Outflanked Where Wildfire Is Overtaking Us Feature by Michelle Nijhuis August 3, 2015 | $5 | Vol

COST-BENEFIT REGS | 5 | GRANDE MINNOW | 6 | RECASTING CUSTER | 23

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West Outflanked Where wildfire is overtaking us Feature by Michelle Nijhuis August 3, 2015 | $5 | Vol. 47 No. 13 | www.hcn.org 13 No. 47 | $5 Vol. August 3, 2015 CONTENTS

Editor’s note No ordinary fire

On a Friday afternoon in July, a wildfire sparked on Southern California’s Cajon Pass. The brush was dry and the winds were strong, speeding the fire toward Interstate 15 and its weekend traffic. Those who saw it later described what followed as surreal: flames shooting into the air, cars on fire, and semis on fire, and semis hauling cars on fire. People abandoned some 70 vehicles, fleeing across the hills, uncertain where to go, as flames merged into traffic like true Angelenos. Fights broke out at a nearby gas station. Looting, too. Wildfire is terrifying. That may be why, in the 20th century — after the devastating “Big Blowup” of 1910, which burned 2.6 million acres in Idaho’s mountains — we tried so hard to vanquish it. This legendary policy blunder left our forests full of fuel and more vulnerable than before. Today, despite some ecological enlightenment, we still snuff A year after the Carlton Complex Fire went through, causing heavy damage, Sofia Onishenko and her nephew, Elijah many fires, for fear they will burn houses or towns. David Ryder Orekhov, prepare for a swim while on a camping trip at Alta Lake State Park in Pateros, Washington. Meanwhile, as Michelle Nijhuis writes in this issue’s FEATURE feature, “The Bigger Burn,” fuel is only one side of the equation. The other is climate. That side is 10 The Bigger Burn catawampus, too. Nijhuis profiles a town in Washington state, A county recovers from a record-setting wildfire — and prepares for Pateros, disastrously surprised by the Carlton On the cover the next one. By Michelle Nijhuis Complex Fire in 2014, and still recovering. We’ve Rubble and a supplemented her story with others that describe burned area Outflanked smolder near Alta where, and how, wildfire is outrunning us. The Lake Golf Course 14 Cumulative fatigue What if wildfire season never ends? West’s once-bounded fire season, for example, is after the Carlton 17 Aerial firefighting Is it worth it? running longer and could one day last all year, Complex Fire went overwhelming managers, firefighters and their through in July 18 The fast and the furious What we know about how plants burn 2014 near Pateros, resources. Scientists, meanwhile, need to learn more 24 On the Burning Edge by Kyle Dickman. Reviewed by Ben Goldfarb about different fuels and what they mean for places Washington. David Ryder like the rainforest of the Pacific Northwest, which is again ablaze this summer, as are the forests of CURRENTS Alaska. There’s an even bigger picture. A recent study 5 The arrival of the cost-benefit state A Supreme Court ruling found that fire seasons between 1979 and 2013 wants the EPA to consider costs had lengthened across 25 percent of the Earth’s 6 On life support All but extinct in the wild, the silvery minnow vegetated surface. That matters because annual

foretells the Rio Grande’s future CO2 emissions from wildfires worldwide can be 50 Complete access 7 The Latest: Oregon governor’s office ethics percent greater than emissions from fossil fuels. Fire and climate, in other words, are in a feedback loop. to subscriber-only content The I-15 wildfire destroyed 20 vehicles and four HCN’s website DEPARTMENTS homes, and though no one died or was seriously hcn.org hurt, it was an abrupt reminder of how close we Digital edition 3 HCN.ORG NEWS IN BRIEF live to fire and its whims — and to all the natural hcne.ws/digi-4713 4 LETTERS world, really. In the end, the blaze was deterred less iPhone app 8 THE HCN COMMUNITY by firefighters than by a freak rainstorm that swept hcne.ws/wuZsWu Research Fund, Dear Friends up the coast. A quarter inch of water fell on Los iPad app 20 MARKETPLACE Angeles in one day, breaking a record set in 1886. hcne.ws/NGtBYx 23 WRITERS ON THE RANGE The storm soaked the brush of Cajon Pass, and by It’s time to end Custer worship By Todd Wilkinson Saturday afternoon, a Forest Service official told the Follow us Los Angeles Times, the fire that had sown chaos on 26 ESSAY the highway was “just creeping around.” If only all The internal West By Emily Walter such fires were so easily quelled. By Betsy Marston @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST —Brian Calvert, managing editor

2 High Country News August 3, 2015 HCN.ORG NEWS in brief

EPA to study Roundup Trending While the impact that glyphosate, better Wilderness known as Roundup, has on milkweed vs. mining and monarch butterflies is well known, the damage the herbicide might do to The Forest Service has other plants and animals is not. The approved a mining company’s request Environmental Protection Agency has to build a four-mile announced it will spend the next five years road and make as studying the effects of glyphosate, atrazine, many as 571 trips a and two other commonly used pesticides year with bulldozers, on 1,500 endangered species. The study dump trucks and drill is the result of a settlement between the rigs into the Frank EPA and the Center for Biological Diversity, Church-River of No which sued the agency in 2007. The group Return Wilderness. said the EPA did not conduct due diligence Thanks to the 1872 Mining Act, which on how such pesticides would affect rare predates the 1964 species before registering the chemicals. Wilderness Act, mining Although Roundup has been around since claims made prior to the 1970s, its effects haven’t been broadly wilderness designation studied since 1993, when only 10 million can continue to have pounds were used annually. Today, more validity. The Golden than 300 million pounds are applied to Hand deposit was discovered in 1889, A crop duster in northeast Oregon. In March, the World Health Organization said that glyphosate, U.S. fields each year. Gloria Dickie and the courts have the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, is likely a carcinogen. Now, the EPA will study its determined that its Baker County (OR) Tourism hcne.ws/roundupEPA effects, as well as those of three other pesticides, on endangered species. latest owner has the right to prove whether the long-dormant Western prisons model of incarceration. Companies promise to claim is still valid. But While the total prison population in the U.S. grew save states money, but they also need to make how? With pack 16 percent between 2000 and 2011, the number a profit. To do that, they often cut corners. A animals and pickaxes, $35 what it would billion cost to reclaim the half- of inmates housed in for-profit prisons grew 106 2012 report by the Sentencing Project found that or with bulldozers and million-plus abandoned mines in the U.S. percent. Western states have some of the highest on average, private prison employees earn about jackhammers? rates of private prison incarceration. $15,000 less per year than their state-employed Krista Langlois The problem is counterparts and have 58 fewer hours of training. the business Sarah Tory hcne.ws/crowded-prisons You say 40percent of headwaters in the West contaminated by mining State and federal prison population Joshua Serfass: percent in private prisons in the West “I understand that the Hundreds of state and federal employees, mining company has Inmate numbers students, advocates, volunteers and Alaska Montana in Western states the right to prospect contractors have spent over a decade 5,633/30.8% 3,609/39.3% without private the area, but the USFS planning, litigating and working prisons should not be allowing on Montana’s Upper Clark Fork them to do so with Superfund cleanup. There has been New Mexico N. Dakota 1,512 trucks, bulldozers, or a lot of successful restoration, but 6,727/44.6% other modern means.” it has a long way to go. Still, California Arizona 40,080/16.1% 14,840 Chris Link: the Superfund project, which is 135,534/.5% projected to take another several “It’s not much Oregon years, legally can’t do anything Nevada of a ‘wilderness’ to address the contaminants 12,883/NA by conventional from hundreds of abandoned standards. This doesn’t Utah 6,962 change the future of mines upstream. Federal and state South Dakota agencies lack the necessary funding 3,650/.4% wilderness.” to deal with them. And federal money Colorado doesn’t touch the hundreds of thousands 20,462/19.3% Mark Lewis: Wyoming 17,271 “What sort of idiotic of sites on private and state lands. 2,204/10.7% Kindra McQuillan Washington ruling is this? Gotta hcne.ws/MTmines Idaho love the duplicity. If 7,985/34.1% mountain biking made as much money as mining, there wouldn’t Video “If we want to be a problem.” take that glass No water, bad water Jim Anderson: $5K of water and “Only when the last The fine cliff-jumpers In “How the California tree is cut, the last drought exacerbates water fill it up out of could face for our faucet, we of land pillaged and trespassing in Los contamination,” videographer the last of the water Padres National Zoë Meyers explores East Orosi, should be able polluted, will the California, a rural community Forest’s Tar Creek, t o.” greedy be happy.” where endangered that couldn’t drink its water, —Elvira Camacho, California condors live. even if they had it. East Orosi, hcne.ws/church-wild Kit Stolz hcne.ws/orosi-water California, resident and facebook.com/ highcountrynews hcne.ws/SoCal-condors ZoË Meyers www.hcn.org High Country News 3 Letters Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428.

High Country News them national monuments (“Monument Executive director/Publisher Man,” HCN, 5/25/15). Meanwhile, in

Paul Larmer reenberg

G a companion article discussing graz- MANAGING Editor e v ing and oil drilling, the author finds Brian Calvert te S “little has changed on the ground” since SENIOR EDITORS Jonathan Thompson Canyon of the Ancients National Monu- Jodi Peterson ment received its designation. A second Art director sidebar describes a similar situation at Cindy Wehling Upper Missouri River Breaks National ONLINE EDITOR Tay Wiles Monument: “The BLM’s management D.C. Correspondent plan made so few changes that it even Elizabeth Shogren garnered the support of a local group of WRITERS ON THE RANGE ranchers who had opposed the monu- editor Betsy Marston ment designation.” If this is the case, one Associate designer Brooke Warren must ask: Has anything been protected Copy editOR at all? Or are these new designations Diane Sylvain national monuments in name only? Contributing editorS Cally Carswell Brian Gatlin Craig Childs Sarah Gilman Grand Canyon, Arizona Judith Lewis Mernit Jeremy Miller Bagged lions, fewer bighorns observes on the ground beneath her. He Sierra Crane-Murdoch might have a point, except for the fact Monument-making Michelle Nijhuis As discussed by Frank Carroll (“We’re that she never separates herself from Josh Zaffos letting another predator go down,” HCN, John Hart’s essay, “Making a na- those who are doing the harm. Careful CorrespondentS 6/22/15), many Western states appear tional monument from scratch,” (HCN, Ben Goldfarb reading of her piece reveals that she Krista Langlois to have a war on mountain lions. In 5/25/15) beautifully illustrated the never once says “you” or “they” are at Kate Schimel Arizona, the Arizona Desert Bighorn unique history and landscape of the fault. She continually uses first-person Editorial Fellow Sheep Society, a trophy ram hunting Berryessa Snow Mountain region and Sarah Tory plural — “we” — as she considers what group, and the state Department of the tremendous work it takes to ensure Interns is happening. It is clear to me as I read Game and Fish have cooperated on permanent protection for our public Paige Blankenbuehler her article that she considers herself a Gloria Dickie multiple bag limits, which allow a lands. It is important to underscore that part of the problem. I am certain that Associate Publisher hunter to kill more than one lion per the effort to designate these lands as a Alexis Halbert you received quite a few letters along year, in an attempt to reduce lion national monument is supported by the Development Manager this vein and wish that you would have numbers. In Aravaipa Canyon, Arizona, California State Assembly and Senate Alyssa Pinkerton chosen one that was slightly less inflam- Development Assistant about 60 miles northeast of Tucson, and a diverse group of interests, includ- matory to print. Mr. Michael’s letter Christine List Game and Fish established a bag limit ing local business owners, nearby cities, reminded me of the kind of intention- Subscriptions MARKETER of 20 lions per year in 2011, while the five counties within the boundaries of JoAnn Kalenak ally aggressive attack that has made bighorn group has paid a bounty hunter the designation, private landowners, WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel me steer clear of much of social media. I to kill at least 10 lions per year. This citizens, farmers, conservationists and Database/IT administrator was a little surprised to see it printed in resulted in at least 43 lions killed over a variety of recreation groups. Protec- Alan Wells High Country News. Community ENGAGEMENT the three years from July 1, 2011, to tion of these lands will provide an Gretchen King June 30, 2014. Eric Bowman environmental and economic benefit to FINANCE MANAGER Did this slaughter have an impact on Springvale, Maine the region for generations to come, and Beckie Avera the Aravaipa bighorn sheep population? Accounts Receivable allow visitors to continue to experience In the two most recent surveys before the area’s natural splendor. Jan Hoffman Entertaining toddlers Circulation manager the multiple bag limits, Game and Fish Bill Dodd Tammy York observed an average of 84 total sheep, Start them young. My 19-month-old California State Assembly Circulation Systems admin. of which 26 were rams. In surveys from grandson, River, is in love with the Kathy Martinez Napa, California the three subsequent years, the agency “Tree of Life” illustration on the June 8, Circulation Doris Teel, Kati Johnson, observed an average of 52 total sheep 2015, cover. My thanks to Bryce Glad- Stephanie Kyle (38 percent less), of which only 12 were felter for an image that can entertain a Damage from smugglers Advertising Director rams. In other words, this mass killing small child, over and over: birds, bugs, David J. Anderson As a longtime subscriber to your maga- of 43 lions appears to be associated lizards, spiders and so much more to Advertising Sales zine and someone who values your focus with a decline in sheep, not the increase point at. But I must say he was equally Margaret Gilfoyle on issues across the West, I do take ex- these groups had wished for. enthralled with the back-cover photo GrantWriter ception to your “Latest” item about Sen. Janet Reasoner of a car being dropped by a crane in a Phil Hedrick John McCain’s bill to increase the Bor- FOUNDER Tom Bell junkyard. The image caught it mid-air, Winkelman, Arizona der Patrol’s access to the borderlands, [email protected] and I’m sure his little brain is trying to (HCN, 5/25/15). I can assure you that, [email protected] figure out why the car is in the sky. [email protected] as a retired Border Patrol agent, any en- Surprise attack [email protected] Katy Tahja vironmental damage done while agents Board of Directors In his letter “High-Flyin’ Hypocrisy,” Comptche, California perform border security pales in com- John Belkin, Colo. (HCN, 6/8/15) Robert Michael accuses parison to smuggling. Beth Conover, Colo. Kathleen Dean Moore of hypocrisy for Jay Dean, Calif. Protection in name Wayne Lackner considering mankind’s destruction of the Bob Fulkerson, Nev. Willcox, Arizona Wayne Hare, Colo. world because her plane uses the very A recent feature lauds the powers of the Laura Helmuth, Md. John Heyneman, Wyo. fuel being produced by the horrors she president to protect lands by declaring Nicole Lampe, Ore. Marla Painter, N.M. Dan Stonington, Wash. Rick Tallman, Colo. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Printed on Luis Torres, N.M. High independent media organization that covers the Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. recycled paper. Andy Wiessner, Colo. Country issues that define the American West. Its mission is POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All Florence Williams, D.C. to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. News region’s diverse natural and human communities. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org 4 High Country News August 3, 2015 CURRENTS The arrival of the cost-benefit state A Supreme Court ruling wants the EPA to consider costs

By Elizabeth Shogren

hen President Ronald Reagan signed impact, without weighing the costs to W an executive order in 1981, requir- industry. ing federal agencies to analyze the costs Even more telling was the dissent pre- and benefits of major regulations in order sented by Justice Elena Kagan for herself to ensure that the extra expense for busi- and three other liberal judges. Absent a nesses would be justified, environmental contrary indication from Congress, she activists and congressional Democrats wrote, “an agency must take costs into were aghast. They warned that such cost- account in some manner before imposing benefit analyses would favor industry significant regulatory burdens.” Kagan profits over the public good. “They are try- argues that the EPA clearly met this re- ing to put into numbers something that quirement later on in its regulatory pro- doesn’t fit into numbers, like the value of cess, when it did consider the costs to clean air to our grandchildren,” Richard industry. That’s not how the liberal argu- Ayers, a founder of the Natural Resources ment would have been framed 20 years Defense Council, told The New York Times ago. Now, though, as Harvard Law School at the time. “It is deceivingly precise and Professor Cass Sunstein — a former eco- ignores ethical and moral choices.” nomic guru in Obama’s White House — But for more than three decades — no recently crowed: “The cost-benefit state matter which party was in office — the has arrived.” mandate for cost-benefit analyses re- “If you were to plot it against time, “Scalia opened the door wide for them to mained strong. President Obama even you would see that the court is gradually Cholla Power use that logic,” Pedersen says. “It would be Plant in Arizona expanded Reagan’s order, decreeing that developing more cost-benefit friendly de- unwise if they don’t step through it.” is one of the major such analyses should be used for minor cisions,” says Michael Livermore, associ- This could help the EPA not only sal- causes of the smog regulations, too. Agencies routinely calcu- ate professor at the University of Virginia vage the mercury rule but also defend its contributing to low late what companies likely would spend Law School and co-author of a 2013 book Clean Power Plan, due out this summer. visibility in national to, say, install pollution control devices to on the subject. The plan, which includes the first-ever parks and wilderness comply with air quality rules or air bags The latest decision suggests that un- areas. When the limits placed on greenhouse gas emissions to meet automobile safety rules. They also less Congress says otherwise, the EPA has EPA drafted plans for existing power plants, is the center- assign monetary values to benefits, such to consider costs when making regula- to reduce emissions piece of Obama’s climate change agenda. as reducing the risk of death, injury or tions. That would at first appear a boon for at Cholla, Arizona The cost is enormous, but the EPA justi- illness. (The Environmental Protection industry and a hit for environmentalists. Public Service fies it with the enormous benefits, includ- and the Arizona Agency estimates the value of a human But William Pedersen, an industry lawyer, ing better air quality and less premature Department of life at $8.6 million in calculating the EPA’s sees it differently. He reads Scalia’s mer- death and illness. Environmental mercury rule, for example.) cury opinion as an invitation for the EPA More broadly, the problem with the as- Quality chose to Less clear is how the Supreme Court to consider all the benefits of a regulation. cendancy of cost-benefit analyses is that draft their own plan views actual environmental law. At times, because they deemed the EPA, in many instances, lacks the the court has allowed the EPA to over- the EPA’s not cost- scientific data to prove exactly how dan- look costs, as in a 2001 case concerning effective.Davi d kessel gerous certain chemicals might be. That air-quality standards for smog and soot. estimated 2016 Costs and benefits for Mercury and air toxics standards makes it hard to argue with well-armed At other times, it has ruled in favor of opponents, who can say exactly how much analysis, as in 2009, when it upheld the — or even exaggerate how much — a reg- EPA’s right to consider costs in regulat- The EPA says its rule would prevent: ulation will cost the industry. ing how companies extract water from 4,200 to 11,000 premature deaths That has not kept the EPA from trying. lakes to cool coal-fired power plants. The 2,800 cases of chronic bronchitis For years after Reagan’s executive order, court now appears to have moved even heart attacks cost-benefit analysis was used to curtail closer to embracing the use of cost-benefit 4,700 environmental regulation, but over time, analysis. 130,000 cases of aggravated asthma the EPA developed techniques to measure In late June, the court ruled on the 5,700 hospital and emergency room visits health benefits and justify policy. “Cost- EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Rule, in a 6,300 cases of acute bronchitis benefit analysis has matured as a meth- case brought by 21 states, including Ari- 140,000 cases of respiratory symptoms odology,” Livermore says. “The costs are zona, Alaska, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, lower than many people would think they as well as by power companies. The 5-4 540,000 missed work days would be, and the benefits are quite high.” decision, with the lead opinion written 3.2 million restricted activity days Still, some legal scholars and environ- by Justice Antonin Scalia, says the EPA mental activists find the concept anath- acted irrationally, unreasonably and ille- Health benefits associated with meeting ema to the whole point of environmental gally when it elected to regulate mercury the standards are $37 billion to policy. “EPA has been pretty clever about and other toxic air pollution from power $90 billion. turning the weapon around,” says Ayers, plants based entirely on the public health Total national annual cost of this rule will now an independent environmental law- be $9.6 billion. yer. “I don’t think it has any more validity Correspondent Elizabeth Shogren writes HCN’s Source: EPA when they do it than when the other guys DC Dispatches from Washington. @ShogrenE do it.”

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 On life support All but extinct in the wild, the silvery minnow foretells the Rio Grande’s future

By Laura Paskus

U.S. Army Corps n a cloudy May morning after a pre- gone to great lengths to keep silvery min- get this false sense of security that tech- of Engineers team O dawn rainstorm, biologist Kimberly nows alive, in accordance with the En- nology can get you out of these environ- members in the Ward winds through the Albuquerque dangered Species Act. It’s not easy. Each mental problems. The big question is: If Albuquerque BioPark’s Aquatic Conservation Facility, spring, when the Rio Grande rises and the we can raise them in the hatchery, why do District use the one of three hatcheries for endangered Rio fish spawn, biologists collect eggs as they we have to worry about the river?” dual-net seining Grande silvery minnows. Inside, pet-shop- float downstream. When the river channel process to collect sized fish tanks hold about 8,000 nearly dries south of Albuquerque during irriga- n 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife silvery minnows and other fish in invisible eggs. tion season — as it has almost every year I Service listed the silvery minnow as the Rio Grande in Outside are the 20,000-gallon pools since 1996 — the scientists grab fish from endangered. The fish once occupied 2,400 2014. The district is that host the fish after they hatch, as well shrinking pools and truck them to still- miles of the Rio Grande and one of its trib- part of a program as a massive concrete “raceway” designed wet downstream stretches. After Hallow- utaries, the Pecos River. But during the to increase the to mimic a river and encourage them to een, when irrigation canals stop diverting early- to mid-20th century, federal agen- number of silvery spawn without hormone injections. water and the dry stretches regain some cies began damming, diverting and chan- minnows in the river There’s always a challenge: Min- flow, the tanker trucks arrive, bearing nelizing the Rio Grande to deliver water and improve their nows spawn in the raceway, but their minnows raised in hatcheries from eggs to farmers and cities and prevent flooding. habitat. That work was incredibly effective, so Ronnie Schelby/ eggs get sucked into its intakes. Biolo- collected earlier in the year. Albuquerque District, gists also struggle with wonky pH levels And yet the minnow’s numbers contin- effective that it transformed the river’s USACE in the tanks, and bacterial infections can ue to decline. Agencies have devised new entire ecosystem. Spring floods no lon- spread. And conditions aren’t much better plans, built partnerships, and spent more ger roared through the valley, creating a in the minnow’s natural habitat, the Rio than $150 million to boost the population. braided channel and leaving behind sedi- Grande. Sometimes, Ward finds it hard to But the effort nibbles at the edges of a ment and seeds; the water’s chemistry and be optimistic. systemic problem: Fish need water, and temperature changed. The resulting com- “But I feel pretty lucky to be part of what with unrelenting drought, rising bination of habitat loss, introduced species a program that’s fighting for species di- demand and a changing climate, there’s and declining water quality decimated the versity,” she says, adding that saving the just not enough of it in the Rio Grande. minnow, which needs shallow eddies and minnow is about more than one species; The fish — historically one of the river’s backwaters to survive. it’s about the entire river. “If we lose the most abundant — hasn’t totally disap- By the time it was listed, the fish fish, something worse is probably coming peared, but the wild population is func- had disappeared from all but a 174-mile down the pike. It’s an indicator.” tionally extinct. Today, it’s almost im- stretch of the Middle Rio Grande near Al- If that’s true, the prognosis seems possible to find one without at least one buquerque. But the listing didn’t guaran- grim. For about a decade, scientists, envi- hatchery-reared parent. “The entire ge- tee its recovery. The river remained frag- ronmentalists and water managers have netic trajectory of the fish is determined mented by dams and diversions, and its by a hatchery now,” says Thomas Turner, waters were entirely claimed by people. Laura Paskus is a reporter and radio producer who started studying its genetics in 1999 New Mexico’s farmers and cities need wa- based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. @LauraPaskus at his University of New Mexico lab. “You ter, and the state also has to send Texas

6 High Country News August 3, 2015 an annual share. The Fish and Wildlife keep the river flowing for the fish, a move rights to its own water. And even though v go Service couldn’t upend nearly a century that would also contribute to the river’s the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s water . of water development just to assist a two- health. managers are constantly trying to wring

inch-long fish. Instead, in 2003, the agency ignored more water from the system for minnows, or egon .

Then, in 1996, about 90 miles of the its own biologists’ recommendations and the river and the species that depend upon wn

Rio Grande south of Albuquerque dried issued a new policy that allowed water it come last in line. ro B up entirely — an unprecedented event, managers to dry the riverbed after June This year, for instance, after a dry win- te a K

according to many. “It was really weird to 15, when irrigation season begins. And ter, Reclamation determined in April that v. o

watch this river just go dry,” recalls Chris- even though it was supposed to be updat- it couldn’t spare water from upstream res- G topher Hoagstrom, who was then an Albu- ed again in 2013, the agencies are still op- ervoirs for a spring pulse of water, a tem- regon

querque-based Fish and Wildlife biologist. erating under that 12-year-old plan. “If we porary surge needed to trigger spawning. O That year, he and a few other biologists were idealistic,” Hoagstrom says now, “the Federal, state and local partners hustled rode ATVs up and down the channel, stop- silvery minnow would have been screwed.” to devise a way to find a little more water. THE LATEST ping to pound t-posts into the mud and Then, in May, it rained and rained; Rec- Backstory sand where pools remained as the river oday, most of the Rio Grande’s min- lamation could release water after all. Bi- Given Oregon’s green trickled to a halt. They checked the water T nows come from the Fish and Wildlife ologists watched the water levels, checked reputation, it’s fitting daily for fish and tracked how quickly the Service’s Southwestern Native Aquatic temperatures and monitored for eggs. that the scandal pools evaporated. Resources and Recovery Center in Dexter, The increased flows may have trig- that prematurely “The fish would be so packed in these in southeastern New Mexico. Tucked gered spawning, says the BioPark’s Ward, ended Democratic pools that when you’d (run a net) through against the Pecos River and surrounded but collecting eggs became impossible: Gov. John Kitzhaber’s it, you’d just be bumping fish,” he says — by alfalfa fields and dairies, the center The water was too deep, the flows in many fourth term involved minnows, red shiners, flathead chub, cat- includes indoor and outdoor pools, a fish places too dangerous. In the end, biolo- environmental issues (“Governor down,” fish, carp, buffalo fish. Sometimes they’d health center and a genetics laboratory. It gists ended up with few more than the HCN, 3/16/15). whiz past a t-post that marked the site of consistently rears enough eggs that biolo- roughly 10,000 eggs they had collected by Starting last fall, a pool that had vanished from a day ear- gists can release hundreds of thousands mid-May. It marked another point on a newspaper investiga- lier. “I guess the vultures and raccoons of minnows each fall. “We’ve been mak- downward trend: In 2013, they collected tions revealed that came in, because you couldn’t even see a ing adjustments for 13 years,” says direc- around 60,000 eggs; last year, only 13,000. Kitzhaber’s fiancée, fish bone,” he says. tor Manuel Ulibarri, including improved And by early July, fish salvage crews were Cylvia Hayes, a clean One evening after work, Hoagstrom spawning techniques and genetic testing preparing to rescue minnows once again, economy consultant, and another biologist sat outside their on parents to ensure healthy offspring. depending on the summer’s monsoon had landed at least office, feeling the weight of despair. The “We’re getting to the point where it’s al- rains. $213,000 in contracts minnow was going extinct on their watch. most a cookbook. We have a recipe that from groups with progressive social and “We said to ourselves, ‘We could collect works to meet the numbers.” oagstrom left Fish and Wildlife in environmental agen- eggs, bring them to the hatchery,’ ” he re- But the river’s minnow densities re- H 2002 and now works as a professor das. Hayes, however, calls. If they didn’t, they wondered, could main “extremely low.” When biologists at Utah’s Weber State University. He also promoted similar they live with themselves if the fish blink- monitored it in April, fewer than 20 of the won’t criticize the work being done in agendas directly to the ed out? They decided they couldn’t. “But more than 3,200 fish collected were silvery New Mexico. But he wonders if rearing governor as an unpaid we knew we were giving up by doing this,” minnows. According to a recent report fish outside the river was a mistake. “The policy advisor and says Hoagstrom — giving up, that is, on from American Southwest Ichthyological minnow can live in this sandy, harsh, hot, used her “First Lady” the wild population. Researchers and Colorado State Univer- flowing water that’s only about this deep,” title for public speak- Some biologists objected. Captive sity, those low numbers show that current Hoagstrom says, measuring out six inch- ing engagements that were part of her con- propagation would give water managers efforts aren’t “sufficiently buffering the es with his hands. “But it needs floods, sulting contracts. The an easy out, allowing them to avoid keep- population” against decline. For the fish it needs flowing water all the time, and extent of Kitzhaber’s ing water in the river without losing the to survive on its own in the wild again, the it needs a lot of habitat. It needs a lot of involvement remains species altogether. “We wanted to be ideal- researchers concluded, the river must flow things that don’t occur now.” uncertain, but he istic,” says Hoagstrom. He hoped Fish and in the spring and summer. The problem isn’t the fish; it’s the riv- resigned in February Wildlife would require water managers to But as it stands, the Rio Grande lacks er. Even in good years, there’s no longer amid allegations of enough water. But the changes necessary influence peddling. to protect the fish are big, challenging and expensive. They range from changing the Followup On July 1, new Gov. crops farmers grow and the methods they Kate Brown finalized use, to curbing urban sprawl and retool- ethics reforms that ing infrastructure to capture and store clearly define the “First summer rains — maybe even changing Partner” as a public how the state administers water rights. official, legally forbid- Most of the Rio Grande’s native fish den from using the species have already disappeared. “The position for personal odds are, if it still rained all the time, if gain. The new laws there weren’t drought, it would still be on strengthen penalties for abuse of office, bar the track to extinction,” Hoagstrom says. statewide elected of- “The fact that the others are gone sug- ficials from accepting gests that it’s just lagging behind. But no- paid speaking engage- body ever talks about that — that the Rio ments and expand the Grande is really destroyed from an eco- state ethics commis- logical standpoint. And the more we forget sion. A review of the about that, the easier it is.” state’s public records practices will also This story was funded in part by an Insti- begin. tute of Journalism and Natural Resources Sarah Gilman A Rio Grande silvery minnow is measured at the BioPark Aquatic Conservation Facility. Albuquerque BioPark Frank Allen Field Reporting Award.

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 THE HCN COMMUNITY

RESEARCH FUND Thank you, Research Fund donors, for sustaining the wild beauty of the West

Welcome, new interns!

July means fresh blood here Camera, and was a research Claret cup cactus on the Yampa River. John Fielder at High Country News head- assistant at the Center for quarters in Paonia, Colorado. Environmental Journalism in Colorado’s Yampa River: Free Flowing and Wild from the Flat Tops to the Green Our newest interns began their Boulder, Colorado. In May, she Photography by John Fielder, text by Patrick Tierney half-year stint July 6 and are graduated from the University 172 pages, hardcover: $45. already hard at work. of Colorado with a master’s John Fielder Publishing, 2015. Paige Blankenbuehler arrived degree in environmental jour- shortly after a five-day, 50-mile nalism. “Landscape is a strong Legendary photographer John Fielder joined forces with writer hike through Zion National character that matters to the Patrick Tierney to produce Colorado’s Yampa River: Free Flowing Park’s red sandstone canyons. story,” Gloria says. Someday, and Wild from the Flat Tops to the Green, a passionate call to That expedition was the hard- she hopes to work as a freelance preserve one of the West’s last untouched waterways. Fielder est physical thing she’s ever magazine journalist, special- and Tierney, a whitewater raft guide and head of the Yampa done, she says, but well worth izing in stories about environ- River Awareness Project, follow the river as it flows past sunlit it because it reconnected her mental crime and international wildflowers and rushes through echoing canyons.I n words and to the West. Born in Parker, wildlife poaching. images, they tell the Yampa’s story, from the Fremont Indian Colorado, Paige began her culture that flourished a thousand years ago to contemporary journalism career at The Du- battles over water use. So far, dam proposals for Echo Park and Cross Mountain have failed. Yet a new threat looms: a $5 billion rango Herald as an intern and project to divert water to Colorado’s Front Range. The story general assignment reporter resonates like an epic novel, as the protagonist — the Yampa before moving on to The Sum- itself — and its human allies fight to eepk these waters “free mit Daily in Frisco, where she flowing and wild.” covered science, the ski industry and local government. She is currently a master’s student at the University of Missouri Morgan & Lamar Greene | Lacey, WA Sally Sherman | Boise, ID School of Journalism, with Sally Greenleaf | Patagonia, AZ Robert Shimanek | Monticello, IA plans to graduate in December. Gary Grigsby | Columbia, MO Kristin Skoog | Colorado Springs, CO Her studies have taken her to Mike Grijalva | Issaquah, WA David Smith | Sandy, UT Costa Rica’s tropical dry forests Armand Groffman | Los Alamos, NM Donald Speakman | Grasonville, MD to report on drones and conser- Gary & Carolyn Haden | Manhattan, KS Douglas H. Sphar | Cocoa, FL vation, and landed her a gig at Douglas Hadra | Denver, CO Thomas St. Martin | Denver, CO the Bond Life Sciences Center, Victoria & Rich Hansen | Penrose, CO Mark Sterkel | Kanab, UT where she wrote about infec- Norman & Jane Hanson | Sedona, AZ Don Steuter | Phoenix, AZ tious disease, biochemistry and plant science. Jeff Helkenn | Denver, CO Dorothy H. Stewart | Greeley, CO But Paige missed Colorado’s Jeffrey Henry | Eau Claire, WI Chris Stidley & Ed Bedrick | Albuquerque, NM mountains and climate when Jacqueline & Robert Heyda | Monument, CO Kaarle Strailey | Palmer, AK she was in Missouri. “I love Ann Hinckley | Powell, WY Steve Strom | Sonoita, AZ the West. I love journalism, New interns Paige Blankenbuehler, Jacqueline & Richard Holmes | Occidental, CA Suzan Swarthout | Tacoma, WA and I love marrying those two left, and Gloria Dickie. Steve Hornback, Middle Earth Enterprises | Steven Taylor | Fremont, UT things,” she says. “This is a Brooke Warren Montezuma, CO Gary Tepfer | Eugene, OR George F. Hudson | Monroe, WA complicated place with lots of Mark & Bonnie Thompson | Custer, SD layers. It’s really fun sussing Clarification Marcia Hudson | Monmouth, OR Charles Tracey | Westwood, MA out the personality of a place and correction Dorothy Huene | Mount Pleasant, IA George H. Trudeau | Anchor Point, AK through its people.” The op-ed “Wyoming acts to Catherine Hunt | Enumclaw, WA Julius Uhrlaub | Littleton, CO Gloria Dickie has wanted to discourage citizen scientists” Donald Ivy | Coos Bay, OR Ann Ulrich Miller | Forks, WA be a journalist since she was (HCN, 6/8/15), ran with a Allen & Barbara Jackson | Meridian, ID Joy & Warren VanderHill | Muncie, IN just 14 years old, snapping pho- photo showing citizen science in Ian A. Jackson | Pinetop, AZ Dan & Amy Berbeten | Driggs, ID tos of sparkling Lake Louise on action –– not in Wyoming, how- Al & Pat Jefferson | Longmont, CO Dale Vodehnal | Denver, CO family trips to Banff National ever, but in Montana’s Glacier Erik Johnson | Boulder, CO Mary Ward | Montrose, CO Park in Alberta, Canada. Since National Park. Michael Johnson | Grass Valley, CA Bonnie S. Weathers | Pagosa Springs, CO then, Gloria, who is from Lon- Our photo essay on open- Robert & Kathleen Kelley | Meeker, CO Liz Webb & Barbara Newman | Eugene, OR don, Ontario, has covered urban air cremation in Colorado, Helen Kettle | Kooskia, ID Grant R. Weber | Naples, FL bear issues in the West, as well “Last remains” (HCN, 6/22/15), Reida & Charles Kimmel | Eugene, OR Jana Weber | Pinedale, WY as wildfire in Arizona, eastern overstated the amount of wood Tim King | Providence, UT Paul & Jory Westberry | Naples, FL Colorado and Montana. required for a cremation; it’s Donn Kuntz & Julie Boyle | Gill, CO Kath Weston | Charlottesville, VA Gloria earned a bachelor’s actually one-third of a cord. Severt & Mary Kvamme | Arvada, CO Mack Wilkinson | Beaverton, OR degree in media, information In addition, the Crestone End Allen Lang | Erie, CO Dennis Williams | Farmington, NM and technology and minored of Life project gives cremated Margaret Lecompte | Boulder, CO Judith Williams | Santa Fe, NM in geography at the Univer- remains only to family mem- Marian Leonard | Lakewood, CO Eric & Brandy Wilson | Boise, ID sity of Western Ontario, where bers, not the community. HCN Janet Lever-Wood & Dan Wood | Mancos, CO Pamela Wilson | Corvallis, OR she was one of the few female regrets the errors. Chuck & Francie Link | Boise, ID Sterling Wind | Denver, CO editors-in-chief during the 106-year history of the univer- Richard & Amy Linville | Emmett, ID Sandy Winkler | Fort Collins, CO —Gloria Dickie, sity’s daily student newspaper Paige Blankenbuehler Tony Lyon | Rifle, CO Jeff Winslow | Portland, OR — Canada’s largest. She has and Sarah Gilman Paul Mackesey | Kingman, AZ Barry Wolf | Dallas, TX since interned at National Geo- for the staff David & Margaret MacPhail | Santa Rosa, CA Daniel Wright | Fruitland, ID graphic and the Boulder Daily Katrina Mallams | Central Point, OR Cathleen Zick & Ken Smith | Salt Lake City, UT

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 n Thursday, July 17, 2014, as a lightning-sparked wildfire known as the Carlton Complex was swell- ing into the largest fire in Washington state history, Carlene Anders drove 15 winding miles up the The Methow Valley to try to save a house. By the time Oshe and the other members of the Pateros Volunteer Fire De- partment arrived, the fire was roaring through trees and shrubs on both sides of the valley. The afternoon sun glowed through clouds of soot and ash. Emergency vehicles lined the highway, Bigger and a helicopter whirred overhead, a bucket of water suspended from its belly. Anders, who was one of the first two female smokejumpers in the state of Washington, has been fighting fires in and around the Methow Valley for almost 30 years. But she was stunned by Burn the intensity of the Carlton Complex. “Wow,” she thought. “How are we ever going to control this?” A county recovers from Anders and her fellow crewmembers began to pull the hoses a record-setting wildfire off their engine, certain that downvalley, their own town was safe. Pateros is bordered on the south by Lake Pateros, a res- — and prepares for the next one ervoir on the Columbia River, and on the north by a high mesa topped with a 125-acre apple orchard belonging to the Gebbers family, Okanogan County’s largest private landowner. For three FEATURE By Michelle Nijhuis decades, the Gebbers orchard had served as an impenetrable

10 High Country News August 3, 2015 firebreak for Pateros. But that evening, the weather was unusu- When the volunteers heard the news, they piled into their ally dry, hot and windy, and the Carlton Complex, which had rigs and barreled, sirens wailing and lights flashing, down the started three days earlier as four separate fires, was moving narrow, twisting road toward Pateros. They covered the distance Outflanked with terrifying speed, covering more than an acre every four in just 12 minutes, but by the time they reached town, flames Where wildfire seconds. were spilling toward the houses at the base of the mesa. Though is overtaking us As the Pateros firefighters joined the battle, their depart- the sun was still up, it was as dark as night. ment chief, Jerry Moore, who was vacationing in Alaska, got a The firefighters began canvassing the town, using their Cumulative fatigue call from his son Eric in Pateros. engines’ loudspeakers to call on their neighbors to evacuate. What if wildfire The fire, Eric said, had just jumped the orchard. George Brady, a local fur buyer and trapper and the town’s may- season never ends? or pro tem, was carrying a pile of 19th-century fur-company re- Page 14 Okanogan County is used to wildfire. The nation’s first cords to his truck when the Pateros engine roared by his house. smokejumpers plummeted into its forests in 1939, and in recent He remembers hearing a voice crackle through the speakers: Aerial firefighting years residents have contended with some of the state’s largest “Drop that shit and get out of here!” He did. Is it worth it? and most damaging burns: The 2006 Tripod and Tatoosh com- Page 17 plexes, the 2003 Fawn Peak Complex, and the 2001 Thirtymile The Carlton Complex destroyed 131 homes within the Pa- Fire, which killed four firefighters. But not even Okanogan teros school district. The high school alone sustained nearly $2 The fast County was prepared for the Carlton Complex. million in damages. When the sun rose on Friday, July 18, the and the furious In Pateros, there had been no evacuation orders, no emer- town’s power was down, the water supply was drained, and the What we know gency alerts. From Alaska, Jerry Moore called his assistant ground was still warm underfoot. Most residents had fled to ho- about how plants chief, who was working alongside Anders, but cell service was tels, campgrounds, and the homes of friends and relatives. City burn spotty and Moore could not get through. Moore eventually Administrator Jord Wilson, who grew up in Pateros and now Page 18 reached his captain, who was able to alert the assistant chief by lives in nearby Brewster, crammed dozens of people into his and radio: Pateros and its 650 residents were in danger. his neighbor’s houses. (“They took turns cooking breakfast,” he

A firefighting helicopter amid the smoke of the Carlton Complex Fire, July 2014. Stephen Brashear

www.hcn.org High Country News 11 remembers.) Carlene Anders, like many of the volunteers, was unable to reach some of her own family members during the worst of the fire. She knew that her teenage daughter, also a volunteer firefighter, was helping evacuate the town, but not until 10:30 on Thursday night did she learn that her husband, son and elderly mother were safe. Her mother’s home — a family homestead that Anders helped build — had burned to the ground. The Carlton Complex would burn for another 38 days, eventually covering a record-breaking 256,108 acres — 400 square miles of public and private land. It destroyed 256 homes and 55 cabins. Its heat and speed gave it a kind of whimsi- cal cruelty: Some houses were reduced to blackened chimneys, while those next door were left untouched. That no one suffocated or burned to death in the fire was, in the months afterward, reflexively described as miraculous. (Robert Koc- “The further zewski, a retired state trooper, died of a we get into heart attack while defending his Methow Valley home; John Daniel “Danny” Geb- climate bers, the 84-year-old patriarch of the orchard family, never fully recovered from a change, concussion he suffered while fighting the the more fire on his property, and died in October.) The fire burned more than a thousand the system miles of public and private fencing, leaving orchards vulnerable to browsing deer. is going to It killed 900 head of cattle. It cut short the summer tourist season in the county’s especially dramatic example of a disturb- in the woods. Only about a quarter of tip toward mountainous northern end, forcing res- ing pattern: Over the last two decades, the area burned was forested. Half was climate- taurants and shops to lay off staff or even wildfires in the continental U.S. have shrubland, where the effects of fuel treat- shut their doors. It left the landscape lit- gotten larger, more damaging to homes ments are short-lived; the rest was grass- rather than tered with tons of burned cars, mattress and property, and more expensive to land, farmland, or sparsely vegetated. springs, and other debris. It closed high- fight. That’s partly because a century of Prescribed burning and large-scale thin- fuel-driven ways and interrupted cell and Internet fire suppression has created thick stands ning can still help contain fires and re- fires.” service for weeks; during the height of of trees and shrubs, and partly because duce their intensity, and researchers are the fire, reporters for the Methow Val- more people have moved into fire-prone currently studying the effects of previous —Dominick DellaSala, ley News filed handwritten stories while areas along the urban-wildland interface. fuel treatments within the forested area president and chief bathing in the river and cooking on camp But it’s also because the climate is chang- burned by the Carlton Complex. But fuel scientist, Geos Institute stoves. It exposed economic divides usu- ing. As extreme heat and drought become treatments were never designed to insu- ally obscured by topography and distance. more familiar in the West, fires are ignit- late humans from wildfire, and they’re Sandy Moody, who owns a bed and breaking more frequently and spreading more even less likely to do so now. fast in the small town of Twisp and vol- quickly. Fuel treatments — the deliberate In light of such changes, many West- unteered at the local emergency shelter, burning and large-scale thinning of veg- ern fire researchers are urging us to treat remembers a woman arriving in tears: etation in order to slow fire spread — are wildfires more like we treat floods and Her family had just saved up enough becoming less effective in some places. earthquakes: not as adversaries that can money to fill their freezer with meat, and “You can classify fire systems into two be mastered, but as inevitabilities for during the week-long power outage, ev- types, fuel-limited and climate-limited,” which we need to be far better prepared. erything spoiled. says Dominick DellaSala, president and Susan Prichard, a University of Wash- State records obtained by the Methow chief scientist of the nonprofit Geos In- ington forest ecologist who lives in the Valley News show that firefighters and stitute. “The further we get into climate northern end of the Methow, spoke to her equipment were stretched extremely change, the more the system is going son’s sixth-grade campout in September, thin during the early days of the fire, and to tip toward climate- rather than fuel- shortly after the Carlton Complex was many county residents believe more could driven fires, and the more the climate is finally contained. “One boy said, ‘So that have been done to control the fire and going to overwhelm what we can do to was bad, but we’re done with fires now, protect homes. Alex Thomason, a local minimize fire spread with fuel reduction.” right?’ I’ve spent my career trying to get lawyer, is preparing to file an $80 million In Okanogan County last July, an people to understand the importance of suit against the state Department of Nat- extremely dry spring and summer, com- fire, to understand its role in the ecosys- ural Resources on behalf of 205 residents, bined with above-normal temperatures, tem, but I got choked up when I had to charging that the department failed in its had left the forests and shrublands say, ‘No. No, we’re not done with fires.’ ” responsibility to contain the fires on its parched. High winds further stressed a land. (The department, which led the ear- thirsty landscape. On Monday, July 14, No one in Okanogan County expected ly response to the fire, has defended its when more than 2,400 lightning strikes catastrophe. Pateros’ disaster plan actions, pointing to the extreme weather hit northeastern Washington during a 12- was a generic guide distributed by the conditions.) hour period, the conditions on the ground county, and the fire department lacked It’s not clear if more initial resources were such that any spark or ember was the detailed local maps they needed to could have reduced the fire’s costs. What all but guaranteed to ignite. check on remote residences. Mayor Libby is clear is that the Carlton Complex is an And the Carlton Complex didn’t stay Harrison, who had been elected only six

12 High Country News August 3, 2015 months earlier and had little governing like the salmon streams and snowbound expecting someone else to take charge,” Brothers Jesús experience, resigned to help her own fam- winters and gentle meadows of blooming she remembers. But she kept showing (standing) and ily recover from its losses; George Brady, balsamroot. But the fire was a sprawling, up, in part because she felt indebted to Eric Gonzalez, mayor pro tem, whose family, home, and complicated, and enduring disaster, and her town. In 2002, when her son was above left, stand collection of historic trapping records es- it required a countywide response. For a born more than four months premature, at the remnants caped the flames, was sworn in to finish set of towns that knew each other as high Pateros rallied around her family, helping of the home they her term. school sports rivals, that wasn’t always Anders keep her business open and rais- rented in Pateros, Washington, During those first surreal hours and easy. ing money to defray more than $3 million after the Carlton days, the firefighters ate little and rested Anders was appointed to the Pateros in medical bills. (Her son, who weighed Complex Fire went less, trying to help fire victims while still town council after Brady’s promotion to less than two pounds at birth, is now a through July 17, answering panicked calls about smolder- mayor, and she met daily — sometimes healthy 12-year-old.) 2014. A year after ing stumps and spot fires. The city council twice daily — at the darkened town hall Though Anders had served on the the fire, research chambers were overwhelmed with donat- with other local leaders. The county’s board of the local ski school for many scientist Susan ed goods and offers of help. Mayor Brady lack of coordination was complicated by years, she had no political experience Prichard records called on Team Rubicon — a disaster- exhaustion, and by new fears: On Aug. 1, other than her brief time on the town data while doing relief organization founded and staffed the Rising Eagle Road Fire, near Twisp, council. Suddenly, she was coordinating field research in an area affected by the by military veterans — which sent a destroyed eight homes and interrupted a hundreds of volunteers and a bewilder- Carlton Complex 70-member incident command team and visit by Gov. Jay Inslee, who had flown in ing array of activities. “Just to get the fire near Twisp, a mobile computer lab. For the next 17 to see the aftermath of the Carlton Com- acronyms right was huge,” she says. In Washington. days, the Rubicon crew led cleanup ef- plex. Twenty-four hours later, a major late September, a church in the nearby David Ryder forts and collected the documentation windstorm caused more power outages. town of Wenatchee funded her position needed for federal emergency aid. “We On Aug. 21, when heavy rains hit bare with the Brewster-Pateros recovery or- told them we were going to flatten their hillsides on the eastern side of the county, ganization through the end of 2014. Soon trailer tires to get them to stay longer,” mudslides destroyed or damaged 15 more afterward, the county received two large Brady jokes. homes. anonymous donations that funded staff- Okanogan County, which is defined To manage its recovery, the county ing for both the local and county recovery on the south by the Columbia River and relied on an approach developed by a groups, and Anders was hired to lead the on the north by the Canadian border, national coalition of volunteer disaster- countywide group. was one of the last places in Washington assistance organizations: It established Last November, when I visited Pate- reached by white settlers. Even now, in two local long-term recovery organiza- ros, Anders seemed comfortable at the good weather, the twisting drive to Se- tions and an overarching recovery group helm. Early one Saturday morning, she attle over the North Cascades takes three for the county as a whole. The groups stood in a downtown parking lot dressed and a half hours; in bad weather, it is included both local officials and ordinary in jeans and a fire-department jacket, her impossible. The county’s 40,000 residents citizens, many of whom volunteered their hair in a practical ponytail and a smile live in a handful of tiny towns, each sepa- own time. on her broad face, welcoming a group of rated from the others by long, narrow Anders, who stepped up to head the sleepy AmeriCorps volunteers from all highway miles and a distinct sense of self. Brewster-Pateros Long-Term Recovery over the country. To many of those who move here from Organization, left her day-care business “Anyone here ever built fence?” An- busier places, the isolation — even the in the hands of her employees and volun- ders called out, grinning. Two tentative insularity — is part of the romance, just teered for 72 days straight. “I just kept hands went up. “Whoo-ee,” Anders teased.

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 Firefighters battle an April wildfire on a hillside in Los Angeles. Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters

more,” Bill Nelson, the undersheriff who oversees the firefighting program, says. When fires broke out in November or December, it would be a mad scramble to find enough people. Nelson would call everyone he knew, anyone who had said they could possibly be available. “We would just look for bodies,” he says. That meant that he often had inexperienced people, and not enough of them. So he applied for some grants and managed to get enough money to keep on a small crew of experienced firefighters year round. But he’s not sure it’ll be enough: The money’s not secure, and if more than one fire breaks out, his staff still gets stretched thin. State and federal agencies have started to make similar adjustments, hiring seasonal staff earlier and keeping helicopters and fire engines staged and ready to go throughout the year. For example, after a February wildfire burned 40 homes in the mountains near Bishop, California, and the state’s drought produced fire-ready conditions, CalFire, the state’s fire fighting agency, brought on seasonal firefighting staff almost two months early. It also kept on 70 fire engines through the winter, rather than the usual 10. Cumulative fatigue But those kinds of decisions have had their own repercussions, which affect What if wildfire season never ends? everything from agencies’ budgets and planning to firefighters’ personal lives. If hen Bob Johnson, wildfire division both now and in the future, in terms of fire agencies understaff during the winter Wmanager for the Washington Depart- manpower and money. and spring and fires break out during ment of Natural Resources, thinks about Firefighting generally used to fol- those times, they could face the situation past fire seasons, he does so with a certain low a semi-regular pattern: During the Nelson faced in the past, where they are “You just amount of nostalgia. There were some summer, the vast majority of wildfires forced to scramble to respond. If they things that used to be true, he knows, that were tackled by seasonal firefighters, overstaff and no fires materialize, they can’t staff all aren’t anymore — when and where the big typically college students. By fall, most are faced with payroll and resource costs, fires burn, for example. He used to think of them would have returned to school, with nothing to show. “You just can’t staff the time for a of the wet Washington coastal forests and fire agency staffing would be reduced all the time for a big disaster,” says Shane big disaster.” as “asbestos forests,” where fire rarely, to bare bones. There’d be a lull during Greer, the assistant director for risk man- if ever, gets going. And the winter and the winter, as fire risk dropped close to agement for the Forest Service’s Rocky Shane Greer, assistant early spring months used to be quiet and zero and fire managers took a breather. Mountain region. director for risk mostly fire-free, a time for him to catch his Then, as spring began, the planning and Nonetheless, his division is keeping management for the breath, talk to his staff and plan for the hiring stages kicked off, and by summer, its seasonal incident management teams Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain region coming infernos of summer. firefighters were back in the field. on call for an extra month. For firefight- But in recent years, he’s had to Today, that routine is shifting. Some ers, that means more months on the reconsider: Fire risk is now a reality on of the shifts are logistical: putting fire- ground and in the field. For fire manag- the coast, and his teams had already re- fighters up in hotels, rather than tents, ers, that means fewer of their traditional sponded to almost a hundred fires by the to stay warm when they’re fighting seasonal firefighters — college students first week of May this year. He’d had to winter wildfires, and recruiting nearby bound by school schedules — are able to deploy helicopters to a fire on April 8, the restaurants or vendors to feed emergency participate. As a result, Nelson in Lar- earliest he could remember in 33 years. responders when the usual food service imer County and others are considering “There is no true off-season anymore,” providers are off for the season. But what it would take to hire more profes- Johnson says. many of the shifts require re-examining sional firefighters. Wildfire managers from California to who to hire and when, what resources to But Greer has his own set of worries Colorado are starting to feel the same way. keep around — and how to pay for it all. about whether it’s safe for his staff to As the changing climate has disrupted the Take Larimer County in northeast maintain the pace that a lengthening fire typical seasonal weather patterns, they’ve Colorado, home to roughly 300,000 people season requires, which gives them fewer had to grapple with how that disrupts and, these days, at least a few “off season” opportunities to rest and recuperate. “If the human systems we’ve developed to fires. When a few of those wildfires got out you’re exhausted in the morning, you’re respond. The fire season is longer, and the of hand in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, not making crystal-clear decisions,” he winter months are no longer immune. In the county’s fire team began to realize says. “If we keep this up for too long, response, fire agencies are beginning to they needed some sort of plan to respond. people get tired. We start to wear them consider what it will take to deal with it, “It’s started coming up more and out.” Kate Schimel

14 High Country News August 3, 2015 “I’m seeing a lot of faces going, ‘OK, what Carlene Anders, am I in for?’ ” After dispensing encourage- above, volunteer ment, a few tips — “let the equipment firefighter and do the work” — and thanks, she left the executive director volunteers with Shane and Sarah Rinker, of the Carlton a young couple from the nearby town of Complex Long Cashmere who had trained as “disaster Term Recovery Group, trains on chaplains” through their church. a new water truck “Look, this is a big, big deal,” Shane at the Pateros Fire Rinker said. “Some of the people who Station in Pateros, have been through this fire, they’ve lost Washington in July, heirlooms, they’ve lost their great-grand- a year after the big pa’s shotgun, they’ve lost everything. fire devastated her They may say, ‘I don’t know why this hap- community. Above pened.’ ” left, Anders holds He looked sternly at his charges. “You a photograph of herself as a young don’t have any answers, so don’t try to smokejumper. come up with them. Say, ‘I don’t know At left, volunteer why this happened, but I’m so glad you’re firefighter Tyler safe, and we’re standing by you.’ ” Copenhaver displays an extensive tattoo As Anders organized volunteers in commemorating the Pateros, Mark Nelson shuffled through battle against the the ashes of the Carlton Complex, doing fire. David Ryder what he could to prepare his property for winter. Nelson, a 61-year-old carpenter said, ‘Remodel it with a match,’ ” Nelson the window and saw flames pouring over with a bad back and an artistic bent, said, laughing. “I guess that’s what hap- the nearest ridgeline. He scrambled out lives in the thinly populated hills above pened.” his front door and into the driver’s seat Brewster, Washington, about 10 miles Nelson is familiar with fire: Almost of his Plymouth Voyager, wearing noth- northeast of Pateros. On this blustery every summer, he watches smoke rise ing but a pair of jeans and carrying his Saturday, a group of volunteers from the from forest fires to the north. Last sum- ancient white housecat, Fluffy. A wave Seventh-day Adventist Church was help- mer, he kept an eye on the Carlton Com- of intense heat, moving ahead of the fire, ing him insulate his carport with a layer plex, and on the night the fire hit Pateros, ignited the grass and shrubs around him. of blueboard. The only remnant of his he reckoned that the flames were still He started the car, knowing he had just two-story wooden farmhouse was a pile about two days from his house. He had seconds to escape. of blackened boulders, part of its century- heard no calls to evacuate. Shortly after Blinded by the thick smoke, he soon old foundation. “Last year, when I was 7:30 p.m., he went to bed. ran off the road and stalled out in a thinking about selling the house, I asked When he awoke three hours later, his meadow. Barefoot, cat in arms, he hob- a realtor if I should remodel it, and he room was filled with light. He looked out bled back toward the road. There, from a

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 Mark Nelson poses for a portrait with his cat, Fluffy, next to the van he used to try to flee the Carlton Complex Fire, before crashing and abandoning it. Below, watercolors Nelson painted of the fire.Dav id Ryder

— though when they finally made it to he was spending a lot of time drinking the hospital, she got her own room. beer and looking out the window of his More than three-quarters of the carport. He had always loved the view households affected by the Carlton Com- from his property, but he had come to plex were uninsured or significantly un- hate the black clouds of dust and ash derinsured; Nelson’s home had not been that still rose on windy days, coating his eligible for fire insurance. He lives on dis- shoes and Fluffy’s paws, along with ev- ability payments. Since returning to his ery surface of his makeshift apartment. land late last summer, he had been camp- “Sometimes,” he said, “I’m really tempted ing in his carport, the only building still to leave.” standing on his property. He salvaged the woodstove from his farmhouse, and In her pickup truck, which functions bought a sink and a mattress with emer- as a mobile office, Carlene Anders keeps gency funds from local churches and re- a copy of a graph showing the emotional lief organizations. He bought dimensional phases of disaster. First come the initial lumber, and began to divide the carport highs of survival and community cohe- into rooms. He added an old television sion, followed by a jagged drop into disil- and a single battered chair. lusionment, followed by a slow, unsteady, In November, the Plymouth Voyager and indefinitely long rise toward recovery that Nelson and Fluffy abandoned on the and reconstruction. Along the way are night of July 17 listed on a nearby hill- “trigger events,” such as anniversaries, side, its frame a black and empty shell. that remind survivors of the disaster and Still inside were Nelson’s boots, which its costs. When I returned to Okanogan small crest where the air was relatively he’d grabbed when he left his house but County in May, 10 months after the fire clear, he saw that the flames had already hadn’t had time to put on; the heat of the began, the county was still climbing to- overwhelmed his house. A young doe fire had melted their soles to the floor. ward recovery. “We’re not even close to emerged from the smoke, followed by five The day before the fire hit, he had loaded getting people back to where they were,” quail and a pair of chukars. The animals the cargo space with paintings — his Anders said. “The volume of loss is just stood nearby as Nelson crouched on the own, his mother’s, his late wife’s — but too great.” dirt, shielded his cat as best he could, and all that was left of them was a pile of ash Directing the county-wide recovery braced for the fire to pass over them all. and broken glass. organization still required about 80 hours The speed of the Carlton Complex, Like almost everyone else affected a week. Anders’ husband, Gene Dowers, a combined with some fortunate geogra- by the Carlton Complex, Nelson was postal worker with his own heavy sched- phy, probably saved Nelson’s life: He and still talking about his experience. As he ule, had long since taken over all the Fluffy waited out the flames in a shallow walked toward help that night, he said, household chores. (In the spring, he had dip in the road, where the air was rela- embers sparkled across both sides of the joined the volunteer fire department, in tively cool. (Days later, on the next rise, valley — red, yellow, even blue. The flick- part to see more of his wife and daugh- he would find a handful of pennies that ering carpet of light against the black sky ter.) Anders and her colleagues had testi- had been blackened and twisted almost was, he said, spectacularly beautiful. He’d fied to the state Legislature and met with beyond recognition.) He escaped with like to paint it, he said, but he hadn’t the governor in Olympia, and they had second-degree burns on his arms and but- done so yet. hosted visits from members of the state’s tocks. Fluffy suffered only a wounded ego Instead, as the temperature dropped, congressional delegation and their staff.

16 High Country News August 3, 2015 They had attended hundreds of meet- ings and put thousands of miles on their vehicles. “I’ve gotten a whole college degree in the past nine months,” she said. “I’ve had to come up 100 percent in politics, 100 percent in disaster recovery, 100 percent in just about everything you can think of.” Forty-two families who lost their homes in the fire — and who had been uninsured or underinsured — were still waiting to rebuild. Volunteers from a small Amish congregation in Montana had just poured foundations for four of the first 11 homes, and volunteers from the Mennonite Disaster Service as well as Methodist and Presbyterian church groups would soon arrive to help with “We had put construction. For Anders and her colleagues — who had raised money for some things materials, dealt with county inspections, and frequently pitched in with their own in the truck, muscle — the groundbreakings were a A DC-10 very large air tanker drops fire retardant above Greer, Arizona. milestone. Jayson Coil (www.jaysoncoil.com) photo Courtesy U.S. Forest Service; Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest thinking we The cavernous emergency distribution would be able center in Pateros, which for months had been filled with clothing, baby equipment to evacuate. and other essentials, was almost empty. Aerial firefighting But after I Distribution center organizer Cindy Cook Is it worth it? reported that most people were stopping saw that, by to pick up tools, or large furniture and hen large wildfires blaze, the Aerial firefighting is expensive. appliances for their rebuilt homes. Some public counts on airplanes to put Tankers cost upwards of $6,000 per I thought, wanted camping gear so that they could W them out. Pilots fly air tankers over hour to operate. The slurry itself guard their new homes during construc- ‘This is about mountainous terrain and drop fire averages about $2 per gallon, and the tion. “People are starting to come in and retardant — up to nearly 12,000 gal- Forest Service used almost 9 million say, ‘I got to take a shower in my own survival.’ ” lons per trip — onto the dense forests gallons of it last year. Forest Service house!’ ” she said. below. The bursts of red slurry bring Chief Tom Tidwell recently predicted —Cindy Cook, Memories of the fire, however, were hope to those whose homes are imper- that high fire-suppression costs for Brewster, Washington, still fresh: Cook and her husband, John, resident iled. Politicians and the media thrill the 2015 season will divert funds from who live outside Brewster, near Mark at the sight and clamor for more. But other important agency programs. Nelson, were trapped at home during the is it safe? And is it effective enough to Andy Stahl, director of Forest worst of the fire. Cook recalled watching justify the high costs? Service Employees for Environmental her husband as he stood atop their wood- The U.S. Forest Service, which saw Ethics, has criticized aerial firefight- pile, garden hose in hand, while 60 feet its large air tanker fleet shrink to just ing. “They must have a lot of money to above his head, the fire-heated air roiled nine planes in 2012, has 20 air tankers spend — to waste,” he says of Colora- as if it were boiling in a pot. “We had put on exclusive-use and call-when-needed do’s air corps budget. Stahl claims that some things in the truck, thinking we contracts for the 2015 season, plus fighting fire from the air is not only would be able to evacuate,” she said. “But one under Forest Service operation. expensive, dangerous and environmen- after I saw that, I thought, ‘This is about Spokeswoman Jennifer Jones said the tally harmful, but that it has yet to be survival.’ ” agency is working to bring up to 28 air proven to work. Though the Carlton Complex left a tankers into service. Last May, Colo- Forest Service experiments have lot of bare hillsides, there is plenty of fuel rado Gov. John Hickenlooper approved demonstrated that retardants can still in the area, and given the dry winter, a $21 million budget for the state to reduce fire intensity and spread up to warm spring, and hot summer, the county develop its own aerial firefighting twice as effectively as water. But in could well see more severe fires soon. So fleet of helicopters, spotter planes and 2011, Stahl’s group did a correlational as Anders and others nudge the recovery small retardant-dropping air tankers. study using Forest Service data that effort forward, they’re preparing for fu- California, currently the only state to found retardant use had no effect on ture disasters, too. have its own firefighting fleet, has 22 wildfire size or initial attack success The county has implemented a re- air tankers, 12 helicopters and 14 air rates. (Jones said a new study hopes verse-911 system for evacuation alerts, tactical planes. to address the data deficit, but data and is encouraging more homeowners to But unpredictable atmospheric collection will need to continue for not only build with fire-resistant materi- conditions make flying over wildfires several more years.) als but also clear brush and prune trees difficult and dangerous. Thirty-seven Once a big fire is burning, there’s no within a 200-foot “ignition zone” around firefighters have died in aerial fire- time to pause and debate issues of ef- their homes — steps which repeated fighting accidents in the last decade. If fectiveness or cost, however. “If a house studies have shown do more to protect similar casualty rates prevailed on the burns down and you failed to use a 747 individual houses than large-scale fire- ground, the Forest Service found, more that could dump dollar-a-gallon fancy suppression or fuel treatment efforts. than 200 ground firefighters would die fertilizer water because you didn’t (The Cooks had followed the national every year. And the slurry, which is rich think it would make any difference, you Firewise guidelines for landscaping and in nitrogen, can harm fish, wildlife and shouldn’t be fighting fires,” Stahl says. construction, which almost certainly watersheds, despite agency guidelines “You will get clobbered politically when made it possible for them to save their to prevent drops onto vulnerable areas. that house burns.” Kelsey Ray home.) The county conservation district

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 has coordinated efforts to revegetate burned, mudslide-prone slopes. The fast and the furious Just as important as such concrete measures, Anders says, are the formal What we know about how plants burn and informal networks built after the fire — within the county and without. t’s rare for the rainforest to catch fire; individual vegetation types. Instead “When we have to get a helicopter here, Ithe Pacific Northwest’s old-growth of looking at a group, like timber, as a when we have to get the Red Cross here, forests are some of the wettest places whole, Jolly examines the individual we’ll know who to call, and we’ll be call- in North America. But this year, the needles of a ponderosa pine. How quick- ing people we know intimately and per- Olympic Peninsula saw its driest spring ly a plant ignites, and gets wet or dries, sonally,” Anders says. “That is really the in over a century, and in late May, a bolt he explains, is directly related to its key — having that spiderweb of contacts of lightning ignited the desiccated lichen surface-area-to-volume ratio. “The fast- that you can access right away.” and timber of the Queets River Drainage est way to cook something is to flatten Relationships at the most local level in Washington’s Olympic National Park. it out,” he says. “By flattening it out, you have changed, too. “You think you know Since then, the Paradise Fire has increase the surface area and therefore your neighbors,” she says, “but you don’t burned more than 1,600 acres, and the contact with heat.” know them until you’re sitting across fire officials expect it to continue until That makes lichen, for example, the table from them and they’re telling the end of summer. Much of the blaze incredibly flammable, far more than any you about the pictures that they lost, the has been spread by lichen, a composite other vegetation group. Moreover, unlike insurance they didn’t have, all the things symbiotic organism generally made up timber, which can take weeks to dry that are bothering them. of fungus and algae. Lichen mantles out, lichen can dehydrate in minutes. “We know each other like we’ve never the forest’s centuries-old Sitka spruce, But just because lichen ignites quickly, known each other before — and I can tell western hemlock and Douglas-fir, form- doesn’t mean it causes the most intense you, these people will cover each other ing ladders that flames easily crawl up. fires. Very hot fires need a large volume for decades. There is generational sup- When those ladders collapse, fallen logs of fuel, or vegetation, to sustain them. port in these relationships.” provide more fuel and intensify the fire. That makes timber the most dangerous The cultural contradiction at the Lichen and mosses are unusual culprits. vegetation group. heart of the rural West — stubborn Typically, fires are driven by one of four Although the Pacific Northwest’s individualism combined with a deeply 700 vegetation groups — grass, shrub, slash forests are home to both lichen and ingrained expectation of government or timber. But climate change and an al- massive stands of old-growth timber, support — may have met its match in tered fire cycle mean different fuel types fires there are typically restrained by large, destructive fires like the Carlton are now carrying fires, and that makes other ambient factors, including rainfall. Complex. While many in Okanogan it all the more urgent for scientists to But as the drought persists and climate County still treasure their independence, 600 understand each species. change alters humidity levels, rainfor- many now recognize the value of interde- Matt Jolly, at the Missoula Fire est fires could become more frequent. pendence, among their communities and Sciences Laboratory in Montana, is one “It really depends what happens in the beyond county boundaries. And though of the only researchers in the world climate over the next 30 years,” Jolly questions linger about last summer’s 500 attempting to model fire behavior after says. Gloria Dickie state and federal firefighting efforts, there’s a growing sense that wildfires are no longer just someone else’s responsibility. Modern wildfires require more of 400 everyone—not only of federal, state and ) 3 local governments, but also of homeown-

/cm More surface Area = faster BURN Lichen ers and neighborhoods. 2 n A sampling of species Since 2009, the Department of the In- 300 n G rass leaves terior and the Department of Agriculture Deciduous leaves n have been developing a new wildland n Conifer needles fire management strategy — usually referred to as the “Cohesive Strategy” 200 — that emphasizes community prepara-

n hemlock tion. “We’ve evolved from saying ‘We can n white pine get it done’ to recognizing that shared

yptus responsibility is absolutely critical,” 100 Wester Wester

odgepole pine odgepole says David Calkin, a Forest Service fire L ass researcher. Community preparation not only protects homes but may also relieve heatgr ean surface ratio (in cm area-to-volume

persistent local and state pressure on the Witches hair Medusahead Wheatgrass Pinegrass Fescue C larchWestern Aspen Grand fir Douglas-fir Eucal pine Ponderosa spruce Engelmann M 0 Forest Service to fight essentially untam- able fires — which would, in turn, save money, reduce firefighter risk, and allow (under similar environmental conditions) fires to finally regain their place in BURNS FASTEST the ecosystem. This summer, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is preparing to introduce leg- islation that would, among other measures, build on the Cohesive Strategy by providing financial assistance to counties that protect existing houses and priori- Lichen Cheatgrass Aspen Engelmann spruce tize development in areas with lower fire risk. At the same time, Western gover- nors, including Inslee, are calling on the BURNS HOTTEST Federal Emergency Management Agency Sources: Matt Jolly, Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory; James K. Brown, Ratios of Surface Area to Volume for Common Fuels, 1969. Photos cc via Flickr by, from left, Scott Darbey, Jim Kennedy/nature80020, maren, Sancho McCann 18 High Country News August 3, 2015 Volunteer firefighters, including Carlene Anders, center, and her husband Gene Dowers, left, run from the spray of water during a training session with a new water truck at the Pateros Fire Station. Below, a singed water tank above town. David Ryder to change its criteria for individual as- belonging to an orchard-supply company, sistance so that wildfire victims are more scaling ladders to break out windows likely to qualify for aid. (FEMA did fund and douse the buildings’ interiors with repairs to public highways, bridges and water. The weather was extremely hot other infrastructure damaged by the and windy, just as it had been during the Carlton Complex, but rejected a request Carlton Complex, making every spark a for funds to help individuals and families, threat. At one point, when Anders and a in part because the fire affected relatively fellow firefighter stopped to rest, a two- few people over an extremely large area.) inch-long ember landed on her compan- Both Inslee and Cantwell support using ion’s rubber oxygen mask and started to money from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund melt it. to fight very large wildfires, a reform in- tended to end the practice of emergency Mark Nelson spent the winter on his “fire borrowing” from the Forest Service’s property outside Brewster. The weather fire prevention and forest health pro- was relatively mild, so his carport re- grams. mained livable, and he more or less got Behind each of these efforts is the used to the soot. Every day, he cut and same basic argument: Big, fierce wildfires split downed timber for firewood for as will be with us for the foreseeable future, long as his back allowed, then switched to and reducing their human costs requires reading, though he found that the trauma preparation and coordination — at every of the fire had diminished his attention level. span. As the weather warmed, he slowly Few in Okanogan County need con- built a small porch on the end of his vincing. “The kids at my day care are still carport. He even went looking for a tele- playing fire,” Anders says. “Even if they phone pole that, on the night of the fire, skunk tracks on his morning walks. But were just 2 years old at the time, they had toppled toward and almost broken there were plenty of songbirds and plenty know where they were. They’re playing through the windshield of the fire truck of quail, and many of the enormous games where they pack up their suitcases that rescued him. He sawed up the pole poplars that once shaded his farmhouse and go to the hotel because they’ve lost and turned it into a replacement support had survived. A skinny ponderosa pine their home.” The adults are also on alert, for his neighborhood’s mailboxes. that he’d given up for dead had recently she adds. “When we go to do a fire drill, When I returned to visit Nelson in sprouted fresh needles. by golly, it’s a fire drill. My employees mid-May, his burned-out Voyager had Nelson didn’t plan to apply for one want to know where the car seats are, sunk even more deeply into its meadow. of the new houses being built by the re- where the keys are, where the backpacks But a carpet of green grass had grown on covery group. Other people needed them of supplies are.” the valley floor, and Nelson was delight- more, he grumbled, and he was pretty On June 28 of this year, a grass fire ed. “Don’t you know what this means?” comfortable. “I think I’ll stay,” he said. He on the northwestern edge of Wenatchee he said. “Every time I walk across it, it waved at the view from his porch, still spread quickly into town, destroying 29 cleans my shoes. You have no idea how stunningly expansive despite the linger- Michelle Nijhuis, a longtime contributing homes and severely damaging several fun it is.” ing traces of soot. “I could never replace editor of High businesses. Anders and other members of The weeds were coming back, too, and this.” Country News, writes the Pateros Volunteer Fire Department there wasn’t as much native bitterroot as from White Salmon, worked through the night to try to save there had been before the fire. He hadn’t This story was funded with reader donations to Washington. Follow a fruit-packing plant and a warehouse yet seen any mountain lion, bear or the High Country News Research Fund. her @nijhuism.

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 MARKETPLACEALA

Notice to our advertisers: You can The Wyoming Outdoor Council is seeking The successful candidate will report to the accelerate investment in watershed health place classified ads with our online classi- a director of external relations to help achieve Board of Directors and be responsible for and wildfire risk reduction in Colorado and fied system. Visit hcn.org/classifieds. Aug. its mission through engagement with decision leadership of all aspects of the organization potentially across the American West. The 3 is the deadline to place your print ad in makers, including government, nonprofit and including fundraising, planning and pro- Exchange Director will be housed at the CCC the Aug. 17 issue. Call 800-311-5852, or business leaders. This individual will build grams, fiscal management, personnel, admin- and co-supervised by The Nature Conservancy e-mail [email protected] for help or in- strong relationships and serve as a primary istration and Board relations. The President (TNC). The mission of The Nature Conservan- formation. For more information about our contact for state and federal elected officials, will also provide leadership within the con- cy is to conserve the lands and waters on current rates and display ad options, visit Wyoming’s governor and policy staff, key reg- servation community at large. For a detailed which all life depends. The mission of the hcn.org/advertising. ulatory agency staff and business leaders job description, qualifications and details on CCC is to understand and achieve conserva- working in the natural resources, energy, rec- submitting an application for this position tion through collaboration to sustain people reation, and travel and tourism sectors. S/he visit our website: y2y.net. and the natural communities they depend Business Opportunities will monitor and engage in legislative and upon. To apply and view a full position de- regulatory issues and ensure that environ- Executive Director — The Quivira Coalition, scription, please visit: jobs.colostate.edu/ Conservationist? Irrigable Land? Stellar mental interests and the Outdoor Council’s a nonprofit dedicated to building resilience postings/16050. seed-saving NGO is available to serious part- views and opinions are represented and well in Western working landscapes, is seeking an ner. Package must include financial support. understood. The external relations director executive director to provide inspired leader- Membership Coordinator —The Southwest Details: http://seeds.ojaidigital.net. will work to defend, improve and cultivate ship and management. The ideal candidate Environmental Center seeks a part-time Mem- environmental policies and laws that protect will have seven or more years of leadership ex- bership Coordinator to increase our mem- conferences and events public health, as well as Wyoming’s public perience within a highly respected organiza- bership and manage membership programs. Oct. 7-10, 2015, SHIFT Festival, lands, wildlife, air and water. The successful tion, the skills necessary to build bridges and Responsibilities include: membership devel- Jackson, Wyo. An in-depth exploration of candidate will be able to identify opportuni- consensus among diverse constituencies, and opment, communications, fundraising, and outdoor access, responsible recreation, con- ties to improve and implement sound con- the vision and creativity to develop effective outreach. Visit www.wildmesquite.org to view servation leadership and youth engagement servation policies and defend the effective programming. For a full job description, see job description. for communities striving to live in balance policies we already have on the books. For a quiviracoalition.org/About_Us/Quivira_Ex- with nature. Tickets at www.shiftjh.org. full job description, go here: ecutive Search/index.html. To apply, send a Field Organizer —The Southwest Environ- wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org/about/job-op- résumé, cover letter and contact information mental Center seeks a part-time field orga- Sixth Annual Roundtable on the Crown of portunities/. for three professional references to the Qui- nizer based in Las Cruces to mobilize public the Continent Conference, Missoula, Mont., vira Coalition, Attn: Board of Directors, 1413 support for our campaigns to protect native Sept. 16-18, 2015. Please visit www.crown- President — The Yellowstone to Yukon Second Street Suite 1, Santa Fe, NM 87505, wildlife and wildlands in the Southwest. Ex- roundtable.org/6thconference2015.html. Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) is a joint Cana- [email protected]. perience preferred but not required. Details da-U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission at wildmesquite.org. EMPLOYMENT to connect and protect wildlife habitat from The Center for Collaborative Conserva- Yellowstone to Yukon so people and nature tion (CCC) at Colorado State University is HEALTH and WELLNESS WorkInFarming.com — Where job seekers can thrive. The organization is seeking a Pres- seeking an innovative leader and manager Colorado Aromatics cultivated skin care and farmers connect. Facebook, Twitter, Linke- ident passionately committed to large-scale to become the founding Director of the Col- Natural botanical farm-to-skin products, lav- din, Google+. conservation and possessing the vision, skills orado Conservation Exchange. The Exchange ender products and gifts. and other attributes necessary to build on is a watershed investment fund designed to past successes with new accomplishments. www.coloradoaromatics.com.

20 High Country News August 3, 2015 MARKETPLACE

Enjoy a healthier lifestyle! Experience Seat-weaving supplies — Chair cane, reed publications and books Near Taos, N.M. — 20 acres in a high-desert the LIVING ENERGY of Therapeutic Grade-A splint, Shaker tape, fiber and natural rush. sustainable community. Perfect site to build by Mac Griffith. A quarky Essential Oils. Unadulterated — no pesticides. Complete line of basketmaking supplies. Read Lyric River, your off-grid home. Borders BLM land, spec- novel, radiating charms. Organically grown. Proprietary distilling meth- Waxed linen cord. Royalwood Ltd., 517-HCN tacular mountain views, sunrises, sunsets and http://amzn.to/1EbtiNs. ods. Business opportunity. Woodville Road., Mansfield, OH 44907. night skies. Property on a private well-main- www.theOilSolution.com. 800-526-1630. www.RoyalwoodLtd.com. tained road. Reasonable covenants, Internet REAL ESTATE FOR SALE and cell services available. Price includes Are you or someone you care about addict- Renewable Energy Products For Remote 200 acres with water and utilities, share in community well. $35,000. Contact ed to something? Anything? Homes — Solar water pumping, back- Orangeburg, S.C. Artesian wells, springs; Addie at 573-355-4751 or Explore www.sidetripsfromcowboy.com. up power systems. Visit our websites: running streams; 10-acre pond; natural eco- [email protected]. www.oasismontana.com, www.PVsolarpumps. system. Protected from major storms year- com, www.LPappliances.com, www.grid-tie. round. Unlimited possibilities: equestrian Earthship for sale — Two-bedroom, one- home and garden com or call toll-free for information: 877-627- sports; specialty farming; bed and breakfast; bath, garage, 20 miles north of Steamboat 4768. retreat; winery; water sports recreation; Springs, Colo. Top-notch condition. Freedom Ranger Hatchery, Inc. Hatch- 970-879-5898. ing year-round. Freedom ranger chickens/ fishing and hunting. Commuting distance black broilers, bantam silkies, French guin- For Sale — Tiny Tech Screw Oil Press / Oil Ex- to Charleston, Aiken, Columbia, horse and peller. 22” x 4”, 125 kg/hour capacity. 10hp golf events; seven miles to nearest airport. Jewel home in the Wind River Country! eas, khaki campbell/white muscovy ducks. Set in an elbow of the North Fork of Popo 717-336-4878. 220v motor. New, unassembled. $2000 OBO. Janet Loder, 425-922-5959. 970-568-9896. [email protected]. Agie River, three miles north of Main Street, www.freedomrangerhatchery.com. Lander, Wyo. Sixteen-plus acres of mature trees, spring-fed creek flowing into ponds Lunatec® self-cleaning washcloths and personals 17.5 acres-off grid — Water and elec- tric available. Ideal for earthship-bale and and the river, providing a wealth of wildlife: odor-free dishcloths are amazing. They have Green Singles dating site — Meet sin- Trout, geese, fox, pheasants, nesting great less bacteria, no smell and offer more conve- gles who value green living, holistic health, passive solar. No adverse building codes. Sunny, mild western Colorado. Lush agri- horned owls and other birds. 360 degrees of nience. Live healthier. 858-653-0401. sustainability, alternative energy, spiritual inspiring views surrounding the exceptional www.lunatecgear.com. growth. www.GreenSingles.com. cultural valley, little snow, surrounded by mountains. Great views. Youthful retirement 3,500 square-foot, five-bedroom, three-bath community provides invigorating culture. Elk, home. Large barns and corrals for horse and Navajo rugs — Display your textiles! Na- animal lovers. Owners retiring to simpler life- vajo rugs, quilts and other weavings. Hand- professional services deer, turkeys enjoy site. $135,000. O.W.C. Bill: 970-527-7255. style. Wonderful home for entertaining or forged wrought iron and aspen-pole systems. Expert land steward — Available now for just enjoying day-to-day Life. $985,000. Call All sizes. Wall-mounted and free-standing. site conservator, property manager. View Former HCN editor or email for additional information and pho- www.TwinRavenZ.com. “Made in a good way.” résumé at: http://skills.ojaidigital.net. Bozeman, Mont. — offering his house for rent beginning this tos. Bill and Catheron Oviatt: 307-349-2576. [email protected]. Aggrand natural organic fertilizers. Ex- fall, nice three-bedroom, two-bath on one Wildland Fire Services — Planning, Re- acre with views, near university, downtown, ceptional bio-based/OMRI-certified liquid views, Litigation, www.blackbull-wildfire.com. concentrates for lawn, garden, orchards, for- trails, rivers and skiing, unfurnished, $1,750/ age, agriculture. Retail/wholesale/resale. month. Contact Ray at [email protected]. 877-486-7645. www.natural-fertilizers.com.

www.hcn.org High Country News 21 MARKETPLACE

Buy my property — Complete the dream! Mountain living — Beautiful home located House and orchard for sale near Olathe, tours and travel 35-plus-or-minus-acre ranch in the San Luis on four-and-one-half acres outside of Dubois, Colo. Land is agricultural and beautiful. 125 Luxury Adventure Trips — Passionate hills of southern Colorado. Area that’s fenced Wyo. Amazing views across the Wind River acres of rural acreage. Well-landscaped with about exploring the world? Love kayaking, contains singlewide titled trailer, state-ap- Valley to the Absaroka Mountains. Borders great view. 150 feet rural acreage, perked gentle hiking, climbing, whale watching, sa- proved well, wood-frame metal barn with the Shoshone National Forest with abundant and approved. Town water. Utilities available. faris or cultural tours? Who you travel with concrete floor. Annual taxes $550. Remote - wildlife. Close to Grand Teton and Yellow Fully permitted. Three city-water hookups matters: www.luxuryadventuretrips.com, site with beautiful mountain views. Lacks stone national parks. 4,200 square feet with available. Four-bedroom, two-and-one-half 866-318-5396. electricity, septic, water/trailer connection. four bedrooms, two full baths, two half baths, baths. Contemporary. Secluded site. 7049 Has deferred maintenance. Please call Anna large workshop, three-car garage, office, High Mesa Rd., Olathe, Colo. $795,000. Get to know where we love to go on the [email protected]. at 720-273-2968 for further discussion. fireplace, radiant floor heat, passive solar Colorado Plateau. Learning adventures for exposure, beautiful wood floors throughout. you, your family, tour group, board or school Energy-efficient home on five-plus acres, $569,000. For more information and photos, Pecos River Farm — 35 minutes from Santa group. Canyonlands Field Institute, Moab, 20 minutes north of Greeley, Colo. 8.8 kW email [email protected]. Fe. 509 feet of Pecos River frontage. Fishing, Utah. www.cfimoab.org, 1-800-860-5262 for photovoltaic system supplies electricity for swimming, water rights, irrigation, orchard, scheduled and private custom trip planning. home and e-car, six-inch walls, R-46 attic in- Heart of The Wood River Valley — chickens. Home, cottage, library. Health is- The 273 plus-or-minus acre historic Sunshine sulation, mature five-row windbreak and xeri- sues, must sell. $239,000. 575-421-7000. Coming To Tucson? Popular vacation Ranch is blessed with one mile of river, com- scaped yard. 288 square-foot screened porch, house, everything furnished. Rent by day, plete seclusion, panoramic mountain views, 500 square-foot basement woodshop, 220V You know you love Bluff! Energy saving, week, month. Two-bedroom, one bath. Large abundant wildlife, peace and quiet. Wooded wiring, dedicated exterior materials door. 96 artisan home that dreams are made of. Solar enclosed yards. Dog-friendly. Contact Lee at acreage, fertile springs, meadows and aspen square-foot greenhouse, 480 square-foot gar- panels, passive solar, and wind power. Amaz- [email protected] or 520-791-9246. den/storage shed, fenced garden. Oversized thickets perfectly accommodate deer, elk, ing scenic views, 2.42 acres. Four-bedrooms, garage. Wheelchair-accessible. 2,630 square moose, crane and other varieties of waterfowl. Three-and one-half baths. 320 N. 300 W. Five-day Colorado River trips feet, two-bedroom, one finished bath, one Easily access public lands, including national Bluff, Utah. $499,000. Call Realtor Valerie and more. 2015 schedule now available. roughed-in. Open floor plan with large kitchen. forest, and experience unparalleled hiking, Brown 435-260-2808 Arches Real Estate AdventureBoundUSA.com or 800-423-4668. Built 1997. Contact Donn or Julie, juliedonn@ hunting, horseback riding and recreation op- Group for this and other listing in southeast- what-wire.com, or text/phone 970-397-4711. portunities. Fish anytime your heart desires, ern Utah. bit.ly/1C0afth. Explore Colorado National Monu - on either side of the river. Enjoy playing the ment! Miles of pristine on and off-road biking and hiking. Redbikeretreat.com. Western Colorado — Two-bedroom, two-and well-maintained, smartly designed croquet Live in HCN’s hometown —2.5 acres, south Favorite location: Little Park Road. one-half baths. Mediterranean elegance in an court. Recent land and water rights surveys facing lot in Hawk’s Haven, secluded green 970-216-7543. efficient custom home on 13.3 acres at the are in place. Oh, yes — there is a gorgeous neighborhood. Views of West Elks, domestic/ northern edge of the San Juan Mountains. 4,900-square-foot residence as well, but you irrigation water, utilities, community garden. Kitchen fireplace. In-floor heat. Two-bedroom, won’t spend much time in it. $3,000,000. Adjoins 33 miles of BLM single track. $129k. Bluff, Utah — Vacation rental: Contact plus loft. Office/flex spaces. Hundred-mile Call for a private showing. BHHS Brokerage #703946 970.527.4877. 505-598-5593 or [email protected]. views. Dark skies. Quiet rural valley equidis- West, Inc., 877-443-6234, CodyLiving.com, tant to Ridgway and Montrose. $450,000. YouTube: Sunshine Ranch, WY. [email protected].

22 High Country News August 3, 2015 WRITERS ON THE RANGE

It’s time to end Custer worship As the rebel flag of Dixie disappears June 139 years ago, unwisely launched a of the few times in human history when from prominent public flagstaffs, surprise attack against an encampment a battlefield got named after a military questions are being asked about other of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho along strategist who committed a catastrophic symbols of defiance. For example, is it the Little Bighorn River. blunder. Only in the wake of many appropriate to display statues of Confed- At that spot in Montana, an unre- decades of simmering protest was the erate Civil War generals, some of whom markable hill that rises now above Inter- name changed and a monument built on were members of the Ku Klux Klan and state 90, Custer paid the ultimate price the site to recognize and honor the Na- outspoken in their racist views? by hastening his own demise. His hubris tive American warriors who fought and It’s easy for us Westerners to wag cost the lives of 267 others, not including died there, repelling attackers hell-bent fingers of political correctness at those Native American casualties. on their slaughter. states south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Should Custer be celebrated as a Custer graduated last in his class of OPINION criticizing their legacy of race relations. hero of conquest or recast as the big- 34 cadets at West Point and, according BY Todd But we have our own messy history to oted, egotistical, narcissistic villain he to historians, racked up one of the worst Wilkinson deal with, a conundrum we’ve never real- apparently was? Does he deserve to have records of personal conduct ever accumu- ly addressed. It’s left us with some giant his name attached to towns, counties, lated at the military academy. Vainglori- blind spots in our thinking about regional a state park and a national forest, or ous, prone to insubordination, insecure and craving attention, Custer got on the wrong side of President Ulysses Grant. Before he fled West, hoping to pad his résumé with a few bloody triumphs over Indians, Custer had pursued a book deal in New York and contemplated seeking high elected office. Once in the West, he drifted from his post and finally went AWOL. He violated treaties forged in sacred trust between the U.S. government and indigenous tribes, and he led a ruthless attack on a Cheyenne village, killing several women and children. Recently, New York Times columnist David Brooks addressed the reassess- ments now being made of Confederate supreme commander Robert E. Lee. “Every generation has a duty to root out the stubborn weed of prejudice from the culture. We do that, in part, through expressions of admiration and disdain,” he wrote. “Given our history, it seems right to aggressively go the extra mile to show that prejudice is simply unaccept- able, no matter how fine a person might otherwise be.” Custer never was that fine a person. In the end, Brooks concludes, “We should remove Lee’s name from most schools, roads and other institutions, where the name could be seen as acceptance of what he did and stood for during the war.” George Armstrong As Westerners, let us ask ourselves: Custer in 1865. Civil Why should members of the U.S. Cav- War collection, Prints alry who committed racially motivated & Photographs Division, atrocities against Native people during Library of Congress, LC- the “Indian Wars” be treated any differ- BH831- 1314. ently from Lee? Until our answer comes down on the side of justice and acknowl- identity and the meaning of democracy. should his name, like the Confederate edging prejudicial wrongs that still Part of our own much-needed reckon- flag, be removed? linger, we’re no better than Dixie. ing involves some decorated Civil War Travel anywhere in Western Indian officers, men who — and they were all Country, as I have done on assignment Todd Wilkinson lives in Montana and is white men — fought for the Union Army for a quarter-century, and you will find the author of the new book, Grizzlies of before becoming “Indian fighters.” Across few names deemed more offensive to Na- Pilgrim Creek — An Intimate Portrait of the Western Great Plains today, their tive people. 399, the Most Famous Bear of Greater deeds are commemorated in a variety of We forget it wasn’t all that long ago Yellowstone. place names. that the Little Bighorn Battlefield Na- WEB EXTRA Writers on the Range is a syndicated service of To see all the current Let me throw out one that blows tional Monument was called the Custer High Country News, providing three opinion Writers on the Range in the breeze every year around this Battlefield by the National Park Service, columns each week to more than 70 newspapers columns, and archives, time: U.S. Cavalry commander George which manages it. around the West. For more information, contact visit hcn.org Armstrong Custer, who, on a day in late Never mind that it represented one Betsy Marston, [email protected], 970-527-4898.

www.hcn.org High Country News 23 BOOKS Young men and fire

On June 30, 2013, Arizona’s infamous and yet eager to join hands and pray “in Not until one-third of Yellowstone Na- Yarnell Hill Fire overran the Granite the soft glow of the dying fire.” We meet tional Park burned in 1988 did America’s Mountain Hotshots, killing 19 firefighters Scott Norris, a mentor to younger hot- public-land agencies recognize the folly of as they crouched beneath their woefully shots who bonds with his girlfriend over kneejerk suppression. Even today, how- inadequate aluminum shelters. The trag- their mutual affinity for handguns; Grant ever, firefighters extinguish 98 percent edy was nearly as mysterious as it was McKee, an aspiring paramedic lured of blazes in their early stages. Though horrific: Minutes earlier, Granite Moun- by good pay and repulsed by the team’s Dickman devotes a few pages to contem- tain had been stationed in the secure hazing rituals; and guilt-wracked sole porary fire policy, he rarely pulls back to “black,” already-burned land that couldn’t survivor Brendan “Donut” McDonough, analyze the larger land-use trends that reignite. Why the hotshots abandoned a third-year hotshot “with the crew’s put hotshots in harm’s way, particularly safety is a question that has spawned longest rap sheet and foulest mouth.” The population growth in the wildland-urban two official reports, hundreds of articles, most complex character is Eric Marsh, interface and landowners who fiercely de- On the Burning Edge: and countless Internet-fueled conspiracy the ambitious superintendent who moves cry building codes even as they demand A Fateful Fire and the theories. Was it incompetent leadership? his team away from safety and toward that the federal government ride to their Men Who Fought It Hubris? Or a reasonable decision rendered the fire’s path — perhaps, Dickman spec- rescue. Climate change, which is making Kyle Dickman disastrous by a sudden shift in the wind? ulates, to impress higher-ups. To some the West hotter, drier and more flam- Kyle Dickman’s new book, On the firefighters, Marsh’s mistake was under- mable, casts an omnipresent shadow over 277 pages, Burning Edge, can’t provide a definitive standable; to others, it was an “egregious Burning Edge, but earns little explicit hardcover: $26 answer, but it’s the best account yet of the and unforgivable error in judgment.” mention in its pages. Ballantine Books, Yarnell catastrophe. Dickman, a contrib- Still, no one man led the Granite In the end, this is a book not about 2015 uting editor at Outside Magazine and a Mountain Nineteen to their deaths. the scientists who study fire or the wonks former firefighter, is concerned less with Burning Edge provides a deft synopsis who manage it, but about the grunts how Granite Mountain’s men died than of a century of firefighting malpractice, who face the consequences. Jesse Steed, with how they lived. Burning Edge offers from the nascent Forest Service stamping Granite Mountain’s captain and an ex- an intimate window into the singular out all fires to save valuable timber, to Marine, called hotshotting “the next best culture of hotshots, the men and women the ascent of the anti-fire mascot Smokey thing to the military,” and the parallels who defend America’s public lands with Bear, whose “fame rivaled that of Santa are unmistakable: There’s the grueling chainsaws, axes, and an endless supply of Claus.” By interfering with natural training, the obsession with equipment, prepackaged meals and chewing tobacco. cycles, forest managers permitted brush the interminable deployments, the spe- Granite Mountain’s members, most and saplings to choke meadows, creating cial camaraderie. As Dickman retraces of whom are in their 20s, are a study in a “ladder of fuels” that help low-intensity the crew’s final weeks, we eavesdrop on contradictions: Testosterone-driven in the conflagrations climb into treetops and our protagonists in their most private field and tender at home, hard-drinking become mega-fires. moments: Kevin Woyjeck dancing in the

24 High Country News August 3, 2015 backseat of McKee’ s car, Norris slipping away from camp to steal one last shower with his girlfriend. Knowing the fate that awaits these young men makes their precious happiness almost unbearable; as June 30 draws ever closer, turning the pages starts feeling downright cruel. When the Granite Mountain hotshots finally reach Yarnell, they’re greeted by “total nonstop chaos.” Three-mile walls of fire roar through the chaparral, and “dozens of propane tanks (send) columns of flames shooting into the air like fires off an oil derrick.” Communications de- teriorate as hotshot crews, agencies and commanders tussle for control of radio frequencies. Airplanes and helicopters nearly collide. Granite Mountain, trapped in a canyon, tries desperately to hail air support, which fails to grasp the crew’s predicament until it’s too late. The Yarnell Hill Fire may have been sparked by lightning, but it was partly a manmade calamity, exacerbated by uncertain hierarchies, miscommunications and breaches in safety protocols. If these 19 deaths accomplished nothing else, perhaps we can use them to improve how the West’s firefighting agencies interact on the line — because more, and bigger, fires are on the way. Firefighters walk across scorched land in Yarnell, Arizona, in the aftermath of the Yarnell Hill Fire, which claimed the By Ben Goldfarb lives of 19 members of an elite firefighting crew known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots.t om Tingle/Ap

www.hcn.org High Country News 25 Essay | Emily Walter The internal West y first job in Montana was de- horning cattle. I can barely call M it a job, since my task was just to stand between calves being dehorned and their foamy-mouthed mothers — to stand all day in a barn doorway, dis- tracting cows. I was a vegetarian during the summer of 1995, and there I was in Havre, Montana, working on a cattle ranch for a week. It doesn’t sound like much of a job, but I was pretty much useless, anyway. I ate toast and drank murky Earl Grey tea all week. Every morning, I but- tered bread while the others sliced beef on the wobbly tree-stump table in the kitchen. The house blurs in my memory: bare light bulbs, yellowed flypaper, stacks of National Geographics from the late ’70s, the faint scent of winter in every room. It was a house of men; by my third day, I learned I was the first female to visit the ranch in 14 years. After that, I stopped asking questions. If that sounds romantic, reminiscent of a Jim Harrison screenplay, it wasn’t. And yet that week spent west of the Bear The sun sets on the Montana prairie. Tony Bynum Paws inspired a lasting love affair. It didn’t begin on the ranch, but on a day trip to Great Falls with a friend. For many Americans, the West is syn- of faded greens into gray. Finally, in the He dropped me off downtown while onymous with wildness, boundlessness, back of the drawer, I found a small red he went to fix a saddle. I did my best to lawlessness, hope and dust — in vary- rusted tin. I opened it and paused. Turn- get lost, exploring used bookstores and ing amounts, depending on how much ing to Gerald, I said slowly, “Is this tea?” searching for shade. In a small gallery, I Steinbeck or Kerouac you have read. “My Gerald, who wore his cowboy hat all saw an exhibit of sepia-toned photographs witness is the empty sky,” Kerouac said, day long, inside and out of the house, which sums up how I felt about living peered over the top of the newspaper. under so much blue. All that sky brings Paused. Looked straight at me. “Nope,” My body a silo in the wind, and the silence inside my light and a welcome solitude. Not loneli- he said. “That’s the ash to my son.” And heartbeat, echoing. And I am comfortable with being ness, but longing. Not the ride on the went back to reading. train, but the sound of it passing, leaving Carefully, I put the lid back on the so small, so beautifully insignificant in this vast place. you there, alone on the platform. tin. Quietly, I pushed the drawer back in, This is my internal West. When I waited for my toast and went outside to find it, I simply wait and let the inten- eat breakfast. The screen door slapped paired with sturdy poems. There were no sity of the present pass. This is what I shut behind me. I looked out over the people in the images, just silos, mead- sensed in those photos of bleak Western cows, the morning rising, the hot cup of ows, wind- and work-worn fields. I don’t landscapes. They captured a place of water in my shaky hand, and I tried to remember the poems or the name of the wind and silence that had always existed hold the weight of all that silence. The person who wrote them, but I remember inside me: My body a silo in the wind, silence of what we cannot talk about, the following the words of sky, meadow, dust and the silence inside my heartbeat, silence between people when words seem and distance as if I understood what they echoing. And I am comfortable with being useless. And sitting there on the stoop, meant for the very first time. Suddenly, so small, so beautifully insignificant in looking to the prairie horizon, I could feel even the word prairie opened up inside of this vast place. the vastness of the internal West inside me — expansive, unbounded, filled with When we returned to the ranch, we everyone. How far our feelings travel but the watery sound of a lone meadowlark. went back to work. One morning towards cannot be mapped. And how much we Until then, my words for great ex- the end of my stay, I asked Gerald, the need that space. This West is the freedom panses had been Great Lake or dune or owner, if he had any loose-leaf tea; I was to feel what cannot be framed into words. peninsula. The colors of my longing were out of Earl Grey. To allow ourselves to echo in wind, silos shades of the inland sea and its ice. But “Third drawer down, under the coffee and what remains. in that gallery, away from pickup trucks tin,” he said looking up from his morning and cattle dogs, I felt comfortable with paper. Emily Walter is a poet and runs a cooking being alone — with being so far out West. I fumbled with tins and dried-out bags school in Missoula, Montana.

26 High Country News August 3, 2015

U.S. $5 | Canada $6

HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

THE NATION modern glass-and-steel building will Trust former Wyoming Republican house 140 employees who oversee Sen. Al Simpson — a man who never what has become a multibillion-dollar, minces words — to boldly lecture his tribally owned conglomerate of oil and party about finally abandoning some gas companies, a nearby gambling of its more conservative stances. When casino and diverse real estate, reports wyofile.com asked him about Wisconsin the Durango Herald. “We look at this Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to push a con- building as really a piece of who we are stitutional amendment to overturn the today,” said Mike Olguin, treasurer of Supreme Court’s decision allowing gay the tribal council. Starting in the 1980s, marriage, Simpson appeared exasper- the Southern Utes decided to back away ated. “Merry Christmas!” he exclaimed. from the federal Bureau of Indian Af- “Thirty-seven states already approved fairs, which manages natural resources it, and to get a constitutional amend- for many tribes, and take control of ment he has to have two-thirds of the their own economy by starting a tribal vote in the legislatures in three-fourths Growth Fund. Now, “80 percent of the of the states. I can’t think Custer would IDAHO Living in a fuel’s paradise. Sam perry Growth Fund’s revenue comes from have been in a worse position on that outside investments.” They include a one.” As for the argument that allowing deep-sea oilrig off the coast of Mexico homosexuals to marry somehow threat- encourage further lawlessness and intimida- and 22 blocks of commercial space in ens the “sanctity of marriage,” Simpson said tion.” Jenkins said it was long past time for the the Denver suburb of Lakewood. straight couples were perfectly able to ruin their BLM to get tough, to shed its timidity and show relationships without help: “As a practicing that “nobody is above the law — not the presi- WYOMING attorney, I did 1,500 divorces in Park County, dent and certainly not Cliven Bundy.” For the second time in three years, a dauntless Wyoming (and) these were heterosexuals. … treasure-hunting couple from Lynchburg, Vir- Marriage got destroyed a long time ago.” Always MONTANA ginia, had to get hauled out of the backcountry delighted to tell people that he’s been married to Never, ever, underestimate a rattlesnake, espe- near Cody, Wyoming. In 2013, the unprepared the same woman for 61 years, Simpson con- cially a big one with nine impressive rattles. duo tried to hike out to a legendary mine, sup- cluded, “What’s wrong with people being happy? The snake was just sunning itself happily when posedly laden with fabulous riches. Instead of a It doesn’t matter what that is.” Scott Adler’s daughter happened to notice it as leisurely day hike, they spent three nights out she was walking her 4-H sheep back to its pen. “with nothing more than the clothes on their NEVADA The rancher decided to shoot the somnolent backs,” reports ktvq.com. This summer, Park Both scofflaw rancher Cliven Bundy and the fed- snake, but an unidentified friend said he had County search and rescue folks got yet another eral government got a tongue-lashing in the Las a better idea. Explaining that he was “experi- distress call: Still hunting that elusive treasure, Vegas Review-Journal recently. The critic wasn’t enced in handling rattlers and would remove it,” Madilina L. Taylor, 41, had broken her ankle, the environmental activist you might expect; it reports the Missoulian, the friend reached down and her companion, Frank Eugene Rose Jr., 40, was David Jenkins, president of Conservatives and grabbed the snake, which promptly “bit him badly blistered his feet, not to mention losing his for Responsible Stewardship, a national nonprof- in the arm as he held it” — nailing him three wallet and cellphone after falling in a swollen it that stands for “putting the conserve back into times altogether. In a matter of seconds, Adler river. It took searchers several hours to locate conservative.” Bundy, said Jenkins, was nothing said, he saw his friend’s arm turn black and his the lost couple and airlift Taylor out. The couple more than a “bully” for defying the government face begin to swell, and “the next thing we knew, was sternly warned not to return for a third when it fined him more than $1 million for ille- he was getting Life-Flighted out of there.” In treasure hunt until they had mastered a few gally grazing his cattle on public land. Unfortu- defense of rattlers, it is said that they are rarely basic survival skills. nately, though, the bullying worked because the a problem — provided you leave them alone. Bureau of Land Management failed to enforce the law; when Bundy and his armed supporters COLORADO WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see threatened violence if the federal agency tried Congratulations to the Southern Utes on their hcn.org. to collect, it backed away, though this act of ap- beautiful new 48,000-square-foot headquarters, Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and peasement “served only to embolden Bundy and based in Ignacio, Colorado. The three-story often shared in this column. Write [email protected].

High She knows that a law or a fence may slow the flow, but Country nothing can stop it because the mind’s dreams and News “ For people who care about the West. the desires of the heart are powerful goads. High Country News covers the important issues and Laura Pritchett, in her essay, “On crossing the border, writing novels and mangos,” stories that are unique to the American West with a from Writers on the Range, hcn.org/wotr” magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

28 High Country News August 3, 2015