Meet our Guests: John Brennan and Emily James

Emily James

Associate; Brennan, Jewett, & Associates

Colusa, CA

John Brennan

Founder/Owner; Brennan, Jewett, & Associates

Davis, CA

11/14/18

To most people, California is not the place for rice farming. Years of drought and groundwater pumping so extreme that the Central Valley is literally sinking are not generally conditions that are conducive to a water-intensive crop like rice. Emily James is an associate at John Brennan’s land management firm, Brennan, Jewett, & Associates, and work together to manage the historic Davis Ranch, near Colusa, CA. The ranch has been owned by the same family since 1857, so its water rights predate the damming and overallocation of the Sacramento River. Wielding the power of these rights, John and Emily are helping the farm find direction and stay relevant in a changing world.

That relevance initially came from restoring habitat for shore birds. By shifting the flooding of rice fields, the ranch was able to mimic the historical Central Valley floodplain and provide habitat for waterfowl. Today, the ranch works with the Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Observatory, and its fields are home to 230 species of wildlife in an area where wildlife has been pushed out by agriculture and urban sprawl since the nineteenth century.

Since, the ranch has also begun to plant hedgerows with native plants that provide corridors for animals like deer that are otherwise left without contiguous habitat. They have also begun a project to plant milkweed and other flowering plants to support monarch butterflies in their migration. Emily and John stressed how starkly these choices strayed from the pesticidal practices that farming in the United States has embraced since the 1970’s. These projects are not just benefitting habitat connectivity, they are serving Davis Ranch economically. Brennan’s push to commodify labels and certifications from partners like the Audubon Society on packaging help to sell and create a market for sustainable farming. Rather than work backward in an area where water is highly monitored and controlled by humans, through the help of John Brennan and Emily James, Davis Ranch and others like it are finding ways to create habitat for wild animals by working within the limits of human development.

By Darby Williams

Meet our Guests: Samantha Arthur

Samantha Arthur

Conservation Project Manager, Audubon California

Sacramento, CA

11/14/18

Sami Arthur stands, neck craned back, below a cotton candy sky as waterfowl take flight from the ponds surrounding us. Birds turn into black specks as they rise, joining the flow of thousands of others to the neighboring rice fields. Sami picks out Snow Geese, Egrets, and Pinstripe Ducks from the nearly liquid mass of birds with an expert’s eye. But Sami has not always been into birds. Upon getting her current job at the California Audubon Society, she had to study up on birds, but this was part of the allure of her position as Program Director: “I love that sort of learning.” Before her current position she described herself as a “fish person.” She graduated from Whitman with an Environmental Studies—Biology degree and wrote her thesis on salmon populations. She attended graduate school and debated getting her PhD, but decided that she was more interested in community engagement and ground-level conservation than research.

One of her first jobs was with a land trust in Northern California, where she learned that working with farmers and landowners on conservation projects was what she was excited about. Sami met with us at the Davis Ranch outside Colusa, just north of Sacramento, and shared her work with tri-colored blackbirds and groundwater recharge. Both of these projects involve engagement from the agricultural community, which Sami emphasizes as one of the reasons she loves her job and stays engaged. Sami explains that on projects, “I speak for the birds,” but also emphasizes the importance of making sure conservation works well for everyone involved.

By Clara Hoffman

Meet our Guests: Ray Bransfield and Peter Sanzenbacher

Ray Bransfield

Biologist, USFWS

Ventura, CA

Peter Sanzenbacher

Biologist, USFWS

Yucca Valley, CA

11/11/18

The Dumont Dunes ORV area in Death Valley is not especially picturesque. The dun hills are scabbed by tire tracks and there are few plants, leaving the dust and sand free to be flung about by the regularly passing winds.

Ray Bransfield and Peter Sanzenbacher, employees of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), squinted into the day’s wind and struggled to be heard over the sound of the child’s dirt bike that buzzed wide circles around us. Historically, local ORV clubs came to the dunes to race and ride illegally. As multiple-use pressure mounted on management agencies, the dunes became a designated ORV area in recognition of this historical usage. But, as we asked Ray, why? Why reward illegal recreation with an official designation?

If you were to follow Ray’s thumb across the highway, you might find an endangered desert tortoise wending its leisurely way through the sagebrush. These creatures, resilient and rare, face an embattled future in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts against long odds of habitat fragmentation and degradation. ORV recreationists, notably, have been known to accidentally crush the slow-moving tortoises—their desert camouflage, while effective protection against natural predators, proves their undoing in the face of children on ATVs.

Much of Ray’s and Peter’s work has been to mitigate these instances in which recreation impacts wildlife. Desert tortoises are not the only potential victims: gesticulating in excitement, Peter provided an animated explanation of the spadefoot toad, which, mistaking the rumble of an ATV motor for the sound of thunder, will rise from its subterranean refuge in hopes of rain. As Ray explained, Dumont Dunes are a sacrifice zone, a place where extractive uses are concentrated to preserve habitat elsewhere.

Ray is approaching his retirement after decades with the USFWS, while Peter still has much of his career left ahead of him, and their work provides some hope that future reconciliation between recreation and conservation of public lands might move at a pace faster than a desert tortoise’s.

By Noah Dunn

Photos by Abby Hill

Meet our Guests: Graham Chisholm and Jon Christensen

Graham Chisholm

Senior Policy Advisor, Conservation Strategy Group

San Francisco, CA

Jon Christensen

Professor of Environmental Humanities, UCLA

Los Angeles, CA

11/12/18

Next to a stone house in a small canyon in southern California, buffeted by wind, Semester in the West met with Jon Christensen and Graham Chisholm, an author and environmentalist, respectively.  Graham Chisholm has spent much of his life in the conservation world of California, working as the head of conservation for the California branch of the Nature Conservancy, and now as an independent consultant helping small environmental non-profits get established.  One of the biggest lessons which he has taken with him through his work in the conservation sector, has been that “to be human, you have to think that things can get better”.  It is with this optimism that Graham sees the future of the environmental movement: green spaces in cities are as influential as our national parks in informing a person’s view of what nature is. 

Jon, tall and wearing an inquisitive smile as he speaks, has spent much of his life as a writer.  With a writing history including a stint as a contributing writer at High Country News, he is currently a professor of Environmental Humanities at UCLA.  There he tries to tell his students to find stories that don’t close in “dead-end standoffs”, a lesson he learned at HCN, and that the most important thing your writing can do is to have an impact.  He explains one of the most important lessons he gained from a lifetime of writing: you have to let things have a point of view, and an agenda in order for their impact be felt.       

Both Graham and Jon, though past middle age, and having worked in their respective fields for many years, remain positive in their thoughts for the future. And as they both said, we should look forward to the future as well. 

By David Dregallo

Photos by Jessie Brandt

Meet our Guests: Susan Sorrells

Susan Sorrells

Town Manager

Shoshone, CA

11/12/18

 “We were just scrambling, those of us who wanted to stay, to have some kind of economic base… We consciously made the decision to move from tourism to eco-tourism.”

Susan Sorrells, born and raised in Shoshone, California, is now the leading force in bringing environmental and economic life back into the small town of. After the closure of railroad and mining industries which once brought riches to the town, Shoshone is now revising its priorities. “It’s a clean slate, so to speak…it was a mining area historically, so for a long time (environmental) places weren’t valued…Most of us are here because we love the land…we revel in being a community that interacts and supports one another, and we’re hoping to incorporate healthy communities into our environmental work that we do.”

Partnering with the Amargosa Conservancy, Susan’s hopes for environmental consciousness and eco-tourism have come alive. Just within the last decade, the accidental discovery of natural springs and endangered Shoshone Pupfish on Susan’s land have led to wetland restoration and legally protected environmental sanctuaries for multiple threatened species. “Those of us here really have an opportunity to mold how we so call ‘develop’…in Shoshone, we’ve chosen to develop by incorporating the natural resources,” says Susan, excited and proud of how far the town has come.

By Hannah Morel

Photos by Amara Killen

Meet our Guests: Tanya Henderson

Tanya Henderson

Executive Director, Amargosa Conservancy

Shoshone, CA

11/10/18

Tanya Henderson, a funky and driven transplant to the Mojave Desert from California’s Bay Area, leads the Amargosa River Conservancy. After graduating from Whitman College in 2005, Tanya sought out ways to fulfill her passion for conservation, bringing her to the small town of Shoshone, California (population 31). Tanya and the Conservancy strive to protect the wilds, waters, and communities of the Amargosa River Basin which starts at Yucca Mountain (a proposed nuclear waste storage site) and ends in the lowest point in Death Valley. It contains the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, home to more endemic species than any other place in the United States.

In an area with so many critical habitats and endangered species, Tanya and the Conservancy are making huge environmental strides. A small organization, they work to involve the communities of the basin in important decision making, hold educational events, develop work projects that connect people to the land, and monitor endangered species populations. While with Tanya , Semester in the West participated in one of the Conservancy’s work projects, removing invasive cattails from important desert pupfish habitat and sweeping away off highway vehicle (OHV) tracks in the desert to prevent further destruction of desert soils.

Tanya has creatively found ways to engage and involve the communities near and far in protecting the unique water source that is the Amargosa and the desert oases it nurtures. Tanya’s dedication and obsession for desert ecosystems is exemplified in her work to protect the Amargosa vole and the desert pupfish species endemic to the Mojave. Tanya and the Conservancy hope to protect their small oasis while connecting it to the larger desert ecosystem through education, science, and community involvement.

By Whitney Rich

Photos by Nina Moore

Meet our Guests: Cristina Perea

Cristina Perea

Urban Projects Department Assistant, Sonoran Institute

Mexicali, Baja California

11/8/18

“El restoración no pelea con las necesidades economicas,” explains Cristina Perea, a 31-year old with feisty energy, contagious laughter, and a keen eye: restoration and economic needs don’t fight with each other, they can go hand in hand. Cristina studied International Relations in undergrad, and mastered in Planning and Sustainable Development, both from Universidad Autónoma de Baja California at the Mexicali headquarters. As part of the Delta team for the Sonoran Institute, Cristina has worked as the Urban Projects Department assistant for two years. It’s clear that this woman is excited about working with other humans. Strolling along the Rio Hardy with misty peaks in view above the flat desert, Cristina spoke about two land owners working with the Sonoran Institute to restore the riverside for a future camping and cabin spot. One land owner is a fisherman, the other a government official, and both realize the economic possibilities that come with supporting the Rio Hardy native ecology.

Cristina shared the lesson learned when cottonwoods and willows were planted—they died due to a lack of water. Since, with the help of volunteers, Sonoran Institute has introduced mesquite along the bank. One day last July, 900 trees were planted, and we were asked to imagine the density of the shore in just a few years.

Cristina told us that this project is major because since its fruition, other land owners have been asking the Sonoran Institute to start restoration work on their land as well. While land owners, like the two involved in this project, are able to take hold of an opportunity for economic development, the Institute is able to manifest watershed restoration on that private land, which ultimately benefits the surrounding communities—both human and non-human. After the first two years in which the Institute pays for the Rio Hardy re-planting, the adjacent land owners will fund a percentage of future ecological work with the income they receive from their improved land.

People don’t move away from their home in Mexicali often, but there is an influx of outsiders from other parts of Mexico that settle in the area. Cristina admits she is happy to continue to live and work in the fertile valley because there are plenty of restoration projects yet to be carried out.

By Jessie Brandt

Meet our Guests: Gabriela González Olimón

Gabriela González Olimón

Environmental Education and Investigation Coordinator, Sonoran Institute

Mexicali, Baja California

11/8/18

In the middle of the Baja Californian desert, the sun is hot, water is scarce, and vegetation is rare. The trails of the Colorado River remind of what once was a vegetated area fed by the river. Suddenly, a forest of cottonwood trees appears. These were replanted five years ago and refuse to give up to the harsh conditions of the desert. They stand strong, the same way Gaby Gonzalez does when she confidently talks to us about her work and passion as a conservationist.

Gaby is a biologist, currently working as Environmental Education and Investigation Coordinator at the Sonoran Institute in Baja California, Mexico. Before, she spent six years of her life volunteering at different conservation projects across the US. SITW first met her back in 2014, interning at Grand Canyon National Park. Gaby mainly works in the Laguna Grande conservation area, designing educational programs and overseeing the monitoring of projects.

One of Gaby’s most important goals is to introduce communities to the reserve and raise awareness for the restoration projects there. She explains that when people visit the reserve, they are often surprised by nature. Gaby claims that people don’t often listen to the sounds of nature and animals. She mentions that one of her most impressive experiences with guests has been “people crying when they listen to the sound of trees being moved by the wind.” She regrets that lots of locals don’t even know that a century ago, the Baja California desert used to look like Laguna Grande currently does.

Gaby and the Sonoran Institute employees represent a new generation of environmentalists whose work goes beyond the environment. They also work in outreach by developing a relationship which empowers communities to take on and sustain the conservation projects in the future.

Gaby shares the Sonoran Institute’s dream of bringing people closer to nature so they can develop a relationship with it. She even looks at herself as two different people: “office Gaby” is sometimes moody, confined in the city of Mexicali, and “forest Gaby” is always happy with internal peace and closeness to nature.

By Juan Pablo Liendo Molina

Meet our Guests: Francisco Zamora

Francisco Zamora

Colorado River Delta Program Director, Sonoran Institute

Mexicali, Baja California

11/10/18

“We need to tell more positive stories, especially today. You guys can tell them.” I’ll start with the story of the very man who gave us this encouragement: Francisco Zamora. He directs the Colorado Delta region for the Sonoran Institute in Mexicali, Mexico. Francisco saw a barren desert and dreamed of a river winding through a dense forest. After several years of perseverance, his dream came true. He talks to us at Laguna Grande, one of the sites where he’s created life. The banks of the river are green, and beyond them grows a beautiful forest consisting of coyote willow, mesquite, and cottonwood.

The haven has ameliorated the lives of a host of species, including humans. Locals come to the newly created biome and are often profoundly moved, seeing nature for the first time. “At the beginning there was no recognition from the people about the environment, and now I see a new attitude towards restoration…People in Mexicali know about the Grand Canyon, but not the Colorado River that’s in their own backyard.” The Sonoran institute is finally getting discovered, one planted tree at a time.

He began his talk by saying “this morning, I got a flat tire, and two policemen came and helped me change the tire. That tells me there’s still a lot of hope, and there are still good people on the Earth.” Francisco reminds us to dream, care, give, and remain positive. If just a quarter of the world embodies his sentiment, we’ll be just fine.

By Luke Ratliff

Photos by Luke Ratliff

Meet our Guests: Roger Clark

Roger Clark

Grand Canyon Program Director, Grand Canyon Trust

Flagstaff, AZ

10/9/18

Roger Clark seems at home on the rim of the Grand Canyon. With only open air below, Roger stands atop limestone explaining to us the layers of rock that comprise this awe-inspiring view. Before the geology lesson, we sat beside hunks of metal bolts that had been installed to transport engineers from the US Bureau of Reclamation, who were studying the canyon below as a potential site for Marble Canyon Dam. The work of David Brower and the Sierra Club stopped this project in its tracks and set a precedent of permanent protection for this canyon.

Roger began his career as a college professor and museum curator but after years he decided that was not what he truly wanted to do. Leaving academia, he naturally became a river guide on the Colorado River, forming a bond with the water and walls of the canyon. This love of the natural world is clear when he speaks about the multitude of topics that he is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about, ranging from uranium and coal mining to Native American tribal rights to development along the rim and preservation of the Canyon’s unique vistas. These are areas of immense challenge for environmentalists, and it would be difficult for a single person to take on any one of them. Yet Roger handles the entire Grand Canyon program with a subtle confidence and deep knowledge of history and politics.

As an educator, Roger has a deeply welcoming and helpful spirit that encourages every question and always leaves the asker satisfied. After spending his life in this chasm of political and economic interests, natural and indigenous resources, and absurd beauty, Roger Clark showed us his Grand Canyon, and took us over the edge.

By Eliza van Wetter

Photo by James Baker

Meet our Guests: Carter Kruse

Carter Kruse

Director of Conservation, Turner Enterprises

Bozeman, MT

9/7/2018

            Carter Kruse, the Director of Conservation and Coordinator of the Biodiversity Divisions of Turner Enterprises, sits with us in one of the few developed areas of the Flying D Ranch. The Flying D is the flagship ranch of Ted Turner, and an iconic part of Turner’s quest for ecological restoration and rewilding of the West. Kruse has played a critical role in the Turner vision for what this property could look like. As fisheries manager, he developed and put into action the restoration of 60 miles of Cherry Creek, which flows through the center of the ranch. Once brimming with native Westslope Cutthroat trout, they were outcompeted via the introduction of Brook and Brown trout, both fish invasive to the western states. Kruse’s plan involved poisoning the water, killing all fish in Cherry Creek, then reintroducing Westslope cutthroat trout to the river. This has proved one of the most ambitious river restoration projects to date. 

            The Biodiversity Divisions of Turner Enterprises, according to Kruse, represent “the largest private effort on behalf of endangered species preservation”. But he also refers to Turner Enterprises as a “reasonable illusion” concerning their efforts in conservation. He realizes that raising bison in a landscape with fences is not ‘natural’ and would probably be looked down upon by the public, especially the ranch’s use of feedlots to raise the bison to a correct weight. Kruse also looks down on trophy hunting, both because it is a form of bragging, but also because it is an ineffective way to manage an animal population if you only kill the largest, healthiest males. Yet he admits that it brings in a lot of money for Turner Enterprises and enables their conservation work to continue.

After lunch I ask Kruse what his favorite part of his job is. With little pause, he replies that his favorite part is being able to go out to a creek on Turners property and test for fish size and health, or more simply, just going fishing.

By David Dregallo

Meet our Guests: Tom and Sonya Campion

Tom and Sonya Campion

Founders, Campion Advocacy Fund

Methow Valley, WA

8/31/18

Tom and Sonya Campion are founders of the Campion Advocacy Fund. This couple has managed to combine their passion for business and public service as a tool to protect the environment, support homeless communities and advocate for civil engagement in politics. Tom, co-founder of the brand Zumiez, has spent his life in the business world, and Sonya has spent hers working in non-profits and fundraising consultancies.

The Campions are based in Seattle, but they welcomed our group at their mountain home in the Methow Valley. Within their property near Mazama, WA, they showed us a developed preserve for Townsend’s big-eared bats in a century-old wooden house and a more modern replica of the house right next to it. Additionally, the Campions talked about their experience in their business and philanthropic worlds and their story of combining those two in their foundation’s work. They explained the link of their role in politics and the importance of civic engagement. The Campions believe that civic engagement goes further than voting and recognize the need for advocacy and dialogues in different communities. Tom and Sonya represent an example of committed professionals advocating for social change, economic growth, and passion, together.

By: Juan Pablo Liendo

Meet our Guests: Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly

Restoration Director, Greater Hells Canyon Council

Wallowa County, OR

8/28/2018

Brian Kelly, the Restoration Director for the Greater Hells Canyon Council is polite, open to cooperation, but also a man of great conviction – one who is unlikely to back down from a fight.

As the Restoration Director of GHCC, Brian is primarily concerned with the relative ecological health and composition of the greater Hells Canyon area, extending from eastern Oregon across the Idaho border. Currently, Brian and his organization are involved in litigation proceedings against the United States Forest Service over the proposed “Lostine Corridor” project – a commercial timber harvest on the Lostine River Canyon in Wallowa County, a heavily trafficked, dense, wet forest area adjacent to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. They are arguing that the Forest Service illegally circumvented proceedings outlined in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) through a loophole known as a categorical exclusion (CE).

Aside from the striking beauty of the Lostine, Brian understands its importance more holistically, as an essential connectivity corridor, critical wildlife habitat, and a place that deserves careful consideration and analysis before management. Although Brian is a proponent of carefully managed public lands, he believes that the recreational and ecological status of this land is too great to concede to commercial timber interests.

In his parting statements, Brian reminded the group that although litigation should never come before cooperation, one must also do what is necessary to defend our public lands from mismanagement. 

By: James Baker

Photos by: Hannah Morel