High Country ForN people whoews care about the West March 6, 2017 | $5 | Vol. 49 No. 4 | www.hcn.org 49 No. | $5 Vol. March 6, 2017 Raptor Viewing Blast-Zone Hiking Wild Streaking CONTENTS High Country News Editor’s note EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Paul Larmer MANAGING EDITOR There and back again Brian Calvert SENIOR EDITOR Many years ago, I traveled Jodi Peterson abroad for the first time, to ART DIRECTOR visit a high school friend from Cindy Wehling DEPUTY EDITOR, DIGITAL Rock Springs, Wyoming, who Kate Schimel had been stationed by the U.S. ASSOCIATE EDITORS Tay Wiles, Army in Germany. On that trip, Maya L. Kapoor I nearly froze to death in the ASSISTANT EDITOR Paige Blankenbuehler Bavarian Alps, lost my passport D.C. CORRESPONDENT at a train station, and fell briefly in love with a Elizabeth Shogren woman I met in a Munich park. I spent the next WRITERS ON THE RANGE two decades traveling, as a student and journalist, EDITOR Betsy Marston learning about other places and people in an effort ASSOCIATE DESIGNER Brooke Warren to better understand myself. COPY EDITOR Every year, High Country News puts together Diane Sylvain a special travel issue. We do this because, in the CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Cally Carswell, Sarah pages of a typical issue, we are primarily concerned Gilman, Ruxandra Guidi, with the facts and forces that shape the American Glenn Nelson, West: the landscapes, water, people and wildlife Michelle Nijhuis, that make this region unique. In most stories, we try Jonathan Thompson FEATURES CORRESPONDENTS our best to serve as experienced guides, bringing Krista Langlois, Sarah our readers useful analysis and insight. In the travel Tory, Joshua Zaffos 12 issue, however, we take a different tack. We imagine Now You See Her EDITORIAL FELLOW Enduring relationships begin with encounters By Maya L. Kapoor Anna V. Smith the region as though we were new to it, and in INTERNS Emily Benson, doing so, we see it with fresh eyes. 28 The Moral of the Mountain Rebecca Worby To travel, as Bilbo Baggins will tell you, is to DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Backpacking through the Mount St. Helens blast zone Laurie Milford go there and back again, to venture forth and then By Eric Wagner PHILO ANTHR PY ADVISOR return to your Shire a changed person (or hobbit, Alyssa Pinkerton in Bilbo’s case). We pack our bags, tie our boots, DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT and cross a threshold into the world. And on the INSIDE Christine List journey, we have experiences that no one can ever SUBSCRIPTIONS MARKETER 4 A Southerner discovers JoAnn Kalenak take away. This land is my land? the West’s public lands By Lyndsey Gilpin WEB DEVELOPER Eric Strebel In this issue, we have tried to push deep into DaTABASE/IT ADMINISTRATOR the unexpected, or even uncomfortable, corners of 5 Go North, young woman In a place no one can Alan Wells the West, places not only beautiful but instructive. see you, you can see yourself more clearly By Sarah Gilman DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT Associate Editor Maya Kapoor visits an Arizona Gretchen King 8 In timber country, a writer returns to FINANCE MANAGER raptor show, prompting questions about the human Growing pains Beckie Avera relationship with other creatures. Writer Eric Wagner the old-growth forest of her youth By Anna V. Smith ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE hikes through the wastelands of the Mount St. 27 Cowboys with surfboards Parts of Hawaii are surprisingly like 16 Jan Hoffman Helens eruption, pondering poetry and devastation. CIRCULATION SYSTEMS ADMIN. the new rural West By Don Olsen Kathy Martinez Contributing Editor Sarah Gilman travels to remote 36 CIRCULATION British Columbia with a group of like-minded An expedition through the Edgelands Kati Johnson, Pam Peters, women, all intent on being wild without judgment, By Diane Sylvain Doris Teel running a river in the process. Our deputy editor, ADVERTISIng DIRECTOR 37 Yaak attack At home at the Dirty Shame By Kate Schimel David J. Anderson Kate Schimel, takes a thoughtful look at the lives of By Ana Maria Spagna GRANTWRITER Janet Reasoner people in Montana’s Yaak Valley, wondering what 38 Together we pause [email protected] draws them to it even as she feels repulsed. And [email protected] our editorial fellow, Anna V. Smith, returns to the [email protected] Oregon timber country of her youth, finding new DEPARTMENTS [email protected] [email protected] sympathy for logging communities that proved just as vulnerable as old-growth forests to a changing 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG FOUNDER Tom Bell BOARD OF DIRECTORS world. 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY John Belkin, Colo. These are not vacation stories, necessarily. But Research Fund, Dear Friends Chad Brown, Ore. they are travel stories. They are tales of change Beth Conover, Colo. and growth and discovery. They are as much inner 20 TRAVEL MARKETPLACE AND GUIDE Jay Dean, Calif. Bob Fulkerson, Nev. journeys as outer, all prompted by the unique 33 MARKETPLACE Wayne Hare, Colo. features of our great region, places often forgotten 5 Laura Helmuth, Md. or ignored — but only if we fail to take the time to 40 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston John Heyneman, Wyo. Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico appreciate the adventures that await us, outside our Samaria Jaffe, Calif. front door. On the cover Nicole Lampe, Ore. —Brian Calvert, managing editor Marla Painter, N.M. Hyla, a ferruginous hawk, up close during Raptor Free Flight Bryan Pollard, Ark. west of Tucson, Arizona. DON SORENSEN PHOTO COURTESY ARIZONA-SONORA DESERT MUSEUM Raynelle Rino, Calif. Estee Rivera Murdock, D.C. Dan Stonington, Wash. Rick Tallman, Colo. Luis Torres, N.M. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent media Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other Printed on Andy Wiessner, Colo. High organization that covers the issues that define the American West. post offices.P OSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, recycled paper. Florence Williams, D.C. Its mission is to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles in this Country region’s diverse natural and human communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to News is published bi-weekly, 22 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org 2 High Country News March 6, 2017 From our wEbSITE: HCN.ORG t A red-tailed Sarah Gilman is an hawk gets a treat HCN contributing editor of raw meat from and writer based in Port- handler Daniel land, Oregon. Her work Trocola during will be anthologized in Raptor Free Flight The Best Women’s Travel at the Arizona- Writing, in May. Sonora Desert @Sarah_Gilman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Museum. JORdaN GLENN GILMAN R-Utah, on Lyndsey Gilpin writes Instagram Feb. 1, on climate, environmen- announcing he’d tal justice and the inter- withdrawn HR 621. section of people and “I’m a proud gun nature, and is the editor owner, hunter and of Southerly, a newsletter love our public for the American South. lands,” he wrote. @lyndseygilpin Sportsmen on the public-lands GILPIN Don Olsen is a Colorado defensive rancher who spent much In a legislative season full of threats to public lands at of his life as a political the state and federal level, hook-and-bullet groups have reporter in Boulder, Colo- mobilized to fight for the landscapes they value. Having rado, and Washington, convinced Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to withdraw D.C., writing about land- support for public lands transfer bill HR 621, opponents use policies that protect 12 36 DIANE SYlvaIN of the legislation are working to oppose the companion farms and ranchlands. bill, HR 622, the Local Enforcement for Local Lands Act. FEATURES If passed, it would hand law enforcement responsibilities Maya L. Kapoor is an on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands OLSEN to local police. Hunters and anglers fear that would make 12 associate editor with Now You See Her federal lands more vulnerable to abuse — and set the stage Enduring relationships begin with encounters By Maya L. Kapoor HCN. She writes about science and the environ- for potential land transfers. RE BECCA WORBY MORE: hcne.ws/sportsmen-unite 28 The Moral of the Mountain ment in the urbanizing Backpacking through the Mount St. Helens blast zone West. By Eric Wagner Kate Schimel writes from Paonia, Colorado, “The implication is on the order of INSIDE where she spends her time thinking about the a trillion dollars and close to 150 million KAPOOR 4 This land is my land? A Southerner discovers role of unpeopled places people displaced or adversely affected by the West’s public lands By Lyndsey Gilpin in modern society. She is a one-meter rise in sea level, which is not 5 Go North, young woman In a place no one can the deputy editor-digital for . see you, you can see yourself more clearly By Sarah Gilman HCN that unreasonable to expect in the coming @kateschimel 8 Growing pains In timber country, a writer returns to 50 to 100 years.” the old-growth forest of her youth By Anna V. Smith Anna V. Smith has —Waleed Abdalati, director of the University of Colorado’s 27 Cowboys with surfboards Parts of Hawaii are surprisingly like spent most of her life in Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Oregon and Washington, Sciences (CIRES), a joint program with NOAA, explaining the new rural West By Don Olsen SCHIMEL where the evergreens NOAA’s work and how it impacts Westerners.