, Monti joined a traditional plants back into their diets. Seri’s vulnerability to extreme weather handful of Seri women representing three “They remain by means of changing,” he sharply into focus, and also gave new ur- generations for a morning of collecting says. “The Seri are not disappearing any gency to the native and medicinal plants plants and sharing knowledge about their time soon.” research that Monti has been doing in qualities and uses. Diabetes has become Well beyond the arroyo, Monti ma- Sonora for two decades. a major problem in this increasingly neuvered past prickly cholla cactus to The Seri, who also live farther south sedentary, former hunter-gatherer com- join the women standing around a Kra- in Punta Chueca, have endured harsh So- munity, for example, and the red inner meria bush. Crouched underneath the noran Desert and Gulf of California con- bark of Krameria roots contains chemical branches was 28-year-old Vilma Morales ditions for 2,000 years, harvesting plants compounds that may lower blood sugar, Astorga, expertly scooping away soil with for food, hydration and medicine, and while its taproot stabilizes sand dunes, a palm-sized seashell to reach the prized hunting on land and at sea. Their lives preventing coastal erosion. The group roots. The women explained that the may become even harder in the years meets monthly and practices sustainable tool had been left behind by a previous ahead, as intensifying tropical storms, harvesting — carefully replacing soil harvester — a gift for the next collector rising sea levels and ocean warming and after digging up roots, for example. Monti to come along. Monti beamed. “It’s really acidification ravage plant habitats as well has also led trainings in the conservation special that she found that,” she said.

www.hcn.org High Country News 23 By the numbers: How Alaskans eat The economics behind food security Farming the Last Frontier in the far-flung 49th state As climate change strains food security and lengthens the 95 Percentage of store-bought food Alaska imports. growing season, more Alaskans are taking up farming

60 hours Length of drive from California’s Central By KRISTA LANGLOIS Valley, where much of the nation’s fresh produce is grown, to Anchorage, Alaska. ll right,” announces Jenni Medley, than 131,000 farms over the last three “A wiping her hands on her faded decades, with a 4 percent drop between black Carhartts and consulting a clip- 2007 and 2012 alone. The number of 7 Number of days it takes to takes fresh produce to travel board. “The birds are bagged. Total num- small farms in Alaska, however, jumped from Anchorage to some outlying villages. ber is 70.” by 67 percent from 2002 to 2012. Direct It’s 3 in the afternoon, and just sales from farmers to local consumers 742,000 Population of Alaska, as of 2016. outside a small commercial processing are growing here at a rate 13 times the facility in Homer, Alaska, Beau Burgess, national average. one of Medley’s farming partners, stands The reasons for this trend vary, but 50 million Pounds of wild foods harvested by in a miasma of blood, chicken guts and among the farmers I talked to, climate Alaskans in 2012. swirling snow as another farmer sprays change came up frequently. Alaska is him with a garden hose. The temperature warming twice as fast as the rest of the $400 million Estimated economic value of Alaska’s is 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Medley, Bur- country, with winters some 6 degrees annual wild food harvest. gess and three other employee-owners warmer than they were 60 years ago. The of Blood Sweat & Food Farm have been warming climate has brought new insect butchering chickens for seven hours, and infestations and wreaked havoc on some $2 billion Total cost of food eaten by Alaskans each they still need to freeze the birds, process wild game, but it also means apple trees year, including wild-harvested food. their hearts and livers, clear some land and other plants that were once unable to for garden beds, and then feed the cows, survive here are now thriving. $7 Price of a gallon of gas in Savoonga, Alaska, rabbits and pigs, all in sloppy mud and “Some people are total climate de- on St. Lawrence Island, as of 2014. weather that one local calls “blustery niers,” says Kyra Wagner, manager of as all get-out.” Welcome to farming in the Homer Soil and Water Conservation Alaska. District. “But they’re still seeing unprec- $10 Price of a half-gallon of milk in Savoonga. Medley believes the 12-hour days are edented aphid infestations or imbalances worth it. Thanks to built-up organic mat- in the fish harvest. They may not blame 1,200 Number of walrus that residents of Savoonga and ter and ash from nearby volcanoes, locals it on climate, but there’s an awareness the neighboring village of Gambell typically harvest for say that Homer has some of the best that something’s changing. Everybody is soil in the Northern Hemisphere. Water a little weirded out.” food in a year. is plentiful, and land is so affordable that after three years in business, Blood laska’s history is littered with failed 34 Number of walrus harvested by the villages in 2013. Sweat & Food recently bought a new A agricultural enterprises. Around 10-acre parcel. Combined with the milder 1883, explorers noted that seeds planted Number of walrus harvested in Gambell in 2016. winters Alaska has experienced lately, in Arctic Alaska could be harvested in just 30 this makes farming irresistible — espe- 27 days because of the ’round-the-clock cially for the Blood Sweat & Food crew, sunlight. In 1912, industrious farmers in 3 Number of years in a row the walrus harvest has fallen who hail from dry, overworked places like the state’s interior produced the equiva- short. Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. “I love lent of $2.4 million worth of produce. The the high desert of New Mexico,” Medley following year, it snowed in August, ruin- Degrees on average that Alaska winters have warmed says. “But there’s no water. If I think ing crops. 6 about what I want to be doing, I just can’t During the Great Depression, the over the last 60 years. do it there.” U.S. government tried to establish a Alaskans are also hungry for local utopian farming colony in south-central 790,000 Fewer square miles of ice covering the polar food. Wild game, fish and shellfish are Alaska by relocating dozens of families seas in 2017, compared to the average global minimum staples of the Alaskan diet, but vegeta- from the Midwest. The experiment fell between 1981 and 2010. bles, perishables and store-bought meat apart after seven years, largely due to the are usually imported from far away, at short growing season and the difficulty in tremendous cost. In many villages and getting produce to market. In the 1970s, 45 percent Length by which interior Alaska’s growing small towns, the produce at the local Alaska tried yet again, spending $200 season has increased over the past century, on average. store is limited to a few stalks of wilted million to develop a dairy industry. It, celery or a bin of mealy apples — if too, fell into financial ruin. $4 million Dollars the U.S. Department of Agriculture there’s any produce at all. Even shelf-sta- Today, 95 percent of the food pur- has spent subsidizing high tunnels, greenhouses and other ble food isn’t readily available, since bad chased in Alaska is imported — a figure weather can delay shipments to remote on par with other states, but one that’s growing equipment in Alaska, as of 2014. communities. nonetheless worrisome in such a remote For decades, Alaskans accepted this place. “After Hurricane Katrina, it took 62 percent Increase in the number of Alaska farms as the cost of living on the Last Fron- two weeks to get food into parts of New selling directly to consumers between 2007 and 2014. tier. But as cheaper technology and a Orleans,” says Arthur Keyes, director of — Krista Langlois changing climate make growing food the Alaska Division of Agriculture. “And easier, more Alaskans are turning to they’re connected to the rest of the coun- farming. The United States has lost more try. We’re over 2,000 driving miles from

24 High Country News September 18, 2017 Washington state. If we have a major But the volatile weather underscores they assumed that the only way to grow Farmer Jenni Medley crisis like an earthquake or fire or we the challenges that Alaskan farmers a food economy was to export to the waters the pigs on lose a port, can you imagine how long it’ll still face. Climate change isn’t a simple Lower 48. a chilly April day at take food to get here?” trajectory toward warmer weather and Today, the new wave of farmers may Blood Sweat & Food Add to this a changing climate that’s longer growing seasons. The weather is have shed those assumptions, but they Farm in Homer, occasionally decimated wild berry har- also becoming more erratic and unpre- face their own challenges. In the rainy Alaska. Krista Langlois vests, impacted salmon runs and altered dictable. Garrity doubts that anyone archipelago of Southeast Alaska, for the migration patterns of caribou and starts a farm in Alaska because of cli- instance, the owners of Farragut Farm walrus — important food sources for mate change alone; rather, the increased have to wait for a tide high enough to many Alaskans — and the state has some affordability of high-tunnel greenhouses, float their skiff so they can row their of the highest rates of food insecurity in hydroponics and other season-extending produce out to a sailboat, then sail four the nation. infrastructure are expanding the possi- hours to the nearest town to sell it. In That’s one reason why born-and- bilities of what crops can be grown. Four Homer, when Blood Sweat & Food want- raised Alaskan Emily Garrity started of the five top counties receiving dis- ed to raise a type of pig that could cope Twitter Creek Gardens in Homer nine counted high tunnels from the Natural with cold, damp weather, the farmers years ago. “I do feel at times like our food Resources Conservation Service are in had to fly the piglets in by airplane. And security is threatened,” she tells me over Alaska. at Garrity’s farm in April, the garden tea in her cabin, which on this April day Alaska is still unlikely to overtake beds are still covered in snow at a time is reachable only by foot or snow ma- California as the nation’s salad bowl when farmers elsewhere have already chine. “That’s a big deal, and I’d like to be anytime soon. Alaskans have tried planted. part of the solution.” commercial-scale agriculture in the past, Nonetheless, Garrity receives some Outside, the only sign of spring is the and learned that growing food to export 15 applications a year from young farm- lengthening daylight. The clouds are dark makes little sense in a state where ers who are drawn to Alaska’s untapped and low, spitting flurries. Four feet of transportation costs are high and ship- agricultural potential. “The first time I heavy snow still blankets the ground. But ping routes limited. As the Alaska Food set foot on this land, I stuck a spade in Garrity revels in the bad weather: After Policy Council and others concluded in the soil,” Garrity says. “It was pure black, several warm, soggy years, she says, it a 2014 report, one reason Alaska’s past and I knew: We can grow food on this finally feels like a real Alaskan winter. farming experiments failed was because land.”

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28 High Country News September 18, 2017 Coal tech continued from page 9 Business and community leaders began meeting this May to develop a 20-year economic vision, discussing the possibilities of tourism, the state’s super-fast internet connectivity, outdoor recreation and tax breaks for targeted industries. But so far, even forward-looking projects like the Integrated Test Center still Instructors set up rely on fossil fuels. In some ways, that a wind turbine hub makes sense. With so much coal here, why trainer in the Wind not use it? Lab at Laramie “If we can develop advanced coal indus- County Community tries, they could be using amounts equal College. As wind to power plants in 20 or more years,” says energy production Phil Christopherson, CEO of the Gillette crops up around Wyoming, more nonprofit Energy Capital Economic Devel- workers are being opment. Christopherson envisions a future trained for jobs bustling manufacturing sector, anchored in wind turbine by a Boeing or Ford plant that uses coal- maintenance. derived carbon-fiber in its planes or cars. Courtesy Laramie County “Three years ago, the coal compa- Community College nies wouldn’t talk about advanced coal,” Christopherson says. But in the wake of with brutal hours and a precarious future. Unfortunately, good policy doesn’t bankruptcies and with market conditions But wind has downsides, too. The starting always make for good politics. Michael still looking gloomy, they’ve warmed to salary for a tech is $40,000, half his cur- Van Flatern, a Republican state senator the idea. “Now we’re working closely with rent salary, and he’d have to move. Others from Gillette who is on the ENDOW panel, some because they see small markets can echoed his reservations: Few miners want is one of the few legislators who openly become big markets.” to uproot their families, and many have advocates raising some taxes rather than Not everyone is convinced, however. doubts about the prospects of a real wind- continuing to cut services. “ ‘Income tax’,” “Some of these technologies are way out in energy boom. he says, “is about the dirtiest word you the future and expensive, and others are That’s partly because Wyoming law- can say in this state.” small and not going to employ thousands of makers have long resisted renewables as people,” says Jill Morrison, director of the unwelcome competition for fossil fuels. espite the layoffs and uncertainty, I en- Powder Basin Resource Council, an envi- Last winter, legislators tried — unsuccess- D countered a lot of optimism in Gillette ronmentally minded landowners’ group in fully — to prohibit utilities from providing and found it contagious. “Obviously, in the the heart of Wyoming’s coal country. She electricity generated by wind and solar. future, we will not use coal for energy, but says carbon capture research is a poor use Wyoming is also the only state that taxes we’re not at the point where we can shut it of taxpayer dollars; the money would be wind production, at a rate of $1 per mega- off,” Lora Dilley told me over happy-hour better spent developing renewable energy watt-hour. Some lawmakers have sug- beers at Applebee’s. Dilley, the safety co- and more efficient electricity grids. “They gested increasing the tax three- or fivefold, ordinator at the Dry Fork Mine, held onto are trying to spin gold out of coal.” partly to offset declining fossil fuel rev- her coal job last year. Her husband lost his, enues. The tax hasn’t deterred the indus- so he got his commercial driver’s license. yoming is as rich in wind as it is try from pursuing projects here, but hiking “He saw the opportunity to get out of min- W in coal, with some of the country’s it, says Godby, could certainly discourage ing,” and he took it, Dilley explained prag- stiffest, most reliable winds. But harness- future development, including among tech matically. Their family, you might say, has ing that wind into energy is politically companies looking for clean-energy sourc- diversified. fraught. es when considering new locations. Still, Dilley believes advanced coal will One July morning, a couple dozen peo- There are other ways the state could buoy Wyoming in the future, and after a ple filled a classroom at Gillette College to fill its budget gaps — fairly simple ones, few days in town, I, too, began thinking, learn about careers in wind energy. The even. Wyoming has no individual or cor- “Wouldn’t it be great if some mix of inno- session was organized by Goldwind Amer- porate income tax, and its sales tax, prop- vation, investment and gumption saved icas, a subsidiary of a Chinese company erty tax and beer tax are all among the Wyoming — and the climate?” that is helping to build a large wind farm lowest in the country. The average Wyo- That kind of optimism is necessary near Medicine Bow. University of Wyo- mingite pays about $3,000 in taxes each for innovation, but it can also be a trap. ming economist Robert Godby says the year, but gets back $15,000 or more in It’s what kept Pacific Northwest logging state could quintuple its wind generation, public services. towns from diversifying before the bottom adding a load of technician jobs. Goldwind “Being a conservative state, the battle fell out of the timber industry, says Mark was offering free training and job-place- cry should be ‘we’re going to pay our own Haggerty with the Headwaters Institute, ment for prospective turbine techs — and way’,” Christopherson says. Yet few law- a Montana-based economic think tank. targeting miners. makers want anything to do with tax in- Those towns are still struggling to regain I sat next to a coal miner, who smiled creases. their footing. For Wyoming, which is so and asked if I am part of the “biased me- Most economists agree that taxes on uniquely reliant on fossil fuels, the task dia.” A former Army aviator, he was one energy production should be directed into could be even tougher. of the lucky workers to survive the layoffs, special funds rather than used as a state’s “The Integrated Test Center is our fu- and he asked that I not use his name. He primary revenue stream. States need to ture in many aspects, but we need to find worried that his comments — and even his provide public services during booms and other products,” says Van Flatern. “We’ll attendance here — might get him fired. busts, but when production slows, law- see how things shape up.” Then he sighs. He was interested in Goldwind’s of- makers tend to focus more on helping in- So far, on low-hanging fruit, like taxes, fer: Coal mining is tough, dangerous work dustry than on shoring up public services. “they’re not listening to me.”

www.hcn.org High Country News 29 Greening the Gospel Why religious communities are taking on climate change By Sarah Tory

efore Pastor Jim Therrien, 49, moved helping install solar panels, for instance, B to New Mexico, he rarely thought and sharing sermons on the importance about environmental issues. Back in of addressing climate change. Kansas, where he was born and raised, Therrien says he is merely “following the grass outside his home was always the Scripture.” In the process, however, green, and though the state had an active he has joined a growing environmental oil industry, companies fenced off well movement that brings a religious dimen- sites properly and promptly cleaned up sion to the problem of climate change. spills. But then he and his family saw the impacts of energy development on the he green religious movement is Southwestern landscape and their new T gaining momentum. In May, nine church community. Therrien began to Catholic organizations announced plans think about the connection between the to divest from fossil fuel corporations, local environment and the broader issue a move inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 of climate change. encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Every day, Therrien, a blond, ruddy Common Home. Earth is a and tattooed man of Irish descent, looked In June, President Donald Trump an- out his window and saw a dry land get- nounced plans to withdraw from the Par- mess, God’s ting drier. Residents told him that win- is climate accord, a decision that Catholic not amused. ... ters used to be much colder and snowier. Bishop Oscar Cantú, of Las Cruces, New The hotter temperatures thickened the Mexico, called “deeply troubling.” “The do something methane haze, and oil and gas traffic tore Scriptures affirm the value of caring for about it. up the dirt roads. Therrien started to see creation and caring for each other in soli- these problems as injustices that conflict- darity,” said Cantú, who is the chairman —A quote on a T-shirt worn by David Radcliff, ed with Christian values. So he decided to of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Inter- environmental destruction, and issues director of the New take a stand. Churches have long played national Justice and Peace. “The Paris a call to action. When Francis visited Community Project. a crucial role in social movements, from agreement is an international accord that the White House in 2015, he declared: the civil rights era to immigration reform. promotes these values.” “Climate change is a problem which can Why not environmental activism? In July, the United Church of Christ no longer be left to a future generation. I “I don’t ever consider myself an envi- delivered a similar message, urging the would like all men and women of goodwill ronmentalist,” he told me one afternoon clergy to preach on “the moral obligation in this great nation to support the efforts at the Lybrook Community Ministries, of our generation to protect God’s cre- of the international community to protect on a remote stretch of Highway 550, ation” and exhorting individuals to take the vulnerable in our world.” between the Navajo Nation and the Jica- political action. Among non-Catholics, too, the pon- rilla Apache Reservation. “I’m more of a For these churches, climate change tiff’s message has had an effect: Polling people person.” connects a long list of social and economic from the Yale Project on Climate Change Therrien’s congregation, mostly injustices they care deeply about, from Communication shows that the number Navajo, had spent years living with the food insecurity to the global refugee of Americans who say they think global San Juan Basin’s drilling boom, and the crisis. warming will harm the world’s poor last thing they needed was a sermon “Climate change is the biggest ethi- rose from 49 to 61 percent; the percent about climate change. So instead of cal, moral and spiritual challenge of our who say the issue has become “very” or lecturing, he created a garden to reduce day,” Joan Brown, the executive director “extremely important” to them personally the church’s use of fossil fuels to trans- of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light, jumped from 19 to 26 percent. port food. Then he began fundraising for told me. A little over a year later, during the solar installations on homes around the She pointed to St. Francis of Assisi, Paris climate negotiations, Brown re- mission and urging lawmakers to tighten the patron saint of animals and ecology, called how during a breakout session for regulations on methane, a powerful a medieval Italian monk who spent much faith leaders, one of the Paris organizers greenhouse gas released by oil and gas of each year living in hermitages, caves praised Laudato Si’ and the similar docu- drilling. and on mountainsides, praying in the ments released by Muslim, Jewish and Last year, he joined the Interfaith wilderness. “St. Francis speaks of every- Buddhist leaders. It was the first time, Power & Light campaign, “a religious thing being connected,” she said, “of there Brown said, quoting the organizer, “that response to global warming” composed of being no separation between the human ethical and moral imperatives are front churches and faith communities across and natural world.” When Jorge Mario and center with delegates.” the U.S. Since 2001, the network had Bergoglio was elected pope, he chose his expanded its membership from 14 con- name in honor of St. Francis. Brown cred- ere at his hardscrabble New Mexico gregations in California to some 20,000 ited Pope Francis with helping reframe H parish, Therrien continues to prac- in over 40 states. The group provides re- climate change as a moral concern. tice what he preaches. On a hot day in sources to churches and other faith com- Laudato Si’ describes the relationship July, he herded 28 visitors into the mis- munities for cutting carbon emissions — between global poverty, inequality and sion’s two white vans for a drive out onto

30 High Country News September 18, 2017 Members of the New Community Project tour the Navajo Nation near now- dry Washington Lake to learn how oil and gas extraction is affecting the Navajo people who live nearby, far left. Pope Francis stands in front of a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, left. The pope, who takes his name from St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and ecosystems, has led a call to action on climate change for the Catholic community. Sarah Tory, CNS/Paul Haring the Navajo Nation. The group, mostly sequences, and past that it becomes a cycled cans and kept a compost pile, but Easterners, ranged in age from 8 to over conversation about morality,” he said. when it came to climate change, he felt 60 and had traveled to the Lybrook mis- Take moose in the Northeast: They are mostly resigned. “I used to think, ‘What sion as part of a weeklong fact-finding dying from tick infestations exacerbated can one person do?’ ” he told me. Now, as trip. Like Therrien, many were mem- by a warming climate, caused by humans a pastor on the Navajo Nation, he felt a bers of the Church of the Brethren, a taking more from the Earth than they new sense of urgency and purpose. Protestant denomination with a history need, he said. “We are stealing from other Last January, he spoke at a rally of activism. More recently, their focus had living things.” outside the Bureau of Land Manage- shifted to environmental issues — espe- As we drove over bumpy dirt roads ment’s office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, cially climate change. west of the mission, the Easterners protesting the agency’s decision to lease “It’s concerning that our government stared in awe at the crumpled mesas and 844 acres of land for drilling. The rally is pulling back from what we should be the vast New Mexican landscape. Navajo brought together Navajo activists, envi- focusing on,” one of them, Jim Dodd, told homesteads peeked out of the sagebrush. ronmental groups and religious lead- me. Recently, the giant Larsen Ice Shelf Every so often, a large semi-truck car- ers from the state chapter of Interfaith had broken off from Antarctica, and Dodd rying pipes and other equipment roared Power & Light. Although they failed to was worried. “Villages already at sea past in a cloud of dust, heading for one of stop the sale, Therrien remained hopeful. level are going to get flooded,” he said. the scattered well pads or towering rigs “Through the church, I realized there was Leading the group was David Radcliff, marking fracking operations. this network of people fighting for the director of the New Community Project, a Therrien stopped the van at one of the same things,” he said. Vermont-based organization. “It’s a fair- well sites and ushered everyone out, ges- Therrien stopped the van at a low rise ness issue for the rest of God’s creatures,” turing toward a row of high metal storage overlooking what was once Washington he told me. Radcliff has led “learning tanks. Under federal and state regula- Lake. Families once gathered water here tours” around social and environmental tions, the company should have built for themselves and their livestock. Four justice issues for church groups, most fencing around it, but out here on Navajo years ago, it dried up. recently, to the Ecuadorian Amazon. land, Therrien noted, the rules weren’t Everyone piled out, while Radcliff Radcliff, a small, wiry man with an always enforced. Last year, several oil explained how aquifers were losing water. intense blue gaze, wore a white T-shirt storage tanks north of Lybrook exploded, “They’re dropping all over the world,” with a very long slogan on the back. forcing Navajo families living nearby to including in the West, he said. He paused “Earth is a mess,” it said, and “God’s not evacuate their homes. Since moving to and knelt to pick up a can that was left amused.” If you aren’t satisfied, it added, the mission, he often thought about how on the side of the road and brandished “do something about it.” much easier it was to ignore the conse- it above him. “No other creature makes For Radcliff, discussing the facts quences of oil and gas development — trash,” he said. “So what’s progress?” The of climate change isn’t enough. That’s and of climate change — if people weren’t people gazed past him, staring at the where religion comes in. “At a certain involved. dusty lakebed, where patches of dry grass point, you have to talk about the con- Back in Kansas, Therrien had re- swayed in the heat.

www.hcn.org High Country News 31 U.S. $5 | Canada $6

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

THE WEST because “feral or stray cats do most “Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!” of the killing (of birds).” Conniff’s exclaimed Dorothy in The Wizard cat now lives indoors after his last of Oz. Recently, some Westerners outdoor pet met an untimely end unfamiliar with wild animals have in 2008. The wandering outdoor been calling the police to report scary- housecat was snatched and eaten by looking critters loitering in a suspi- a much bigger relative — a bobcat. cious fashion. In Newport, Oregon, the police department discussed the utter THE NATION weirdness of a photograph of a tabby One of the green initiatives the cat that had gone viral (see photo, Obama administration could point right). Weird, because the black-and- to with justifiable pride was its 2011 white cat seemed to be holding a semi- Green Parks Plan, which changed automatic assault rifle while perched the behavior of millions of visitors THE INTERNETS Meow-heur Occupation. Newport, Oregon, Police Department insouciantly high in a tree, reported to 23 national parks. Instead of the tiphero.com. The cat was definitely selling water to tourists in plas- loitering, but the “rifle” that alarmed tic bottles that were then thrown so many people was just an angled twig that rado State University by studying how people away by the hundreds of thousands every day, resembled a weapon. No charges were filed. think about wildlife, says many cat owners in the plan proposed filling water bottles with tap On the Boulder, Colorado, campus of the Uni- the Boulder area told her they let their pets water at free filling stations. It didn’t take long versity of Colorado, college officials confirmed out because they believe they are “happier for Grand Canyon, Zion and 21 other national that an “extremely dangerous” animal was on outdoors.” Although cats may enjoy exercising parks to adopt the ban on selling water, but this campus and walking down some stairs. As the their fierce predator instincts in the backyard, August, the Trump administration rescinded the Boulder Daily Camera put it, the four-legged songbirds fall to their claws and teeth at a ban. Park Service Director Michael T. Reynolds creature with the black mask and claws was prodigious rate — up to 4 billion birds killed explained that visitors could “decide how best “likely in search of food — and possibly an edu- each year in this country, according to a 2013 to keep themselves and their families hydrated cation.” The university tweeted a photo of the Nature Communications study. Gramza realized during a visit to a national park.” Perhaps interloper — a badger — and warned everyone that arguing about whether or not it’s OK to let there was another reason. As the San Francisco not to go near it. But badgers have no interest cats outdoors may be fruitless. Meanwhile, it Chronicle put it, “the water bottle ban was op- in cultivating humans, said Jennifer Churchill, would help if owners kept their cats inside until posed by the beverage industry that had long spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. the afternoon, when birds aren’t as active, or let lobbied to change the policy.” Watchdog groups “It’s not rare, and it’s not a dangerous animal.” the cats out inside an enclosure. Gramza told were outraged: “Plastic water bottles have a Nervous students may have been reassured by a Colorado Outdoors that cat owners might think tremendous environmental impact,” said Lauren tweet from one of the University of Wisconsin’s twice about letting their pets roam once they be- DeRusha Florez of the group Corporate Account- diehard Badger fans: “We’re not so bad once you come aware of the issues, though that could take ability International. And that wasn’t the last get to know us.” generations. She reminds us that unleashed anti-green swipe that’s been taken at the Obama In Helena, Montana, the suspicious creature dogs once enjoyed freedom on the streets of cit- administration: The nine-slot Capital Bikeshare “prowling” a backyard was not a mountain lion ies not so long ago, until attitudes changed: “I station, used routinely by White House staffers, but a hybrid breed called a Savannah, a cross really want us to start working together.” was also removed in August. Why be green when between a domestic cat and a serval, a pointy- But Richard Conniff, writing in The New you can be mean? eared wildcat from Africa. Local police said lion York Times, is a stone-cold hard-liner when sightings remain rare in town, although calls it comes to subsidized predators. Allowing a about housecats looking like lions happen “quite housecat outdoors, he says, should “be as socially WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see often.” unacceptable as smoking cigarettes in the office, hcn.org. Housecats would never be mistaken for or leaving dog droppings on the sidewalk.” He’s Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and wildcats if they just stayed indoors. But Ashley also against the spay and neuter campaigns often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag Gramza, who is getting her doctorate at Colo- sponsored by animal welfare organizations, photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram.

High It has failed to provoke urgency and been easy to pooh-pooh. Country It’s probably not a coincidence that a Republican News “ For people who care about the West. political strategist recommended using the term High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a ‘climate change’ because he said magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write ‘it is less frightening than “global warming.” ’ High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or Alex Lee, in his essay, “The term ‘climate change’ isn’t working anymore,” [email protected], or call 970-527-4898. from Writers on the Range,” hcn.org/wotr 32 High Country News September 18, 2017