WHERE NATURE MEETS NURTURE APRIL 2016

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE THE NATURE CONSERVANCY — RALPH WALDO EMERSON Celebrating 50 Years in Arizona

Hart Prairie Preserve, Northern Arizona

“Nature always wears the spirit.” of the colors always “Nature PLUS THE NATURAL WONDER OF WILD HORSES CRESTED CARACARAS SAVING OUR NATIONAL FORESTS NAVAJO NATIONAL MONUMENT JACKS CANYON Grand Canyon National Park Navajo National Monument

Flagstaff

Sedona Cottonwood Payson

Lower Salt River PHOENIX April 2016 Aravaipa Canyon Tucson

2 EDITOR’S LETTER POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE 3 CONTRIBUTORS 4 LETTERS 5 THE JOURNAL People, places and things from around ◗ A young Arizona treefrog, still sport- the state, including a look back at iconic ing its tadpole tail, rests on floating photographer Barry Goldwater; Navajo vegetation in a Flagstaff backyard. National Monument; crested caracaras; The species is the official state and the history of St. Mary’s, the state’s amphibian. John Sherman oldest hospital. NIKON D7200, 1/500 SEC, F/10, ISO 500, 280 MM LENS

FRONT COVER: The sun sets on the 16 WHERE NATURE lush vegetation of Hart Prairie MEETS NURTURE Preserve near Flagstaff. The preserve is one of The Nature Conservancy’s /azhighways In 1966, The Nature Conservancy made its GET MORE Arizona projects. Claire Curran first purchase in Arizona when it acquired @azhighways ONLINE CANON EOS 5D MARK III, 0.3 SEC, the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. @arizonahighways F/22, ISO 400, 45 MM LENS Although its mission has evolved and www.arizonahighways.com BACK COVER: The flowers of an expanded over the past 50 years, the ancient saguaro bloom beneath organization is still working to protect the a night sky at Sonoran Desert state’s most threatened landscapes. National Monument southwest By Kathy Montgomery of Phoenix. Jack Dykinga NIKON D4S, 25 SEC, F/5, 26 THIS IS DIFFERENT ISO 2500, 24 MM LENS In the interest of full disclosure, we aren’t 46 WILD sure how many saguaro photos we’ve pub- An essay about horses, human nature and lished over the past 91 years. We do know, the struggle for balance. however, that we’ve never seen anything By Kelly Vaughn quite like this. A Portfolio by Jack Dykinga 52 SCENIC DRIVE Forest Road 618: Ancient cliff dwellings, 34 CUTTING IT DOWN TO SIZE petroglyphs, one-lane bridges and rolling Arizona is home to the largest stand of hills are just some of what you’ll see along ponderosa pines in the world. Its size is this scenic drive in the Verde Valley. impressive. Its health is not — the woods By Noah Austin are too dense. Thus, the Four Forest Resto- Photographs by Nick Berezenko ration Initiative, an unprecedented, ambi- tious and controversial effort to thin and 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH restore 2.4 million acres on four national forests in the state. The timeline is Jacks Canyon Trail: Of all the scenic 20 years. Time will tell. canyons in Red Rock Country, Jacks Canyon is perhaps the most obscure. And By Terry Greene Sterling so is the trail that cuts through it. It’s quiet, Photographs by Tom Bean but that’s just another selling point. By Robert Stieve Photograph by Shane McDermott 56 WHERE IS THIS?

2 OCTOBER 2015 PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS AVAILABLE Prints of some photographs in this issue are available for purchase. To view options, visit www.arizona highwaysprints.com. For more information, call 866-962-1191. www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s LETTER CONTRIBUTORS

CLAIRE CURRAN called a feller buncher, and she saw firsthand Claire Curran is a corporate and editorial pho-

what can happen when an overgrown forest goes APRIL 2016 VOL. 92, NO. 4 tographer, but she says landscape photography up in flames. “is a time for me to let my vision soar.” That It was five years ago next month that the Wal- 800-543-5432 happened on this month’s cover photo, which www.arizonahighways.com low Fire — the worst in state history — was Curran made at Hart Prairie, the site of a Nature ignited by a careless backpacker. Eventually, the Conservancy project near Flagstaff (seeWhere PUBLISHER Win Holden fire consumed 538,000 acres of alpine forest in Nature Meets Nurture, page 16). “Hart Prairie is a EDITOR Robert Stieve spent about a year the White Mountains of Arizona. I wrote a blog wonderful destination for photographers,” she ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, in Aravaipa Canyon. post during the fire. It was published by The DIRECTOR OF says. “Every time I go, the scouting I do turns up SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero EDWARD ABBEY “[It’s the] longest I’ve Nature Conservancy. something new. Summer is a great time to photograph it, because from May to Septem- MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn held a steady job since ... I was drummed out ... Time will tell what’s left of the woods when the ber, something is in bloom. The 360-degree view is made for monsoon cloud displays. ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin of the Army in ’47,” he wrote. He’d been hired Wallow Fire has finally finished burning, but this much And the San Francisco Peaks complete the photographic gem.” Curran scouted this EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel in 1972 to manage a newly established pre- we know: One of the most beautiful places in the world, location during the day and thought she’d shoot it at sunset. “Luck was with me, as the PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida serve there. Mostly, he monitored the wildlife, one of my favorite places in Arizona, is being destroyed, sun set in line with the rosebush,” she says. “The warm backlight on the rosebush and the CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney patrolled the canyon and tried to keep the hunt- and it’ll never be the same. Not in my lifetime, not in lupines, for me, makes the photo.” Curran is a longtime Arizona Highways contributor. ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney ers out. In his spare time, he went skinny-dipping in the creek and wrote the your lifetime, and not in the lifetime of the perpetrator MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey final chapters of his defining novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. who ignited this mess. ... PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi Turns out, he also wrote inflammatory letters to the editor, which didn’t Whether a catastrophic fire is started by BRUCE D. TAUBERT sit well with the local community of conservative ranchers. Whether it was human negligence or Mother Nature, the effects WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow Bruce D. Taubert is among many photographers who con- the letters or the skinny-dipping, Mr. Abbey was eventually fired by Defend- are the same, and that’s what the Four Forest CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman tributed to this month’s essay on the Salt River horses (see ers of Wildlife, which had partnered with The Nature Conservancy in 1970 Restoration Initiative is attempting to prevent. FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen Wild, page 46). Before heading out recently to photograph to create the Aravaipa Canyon Preserve. It was TNC’s third acquisition in Time will tell. Meanwhile, there’s at least one OPERATIONS/IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis the horses, Taubert’s only knowledge of them came from Arizona. The first, in 1966, was a 309-acre stretch of Sonoita Creek near Pata- forest in Arizona that seems to be thriving. the newspaper or the nightly news. So when he spotted a gonia, which later became known as the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. In Saguaro National Park’s Tucson Mountain CORPORATE OR TRADE SALES 602-712-2019 group of 12 horses leaving the river on his first morning of A few years later, that site was designated a National Natural Landmark. District, the number of saguaros has increased SPONSORSHIP SALES shooting, he thought the assignment would be easy. “What REPRESENTATION On Media Publications There are several reasons the area draws so much attention. The main rea- by nearly 70 percent since 1990. Concerns about Lesley Bennett I didn’t know was that in the winter, the horses spend very son is the streamside habitat, which is one of the state’s best examples of declining numbers led the park to institute a 602-445-7160 little time near the water,” he says. “I trekked around the a Fremont cottonwood-Goodding willow riparian forest. Some of the cot- saguaro census back in 1930, and the decline per- desert with the horses, but if I was doing images about tonwoods down there are more than 100 feet tall and 130 years old, ranking sisted through the 1960s. However, if the current LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] horses and the Salt River, I thought I should have at least a 2039 W. Lewis Avenue them among the largest and oldest in the country. trend continues, scientists believe the forest will Phoenix, AZ 85009 few images of them in the river.” Taubert consulted with story author Kelly Vaughn, who As I write this, The Nature Conservancy is just weeks away from a party rebound to historical levels. That’s good news for told him about a spot where he might be able to find the animals in the water. “Over the

in Patagonia to celebrate the chapter’s 50th anniversary in Arizona — the landscape photographers. And it’s good for us, too. GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey next week, I spent about 20 hours at the river’s edge before I spotted a band in the river,” organization was founded nationally in 1951. Although TNC’s mission is still I have no idea how many saguaro photos we’ve Taubert says. “As usual, luck and some genetic stubbornness paid off.” Taubert’s current DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT based on conserving land and water, its approach has evolved over the years. published over the past nine decades, but there OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski muses include Arizona’s rattlesnakes, moths and spiders, and he’s working on a guide to

As Kathy Montgomery writes in Where Nature Meets Nurture, it’s gone from “an have been many. Thousands, I’m sure. I guess ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION the 50 best places to photograph wildlife in Arizona. organization that bought and protected small parcels to one that works with that’s why I grimaced when our photo editor said, BOARD CHAIRMAN Joseph E. La Rue partners to protect whole systems, even across international borders.” “I’d like to do a portfolio of saguaros in April.” VICE CHAIRMAN Deanna L. Beaver A good example of that is TNC’s partnership with the U.S. Forest Service Really? I thought. Haven’t we done enough sagua- MEMBERS William F. Cuthbertson TOM BEAN and other stakeholders in something called the Four Forest Restoration Ini- ros for a while? Michael S. Hammond For this issue, Tom Bean spent some time in the woods, photographing ponderosa pines tiative. In Cutting It Down to Size, Terry Greene Sterling describes the initia- Turns out, we haven’t. As you’ll see in This Is Jack W. Sellers for a story about the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (see Cutting It Down to Size, page tive this way: “It’s an unprecedented, history-making, ambitious, optimistic, Different by Jack Dykinga, even an old subject Steven E. Stratton 34). It’s a cause with which Bean is intimately familiar: Two decades ago, he moved into a collaborative, controversial and utterly human effort to restore, in 20 years, like saguaros can have a new twist. But it takes Arlando S. Teller home among the pines at the edge of Flagstaff. “In 1999, I started photographing some 2.4 million acres of mostly struggling ponderosa pine stands on four national someone like Jack to pull it off. It’s impressive. So nearby forest plots scheduled for thinning, with the idea that I would revisit those sites Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published monthly by the Arizona over the years to record the changing forest following these early treatments,” he says. forests in Arizona — the Coconino, Tonto, Kaibab and Apache-Sitgreaves. is his photo of Muleshoe Ranch, which appears in Department of Transportation. Subscription price: $24 a year in the U.S., The goal is to restore the structure of unhealthy, unnaturally dense, drought- our cover story. It’s a gorgeous shot of a gorgeous $44 outside the U.S. Single copy: $4.99 U.S. Call 800-543-5432. Subscrip- “The 4FRI project builds on those earlier efforts, and it’s a much larger and more ambitious stressed forests to their original ‘pre-settlement’ condition.” place, one that might look very different if The tion cor­respon­dence and change of address information: Arizona High- effort.” From those projects and his work on this story, ways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Periodical postage paid at In her distinguished career, Terry has won every award there is to win, Nature Conservancy hadn’t rescued it. Fortu- Phoenix, AZ, and at additional mailing office. CANADA POST INTERNA- Bean learned that the forest can look pretty disturbed and she’s written some hefty investigative pieces. However, this story, she nately, it did. Hats off to our colleagues at TNC. TIONAL PUBLICATIONS MAIL PRODUCT (CANADIAN­ DISTRIBUTION) SALES and “messed up” immediately after thinning. “One has to says, was one of her most difficult assignments. It’s a complicated story Here’s to another 50 years of protecting nature in AGREEMENT NO. 41220511. SEND RETURNS TO QUAD/GRAPHICS, P.O. BOX take a longer view, and come back for a second or third 875, WINDSOR, ON N9A 6P2. POST­MASTER: Send address changes to Ari- about trees and people, and it took her more than a year to pull it together. Arizona. zona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copy­right © 2016 look in a few years, before making a judgment about the Along the way, she spent a lot of time on dirt roads with key players from by the Ari­zona Department of Trans­­por­­tation. Repro­duc­tion in whole or in wisdom and success of a thinning project,” he says. “I part with­­out permission is prohibited. The magazine does not accept and hope to be following this story for years into the future.” the Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy, she encountered what crit- ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR is not responsible for unsolicited­ ma­ter­ials. ics are calling “incompetence” and “cronyism,” she stood next to a machine Follow me on Instagram: @arizonahighways Bean is a regular contributor to Arizona Highways. In this photo, he’s flanked by two members of a crew working on PRODUCED IN THE USA a managed fire in the Kaibab National Forest. — NOAH AUSTIN

2 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP TO BOTTOM CLAIRE CURRAN, SARA GOODNICK, LESLIE REED www.arizonahighways.com 3 LETTERS [email protected] THE JOURNAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS Our Annual Look at Some of the State’s Most Iconic Places FEBRUARY 2016

GRAINS SUPREME ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE The Return of HAYDEN titled Historic Places in the FLOUR — SENECA February 2016 issue. I was I LOVED THE ARTICLE especially drawn to the Painted Ready Desert Inn. Each year there’s a bike ride through the Painted Des- ert that’s sponsored by Northern Pioneer College. It’s a great ride. to Drop Along with the beautiful scenery, I look forward to coming upon the Droplets form on the tips

Painted Desert Inn each year. It’s a wonderful rest area and provides impart place of and change the mind.” new vigor to “Travel of blades of grass in Flor-

Painted Desert Inn, Petrified Forest another place to take in the rock formations and colors. National Park ence, southeast of Phoenix. Sarah Fox, Show Low, Arizona Grasses and some other plants expel excess water plus: SAVING A FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT LANDMARK • HIKING THE ARIZONA TRAIL RED ROCK CROSSING • CROWN KING • ESTHER HENDERSON • AVENUE HOTEL B&B through the tips of their February 2016 leaves — a process known as guttation. To learn more about Florence, call the s a longtime practicing veterinarian “old-fashioned” and “wild” Arizona. [Letters], I really believe she should pay Florence Visitor Center at 520-868-5216 or visit www. from Bisbee, and having spent many Catherine Peppers, Berlin, Germany less attention to people’s legs and more to visitflorenceaz.com. years working on the Slaughter Ranch their friendly faces. A CANON EOS 5D MARK II, when the Ramsowers ran horses and y first copy of Arizona Highways June Woodcock, Joplin, Missouri 1/250 SEC, F/5, ISO 400, cattle there, I’m surprised that no men- arrived today [February 2016] — it’s 100 MM LENS, 25 IMAGES STACKED tion of the four artesian wells in back M a Christmas gift from my wife. I ow! What a blast from the past of the house was in the article [Historic excitedly opened it up, and when I got [Avenue Hotel B&B, February 2016]. Places, February 2016]. Mr. Slaughter to page 10, what a great surprise. I was W My father was born near Douglas to himself put in the casing to form these born in Tucson in the mid-1940s. My Hungarian immigrant parents who were wells. I’m not sure how he did this, but parents were originally from Chicago, homesteading without running water or when you look down the wells through and back in 1952, they moved back to electricity. He was born in 1912. In 1967, the crystal clear water coming up, you Chicago. My father had a small construc- my father took four of his children to will see many bends in the casing. The tion company in Tucson, and around Douglas to view the old homestead. My Ramsowers were perfect clients and cus- 1949 or 1950, he built a photo shop for father reconnected with his old friend todians of the ranch. They always had a Esther Henderson and Chuck Abbott. Frank Bruno in the Avenue Hotel. As I wonderful lunch or dinner waiting after They liked his work, so they asked him recall, Frank was living in the hotel, and a hard day’s work. In my retirement, I to build them a house. As soon as I saw it wasn’t open as a hotel. It was pretty always think this was one of the high- the photo on page 10, without even read- run-down, but we really enjoyed our stay lights of my career. ing it, I knew who they were. The photo there. I remember there were glass bricks Charles A. Behney, D.V.M., Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona captures just the way I remember them. in the second-story floor so that the light I don’t think I ever saw Chuck Abbott from the first floor could shine through. y grandfather Ralph C. Peppers, without his cowboy hat. I miss Arizona He put all five of us up for the night and unfortunately long deceased, enjoyed very much, but if my parents hadn’t was very hospitable. Later, he sent me M the American Southwest so much moved back to Chicago, I wouldn’t have one of his paintings. The last time I was that he gave me a year’s worth of Arizona met and then married my wife. This year in Douglas, the homestead on Kings Highways back in the 1980s. I had to we will have been married 50 years. Highway was gone, and I couldn’t pick throw away my last Arizona Highways, a Kenneth Connor, Plainfield, Illinois out which building was Frank’s hotel. If 1984 issue featuring Zane Grey, because I’m ever back there, I’ll be sure to drop in there was mildew on the pages, but I y first taste of your magazine was now that I have a name and an address. reread the articles dealing with Zane in elementary school in the 1950s, The lobby looks great. Grey and the “wars” in frontier Arizona, M at my uncle’s house. After living in Susan Furedy, Phoenix and was thrilled. I’m thinking about Yuma for two years in the ’90s, I really ordering one or two of your books, such enjoyed Arizona and your magazine. contact us If you have thoughts or com- as Arizona’s Scenic Seasons: Remembering Upon returning to Missouri, my hus- ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d with Raymond, and just wanted to let you band subscribed to Arizona Highways love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis know how much my grandparents both, for me. Now, in response to a comment Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, and now I, appreciate your portraits of by Ms. Tucker in the February 2016 issue visit www.arizonahighways.com.

4 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY EIRINI PAJAK J national parks centennial

EDITOR’S NOTE: In August, the National Park Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Leading up to that milestone, we’re spotlighting some of Arizona’s wonderful national parks.

Josef Muench photographed a Navajo leading his horses to water in Keet Seel Canyon in the 1950s or ’60s. Navajo National Monument

KAYLA FROST

IN THE 13TH CENTURY, a monument, and though it’s community of Anasazis open year-round, summer is transitioned from a migra- the best time to explore, as tory hunter-gatherer lifestyle Betatakin and Keet Seel are to a more stable farming open only from Memorial existence. They built multi- Day to Labor Day. To camp story dwellings into canyon in Navajo National Monu- walls, nestled into sandstone ment, show up early to claim alcoves, but abandoned a spot in one of two free them less than 100 years later. campgrounds, one of which Navajo National Monument is open in winter. Three short, protects the well-preserved self-guided hikes along the ruins of three of these villages: rim of Betatakin Canyon are Betatakin and Keet Seel, accessible all year. which are accessible via hiking trails, and Inscription House, YEAR DESIGNATED: 1909 which is closed to visitors. All AREA: 360 acres three ruins are managed by WILDERNESS ACREAGE: None the National Park Service ANNUAL VISITATION: and are surrounded by the 65,778 (2014) Navajo Nation in Northeastern AVERAGE ELEVATION: Arizona. 7,182 feet Keet Seel, abandoned for seven There’s no fee to visit the centuries, is the largest of three Anasazi ruins protected by Navajo National Monument. NAVAJO NATION www.nps.gov/nava

6 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPH: NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY CLINE LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURENCE PARENT www.arizonahighways.com 7 J history photography J

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

■ Construction begins on the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson on April 1, 1952. ■ On April 4, 1988, Rose Mofford becomes Arizona’s first woman gov- ernor after Governor Evan Mecham is removed from office via impeachment. ■ On April 7, 1913, the State Board of Control confiscates Governor George W.P. Hunt’s official car, saying the governor can pay his own transpor- St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson is shown in 1880, the year it opened. tation expenses or walk. ■ Chiricahua National St. Mary’s Hospital Monument in Southeast- ern Arizona is established In April 1880, seven Catholic sisters opened a 12-bed hospital in Tucson. The small care on April 18, 1924. unit would go on to become the first hospital in Arizona to use nuclear medicine and ■ On April 24, 1894, two perform open-heart surgery, and one of the first in the country to open a hospice unit. blocks in Jerome’s com- mercial district go up in KATHY MONTGOMERY flames. The fire is the first of four disastrous blazes inging church bells, exploding fire- the sisters agreed to staff the new hospital. that hit the mining town works and 3,000 residents carrying They bought it from the bishop two years later. in the 1890s. torches and firing guns greeted the Twelve patient beds occupied the main floor seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet of the original adobe building. The basement Flashes of lightning and a rainbow fill a R stormy sky over the Sonoran Desert northwest on their arrival in Tucson in 1870. contained the kitchen, dining room, laundry Q&A: Jack Dykinga of Tucson in this composite of 13 images. “Balls of combustible matter were thrown in and storage. In addition to caring for patients, 50 YEARS AGO the streets through which we passed,” Sister four sisters did all the sterilizing, laundry, IN ARIZONA HIGHWAYS PHOTO EDITOR JEFF KIDA Monica Corrigan wrote. “At each explosion, cleaning and cooking — without the aid of Sister Euphrasia made the sign of the cross.” running water or electricity. PHOTO WORKSHOP Such celebration would prove to be merited Out of necessity, St. Mary’s opened a nursing JK: What was your goal for this work, and it paid off here. Before a Lightning Bug, which triggers by the institutions these remarkable women school in 1914. Accredited in 1922, the school photograph? this shot, I spent two weeks look- the camera when it detects the went on to establish — including St. Mary’s, operated until 1966. The hospital grew quickly, JD: I set out to portray the passage ing for the right location. I also unseen infrared light that precedes the state’s oldest hospital. with nuns and student nurses making up the of time, and I also wanted to por- used a storm-tracking app on my a lightning flash. The sisters opened Tucson’s first school majority of the nursing staff into the 1930s. tray how massive and spectacular smartphone to see where things within days of their arrival. By the end of Corrigan died in 1929 and was the last of some of these summer storms were going and when I could JK: How have technological the decade, they had established schools in the original seven sisters to pass. But the hos- are. There always are more misses expect the scene to come together. advances affected your photog- Best of Yuma, in Florence and at Mission San Xavier pital she served lived on, often lighting the than hits in storm photography, raphy? the West May 10-16, del Bac. But as railroad construction neared way for others. Sister Evangelista of St. Mary’s because things don’t happen JK: Photography has always been JD: I still do my best to get things The April 1966 issue of various locations Tucson, Southern Pacific Railroad head Charles School of Nursing campaigned to establish a where or when you want them a balance of art and technology. right “in the camera,” but technol- Capture some of Arizona’s Arizona Highways painted Crocker appealed to Arizona’s bishop to build statewide certifying board and became Ari- to. It’s also easy to get in trouble What kind of technology went ogy has helped me bring my vision most amazing land- for readers an image of scapes at this workshop, a hospital to care for injured workers. zona’s first registered nurse in 1921. St. Mary’s out there when there’s a lot of into this photo? to life. It’s part of what I call the Mogollon Rim Country, led by Colleen Miniuk- Bishop Jean-Baptiste Salpointe agreed, post- Hospital was the first in Arizona to use nuclear featuring Payson as a lightning. JD: This shot is difficult to do in a continuum of learning — the things Sperry. Locations include the Grand Canyon, Monu- poning construction on an Indian trade school medicine and perform open-heart surgery, and town abounding in hiking single exposure, so I made about I’ve learned over so many years. ment Valley, Horseshoe to build the hospital. He dedicated St. Mary’s one of the first in the country to open a hospice JK: What role does scouting play 40 images over about 10 min- I’ve been doing landscape photog- trails, scenic views for pho- Bend, Sedona and more. Hospital in April 1880, a month after the rail- unit. Today, after 136 years, it’s still worthy of tographers (and nature in this kind of shot? utes, then chose 13 to assemble raphy for 40 years, but I’m feeling Information: 888-790- road arrived in Tucson. Though ill-prepared, fireworks. enthusiasts) and outdoor JD: Scouting is always a key to my digitally for the final image. I used like a kid again. 7042 or www.ahpw.org activities, such as boating TUCSON Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital, 1601 W. St. Mary’s Road, 520-872-3000, www.carondelet.org/hospitals/st-mary and horseback riding. To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography.

8 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPH: ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP JACK DYKINGA ABOVE, RIGHT COLLEEN MINIUK-SPERRY www.arizonahighways.com 9 iconic photographers J

Barry Goldwater

KAYLA FROST

rizona native Barry Goldwater was which I could willingly devote my life, leaving an best known as a U.S. senator and indexed library of negatives and prints to those presidential candidate who was who will follow.” True to his word, Goldwater A awarded the Presidential Medal of left behind more than 15,000 photographs now Freedom, but he was also an avid photographer. housed at three Arizona institutions. In an introduction to his 1967 book of photog- Arizona Highways printed about 300 of Gold- raphy, People and Places, Goldwater wrote: “To water’s photographs, including his first published photograph and record Arizona and its people picture. In 1946, the magazine was printed in full — particularly its early settlers — was a project to color, becoming the first nationally circulated consumer magazine to do so, and Goldwater’s LEFT: Native Americans were among Barry Goldwater’s favorite photograph of Navajo girls looking after sheep subjects. This photo, Children of the Desert, shows two Navajo in snow made the cover. Goldwater had four sisters. The date of the image is unknown. children, all of whom spent considerable time in ABOVE: Goldwater poses with sons Michael (left) and Barry Jr. during a Northern Arizona camping trip in the 1940s or ’50s. his darkroom. He lived to be 89.

10 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS: LEFT BARRY GOLDWATER ABOVE COURTESY OF GOLDWATER FAMILY www.arizonahighways.com 11 J dining nature J

an uncommonly personalized experience, Abbie’s Kitchen beginning with questions about food Abbie Ashford describes the cuisine at her eponymous restaurant as “high- sensitivities when making reservations. end comfort food,” with high-quality, locally sourced ingredients prepared On our arrival, our server explains simply. Pair that with her impeccable service and you’ll understand why that we should consider the menu a guideline. Substituting salmon for Abbie’s Kitchen is attracting a crowd in Old Town Cottonwood. shrimp, for example, presents no prob- KATHY MONTGOMERY lem. We can order half of one entrée and half of another, or split dishes at no additional charge. Of course, that level of IT’S EASY TO MISS ABBIE’S KITCHEN. prepared simply. The focus on local quality and service comes at a price. On The building looks like someone’s home, extends to the beverages, which include the night of our visit, entrées range from which it was before Abbie Ashford a selection of Arizona wines and beers. $24 for a niçoise salad with seared yel- turned it into a restaurant in 2011. The pastas, sauces, crackers, dressings lowfin tuna to $49 for a rack of lamb that Built in Jerome in the 1920s, the cottage and desserts are all made in-house, and is the night’s special. Crested moved to its current location in Old Town the menu changes frequently. Old Town Cottonwood emits a charm- Cottonwood in the 1940s. Two intimate Ashford’s background as a private ing small-town vibe, yet Ashford’s menu Caracaras dining rooms and a commercial kitchen chef perhaps explains the restaurant’s reflects big-city sophistication. Our din- Crested caracaras (Caracara make up the interior. Painted in muted homelike atmosphere. Wearing a mono- ner begins with complimentary hummus, cheriway), members of the shades and decorated with original art- grammed apron and glasses with thick served with snap peas, celery and bou- falcon family, soar through- work, the dining rooms feel homey, each black frames, Ashford circulates among tique carrots in a rainbow of colors. The out much of the Americas table set with a mix of china patterns and her diners, chatting companionably like night’s appetizer menu features foie gras and occupy their northern- a single rose in a milk-white vase. the hostess of a dinner party. with onion jam and a stone-fruit caprese most habitats in Arizona, Ashford describes her cuisine as Abbie’s Kitchen doesn’t turn tables. salad with prosciutto. Entrées include Texas and Florida. With a wingspan of about 47 inches, “high-end comfort food,” with high- Your table is yours for the night. And a Canadian duck breast with blue-cheese these birds fly low to capture quality, locally sourced ingredients maximum of about 30 diners allows for sauce, wheat-berry pilaf with roasted small animals such as rab- vegetables and a bits, skunks, frogs, ground 16-ounce Arizona squirrels, lizards, snakes and rib-eye. Our server large insects. The birds min- says the scallops gle with vultures, particularly today were not up when feasting on carrion, to the restaurant’s and they’re often mistakenly standards, so wild- included in the vulture family. caught salmon has — Emily Lierle been substituted in the chermoula shrimp and scallops over fettuccine. After dinner, we aren’t sure we can manage dessert, but our server suggests a half-slice of cherry rhubarb pie, served warm with ice cream. We eat every bite and want more. It makes the perfect finish to a delightful evening. If you find yourself in Cotton- wood at dinnertime, you won’t want to miss it.

COTTONWOOD Abbie’s Kitchen, 778 N. Main Street, 928-634-3300, www.abbieskitchen.com

12 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN BURCHAM PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SHERMAN www.arizonahighways.com 13 J lodging

rious bathrobes are provided, and a gas Alma de Sedona Inn fireplace keeps things cozy. People visit Sedona for several reasons, including the scenery, the The B&B’s commitment to its guests shopping and the spiritual nature of things. It’s because of the latter that continues at breakfast, which is catered to individual tastes and needs — gluten- Alma de Sedona Inn added a labyrinth to its spacious grounds. BESTof the WEST free, dairy-free and vegan diets are no with Colleen Miniuk-Sperry | May 10-16, 2016 NOAH AUSTIN problem. Feel like a chorizo burrito or a gluten-free scone? It’ll be made from THE WORD “LABYRINTH” CAN MEAN MANY property. That’s led, she says, to an uptick scratch. And Reinhold and the other inn- Seven days. Five iconic destinations. One photo adventure! things, but in this instance, we’re not in visitors — some of whom found the keepers pride themselves on knowing the talking about the 1986 film starring David inn through a website called Labyrinth area and providing dining and leisure Sedona, Grand Canyon, Slot Canyons, Monument Valley & Canyon de Chelly Bowie. A labyrinth looks like a maze, Locator. It was a natural fit for the “Soul recommendations. but it’s not a maze — you go out the same of Sedona.” “Some places recommend things way you go in. It’s an ancient meditation “A lot of people come here for a spiri- because they get a commission,” she says. For more information tool; as Lori Reinhold says, it “gets you out tual experience,” says Reinhold, who also “For me, it’s not about the commission; it’s on Best of the West or of your ‘left brain/right brain’ thinking.” added a medicine wheel to the grounds. about guests having the best experience.” other exciting Arizona Reinhold is the general manager and “With only 12 rooms, there’s a lot of space For those seeking a spot for a special Highways Photo innkeeper at Alma de Sedona Inn, a around the property to relax.” occasion, the inn works with guests Workshops, visit us fixture on the west side of Sedona since That’s easy to do in the rooms, too. to plan surprise birthday parties and online at ahpw.org 1998. A while back, knowing that many All but one of them feature a two-person engagements. “It’s fun to be in on the or call 602.712.2004. people come to Red Rock Country for bathtub with jets, and Reinhold provides secret,” Reinhold says. more than shopping and gorgeous scen- bath salts she makes with Dead Sea and When it comes to Alma de Sedona Inn, Workshop Fee: $2775 ery, Reinhold convinced owner Dr. Caro- Himalayan salt. Some rooms offer a pan- though, the secret may be out. As for the includes photography lyn Crawford, who bought the B&B in oramic view of nearby red-rock buttes secrets of the labyrinth? You’ll have to instruction, round-trip 2004, to let her install a labyrinth at the and the distant Mingus Mountain. Luxu- discover those for yourself. transportation from Phoenix and double

SEDONA Alma de Sedona Inn, 50 Hozoni Drive, 928-282-2737, www.almadesedona.com occupancy lodging.

Photos courtesy of Suzanne Mathia (top), Dean Hueber, Suzanne Mathia, Ron Balbin, Roberta Lites

14 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW WHERE

NATURE

MEETS

NURTURE BY KATHY MONTGOMERY

IN 1966, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY MADE ITS FIRST PURCHASE IN ARIZONA WHEN IT ACQUIRED THE PATAGONIA- SONOITA CREEK PRESERVE. ALTHOUGH ITS MISSION HAS EVOLVED AND EXPANDED OVER THE PAST 50 YEARS, THE ORGANIZATION IS STILL WORKING TO PROTECT THE STATE’S MOST THREATENED LANDSCAPES.

16 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 17 On a late afternoon in mid- November, the sun angles low over The Nature Conservancy’s Aravaipa Canyon guesthouse, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY lighting up a yellow­ing pecan IN ARIZONA tree like a flame. Below it, a dozen wild turkeys forage among lush foxtail grasses.

It’s hard to imagine this serene spot as the headquarters of a large ranching and farming operation. But it once belonged to the T-Rail Ranch, which employed as many as 20 permanent cowboys and controlled 5,000 head of cattle at its peak. Farms and ranches such as the T-Rail contributed to the disappearance of turkeys in Aravaipa Canyon. Grizzly bears, wolves, bighorn sheep, pronghorns and beavers also disappeared. Today, reintroduced turkeys and bighorns once again populate the canyon, and much of its natural beauty has been restored, thanks, in large part, to The Nature PHOENIX Conservancy (TNC). Santa Cruz River This year, TNC celebrates 50 years in Arizona. The organization’s work here began with the acquisition of the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve in 1966, although TNC did not have an official Arizona chapter until 1979. In 1970, the Panorama Ranch on the west end of Aravaipa Canyon became the organization’s third Arizona project. Today, the group’s Aravaipa Canyon Preserve includes 9,000 acres of deeded land and grazing leases on another 44,000 acres, including the Bureau of Land Management wilderness area in the canyon itself. The management of the preserve, whose early caretakers included author and naturalist Edward Abbey, provides a window into TNC’s work in the state, as well as its evolution — from an organization that bought and protected small parcels to one that works with partners to protect whole systems, even across international borders.

Aravaipa Canyon runs for 11 miles through the rugged Galiuro Mountains of Southern Arizona. Walls of vol- canic tuff tower as high as 1,000 feet, cradling one of Arizona’s PRECEDING PANEL: The perennial Aravaipa Creek flows between the steep walls of finest riparian woodlands, along with healthy populations of Aravaipa Canyon northeast of Tucson. mountain lions, deer and javelinas. The Nature Conservancy’s Aravaipa Canyon One of Arizona’s few perennial streams, Aravaipa Creek is Preserve became the organization’s third Kerrick James home to seven species of native fish, including two endangered Arizona project in 1970. species: the loach minnow and the spikedace. The trees that RIGHT: Lush vegetation surrounds a pool in one of Aravaipa Canyon’s side canyons. TNC grow along its banks shelter more than 200 species of birds, works with the Bureau of Land Management including rare gray hawks, common black hawks and yellow- to protect the 11-mile-long canyon’s riparian billed cuckoos. areas and wildlife populations. Jack Dykinga At the peak of canyon settlement in the 1920s, about 700 people lived there. Large herds of cattle, goats, feral horses and burros browsed the canyon and tablelands. The T-Rail

18 APRIL 2016 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 19 dominated the east end, where ranching and feed crops prairie dogs. Residents also harvested loach minnows to sell to operating committee led by conservationist Ted Steele led the Senator Barry Goldwater led an effort to upgrade the primitive such as alfalfa dominated. The west end consisted largely of fishermen and stocked non-native species in the creek. effort. TNC made the down payment in 1970 but could not area to a wilderness area. That effort paid off in 1984 with orchards. Conservation efforts began in the 1940s, when Montana come up with the balance. the creation of the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, which today The ecological effects were widespread. Farmers diverted resident John Blackford launched a campaign to protect the Steele also served on the board of Defenders of Wildlife, protects more than 19,000 acres. the creek, miners dynamited fishing holes and harvested canyon. He made a formal proposal to the National Park which received a timely bequest from the estate of California Hunting and fishing were prohibited, and Defenders of old-growth trees, goats competed with bighorns for food and Service in 1952; the Park Service passed but recommended a millionaire George Whittell. Steele convinced trustees to buy Wildlife worked with the BLM to limit visits to the canyon, habitat, and unrestricted cattle denuded native grasses. nature preserve under TNC, the Wilderness Society or the the Wood ranch, along with additional properties on the east initiating the permit system that exists today. In 1988, Predator-control programs devastated populations of National Audubon Society. end, including the McNair Ranch, formerly the T-Rail. Defenders of Wildlife transferred ownership of the Wood mountain lions, bears and coyotes. Fur companies solicited In the late 1960s, brothers Fred and Cliff Wood approached Meanwhile, in 1969, the secretary of the interior designated ranch and its other Aravaipa properties back to TNC and Aravaipa residents for pelts of raccoons, ringtails, bobcats TNC about selling the group their 4,200-acre Panorama Ranch about 4,000 acres of public land inside the canyon as the provided a $1.2 million endowment to manage them. and foxes, while farmers waged war on javelinas, rabbits and on the west end. There was no TNC field office, so a small Aravaipa Canyon Primitive Area. In the early 1980s, Arizona

In 1972, Edward Abbey became the first manager of the Aravaipa preserve. Tasked with monitoring wildlife, patrolling the canyon and keeping hunters out, Abbey soon shared his job and salary with his friend Doug Peacock. Working out of a trailer near the Wood residence, Abbey and Peacock filed reports to Defenders of Wildlife that included visitor numbers, wildlife counts (including what they believed to be two wolves) and Peacock’s observation that the human history of the canyon is “as colorful as a Western novel.” It was Abbey’s first year-round wilderness job. He had just published Desert Solitaire, and at Aravaipa he recovered from a devastating romantic breakup and a period of writer’s block that lasted a year. In June 1973, he wrote in his journal: “Still here! Longest I’ve held a steady job since … I was drummed out of the Army in ’47. Despite the lugubrious tone prevailing through most of these erratic journals, I am, most of the time, a rather happy man. … My mind is clear, my head on straight, my body functioning properly, my heart alive and throbbing — and them blues, they don’t come knockin’ on my door no more.” Aravaipa provided the setting for some of Abbey’s most memorable essays, including the haunting story of his encounter with a mountain lion and a lighter essay about javelinas he titled Merry Christmas, Pigs! More importantly, he completed his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, using Peacock as the inspiration for George Washington Hayduke. While most of Abbey’s journal entries make no reference to time of day, the one for May 4, 1974, begins at 6:14:02 p.m.: “Currently on page 647 of Monkey Wrench. A splendid hilarious tragic book. … One-and-a-half chapters and an epilogue to go. Then FINIS.” Defenders of Wildlife fired Abbey at the end of that month. He claimed in his journal that he had fallen out of favor with Steele. “A shabby, sneaky, cowardly thing to do,” he wrote of his dismissal. But Abbey had not endeared himself to many Aravaipa residents. They objected to his habit of skinny-dipping in Aravaipa Creek. And his inflammatory letters to the editor didn’t sit well with the conservative ranchers, farmers and miners whose cooperation Defenders of Wildlife needed.

Golden-leafed aspens punctuate a view of Hart Prairie northwest of Flagstaff. The prairie is the location of Hart Prairie Preserve, a Nature Conservancy site in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks. Derek Von Briesen

20 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 21 Historically, Aravaipa Creek rose from the ground as puddle dappled with cottonwood leaves seems to ripple with creek, and the evolution of the preserve’s management illustrates ABOVE, LEFT: Saguaros and rugged cliffs surround a visible spring. The emergence point has changed over time, a gentle current. But a closer inspection reveals water rising how the organization’s mission has evolved and expanded. a riparian area at The Nature Conservancy’s Muleshoe Ranch Cooperative Management Area fluctuating with natural cycles of drought and rain, and due from the ground. From there, the flow quickly gathers into a “Historically, we were thinking about Aravaipa,” says Patrick near Willcox. The site is known for its perennially to human-caused influences. Today, it emerges about a mile recognizable stream. Under normal conditions, the creek flows Graham, TNC’s state director for Arizona. “Then we started flowing streams. Jack Dykinga upstream from TNC’s guesthouse, amid towering stands of through the canyon and disappears underground just beyond thinking about the San Pedro River watershed [which includes ABOVE: The calm East Verde River reflects nearby cottonwoods, whose tall, rough bark mixes with the graceful, the west end. Protected along nearly its entire length, it has Aravaipa Creek]. Now, we’re thinking about the Colorado River vegetation and rock formations. The Verde is Arizona’s only federally designated Wild and pale trunks of sycamores. become one of the best native fisheries in the state. Basin.” Scenic River, and TNC works with landowners and Stamped with tracks of turkeys, javelinas, mountain lions Water has flowed like a perennial stream through TNC’s According to a TNC study, Arizona has already lost many of conservation partners to protect sensitive areas of and one of a handful of cows that have evaded capture, the work in Arizona, beginning with its first purchase in Sonoita, its rivers and streams. The 2010 study predicts that by 2050, if the waterway. David Muench creek’s beginnings are subtle, appearing first as wet sand then expanding to include projects along the San Pedro and nothing is done, the state will lose seven more. That sense of with a few puddles, as though from a recent rain. A large Verde rivers. Preserving Aravaipa was also about preserving its urgency underlies TNC’s evolution.

22 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 23 THE NATURE CONSERVANCY IN ARIZONA The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization that works locally, with global reach, to protect the state’s fresh water, forests, critical lands, wildlife and rich biodiversity. This year marks TNC’s 50th marsh area, provides a habi- HART PRAIRIE PRESERVE southwest on Pennsylvania tat for the endangered South- Avenue, which turns into Blue anniversary in Arizona. Home to uncommon wild- western willow flycatcher and flowers, ponderosa pines, elk, Heaven Road, for 1.5 miles to hundreds of other bird species. birds and the world’s largest the preserve’s visitors center, PRESERVES The preserve’s operating days community of Bebb willows, on the left. TO VISIT and hours vary depending on this preserve offers a cool INFORMATION: Patagonia-Sonoita the season. getaway at the foot of the San Creek Preserve, 520-394-2400 ARAVAIPA CANYON PRESERVE DIRECTIONS: From Wickenburg, Francisco Peaks, Arizona’s or www.nature.org/patagonia go southeast on U.S. Route highest mountains. TNC The perennial Aravaipa Creek 60 for 3 miles to the preserve, hosts 90-minute nature walks flows through this preserve’s RAMSEY CANYON PRESERVE which is on the west side of every Sunday from mid-June namesake. The 11-mile-long The lush Ramsey Canyon is a “Buying land and protecting it was not going to be enough,” progressively better,” he says. the road near Milepost 114. through September. Other gorge is home to mountain world-renowned hot spot for Graham says. “We couldn’t acquire enough of it fast enough to Haberstich harvests the grasses to restore the preserve’s visits are by appointment only. INFORMATION: Hassayampa River birders, and 15 hummingbird really make a difference. Maybe this is the big challenge: How historical grasslands — he spreads it as mulch or feeds it to lions, deer and javelinas, along with seven species of native Preserve, 928-684-2772 or DIRECTIONS: From Flagstaff, go species have been spotted do we take these ideas and scale them up large enough, fast cattle, which pass the seed along with fertilizing manure. He fish. Access to Aravaipa www.nature.org/hassayampa northwest on U.S. Route 180 there. The preserve’s bound- enough, before our rivers go dry?” thinks of it as a working laboratory, and that’s one way the Canyon from the preserve for 9.5 miles to Forest Road aries include plant communi- Aravaipa preserve has evolved to contribute to the organiza- requires a permit from the MULESHOE RANCH COOPERATIVE 151 (Hart Prairie Road). Turn ties ranging from semi-desert right onto FR 151 and con- tion’s new business model. “If I can demonstrate sustainable, Bureau of Land Management. MANAGEMENT AREA grasslands to pine-fir forests. Broad, flat Aravaipa Valley spreads out human-based strategies that contribute to the preservation and tinue 4.5 miles to the preserve, It’s open Thursdays through DIRECTIONS (TO WEST END OF PRESERVE): This area’s seven perennially over the aquifer that feeds Aravaipa Creek. A little upstream conservation of a watershed, that information can be used on a on the right. Mondays, and visitors must From Tucson, go north on flowing streams represent INFORMATION: Hart Prairie pay a small fee. of today’s emergence point, the water lies just close enough to bigger scale,” he says. Oracle Road (State Route 77) some of Southeastern Ari- Preserve, 928-774-8892 or DIRECTIONS: From the intersec- the surface to maintain young cottonwoods that line the edge He also partners with organizations such as the Arizona for 18 miles to a “Y” intersec- zona’s best remaining aquatic www.nature.org/hartprairie tion of state routes 90 and 92 of a grassy pasture. Game and Fish Department, in harvesting Aravaipa’s native tion in Oracle Junction. Bear habitat. The site is jointly in Sierra Vista, go south on On this fall day, the meadow — part of the Cobra Ranch fish to help restock other rivers, and the BLM, in setting pre- right to stay on SR 77, then managed by TNC, the Bureau continue 35 miles to Aravaipa SR 92 for 6 miles to Ramsey before it was donated to TNC — vibrates with life. The scribed fires to improve habitat for reintroduced bighorns. of Land Management and the PATAGONIA-SONOITA Road. Turn right onto Ara- Canyon Road. Turn right clacking of grasshoppers accompanies the trill of Cassin’s Over the 20 years he’s worked in the preserve, Haberstich has Coronado National Forest. vaipa Road (which turns into CREEK PRESERVE onto Ramsey Canyon Road Visitors can stay overnight in This preserve protects sparrows. A vermilion flycatcher abandons its barbed-wire seen many historical conditions restored, including swampier a gravel road) and continue and continue 3.6 miles to the one of five casitas (reserva- some of the largest Fremont perch just long enough to snatch its prey before returning areas that now support lowland leopard frogs. approximately 12 miles to the preserve. tions required). cottonwoods in the United to its post. A breeze ruffles the tawny grasses: fluffy-headed “It’s been neat to see the whole process,” he says. “Most of preserve. INFORMATION: Ramsey Canyon DIRECTIONS: From Willcox, go States, and rare plants beardgrass, tall-bunched sacaton, sparkler-like spangletop. the really big threats, like water, have been, for the most part, Preserve, 520-378-2785 or INFORMATION: Aravaipa Canyon west on Airport Road for found in the Sonoita Creek “When we first got the Cobra Ranch about six years ago, taken care of. Acquiring the lands, we have solved a lot of www.nature.org/ramsey Preserve, www.nature.org/ 14 miles to a “Y” intersection. watershed include Huachuca this had been abandoned as a farm and they fed cows here,” problems.” aravaipa; Bureau of Land Bear right onto Muleshoe water umbels and Santa Cruz For more information, call The says preserve manager Mark Haberstich. “There was no grass, Management, 928-348-4400 Ranch Road and continue beehive cactuses. A diverse Nature Conservancy at 602-712- mostly dirt and a lot of erosion. Historically, it was probably or www.blm.gov/az approximately 14 miles to the avian population makes this ABOVE: Cottonwoods tower over Sonoita Creek at the Patagonia- 0048 (Phoenix) or 520-622-3861 a bigger, marshier, grassier area, and one of the key species of preserve. a popular spot for birders Sonoita Creek Preserve. Some Fremont cottonwoods at this Nature (Tucson), or visit www.nature. the flood plain is sacaton, so I started planting it.” Conservancy site are among the tallest and oldest in the country. INFORMATION: in spring and summer. The HASSAYAMPA RIVER PRESERVE Muleshoe Ranch org/arizona. Transplanting seeds germinated in a greenhouse, Haberstich Randy Prentice Rare Gilbert’s skinks can be Cooperative Management preserve is open Wednesdays initially watered the field with flood irrigation to mimic OPPOSITE PAGE: Giant sycamores line Ramsey Creek along the found in this preserve, as can Area, 520-212-4295 or through Sundays, and a small Hamburg Trail, which begins at TNC’s Ramsey Canyon Preserve. In many other species of lizards. www.nature.org/muleshoe fee is required. historical flood cycles. He also planted a variety of other addition to spectacular hiking, the preserve offers premier birding Palm Lake, a 4-acre pond and DIRECTIONS: From Patagonia, go native grasses. “I’ve got five years into this, and it’s getting opportunities. Randy Prentice

24 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 25 this is different In the interest of full disclosure, we aren’t sure how many saguaro photos we’ve published over the past 91 years. We do know, however, that we’ve never seen anything quite like this. A Portfolio by Jack Dykinga

The limbs of a saguaro cactus, damaged by frost, frame two other saguaros at Sonoran Desert National Monument southwest of Phoenix. “I’ve come to understand that frost- damaged saguaro limbs droop to the ground because of their sheer weight,” photographer Jack Dykinga says.

26 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 27 LEFT: “Saguaros bloom at night, enticing bats with their nectar and bright-white blossoms,” Dykinga says. Here, an ancient saguaro reaches toward a starry sky in the Sierra Estrella Wilderness near Phoenix. RIGHT: “Since I first arrived in Arizona, I’ve wanted to literally get inside a saguaro,” Dykinga says of this shot from the South Maricopa Mountains Wilderness near Gila Bend. “It’s a prickly proposition.”

28 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 29 During a summer monsoon storm, lightning punctuates veils of falling rain above saguaros in the Tucson Mountains. “Lightning can sizzle through stands of saguaros, and the drama is unparalleled,” Dykinga says.

30 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 31 LEFT: “After living in Arizona and photographing saguaros for 40 years, I’ve made a connection of ­sorts with some of them,” Dykinga says. “I hadn’t visited this one, at Sonoran Desert National Monument, in more than a year. To my dismay, it had given in to gravity and crashed to the ground. I exper­ ienced a real sense of loss.” RIGHT: A drooping saguaro arm frames the setting sun in the South Maricopa Mountains Wilderness. “I kept searching for the best sunset situation to illustrate the magic of being in the desert and the saguaro’s unique profile,” Dykinga says.

32 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 33 ARIZONA IS HOME TO THE LARGEST STAND OF PONDEROSA PINES IN THE WORLD. ITS SIZE IS CUTTING IT IMPRESSIVE. ITS HEALTH IS NOT — THE WOODS ARE TOO DENSE. THUS, THE FOUR FOREST RESTORATION INITIATIVE, AN UNPRECEDENT- ED, AMBITIOUS AND CONTRO- DOWN VERSIAL EFFORT TO THIN AND RESTORE 2.4 MILLION ACRES ON FOUR NATIONAL FORESTS IN THE STATE. THE TIMELINE IS 20 YEARS. TIME WILL TELL.

BY TERRY GREENE STERLING TO SIZE PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOM BEAN

A young ponderosa pine stands in front of recently harvested ponderosa logs along a Coconino National Forest road south of Flagstaff. The trees were cut down as part of a Four Forest 34 APRIL 2016 Restoration Initiative task order. www.arizonahighways.com 35 CHAPTER ONE: On a May morning, Dick Fleishman THE LESSON angles a white SUV onto a road of gritty red cinder. On both sides of the road, ponderosa pine trees in various degrees of health quiver and moan in the wind. We’re motoring through the configurations as quickly as possible up in the Phoenix area. He’s friendly Coconino National Forest not far will render them more resistant to and patient and laughs easily. Only his from Flagstaff. I’m in the front seat, epic wildfires and climate change. In chewed-to-the-nubs fingernails suggest scrawling notes as I get a crash course 4FRI’s restored forests, the thinking he internalizes stress. on forest restoration from Fleishman, goes, biodiversity will increase, destruc- He wants to help preserve the the assistant team leader for the largest, tive flooding will diminish, life-giving ponderosa forests so they’ll be around most ambitious forest restoration effort watersheds of big cities will be pro- for his kids when they’re his age. in the United States. tected, and the millions of visitors who It’s called the Four Forest Restora- ski, hike, bike, run, rappel, fish, swim, tion Initiative, known locally as 4FRI. camp, picnic and chill out beneath the It’s an unprecedented, history-making, ponderosas will still have a place to go. ambitious, optimistic, collaborative, Much is at stake. If it succeeds, the controversial and utterly human effort 4FRI experiment will be an important to restore, in 20 years, 2.4 million acres national model for landscape-scale for- of mostly struggling ponderosa pine est restoration. And forest restoration is stands on four national forests in Ari- key to combating climate change. One zona — the Coconino, Tonto, Kaibab hundred ninety-five countries signed and Apache-Sitgreaves. The goal of the the 2015 Paris Agreement climate pact, U.S. Forest Service is to restore the which, among other things, encourages structure of unhealthy, unnaturally forest restoration. The reason: All for- dense, drought-stressed forests to their ests, including the ponderosa stands in original “pre-settlement” condition. Arizona, store enormous amounts of car- Pre-settlement forests existed before bon. Carbon turns into carbon dioxide — non-Native American settlers innocently a greenhouse gas contributing to climate and not-so-innocently damaged them change — every time there’s a forest fire. in a variety of ways that included Carbon dioxide continues escaping into overgrazing, natural fire suppression the atmosphere from dead trees long and logging. To get an idea of what pre- after the fire has ravaged the landscape. settlement forests looked like, ecologists Yet despite the urgency, 4FRI isn’t study historical photos, analyze the proceeding apace. few untouched-by-settlers stands of This may explain why Annette ponderosas still existing in Arizona and Fredette, 4FRI’s planning team leader, assess the patterns of ponderosa stumps and Brienne Pettit, a public affairs that were logged a century ago. specialist, bounce along in the back Forest restoration developed seat during Fleishman’s tour, politely widespread public support after a series answering my questions with carefully of savage fires wiped out huge sections chosen words. of the state’s beloved ponderosa pine Fleishman, 57, wears a navy-blue For- TOP TO BOTTOM: Raemy Winton, a member of belt, which stretches from the Grand est Service baseball cap with the word a monitoring crew, measures a small ponderosa pine during a pre-thinning project on the Coconino Canyon south and east to the New “Fire” embossed in red on the front, National Forest. Winton’s colleague Krystal Mexico border. along with a tan shirt, green khakis Burchinal records data during the same project. Pine Proponents of 4FRI (pronounced and hiking boots. He has a gray walrus needles, cones and branches accumulate beneath “four fry”) say returning Arizona’s mustache and a soul patch beneath his mature ponderosas south of Flagstaff. RIGHT: Arizona’s ponderosa pine belt, seen here from ponderosa pine forests to the clos- lower lip. Fleishman’s father worked for Bill Williams Mountain south of Williams, stretches est semblance of their pre-settlement the Forest Service, and Fleishman grew from the Grand Canyon to New Mexico.

36 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 37 “This is my life,” he tells me, gestur- designed, intentionally ignited per gallon and contains special tracking task order. He promises the mounds of ing at the forest. “This is my kids’ life. If restorative fire meant to imitate chemicals. I touch one keeper. The bark slash will be removed from the forest, NOBODY INVOLVED IN ARIZONA FOREST RESTORATION we don’t take care of this, there will be fires that occurred cyclically in pre- is rutted and rough to the touch and in accordance with the contract. He nothing left for them.” settlement days. smells like butterscotch. Thanks to acknowledges work is behind schedule. WANTS ANOTHER 2011 WALLOW FIRE, WHICH BURNED Nobody involved in Arizona forest While thinning and burning are restoration, the tree will likely be strong A local woman stops her truck when HALF A MILLION ACRES AND WHOSE ATOM-BOMB-LIKE restoration wants another 2011 Wallow big-step forest restoration techniques, enough to weather naturally occurring she sees us. She’s just read in the Flag- Fire, which burned half a million acres there’s more to it. Targeted, fine-tuned bark beetles. staff newspaper, the Arizona Daily Sun, FLAMES LEFT CHARRED, OUTGASSING TREE SKELETONS and whose atom-bomb-like flames left restoration includes re-establishing I wonder how long this tree will that some truckers say they haven’t been charred, outgassing tree skeletons in native plants; restoring springs, streams, live. According to Wally Covington, the paid by Good Earth Power AZ. IN THEIR WAKE IN SOME AREAS. their wake in some areas. grasslands and other habitats; and director of the Ecological Restoration In Williams, we cruise by the site We climb out of the SUV. On one retiring destructive, erosion-prone Institute at Northern Arizona University where Good Earth Power AZ plans to side of the road, there’s a dense stand dirt roads created by loggers and in Flagstaff, the oldest recorded age build and operate a lumber mill. of 21st century approaches to environ­ build infrastructure on the west side, of ponderosas that, until today, would recreationists. for a ponderosa in Arizona is about On the way back to Flagstaff, I notice mental stewardship. Diverse stakehold- the thinking went, the lion’s share of have appeared perfectly natural and Back in the SUV, we crawl along until 1,200 years. The oldest recorded age that a bit of snow caps Humphreys Peak. ers, many believe, come up with more the work — 300,000 acres — would go normal to me. But Fleishman calls it we reach an area that’s in the midst of for a ponderosa in the Flagstaff area is This signals a wet year. I wonder if the creative and considered solutions to to one contractor. It was sort of a “too an “unhealthy monoculture,” meaning mechanical thinning. This is what’s about 700 years. weather will buy some ponderosas a pressing environmental issues. big to fail” mindset, the idea being that there is just one tree species, ponderosa, known in 4FRI nomenclature as a task Later, we picnic beneath a survivor bit of time before the next epic fire The stakeholders collaborated on a company harvesting 300,000 acres growing here. The forest here is over- order, a tract of land that the Forest Ser- ponderosa in a different task order. everyone fears. an environmental impact statement, would have the funds and motivation to populated with small and medium-sized vice contracts out for thinning. Nearby, we see large mounds of brown required by the National Environmental build and attract infrastructure. trees, all competing for the same pre- We don hard hats. We race up a hill. “slash” — mostly branches removed Policy Act, that analyzed about 1 mil- The Forest Service, everyone agreed, cious groundwater in nutrient-starved We view, from a safe distance, a feller from felled trees as they’re transformed CHAPTER TWO: lion acres on the Coconino and Kaibab wouldn’t pay the contractor; instead, soil. There’s little plant life, or under- buncher at work. into logs awaiting transportation out national forests on the west side of the contractor would pay the Forest story, beneath the trees — just dead A feller buncher resembles a mechani- of the forest. This is the KA task order, THE CONTRACT MYSTERY the 4FRI footprint. Ultimately, nearly Service via a formula that considered pine needles. It’s another Wallow Fire cal Tyrannosaurus rex. It’s operated by a which the Forest Service entrusted to 600,000 of those acres got the green value of lumber harvested versus cost waiting to happen. human being in a well-protected cab. It the most controversial 4FRI contractor, THE 4FRI STAKEHOLDER GROUP light for restoration. (Stakeholders now of clearing slash and other biomass. On the other side of the road, widely can fell a tree in a few seconds, during Good Earth Power AZ LLC. In 2013, the is a counterintuitive mix of Republicans, are collaborating on the second envi- Exactly how much the Forest Service separated ponderosa pines have enough which its saw whines piercingly like a company signed on to thin 300,000 Democrats, independents and libertar- ronmental impact statement, which would get would be calculated for each groundwater and nutrient-rich soil to jet engine while dislodged rocks from acres in 10 years. ians; loggers and environmentalists; spans another 1.1 million acres on the task order. thrive. the forest floor shoot hither and thither. After our picnic, we run into Andy local, state and federal officials; and Coconino, Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves Other contractors could also work Fleishman says, “This is what it was It holds newly cut, quaking ponderosas Cuevas, who is 52 and the logging water managers, industry representa- national forests.) on smaller 4FRI efforts, everyone like [before settlement].” in the air like prey before dropping supervisor for a subcontractor Good tives, academics, ecologists, hunters and The agreed-upon goal was to first agreed. As of this writing, a total of This bit of forest was mechanically them in piles. Earth Power AZ hired to conduct scientists who set aside their extreme focus on restoring the west side of 4FRI, 11 contractors have worked on 4FRI thinned and underwent a subsequent Keeper trees are often marked in its on-site forest operations. Cuevas differences to come together on 4FRI. in the hope that infrastructure, such as task orders, according to Forest Service prescribed burn, a scientifically Forest Service paint, which costs $40 apologizes about the delays at the KA Their collaboration is emblematic sawmills, would follow. But in order to records. From 2011 to late 2015, the For-

JUNE 5, 2012: Photographer Tom Bean JULY 21, 2014: Two years after thinning, the APRIL 26, 2015: Bean made this photo about JULY 9, 2015: Three years after thinning documented the effects of forest thinning on a overpopulation of ponderosas has been a week after a prescribed burn. Because the began, and two and a half months after the ponderosa pine forest along Lake Mary Road addressed. With the trees more sparse, the ponderosas have ample space between them, prescribed burn, the forest appears to be near Flagstaff. This photo shows the forest forest’s understory — the plant life beneath the fire can be beneficial, rather than destructive, thriving as an approximation of its “pre-settle- before thinning began. trees — can grow. to the forest. ment” condition.

38 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 39 est Service spent about $120 million on writes, “looked at all factors, not just the skill sets required to successfully by first selecting Pioneer and then CHAPTER THREE: Forest Service for 44 years; he’s been the 4FRI, but that included planning, moni- price, in making the selection.” The For- perform the existing contract.” selecting Good Earth Power AZ. district’s ranger for 27. He’s got a head toring, thinning, burning and targeted est Service “determined Pioneer’s pro- As of this writing, more than two This is what’s at stake, he says: the SURVIVING THE FIRE of thick white hair and jogs three times restoration efforts. Good Earth Power posed price to be the most reasonable years after it took on the job, Good forests, the communities in the forests weekly. Sitko is a slender mountain biker AZ has thus far paid the Forest Service of the proposals, the most likely to be Earth Power AZ has treated 6,513 acres and public goodwill. ONCE AGAIN, I’m bouncing down a and has a prodigious knowledge of forest $107,416 for tree harvesting. successful, and therefore, in the Govern- out of 300,000. But according to the con- “If 4FRI fails,” he says, “it will be hard dirt road in a Forest Service vehicle, flora and fauna. Stakeholders have no say over what ment’s best interests.” tract, Good Earth Power AZ itself is only to start up something like this again in only this time it’s late August and I’m Both Collins and Sitko were deeply companies the Forest Service chooses to A year after it signed the contract, required to thin 15,000 acres in 10 years. Arizona, but as importantly, it’s going in the Apache-Sitgreaves National involved in the first effort at landscape- contract with. Many were surprised in Pioneer cried uncle. It couldn’t get The remaining 95 percent of the 300,000 to be really hard to convince people in Forests, on the east side of the 4FRI style forest restoration, which began in 2012, when the Forest Service awarded financing for the project. acres can be completed by subcontractors. other places that this kind of landscape- footprint. Next to me in the back seat Eastern Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves the big 300,000-acre, 10-year 4FRI That year, 2013, Pioneer was pur­ “Currently the contractor is fulfilling scale approach works.” is Sue Sitko, the Northern Arizona con- National Forests. It was called the contract to Pioneer Forest Products — a chased by Good Earth Power AZ. The the terms and conditions of the con- servation manager White Mountain Stewardship Project, company that employed a retired Forest company’s CEO, Jason Rosamond, tract,” Buskirk writes. The Forest Ser- for The Nature and it lasted from 2004 to 2014. Unlike Service staffer. claimed ties to an Omani investor and vice monitors each task order. If a task Conservancy and the main 4FRI contract, this project Charges of incompetence and/or cro- global sustainability projects. The com- order isn’t completed on time or appro- a co-chair of the called for thinning 5,000 acres each year nyism on the part of the Forest Service pany had no forestry experience in the priately, “the contracting officer would 4FRI stakeholders and paying loggers a sum derived from soon followed. The environmentally United States. follow the process required under the group. In front, a complicated tonnage formula. The focused publication High Country News The Forest Service permitted Good Federal Acquisition Regulations, which Ed Collins, the project surpassed its contracted goal questioned why the Forest Service had Earth Power AZ to take over the former could include a Notice of Non-Com- district ranger and re-established timber-harvesting rejected a bidder that had widespread Pioneer contract in 2013, prompting pliance, or a Show Cause Letter/Cure for the Lakeside and wood-processing infrastructure stakeholder support and offered to pay more public criticism. Buskirk explains Notice, leading to a Termination for Ranger District of in traditional Eastern Arizona logging the Forest Service more for the wood. in her email that Good Earth Power AZ Default if necessary,” she says. Apache-Sitgreaves, communities. In an email, Roberta Buskirk, who was allowed to take over the contract “The contract is, if anything, too drives. Photogra- “We’ve been doing this for years, so worked on the contract and is the because it was in the government’s best liberal for Good Earth Power,” says pher Tom Bean sits we can see we are on the right track,” director of acquisition management for interests. Todd Schulke, a 4FRI stakeholder and in the other front Sitko says. the Southwestern Region of the Forest “In order to make that determination,” co-founder of the Center for Biological seat, scoping out At the historic Los Burros Camp- Service, based in Albuquerque, New she writes, “the Contracting Officer Diversity, an environmental group based possible sites for ground, we see pre-settlement pines — Mexico, maintains the Forest Service assessed whether or not the new in Tucson. Schulke, who has worked photos. tall, stately dowagers with rough yellow conducted impartial, thorough, multi- company was sufficiently sound, both on forest restoration for years, says the Collins has bark and hardy, slightly downturned level due diligence. The agency, she financially and technically, and had Forest Service made two bad mistakes worked for the limbs. They’re spaced comfortably

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: Felled ponderosa pines are piled amid preserved trees, marked with orange paint, in the Coconino National Forest. Stacked ponderosa logs wait to be sold near Howard Tank south of Flagstaff. Ponderosa logs from a task order being managed by Good Earth Power AZ southeast of Williams are loaded onto a truck. At the same task order, a feller buncher makes quick work of ponderosas in the dense forest.

40 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 41 apart in a meadow carpeted with native bags stuffed with pellets sit in the yard, grasses. Collins figures this area likely ready for shipment. was never logged. Sitko ticks off a partial list of A few miles later, we view a restored products made from the forest stand of ponderosas that withstood restoration wood: boards, pallets, the 2014 San Juan Fire. The fire swept molding for cabinets, door frames, through the trees, but they survived plywood, posts and poles, animal beautifully. I touch the fire-scarred bedding, highway guardrails, furniture, trunk of one ponderosa. The fire burned biomass for power generators. off its lower branches, but the higher The key, always, is to have a steady canopy of branches is rich and green. supply of product. So, it’s frustrating The tree presides over a healthy and when 4FRI’s main wood producer, Good vibrant understory of native grasses, Earth Power AZ, seems far behind. But flowers and bushes. A warbler sings. Sitko reserves judgment. On the other side of the road, just a A few hours later, Bean and I visit few feet away, the same fire killed every a sixth-generation area logger, Allen tree when it roared through. This area Reidhead, at his family’s sawmill near had not been restored. Thousands of Snowflake. With his father, Steve, and greenhouse-gas-oozing, charred tree two younger brothers, Allen worked skeletons bear witness. on the White Mountain Stewardship Now that the White Mountain Project. They converted profits into Stewardship Project is over and the infrastructure. Among other things, focus of 4FRI is mostly centered, for the they own five feller bunchers, four first decade, on the west side, the Forest skidders, two processors, three log Service does its best to keep the existing loaders and 20 trucks. The equipment industry on this east side alive. in their sawmill is designed to process On the way back to Pinetop-Lakeside, smaller trees instead of the big, fat old- we run into a logger working on a task growth trees that were harvested in the order. There’s a pile of dry-branch slash area decades ago. behind his massive truck, which holds The Reidhead sawmill is conveniently a forest-harvesting machine. Someone’s located next to the Novo BioPower stolen his fuel, he says. And this mat- plant, a partner in the sawmill. The ters: There’s a tight profit margin for plant burns biomass such as slash solitary loggers, and stolen fuel can and sawdust to feed a generator that make a big difference on the bottom provides renewable power to Salt River line. But he’s determined to make a liv- Project and Arizona Public Service Co. ing as a logger until he can no longer Allen Reidhead is 39 years old and do it. He loves the life. “It’s just me,” he wears a hard hat, a navy-blue golf shirt, says, “and the trees.” jeans and hiking boots. He chooses Before dropping us off in Pinetop- his words carefully. Eastern Arizona Lakeside, Collins steers through the loggers have long wondered why 4FRI yard of a wood-pellet manufacturing was launched on the west side, with no plant, an example of forest restora- infrastructure, instead of on the east side, tion industry. The pellets, made from where infrastructure and an experienced slash and small trees that would not be local workforce already exist. Reidhead otherwise usable, fuel heating stoves. says the goal of struggling Eastern Ari- Rows and rows of stacked white plastic zona loggers is to keep their businesses alive until the second 4FRI chunk gets the environmental impact statement,

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: A March 2015 which will green­light ramped-up forest managed fire smolders in the Coconino restoration in their area. National Forest southeast of Flagstaff. A Making a profit, Reidhead says, is member of a U.S. Forest Service crew uses a drip torch to spread the Springs Fire, which “all about volume.” To keep its business was started by lightning but became another going, the sawmill eradicates juniper managed burn, south of Williams in August trees for private landowners and the 2015. Forest Service firefighter Marcos Forest Service, and thins any available Roybal monitors the Springs Fire as it slowly advances along the forest floor. A ponderosa Forest Service task orders that are unre- pine seedling burns during the Springs Fire. lated to Good Earth Power AZ.

42 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 43 IN THE COURSE OF VISITING THE FRAGILE PONDEROSA

FORESTS, I REALIZE, I’VE JOINED ALL THE CONSERVA­

TIVES, LIBERALS, LOGGERS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS

AND DISPARATE OTHERS WHO FEEL A KEEN SENSE OF

URGEN­CY OVER THEIR WELL-BEING.

ing, especially when you are building pine tree. A squirrel darts in front of us. the entire supply chain.” After a few minutes, we race back to “It’s not easy,” Minkova says. “People the truck because Rosamond is late for want us to cut [trees] as fast as we can, another meeting. Before we say goodbye, and we’d love to do that as well, but you Rosamond says: “Do you ever watch can’t just cut as fast as you can and pile those Guinness commercials? ‘Good it on the ground, you know.” things come to those that wait.’ She is in her early 30s, with long “You know, it takes time to build up brown hair. She’s small and slender, and industry,” he says. “So, come back and wears a “Love Trees” T-shirt, cuffed check us out in a quarter. That’s what I jeans and Nikes. recommend doing.” Rosamond claims Good Earth Power So I do check back. In an upbeat Janu- AZ has ramped up. He says the company ary 2016 newsletter, Good Earth Power now has a mill in Heber and the soon- AZ reports it has invested $23.4 million to-be mill in Williams, and a trucking into 4FRI and is preparing to spend fleet, and third-party truckers, and a another $100 million on the project. The bunch of equipment out in the forest, company says it has entered into an and “now we’re gonna start employing agreement with International Forest people to operationalize everything.” Products (IFP) to sell its lumber, a move I ask Rosamond why he doesn’t ask it dubs a “game changer” because IFP the Omanis to send more money. provides an “assured market for every “We don’t need any more money,” he piece of lumber that comes out of the says. “We’ve just bought equipment, as I forests.” Restoration, the newsletter just said. We’ve got enough to do 24,000 notes, must be profitable to succeed. acres [annually].” He says he’s got a After my meeting with Rosamond brand-new forest operations team in and Minkova, I’m on Interstate 17, head- place, and he’s optimistic. To complete ing home to Phoenix. A few miles south In the sawmill yard, hundreds of president. The mill here belongs to their Rosamond is in his 40s and has a Young ponderosa pines mingle with the contract on time, he would have to of Flagstaff, I gaze out the window at an moist, freshly sliced ponderosa boards company, and Rosamond says it will neatly trimmed brown beard that’s established trees along a Coconino accelerate in 2016 to 46,000 acres per overcrowded, sickly ponderosa forest. National Forest road southeast of cool the hot summer air, infusing it with be up and running soon. Several men turning gray. He wears wraparound Sedona. Four Forest Restoration year. He seems confident he can do it. Ponderosas have likely graced this hill- a thick pine scent. The boards are neatly in hard hats are working on equipment shades, a blue-checked shirt, jeans and Initiative stakeholders hope to make To prove his point, he drives through side for thousands of years, but it took bundled and stacked for shipment to near a portable generator imprinted sneakers. He speaks rapidly. forests like this one the norm in Arizona. the KA task order, the same deserted little more than a century for humans to markets in Texas, Colorado, California with the logo of United Rentals. “Our contract,” he says, “is to clear task order I visited with Fleishman. wreak havoc on the species in Arizona. and Mexico. The biggest challenge is biomass, 300,000 acres in 10 years, and that’s Now, a growling mechanical monster In the course of visiting the fragile Nothing, Reidhead says, goes to waste. Rosamond says. His contract calls for what we gotta do, whatever it takes.” born in Bulgaria but grew up in Africa. chews up slash, spitting it into waiting ponderosa forests, I realize, I’ve joined moving a total of 17 million tons out of I ask to see his 4FRI contract, but We’re in their SUV, headed out to the trucks, which will take it to Phoenix, all the conservatives, liberals, loggers, the forest, he figures — 8 million tons of he says his Omani investor would not forest. I bring up the criticisms of Good where it will become mulch. environmentalists and disparate others CHAPTER FOUR: biomass and 9 million tons of logs. But approve. Earth Power AZ aired in media reports Later, we jump out of the SUV and who feel a keen sense of urgency over as you process the logs, you get even He met the Omani investor in Lon- — slow progress, truckers complaining into a truck, and after navigating a their well-being. These men and women “IT’S NOT EASY” more biomass. “We have to find every don, where he lived and worked, he about not getting paid, rosy prognosti- primitive road, we jump out again and deeply want 4FRI to overcome its prob- single possible market imaginable for says. He also met Minkova in London. cations leading to disappointments. hightail it through the forest in search lems and succeed. But they also rec- IN OCTOBER, two months after my biomass,” he says. She worked for the Shell oil and gas The project has been “a lot more work of a new feller buncher. One month ognize the landscape-scale restoration visit to the Reidhead sawmill, I’m Right now, he’s got buyers for 102 company. They were married two years than we ever imagined it to be,” Rosa- ago, Rosamond had two feller bunchers. initiative is a hopeful, flawed, utterly standing in a muddy lot in Williams. daily loads of biomass, and that’s ago in Croatia. Rosamond’s father was mond says. “You wake up every day to Now, he says, he has six. human undertaking. Next to me is Jason Rosamond, the CEO enough to thin 32,000 acres a year, he employed by Raytheon, and Rosamond unbelievable challenges you have to fix. The feller buncher whines and of Good Earth Power AZ, and his wife, says. He’s got a team in Phoenix, he says, grew up abroad. He speaks several lan- Coordinating an entire supply chain whistles and spits out rocks, and I don’t To learn more about the Four Forest Maya Minkova, the company’s vice that sells biomass and lumber for him. guages, and so does Minkova, who was from start to finish is certainly challeng- have a hard hat, so I take cover behind a Restoration Initiative, visit www.4fri.org.

44 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 45 WILDAN ESSAY ABOUT HORSES, HUMAN NATURE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR BALANCE. BY KELLY VAUGHN

Wild horses roam along 16 miles of the lower Salt River within the Tonto National Forest. Saija Lehtonen

46 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 47 f the water is warm enough and the air cold, fog rises from the Salt River. It laps at the surface and lingers for a while until it folds back into itself. Into water. Becoming part of the current. Where the fog is feline, its mother — the river — is not. For 200 miles, the Salt courses south from the White Mountains through the canyon it carved until it spills into the Gila. In some parts, it gains steam, creates rapids, charts an angry jour- ney over rock and schist and the fragments of mountains at its bottom. In other parts, it is liquid peace, fractured only by wind or the passing of a kayak. To these places, the horses go to drink. I call them wild. Some of you will write letters and call them feral livestock. When you do, I’ll ask you how long it would take, how many generations, to live outside a fence before your babies are con- sidered born free.

THE LINEAGE OF THE HORSES is just one of the sticking points in the angry dialogue between the people who want the horses to stay and those who want them gone — the people who say that the Salt River herd destroys habitat for other wildlife and poses a public safety issue. Advocates assert that the horses are descended from a line of noble giants brought to the Americas by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in the 17th century. An article in the January 25, I1890, edition of the Arizona Champion newspaper describes them as “native stock.” The U.S. Forest Service acknowledges the presence of the horses along the Salt River as far back as the 1930s. But the horses weren’t protected under the Wild Free- Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. In 1979, former Forest Service employee Perl Charles advocated for the protection of the horses in the Phoenix Gazette, claiming that they were wild and had been present on the Salt River for generations. “It’s a delightful thing to watch them running free,” he said. Wild. Livestock. So the argument went for decades. And then, last summer, the Forest Service tried to settle it. The agency posted a notice, signed by Tonto National Forest Super- visor Neil Bosworth, in the July 31, 2015, edition of the Arizona Capitol Times. “PUBLIC NOTICE OF UNAUTHORIZED LIVESTOCK AND INTENT TO IMPOUND,” it read. “Notice is hereby given that ABOVE: The first month of life is the most critical in a wild horse’s pursuant to Regulation of the Secretary of Agriculture, … all life, and the bond between mares and foals is a strong one. Top to bottom: Bruce D. Taubert, Lori Walker, Sue Cullumber unauthorized livestock found upon National Forest System OPPOSITE PAGE: Sunlight highlights a wild horse and its sheltering lands or other lands under Forest Service control within the mesquite tree in the Tonto National Forest. Gerry Groeber area identified below, will be impounded by the United States Forest Service on or after 8/07/15.” The “area identified below”? The 16-mile stretch of the Salt River along which the horses roam. And then, an entire community of people who love the horses lost its collective mind.

48 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 49 Some of a band of East Texas. There, I spent hours on the Before the dream, I had been miles deep into desert, fol- wild horses wade in back of a buckskin mare named Butter- lowing hoof prints into nowhere. The seeps were dry, and I the Salt River in front of Red Mountain. scotch. We raced around barrels and imagined where I would go if I were the horses. The wind that Bruce D. Taubert galloped around the corral until both haunted my dream cut through creosote, and I smelled the of our backs hurt. I loved her. One day, earth the way eagles sense it — all gust and silence and awe. wranglers put me atop a gelding whose Then, a great horned owl took flight, and I knew I wouldn’t name I can’t recall. He ran, but we find the horses. didn’t click, so I sat on a fence with my Even today, no one knows who shot the horse that prompted friends and watched another girl glide my dream — just one more mystery, I suppose, in man’s rela- Butterscotch around the course. It’s tionship with nature. possible that was the first time I expe- When organizations like the Maricopa Audubon Society rienced envy. say — without documented scientific evidence — that the Salt More than 20 years later, I found River horses put too much strain on the landscape, that they myself in Havasu Canyon, where a destroy habitat for fragile bird species, I wonder why they dis- medicine woman doused my body regard human impact on the environment. with sage smoke and washed me with Aren’t people a far greater threat to fragile bird species (and a welcoming prayer in her native lan- other things) than horses are? Walk or kayak a small stretch of guage. I closed my eyes, and she put a the river, and you’ll see more beer cans and dirty diapers and tiny totem in my hand. My spirit ani- spent shotgun shells than you will wildlife. There are smolder- mal, she said — a woven horse made ing campfires, remnants of drug activity, nails, old tires. It’s from the bark of a cottonwood tree. a journey through human ignorance, but the horses make an Maybe that was the moment my easier scapegoat. How, though, can we justify the extinction of heart became tied to horses for good. one group of animals to attempt the protection of another? So when the roundup was As I write this, it’s been several weeks since Bosworth can- announced, that beating muscle celed the roundup. Still, the issue remains. Just recently, a state ended up where my guts were sup- legislator sponsored an emergency bill that would transfer posed to be. It’s a sinking thing to ownership of the horses to the Arizona Department of Agricul- think that the animals that most move ture, a move that would, most assuredly, result in the horses’ you could be put in pens and sent to removal from their range. Optimistically, the bill will be killed slaughter, as so many of the horses in committee for its lack of clarity or a real emergency, but I’ve removed from federal lands have been. learned that optimism, like wild things, should be guarded. In the months that followed, I And, now, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors and the found myself often along the river — Arizona Game and Fish Department are considering ways to cull in heat that crawled under my hat and the herd of wild burros near Kingman. If you read the comments into my clothes. In rain. In the cool about the roundup on social media, and if you’re of the opinion morning haze of autumn. I watched that living things command even a modicum of respect, you’ll be the Salt River horses, learned their sickened. bands and behavior, wondered what “Make tacos out of them,” reads one. would become of them. “Why don’t you just shoot them or something like that,” reads Then, one day, a horse — a mare, a another. “Use the meat to feed the wolf problem and when mother — was shot. And that’s when you’re done with the burros I know where there are thousands I started having the same dream night of feral horses that they need to get control of as well.” FOUR MONTHS LATER, I stood at river’s edge, my boots caked My own history with horses, wild and otherwise, is both after night after endless, angry night. Rather than considering a humane birth control or manage- in mud — the result of a late-autumn storm that swept the significant and not so at the same time. ment plan, as horse advocates are ready to undertake with the leaves from the trees and forced a winter chill to curl up under Once, I was young, and the horse was Harvey. And, together, I WALKED THROUGH WATER amid a geography that didn’t Salt River herd, the online mob jumps too quickly to slaughter. the clouds. we were on an all-day trail ride in the mountains surround- make sense. River. Salt cedars. Pine. The sun crashed behind It’s a sad reflection, maybe, of a modern society that values A mare and her foal wandered to the middle of the river, ing Mancos, Colorado. Harvey was gray-white and typical distant mountains, and I knew that dark was coming. Wind. being heard in a maddening, chattering, narcissistic social white blazes nearly identical, and I thought, My God, I’m so of a dude-ranch horse — a little older, a little slower than he The call of a thousand beating drums. world over getting lost and quieted and calmed in wild spaces glad you can drink here without worry that helicopters and cowboys used to be. Gentle and worn by the hundreds of people who’d I was barefoot, and my dress wasn’t suited for this kind of — a society that leaps to shooting living things instead of look- will chase you into a trailer. duded atop him before me, Harvey was keener to stop and trekking, all gauze and drape and smooth. Coral-colored fabric ing for rational solutions. Back in Phoenix, the media was just picking up word that graze than he was to follow the horse in front of him. But when so beautiful on models. Not quite right in real life. But it fit me But a culture can’t change unless behaviors change. Some- Bosworth was canceling the notice of intent. The move came lightning split the summer sky, that old horse turned mustang, the way things do when they are elaborately handmade. day, maybe, more people will be choked by their concrete and after rallies and town hall meetings, as well as conversations and we took off down that trail like Rottweilers after an alley All around me, horses. So many that my walking became pixels and be compelled to go and drink the wild air, as Emer- between stakeholders, including advocates, the Forest Service, cat. I thought, just briefly, that I’d end up in the reservoir that slow, stifled. The way it goes in sleep-drunk, aimless hours. son suggested. Then, protecting wilderness and wild things environmental groups and the people who travel to the river to boiled with storm below us, but mostly I was happy for the By the end of the dream, the horses were shot, and I was — horses and burros among them — might become a priority. see the horses — whether to photograph them or to experience wind in my hair and the static on my skin. facedown in the water, choked by mud and silt and a flume of Now, though, it seems like man’s relationship with nature is a the pure, calm majesty of them. A few years later, my parents sent me to summer camp in salmon silk. fragile thing — lost somewhere beneath a layer of fog.

50 APRIL 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic DRIVE

rock art before selling it to the Coconino National Forest in 1994. It’s open Fridays FOREST ROAD 618 Ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, one-lane through Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. FR 618, now a fairly well-maintained bridges and rolling hills are just some of what you’ll see along this scenic dirt road, curves to the south. This stretch is popular with runners, so if you BY NOAH AUSTIN / PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICK BEREZENKO drive in the Verde Valley. see any, give them ample space as you pass. To the east are the national forest’s rounded buttes and rolling hills. Near the southern end of the road is Forest Road 215 (Bull Pen Road), which leads east to the boundary of the West Clear Creek Wilderness and the West Clear Creek Trailhead. The road is narrow, rough and steep in places, but if you can manage it, you’ll be rewarded with views of one of the Southwest’s most remote and beautiful waterways. From FR 215, it’s just 2 miles farther south to State Route 260 near the sleepy town of Camp Verde, which straddles the Verde River. Eight miles to the northwest is I-17, on which you can head back to Exit 298 with a new appreciation for a road less traveled, but no less worthwhile.

SCENIC DRIVES of Arizona’s ADDITIONAL READING: Best Back 40 Roads For more adventure, pick up a copy of our book Scenic Drives, which features 40 of the state’s most beautiful back roads. To order, visit www. shoparizonahighways.com/ Edited by Robert Stieve and Kelly Vaughn Kramer books.

TOUR GUIDE Note: Mileages are approximate.

LENGTH: 36 miles one way (from Sedona) DIRECTIONS: From Sedona, go south on State Route 179, which turns into Forest Road 618, for 28 miles to State or most travelers, Interstate 17’s ezuma Well, a National Park Service site. the day use area, the pavement ends, and Route 260. Turn right (west) onto SR 260 and continue Exit 298 means the red rocks, aura If you have a little extra time and a high- you’ll see the V-Bar-V Heritage Site on the 8 miles to Interstate 17 in Camp Verde. readers and turquoise jewelers of clearance vehicle, a visit to the ancient right side of the road. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None in good weather for F FR 618. A high-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicle is Sedona. That’s what you’ll encounter if cliff dwellings surrounding this Arizona The site is home to the Verde Valley’s recommended for side trips on forest roads 119 and 215. you head northwest from the freeway on oddity is a fascinating detour. Otherwise, largest known collection of petroglyphs SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS: A fee ($14 per vehicle, State Route 179. To the southeast, though, keep going straight. — more than 1,000 drawings, most of $10 after 1 p.m.) is required to park at the Beaver Creek Day Use Area. A $5 Red Rock Pass, available at many you’ll find Forest Road 618, a leisurely Prickly pear cactuses dot the grassland which were made by the ancient Sinagua locations in Sedona, is required to visit the V-Bar-V back road that winds through Arizona as you continue southeast. You’ll cross people between A.D. 900 and A.D. 1350. Heritage Site. prehistory and spectacular scenery on Wet Beaver Creek on the first of several It’s also one of the best-preserved sites in WARNING: Back-road travel can be hazardous, so be aware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of the way south toward Camp Verde. one-lane bridges, then come to the Beaver the Southwest: It used to be part of the water. Don’t travel alone, and let someone know where From Sedona, head toward the free- Creek Day Use Area, a popular picnick- V-Bar-V Ranch, which helped protect the you are going and when you plan to return. way on SR 179, but instead of getting on ing and birding destination. Nearby is INFORMATION: Red Rock Ranger District, 928-203-2900 or www.fs.usda.gov/coconino I-17, keep going straight to head southeast the trailhead for the Bell Trail, the only ABOVE: Walker Creek nourishes a variety of plant life along Forest Road 618. Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial on FR 618. Before long, you’ll reach Forest developed hiking route into the Wet Bea- OPPOSITE PAGE: The route is marked by views of 511 to get infor­ma­tion on road closures, construc­tion, Road 119, which leads south to Mont- ver Wilderness to the east. Just beyond the rolling hills of Walker Basin. delays, weather and more.

52 APRIL 2016 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 53 HIKE of the month

JACKS CANYON TRAIL Of all the scenic canyons in Red Rock Country, and after a half-hour of following cow riparian area that’s thick with Arizona backs. It’s a workout, but it goes quickly, paths and dodging thorny brambles, you’ll cypresses, manzanitas, piñon pines and and after more than three hours of over- Jacks Canyon is perhaps the most obscure. And so is the trail that cuts arrive at the mouth of the canyon, which alligator junipers. There are rocks, too, all hiking, you’ll come to an intersection runs north-south along the east sides of including some good-sized boulders that with the Munds Mountain Trail — it’s through it. It’s quiet, but that’s just another selling point. Lee Mountain and Munds Mountain. have been moved around over the years around the intersection that you’ll see BY ROBERT STIEVE / PHOTOGRAPH BY SHANE McDERMOTT From there, the trail begins a slight by snowmelt and monsoon floods. The the Douglas firs. If you’re out of gas, uphill over rocky ground to Jacks Tank. rubble makes the trail hard to follow at and you might be, the saddle is a good The tank — like the canyon and the times, but there are usually cairns to turnaround point. However, if you have trail — is named for Jack Woods, a mark the way. anything left, the Munds Mountain Trail railroad engineer from Winslow who Continuing uphill, you’ll move back continues for less than a mile to the sum- grazed sheep in the area in the latter half and forth across the riparian wash. The mit of Munds Mountain. of the 19th century. The sheep are gone, climb is gradual at the beginning, and for Of all the great lookouts in Sedona, but everything else remains the same, most of the climb, you’ll be in the shade this might be the best. From the top, you including the surrounding panorama, of the trees. However, on occasion, the can see Schnebly Hill Road down below, which includes the distant summit of canopy does open up, allowing glimpses Oak Creek Canyon to the north and the Munds Mountain. of the multicolored sandstone that lures Verde Valley to the south. Make some Just beyond the tank, the trail narrows so many hikers and sightseers to Sedona. photos, post them to Instagram and then and heads downhill to the bottom of After about 30 minutes in the canyon, find your way to the broad meadow that the canyon. Then, within a few minutes, the trail steepens. Abruptly. And signifi- covers the summit. As you’ll see, it’s a it crosses into the Munds Mountain cantly. And along the way, the vegetation good place to hang out and catch your Wilderness, which protects 18,150 acres transitions from cypresses and junipers breath. What’s more, there’s a good of habitat that ranges from desert grass- to Gambel oaks and ponderosas. Among chance you’ll have the summit all to land to Douglas firs. You’ll experience the big trees, in the middle of an other- yourself. both extremes on this trail. You might wise remote wilderness, you’ll arrive at a see some wildlife, too. The wilderness set of steps carved into the rock. It looks is home to scrub jays, white-throated like the work of the Civilian Conserva- ADDITIONAL READING: swifts, red-tailed hawks, mountain lions, tion Corps. At the top of the steps, you’ll For more hikes, pick up a copy of mule deer, javelinas, elk, coyotes, foxes, get your first look at the saddle that sepa- Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, which features 52 of the state’s bobcats, rabbits and more. rates Munds Mountain and the Mogollon best trails — one for each Seeing wildlife is a matter of chance, Rim. That’s where you’re headed. weekend of the year, sorted by seasons. To order a copy, visit but you will see trees. A lot of trees. The Before you get there, though, you’ll www.shoparizonahighways. majority of this trail cuts through a lush have to conquer a series of steep switch- com/books.

trail guide LENGTH: 15 miles round-trip DIFFICULTY: Strenuous ELEVATION: 4,278 to 6,825 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚47.090', W 111˚43.932' DIRECTIONS: From Interstate 17, go west on State Route 179 (Exit 298) for 7.3 miles to Jacks Canyon Road. Turn right onto Jacks Canyon Road and continue 2 miles to an unnamed dirt road on the right (there’s a small trailhead sign). Turn right onto the dirt road and continue 0.1 miles to the trailhead. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None DOGS ALLOWED: Yes HORSES ALLOWED: Yes USGS MAPS: Munds Mountain, Sedona uh? Jacks Canyon? No. I’ve of the best views in Red Rock Country. interruption. In addition, the outset is INFORMATION: Red Rock Ranger District, 928-203-2900 never hiked it.” Still, it doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic. But marred a little by the effects of the La Bar- or www.fs.usda.gov/coconino That’s the response you’ll get that’s a selling point, too. ranca Fire, which burned about 800 acres LEAVE-NO-TRACE PRINCIPLES: “H • Plan ahead and be out all of your trash. from even longtime residents of Sedona. The only minor criticism of the hike in 2006. However, it, too, is short-lived, prepared. • Leave what you find. There’s no real explanation for it. The is the first mile or so, which parallels • Travel and camp on • Respect wildlife. durable surfaces. • Minimize campfire trail is easy to get to. It’s ecologically and a sprawling subdivision. Although the The Jacks Canyon Trail is easy to access and features • Dispose of waste impact. geologically diverse. And it leads to one homes interrupt the views, it’s a brief some of Red Rock Country’s best views. properly and pack • Be considerate of others.

54 APRIL 2016 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 55 DWH AZ Hiways Nov._Layout 1 10/21/15 1:46 PM Page 1

WHERE IS THIS? WELCOME TO THE DAVID WRIGHT

The Doors HOUSE These doors are on an old building in Phoenix, and they mark the entrance to an institu- tion that’s celebrating PU a birthday this month. MARCH 2016 The doors, like the P. 15 institution, have been there awhile, but ironically, this answer might not come to you until after you’ve put your guess in an envelope.

V I S I T F R A N K L L O Y D W R I G H T ’ S L A S T R E S I D E N T I A L M A S T E R P I E C E

For more information or to arrange a tour,

February 2016 visit www.DavidWrightHouse.org or call Answer & Winner Win a collection of our most popular books! To enter, correctly identify the location pictured above and email your answer to editor@arizona Two Guns. highways.com — type “Where Is This?” in the subject line. Entries can also be sent to 2039 W. Lewis 602-689-6140. Congratulations to Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009 (write “Where Is This?” on the envelope). Please include your name, our winner, Renee address and phone number. One winner will be chosen in a random drawing of qualified entries. Fowler of Anchor Entries must be postmarked by April 15, 2016. Only the winner will be notified. The correct answer DavidWrightHouse WrightHouseAZ Point, Alaska. will be posted in our June issue and online at www.arizonahighways.com beginning May 15.

56 APRIL 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP TOM STORY ABOVE, LEFT STEVE BARTH