Meet Our Guests: Kathryn Wilder

Kathryn Wilder

Writer, Rancher

Disappointment Valley, CO

10/7/2022—10/10/2022

As a writer, activist, and rancher, Kat Wilder is quite the renaissance woman. As the sun slowly crests over the tall peaks of the San Juan mountains and shines upon the sage brush-laden Disappointment Valley, Kat Wilder dons a visor to keep out the harsh Colorado morning light and joins us in our chair circle. Kat, originally from California and later Hawaii, is a transplant here in Southwestern Colorado. With her older son Ken, Kat has become a cattle rancher. Yet as a not just-your-average rancher, Kat looks at the land in her vicinity with care and compassion. Instead of solely grazing large black angus cattle on her ranch, Kat and Ken also choose to raise criollo cows; A much smaller breed of cow that has much less physical impact on the land at the cost of being less lucrative than their much larger counterparts. 

Aside from ranching, Kat is also an author and activist who in her book Desert Chrome, details the plight of wild/feral horses in the Intermountain West. In our four-day writing workshop with Kat, she taught us to hone our sensory perceptions of the dramatic landscape surrounding us through writing. In both the macrocosm of the colossal aspen groves above Kat’s ranch in the San Juans, as well as the microcosm of what lay in the vicinity of our camp adjacent to Disappointment Creek, Kat took us to many places in which we could engage in a veritable sensory buffet.

By Nathaniel Martin

Meet Our Guests: Rachel Jackson

Rachel Jackson

Accredited Representative, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center

El Paso, TX

11/2/2022 

Rachel Jackson met with us sitting on the lawn of the Chamizal National Monument in El Paso, Texas. The park looks out over a border checkpoint that brings travelers into Juarez, Mexico. Rachel works as an Accredited Representative for an organization called Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy center. As an accredited representative, Rachel provides legal representation to immigrants seeking citizenship, residency, asylum and a host of other forms of status. Rachel tells us about immigration policy and the ways in which Customs and Border Protection uses intimidation to discourage asylum seekers and migrants. In her eyes the border is not a system that is overwhelmed or broken, it is a system working as it is designed to. Many people in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez cross the border regularly to visit family and attend school and work. Even though it is a crisis in many ways, dealing with the surveillance, policing and harassment that comes along with it has become normalized in the borderlands community. 

Rachel talks about the mismatch of need and resources surrounding migrant justice work. There is a huge need for legal representation and advocacy, so the few resources available are constantly overwhelmed. Consequently, there is very little excess time and energy that can be put into visioning and coalition building to create a more widespread network of support for migrants. Rachel says “we need to band together to materially support migrants so that innovations and creativity in the movement can continue.”

By Mosley Lerner

Meet Our Guests: David Romo, Adriana Lopez

David Romo, adriana lopez

Historian, Musician

El Paso, TX

11/2/22

While in El Paso, Texas, for our writing workshop with Victoria Blanco, the Westies met with acclaimed local historian David Dorado Romo. Romo is the author of Ringside Seat to a Revolution, which tells the story of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez’s role during the events of the Mexican Revolution of 1911. He has also been interviewed often in recent years about issues of development and historic preservation in El Paso. David was joined by his bandmate, the vocalist and poet Adriana Lopez. Together, they took us on a tour of the historic Segundo Barrio of southern El Paso, explaining murals, telling stories, and performing music to accentuate the tour.

David and Adriana’s band, Los Liminals, draws on a mix of history, music, and spoken-word poetry, exploring the liminal space of the border and its residents over time. They recreate the past using the voices of those who lived it; at turns in our tour they performed from perspectives as diverse as legendary mystic Teresa Urrea, ancient footsteps in the White Sands of New Mexico, and the daughter of Pancho Villa’s bandleader. (If you’re interested in learning more, you can follow them on Instagram at @losliminals)

Part of the tour included a visit to the contested neighborhood of Durangito. For a decade, the city of El Paso has been trying to demolish this neighborhood to build a new sports arena, creating conflict with the local historical community and the residents, who are mainly Hispanic.The Westies met with Antonia Morales, the last remaining resident of Durangito, who, at 94 years old, remains the face of resistance to the city’s development plans. 

Adriana expressed that she and her bandmates don’t make music to impart any particular lesson or view on their listeners, but rather to inspire audiences to learn about their local history and draw their own meaning from it. Asked about her music, she says “If we can create music that creates curiosity, more than anything, from anyone, to try to go on their own journey … that's really where all these ideas came from.” The Westies were certainly inspired by their time with David and Adriana, and have carried that inspiration as we walk, write, and sing our way into the last leg of our field program.

By Sam Allen

Meet Our Guests: Kendra Atleework

kendra atleework

Writer

Bishop, CA

11/9/22—11/12/22

We first meet with writer Kendra Atleework at the base of Tungsten Peak, a seemingly small hill in comparison to the white giants that are the eastern Sierras rising up behind it. Yet, by the top of this hill, we are all huffing and puffing, and the nipping wind that earlier chilled to the bone is now a welcome friend to our reddened faces and sweaty brows. Atop this peak, where silence gives way to the gentle dripping and cracking of freshly fallen snow as it wakes up to the morning sun, Kendra and her father Robert introduce us to the narrow valley she has always called home: the Owens River Valley. This is the beginning of a three day writing workshop with Kendra.

Kendra’s writing is largely focused on place, which is why, on the top of Tungsten Peak, she encourages us to take a few minutes of silence to notice the microdetails; we will use this in our writing later. Each afternoon, after a morning of exploration and learning about the complexities that make up this valley and its landscape, Kendra guides us through a series of excerpts and essays that demonstrate world-building, writing from research, and voice. We then try our hand at some of these techniques through a series of short and long writing activities. With Kendra’s kindness, wisdom, and gentle soul, Westies were patiently guided toward a better sense of not only how to bring a landscape alive within our writing, but also how to allow the landscape to serve as a pivotal character in a piece of writing.

By Lila Foster

Meet Our Guests: Noah Williams, Sally Manning

Sally manning, noah williams

Sally Manning: Environmental director, Big Pine Paiute Tribe

Noah Williams: Water program coordinator, Big Pine Paiute Tribe

Big Pine, CA

11/12/2022

In Eastern California’s Owens Valley, only 4-6 inches of precipitation falls every year. Despite that, the valley is a huge source of water for the large city of Los Angeles. This is because the valley is sandwiched between the expansive Sierra and White Mountain ranges. These ranges, each with peaks reaching over 14,000 feet, receive an immense amount of snow every year. This snow melts, and as it runs down the valley it is diverted from its natural course to be funneled in a massive aqueduct to LA.

We met with Noah Williams, a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe and the Water Program Coordinator for the Big Pine Paiute Tribe, and with Sally Manning, the Environmental Director for the Tribe. They told us about their efforts to preserve Owens Valley.

Noah and Sally taught us about how the water diversions by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) can have extreme negative consequences for the ecology of Owens Valley. Due to LA’s water consumption, the water table in the valley has drastically dropped, affecting vegetation and animals alike. Noah and Sally also emphasized the severe effects that water diversions by LA have on significant locations for the Tribes of this area. For example, springs and ponds that hold cultural importance have completely dried up. They are hopeful that in the future some of these significant sites can be restored, and that balance can be brought to the water system.

By Henry Roller

Meet Our Guests: Enrique Perez

Enrique perez

El Paso, TX

11/1/2022

Mr. Perez arrives in a suit, the first speaker of our semester to do so. He carries himself with a warm formality, evocative of a career working managerial positions in the Juarez factories coupled with a fatherly glow. With a nuanced grin, he launches into a brief overview of his life story. 

His voice saunters through the sounds of the adjacent highway, a stone’s throw from the United States-Mexico border, occasionally drowned out by a passing semi. Despite our strategic positioning near the border wall, he seems to hardly notice its imposing presence. He has spent decades of his life commuting from El Paso to Juarez with every rising sun, returning home as it dips behind the mountains shadowing the two cities. The daily commute has entered the realm of monotony, for him, a mere bodily transportation not dissimilar to the commute of working folk around the country. 

Mr. Perez spoke highly of his work in the Juarez factories, colloquially referred to as the Maquiladoras. A college educated Mexican American, he spent his career escalating the ranks of management positions, and is now comfortably retired. Although he represents a minority of workers with such notable success in the industry, his perspective contextualized the complexities of a divided society. The industrialization of border cities can often be seen as exploitative and damaging to local communities, but for many–including Mr. Perez–it is a lifeline of support and prosperity. 

By Jonah Rosen-Bloom

Meet Our Guests: Ceal Klingler

Ceal klingler

Behavioral ecologist, writer

Bishop, CA

11/9/22

We spent three wonderful days in Bishop with Ceal Klingler hunting for beaver dams, writing about native plant species, and discussing the impacts of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in the Owens Valley. Ceal has lived in the area for almost two decades, surveying and studying behavior of flora and fauna on her ultra-runs. 10 years ago, she began work on a species field guide for the valley, but it morphed into an exploration of human engagement with the individuals around them. It's titled, "How We Live with Each Other: the Nature of Neighbors." 

With speaker Kendra Atleework, Ceal introduced us to water rights issues on the banks of Mill Creek in the Owens valley where she emphasized the impacts that LA's usage of the Owens River and groundwater has had on communities both human and non-human. A few days after meeting Ceal, we learned that the survival of the Owens Valley pupfish, an endangered desert fish, is in small part due to her diligent efforts to maintain habitat. We had a phenomenal time in Bishop with Ceal, and she is a true inspiration to us all!

By Rachel Husband

Meet Our Guests: Paula, Amalia, Gloria, and Liliana Holguin

Paula, amalia, gloria, and liliana holguin

Rarámuri Tribal Members

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

11/4/2022

Passports in hand, Semester in the West students gathered on the U.S side of Paso del Norte, one of four border crossings in El Paso. We walked across the pedestrian bridge, over the border wall and channelized Rio Grande into Juárez, Mexico. We were honored to meet with a three generational Rarámuri family. The Rarámuri, meaning “light footed ones” are indigenous peoples native to the Sierra Madras.

Some students enjoyed the opportunity to practice their Spanish and talk with our guests as we walked the streets of Juarez. Rarámuri culture is based on sharing and reciprocity. Our group experienced just that. They brought handmade baskets made of Palma, clothing and instruments to pass around and share with us. Rarámuri women wear brightly colored, homemade dresses. Triangle patterns represent the mountains, and lines represent the paths they walk in the desert. Students had an opportunity to try Pinole: a fermented corn protein drink extremely important to sustain life in the Sierra. People will often go days just drinking this highly nutritious drink when food is scarce.

After parting ways, we crossed back into the United States. Over the bridge and smoothly through the Port of Entry; thoughts of power dynamics and privilege in our heads as we walked back into El Paso.

By Abigael Carron

Meet Our Guests: Don Ashford

Don Ashford

Owner, 97.5 FM K-ROOT

Twisp, WA

8/20/22

Tucked into the upper story of a building in downtown Twisp, WA, Don Ashford broadcasts KTRT “The Root” to the Methow Valley. We managed to cram all twenty-four of us into the slanted-ceiling studio where Don spends his time on radio. He has created his own wallpaper of music posters, maps, and other paraphernalia. At the center point of the room sits Don, wearing a shirt that says, “Nature is my religion, and the earth is my church”, and the backs of his hands are tattooed with bear paws. He walks us through his ethics on playing music to match the time of day, moving from high energy songs while at work to slower tempos before dinner. Don has been officially managing The Root since 2008. Before he moved to the TwispWorks campus, he ran the radio from a barn behind his house in Mazama. Don left us enchanted by the passion he exudes towards music, connecting communities, and intention. For the remainder of our time in the Methow Valley, 97.5 “The Root” streamed through our car speakers as we drove to talk with other locals. Nat, a student, asked every guest if they listened to the station and was repeatedly met with “of course! Don is awesome!” or something similar. Although we inevitably left the radio range of “The Root”, Don’s influence has stayed with us, his name continually coming up in conversation.

By Thomas McElfresh

Meet Our Guests: Mitch Cutter

Mitch Cutter

Salmon and Steelhead Associate, Idaho Conservation League

Boise, ID

9/10 - 9/14

Mitch Cutter—2014 Westie, 2018 Tech Manager, and guest speaker for both 2021 and our programs—works for the Idaho Conservation League. He joined us as our Idaho guide for the 4 days we were there. At ICL, Mitch works as a Salmon and Steelhead associate. Standing in front of the Yankee Fork of the Salmon river, Mitch described to us the historic runs of sockeye—tens of thousands of fish making the 900 mile journey every year from the Pacific Ocean to RedFish Lake. Last year, there were only 4 sockeye who made it past all 8 Snake River dams to return to the lake. Mitch’s work, ultimately, is to help return the salmon runs to a sustainable population, but—as he described to us—the best way to do this is, perhaps surprisingly, through energy lobbying. Because the grids of the Pacific Northwest rely on hydroelectric energy, Mitch lobbies to have these systems replaced so that one day the dams will become unnecessary, and the push to remove them easier. With Mitch, we had our most political discussion of Semester in the West so far. He helped us to understand the complexities of conservation in a political landscape where it’s not just ecological interests at play, but also economic and social interests. Though dams may feel integral to the history of the PNW, they are only a part of settler history, and the damage they do to salmon—an ecologically and culturally vital species—means that they must go. 

By Apple Lieser

Meet Our Guests: Bonnie and BillyPat Mckinney

Bonnie and billypat mckinney

Manager and Wildlife Coordinator, El Carmen Land and Conservation Co.

Terlingua, TX

10/29/22

Bonnie and BillyPat welcomed us back onto land at the end of our river trip after we hosed down our dusty, damp river gear (and ourselves in the process). They manage the Adams Ranch, a conservation project funded by multinational cement and materials company, Cemex. The property used to be a working ranch, but now provides contiguous habitat spanning the gap between Big Bend National Park and Black Gap State Park in Texas, along with swaths of habitat owned by Cemex in Mexico. Bonnie explained the variety of wildlife that call this region home or migrate through the area, including black bears, desert bighorn sheep, and mule deer. 

Bonnie then asked us to take a moment to listen for birds. Quails, turkeys, elf owls, and a multitude of other birds migrate through here in the fall, so she would expect a cacophony of chirps outside of the screened-in porch where we sat. We strained our ears, but were met only with quiet – this year has had concerningly low numbers of birds, continuing a trend that worries Bonnie and BillyPat. 

We piled into two trucks later that day to visit one aspect of Bonnie and BillyPat’s restoration work: water storage tanks that collect and store rainwater to expand desert habitat. They call the metal contraptions “Quail Condos,” as they provide water, protection, and food blocks for migrating birds. Bonnie and BillyPat strive to support wildlife in multiple other ways as well, conserving desert species to counteract Cemex’s impact on the planet.

By Ellen Haney

Meet Our Guests: Victoria Blanco

Victoria blanco

Writer

El Paso, TX

11/1/22—11/4/22

As we drive across Loop 375, the El Paso highway running parallel to the border, writer Victoria Blanco tells us how the towering steel wall we see now was just a chain link fence, broken in many places, for her entire childhood. She came home from college during a break to discover the entire wall had been built in the few months she was gone. Despite its now-monumental presence in the two cities she calls home, El Paso and Juarez, she reminds us people lived without it for generations and its ongoing existence is not inevitable. 

After completing her undergrad, Victoria used her Fulbright scholarship to kickstart her research and immersive cultural exploration of the Rarámuri people, an indigenous tribe native to the Chihuahuan desert. She has spent years forging meaningful relationships with the women of the tribe, some of whom were introduced to the group in Juarez. Her research is focused on their passive resistance to assimilation into mainstream Mexican society as climate change and cartels have forced many out of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains and into the cities. 

She advised us not only to resist accepting the barriers and walls we face in our own lives, but to resist borders in our writing as well. She taught us to leave genre at the door and to “bring as much joy to the art-making as possible.”

By Kaitlyn Salazar

Meet Our Guests: Jim Whelan

Jim Whelan

Fisheries Biologist, Fishlake National Forest

Sevier, UT

9/24/22

Jim Whelan is a US Forest Service aquatic biologist working in Fishlake National Forest. Walking up the Fish Creek watershed, Jim’s deep knowledge of river systems, riparian plants, and the fish of the area spills out. Focused on restoring native Cutthroat Trout to the stream, Jim works with a variety of agencies–local, state, and federal–on fish restoration.

While Jim taught us valuable lessons about river ecosystems, he also addressed the day-to-day life of a Forest Service biologist, describing watershed health evaluations, fish surveys, and the interagency relationships needed to do the job. Even though the Forest Service manages the land Jim works on, he needs to include the Utah Division of Wildlife and various local water authorities in his discussions and operations, as the water and wildlife are not managed by USFS. These relationships can make or break restoration projects, Jim tells us, so navigating the institutional system along with the ecological system is crucial to getting good work done. 

By Nat Lange

Meet Our Guests: Kurt Tardy

Kurt Tardy

Anadromous Fisheries Biologist, Shoshone Bannock Tribes

Pocatello, ID

9/12/2022

Kurt Tardy met us on the bank of Bear Creek in Central Idaho. Kurt works for the Shoshone-Bannock tribes on salmon restoration, focusing on getting as much of the historical salmon run back into the waterways as possible. At Bear Creek, Kurt showed us the weir that the tribes install every year during the late summer to determine how many salmon make it all 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to Bear Creek. He is able to count every returning salmon through a video feed they swim through on their way to their spawning grounds upriver. 

Kurt emphasizes that even if the population number goes up significantly, unless that number matches the historical salmon runs of a century ago, the goal hasn’t been met. He cautions us to avoid taking eye catching numbers like “the salmon returning to this river doubled since last year!”, as that could mean a mere doubling of 35 to 70, a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of fish that should be running up the river.  

Kurt balances his long-term goals of restoration to the historic population with his immediate goal of stopping the extinction of the Snake River salmon. There are only a small number of salmon in the ocean programmed to travel back to Bear Creek, and he needs to make sure they have a safe trip home and a nice habitat to spawn. Bear Creek is one of the most well-preserved salmon habitats on the Snake River, and Kurt protects its future with pride.

By Nat Lange

Meet Our Guests: Gabe and Zoe Spence

Gabe and Zoe Spence

Gabe: Wolf biologist, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Zoe: Northwest Representative, Defenders of Wildlife

White Salmon, WA

8/25/2022

We park the cars in the middle of a windy dirt road and get out, ready to hike. Gabe and Zoe tell us to be careful, pay attention to our footsteps, and not to walk in front of them. They have already begun tracking. About 10 feet in front of the cars, Gabe leans down and starts pointing out footprints; there was a wolf here. He explains their gate and how to distinguish tracks. What we struggle to see right in front of us, he can see from the driver’s seat of the truck. 

As our hike continues, we pause periodically to see more examples of wolf traces on the land. Stopping for lunch amidst dirt beds recently dug by pups, Zoe shares a story about the relationship between wolves and indigenous groups. After the story, she tells us about her work with Defenders of Wildlife. She works to revive, restore, and recover large wildlife carnivorous species, namely Grizzly Bears and Wolves. 

Gabe and Zoe have dedicated their lives to studying wolves. Today we saw a peek into the field work Gabe does year round and the connections Zoe makes to advocate for wolves. Our time with them was spent not only picking up on valuable lessons about this misunderstood species, but also learning about navigating the tense communication between wolf advocates and their opponents. 

By Gwen Empie

Meet Our Educators: Mary O'Brien

Mary O’Brien

Scientist, activist, stakeholder member of Monroe Mountain Working Group, executive director of Project Eleven Hundred

Castle Valley, UT

9/16/22-9/28/22

Nestled on Mary O’Brien’s five-acre-plot in Castle Valley, Utah, Westies sit criss-cross applesauce in front of their assigned species, studying every minute detail about their plant. Our very first assignment from Mary is to get close and personal with a species of our choice on Mary’s property. Simply put, Mary wants us to understand the intrinsic value of all species.

In 1993, Mary O’Brien wrote in The Professional Biologist: “Once you’re a scientist, which means as soon as you systematically ask questions about the universe, you take a political side.” The article, titled Being a scientist means taking sides, reflects perfectly who Mary is—a scientist, a public advocate, and a fierce defender for the environment. A sociology major turned doctorate in pollination biology, Mary sits at the intersection of biology and politics. She is not afraid of taking sides. After teaching public-interest science and environmental advocacy, Mary spent decades working with conservation organizations. She is now the executive director for Project Eleven Hundred, a nonprofit aimed at protecting bees and native plants on the Colorado plateau.

After a brief stay in Castle Valley, Westies travel with Mary to Monroe Mountain to collect data on aspen growth after prescribed fire and mechanical thinning treatments. Mary is adamant about the tremendous negative impacts cattle grazing has on ecological health, especially after severe disturbances to the landscape. Empowered by her scientific training, Mary comments on many environmental assessments with the data collected by herself. Her passion and determination in the pursuit of a better future for the natural world inspire us all to become more informed and involved citizens of planet earth.

By Jake Wang

Meet Our Guests: Steve and Robin Boies

Steve and Robin Boies

Owners, Ranchers, Boies Ranch

Jackpot, NV

9/15/2022

Sunken into plush couches in a warm living room brimming with books and artwork, twenty college students get a glimpse into the lives of the ranchers who live there. Steve and Robin Boies have been immersed in the world of ranching their whole lives. In the 1950s, Robin's family moved to this ranch; a piece of land made up of both BLM and private land, in Jackpot Nevada. Between mouthfuls of Robin’s homemade coffee cake we ask them about how they sustainably manage their cattle who roam as far as the mountain ranges that distantly line the horizon. We eat up their responses almost as eagerly as we do the cake. Steve tells us that he sees the climate change through his cattle, who have suffered in increasingly dry years. He expresses that range practices such as frequently rotating cattle, fencing off springs, and actively restoring sage grouse habitat are both beneficial to the land and his cattle operation. While their environmental efforts are rooted in their own ideological backings, their restorative work is enforced by regulations from the Bureau of Land Management. Witnessing the frustrations these regulations incite for their fellow ranchers, the couple pioneered the Shoesole Resource Management Group, a collective ranching effort that established collaboration between ranchers and BLM, repairing previously antagonistic relationships notorious between the two groups. Before we set off through the tall, bright-green grass behind their house, Robin imparts her hope that militant, anti-government ranchers like Cliven Bundy will not be seen as the face of rural ranching. The Boies couple works to model an alternative to this representation, taking part in an openly communicative, if not amiable, “interrelationship and interdependence” between private ranchers and the BLM. 

By Tali Hastings

Meet Our Guests: Eirene Hamilton

Eirene Hamilton

Writer, Navajo Language Teacher

Bluff, UT

10/3/2022-10/5/2022

To meet Eirene Hamilton, we traveled a few miles through arid scrubland and down a bright-red dirt road to her homestead. With a view of the white, wavy rocks of Comb Ridge, Monument Valley’s spires, and the Bears Ears Monument, her homestead property included three cabins and a windmill. Looking out from the slickrock patch where we started her writing workshop, very few other man-made structures stuck out in the landscape. Eirene is a Navajo language teacher and an established poet; she shared several of her poems and short stories. Her magenta tinted lips formed a smile from under her wide brimmed straw hat as she read tales about her past, her family, and the environment.

Over the course of three days with her, Eirene told us stories about her homestead, where she spent the first years of her life as a sheep herder with her family. Eirene was very open with us, even sharing difficult stories about healing from her experience at a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school as a child. Before we completed writing exercises, she gave us guided tours of her property, which included many of the small shrubs and flowering bushes that dotted the landscape. From old buildings to new cabins built in recent years, almost every structure and plant could be connected to a story. Once a bustling household with children and extended family, she now calls the mostly empty homestead property “just kind of haunted.” However, through educational workshops and some landscaping work, she plans to turn the property into an education center and conservation easement. Before departing on our last day with her, she encouraged us all to keep writing and keep an open mind.

By Sonia Burns

Meet Our Guests: Joe Pachak

Joe Pachak

Artist, Archeologist

Bluff, UT

9/30/2022 — 10/2/2022

Joe Pachak is a creator. In the literal sense, he is a very talented artist. His studio located in the small, recently incorporated town of Bluff, Utah, is home to his collection of sculptures brought to life in detail and beautiful, precise drawings of the ancient carvings pecked into sacred sandstone sites by Basket Maker and Pueblo peoples. Joe is also a creator in that he has the beautiful ability of bringing a deep history to life in front of our eyes. We stand at the edge of an ancient Pueblo pithouse, which, to the untrained eye, looks like a mound of dirt with broken pottery sherds spread about. But with his words and his eccentric hand gestures, Joe rebuilds the Unit Pueblo in front of our eyes: “here is where the hearth would be…. And here, you can see a wall where this upturned cobble is.” He picks up sherds of pottery, chipped churt, and hammered rocks. As he gingerly turns each in his hands, the love he holds for the lives they represent is tangible. He passes each piece around, dating them based on style and material, but once we have each held a piece of history, he asks us to return them. Although artifacts are incredibly powerful, Joe reminds us that “they do not belong to us”. Artifacts belong to a place and time in history. We must leave them where they are found, not only for future historians and archaeologists to gain a better understanding of a place, but also because these places are “the spiritual homes of artifacts.”

The passion Joe expresses in his emotional storytelling is tangible. He speaks slowly, giving every word importance because he sees the importance in the smallest things. When I say “it’s just a sherd” and set a glassy chip back on the earth after mistaking it for a part of an arrowhead, Joe corrects me: “it’s a sherd, no ‘just’”. His intentional view of the world is contagious. He walks us through sacred sites where carvings thousands of years old tie us to the rituals and customs of the Basket Maker and Pueblo peoples who lived here. Joe says he draws these carvings out so that he can “have the same thoughts and to go through the same motions in order to come to an understanding” of the people who created this art. He is a believer in the process. “Energy follows thought” is Joe’s mantra for the three days we are with him. He quotes this Willie Nelson song over and over, instilling in us that with the proper mentality, we have the ability to cause immense change.

By Lila Foster

Meet Our Guests: Jeff Adams

Jeff Adams

Founder, Principal, TerraSophia LLC

Moab, UT

9/27/2022

Our suburban caravan kicks up clouds of dust as we roll into the red gravel parking lot. Fresh faced Westies pile out, backpacks slung over shoulders and notebooks in hand. The mighty Moab sun beats down as Jeff Adams greets us.

Jeff is the owner of TerraSophia, a landscape contracting firm working to improve water restoration in the area. He refers to himself as an alternative fellow, one whose mission is improving water management. Jeff is dedicated to letting the land and its systems guide his work. This inspires we eager students.

Despite the sweat and swelter, Jeff is garbed in thick camel-colored work pants and chunky hiking boots. He wears a light-shaded sun shirt, the hood pulled over his baseball cap that protrudes over his sporty glasses that disguise his eyes. His well-weathered hands are exposed and assist with much of his verbal commentary.  

Nestled in the red rock cradle, Jeff explains to us where we are. We stand in the remains of a flood path. One month ago a huge, unexpected flood rushed through the canyon. A product of intense rainfall, this flood wiped out much of the region, and thankfully did not take any lives. Though the surrounding vegetation and debris look frazzled, Jeff teaches us about the benefits the flood brought; healthy sediment deposition and a widening of the channel, making it possible for the water to reunite once again with its original flood plain.

Jeff is passionate about restoring the Moab watershed and educating others about the importance of healthy water management. In addressing us, Jeff states, “Knowledge is power.” Hailing from the lush Cape Cod area of Massachusetts, Jeff forged westward as water management has become a serious issue, and he has found a calling to aid in the crisis. He states, “I believe that with education and a beautifully functional solution, we can change the culture around water.” Our group is inspired and invigorated by his work.

By Katie Spegar