The Rough Road Ahead

Home , Border barrier, Ryan Zinke, Utah monolith

THE ROUGH ROAD AHEAD

A tasing death in a small town Red alert for Colorado River Poet Alberto Vol. 52 / March 2021 No. 3 • hcn.org Ríos on Nogales EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Greg Hanscom INTERIM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Katherine Lanpher ART DIRECTOR Cindy Wehling FEATURES DIRECTOR McKenna Stayner MANAGING DIGITAL EDITOR Gretchen King ASSOCIATE EDITORS Emily Benson, Paige Blankenbuehler, Graham Lee Brewer, Maya L. Kapoor PHOTO EDITOR Roberto (Bear) Guerra ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Luna Anna Archey ASSISTANT EDITORS Jessica Kutz, Carl Segerstrom, Anna V. Smith EDITOR AT LARGE Betsy Marston COPY EDITOR Diane Sylvain CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Elena Saavedra Buckley, Ruxandra Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, Jonathan Thompson CORRESPONDENTS Nick Bowlin, Leah Sottile, Sarah Tory EDITORIAL FELLOWS Homes on the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Reservation in the Quinn River Valley, with the Santa Rosa Mountains Jessica Douglas, Brandon Yadegari Moreno rising in the background, in Humboldt County, Nevada. Russel Albert Daniels / HCN EDITORIAL INTERNS Surya Milner, Wufei Yu DIRECTOR OF PHILANTHROPY Alyssa Pinkerton SENIOR DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Paul Larmer CHARITABLE GIVING ADVISOR Clara Fecht DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES Hannah Stevens, Carol Newman DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT & MARKETING Gary Love MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Michael Schrantz EVENTS & BUSINESS PARTNER COORDINATOR Laura Dixon IT MANAGER Alan Wells DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Erica Howard ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT Mary Zachman Know CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER Kathy Martinez CUSTOMER SERVICE Karen Howe, Mark Nydell, Pamela Peters, Tammy York the GRANT WRITER Janet Reasoner FOUNDER Tom Bell

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Brian Beitner (Colo.), John Belkin (Colo.), West. Seth Cothrun (Ariz.), Jay Dean (Calif.), Bob Fulkerson (Nev.), Wayne Hare (Colo.), Laura Helmuth (Md.), Samaria Jaffe (Calif.), High Country News is an independent, reader-supported nonprofit 501(c)(3) media organization that covers the important Nicole Lampe (Ore.), Marla Painter (N.M.), issues and stories that define the Western U.S. Our mission is to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the West’s diverse Bryan Pollard (Ark.), Raynelle Rino (Calif.), natural and human communities. High Country News (ISSN/0191/5657) publishes monthly, 12 issues per year, from 119 Grand Estee Rivera Murdock (Colo.), Andy Wiessner Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes (Colo.), Florence Williams (D.C.) to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155, hcn.org. For editorial comments DIRECTOR EMERITUS Luis Torres (N.M.) or questions, write High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

2 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS EDITOR’S NOTE FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Nick Bowlin Gunnison, Colorado @npbowlin

Jason Christian New Orleans, Louisiana @JasonAChristian

Maya L. Kapoor Lotus, California Hope on the border @Kapoor_ML

I THINK OF THIS ISSUE as a sort of progress report on three of the biggest issues facing the Western Jessica Kutz United States: climate change, homelessness and the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Tucson, Arizona @jkutzie Barely a week into his administration, President Joe Biden hit pause on selling leases for oil and gas drilling on public lands. Of course, as Carl Segerstrom tells us, old hands in the West are fully aware that doesn’t mean the drilling will stop. It does, however, signal a welcome shift in policy. Kyle Paoletta It’s a change that comes not a moment too soon. In February, for the first time ever, the drought plan Cambridge, for the Colorado River Basin was triggered for the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah Massachusetts and New Mexico. One official who spoke to writer Nick Bowlin had two words to describe what this @KPaoletta means for the millions of people who rely on the river and its reservoirs: “red alert.”

American farmers of Punjabi origin in California’s Central Valley don’t need an alert. Some of them Alberto Ríos are already losing their farms. Wufei Yu profiles a vibrant community that has survived for over a Phoenix, Arizona century despite discrimination, only to now face possible defeat by drought. @AlbertoRiosAZ

Correspondent Leah Sottile examines how we criminalize being unhoused through the story of the life and death of an Oregon man caught in a cycle of homelessness and persecuted by the police. What started out as a traffic stop ended in a tasing death. Why did James Plymell have to die? Carl Segerstrom Spokane, Washington Jessica Kutz brings us a story about the border wall that offers something new: hope. As part of a @carlschirps series High Country News did with Arizona Public Media, Kutz chronicles the human rights and environmental advocates who dream of what the Borderlands could look like in this new world. (Read the rest of the series at hcn.org.) These activists, she writes, hope to make it “a place of restoration instead of destruction, a place of refuge instead of fear.” Leah Sottile Portland, Oregon In this issue’s Facts & Figures department, Jonathan Thompson breaks down the numbers on the @Leah_Sottile border wall, contrasting what was promised to what is there now. Meanwhile, Arizona Poet Laureate Alberto Ríos reminds us that the Borderlands are about much more than a wall. There’s humor and humanity there, too. And that’s always a good thing to remember. Wufei Yu Albuquerque, Katherine Lanpher, interim editor-in-chief New Mexico @Wufei_Yu

MARCH 2021 3 James Plymell lies dead on a residential street in Albany, Oregon, after he had been repeatedly tased by Albany FEATURE Police officers (above). Albany Police Department via a public records request Did James Plymell Need to Die? 30

The criminalization of homelessness in the semi-urban West. Workers employed by Southwest Valley Constructors Note: This story contains images of a recently deceased person. smooth the concrete base on the Mexican side of the new and taller barrier being installed just east of Lukeville, Arizona, in September 2019 (right). Ash Ponders BY LEAH SOTTILE

Access to subscriber-only content: ON THE COVER hcn.org Balbir Singh drives a tractor in Karm Baim’s orchard in hcne.ws/digi-5203 Gridley, California, where Punjabi American people have farmed for more than a century. McNair Evans / HCN Follow us @highcountrynews

4 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS REPORTAGE REFLECTION & REVIEW

Biden and the border 15 All fracked up 41 Michael Patrick F. Smith’s debut Environmental and human rights advocates hope for restoration. memoir The Good Hand offers BY JESSICA KUTZ sharp observations on toxic white masculinity. REVIEW BY JASON CHRISTIAN

Why Utah’s wild mink 42 COVID-19 case matters How the first positive case detected in the wild could impact the West. Q&A BY WUFEI YU

Desert art, offline 44 Instagram-ready installations often frame the desert as austere. What are the alternative ways of looking at the land? REVIEW BY KYLE PAOLETTA

Nogales, then and now 45 Poet Alberto Ríos finds the city of his youth lives on in surprising places. ESSAY BY ALBERTO RÍOS

#iamthewest 48 A good bet on health care 7 Border barrier boondoggle 16 Papay Solomon, portrait painter, The importance of foreign-born Trump’s promised inexpensive, Phoenix, Arizona doctors comes into focus during impregnable wall was anything but. BY CAITLIN O’HARA / HCN the pandemic. FACTS & FIGURES BY JESSICA KUTZ | BY JONATHAN THOMPSON PORTRAITS BY BRIDGET BENNET Droughts and wrath 18 Rural remedy 9 Punjabi American growers fear A virtual telementoring program helps the loss of their hard-earned the West respond to the pandemic. farmlands. WHAT WORKS BY JESSICA KUTZ BY WUFEI YU

Public land is no longer for 10 High and dry 21 sale to fossil fuel companies Things are bad and getting worse DEPARTMENTS A new executive order pauses oil and in the Colorado River Basin. gas leasing and signals a major shift in BY NICK BOWLIN 3 EDITOR’S NOTE federal land policy. BY CARL SEGERSTROM 6 LETTERS

The next mining boom? 12 11 THE LATEST The Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe parses the perils and 22 50TH ANNIVERSARY promises of a new lithium mine. BY MAYA L. KAPOOR | PHOTOS BY 23 DONORS / READER PROFILES RUSSEL ALBERT DANIELS 26 TRAVEL MARKETPLACE

46 HEARD AROUND THE WEST

MARCH 2021 5 LETTERS ficial divides can create rifts finding a space to heal”). I won’t between communities that don’t try to put into words the emotions need to exist. It’s always worth the I felt as I finished reading it! I cried. effort to tell the stories that provide Tommy Tomlin a truer narrative. Las Cruces, New Mexico Jeff Hall Seattle, Washington A DELICATE BALANCE Kudos on Nick Bowlin’s well-writ- High Country News is dedicated to independent HOUSING CHALLENGES ten, level-headed, even-handed journalism, informed debate and discourse in the The problems revealed in your article (“Second Citizens,” January public interest. We welcome letters through interview with Jackie Fielder (“Is 2021). As a Colorado native who digital media and the post. Send us a letter, find us it time to decolonize the housing has lived in the Gunnison Valley on social media, or email us at [email protected]. market?” February 2021) are as real for over 27 years, I have paid close as they have been for the history of attention to the delicate balance our nation. The pandemic and the between classes, lifestyles and LIFE AFTER COAL I am writing to thank you for Eric renter problems it has caused and valued labor input, and the efforts Jessica Kutz’s article about coal Siegel’s piece about the Tenacious magnified are huge and absolutely to keep this valley viable econom- on the Diné and Hopi lands was Unicorn transgender alpaca farm. impossible to ignore. ically while also welcoming both both heartbreaking and uplifting As an East Coast city-dweller, I am If we don’t answer the challenge the adventurous mountain lover, (“Life After Coal,” February 2021). surely not the target audience, but and start treating housing as a right struggling to survive with looming What a perfect place, generally it definitely struck close to home. and not an entitled privilege, our gentrification, and the folks with and geographically, for the new I grew up in a small town in the society will fail. As skeptical as I wealth. It is crucial that we find a Biden administration to walk its country but left because I couldn’t have always been about meeting way to maintain this delicate bal- talk about supporting Indigenous see a future there as a queer trans the needs of those without, I am ance — to protect ranching (with- nations while addressing climate person. Someday, I hope to return more optimistic at this point that out which we would become Vail), change by fully enabling, with to my rural roots. Stories like this we are at the start of a new and the wealthy and those hanging on federal funds, the transition give me hope and inspiration that better economy and society. Some to the ability to pay modest rent to carbon-neutral energy that there is a place for us, too — if we of that optimism comes from inter- while working marginally compen- is already beginning with the are tenacious enough! Thank you views like yours. Reading that sated jobs. This article encapsulates Kayenta project. for putting this out there. Fielder is out there saying clearly the struggles we face to pull this off. Don McKenzie Elana Redfield what needs to happen keeps me on If only everyone here could/ Seattle, Washington Brooklyn, New York the right track. Thanks to you both. would read your article. It does won- Tim Funk ders to clarify the sometimes-war- QUEERS, ALPACAS, GUNS I’m a recent subscriber, and while I Crossroads Urban Center ring influences. Thank you for Just finished “Queers, alpacas, love the magazine generally, I have Salt Lake City, Utah being part of the resolution of these. guns” (February 2021). It is why I to express special admiration for Laine Ludwig love HCN. Great example of how Eric Siegel and Luna Anna Archey’s WINDS OF CHANGE Gunnison, Colorado sometimes you just have to show “Queers, alpacas and guns.” It Thank you for High Country News up and find what is out there — how often seems there is a consensus in general and especially your people learn to coexist where least that certain communities can recent article on the winds of expected. Keep up the good work. only find homes in either our urban change (“Pro-Trump riots won’t “If we don’t Patricia West or our rural spaces, but not both. stop the winds of political change Harrisburg, Pennsylvania This has never actually been true, blowing in the West,” 1/11/21, answer the and articles like this remind us web-only). As an Idaho Democrat, that “blue vs. red” and other arti- it is very helpful to hear this right challenge and now. I hope some of those winds blow this way, and we can build a start treating CORRECTIONS coalition to do the hard work that In our story, “Life After Coal” (February 2021), we erroneously reported Arizona and Georgia have done. housing as a that the Salt River Project paid $110 million to the Navajo Nation. It was Gail Rankin one of multiple stakeholders that paid the $110 million, which was part of McCall, Idaho right and not an extension lease signed when the plant was closed. In “Remembering William Kittredge,” we included a photo of Lake Abert, noting it was in A MOVING ESSAY an entitled the Warner Valley, when, in fact, it is northwest of it. In the photo caption The January issue caught my with the story “Mountaintop removal threatens traditional Blackfoot attention, touching on issues with privilege, territory,” the mine shown is in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, historical and current causes in my not Alberta. In the January issue’s 50th anniversary pages looking back areas of interest. The best was the our society on the 1990s, we stated that President Bill Clinton took office in January essay by Kimberly Myra Mitchell 1992 rather than January 1993. We regret the errors. (“Through wildland firefighting, will fail.”

6 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS REPORTAGE 293-bed Desert Springs Hospital Affordable Care Act increased Medical Center in Las Vegas, demand for medical care by Nevada. His services have always insuring over 20 million people been in demand, but the pandemic across the country. But as the has brought a heightened level of U.S. population ages, its doctors urgency. Last July, during the do as well; in New Mexico, 37% of second peak of infections, hospi- doctors are expected to retire in A good bet for health tal staff were treating from 40 to 60 the next decade, according to the patients at a time, while ICU beds Association of American Medical The importance of foreign-born doctors comes into focus were always in short supply. Colleges. during the pandemic. Las Vegas is lucky to have him. To fill these gaps in health care, Nevada, like many other Western hospitals rely on medical profes- BY JESSICA KUTZ states, is facing a shortage of sionals born abroad. Through a doctors — a problem that is only visa waiver program called the going to get worse. By 2030, New Conrad 30, states like Nevada are Mexico, Nevada, Montana, Idaho able to lure foreign-born physi- DR. AMIR QURESHI HAS HARDLY said. “And there is a human side and Arizona will suffer some of the cians to work in underserved areas had a minute to himself since the to it, too.” He’s missed out on time worst physician shortages in the in exchange for the chance to stay COVID-19 pandemic set off a world- with his wife and three school-aged country, according to recent projec- after they’ve completed graduate wide medical scramble last year. children, and he finds it difficult not tions by the public health journal school in the U.S. “They’re provid- Most days, he works a 12-hour shift, knowing when the crisis will be over. Human Resources for Health. ing services to the whole population, consulting on patients with the Qureshi works just down the Distribution is one problem: but specifically, they’re here to try virus or other infections like pneu- street from Caesars Palace on the There have always been higher to plug the holes for those most monia. “I’m sometimes exhausted, famed Las Vegas Strip — the only concentrations of doctors on the in need,” said Gerald Ackerman, sometimes frustrated,” Qureshi infectious disease specialist at the coasts. Then, a decade ago, the director of Nevada’s Office of Rural

Dr. Amir Qureshi at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bridget Bennett / HCN Health. As the country struggles to worse. “The group treatment totally cope with the pandemic, they are was shattered due to COVID-19,” filling a crucial role in both rural she said. And without family visi- and urban areas across the West. tation and with staff in quarantine, “there is no daily structured routine WHEN QURESHI CAME TO the for psychiatric patients anymore.” U.S. from Karachi, Pakistan, at the Despite the important work she age of 24, the country was dealing does, Roy’s ability to live in the U.S. with a different epidemic. It was the remains in constant limbo. Many early 1990s, and the AIDS crisis had hospitals have been forced to lay off swept through the nation. Facing staff, owing to the financial strains a shortage of doctors, the U.S. did caused by the pandemic. Roy is what it has done before: It loosened not a permanent resident, so if she visa restrictions. “That’s when the were to be laid off, she would have floodgates opened for the foreign just one month to find a new job, doctors,” Qureshi said. “(It’s) or else return to India. Under the another example of foreign doctors Trump administration, the visa coming to the rescue.” renewal process became even more Qureshi estimates that nearly a complicated; renewals were previ- quarter of his classmates — about ously good for three years, but now 100 physicians from the Dow sometimes they are only effective Medical College in Karachi alone — for one year. Meanwhile, the appli- were granted visas. Qureshi started cation alone takes 6 to 8 months his own residency at the sprawling to complete. “It’s stressful in the St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in sense that you cannot focus on New York City. anything,” she said. “We don’t buy It was an exciting time for Dr. Kamalika Roy works for the Oregon State good houses here, because we don’t Qureshi. From the window of his Hospital in Salem, as well as for a rural know how long we’ll stay here.” hospital a 100-mile drive from her home. 30th floor apartment, he remem- Sam Wilson / HCN Doctors like Roy also face a huge bers being able to see the World backlog for green cards — up to a Trade Center. He found the 50-year wait made longer by the city fascinating; its culture and growing number of Indian nation- customs were so different from Las Vegas, he decided to stay. now serves in an advisory role for als seeking Silicon Valley jobs in IT what he’d known before. “A lot of Eventually, he became a U.S. citizen. the program, says it doesn’t happen and technology, according to The things were new to me, let’s put it Though he’s no longer required to anymore. Washington Post. Many of Roy’s that way,” he chuckled. He looked work with underserved populations colleagues have moved to Canada forward to advancing his medical in lieu of a visa, many of his patients HAVING YOUR VISA TIED to instead, where they are immedi- career, even as he worried about are lower-income, sometimes trav- your job is difficult for other reasons, ately granted permanent residency. becoming infected with HIV. “At eling miles to his hospital from especially now that tighter immi- Roy thinks it’s illogical for the U.S. that time, you know, obviously, the rural areas like Pahrump, Nevada, gration restrictions and a backlog to make everything so difficult; after biggest worry was getting stuck by or Bullhead City, Arizona. of applicants have made obtaining all, taxpayer money funded part of a needle,” he said. “Thank God, I The Conrad 30 program has had citizenship much more difficult. In her education. If she leaves the U.S., never did.” its problems. Whenever labor is 2017, under the Conrad 30 program, it will be Canada or Australia’s gain. After completing his residency seen as an exportable commodity Dr. Kamalika Roy moved to rural “It doesn’t help anybody,” she said. program and fellowship training, — something you can turn on-and- Oregon to work as a psychiatrist “It doesn’t help me at all. But it also he moved to North Las Vegas in off with barely a moment’s notice after completing her residency and does not help America as a country.” 1998 under the Conrad 30 program — exploitation tends to follow. In fellowship in Michigan. Originally In some ways, Qureshi was to serve in a hospital with a high 2007, the Las Vegas Sun published from Kolkata, India, Roy now works luckier: He was able to hit the volume of Medicare and Medicaid an investigation revealing that for the Oregon State Hospital in supply-and-demand pulse of visas patients. At the time, he says, people some physicians were being taken Salem, as well as for a rural hospi- and citizenship when he moved here were flying in from all over the advantage of, working long hours tal a 100-mile drive from her home. 30 years ago. He’s happy in Las Vegas world to experience the gambling with less pay than they had been As part of her contract, she also but remains grateful to Pakistan for and glamour of that bustling desert promised. “In some cases, the teaches at a university and spends subsidizing his medical education. city. Most of the doctors he worked employers would threaten them hours on the phone with adults who And, in some ways, he thinks the U.S. with also came from other coun- and say, ‘You are here because of need psychiatric help. The COVID- should be grateful too. tries; in Nevada today, nearly a me. If you don’t do what I say, I’ll 19 pandemic has impacted her “I say this without mincing my quarter of physicians and 37% of get you deported,’ ” Qureshi said. patients greatly. Now that nursing words,” he said. “The city of Las nurses are immigrants. But Nevada passed legislation to homes are in lockdown, residents’ Vegas would not have survived Three years after coming to address the issue, and Qureshi, who dementia symptoms are getting without foreign doctors.”

8 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS WHAT WORKS

Rural remedy A virtual telementoring program helps the West respond to the pandemic.

BY JESSICA KUTZ

IN THE 1990S, a New Mexico ECHO to treat dozens of medical expand the reach of those staff infectious disease expert moved woman learned that she was issues, including opioid addiction members. to address the transmission and suffering from hepatitis C, a viral and hantavirus outbreaks; he also When the pandemic hit, Project treatment of COVID-19. At the onset disease that infects the liver. developed a program for miners’ ECHO programs pivoted to tackle of the crisis in Nevada, attendance Though she had insurance, she did wellness, aimed at helping coal new challenges. The ECHO team in for that training skyrocketed, with not seek treatment because of the and uranium miners and workers Wyoming changed its curriculum 100 participants Zooming in weekly lack of specialists in her area. When in the nuclear weapons industry. to address the challenges of virtual from around the state. A critical care her abdominal pain intensified, By “democratizing knowledge,” as learning, bringing in speakers specialist joined the discussion, however, she got on a long waitlist, Arora puts it, Project ECHO grew. who could discuss how to create a offering advice on techniques like hoping to be helped by Dr. Sanjeev The model overcame barriers daily classroom structure at home. how to “prone” patients, a term for Arora, a gastroenterologist, at his unique to the region, like a shortage “We’ve got families who are now turning patients onto their stomachs, clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. of physicians and the great distances working from home, their kids are a common tactic for those who are In 2001, she and her two children between rural communities and all at home, and they’re trying to having difficulty breathing. travelled over 200 miles to meet health-care services. balance everything that’s going on A model that grew out of a need with him. But by then it was too All the while, Arora and his team in their life,” said Wendy Warren, in rural New Mexico is now leading late, and six months later, the — and specialists across the West — program manager for ECHO in trainings nationally to address woman died. Arora was shocked had no idea they were building a education. “For students with urgent issues like vaccine hesitancy that people were dying of a curable virtual infrastructure that would autism, frequently it’s that change and the spread of COVID in nursing disease in the United States — and later save lives when the global in routine, which is very difficult homes. Arora and Project ECHO are even more shocked that it kept COVID-19 pandemic arrived. for them.” also working with the World Health happening. “These people were Nevada’s Project ECHO hub, too, Organization on a new global dying because the right knowledge PRIOR TO COVID-19, the model adapted existing programming to vaccination initiative to equitably didn’t exist at the right place at the was already being adapted in new treat COVID-19. “We were able to distribute the vaccine. “Because, right time,” he said. ways. Project ECHO specialists shift when the pandemic happened, ultimately, what is the goal of That woman’s death was in Reno, Nevada, for example, and everybody started working ECHO?” Arora told me recently by needless, yet because of Arora’s helped mental health professionals from home,” Jorgensen said. “We Zoom. “(It’s) social justice: At the response to the tragedy, thousands diagnose behavioral health already knew how to use Zoom, heart of ECHO is the idea that with of patients in communities with conditions and treat patients with we already were very comfortable this much inequity in the world, health-care access gaps can now get schizophrenia across the state. with that and working in a virtual it is almost impossible for us to treatment. In 2003, Arora created “(It’s) really about identifying those space.” A training on antibiotic have peace and harmony amongst a virtual telemonitoring program people early on and getting them resistance that had been led by an people.” called Project ECHO. Unlike to these services quickly,” Troy traditional telemedicine — where Jorgensen, program manager of virtual appointments take place Project ECHO Nevada, told me. between a patient and doctor — In Laramie, Wyoming, Project the program connected specialists ECHO was used to improve like Arora with physicians in rural education outcomes for students “These people were dying areas and those working at state with disabilities. “We had just two prisons. This enabled Arora and staff members who were traveling because the right knowledge his team to train primary care around the state year after year doctors across New Mexico on how to provide training and technical didn’t exist at the right place to treat individual cases of hepatitis assistance,” said Sandra Root- C through weekly remote sessions Elledge, executive director of the at the right time.” that expanded his reach. Wyoming Institute for Disabilities. Over the years, Arora adapted Project ECHO provided a way to

MARCH 2021 9 to ending future leasing completely. REPORTAGE To get an idea of what to expect, it helps to look back at a federal coal moratorium issued in the final year of the Obama administration. In January of 2016, the Bureau of Land Management started a process to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of leasing federal land for Public land is no longer for sale coal mining. Following that initial fact-finding mission, the agency concluded that modernizing to fossil fuel companies the federal coal leasing program was necessary. Proposed options for doing so included raising A new executive order pauses oil and gas leasing and signals royalty rates, increasing minimum bids, ending a major shift in federal land policy. new leases entirely and requiring leaseholders to offset their carbon emissions or fund climate BY CARL SEGERSTROM adaptation programs. But when Ryan Zinke took the helm of the Interior Department during the Trump administration, he moved quickly to discard the comprehensive review and reopened federal land for coal leasing. (The legality of that move is still being argued in federal court.) Despite ON JAN. 27, President Joseph Biden planted Western U.S. It also could put a major dent in efforts to open up more federal land for coal a continent-sized “not for sale” sign on the climate warming emissions; fossil fuel produc- leasing, the industry has continued to nose- public lands and waters managed by the federal tion on federally managed land accounts for dive as bankruptcies mount from Wyoming to government. In an executive order — part of a more than one-fifth of carbon dioxide emissions Appalachia. Since the coal moratorium was lifted, sweeping set of orders focused on climate change in the United States. In the short term, however, companies have pulled out of leasing applica- — Biden directed Interior Secretary nominee Deb it will hurt the Western states and workers that tions for 10 times more coal than they’ve filed for. Haaland to reassess the federal oil and gas leas- depend on the industry’s revenue and jobs. ing system and, at least for now, to pause the sale BIDEN’S EXECUTIVE ORDER will not upset of development rights to private companies. THE OIL AND GAS leasing moratorium cuts an industry that’s thriving: Domestic oil and gas The move upends the bipartisan status quo off one important source of income for Western production has been in a major bust for the past of selling vast stretches of the Western U.S. to states. They won’t entirely lose revenue from year. Reduced demand during the coronavirus fossil fuel companies. Currently, those compa- federal fossil fuels: While no new leases will be pandemic and price wars between Saudi Arabia nies hold leases to more than 26 million acres, sold, drilling under existing leases — and the and Russia have driven down the price of oil. more than half of which have yet to be drilled. accompanying royalties and other taxes — will At times last summer, there weren’t any (About 10% of that untapped land was either continue. But the states will lose the income active oil and gas drilling rigs in Wyoming. auctioned off at the minimum bid price of $2 from bonus bids on federal leases, which come Despite Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, per acre or sold post-auction for even less by when oil and gas companies drive up the auction it wasn’t worth the cost of pumping it out of the the Trump administration, according to Bureau price of certain parcels with particularly prom- ground. Wyoming’s budget suffered from the of Land Management data compiled by The ising deposits. While bonus bids are typically lost revenue, and public services, including Wilderness Society.) much smaller than royalties, they can bring the state Department of Health, endured major That means that the pause on new leases huge paydays: In 2018, one frenzied round of budget cuts. (There were, however, some bright won’t end drilling on federal lands. “We have lease sales in southeastern New Mexico brought spots in a handful of counties and cities, where a deep inventory of approved federal drilling in nearly $1 billion in bonus bids. new wind installations bolstered local budgets.) permits in hand that essentially cover all of our Meanwhile, the federal government will Now, as Biden takes office, Wyoming has four desired activity over the next presidential term,” reassess the federal oil and gas leasing program. active rigs — significantly down from 2019, when said David Harris, an executive vice president In a press release, the Interior Department stated there were usually 30-plus operating. for Devon Energy Corporation, a major lease- that the goal of the leasing freeze is to “provide Even as he slammed the executive order as holder in New Mexico’s Permian Basin, speaking a path to align the management of America’s a major blow to Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon on an investor call in October. “The dirty little public lands and waters with our nation’s acknowledged in an interview that international secret is (a moratorium) may not have much of climate, conservation, and clean energy goals.” markets are largely responsible for the state’s an immediate impact on production,” said Erik The moratorium is expected to kick off a current lack of oil and gas production. “That’s sort Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the multi-year public environmental planning of the nature of the business,” Gordon said. Still, Western Environmental Law Center. process, during which the public and affected he argued that the delay in leasing and “byzan- Still, pumping the brakes on the sale of stakeholders, including tribal nations and state tine federal regulations” mean that companies federal fossil fuels marks a major policy shift. It and local governments, will have a chance to will look elsewhere in the future, taking jobs and sets the stage for a transition away from fossil weigh in on the future of oil and gas leasing. public funding with them: “Capital most likely is fuel development, which has had major impacts Multiple alternative outcomes will be presented, going to say, ‘Gee, we love Texas, because we don’t on air pollution, water quality and wildlife in the likely ranging from leaving the program as it is have to deal with any of that BS,’ ” Gordon said.

10 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Bargain leasing rates allow rampant speculation on land with little development potential.

Leases purchased in noncompetitive sales, leases WA purchased at the minimum bid and leases with low MT development potential

Other WYOMING authorized OR leases ID CA The new executive order sets up a tug of war NV WY over the future of fossil fuel production on public lands. It’s one that’s likely to last throughout the Biden administration: Oil and gas industry interests are already suing over the freeze. In a lawsuit filed the same day the order was signed, the Western Energy Alliance (WEA), a regional oil and gas lobbying group, argued that the order UT CO exceeded presidential authority and overrides existing laws that require regular lease sales of public lands. “Drying up new leasing puts future AZ development as well as existing projects at risk,” said Kathleen Sgamma, the president of WEA. Across the West, oil and gas (Former Interior Department solicitor John companies hold leasing rights to Leshy has argued the Interior Department has millions of undeveloped acres. “ample legal authority to limit or call a halt to fossil fuel leasing on America’s public lands.”) Active leases For advocates of climate action and leasing NM reform, it’s encouraging to see major changes starting in the second week of Biden’s pres- Idle leases idency. “The Biden administration is way out ahead of where the Obama administration was,” Data sources: The Wilderness Society; U.S. Bureau of Land Management. said Schlenker-Goodrich. “There’s an urgency Mapping by Kenzie Bosher and Marty Schnure / The Wilderness Society to move forward.”

THE LATEST Backstory Followup Though male jaguars have been documented For years, ranchers complained that the north of the U.S.-Mexico border in recent protected habitat contained privately owned decades, no females have been recorded agricultural areas and made it harder to obtain in their native U.S. range since 1963. The grazing permits and build infrastructure like Southwest’s last jaguars are protected under corrals and fences. In late January, a federal the Endangered Species Act. In 2014, the U.S. judge ruled that New Mexico land would no Jaguar Fish and Wildlife Service designated 765,000 longer be protected for jaguars. The Center for acres of “critical habitat” in southeastern Biological Diversity responded in a statement: Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, hoping “We will ask the Biden administration to care- lands to lure stressed cats northward and expand fully re-designate the jaguar’s critical habitat so their range. Opponents called the protections it can withstand the livestock industry’s cynical “arbitrary and capricious.” (“The tenuous fate of lawsuits.” lost the Southwest’s last jaguars,” 5/30/16). -Paige Blankenbuehler

MARCH 2021 11 REPORTAGE

The next mining boom? The Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe parses the perils and promises of a new lithium mine.

BY MAYA KAPOOR | PHOTOS BY RUSSEL ALBERT DANIELS

IN THE GREAT BASIN DESERT of northern The ancient lakebed clays are rich in extracted from saline areas, such as Chile’s Nevada and southern Oregon, Thacker Pass cuts lithium, and in January, the Bureau of Land Atacama Desert, through an evaporative process. a wide swath of sagebrush and bunch grasses Management approved the Thacker Pass lith- A relatively new technique using sulfuric acid between narrow ribbons of mountain ranges. ium mine, an almost two-square-mile open-pit to extract it from clay means the West is facing The region is a caldera — a collapsed volcano — mine that will dig up the nation’s largest-known a new mining boom — and Nevada may soon that formed an ancient lakebed. For millennia, lithium supply. The mine will be run by Lithium become a global lithium-mining hotspot. Indigenous peoples used the verdant valley as Nevada, a subsidiary of Canadian-owned Lithium, the lightest metal, shines silvery a pathway between their winter and summer Lithium Americas. But its approval was rushed when stored in protective oils. (Otherwise, it’s homes. Today, the Fort McDermitt Paiute through during the coronavirus pandemic, and extremely flammable.) That lightness makes Shoshone Tribe’s reservation is located nearby, tribal members, ranchers and environmentalists lithium ion batteries essential to everything along with the small agricultural community of have concerns about the mine’s potential long- from cellphones, to tablets, to Teslas. Lithium Orovada, clusters of buildings surrounded by term consequences. ion batteries also store energy for much longer circular green fields of alfalfa. Until now, lithium typically has been than other batteries, so they can be important

12 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS parts of solar and wind energy systems. extractive industries — such as by pausing oil Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe and the Electrovoltaic, or EV, vehicles are a grow- and gas leases on public lands and in offshore Burns Paiute Tribe. ing part of efforts to combat climate change. For waters — lithium mining exploration continues Workers will build the mine 24 hours a day example, General Motors announced in January apace, part of the nation’s plan to wean itself for the first two years. Starting in the second year, that it planned to stop making combustion-en- from petroleum-powered cars. actual mining operations — such as digging the gine cars by 2035. This sped-up approval process makes open-pit mine, pumping the ore to a process- But as anyone with an aging cellphone public participation hard. As early as 2019, the ing facility, processing the lithium in industrial knows, lithium ion batteries degrade over time. BLM published a notice online that invited scrubbers, hauling waste rock to a stockpile, and What’s more, companies seldom recycle the public comments on the Thacker Pass project, trucking in materials to make sulfuric acid — batteries to reuse the rare metals inside them; but included the wrong internet link for infor- will continue 24 hours a day for four decades. it’s more cost-effective simply to mine for more. mation about it. In 2020, the BLM held virtual In a region where the average 2019 salary was In the Western U.S., companies are rush- public meetings about the mine’s potential envi- about $21,000, Lithium Nevada says the mine’s ing to develop lithium mines, partly because ronmental impacts less than a month before the average salary will be nearly quadruple that. The of new extraction methods, but also because public comment period closed. According to company predicts it will bring approximately the federal government is fast-tracking lithium E&E News, the environmental review, which is 1,000 construction jobs to the region for two mining. In 2018, the Interior Department listed often a multiyear process, took less than a year, years of construction, and employ an opera- lithium as a critical mineral, speeding up the with the final public comment period held over tional staff of about 300 until the mine closes. mine permitting process. Last year, the Trump the winter holidays. The mine has been approved to run for about administration weakened and sped up the Although some commenters requested 40 years — longer, if the company finds more environmental review process for projects on more time, citing the coronavirus pandemic, lithium. federal lands, favoring mine approvals. Even the Interior Department recommended expe- Fort Mcdermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribal as the Biden administration clamps down on diting the mine’s approval to support economic Councilperson Maxine Redstar hopes the mine recovery. Neither Lithium Nevada nor the BLM’s will provide well-paid, highly skilled work to the district office agreed to speak to High Country reservation’s isolated community of approxi- News about the project. mately 340 people. But details about those jobs An existing transmission line passes through the heart Lithium Nevada will work approximately are scarce. Lithium Nevada is working closely of Thacker Pass, following the slope down into the Quinn 18,000 acres of BLM land about 26 miles from the with the tribe to do outreach and has worked River Valley below. The Santa Rosa Mountains rise in the background (opposite). Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Reservation, with Great Basin Community College to develop in a sea of sagebrush on the Nevada-Oregon construction training. In its environmental Maxine Redstar, chairperson of the Fort McDermitt Paiute border hemmed to the north by the Montana impact statement, however, it describes plans Shoshone Tribe, poses for a portrait in the lobby of the Tribal Council office (below left). Mountains. The region is the traditional home- to bus operational workers in from Winnemucca, land of several related Indigenous nations, an hour away from the mine, where the popula- Centuries before Fort McDermitt was built by the U.S. in including the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of tion is less than 4% Native American. the 1860s, this area along the Quinn River in the Santa Rosa Mountains was a summer campsite used by the the Duck Valley Reservation, the Shoshone- Throughout 2020, the Fort McDermitt nomadic Paiute and Shoshone (below right). Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, the Paiute Shoshone Tribe contended with devas-

MARCH 2021 13 Rancher Edward Bartell fears that the local water table level will drop dramatically once the mine starts operating, and that much of the native wild rye on his Quinn River Valley ranch will dry up.

trucks will rumble down quiet roads, making up to 200 trips day and night between the town and mine facility — carrying hazardous materials to the mine’s on-site processing center, and hauling mine products back to the railroad. “What they’re going to have is more of an industrial facility here than just a mine. It’s going to have a chemical complex as well,” said John Hadder, director of the nonprofit Great Basin Resource Watch. “So there’s a lot of concerns about emissions, air quality, leaks, spills, all that kind of stuff.” The fast-tracked approval process means that the BLM produced scant details about how the mine will affect rare species or unique habitat. The greater sage grouse, for example, stands to lose thousands of acres of habitat. A sage grouse lek, or courtship area, lies less than a mile from the future mine. tating coronavirus infection rates, and Redstar fast approval means that the BLM relied on the Even federal biologists have expressed hopes that Lithium Nevada will commit to more mining company for all the science, and he concern about the rapid approval process. In community engagement, such as the youth worries about the mine’s long-term effects on a January letter to the BLM, Environmental summit and powwow Redstar organized with the region’s air and water quality. Protection Agency project manager Jean Prijatel financial support from the company. Bartell didn’t start out opposed to the mine questioned the plan for long-term management Previously, she worried that the much- — in fact, the green energy angle sounded good to after the mine closes down. According to Prijatel, needed economic stimulus would come at too him. But as he looked into the potential impacts without proper management, the mine will high a cost, either to local communities or the on his family business, he started to get worried. contaminate local groundwater with dangerous environment, impacting native habitat, cultural “My big thing is the BLM hasn’t done any other heavy metals, in particular a “plume” of anti- foods, or the wild game that some tribal members independent science,” Bartell said. mony, for at least 300 years. Prijatel noted that still hunt traditionally. But at a February tribal Bartell has not found direct communi- though the BLM had “conceptual options” to council meeting, Lithium Nevada reassured cations with the company reassuring. For address this plume, it offered no detailed miti- Redstar that it will seriously consider any example, in an email sent in November 2019, gation plans, yet approved the mine anyway. concerns raised by the tribe. “They are going to Alexi Zawadzki, president of Lithium America’s She also questioned how the mine will monitor be doing reclamation every seven years,” Redstar North American operations, told him, “You’ll be water pollution or share that information with said. “I’m feeling a little bit confident that they pleased to know our operation will use very little the public. Prijatel did not respond to a request are doing everything they can to restore the way water — approximately 2,500 acre-feet of well for comment from High Country News, although it was going to be.” Lithium Nevada also said that water per year.” However, when Bartell read the an EPA representative offered to answer ques- it would help identify what kind of professional BLM’s final environmental impact statement, he tions provided in writing. training tribal members needed in order to be learned that that estimate was for just the first Hadder explained that the mine will even- employed at the Thacker Pass mine. four years of operation. After that, the mine will tually be dug deeper than the groundwater level. Still, others worry that the tribe doesn’t use twice as much water. To keep it dry, the mining company will have to have enough information about the mine’s Bartell fears that the water table will drop continuously pump water out. When the mine possible consequences, good or bad. Tribal dramatically. shuts down and the pumping stops, groundwa- Councilmember Billy A. Bell said he only “It is a big devaluation of land value, if you ter will seep back in, picking up newly exposed learned about the mine’s approval by the BLM have productive grassland, like you’re seeing toxins, such as antimony. Lithium Nevada after High Country News asked for his comments. out here, and suddenly it turns into barren plans to treat groundwater for antimony pollu- “It’s interesting how the tribe didn’t comment” dustbowl,” Bartell said. He has asked Lithium tion caused by the mine for several years after on the project, Bell said. “And it’s too late now.” Nevada to compensate his business, but to no it closes. But Hadder worries that the antimony This rushed approval process has frus- avail. In February, Bartell sued the BLM for rush- pollution may last far longer. “It has the poten- trated local rancher Edward Bartell. Bartell’s ing the environmental review. tial of being an intergenerational pollution family’s — fifth- or sixth-generation ranchers He also worries about the approximately source, requiring perpetual management,” he — have run cattle in Thacker Pass for a dozen 5,800 tons of sulfuric acid the mine will eventu- said. “This is something that’s not getting a lot years. His family’s cattle graze private property, ally produce on-site each day. To make sulfuric of play. And I think it’s part of the problem with where sturdy Great Basin wild rye sways across acid, Lithium Nevada will ship the necessary the whole process, in not really giving people a acres of land. Bartell believes that the project’s chemicals to Winnemucca via rail. From there, full sense of what could happen.”

14 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Aerial view of the border wall at the Tinajas Altas Mountains near Yuma, Arizona. John Kurc

high-intensity lighting,” Traphagen said. “Well, just don’t flip the switch.” If parts of the wall are removed, the damaged landscape will need to be restored. In 2012, Pulliam founded the Borderlands Restoration Network, a nonprofit that undertakes restoration projects to improve wetlands and wildlife habitat. He envi- sions a federal program like the Depression Era’s Civilian Conservation Corps, comprising people from both sides of the border, who could be paid with what’s left of the $15 billion earmarked for wall construction. “We like to think of it as creat- ing a restoration economy,” said Pulliam. “That’s based on working with the land and water and wildlife in such a way that you actually enhance the conservation of those assets.” REPORTAGE controls” that employ technology between ports Even if Biden begins restoration and wall of entry, which could mean surveillance towers deconstruction, without legislative changes, the and drones. Still, it is unclear whether he will border will remain vulnerable to the political remove the wall erected by his predecessor. winds of the moment. In 2005, the George W. Bush In the absence of a clear plan, human rights administration passed the REAL ID Act, which Biden and the advocates as well as environmentalists like granted a waiver authority for wall construction. Pulliam hope to have some influence over what That enabled Trump’s Department of Homeland border happens next. It’s part of their plan to reimag- Security to waive numerous environmental laws ine the Borderlands: making the area a place at the border. Legislation has been introduced to Environmental and human rights of restoration instead of destruction, a place of repeal the waiver, but so far it has yet to succeed, advocates hope for restoration. refuge instead of fear. said Paulo Lopes, a public-lands policy special- “Any place where you have edges, where we ist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “That BY JESSICA KUTZ have boundaries and borders, there’s always will be one of our legislative asks,” Lopes said. “To conflict,” Pulliam said. “But there’s also a great basically restore the laws (at the border) that apply opportunity to do things you can’t do elsewhere.” everywhere else in this country.” President Biden OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS, Ron Pulliam, Some of the activists’ ideas, like leaving existing could also ask Congress to rescind $1.375 billion an ecologist from the small southern Arizona corridors open for wildlife migration, are fairly in funding for border wall construction that was town of Patagonia, has watched as the new pragmatic, while others are more aspirational. But allocated for the 2021 fiscal year. border wall construction snaked its way along all require the restoration of a region that has been Vicki Gaubeca, the Tucson-based director of the U.S.-Mexico border. The border wall was a systematically degraded. the Southern Border Communities Coalition, cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s elec- wants the new administration to abandon border tion campaign, and during his term, he built ONE IMMEDIATE ACTION that over a dozen walls altogether. “A border wall only serves slightly over 450 miles of new wall. Today, over environmental organizations recommend is to aggravate a situation,” she said. Instead, we 700 miles of both old and new wall line the the removal of sections of the wall, said Myles should take a serious look at the root causes of nearly 2,000-mile-long border. Traphagen, a biologist with the nonprofit migration — problems like climate change — When Trump left office, one of the projects Wildlands Network — particularly at Arizona’s and determine how we can “surge humanitarian still under construction involved dynamiting Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, home resources at the borders,” she said. For Gaubeca, mountainous terrain in the Coronado National to Quitobaquito Springs, and the San Bernardino it’s not just about the wall: Her organization Memorial to build access roads to the border. National Wildlife Refuge. “These (recommenda- focuses on the impacts of border militarization “That is a really crazy project,” Pulliam said, tions) are based upon the presence of threatened and on demanding accountability of the U.S. having recently witnessed the destruction. and endangered species, of places that impede Border Patrol for its abuse of migrants. Now it “(They are) basically tearing down a mountain water flow and wildlife movement and places is urging the incoming administration to shift inside the memorial, in a place where it’s not that have Indigenous cultural significance,” away from a decades-old “disastrous law enforce- going to add to border security at all.” he explained — areas where animals like the ment-only approach,” she said, and toward “a Now that Joe Biden is president, border wall Sonoran pronghorn migrate, or where import- human-rights-first approach that expands public construction has been halted, fulfilling one of ant cultural sites are located. Other measures safety, protects human rights, and welcomes resi- the Democrat’s own campaign promises. Yet his Biden could take include opening the flood- dents and newcomers at the border.” overarching vision for the Borderlands remains gates already built into the border wall to allow vague. A White House fact sheet about Biden’s for wildlife migration and keeping the flood- This story was produced in collaboration with new immigration bill called for “smart border lighting system off. “They haven’t turned on the Arizona Public Media.

MARCH 2021 15 FACTS & FIGURES

Border barrier boondoggle Trump’s promised inexpensive, impregnable wall was anything but.

BY JONATHAN THOMPSON

“I WOULD BUILD A GREAT WALL — and nobody builds walls better at a cost at least five times that of the existing barriers. Mexico did not pay than me, believe me. And I’ll build them very inexpensively,” Donald a dime for it. And the “beautiful” part? That, of course, is in the eye of the Trump said in 2015 as he announced his presidential run. “I will build a beholder. great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that When Trump first promised to build the wall along the border, he wall. Mark my words.” During the campaign, Trump offered more details. apparently didn’t realize that his predecessors had already constructed His wall would span the entire length of the border, or nearly 2,000 miles, hundreds of miles of barriers. It all started in 1996, when President Bill it would be fashioned with concrete — not unlike the Berlin Wall — and Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act. would be “impregnable” and “big and beautiful.” Fences were constructed in urban areas, such as Nogales and San Diego, It didn’t quite work out that way. By the end of Trump’s term, his with the intention of driving border crossers into the desert, where they administration had completed construction of about 450 miles of barrier, could be more easily apprehended — but also where they were at greater none of which was concrete and all of which was demonstrably pregnable, risk of dying of heat-related ailments.

New and replacement border wall Existing barrier

4,309 127 320 Length, in feet, of the longest tunnel found so far Number of such Number of breaches in underneath the U.S.-Mexico border. It stretches from tunnels found in new wall from October Tijuana into San Diego and included an extensive rail/ the Tucson Sector 2019 to March 2020. cart system, forced-air ventilation, high-voltage electri- alone between 1990 cal cables, an elevator and a complex drainage system. and October 2020.

Length, in miles, of the southern border, which the newly elected president, Donald Trump, planned to line with a “big, beautiful wall” that Mexico would pay for. In 2018, he lowered that to 1,000 Jaguar movement 1,954 miles before pledging to build 450 miles by the end of his first term. corridors Miles of pedestrian and vehicle barriers, respectively, $14.97 billion already existing along the border — covering a total of 353; 299 652 miles — when Trump was elected. Amount appropriated by Congress, taken from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, and funneled from the Department of Defense for border wall construction since 2017. Miles of border barriers in place as of Dec. 18, 2020, 694 not including secondary fencing.

16 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS A decade later, President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of Migrant remains recovered in 2006, authorizing the construction of 700 miles of barriers. As a result, 652 Arizona Borderlands, 2001-2020 miles of pedestrian and vehicle barriers already lined the border, mostly 240 between El Paso and San Diego, by the time Trump was elected. All the evidence, however, suggests that it did very little to stop undocumented migration, in part because at least two-thirds of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. arrived on visas and then overstayed them.

Besides, no wall is truly impregnable, as Trump himself indicated in 180 a speech on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when he said: “Let the fate of the Berlin Wall be a lesson to oppressive regimes and rulers everywhere: No Iron Curtain can ever contain the iron will of a people resolved to be free.” Oddly enough, “iron curtain” may be the most accurate description of Trump’s new segments of the wall. 120 On the day of his inauguration, President Joseph Biden signed an executive order halting further construction. Now, many observers are urging him to go further and dismantle the barrier, as well as try to repair the damage done. Or, as President Ronald Reagan put it in 1987, “Tear down this wall!” 60

Sources: U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Government Accountability Office; Congressional Research Service; National Bureau of Economic Research and Center for Migration Studies; Department of Homeland Security; Southern Border Communities Coalition; Center for Biological Diversity; Arizona OpenGIS Initiative 0 for Deceased Migrants. Infographic design: Luna Anna Archey / HCN 2001 2006 2011 2016 2020

0.4% Assaults on Border Patrol Border Patrol officers’ use 458,088 migrants were New and replacement border wall Estimated extent by which the 650 miles of officers in 2020 of force on migrants in 2020 apprehended in 2020 barriers built following the Secure Fence Act Other 51 Physical Other Existing barrier of 2006 reduced undocumented immigration Firearm assault 94 "Less-lethal" across the southern border. 6 190 weapon Firearm 321 Knife 11 3 $0.28 per year Vehicle Amount by which the average low-skill U.S. 37 Unaccompanied worker benefited from the decrease in undocu- Rock Vehicle minors 77 210 33,239 mented immigration due to the construction of barriers under the Secure Fence Act. $0.19 per year Amount by which that number would increase if the gaps in the pre-2017 barrier were filled in. Private land acquired so far for border construction was purchased at a median of $13,336

130 1,016 Number Number of private of private tracts tracts DHS acquired as hoped to of July 2020 Jaguar movement acquire

corridors $20 million 93 Minimum cost per mile for barriers replaced or Approximate number of endangered and imperiled species, including jaguars, Mexi- constructed under the Trump administration. can gray wolves and Sonoran pronghorn, affected by border walls, barriers or fences. $4.4 million 2,134,792 Cost per mile for barriers constructed Acres of critical habitat for imperiled species within 50 miles of the border. between 2005 and 2017.

MARCH 2021 17 REPORTAGE

Droughts and wrath Punjabi American growers fear the loss of their hard-earned farmlands.

BY WUFEI YU | PHOTOS BY MCNAIR EVANS

ON A BRIGHT February morning, Even Johl, who is better cushioned household in Punjab, a flat, water- prevented Asian people from Kulwant Singh Johl, a third-gen- for tough times than many other course-laced inland region at owning and leasing land. So, like eration Punjabi American farmer, farmers, has had to scale down the foot of the Himalayas on the hundreds of Punjabis at the time, checked the rain gauge in front of production and tighten his budget. Indian subcontinent. He landed Nand asked a white friend to rent his neat stucco home in Northern But he fears that thousands of his in Cascadia, in the Vancouver the property for him, under the California’s Yuba-Sutter area. fellow farmers of Punjabi origin area, and worked in lumber mills friend’s name. He bought the Gusts and drizzles had battered in the Central Valley — especially around the U.S.-Canada border. 10-acre orchards in the fall of 1946, his peach orchard nonstop for a those who came later and own less There he encountered discrimina- shortly after the racist restriction week, but it still wasn’t enough to land — will fare much worse. tion and racist mobs, and by 1908, was repealed — 24 years before his quench the recent drought. “Five And indeed, the intensifying he’d moved south, to California’s grandson Kulwant migrated from inches,” he told me by phone. drought could devastate liveli- Yuba-Sutter area. When he first Punjab to join his family here and “Way, way below average.” hoods of many multigeneration got a whiff of the pristine loam, he keep their farm going. Over the past century, Johl’s Punjabi American farmers in realized he’d discovered a farming Pioneering families such as farm has expanded from just 10 California. This year, many may nirvana — one that resembled his the Johls anchored an inflow of acres to more than 1,000. It’s one of have to sell their hard-earned farm original home, 7,500 miles west. hundreds of thousands of Punjabi the many Punjabi American oper- plots and leave an industry that Nand Singh Johl helped immigrants to California. Over a ations that together produce over they hold in high esteem. introduce rice farming to the century, the tide of immigration 90% of the peaches, two-thirds of state and worked hard to obtain has introduced the Central Valley the prunes and 20% of the almonds IN 1906, Kulwant’s grandfather, his own farmland. But California’s to the 15th century Sikh religion. and walnuts grown in the area. Nand Singh Johl, left his farming Alien Land Law, enacted in 1913, Dozens of Sikh temples, known

18 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS as gurdwaras, overlook farmers first 20 acres of grapes. From earning a living on farms filled February to October, on busy days, with nut trees and garlanded Sran sometimes wakes up at 2 a.m. by grapevines. In 2012, however, and dons his beige-colored turban. California farmers were hit by the He submerges himself in the vines most severe drought in the state’s and orchards until sunset, water- history, when much or all of the ing the plants, harvesting crops state faced severe drought condi- with a Massey Ferguson tractor. tions for four long years. Sran’s family farmed for many Today, a quarter of California’s generations in Punjab, and in over 200,000 Punjabi Americans California, they managed to get work agriculture-related jobs. through the previous drought. About 3,000 people with Punjabi “This is a lifestyle,” he told me. origins own farms on about 10% “This is what we want to do for the of the state’s 9.6 million acres of rest of our lives.” cropland, according to Sam Vang, No one in Sran’s family enter- a soil conservationist at the United tained the thought of selling even States Department of Agriculture, a small piece of land until late who has spent 23 years working 2020, when they barely broke even closely with California’s Asian for four years in a row. If they had American farmers. Most of them to sell the land they’d cultivated live and work at farms along for almost two decades, Sran Highway 99, which connects Yuba- said, speaking half-heartedly, he Sutter in the north to Bakersfield would try to become a real estate in the south. agent or a mathematics professor. Three hours down the high- But his “dream job,” he told me, way from Johl’s peach orchard, in had always been inheriting the Fresno County, Simranjit Singh family business. The wholesale Sran tends 100 acres of nuts and selling price of almonds plunged grapes under the watchful gaze from $4 a pound in 2014 to $1.75 of his two shepherd dogs — one in 2020, however. This winter’s German, the other Anatolian. meager precipitation, leaving the Sran’s farm in Fresno County — once dubbed the “farming capital of the world” by the mayor of Fresno — is one of about 1,000 Punjabi American-owned farms that produce over half of the county’s raisins and almonds. For 15 years, Sran, a 28-year-old Punjabi American, has farmed alongside his father, who worked with his father, who arrived in Fresno in 1991, spent 16-hour days in the field and eventually saved the down payment for the family’s

Punjabi American farmers prune peach trees in the early morning light on Karm Bain’s Yuba City, California, farm (opposite).

Kulwant Singh Johl photographed at Johl Orchards near Marysville, California (top right).

Balbir Singh closes an irrigation gate that connects Karm Baim’s Gridley, California, orchard to a Feather River irrigation canal (right).

MARCH 2021 19 Sierra Nevada snowpack at half of the historical average last spring, could plunge prices even lower. Sran’s farm received less than 40% of its average water allotment from the aqueducts and canals that divert snowmelt for irrigation. He had to pump groundwater to compensate for the deficit and sustain the growth. “Whenever we pump, we definitely see a hole in our pockets,” Sran told me. “Two more years like this, and that’s it.” The recent storms replen- ished the Sierra Nevada snowpack and the major reservoirs to above 60% of their historic average. But as California and the Southwest get warmer, the regional climate will become more arid overall. Studies project that even though California could see more precipitation by the end of the century, the associated rise in extreme temperatures and the more (continued on page 29)

The Feather River, shown just below California’s Oroville Reservoir, serves as a year-round water supply for Yuba County’s farmers (top).

Karm Bains photographed at the Sri Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Yuba City (above).

Harmail Singh waters clonal UCB1 pistachio trees at the Sierra Gold Nurseries in Yuba City, California (right).

20 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS REPORTAGE is, as climate scientists like to states, myriad agricultural districts, say, the “new normal.” But within the Mexican government, some of this new normal, there have been the nation’s fastest-growing urban exceptional drought years. One of areas, including Las Vegas and them was 2020. Last year began Phoenix, and many tribal nations, High and dry with an encouraging snowpack in whose legal claims have historically the Colorado Rockies. But a warm been discounted. A compendium of Things are bad and getting worse in the spring followed, and, then the policies, historic water rights, court Colorado River Basin. seasonal summer monsoons never rulings, laws and agreements, the came to drench the Southwest. The Colorado River Compact allocates BY NICK BOWLIN lack of precipitation persisted into water for tens of millions of people the fall and early winter, leaving the and some of the most important basin in a condition dire enough agricultural regions in the country. that water policy wonks — not a The impending renegotiation SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA the view upriver is not encouraging. crowd known for melodrama — will determine how that water is farmers spend their winters More than half of the upper part of have begun using words like “scary” distributed as the demand for water watching the snowpack in the the river basin is in “exceptional and “terrifying.” outstrips the river’s dwindling flow. Colorado Rockies, and what they drought,” according to the U.S. “In the 20th century on the Meanwhile, according to numerous see is the climate crisis hitting Drought Monitor, while the Lower Colorado River, nature was models, the impacts of climate hard. When it melts, the snow Basin is even worse off: More than bent to human will,” the study change will only intensify. A recent that falls on these peaks will, 60% of it is in the highest drought stated. “Because we are now fully study from the Center for Colorado eventually, make its way into the level. In January, water levels in consuming its waters, and inflows River Studies predicted that the Colorado River, which connects Lake Powell, the river’s second- are expected to decline, in the 21st Lower Basin states of California, the Southwest like a great tendon, largest reservoir, dropped to century humans will be forced to Nevada and Arizona could be tying the Continental Divide in unprecedented depths, triggering bend to the will of nature.” forced to reduce their take from the Colorado to Southern California’s a drought contingency plan for the The current version of the river by up to 40% by 2050. hayfields, where the Imperial first time for the Upper Basin states Colorado River Compact — the “It’s a red alert,” said Felicia Irrigation District is one of the of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and legal agreement that governs the Marcus, a fellow at Stanford country’s largest, and pouring from New Mexico. river — expires in 2026. It will be University’s Water in the West the faucets of urban users in Los Since 2000, the Colorado River renegotiated over the next several Program and former chair of the Angeles and San Diego. Basin has seen a sustained period years amid a patchwork of interests, California State Water Resources From California’s perspective, of less water and hotter days. This including seven Southwestern (continued on page 29)

In a photo from 2020, a distinct line around the rocky shore shows how much the water level has decreased in Nevada's Lake Mead. Roberto (Bear) Guerra / HCN

MARCH 2021 21 “Lorem50TH ANNIVERSARY ipsum dolor sit amet consectutor sit amet elit espiciale vey con mas.” — FirstHCN & Last Name, City, State

INDEPENDENT MEDIA GUARDIAN inName | Location the PUBLISHER’S CIRCLE Anonymous | Kooskia, ID

PHILANTHROPIST 2010sSTEWARD GUARANTOR

BENEFACTOR PROTEST AND PROVOCATION incisive, on-the-ground coverage from High Kyle Mateo, Marisa Pelletier and Rick Buckman SPONSOR The 2010s were marked by growing tensions Country News. It also foreshadowed the nation- Coe (from left) pose for a photograph in the Oceti Sakowin camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux PATRON across the West, as right-wing organizations wide Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the Reservation in November 2016. Terray Sylvester rebelledFRIEND against the person and policies of Pres- death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. ident Barack Obama, and a diverse coalition of liberal-minded activists came together to fight FRACTURE LINES Affairs Desk overseen by Native American jour- extractive energy projects, climate change, and The 2016 election of President Donald Trump nalists, a first for any non-Native news outlet in racial and economic injustice. laid bare the deep divides across the country the country. In March of 2020, as the coronavi- Galvanized by the election of our first Afri- — especially in the West. Within months, the rus pandemic swept the nation, HCN published can American president and connected by Trump administration began unraveling pretty a year-long investigation into how expropriated new social media tools, hundreds of right-wing much every progressive environmental protec- Indigenous lands provided the foundation for protesters descended on the Nevada ranch of tion put on the books by the Obama adminis- the nation’s land-grant universities. Cliven Bundy in 2014. Bundy had already made tration. In December 2017, a year after Obama a name for himself for refusing to pay over $1 collaborated with five tribes to create the 1.3 million in grazing fees for his use of federal million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENT lands. Two years later, an armed militia led southern Utah, Trump slashed its size by 85%. JOURNALISM FOR THE WEST by Bundy’s son, Ammon, seized the Malheur He also cut in half the state’s Grand Staircase-Es- Thanks to readers and donors across the country, National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in eastern calante National Monument. we’re more than halfway to our ambitious goal of Oregon, demanding that public lands managed Trump, who used illegal immigration as his $10 million dollars to grow our reach and impact, by the federal government be turned over to the campaign’s signature issue, diverted funds from and to ensure that HCN flourishes in the future. states. That conflict lasted 40 days and resulted other agencies to extend a wall along the U.S.-Mex- We need your support to reach this summit! To in the death of one militia member, numerous ico border. High Country News reporters delved learn more and contribute: hcn.org/50-years arrests, and, alas, very few convictions. deep into the Borderlands, revealing the severed Meanwhile, climate and social justice activ- connections between once-united communities, ists found common ground on the High Plains the environmental impacts of wall construction, in October of 2016, when Native American tribes and the efforts of some locals to stand up against led a protest against the Dakota Access (oil) Pipe- the vigilante groups patrolling the region. line, which threatened water sources and sacred High Country News rode the waves of protest burial sites near the Standing Rock Indian Reser- against the Trump presidency to new heights vation. The violent response to the protesters in paid circulation and website visitation. In gained extensive media attention, including the summer of 2017, we created an Indigenous Krystal Quiles / HCN

22 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS HCN COMMUNITY

HCN readers: Funding our work for 50 years THANK YOU. Readers like you provide more than 75% of HCN’s operation costs. You can join our dedicated supporters by donating $50 or more. Send checks to P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428, call: 800-905-1155 or donate securely online at hcn.org/give2hcn

Brooke Warren photographing for a story at Paonia Reservoir, Colorado, in archist Hobbes. I thought instead 2017. Emily Benson / HCN of the old C.S. Lewis books of my childhood, and of Lewis’ writings on the nature of evil, where evil is tutional right to take pictures on never a lie, because lying implies public land, they agreed.” creation, and evil, by its nature, —Brooke Warren, HCN has no creative power. Instead, the production associate, on her nature of evil is to take a truth and unplanned New Year’s visit to twist it, sometimes as much as 180 the occupation of the Malheur degrees. Love of country becomes National Wildlife Refuge in hatred of those we believe don’t January 2016. share our devotion, or don’t share it the same way. The natural right “I went to the Malheur looking for of armed self-defense becomes the kindred spirits. I found the mad, the means to take over a wildlife ref- fervent, the passionately misguid- uge, to exert tyranny on those who ed. I found the unknowing pawns of work there, or those who love the an existential chess game, in which place for the nature it preserves in we are, all of us, now caught. Driv- a world replete with man’s endeav- The mad, fervent and misguided ing home across the snow-packed ors. The Constitution, one of the Malheur Basin, through mile after most liberal and empowering doc- “It was nerve-racking, following around a sagebrush fire they’d mile of sage, with towering basalt uments ever composed, becomes, heavily armed men into the mid- built behind a white truck, which cliffs in the near distance, herds of with just a slight annotation or in- dle of nowhere, to a 187,757-acre blocked the road to the occupied mule deer appearing as gray specks terpretation, the tool of our own en- wildlife refuge 30 miles from the buildings. They were ‘not at lib- in the tongues of slide rock and slavement.” nearest town. I arrived at the Mal- erty to talk to the media,’ one wind-exposed yellow grass, I did —Hal Herring, from his essay, huer National Wildlife Refuge at said, and they initially refused to not wonder what Edward Abbey “The Darkness at the Heart of dusk on Jan. 2, the only reporter be photographed. But when I re- would have said about all of this, or Malheur,” in the March 21, present. Four armed men stood minded them that I had a consti- Kropotkin or the lugubrious mon- 2016, print edition

24 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS William & Jodi Hart | Eagle, ID Carl Perry & Amanda Leib | Flagstaff, AZ Douglas Hawk | Denver, CO Roger S. Peterson | Santa Fe, NM HCN COMMUNITY Brace Hayden | Bozeman, MT Reola Phelps | Denver, CO Darby & Cheryl Hayes | Sierra City, CA Lincoln Phillips Nina Healy | Fraser, CO Patrick & Mary Pinkham | Lincoln, CA Gillian Hearst | Corvallis, OR Bonney Poole | San Diego, CA Larry A. Henderson | Leadville, CO Margaret Porter & James Knifong | Boulder, CO Kristen Henry | Aspen, CO Nicholas Psarakis | Colorado Springs, CO Our expanding universe Kathryn L. Hiestand & Neal Miller | Bozeman, MT Joyce & Warren Pulich | Austin, TX Robin Hill | Laramie, WY LisaNadine Ramos | Denver, CO IN JANUARY, READERS reader donations in early Febru- Jay Hohensee | Broomfield, CO David Reinke & Roxanne Bradshaw | Chris & Carol Holmes | Pueblo West, CO Cañon City, CO across the world devoured High ary, we are now sending copies Karen Howe | Crawford, CO Glen Renner | Bluff, UT Country News stories about the to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, John Hulburd | Ridgway, CO Brent Roberts | Prescott, AZ costs of building the border wall, Interior Secretary nominee Deb Martha Hut | Montrose, CO Leroy & Ronile Robinson | Hailey, ID John Huzevka | Phoenix, AZ Frederick Rogers | La Jolla, CA the conflict between small-town Haaland and every single mem- Lois James | Encinitas, CA Martin & Joan Rosen | Carmel, CA residents and wealthy second- ber of Congress. Erika Jerme | Lakewood, CO Craig Ryan | Bloomington, IL Fred Johnson | Tetonia, ID Isabella Santos | Spokane, WA home owners in a Western resort The online universe is clearly Tessa Johnson | Glenwood Springs, CO Chuck Schnautz & Susan Rudisill | Idleyld Park, OR area, and the gun-toting, trans- the place where we’ll find many Joan E. Cook | Frenchtown, MT Susan Schoch | Idledale, CO of our future readers. Still, we Stephen M. Jones | Scottsdale, AZ Laurie Schremp | Vacaville, CA gender alpaca ranchers who are Stephanie Kampf & Michael Lefsky | Kirk Schroeder & Carol Savonen | Philomath, OR toppling stereotypes in rural can’t wait to return to the kind Fort Collins, CO Dave & Chris Schultz | Hamilton, MT Colorado. The appetite was so of in-person gatherings that Joshua Kane | Telluride, CO Schulz Conservation Fund | Tucson, AZ David & Jo Kaye | Lakewood, CO Mark Seaton | Mosca, CO great, in fact, that we hit our brought staff and readers togeth- Randall C. Kelly | Roxbury, NY Marilla Senterfit | Boulder, CO second-best month of all time on er for decades. Stay tuned for de- Greg Kern | Silver Spring, MD Alan & Mary Shank | Snohomish, WA Michael & Nancy Kerson | Napa, CA William Sheppard | Flagstaff, AZ hcn.org, with more than 536,000 tails about future get-togethers, Dale & Paula Keyes | Tucson, AZ Bradford Shutler | Pagosa Springs, CO visitors. Not too bad, considering both on Zoom and in the flesh. Todd Kistler | Washington, DC Kermit Smith | Flagstaff, AZ that our record had just been set We are excited to announce Gwen Kittel | Boulder, CO Marvin Smith | Cedar City, UT LeeAnn Kriegh | Bend, OR Leslie Snively | Castle Rock, CO last November, with 597,000! that Brandon Yadegari Moreno Patricia Jarvis & Howard Lambert | Boulder, CO Jean Snuggs | Sacramento, CA The expansion of our has been chosen as our first cli- Mark Lancaster | Weed, CA Diane Spencer | Vancouver, WA Stephen Lee | Hot Sulphur Springs, CO Vera Stauffer | Montrose, CO audience is one of the top mate justice fellow, a new posi- Teresa Lee | Aspen, CO Catalina Steckbauer | Pocatello, ID goals of our 50th Anniversary tion made possible with support Marian Leonard | Lakewood, CO Rick Stelter | Paonia, CO Campaign. Now, thanks to the from the Society for Environ- Susan & Theodor Lielkoks | Grand Junction, CO Scott Stevens | Idaho Falls, ID Elizabeth Linstrom | Seattle, WA Zach Stewart | San Francisco, CA generosity of our readers, we mental Journalists. Brandon is a Tawnia Litwin | San Francisco, CA Max Stoffregen | Cool, CA are making the investments producer and cinematographer Michael Logghe & La Puebla | Espanola, NM Robert Stremba | Durango, CO Annette Long | Tetonia, ID Sarah Sumner | Durango, CO needed to keep us on an upward based in the San Francisco Antonio S. Lopez | Colorado Springs, CO Carolyn Sunderland | Tabernash, CO trajectory. It starts with people: Bay Area, on Lisjan (Ohlone) Nancy Lowe | Moab, UT Larry Sunderland | Keizer, OR lands that were never ceded. Robert Lund | Miles City, MT Peter Swendsen | Idaho Falls, ID In February, we hired Michael Sarah Lurie | Ketchum, ID Barbara Swider | Louisville, CO Schrantz as marketing and He reports in both English and Bruce Madden & Susan Ostlie | Albuquerque, NM Peter Thomas & Rosie Andrews | Berkeley, CA communications manager. He Spanish, focusing on displace- Marge Mansfield | Seattle, WA William C. Thompson | Ivins, UT Kevin Markey & Candice Miller | Longmont, CO Paige Tomson | Lakewood, CO joins Director of Product and ment, migration, queerness, and John Mason | Crested Butte, CO John & Carol Tone | Denver, CO Marketing Gary Love, who land use in the American West Rick & Valene Mathews | Atascadero, CA Stephen Toy | Seattle, WA Margaret Matter | Tucson, AZ Dave & Helene Van Manen | Beulah, CO signed on in September, and and Latin America. The son of Thomas Maurer | Anacortes, WA Eric W. Vaughn | Centennial, CO Laura Dixon, our events and immigrants, Brandon was raised J.C. May | Freeland, WA Marla Vik | Hillsboro, OR business partner coordinator. in Tucson, Arizona, and holds a E. Durant McArthur | Saint George, UT Ross V. Waggoner | Poulsbo, WA Erin Meier | Fort Collins, CO Linnea Wang & Peter Husby | Belgrade, MT It’s the first true marketing master’s degree in video journal- Joan Meixner | Park City, UT Jeff & Barb Ward | Point Richmond, CA team HCN has ever had. ism from UC Berkeley’s Graduate Christian Meuli | Edgewood, NM Kristen Waring | Flagstaff, AZ Davide C. Migliaccio | Colorado Springs, CO Hilary Watts & Ryan Foster | Paonia, CO The next step is technologi- School of Journalism. You can York Miller | Denver, CO Becky Weed | Belgrade, MT cal. With additional campaign check out his work at brandonya- Erik Moeller | Pueblo, CO Kath Weston | Charlottesville, VA donations, we hope to revamp degari.com. —Paul Larmer Linda Morgan | Spokane Valley, WA Peter White | Santa Fe, NM Denise Moss | Carbondale, CO Monica Wiitanen | Paonia, CO our website, moving it to a more William Mueller | Layton, UT Bill K. Williams | Dolores, CO flexible and customer-friendly Tommy Murray | Winthrop, WA Charles Williams & Rosemary J. Smith | Stuart Naegele | Boulder, CO Pocatello, ID content management system. If Robert Neale | Santa Rosa, CA Gary Wilson | Surprise, AZ you read only the print version, Pamela Nelson | Warner Springs, CA Sara Leigh Wilson & Marty Wilson | Boise, ID you’re missing out: hcn.org Chuck & Leslie Newquist | Issaquah, WA Janet Winniford | Ogden, UT Dennis Niebuhr | Ashland, OR Warren Woodward | Tallahassee, FL delivers not only all of our print Michael Novak | Fort Collins, CO Louis Woofenden | Tucson, AZ content, but also quick analyses Joe Nystrom | Denver, CO Robert Workhoven | Tijeras, NM Patrick ODriscoll | Denver, CO Renate & John Zinn | Santa Fe, NM of current events and stories Mark Ohrenschall | Kenmore, WA from our stellar media partners. William Oliver | Redding, CA WELCOME TO THE SUSTAINERS’ CLUB Norm Osborne | Las Cruces, NM Anonymous Signing up to receive our news- Lydia Osias | Castro Valley, CA Michael Chapman | Lewistown, MT letters is a great first step toward Charles M. Paden | Bozeman, MT Sasha Heinen | Flagstaff, AZ accessing everything we do. Joan Parker | Springville, CA Louis Jaffe & Kitty Whitman | San Francisco, CA Greg Parsons & Dorothy Johnson | Ramsey & Steve Kropf | Boulder, CO Of course, the print maga- Wheat Ridge, CO Suzanne & Dick Linford | Bend, OR zine remains a primary tool for Brandon Yadegari Moreno, our first James D. Pearson | Gilroy, CA outreach. Thanks to a flurry of climate justice fellow. Dallin Mello

DECEMBERJANUARYMARCH 20202021 25 TRAVEL MARKETPLACE

26 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS MARCH 2021 27 TRAVEL MARKETPLACE

28 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS (continued from page 20) see it or you don’t feel it, then you extended, greater precipitation need to open your eyes. There’s fluctuations are likely to increase always prejudice. There’s always the need for water on irrigated discrimination,” said Kashmir Gill, farmland. More intense, longer former mayor of Yuba City and and deeper droughts will become the first Sikh mayor elected in the the norm. This year, close to 60% United States. “You learn to live of California and over 95% of with it. You learn to deal with it. the Southwest, according to the You can’t sit there and cry about it. USDA, is in severe drought. Many … That doesn’t get you anywhere.” farmers are fallowing land and reducing planting, just as they LAST SEPTEMBER, when did in 2012. And smaller growers end-of-year production and prof- — people who farm less than 300 its were set to plummet, dozens of acres — will be hit the hardest in farmers with Punjabi origin gath- the coming months. New wells ered virtually and established dipping deeper into the earth are the Punjabi American Growers’ expensive. “They don’t have at Group. The group, formed in May least $40,000 to drill a new (well). 2020, has heard from over 50 What can you do? You are forced to Punjabi American farmers who sell your property. Otherwise, you are concerned about selling their lose everything,” said Vang, with land and having to quit. Some are Farmers Surinder Pal, Vir Singh and Joga Singh Sahota (from left) rake brush on Karm the USDA. “Every time I talk to considering trying to recoup their Bain’s Gridley, California, farm. them, I feel the pain.” production in the wetter Yuba City, For more than two decades, where descendants of the earliest Vang has encouraged small- Punjabi immigrants serve in local winter day, the gold-gilded dome rainfall. “It’s getting harder and er-scale Asian American government. of a gurdwara flickered in front harder. It’s not the same agricul- farmers in the area to form guilds “Everybody in this commu- of the distant snowcapped Sierra ture that my dad, my grandfather to bargain with farm-product nity, up and down the state, has Nevadas, rising over his family’s and my great-grandfather were suppliers and empower future a tie to Yuba City. This is a ‘Little sprawling orchards. doing,” Bains said. “But no matter farmers to participate in the poli- Punjab,’ ” said Karmdeep Singh Recently during a phone (whether) it’s Punjab or California cymaking process in California, Bains, a fourth-generation farmer interview, he became solemn or anywhere, Punjabis will never which has historically neglected who is Sutter County’s new unaffil- as he spoke of depleted aqui- quit farming. It’s in our DNA.” minority farmers. “If you don’t iated board supervisor. On a sunny fers and empty dams even after

(continued from page 21) threshold, which led Arizona, afford — thereby increasing the whole. Meanwhile, sensing profit Control Board. “Everyone knows the Nevada and Mexico to voluntarily likelihood, according to the study, in scarcity, Wall Street and hedge red alert is ringing, and we’ve known limit their Colorado River water use of a situation where the Lower funds are pushing to privatize this is coming for a long time.” for the first time ever. Put together, Basin states would not receive Colorado River water and allow both Mead and Powell are on track their fair share of water. The result markets to trade the resource as a OF ALL THE various metrics to reach their lowest recorded levels would be a “call” on the river, with commodity, according to a recent available to measure this challenge, ever in 2021, KUNC reported. Water the Lower Basin states demanding New York Times investigation. storage capacity at the Colorado levels in Mead and Powell languish more water and legally mandated The problem with vast water River’s important reservoirs is one at about 40% capacity, according to cutbacks for more junior water negotiations like the Colorado of the most useful. In January, a the most recent figures. users higher on the river, including River Compact, said Marcus, the study by the Bureau of Reclamation This future complicates the the city of Denver. The ensuing Stanford water policy expert, is that estimated that Lake Powell could amalgamation of treaties, policies, legal fights would be ugly. every entity, from governments dip below a crisis threshold by 2022. laws at various levels of government, This grim future hangs over the down to people watering their This forecast is not the most court decisions and agreements next several years, as both the Upper lawns, come to expect the current likely one, but the study triggers that make up the governance of the and Lower Basin states renegotiate amount of available water — even a drought-planning process — an river, stretching all the way back to the Colorado River Compact and if that availability is an outlier or set acknowledgement that the worst- the 1922 Colorado River Compact, work to reduce the water they to change.“Farmers can’t expect that case scenario could come to pass for the original interstate agreement. use and keep crucial reservoirs they can plant whatever they want one of the country’s most important To give just one example, the Upper filled. But these negotiations are or not expect water to be expensive,” water storage sites. In 2019, Lake Basin states have long planned difficult and political, with self- she said. “Urban areas need to get Mead, the largest reservoir in the increased water use — water that interest competing against the way more efficient, people need to U.S., hit its own version of this the over-allocated basin can’t need to do right by the basin as a ditch way more lawns.”

MARCH 2021 29 DID JAMES PLYMELL NEED TO DIE? THE CRIMINALIZATION OF HOMELESSNESS IN THE SEMI-URBAN WEST.

By Leah Sottile

James Plymell lies dead on a residential street in Albany, Oregon, after being repeatedly tased by police officers. Plymell thought he had run out of gas, and his car was parked in the bike lane. Albany Police Department via public records requests

30 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS A COUPLE OF STRAY DOGS team made the paper; in 2006, as a Morris, worried that he was looking were running loose in the parking CSO, Morris appeared on the front for a weapon, told Plymell to keep lot of the Linn County fairgrounds page after he tased an aggressive his hands where he could see them. just after 8 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2019, and pit bull. Later, in one August 2010 “Step it up,” Morris said into his Gerry Morris, a community service photo, Morris is shown flipping radio. officer (CSO) with the Albany Police burgers at a community barbecue. In Albany, a town of 53,000 Department in Oregon, was on his On the Albany Police Department’s people, local police knew Plymell way to help round them up. Morris Facebook page are photos of him well: who he was, who he wasn’t, turned onto a street that snakes past snuggling rescued puppies and and how he acted around law the blank-looking backs of stores baby goats. enforcement. Between 2012 and and homes wedged next to rail- “Can I help you push it off the 2019, the department ticketed, road tracks. He noticed a beat-up road?” Morris asked the man. cited or arrested him about once silver Nissan Sentra stranded in “I ran out of gas,” the man per month on average. High Coun- the bike lane, partially blocking the responded. But they might have try News reviewed a list of 103 road. A man with salt-and-pepper trouble, he added: He had a back incidents during that time and hair, who was wearing baggy gray injury. Morris said they could still found no mention of weapons, sweatpants and a sleeveless blue give it a try. no record of violence. Plymell’s shirt, was struggling to push it out Morris, who later told the crimes involved sleeping in public of the way, but he didn’t appear Oregon State Police detective that parks, littering, drinking in public to be making much progress. The he didn’t recognize the man, had in or being intoxicated — the kind of dogs could wait. fact encountered him at least four infractions that housing advocates Morris pulled over and got out. times before. His name was James and legal experts say cities and As a CSO, he is one of four Plymell III. towns use to criminalize home- unarmed officers employed by Plymell initially said that he lessness, poverty, addiction and the small police department in didn’t have the car keys, but then, the behavior of people with mental Oregon’s Willamette Valley. As moments later, he patted his pock- health issues. he described it, CSOs are tasked ets and found them. Morris thought Even before the COVID-19 with handling “livability-type that was odd. He looked into the pandemic crippled the U.S. econ- issues”: abandoned vehicles, car and saw boxes piled high with omy and forced an estimated Plymell’s municipal code violations, fender clothing and belongings in the front 30 million people to face poten- benders. “I don’t even carry hand- seat, suggesting that Plymell was tial eviction, homelessness was crimes cuffs,” Morris would tell a detective living in it. And Plymell seemed on the rise. In 2019, an estimated from the Oregon State Police six nervous. “His verbiage — it wasn’t 568,000 people in the U.S. experi- involved days later. And, unlike the depart- making sense,” Morris told the state enced homelessness. And the issue ment’s armed officers, CSOs don’t police. “I could see the front of his is particularly severe on the West sleeping in wear body cameras. pants were wet. Getting closer to Coast: In California, Oregon and By the fall of 2019, Morris had him, you could smell a sweet odor Washington, in 2019, 29 to 38 people public parks, been working in law enforcement of … something.” per 10,000 were homeless; those in the Willamette Valley for nearly Morris later told the detective three states, along with the District littering, 40 years, first with the Eugene that once he saw Plymell’s wet of Columbia, New York and Hawaii, Police and then for 17 years as an pants, he decided to call for backup. had the highest rates of homeless- drinking armed officer for Albany PD. He’d “Station one, code two,” Morris radi- ness nationwide. (Alaska, Nevada been a CSO in Albany for the past 16. oed in, a non-emergency request and Colorado had only slightly in public He received all of his police train- for assistance. lower rates.) “There is not one city ing in the Willamette Valley, and This seemed to make Plymell in the entire United States where or being evidence of his long career there even more anxious — “amped up,” there is enough shelter for people is scattered across local news: In Morris said. Plymell rifled through that are homeless,” Donald White- intoxicated. 1994, his promotion to the narcotics the boxes in the passenger seat; head, executive director of the

MARCH 2021 31 National Coalition for the Home- of the Nissan. Plymell was in the removed its barbs, preparing it for pop, and Plymell’s yells transformed less, said. “That’s rural, that’s urban, driver’s seat. As she approached, “drive-stun” mode, in which the into high-pitched screaming. The that’s suburban. That’s across the Schroff pulled purple plastic gloves device is pressed directly against officers dragged him from the car. board. … This isn’t just a big-city over her hands, stretching them up the body for “pain compliance,” the “Do it again,” Schroff said. Bell’s problem.” over the outline of the state of Texas use of painful stimulus to control Taser continued clicking as Plymell It’s a problem in Albany, tattooed on her inner left wrist. an uncooperative person. Plymell writhed on the ground. He twisted too — and, in this case, it would “Out of the car, please,” Morris yelled “OK! OK! OK! I’ll get out! I’ll and kicked. As the officers piled contribute to James Plymell’s commanded. get out!” He put his left foot on the on top of him, his torso was thrust death, lying on the pavement “I’m not doing anything wrong,” ground just as Schroff pushed the underneath the Nissan. His sweat- on a cut-through street, next to Plymell replied casually, maybe Taser toward him. He flailed his pants started to fall down. a bright yellow-painted Battery even a little annoyed. “I’m out of arms, batting the device away. “I swear to God!” Plymell said X-Change store, across from a line gas.” At the moment Schroff’s Taser as Bell tased him. “They’re gonna of old houses, near a PetCo, and a “Out of the car, please,” Morris began to click, she had been at the blow me up!” He screamed for help. Goodwill, and a strip mall. A place repeated. scene for 42 seconds. “You already beat me once!” between places. “You need to get out of the car,” “HELP! Help! HELP!” Plymell He yelled something, too, Schroff interjected, lowering her yelled. “I didn’t do anything! I just about how he didn’t “see those OFFICER EMILY SCHROFF voice. “Do it now.” Schroff, too, had ran out of gas!” little girls” — a discordant note that heard CSO Morris’ second call come across Plymell at least three Morris yelled into his radio records and post-incident inter- when she was parked in a nearby times before. that officers were now fighting with views never explained. Another parking lot, drinking coffee and “I’m a licensed driver,” Plymell the subject. officer arrived. “Tase him again?” eating breakfast in her black police told her, still seated. Morris looked Other officers began to arrive, the new officer asked the police SUV. She flipped on her sirens and at Schroff, who started pulling including Gina Bell, a former gym piled on the ground. “No!” Morris sped toward the scene. Plymell by the arm. manager in her late 20s who had shouted. “Don’t tase him again, Like Morris, Schroff, now 27, “Am I under arrest?” he asked. been on the force for only a year. that’s gonna get one of us.” received all of her police training in Yes, Schroff said, for failing to obey Bell, who had never encountered As Plymell continued to yell for the Willamette Valley. By October a lawful order, and interfering with Plymell before, ran toward the help, the officers struggled to get 2019, she was in her fourth year an officer. They struggled for a few Nissan, where Schroff and Morris his right arm out from underneath with Albany PD, where she’s also a seconds. were grappling with Plymell. “Get his body. member of the SWAT negotiation “You’re gonna get tased if you out of the car right now or you’re “Help!” Plymell cried into the team. don’t get out of the car,” Schroff going to be tased!” she screamed. pavement. “Help. Help. Help. Hey. Schroff arrived — body camera warned as she tugged at Plymell’s “Tase him!” Schroff commanded, Help. Help. They’ll kill me. Help. recording — and saw Morris stand- arm. She drew her Taser — a black and Bell did not hesitate. The wires Hel— He— He—” ing at the open driver’s side door device, shaped like a gun — and of her Taser launched with a loud He went limp and silent. “Are you awake?” Bell yelled, slapping the man’s back. “He’s unresponsive.” “He’s still breathing, though,” Schroff said. The officers pulled Plymell out from underneath the car and snapped his wrists into cuffs, prop- ping him up into a seated position. “Is this Plymell?” Schroff asked. “Is this James Plymell?” “HELP! Help! “Sir?” Bell called, looking at Plymell’s face. “Do we need to do HELP! I CPR? What the fuck? He’s blue, you didn’t do anything! I

just ran out Screen shots from footage captured by Officer Emily Schroff’s body camera as of gas!” she responded to the radio call from Community Service Officer Gerry Morris for non-emergency assistance. Schroff arrived, then pulled James Plymell out of his vehicle. Albany Police Department via public records requests

32 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS guys — put him down!” would occur. He gave them two but some family and old friends The struggle had lasted just thumbs up. “Sounds like you guys “Nobody’s called him Jeff, his childhood best over four minutes; a swarm of offi- did great,” he reassured them. “OK? friend, Don Ackroyd, said. “He was cers new to the scene now gathered, Things like this happen.” perfect, one of those hardcore friends that’s performing CPR until local medics hard to find.” arrived. They worked on Plymell JAMES FULLER PLYMELL III you know? Plymell briefly moved away, for 20 minutes. But the man — who was a son of the Willamette Valley, then returned to the Valley as a minutes before had been simply a the wide green land between He had a young teenager. Unlike Ackroyd person stranded on the side of the the Oregon Coast Range and the and his other friends, he didn’t road — was pronounced dead at Cascade Mountains, home to problem graduate from high school. He 8:51 a.m. Oregon’s prized hazelnuts and “probably didn’t hang around the As Schroff stood by watch- luscious pinot noir grapes. Plymell with alcohol. true role model adults,” Ackroyd ing, another officer approached had lived in Lebanon and Albany said. (HCN could not locate any her. “Was he under the influence and Eugene and all the spaces I’m not immediate family members for of meth?” he asked. She wasn’t sure, between those towns for nearly this story.) she said — maybe alcohol? She his entire life. Three generations gonna lie or Court records show that Plym- was breathing hard, winded from of Plymells have called this part of ell’s troubles with the law started performing chest compressions Oregon home; his grandfather was beat around early. When he was 13, he was on Plymell. “In all past incidents a city councilman in Waterloo, and caught driving without a license. At where we’ve had to fight him, he’s a member of the council’s police the bush. It 16, he was caught driving without under the influence of meth at the committee in 1951. insurance; at 18, with an ounce of time,” the officer told her before The area was already — and didn’t define marijuana. looking down at her body camera. is still — home to the Kalapuya, He tried methamphetamine. “Are you recording?” he asked. She Molalla and Chinook peoples when, who he was.” At some point, Plymell was diag- said yes. The officer walked away. in the 19th century, white settlers nosed with schizophrenia. And “I wouldn’t say anything followed the Oregon Trail to the yet, Ackroyd said, time and time further,” said another officer stand- Willamette Valley. The settlers again he saw his friend beat back ing nearby. built ferries that shuttled passen- his addictions, cycling in and out of “OK,” she said. gers up the Willamette River. At a sober housing in Albany, attending Yet another officer drew Bell bend in the river, they constructed recovery meetings, trying to clean and Schroff aside. “You’re not in a bustling downtown filled with up his life. trouble,” he explained, although ornate French and Italianate archi- “Nobody’s perfect, you know?” an investigation into the incident tecture, much of it still standing in Ackroyd said. “He had a problem Albany today. with alcohol. I’m not gonna lie or Before statehood in 1859, beat around the bush. It didn’t back when Oregon Territory was define who he was.” More than known as a bastion of Confeder- once, drinking and drugs landed ate supporters, the Legislature Plymell in the hospital; the doctors combined Albany — a pro-Union would call Ackroyd to ask if Plym- town — with the town of Takenah, ell had any allergies. It was a heart- which was dominated by Southern breaking cycle. “You could trust sympathizers. him with anything,” Ackroyd said. For a long time, Albany, like “He wouldn’t steal from you or rob most places in the state, was you. But God, the drinking. When powered by timber money and he was drinking, he was just really industrial labor. Until a decade difficult. He would argue, or just ago, travelers driving up or down rattle on about crazy things.” Interstate Five would know they’d At times, he held down stable arrived when the acrid reek of the work. Plymell was good with cars, International Paper mill wafted “a Dodge guy,” who worked in auto James Plymell's body lies on the pavement. “Sounds like you through their open windows. The body shops around the Valley. guys did great,” an officer told mill — which was actually located Some years, he took seasonal work responding officers Bell and in Millersburg, not Albany — stacking hay bales at local farms, a Schroff. “OK? Things like this closed in 2009, and was demolished job he loved. happen.” Albany Police Department via in 2012. “How will I know where Plymell was living in a group public records requests to find Albany now?” one reader home when he met Querina mused on the local newspaper’s Landauer in a recovery group. The Facebook page. two got married in 2006, when Plymell’s first name was James, Plymell was 32. But when he

MARCH 2021 33 Photos from the scene and from the search of James Plymell's car, following his death. Lower right: One of the expended Taser cartridges recovered from the scene. Plymell was repeatedly tased by Albany Police officers before his death.Albany Police Department via public records requests

relapsed, “he started really getting cers fired more than a dozen more, THE OREGON STATE POLICE contacted him in the past, that had verbally abusive to me,” Landauer tearing through Plymell’s skin. opened an investigation into Plym- been the case as well. said. “He was conniving. He was a It was useless — the beanbags ell’s death on the day it occurred “I didn’t know if there were narcissist.” He never hit her — “I “only enraged him,” read one local — the standard response when weapons in there,” Schroff contin- wouldn’t put up with that shit,” she news report. Albany PD then tried someone dies after the police have ued. “I knew there was some reason said — but he was impossible to live pepper spray, with little result. used force in a small department Officer Morris was asking him to get with, and the two divorced in 2010. “Officers considered calling for the like Albany’s. Morris, Bell, Schroff out of the vehicle.” At one point, she His encounters with local Albany Fire Department to bring and the fourth officer to pile on started to cry. “I didn’t want him to police continued throughout their a firehose to spray him with,” the Plymell were put on administra- die.” marriage, and Plymell became paper wrote. In the end, they wres- tive leave while the investigation In 2017, Plymell was a passen- convinced that the cops were tled him to the ground, handcuffed progressed. The state police detec- ger in a car accident in a small town out to get him. One late night in him, charged him with menacing, tives interviewed witnesses and the outside Albany. “He was lucky June 2004, shortly before he met resisting arrest and disorderly officers involved, searched Plym- to be alive,” his friend Ackroyd Landauer, Plymell stood in the road conduct, and transported him to ell’s car and phone, and spoke to said. His hips and back were seri- near the Highway 20 overpass of a local hospital, where his injuries people who knew him. ously injured, though, and he was Interstate 5, shirtless and yelling at were treated. Detectives asked if the offi- prescribed Oxycontin for the pain. cars. Police said he was screaming Landauer said that when cers recognized Plymell. Morris Lori Ann Bourgeois, who dated that he wanted to talk to Jesus. An she and Plymell first met, he had said no. Schroff said no, too, but Plymell during the final month officer, suspecting that he was on scars all over his body. After police then explained that she knew who of his life, told the police that he drugs, ordered him to get out of the beanbagged him, he became he was. She described the scene. would sell it, or use it quickly. road. He didn’t. even angrier and more afraid of “I remember seeing a partially He was in a wheelchair for a Albany Police fired beanbag law enforcement. “He hated the crushed silver beer can behind the time after the accident. But even rounds — fabric pouches filled police,” she said. “Hated them. driver’s seat,” she said. “That added when he was able to walk again, with either lead shot or sand that They wouldn’t ever listen to him.” to my suspicion of DUI and him he wasn’t the same. “He had a can fracture skulls and break blood According to Albany PD, the being under the influence of some- hard time getting in and out of vessels in the brain — from a shot- incident happened so long ago thing. As I got closer, I could smell cars,” Ackroyd told me. “It wasn’t gun to get Plymell to comply. When that the records of it have been urine, that he’d soiled himself. I was like he couldn’t, but it took him a the first shot didn’t work, the offi- destroyed. familiar with that, because when I’d little time. He had to be real gentle,

34 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS too, and when she came home PLYMELL PERIODICALLY SOUGHT housing subsidies. “It’s an Amer- one day from her job as a server at help for addiction. One place he ican priority crisis,” Whitehead a breakfast joint and caught him went was housed in a converted old told me. “It is unfathomable that drinking and taking pills, she was church in downtown Albany called in the richest country in the history done. “I don’t know what made CHANCE — Communities Helping of the world we have people living him drink that night I ended up Addicts Negotiate Change Effec- on the streets. And I think part of kicking him out,” she said. “I told tively. “Everyone here at CHANCE that is because several decades him nothing was going to come is someone in recovery who deals ago … America stopped providing between me and my drug program.” with addiction,” Executive Director long-term solutions for the home- During the week before he died, Jeff Blackford told me in December. less. Homeless people and people at Plymell lived in his broken-down James “was very open with his strug- the bottom of the economic ladder car in the parking lot of her apart- gles around it. … He was just a good, were villainized.” ment building. Bourgeois told me genuine person. But when he strug- As tent encampments have that she still didn’t really under- gled, he struggled.” emerged in both cities and towns stand what happened. She hadn’t Albany has 18 private tran- across the region, misperceptions seen the body camera footage sitional living homes for people regarding who is homeless, and of Plymell’s death; she’d heard in recovery, and just two shelters why, have also increased. White- rumors, and she had questions. to serve its large homeless popu- head estimates that 35% to 40% of “The whole police department lation. Blackford says that’s not unhoused people have full-time knew him and his situation,” she enough. “There needs to be afford- jobs or are seniors who are unable said. “They should have known he able housing, where people that are to work any longer. “They just can’t could barely freaking move.” making the $741 on (Supplemental afford a place to live,” he said. OSP finished its investiga- Security Income) can afford a rental Some, like Plymell, are “hard to tion the following month, and in Albany,” he said. “It’s just not house” individuals who have crim- the case was referred to the Linn affordable. You can’t find an apart- inal records or bad credit history. County District Attorney’s Office. ment for under $1,000.” Many need mental health services, In December 2019, County District Whitehead, the director of the substance abuse programs or rental Attorney Doug Marteeny issued a National Coalition for the Home- assistance, but in Albany, connect- statement concluding that Plym- less, said skyrocketing housing ing people with those services can ell’s death was not caused, in any prices are precisely why the West- be a challenge. Most of the orga- part, by the at least four 50,000- ern U.S. is seeing such a surge of nizations that offer those services, because his back was really messed volt tasings that he received from unhoused people. “And then there’s including CHANCE, are located in up — his spine and back.” Albany Police officers. Instead, also the jobs that don’t pay a living the city’s downtown core, where Officer Schroff, however, the local paper reported, Plymell wage,” he said. “There is no lack of craft breweries, boutiques and thought Plymell used a wheelchair “died from cardiac complications of housing when it comes to people a wine bar are now interspersed simply because he was too drunk to acute methamphetamine toxicity.” at the top of the economic ladder.” among the city’s historic buildings. walk. “He is not wheelchair-bound,” “The case is now closed and you It isn’t just the income dispar- In 2018, the Albany City Council, she told OSP investigators. “That should feel free to bring your offi- ity; Whitehead and other experts in a 5-1 vote, passed a city code creat- was something that I think he cers back for full-time duties as you interviewed for this story pointed ing an “Enhanced Law Enforce- utilized to get around with his deem appropriate,” Marteeny told to the federal government’s actions ment Area.” People in town call it intoxication level.” the Albany PD. (The department during the 1980s, such as President the “exclusion zone.” The change “Ah,” one detective responded. declined to make Schroff, Morris Ronald Reagan’s decision to cut allowed the city to enact something Bourgeois told me that the and Bell available for comment. crash had another result, too, Requests for comment from attor- which became a focal point of neys representing them went Estimates of people experiencing homelessness, 2019 Plymell’s life. “After the accident, unanswered.) he had incontinence issues,” she When Plymell’s car was hauled 21,577 1,357 said. “It was hard for him to find a away and combed for evidence, 15,876 place where he could live where he detectives found two white pills, 2,315 548 wouldn’t be ridiculed.” neither of which could be identi- “On our first date, we went to fied, in a locked box in the trunk. 7,169 2,798 9,619 Number of people Belknap Hot Springs,” Bourgeois There were pillows and blankets in experiencing said. “We spent the day up there. the car. There was an appointment 151,278 homelessness per 10,007 3,241 He had a hard time walking, and card for mental health services. 10,000 people Less than 10 the incontinence thing — that There was no drug paraphernalia, 10-16 made life a living hell for him.” no bottles or cans of alcohol. 17-24 1,907 Plymell briefly lived with Behind the driver’s seat, they 25-49 Bourgeois in her apartment in found an empty can of Monster Source: 2019 Annual Homeless Eugene. She’s a recovering addict, Energy Drink. Assessment Report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

MARCH 2021 35 of a three-strikes-you’re-out policy: more than it costs to put someone spotted him and recognized him ing on a park bench downtown; he Anyone who has been convicted of in a housing unit,” Whitehead said. from previous interactions. She ran woke him and cited him for prohib- three offenses — felonies, misde- Captain Brad Liles, of the his name, saw he had 10 warrants, ited camping. The next week, Morris meanors or city code violations Albany PD, pushed back against circled the block and stopped him. roused him from the same bench. — could be banned from the down- the idea that the Enhanced Law “(He) became very anxious and “Plymell had wet himself,” he wrote town area for up to a year. Enforcement Area was designed to fidgety,” Schroff’s report of the inci- in his report. He cited him, again, Later that year, Albany was criminalize unhoused people, or dent reads. “He was yelling that he and banned him for life from the forced to remove illegal camping keep them from accessing the help wasn’t drunk.” She searched him property. Later, he noticed Plymell’s from the list of offenses that could they needed. “There wasn’t a viola- for weapons — he was unarmed — bedding had been “folded and left accrue three strikes after the 9th tion to go to get your services,” he and took him to Linn County jail. on the ground between a bench and U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled said. “But there was to hang out on The next day, the police ran a table.” He cited him for littering. that Boise, Idaho, had violated the corner and drink another beer.” into Plymell twice in the Enhanced A few days later, Plymell got people’s constitutional rights by Law Enforcement Area: first, when another citation from Morris for citing them for sleeping on public IN RECENT YEARS, Albany he was sitting shirtless on a local sleeping on the same downtown property when they had nowhere PD crossed paths with Plymell trail he had been prohibited from bench. The next morning, another else to go. “The government cannot frequently — sometimes several visiting for six months. An officer officer cited him as he rode his criminalize indigent, homeless times a week, sometimes several cited him, and banned him from it bicycle. Later that night, he flagged people for sleeping outdoors, on times in a single day. The depart- for two more years. Later that night, down an officer as he was walking public property, on the false prem- ment reported him for “transient Plymell was sitting on a sidewalk down the sidewalk. “He was very ise they had a choice in the matter,” complaints,” disorderly conduct, with a friend who had an open can intoxicated, and it appeared he had the panel of judges wrote. The being intoxicated, camping in of Four Loko. His friend was cited. urinated and defecated himself,” the ruling affects how municipalities prohibited places. Three days later, both were cited officer wrote in a report. “James was treat unhoused people across the Liles said that while the — this time by Schroff. very upset and stated he was going Western states — from Montana to department saw Plymell often, The pattern continued: An to kill himself and that he wanted California, Arizona to Oregon. Late “he’s nowhere near the highest,” he officer would see Plymell, who had to hurt other people.” Plymell told last year, for example, in Grants said. “I’ve had some in the 300 to warrants, and cite him again or take the officer if he didn’t help him, he’d Pass, Oregon, a judge ruled that the 400 category.” him to jail. It was a dance that both jump off a nearby bridge. The officer small city had violated the decision The fall of 2018 is a good exam- parties seemed well-acquainted transported him to the local hospi- by continuing to ticket and fine ple. On Sept. 2, shortly after noon, with. On one occasion, the officer tal, helped him to a room and into a people who are unhoused. Experts Plymell was riding his bike shirtless citing him noted that “Plymell was bed, and he calmed down. say that policies like Albany’s are near a drive-thru taco place, where decent and cooperative.” Two days later, he was back in more common than not across the the smell of carne asada blends with One Sunday morning, CSO handcuffs for outstanding warrants, state, and that the cost of jailing the exhaust from four busy lanes Morris spotted Plymell “wrapped and, yet again, was transported to someone over and over is “probably of traffic. Officer Emily Schroff in sections of carpeting” and sleep- the Linn County Jail. In 2017, the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an organiza- 103 ENCOUNTERS: EXCERPTS FROM AN ALBANY PD REPORT LISTING JAMES PLYMELL’S OFFICER CONTACTS, tion dedicated to ending home- 2012-2019 CSO Morris responding Officer Schroff responding lessness, joined the ACLU to push 10/23/2019 1908833, AOA-Other Victim 7/31/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender for the introduction of a “Right to 12/16/2018 Harassment physical contact/SIM Victim 7/19/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender Rest” bill in Oregon, after survey- 11/05/2018 Property, Found Registered/Lega 7/12/2018 Albany-liquor in posted area Offender 9/27/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 7/11/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender ing nearly 600 unhoused people in 9/25/2018 Mental subject – no or volunt p Offender 6/27/2018 Criminal trespass 2 Offender Oregon about their frequent police 9/25/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 6/25/2018 Albany-prohibited camping Offender citations and tickets. But the bill 9/24/2018 Albany-prohibited camping Offender ... couldn’t get a hearing. “The rate 9/24/2018 Littering Offender 12/21/2017 Property, found Reporting Person of interactions between cops and 9/22/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 11/11/2017 Animal abandonment - other Suspect 9/16/2018 Albany-prohibited camping Offender 11/3/2017 Criminal trespass 2 Offender homeless people is fucking astro- 9/14/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 10/29/2017 Albany-drinking in public-city Offender nomical,” Paul Boden, WRAP’s 9/7/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 10/28/2017 Disorderly conduct 2 Offender director, said. “Sleeping, sitting and 9/6/2018 Albany-Drinking in public – city Offender ... standing still, by massive percent- 9/3/2018 Albany-Consume or possess alcoh Offender 5/22/2013 Transient complaint Involved other ages, were the top three criminal 9/3/2018 Criminal trespass 2 Offender 5/3/2013 Disorderly conduct 1 Offender offenses people are being hit with. 9/2/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 4/25/2013 Disorderly conduct 1 Involved other 8/30/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 4/24/2013 Disturbance – non criminal Involved other Sleeping, sitting and standing still 8/29/2018 Albany-overnight camping Offender 3/18/2013 Disorderly conduct 1 Involved other — who doesn’t do that?” 8/23/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Involved other 3/15/2013 Disorderly conduct 1 Offender Boden said frequent interac- 8/22/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 3/13/2013 Disturbance – non criminal Offender tions with police, of the kind that 8/20/2018 Criminal trespass 2 Offender 3/11/2013 Suspicious subject(s) Offender Plymell experienced, are typical 8/16/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Involved other ... 8/12/2018 Albany-prohibited camping Offender 5/14/2012 Transient complaint Involved other — and he doesn’t think unarmed 8/4/2018 Theft 3 – services Offender 5/4/2012 Theft 1, Other Offender community service officers are 8/2/2018 Warrant arrest (LW only) Offender 1/1/2012 Assault 3, Simple assault Witness helping. “Whether they’re unarmed SOURCE: Albany Police Department via public records requests

36 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS so they’re more palatable to the ophy in city government for a long for fatal reactions. general public, or whether they’re time,” he told me. Affordable hous- Unhoused “They were the next big thing fully armed, they’re still enforce- ing is one of his top priorities. in policing,” Seth Stoughton told ment,” Boden says. “Their job is to “If Albany doesn’t create hous- people are me. He’s a former police officer enforce these laws that were put on ing that’s affordable, if we don’t who is now a professor of law at the books in order to mitigate the deal more effectively with our “part of our the University of South Carolina, impact of your presence in your unhoused population, Albany’s and the co-author of Evaluating community. ‘I’m watching you, gonna be a ghost town in 20 years,” community. Police Uses of Force. He said that I’m following you, I’m hunting you he said. “My grandkids … are going “less-lethal” uses of force are in down, motherfucker. And as soon to inherit a city that’s dying. It’s our Whether constant rotation: Dogs and fire- as you step out of line, I’m going to job not to let that happen.” hoses, pepper spray and beanbag jack you up.’ ” you like that rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas. Capt. Liles said that the WHEN HE DIED, Plymell joined Batons were common until 1991, department has a single trained the modest population of Orego- part of our when violent footage of Los Ange- mental health crisis worker who nians who died after being tased les Police officers beating Rodney can respond to calls with officers. by law enforcement in small cities, community King caused law enforcement agen- That is clearly not enough. “She’s and whose deaths were ultimately cies to re-evaluate their use. one person. She covers all of Linn blamed on their own health prob- or not is not Tasers generally have two County,” he said. “I would love to lems or drug abuse. modes. Usually, when an officer have more mental health workers.” Among the group was a 24-year- my problem. deploys a Taser, wires connected But it all comes down to money. old student at Southern Oregon to barbed prongs fly at the subject, “Where does that lie?” he asked. “In University in Ashland. In 2006, Our job as piercing through clothing and the budget of the police? In the Ashland Police officers responded to embedding in the skin. (This is budget of mental health? Because a report of a suicidal male, a young city leaders how Bell used the device when she in my career, the mental health man passed out in a closet. Upon tased Plymell.) The Taser X26P is budget has significantly decreased. being awakened, he started to get is to take commonly carried by law enforce- It has not grown with the problems up and advance toward the officers, ment, including in Albany. Its in society. It really hasn’t.” who tased him. Authorities blamed care of wires carry pulses of electricity so Just before the end of 2020, I his death on an overdose of a sleep- powerful they cause extreme pain spoke with Alex Johnson II, the ing medication. Other examples everybody and neuromuscular incapacitation newly elected mayor of Albany. span demographics and jurisdic- — a loss of muscle control. When He was sympathetic both to the tions: In 2010, after an 87-year-old in our Schroff attempted to tase Plym- housing advocates and to the local Boring, Oregon, woman, threatened ell, however, she used “drive-stun police with their strained budget. to shoot people working near her community, mode,” which is when the opera- Johnson is a former city coun- house, the Clackamas County Sher- tor removes the Taser prongs and cilman who sells insurance and iff’s Office tased the woman, who not just the pushes the device directly against referees local football and softball died. The medical examiner later the subject’s body in order to cause games. He is also the first Black blamed her heart disease, saying her people with more localized pain. mayor of Albany. He said he wants pacemaker failed. “A healthy person But drive-stunning is contro- the city to revisit the downtown would not have died from this,” he money.” versial. In 2011, a mentally impaired three-strikes rule. “The exclusion- concluded. In 2012, a 23-year-old South Carolina man who had been ary zone is crap,” he said. Unhoused with mental health issues who had committed refused to comply people are “part of our community. smoked spice — a synthetic mari- with officers’ orders. He was drive- Whether you like that part of our juana substance — died after being stunned as he sat on the ground, community or not is not my prob- tased 24 times by a Talent, Oregon, hugging a stop sign, and he died lem. Our job as city leaders is to take police officer; a medical exam- afterward. Stoughton said that the care of everybody in our community, iner concluded that the drugs had 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not just the people with money.” caused a heart attack. ruled “that the Taser is a serious He thinks that the services in Tasers were invented in the use of force, and for that reason, the downtown core should be relo- 1970s by a NASA physicist who it is only appropriate as a weapon cated — and he made a point to wanted to create a nonlethal — whether in prong mode or drive note that he is extremely support- conducted-energy weapon to aid stun mode — when there is a risk ive of the local police. He realizes police. According to a 2019 study of physical harm to officers.” his election presents Albany with by the National Institute of Justice, An investigation published by an opportunity to change things, to they have been “a magnet for Reuters in 2017 found that 1,005 make sure everyone feels served by controversy” since their wide adop- people across the United States the city and its police department. tion in law enforcement circles in had died after police tased them. “There’s been this anti-growth, anti- the early 1990s, given the extreme Most of the deaths had occurred change, anti-anything-new philos- pain they cause, and the potential since the early 2000s, and many of

MARCH 2021 37 Images downloaded from James Plymell's the victims were already in some cellphone and placed into evidence psychological distress. Taser Inter- following his death. Albany Police national (now Axon) revised its own Department via public records requests training manuals in 2013 regarding the use of Tasers on people with mental health issues. The company the Albany Police, I was able to look said: “Drive-stun use may not be through the contents of Plymell’s effective on emotionally disturbed cellphone. Just like anyone’s phone, persons or others who may not it chronicles at least a part of Plym- respond to pain due to a mind-body ell’s life — the people he spent his disconnect.” And since 2009, the time with, the ones he cared about company has cautioned against and those who cared about him. using Tasers on the chest. After In June 2019, he snapped Plymell’s death, a Taser prong was photos of a cherry-red Mustang at found lodged near his right nipple. a used car dealership; Ackroyd and During their investigation, Bourgeois said he bought it with an Oregon State Police detectives insurance settlement. (When Plym- spoke to several civilians who had ell died, there was a photograph of either seen Plymell stranded on a check for $20,698.94 on his phone the side of the road or attempted from Progressive insurance.) He got to push his car for him. He was new tattoos: an eagle mid-flight, described as “erratic,” “acting like wrestling with a snake in its talons, a tweaker,” and maybe “buzzed on across his forearm; his last name dope.” One person said he repeated inked across his shoulders in script. 15 times that the car “is light, it’s There were appointments easy to push.” in his phone for court dates and “The big picture question we doctors’ appointments. A photo should be asking is what kind of of Ackroyd, smiling, in a red tank failures, what opportunities were top. One of a newly installed sound there, to intervene in a differ- system in his Mustang, and one ent way earlier than could have in the beat-up Nissan. Pictures prevented this guy from being in of antique clocks and silver coins. the disabled vehicle?” Stoughton Sunrises, sunsets. A selfie of Bour- said. geois and Plymell, grinning on a trip to the beach in Newport, where IN THE MONTHS BEFORE his they walked along the Bayfront. death, Plymell had lived in a recov- He took other selfies, too: smil- ery house called God Gear. Curtis ing in a driver’s seat of his Mustang; Parke was a resident there at the smiling in the forest; smiling as he same time, and only knew Plymell reclined on a couch outside at God when he was clean and sober. “He’s Gear, with the words “Jesus Saves” a really pleasant, friendly guy,” he painted on the wall behind him. said. And there’s one more selfie, He had heard that Plymell’s car taken in the dark, early in the had broken down the night before morning of Oct. 23, 2019. You can he died, and that he ended up sleep- barely see him. It’s as if he’s fading, ing in the car at Battery X-Change, somehow, just a dark outline in the less than a mile from God Gear. “I driver’s seat of his car. The follow- often wonder why he didn’t reach ing photos are a blur: The floor. The out to any of us,” Parke said. “He seat cushion. And then one more was right there. We could have done photograph, taken in the morning, something if he just reached out.” out the window, the bright yellow Later, when a detective scoured walls of Battery X-Change coming Plymell’s Nissan for evidence, it into view as the sun came up one turned out it wasn’t completely out last time. of gas, as he’d told police. One of the cables that connected the battery to This story was supported by a grant the car was simply unplugged. from the Fund for Investigative Using records obtained from Journalism.

38 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Notice to our Advertisers — org. https://naturalhistoryinstitute. OliverBranch Consulting — Real Estate for Sale You can place classified ads with org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ Nonprofit management profes- our online classified system. Visit Executive-Director-Job-Announce- sional specializing in transitional Small farm at base of Mount hcn.org/classifieds. March 11 is the ment.pdf. leadership, strategic collabora- Shasta, Calif. — Certified organic deadline to place your print ad in tions, communications and grant fruit/berry/veggie/flower farm. the April 2021 issue. Email laurad@ management/writing. Small home, two barns (one has hcn.org for help or information. WILDFIRE MITIGATION 775-224-0179. an apartment), and more. Approx- SPECIALIST — West Region imately two acres just in the city Advertising Policy — We accept Wildfire Council. The Wildfire limits. Famously pure air and advertising because it helps pay the Mitigation Specialist is respon- water. Skiing, mountaineering, costs of publishing a high-quality, sible for delivering wildfire risk bike, hike, fish, boating, more. full-color magazine, where topics mitigation information, recom- [email protected]. are well-researched and reported in mendations and programmatic Publications & Books an in-depth manner. The percent- resources to wildland urban Great views, small footprint - age of the magazine’s income that interface homeowners, commu- Copper Stain — Tales from scores Arizona — Close to town but with is derived from advertising is mod- nity members and partners. The of ex-employees unearth the hu- a secluded feel, this eco-friendly est, and the number of advertising Wildfire Mitigation Specialist man costs of an economy that runs home includes solar panels, a pages will not exceed one-third of works closely with the Wildfire on copper. https://www.oupress. graywater reuse system, tankless our printed pages annually Mitigation Forester, specifically com/books/15051942/copper-stain. hot water, solar tubes, and rain- focusing on addressing wildfire water harvesting to minimize risk in the built environment. The Land Desk — Western lands your impact as you enjoy gorgeous Business Opportunities The West Region Wildfire and communities — in context — mountain views, wildlife viewing Council (nonprofit) promotes and delivered to your inbox 3x/week. and privacy created by low-mainte- Conservationist? Irrigable empowers community wildfire From award-winning journalist nance native landscaping. 520-204- land? Stellar seed-saving NGO is adaptation while increasing and HCN contributor Jonathan P. 5667. [email protected]. available to serious partner. Pack- resiliency to future wildfire. This Thompson. $6/month; $60/year. age must include financial support. is a full-time, benefited career landdesk.org. Details: http://seeds.ojaidigital.net. opportunity. The Crazy Mountain Inn offers Details, compensation, ben- 11 guest rooms with restaurant in efits package: COwildfire.org/ One Will: Three Wives — A Mur- a town-center building on seven Employment about/employment. der Mystery by Edith Tarbescu. city lots. Contact j.maslanik@ One Will: Three Wives is packed murphybusiness.com for more Executive Director, Natural His- with a large array of interesting info and virtual tour. Built in tory Institute — The Executive suspects, all of whom could be a 1901, The Crazy Mountain Inn Director is the chief executive offi- murderer ... a roller coaster of plot has 11 guest rooms in a town-cen- cer of the Natural History Institute twists ... - Anne Hillerman, New ter building on 7 city lots (.58 (NHI). The Executive Director has York Times best-selling mystery acres). The inn and restaurant broad authority to lead and man- author. Available on Amazon. serve hunters, fisherman and age the operation of NHI to further Merchandise www.edithtarbescu.com. adventure tourists. Charles M. the Institute’s mission, goals, and Bair Family Museum is a local strategic objectives as approved by Western Native Seed — Native attraction. Contact broker for the Board of Trustees. plant seeds for the Western U.S. more info and virtual tour. 406- Primary responsibilities Trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers 926-1996. j.maslanik@murphy- include: leadership and commu- and regional mixes. Call or email business.com. https://www. nication, strategic planning and for free price list. 719-942-3935. crazymountaininn.com/. partnerships, public relations [email protected] or and community outreach. The visit us at www.westernnativeseed. Executive Director is also respon- com. sible for maintaining collections, as well as prioritizing science, arts Real Estate For Rent and humanities through program Professional Services development, management and Coming to Tucson? — Popular implementation. Also important Steve Harris, experienced public vacation house, furnished, two- in the position is fiscal manage- lands/environmental attorney bed, one-bath, yard, dog-friendly. ment, fundraising, and reporting Comment letters, administrative Lee: [email protected]. 520-791-9246. to the Board of Trustees. Finally, appeals. Federal and state litiga- the Executive Director manages all tion. FOIA. 719-471-7958. tinyurl. human resource issues. 928-863- com/y5eu2t6q. 3232. info@naturalhistoryinstitute.

MARCH 2021 39 40 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS REVIEW Williston to entertain or to make art. He came to joke. Co-workers threaten to arrange for him make money as a “swamper,” clocking 15-hour to suffer a terrible “accident” after he’s exposed days helping set up and tear down oil rigs. The for having voted for Barack Obama. Smith finds work turns out to be less about filling his bank himself compromising his values every second account than salving childhood wounds. “My of the day, in a world that discourages asking dad never taught me how to do anything,” writes questions about other men’s pasts. All fracked up Smith. “He didn’t know how to do much himself. What’s more, he blurs the line between This was part of my obsession with becoming a bearing witness to, and becoming complicit in, Michael Patrick F. Smith’s debut good hand. I wanted to become a person who other men’s disturbing actions. Smith chastises memoir The Good Hand offers sharp knew how to work, who knew how to accomplish himself for enjoying “the company of unabashed observations on toxic white masculinity. tasks, who could get things done.” bigots,” remaining mostly silent around “their In time, Smith does become “a good hand,” casual, constant, continuing faucet drip of BY JASON CHRISTIAN a quasi-spiritual concept as he defines it: “A racism,” including when his landlord lies to a person who does honest work to the best of their Black family about a room’s availability. ability every day and who offers that work to the Smith’s eventual attempts to address his own world as a living prayer.” racist complicity are weak, coming long after, and Few people achieve this distinction, in at a safe distance from, the world of oil rigs and DURING THE GREAT RECESSION, one rare Smith’s estimation. It’s not necessarily the rough men. He recalls marching in a Black Lives economic exception was Williston, North Dakota, domain of men; Smith’s sister, for example, Matter protest after the police murdered Freddie in the heart of the Bakken oil patch, where a frack- earns the title as a dedicated nurse. But bound Gray as a profound experience that leads him to ing boom drew thousands of jobseekers. Fast- up with his reverence for hard work is Smith’s “process the racism in my own heart, born of my food joints paid up to $15 an hour, while oilfield mythologizing of the men who do it. Smith own complicity, willful ignorance, and shame.” hands could earn $200 a day. Prices skyrocketed. connects the men he meets on oil rigs to men on But ultimately, it’s a muddled experience. The population more than doubled within five battlefields, such as his great-uncles (“true WWII Smith returns to New York, calling himself a years, causing a housing shortage that forced heroes”) and his father, a paratrooper during the “loose collection of bad habits.” The romantic newcomers to sleep in tents, cars or flophouses. Korean War. trappings the author succumbs to by elevating Or they piled into trailers corralled together, the “I lusted for that kind of action,” Smith writes, his newfound, if short-lived, brotherhood above notorious “man camps,” a term evoking fistfights, “I thought that if I went through what he went its worst instincts overshadow many of his early overdoses and sexual abuse. Crime rates soared. through I would gain not just insight into his life critiques of masculine trauma. “Even though I’m The region was overrun. but respect for him, too.” Though working on not a lifer,” Smith concedes, “all of these men are Set in and around Williston in 2013, Michael an oil field is a far cry from facing open combat, my tribe.” Patrick F. Smith’s debut memoir, The Good Hand, Smith finds that during his nine months in the oil critiques the damaging effects of toxic mascu- patch, he is able to inhabit a counterfactual real- linity on women, families and on men them- ity. He follows the road not taken, becoming, like The Good Hand selves, together with the personal, social and a method actor, one kind of hardworking man. Michael Patrick F. Smith environmental costs of oil and gas extraction. But assimilation comes with costs. For the 464 pages, hardcover: $29 In the oil fields, men like Smith perform danger- first few months, Smith is the butt of every Viking, 2021. ous, backbreaking labor, but they also enact a kind of relentless white masculine posturing that punishes any sign of difference or weak- ness. In immersing himself in their world, Smith excavates the devastating masculine tropes in his own family life. In the end, though, he can’t shake his own affection for these damaged, sometimes violent, men, whose respect he craves despite himself. The Good Hand skillfully braids together scenes of life in Williston — in the oil fields, in the bars, at the three-bedroom townhouse Smith shares with 11 others — with historical dives into the region’s Indigenous and settler-colo- nial history, and with troubled memories of the terror his abusive father inflicted on his family. Smith is a musician who cut his teeth on Sam Shepard’s plays and the music of Woody Guth- rie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. In Brooklyn, his home for several years, Smith worked various gigs to sustain his artistic endeavors as a folk- singer, actor and playwright. But he didn’t go to Krystal Quiles / HCN

MARCH 2021 41 Lauren Crow / HCN

ON MARCH 6, 2020, a sexage- and “humanely euthanized upon narian Utahn, who returned to the capture to allow for tissue sampling east shore of the Great Salt Lake and testing,” Gail Keirn, a spokes- after vacationing on the coronavi- person for the USDA’s Animal and rus-haunted Grand Princess cruise Why Utah’s wild mink Plant Health Inspection Service, ship, tested positive for COVID-19. told High Country News by email. It was the pandemic’s first knock COVID-19 case matters At this time, researchers are not on Utah’s door. Then-Gov. Gary concerned that COVID-19 will Herbert declared a state of emer- How the first positive case detected in the wild decimate wild mink populations gency on the same day. In the could impact the West. because the animals’ solitary life- following months, COVID-19 would style provides limited opportuni- spread to over 300,000 people in BY WUFEI YU ties for them to spread the virus. the state and wreak havoc on at COVID-19 upended the fur least 12,000 minks, the discreet, business in the West last year. Data short-legged, fluffy mammals from the USDA shows that in 2019, known for their colorful, luxurious multigeneration farms in Utah, pelts. animals. Suspecting spillover of the disease outbreaks. In December, Idaho and Oregon yielded more The country’s first cases in virus to wildlife, researchers with their fears were confirmed: A wild than a third of nearly 3 million mink were confirmed in mid-Au- the U.S. Department of Agriculture mink, trapped just outside of a mink-pelt products made in the gust, when two employees working began to screen wild animals living farm, tested positive. country in 2019. But the industry at Utah fur farms infected five of the close to fur farms that had suffered The mink was “asymptomatic” has declined since its peak in 2014,

42 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS and the number of pelts produced ogist and veterinarian at Colorado Human-animal-human jumps of to get sick. It raises the question of grown in the United States has State University, hoping to put diseases seem rare. But what are how sustainable mink farming is, plunged by more than a quarter. the recent wild mink outbreak in the consequences if it happens and how this changes fur farming Compounding that challenge for context. Fagre has studied viral in the Southwest? in the United States. mink farmers, at least 12 of the more transmission, ecology and wildlife The incidents of spillback — If the industry is going to move than 30 mink farms in Utah have conservation for 12 years and has human-to-animal transmissions of forward into the future, as minks experienced COVID-19 outbreaks carried out research on bat viruses, pathogens — are very rarely docu- in Utah farms were not culled as since last August. deer mice and livestock in Colo- mented. We could be not detect- those in Europe, there should be a In a late December statement, rado. This conversation has been ing them, or they don’t make both vaccination priority. Minks are cute Utah’s Department of Agriculture edited for length and clarity. hosts sick enough to notice. The and fuzzy, but we manage them the and Food said that COVID-19 had pathogen has to find a new host same way we manage livestock. wiped out nearly half of the breed- What are your main concerns in an ecological situation where We vaccinate cattle for respiratory ing herds in the facilities. One of about the first coronavirus case there is enough interspecies inter- pathogens and against a slew of Oregon’s 11 fur farms was quaran- detected in the wild? action and it can transmit. It has things they come in contact with. tined after an outbreak sickened It’s always concerning when you to become a pathogen that’s really So, yes, due to the way minks are both minks and humans. Among find a pathogen in wildlife that can well adapted in wild hosts in order housed, from a health standpoint, three minks that had escaped, two make both the animals and people to get to be circulating all the time. a vaccine is very important for herd tested positive for the coronavirus. sick. It becomes a risk for wildlife At this point, human-to-human health. Environmental organizations have conservation and public health. transmissions of SARS-CoV-2 pose since argued for the infected plant’s What worries me is: How did it get greater risk than those between Beyond the minks, how vulnerable closure. “It’s clear that this facility there? Researchers who sampled animals and humans. are other wildlife and animals in poses too great of a threat to wildlife the mink in Utah believe that the But for us living in the South- this pandemic and future ones? and public health to continue oper- positive mink escaped from the west, especially around the Four I hate to say “silver lining” because ating,” said Lori Ann Burd, environ- fur farm, meaning they were likely Corners, we have plague, rabies there is no silver lining in the mental health director at the Center infected on the fur farm rather than virus, hantavirus and other patho- madness. But we’re fortunate that, for Biological Diversity. infected in the wild. It just speaks to gens that spread from animals to so far, many farm animals we rely In Denmark and the Nether- the way we are managing animals humans on our radar. We see them on for protein aren’t susceptible to lands, after minks contracted the and encroaching on the environ- set up shop in rodent populations. SARS-CoV-2 like cats and ferrets are. virus and passed it on to people, ment. Every year, we see human cases. We are learning from outbreaks millions of minks were culled and From a conservation stand- The risk of disease transmission of closely related species to the farms were shut down perma- point, for wildlife within proxim- between wildlife and humans are endangered ones. As those who nently. Danish public health ity of people for ecotourism and endemic. Adding another pathogen dabble in wildlife conservation authorities also warned that some conservation purposes, we need to to think about would be scary. saw ferrets and minks are suscep- variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus consider wildlife as susceptible to tible, it rang an alarm bell for them that causes COVID-19, contained any pathogens we carry. We need to What is a sustainable way to that the endangered black-footed mutations from the country’s fur be really careful in those situations check outbreaks in mink farms ferrets could be susceptible, too. In farm outbreaks. No mink-to-human — just like you will wear a mask in the West? the National Black-Footed Ferret transmissions have been reported when interacting with someone When animals get crowded and Conservation Center near Fort in the United States. But scientists you want to protect. I may have a confined and moved around, their Collins, Colorado, where humans worry about the possibility, and cold, but who knows what the virus immune systems will be compro- are caring for the animals, they further mutations could hamper that gives me a runny nose could mised. It’s the same as humans: You proactively vaccinated those black- the effectiveness of vaccines. do to the species I’m sampling or send a bunch of kids to live in the footed ferrets against the coronavi- Recently, High Country News interacting with? dorms and they’re stressed out for rus, as we can’t afford to lose that spoke with Dr. Anna Fagre, a virol- finals, and everybody is more likely genetic diversity. There’s so much that we’re learning about SARS-CoV-2 and the species that it can infect right now. But there’s so much we don’t know about other viruses and the species they can infect. People “It’s always concerning when you find think it’s scary that wildlife carry all these viruses that could infect a pathogen in wildlife that can make us. But it’s also really scary thinking about animals getting sick and the both the animals and people sick.” impact on wildlife conservation. It’s an important time for us to pause and take note and think about how we should interact with wildlife in the future.

MARCH 2021 43 An installation by the The Painted Desert Project in Bitter Springs, Arizona, created by Jetsonorama in 2009. Jetsonorama

nia of human history that have unspooled there. Art in the desert does not have to treat its open spaces as a vacant background. Consider Nora Naranjo Morse’s Numbe Whageh, its name drawn from a Tewa phrase that roughly translates to “center place.” (Naranjo Morse is a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico.) Completed in 2004, the work of land art resides in Albuquerque’s Old Town. From afar, the piece looks like a small hill dotted with chamisa and mountain mahogany. The path that spirals into the artwork, though, traces a descent of surprising depth — on a blazing summer day, the feeling of reprieve that walking it grants is REVIEW reminiscent of being engulfed by shade trees. At the end of the path is hidden a small spring so well insulated from the noise of the surrounding streets that its burble becomes audible. Taking a picture of Numbe Whageh is impos- Desert art, offline sible; it operates by making the viewer feel the arid landscape rather than simply look at Instagram-ready installations often frame the desert as austere. it. The Painted Desert Project, an ongoing What are the alternative ways of looking at the land? street art exhibition on the Navajo Nation, has a similar effect. Since the project’s inception BY KYLE PAOLETTA in 2009, curator Chip Thomas (an artist and physician also known as Jetsonorama, who lives on the reservation) and his collaborators have transformed vacant buildings into arrest- ART IN THE DESERT WENT VIRAL last fall When Desert X returned two years later, ing, larger-than-life portraits and plastered with the debut of a bewitching spear of reflective artworks that contrasted starkly with their envi- road signs with statements on the impact of metal in southern Utah. The so-called monolith, rons proliferated again. Sterling Ruby’s Spec- extractive industries. While each entry is photo- placed in a cleavage of crimson rock miles from ter, a brilliant orange box the size of a shipping genic on its own, The Painted Desert Project is the nearest road by an unknown maker, made container plopped on an expanse of dirt, was the best understood as a single artwork: The wall- international headlines and became ubiquitous viral breakout. Images of Specter quickly became sized faces and vivid, yellow warnings about on Instagram. Hundreds of visitors descended just as pervasive on Instagram as those of Mirage, uranium pollution accrue, readjusting a pass- on the site, posting pictures of themselves even turning into clumsy inspirational memes, erby’s understanding of the region. leaning jocularly against the monolith’s sheer like one that read, “Maybe it’s because you don’t The confrontational aesthetic epitomized by sides or offering a vague tribute to St. Simeon by fit that makes you so easy to love.” the Utah monolith is possible anywhere; indeed, perching atop its 10-foot summit. Most of the entries at Desert X operate accord- Aitken’s Mirage has turned into something of a The monolith craze was hardly the first time ing to the same principle as the Utah monolith: road show over the past four years, appearing in that social media users have obsessed over a Insert a structure of metal, plastic or glass into a Detroit warehouse and a meadow in the Swiss sculpture in the desert. The current golden age of the desert to create a contrast that might other- Alps. (Desert X itself has expanded more contro- this style of art-making began in earnest in 2017, wise only be possible through Photoshop. At best, versially, bringing the biennial to Saudi Arabia thanks to a homestead of mirrors in the foothills of they read as zhoozhed-up versions of the spare, last year; the show drew international condem- California’s San Jacinto Mountains. The sculpture, concrete boxes Donald Judd first planted in the nation, given the Saudi government’s human Doug Aitken’s Mirage, took the form of a modest yellowed grass of West Texas in 1980, sculptures rights abuses.) Meanwhile, Naranjo Morse’s ranch house wrought entirely of reflective glass which helped turn Marfa into #marfa. The 2021 work stokes a sense of the desert as an intricately and situated amid tawny granite boulders. Mirage Desert X exhibition, now set to open on March 12 balanced ecosystem, whose rhythms are detect- was the headliner to the inaugural edition of after coronavirus-related delays, will surely follow able even at a city’s bustling center, while The Desert X, a biennial exhibit of installations in the a similar blueprint. Art this unambiguous makes Painted Desert Project forces acknowledgment Coachella Valley, and it managed to lure 200,000 for a neat composition on a smartphone, but it of the troubles and triumphs visitors might visitors — and their iPhones — to sites throughout often fails to evoke emotion beyond superficial otherwise overlook. Rather than social media the Mojave. The artwork’s popularity came from wonder. It takes the Southwest’s deserts as alien ready-mades, both pieces engage with the reality its clarity of form and the accessibility of its idea: geography, made legible only once an outsider has of a desert rather than a cartoon of it. The result? to reimagine a seemingly inhospitable landscape intervened. Such an approach refuses a deeper Creations whose ideas remain rooted in place, by reframing it in a novel way. reckoning with the desert’s ecology or the millen- indomitable as the earth itself.

44 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

TK caption. Photographer / Source ESSAY of life. It was constant invention. side, right up against the wall. They were the I was reminded of this the last time I was at kind of lights one might see at a construction site, the border, when a funny thing happened. I’m meant to be temporary, though these had been not sure “funny” is how people imagine the here for decades. And, to be clear, they weren’t border, but, in truth, it is the nature of my border, going anywhere. Anything marking these lights which is defined by a myriad of feelings, most as temporary was long gone. They suggest a certainly including humor. Humor, and making militarizing of the border, clear enough in their the most of what is around you. purpose of deterring people from crossing ille- My wife and I had taken a visiting friend on gally. I’m not sure who would actually try to a tour of the state, moving south from Phoenix, cross there, really, with authorities everywhere where we live, and ending up in Nogales, on around the area, but there the lights stood. the Arizona side. The two Nogaleses, or rather, Just after dusk, when the encroaching the one Nogales divided by the barrier of the evening had begun to turn dark, the lights quite Nogales, then moment, was alive with itself — tourists, people suddenly and dramatically came on, making the shopping and going home across the border theatrical sound of big, synchronized machinery, and now to Sonora, produce trucks from Mexico being thap, thap, thap, even if it was in essence just the inspected. It was, by this time, a little late in the turning on of a big light bulb. Poet Alberto Ríos finds the city of his day, with dusk starting its cricket and wood- But when those lights came on, the world youth lives on in surprising places. smoke entrance. We had not brought passports changed. — a difficult and disagreeable requirement for The elemental nature of light showed itself BY ALBERTO RÍOS just crossing over the border, even if only for the pure. evening and nothing more, that I still was not The boys we had seen milling around used to. It’s a far cry from the amicable circum- suddenly whooped loudly and threw their stance of our growing up, when crossing was hands up in the air. We saw immediately, or often a whole-community event, with the fence rather heard, that they had a basketball. They thrown open all day for Fourth of July parades had attached a basketball hoop to the Mexico I WAS BORN AND GREW UP IN NOGALES, and Cinco de Mayo celebrations. side of the wall and, thanks to the inadvertent Arizona, on the Arizona-Sonora border. My wife We could only shrug our shoulders and prom- but indispensable help of the U.S. Border Patrol, was born on the Nogales, Sonora, side — a nice ise to ourselves to be ready the next time we came could now start their game. We leaned over far cultural symmetry. The border was central to down here. But this time, instead of crossing, we enough to see the well-worn hoop, and laughed my understanding of the world, but what the did what we could. We walked through the old as loudly as they had. La migra — that haunting border was when I was growing up there in the downtown, wandering around Morley Street, cry in this place — for a moment in time meant 1950s and ’60s is not what the border is now. My talking about the striking storefronts and the something else. The Border Patrol didn’t mean home is sadly hard to find in the great morass of life that used to be — like the romantic-sounding run away. newspaper headlines, speeches, new laws and corner clothing store La Ville de Paris, whose We watched for a while, and would soon everything else, much of which may seem to name is still embedded in the sidewalk — and leave for home. In that moment, in that lit-up address the border but little of which addresses then inevitably about the wall that now scars darkness, I was happy to find again the place Ambos Nogales, the two sides of the border, the the hilly landscape. A pedestrian overpass goes in which I had lived. The boys’ exuberance was actual place where real people have lived, live along the border crossing, allowing a view of the a small moment of adolescence — theirs and to this day, and where they will continue to live. immediate other side of the border, the Mexico mine both. The Borderlands is not an abstraction. Nor is it side. We started our small tour. defined only by a wall. That early evening, we saw some young boys Alberto Ríos is a National Book Award finalist, In all the talk of the border, that word is used as standing around talking on the Mexico side Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate, and a recent if it defined this place. But the far greater truth and of the wall. This was not where people used to chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. His the more apt word for this place is desert. It was gather, so it was curious. In our walking, we had latest book is A Good Map of All Things (2020). true when I was growing up, and it’s just as true also seen, quite clearly, the array of lights that now. We lived in the desert more than, or at least were now around the streets on the American as much as, we lived at the border. Nature was so often louder in its quietude than people giving orders in uniforms, or fences keeping us and the cows from wandering where we weren’t supposed to go. The border made Nogales a major inter- Making do with what you had was national port of entry, giving us the foundation for produce and tourism, both of which moved a regular way of life. It was constant through town, but the desert gave us actual place, a geography on which to stand and find a steady invention. footing. For those who live there, the desert, too, has always been a place of scarcity, of sparseness. Making do with what you had was a regular way

MARCH 2021 45 Heard Around the West Tips about Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write [email protected].

BY BETSY MARSTON

WASHINGTON the signs are put up to talk to (each It was a “colossal scramble,” reports other).” In Nevada or North Dakota, the Washington Post, but in the however, there were fewer signs and end not a single one of the 1,600 less of this “building fervor.” Perhaps Moderna vaccine doses was wasted. the most poignant sign he recorded A freezer malfunction at 9 p.m. sent was posted by locals in Tiller, doctors, nurses and volunteers at Montana, a remote Forest Service Seattle’s Swedish Health Service outpost of 500 people. Burton grew leaping into action, seeking people up not far from the town, which he’d eager to roll up their sleeves. Those visit in the summer to swim in the on priority lists were contacted first, river. “WE ARE WORTH SAVING,” but then word got out and spread the notice said. But Tiller was aban- like wildfire, said Kevin Brooks, doned anyway, though a millionaire CEO of Swedish. A queue soon later bought it. formed and “snaked through hall- ways and spilled outside. … People THE WEST were showing up and running down We came upon a fascinating obit- the hall.” Spirits were high, even uary in the Jackson Hole News though some people left home so & Guide. H.L. Jensen, 91, was a quickly they lined up wearing paja- denizen of Jackson, Wyoming, mas and bathrobes. The deadline for nearly half a century. Jensen’s loomed, like midnight at Cinder- life was remarkable in many ways, ella’s ball: At 3:45 a.m., the vaccine but two incidents stand out. As a wouldn’t turn into a pumpkin, but it Armando Veve / HCN young man, he was kicked out of would be just as useless. As the time Yellowstone National Park for a ticked closer, staff ran outside in ized youngsters in late January. celebrates signs he photographed prank at Old Faithful. Jensen and the cold, racing to the road, at one Tucked into their artificial home from 2015 to 2020. One of his strang- his friends, fueled by beer, hauled point “jabbing someone through under deep snow, the cubs will est experiences occurred when he out a car’s steering wheel and the window of a car.” Just as the likely snooze until spring. They’re stopped to photograph a sign in front column, stuck it into the ground clock ran out, “one elderly woman primed for a long nap: For the last of a Montana gymnasium, which near the geyser, then just as the in flip-flops was photographed roll- six months, they lived at the Wet warned, “Do not open, really pissed geyser got ready to blow, one of ing up her sleeve on the sidewalk.” Mountain Wildlife Rehabilitation off bees inside.” As Burton moved them yelled: “Turn it on” and spun Brooks summed up the experience: Center where they put on healthy closer to the sign, bees suddenly the wheel, “making Old Faithful “We’re tired and we’re inspired, and weight — one reached 120 pounds appeared and buzzed angrily around go.” Onlookers chortled, but a park those two things are true at the — and also “learned to fear humans,” him. “Oh my God, they could have ranger was not amused. Jensen’s same time.” reports the Denver Post. Officials made the sign bigger!” Burton said. second feat of derring-do was even hope that when the bears wake up, “This is inviting you to get stung by more impressive: running for the COLORADO they’ll be ready to take on their wild bees.” In a way, Burton told Atlas Wyoming House of Representatives When five young black bears — new world. Obscura, signs in yards or along back as a Democrat. In the 1970s, this was orphaned last summer — wake up roads are “the original social media,” a “shocking thing that made him this spring, they’ll probably wonder THE WEST because “you’re screaming into the a political unicorn.” That he actu- how they ended up snuggled in a Portland-based photographer Bren- void, hoping you’ll get something ally won — serving eight two-year den somewhere on 14,115-foot don Burton is a connoisseur of yard back.” As the 2020 election got closer, terms — was even more shocking. Pikes Peak, Colorado’s famously signs, the hand-painted, graffitied he spent more time in the Pacific “He was a guy who liked to help photogenic mountain. That’s kind; they speak to him of nostalgia, Northwest, where political and people, provide whatever help the where Colorado Parks and Wildlife even “jealousy for an earlier time.” cultural tensions ran hot between government could,” explained a officials took the drowsy, tranquil- His new book, American Poetry, liberal cities and rural towns. “So Republican friend.

46 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS

119 Grand Avenue PO Box 1090 Paonia, CO 81428

U.S. $5 | Canada $6

#IAM THE WEST

PAPAY SOLOMON Portrait Painter Phoenix, Arizona

Faces have a great way of recording history. I want to record that history. All of my portraits are tailored to the people who are in them. I don’t waver from the intimacy; I embrace it fully. Self-portraits are the hardest. The only way you can reflect on yourself is if you’re willing to really look at yourself. That’s tough. Even when I’m painting other people, I feel like I’m painting an extension of myself. Which is a blessing and a curse. If history had been different — especially in the context of Western art and Western portraiture — I wouldn’t need to paint myself. That puts artists of color in this position where we have to record, because people who are recorded are people who are remembered. So that’s a privilege and a curse. I have to move the canon forward. I’m here, we’re here. It’s as simple as that. Caitlin / HCN O’Hara

Do you know a Westerner with a great story? Let us know on social.