Ernie Atencio

I just read Craig Childs’ excellent cover story in the current issue of HCN about the thin line between plundering archaeological sites and what we take to be legitimate archaeology. I can imagine archaeologists out there bristling at the suggestion that they are just glorified pot hunters. But it reminded me of something my daughter said many years ago.

She was three and we were wandering around a potsherd-littered landscape on the Colorado Plateau. They were irresistibly beautiful, big, polychrome pieces and she had collected an armload, but she knew the rules and understood she couldn’t keep them. “But I just want to hold them for a while,” she said. As she was reluctantly scattering them back where they came from, she said, “I wish someone would invent a new national park called Finders Keepers National Park.”

Yeah, that would be a popular one, but with the public’s obsession about collecting souvenirs it wouldn’t last long.

(Read on …)

Ed Quillen

Recently I had to drive across South Park, a vast valley rimmed by mountains in the middle of Colorado. Something stuck out that I hadn’t noticed on previous excursions: half-a-dozen new towers to provide service to cellular telephone users.

Or at least I think that’s what they were. For all I know, the towers could have been connected to some new top-secret Homeland Security intruder detection system, or maybe they were part of an array of antennas searching for intelligent life in the universe.

Most of South Park is in Park County. A few years ago, the county’s Board of Adjustment denied a request for a cell-phone tower because it would interfere with “key vistas” in an open-space zone.

The company offered to build a fake silo around the 90-foot tower, on the assumption that this would fit well in a rural area. The board countered that a silos might fit in dairy country, but not in grazing country like South Park.

(Read on …)

Felice Pace

Was anyone surprised by the article about the abuse of conservation easements which appeared in the March 31^st edition of HCN? If you were, you have not been paying close attention to what has been going on in our society.

In a country where energy traders collude to rip off customers, corporate leaders cook the books to deceive investors, brokers sell mortgages to folks they know can’t afford them and federal regulators wink at usury and worse, what else should we expect?

Stay tuned for the carbon credit scandals to come.

This is all the product of a society in which the highest good is making obscene amounts of money and in which one can sin all week and get forgiven on Sunday without penance or consequences.

(Read on …)

Rebecca Clarren

Brad Crowder, a staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Denver office, was trying to speak quietly – he was concerned that talking to a reporter might threaten his job - but his frustration and anger could not be contained. As he spoke inside a booth at a busy Denver restaurant, his voice rose louder and louder. Crowder was concerned about the public health impacts associated with natural gas extraction, but hadn’t been able to convince his superiors to conduct any studies to investigate the issue.

“We’re told not to ask anymore questions. We get actions taken against us just for asking questions. The regional administrator has said to my colleagues, ‘get on the train. Stay off the tracks or we’ll run you over.’”

This was in 2006. Before he was diagnosed with cancer. Before he quit his job. Sadly, Brad died last year, but his words remain hauntingly relevant. The political interference he identified within the EPA, this pressure to ignore science that might create trouble for the administration’s industry allies, has plagued the majority of scientists at EPA, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists survey released yesterday.
The online questionnaire, described in the LA Times today, found that 889 of the 1,586 EPA scientists that responded had experience at least one type of interference in the last five years.

In optional essays, scientists repeatedly singled out the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, accusing officials there of inserting themselves into decision-making at early stages in a way that shaped the outcome of their inquiries. They also alleged that the OMB delayed rules not to its liking. EPA actions “are held hostage” until changes are made, a scientist from the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation wrote.

(Read on …)

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

The New York Times has a story today on the growing importance of native species of bees in agriculture. The European honeybee, which pollinates millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. crops, is buzzing off into the sunset, beset by mites and a mysterious malady called Colony Collapse Disorder (see our story “Silence of the Bees“).

So farmers and orchardists are now turning to the humble native bees, which are often hardier and better pollinators. However, these bees are in trouble too, hit by habitat loss and overuse of pesticides. See our story about the native bees last year, in “Native Hum“.

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

“Save a logger – eat a spotted owl.” That bumper sticker adorned pickups all over the Northwest in the ’80s, as loggers blamed the rare bird for the decline of their industry. Now a plan to protect the northern spotted owl is going back to the drawing board.

The owl, which hit the endangered species list in 1990, helped put the brakes on timber-cutting across the old-growth forests of Oregon, Washington and Northern California, and logging companies have been pushing the industry-friendly Bush administration to find a way around the restrictions (see our stories “When is a barred owl a red herring?” and “Spotted owl or red herring?“).

The administration has tried twice now to write a recovery plan for the bird. The first attempt got a failing grade from scientists assigned to review it, and now the second draft has flunked as well. The new plan underestimates threats like wildfire and logging, say the biologists who evaluated it; they call the plan’s habitat analysis “deeply flawed.” The Associated Press reports:

“We identified several areas where we thought their science could be improved,” Sustainable Ecosystems Vice President Steven Courtney, who led the review, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “Some of those areas were relatively important. However, in other areas they did a pretty good job.”

Among the failings, Courtney said: “The method they used to design the amount of habitat to be preserved, the technique used was wrong, was not based on good science.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service promises to take the critique to heart in its final version, due next month. Want fries with that owl?

Marty Durlin

Online Editor

Apparently it’s not enough that we have tons of made-in-the-USA nuclear waste languishing in leaky tanks and unlined landfills, awaiting safe burial even as it contaminates our precious aquifers. In fact, radioactive byproducts from the manufacture of American nuclear weapons could fill the Yucca Mountain repository before it’s even built.

But now the Utah-based EnergySolutions wants to import hazardous waste from a dismantled Italian reactor and bury 1,600 tons of it in the Tooele County landfill 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. That’s not amoré: nearly 1,000 objections to the plan have been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and there’s still time to weigh in – the comment period ends June 10.

In the meantime, a bill that would prohibit the importation of radioactive waste from foreign countries has been introduced in congress, co-sponsored by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah). ‘Scusami, but you see, we don’t want your scorie radioattive!

Mary K. Bowannie

I was talking to Mario Atencio, one of my students in the Native American Studies program at the University of New Mexico, about the challenges of blogging. Putting one’s thoughts out there, keeping the word count tight, meeting the proverbial deadline, and addressing the issues from a personal (rather than a reporter) standpoint. Mario listened patiently as we sat outside on a very cold, windy day in Albuquerque, NM, waiting for The Longest Walk 2 event to start. When I finally stopped thinking out loud, he turned and looked at me and said, “Just let it flow.”

So here it goes.

The Longest Walk 2 event April 11 in Albuquerque was powerful and empowering. The local media coverage was mostly photo ops of the dancers, the colorful side of the event. Many folks heard the words of Dennis Banks and were reminded to keep fighting the fight. Banks feels not much has changed over the years.

While I respect Dennis Banks’ sacrifice and contributions, I have to disagree with his statement. Yes, some things haven’t changed: Indigenous lands and our sacred places are still being contaminated, endangered and raped. Tribes wrestle politically on a tribal, state and federal level to assert and exercise their sovereignty.

So what has changed?

(Read on …)

Ernie Atencio

We have seen plenty of conflicts between the green and the brown here in New Mexico. Enviro groups have been at odds with local Indo-Hispano communities over spotted owls and forestry policies, public land grazing, instream flow proposals, land grants, wilderness and immigration policy. It’s a problem in a state with a 44% “Hispanic or Latino” population, much of which can trace its roots back 400 years or more.

It’s not that we’re anti-environment – recent surveys show that New Mexico Hispanos are more concerned about the environment and more willing to spend public money on environmental problems than their white neighbors – but hard-ball, confrontational environmental tactics, with no heart for culture and history and justice, have made locals very anti-environmentalist.

A group of Latinos want to make environmentalism more relevant and more accessible to that constituency through a new organization called the Latino Sustainability Institute. The group’s mission includes promoting conservation policies and social equity, building relationships between conservation groups and Latino organizations, supporting Latino land and water based organizations and preserving sustainable lifeways and cultural landscapes across New Mexico.

The founding board includes Jim Baca, director of the Bureau of Land Management under Bill Clinton and former New Mexico Public Lands Commissioner, Arturo Sandoval, Western coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970 and long-time wilderness and community advocate (and short-time HCN board member) and president DeAnza Valencia, a law student with a broad background in environmental and justice issues. An advisory board consists of 16 Latino academics, farmers and conservation and social activists from throughout the state (including me). At its first annual meeting last week the group charted an ambitious agenda to become a presence and start making a difference in New Mexico environmental politics.

It’s about time we had an environmentalism in New Mexico that makes sense to people who are so deeply rooted in this environment we’re trying to save. New Mexico Hispanos/Latinos may have a different priority list, but they also have generations of local wisdom and strong, homegrown environmental ethics to bring to the table. It’s not a mainstream constituency so it won’t look like the mainstream environmental movement, but it’s no less environmental.

Ed Quillen

Art Goodtimes created quite a stir a few days ago when he announced that Club 20 should henceforth be known as Club 19. Art’s been a friend for years. He’s a poet and for the past decade or so, he has served as a San Miguel County commissioner. And as far as I know, he’s the only elected Green Party officeholder in Colorado.

He was also an officer in Club 20, which bills itself as “the voice of the Western Slope” in Colorado. Its membership ranges from individuals and corporations to counties and two Ute nations. That’s a diverse group; just the counties range from Democratic upscale resort zones like Pitkin County (its seat is Aspen) to Republican cattle-and-mining areas like Moffat County (Craig).

Basically, Art said the extractive energy industry had taken over Club 20, and it no longer represented the interests of places like Telluride and San Miguel County. The best account I’ve read is on Colorado Confidential, and there’s no point in repeating it here.

When Club 20 started in 1954, its main goal was better roads on the Western Slope of Colorado. There were actually 21 counties involved, but “Club 21 sounded too much like a night spot,” then executive director Greg Walcher told me once, “so they made it Club 20.”
(Read on …)

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

The Chicago Tribune stories come with a sad photo gallery (scroll down the story page to click into the still photos) … and a self-amused TV news video (prefaced by the inevitable TV commercial).

The lion seems to have come a long way to die on the concrete.

About a half-million people have sought out the online photos. Whole thing provides another window into the relationship of wildlife and modern human beings.

Rebecca Clarren

I have a white bandana that I carry around with me. It’s thin cotton; it offers the smallest of comfort when I cry or sneeze or spill something. However for thousands of immigrant women who weed, prune and harvest fruits and vegetables throughout the West, bandanas such as mine are their singular shield from sun, pesticides and a more formidable threat: sexual assault and harassment from their coworker or boss.

Patricia Zavella, a professor of Latina American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz revealed in a 2003 journal article that bandanas and baggy clothes help women to mask their beauty and figures. Yet very often, these shields aren’t sufficient. I report in High Country News this week [Plowing Under the Fields of Shame] that sexual abuse and harassment of farm worker women is a serious problem.

The abuse - and dismissal - of immigrant women who work in agriculture is epidemic. In a 1997 study, 90 percent of female farmworkers in California reported sexual harassment as a major problem. Ten years later, those who work with farmworkers say that abuse - which ranges from obscene jokes and sexual innuendo to inappropriate rubbing, pinching and even rape - affects thousands of women. Workers in Salinas, Calif., refer to one company as the field de calzon, or “field of panties,” because so many supervisors rape women there. In several recent cases brought before federal court in California, women who resisted advances were fired or suspended without pay.

(Read on …)

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

In Utah, off-roaders are drawing a line in the sand, pushing for their right to drive all-terrain vehicles on public lands. Washington County resident Dan Jessop was just found guilty of riding his ATV on a closed road. He got six months’ probation and a $300 fine; now he’s planning to appeal the case.

Jessop says that Sawmill Road is county-owned and that the Bureau of Land Management had no business shutting it down. The feds say the road, on BLM land, is under their control. Fellow four-wheelers have raised more than $30,000 to help Jessop fight the fine. (As an interesting aside, a hiker ticketed by the Forest Service for not paying a much-loathed access fee rallied only $4,500 to her defense — see our story “Fed up with paying to play“. Apparently if you’ve got a $5,000 ATV, you’ve also got bucks to burn).

With crackdowns on illegal off-roading all over the West, and with many Utah counties feuding with the feds over control of dozens of dusty backroads, ATVers see Jessop’s case as their chance for a showdown. They’ve already won one round — last fall, the BLM recognized Kane County’s claim to Bald Knoll road, on public land near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (see our story “The road more traveled“).
(Read on …)