Meet our Guests: Richard Graymountain

Richard Graymountain

San Juan Southern Paiute Tribal Councilmember and medicine man

Navajo Mountain, AZ / Navajo Nation

9/26/21

Sitting next to a crackling fire beneath Navajo Mountain, medicine man Richard Graymountain describes the frictions associated with Diné (Navajo) and San Juan Southern Paiute tribal membership in the age of ever-expanding modernity. He observes that young Diné people who have grown up with indoor spaces and the luxuries they provide—electricity, heating and cooling—do not realize the importance of becoming familiar and comfortable on their ancestral land.  

Graymountain is a vestige of declining customs, believing in the importance of traditional cultural values. Passing those on has become more and more difficult with the imposition of Western society, and a pandemic that prevents people from gathering in their typical tight-knit fashion. However, with a spot on the San Juan Southern Paiute tribal council, Graymountain is able to have some influence over the direction and values of the tribe. One impactful and direct way he’s achieved this recovery is by emphasizing the cultural importance of oral tradition. Historically, all accumulated knowledge was passed down in this manner. During his time on the tribal council, Graymountain has endeavored to pass on the Navajo and Paiute languages. Most notably, he has revived forgotten songs by teaching them to children. Through ceremonies, storytelling, and song, Richard Graymountain helps to breathe life into the Navajo and Paiute languages, igniting new generations.

By Ruthie Colburn

Meet our Guests: Susie Knezevich

Susie Knezevich

Interior designer and co-owner of Johnson Lakes Canyon property

Kanab, UT

9/30/21

     Recent rains have turned large portions of the road leading to Johnson Lakes Canyon outside of Kanab, UT, into soup, but this doesn’t stop Susie Knezevich from reaching the property that she has worked so hard to restore. Almost 20 years ago Susie and her husband Rick, who both reside in Aspen, CO, were looking for a parcel of land where they could hike and camp. In 2004 they purchased an 800-acre private inholding in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a land dominated by sand, sage, and bluffs. Their land, however, was not in the best condition for hiking. Decades of cattle grazing had destroyed native vegetation and allowed prickly invasive plants such as Russian olive and bull thistle to proliferate.

     “We decided to take the cattle off the land because we noticed the damage and we needed to begin fixing that,” Susie said. The Knezevichs worked with the Grand Canyon Trust, a regional environmental group, to put their land under a conservation easement in 2015 to ensure that it will remain free from the beefy ungulates in perpetuity.

     The Johnson Lakes Canyon property now serves as a reference area for the surrounding National Monument which remains heavily grazed by cattle. Susie and her husband have worked with ecologist and SITW guest educator Mary O’Brien to bring in biologists, students, and volunteers to conduct research and restoration projects with the goal of showing how the land has rebounded since grazing has ceased. Susie excitedly shared that the native oaks, cottonwoods, and willows are reaching heights and numbers not noted for years. “We were unlikely characters to get involved in conservation treatments, but now we are really hooked!” says Susie.

By Ani Pham

Meet our Guests: Brett Isaac

Brett Isaac

Founder and Co-CEO, Navajo Power

Navajo Mountain, AZ / Navajo Nation

9/25/21

Brett Isaac grew up next to the Peabody Coal Mine and surrounded by the effects it had on his Diné (Navajo) community in Shonto. Specifically: contaminated drinking water, depletion of the drinking water aquifer, and respiratory illness among the local population. Additionally, the electricity generated by the coal from this mine was not accessibly to Diné families.

After graduating from Arizona State University, Brett came home to the Navajo Nation in hopes of bringing money and electric power back. He started by building solar panel arrays for individual houses far off the grid as well as providing mobile power units that have been used by Diné residents and by protestors at Standing Rock to power their camps.

In 2020, Brett co-founded Navajo Power: a public benefit renewable energy corporation that aims to brings the economic and environmental boons of solar energy to the Navajo Nation and other indigenous communities across the country. While he does not think solar energy is the “silver bullet” in dealing with climate change, he believes that it is a step in the right direction and sees first-hand how beneficial it is for the communities he has brought power to.

By Wes Johnston

Editor’s note: the photo of Brett Isaac above is from SITW 2016 as SITW 2021 met with Brett at night and did not get a more recent portrait.

Meet our Guests: Jason Nez

Jason Nez

Fire Archeologist

Navajo Nation

09/26/21

“I’m always looking at signs and putting together stories,” says Jason Nez, kneeling to examine a sherd of Diné pottery patterned with rusty stalks of corn. As an archaeologist, Jason reads complex stories of people and place from the minutia of human markings and artifacts. As a wildland fire crew manager with the National Park Service, he puts his archaeological literacy to uncommon use.

The process of corralling and extinguishing fires leaves its own scars on landscapes. Fire line trenches and vehicular tracks disturb landscapes in the name of park protection but threaten to erase sites of native artifacts should they collide with the path of fire. Thus, Jason proactively identifies sites and develops plans to spare them from damage by fire crews.

Lasting artifacts have been a vital source of power for the Diné and other indigenous tribes whose nativity, as Jason articulates, is constantly questioned. “So when we see these [artifacts],” Jason emphasizes, “it’s our proof that we were here. They couldn’t take us from this landscape because we were able to argue in court that these were our ancestors’ and it’s indisputable. So having enough respect to leave these things here, protects these connections far into the future in bigger ways than we can ever imagine.”

By Nicki Caddell

Meet our Guests: Norman Benally

Norman Benally

Interpreter, activist, sheep herder, and assembly line worker

Black Mesa, AZ / Navajo Nation

9/25/21

Self-proclaimed “old timer,” Norman Benally meets Westies outside his home in Black Mesa on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. His house adjoins a retired coal processing plant. Peabody Energy moved into the region in 1968, mining coal and pumping water from the Navajo aquifer to power cities off the reservation – Tucson, Flagstaff, Las Vegas. For years, many Diné (Navajo) people depended on the coal plant for work and the aquifer for water, yet their proximity to these resources did little to increase their access.

Today, the plant is shut down. A pipeline borders Norman’s house, but no water runs through his faucet. “The politics are as dirty as the coal plant,” he states—not to mention the drinking water. This summer, 86 of his sheep died after drinking from a nearby spring. He holds up a plastic water bottle, “we never drank out of these [until now].”

Before the backdrop of an arid, industrial landscape – his backyard – Norman expounds on the “struggle to maintain a way of life we were raised in,” when any extra cash goes into feeding his livestock, and the local resources “to keep all those AC units running in the Southwest.” Norman has pushed through this struggle. He resisted removal, fought, and remained. Norman’s activism, working as a translator for Navajo matriarchs to speak out against the coal plant and pass down Diné stories, has brought him to locations such as Standing Rock and the United Nations. His story is what he calls “the hard truth.” He intends to continue resisting.

By Neave Fleming

Meet our Guests: Amanda Gardner

Amanda Gardner

Executive Director, White Clouds Preserve

Clayton, Idaho

9/11/21

Hiding from the sun, sunglasses cover a swath of Amanda Gardner’s face as she talks about the White Clouds Preserve (WCP), a budding nonprofit in central Idaho based around a 432-acre former cattle ranch. Amanda is the co-executive director of the organization, and since April of 2020, has lived on the preserve full-time. WCP’s mission is to “foster stewardship, education, and community,” Amanda says, while trying to wrangle her terrier on the lawn next to the three-story chalet on the property. Their most recent project has been restoring riparian habitat on the property – which was degraded by 100 years of ranching – to improve salmon spawning habitat. WCP has hired a local habitat restoration company to plant native species to provide shade for the overexposed river, serving the double purpose of helping the environment and supporting the local economy.

White Clouds Preserve’s lodge has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the East Fork of the Salmon River and provides housing for AmeriCorps volunteers and veterans in recreational therapy programs.  Coordinating reservations and programs for the facilities comprises much of what Amanda does, and looking forward, the “hope is to be a hub,” from where more volunteer groups can “work out of, and go in different directions in central Idaho.”

By Kevin Faeustle

Meet our Guests: Kurt Tardy

Kurt Tardy

Anadromous Fish Biologist, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

Stanley, Idaho

09/13/21

Kurt Tardy is an anadromous fish biologist who has been working with the Shoshone-Bannock tribes in central Idaho for nearly a decade. Kurt’s focus is on fish restoration, with the long-term goal of restoring salmon and steelhead populations to their historic abundance and the short-term goal of saving them from impending extinction.

Using the term “50,000-foot view,” Kurt advocated for a more holistic approach to restoration—one that goes beyond just habitat restoration. He used the metaphor of a newly built hotel, saying that numerous habitat-focused organizations have spent copious amounts of time, energy and money building a five-star hotel for fish in the upper Snake River. However, because of out-of-basin factors like dams, high water temperatures, and juvenile fish mortality, there are no fish to put in those hotel rooms. 

     Kurt brought Westies on a tour of a fish weir that was recently constructed on Pettit Creek in the Sawtooth Mountains. The fish weir is designed to catch sockeye migrating to and from Pettit Lake for biologists to count. Kurt’s passion for fish restoration shone through as he talked about the sockeye captive brood program, a project in which sockeye are genetically matched to produce the most successful offspring, who are then reared in their natural lake environment. Through projects like this, Kurt is dedicated to making concrete progress on achievable short-term goals without losing site of the big picture dream for a return to historic salmon runs. 

By Livvie Bright

Meet our Guests: Tom Page

Tom Page

Rancher and Policy Chair, Western Landowners Alliance

Challis, ID

9/12/2021

At the foot of the Lemhi Mountains in central Idaho, Tom Page stands beside a babbling creek. Tom is the Policy Chair for Western Landowners Alliance, an organization dedicated to supporting working landscapes and native ecosystems around the western U.S. He also manages Big Creek Ranch where he grazes cattle and implements restoration projects to support endangered species like Chinook and Steelhead. Tom owns 8,000 acres of the ranch outright, and holds the grazing permit for the remaining 112,000 acres of public land.

The creek Tom stands beside is a perfect example of his restoration efforts. Eight years ago, this land was a feedlot; the ground a foot-deep soup of mud and manure. Now the creek wanders through banks of willow and is surrounded by fields of grasses, all thanks to the water reallocation and stream restoration Tom has done since buying the property in 2014.

Not only does Tom labor tirelessly to restore habitat for critical species on his property, he is also intent on understanding and changing policies that govern land use so they will be more protective of functioning ecosystems. Tom is aware that much of the impressive restoration that he has done at Big Creek Ranch, from putting irrigation water back in streams to wildlife friendly fencing, could be easily undone under new ownership. Tom’s role at the Western Landowners Alliance allows him to advocate for change that will codify restoration of this land that he loves for generations to come.

By Morgan Sharp

Meet our Guests: John Rohrer

John Rohrer

U.S. Forest Service Program Manager

Methow Valley, Washington

8/28/21-8/30/21

     John Rohrer is the USFS Program Manager for Range, Weeds, Botany and Wildlife based in the Okanogan National Forest. John is a soft-spoken, thoughtful biologist who has numerous interests within the Methow valley and battles with a wide range of dilemmas in the ecological and political spheres.

     John’s wide-ranging job description means that he is involved with a variety of forest management decisions and the dilemmas that often accompany those decisions. For example, John has worked with fire rangers in an attempt to address the issue of overly dense forests that need thinning to prevent massive fires that have decimated the valley in recent years. However, thinning is difficult to begin because of the restrictions on cutting trees down due to the presence of the endangered spotted owl who resides in these forests. John also works on other projects such as his effort to reintroduce beavers to Black Pine Lake. Outside of his official job, John is a snake enthusiast who captures pesky rattlesnakes in the valley, monitors them and houses them on his property.

By Wes Johnston

Meet our Guests: Paul Hessburg

Paul Hessburg

Research Landscape Ecologist, U.S. Forest Service

Methow Valley, WA

9/3/21

Paul Hessburg is a fire connoisseur who looks at forests with a deep-rooted knowledge of ecology. He understands and imparts that a healthy forest does not look like the abundance of thick-canopied trees that many people imagine, but instead contains meadows and bare space. He looks at forests through the eyes of fire – thinking of where it would go when it inevitably comes back to the landscape, invited or not. Hessburg speaks of Native Americans’ relationships with fire, one he admits was much more in tune with the landscape. In a landscape impacted by the effects of climate change, Paul shares his knowledge within the U.S Forest Service and his community so that others can begin to understand that the only constant in landscape and fire ecology is change.

Conservation, in a world with a rapidly changing climate, must be thought of in much broader terms, Paul says. He believes that requires looking at the history of fire management, understanding the present social problems communities face, and diligently studying ecology. With this holistic view, Paul explains that “fire in this landscape is non-negotiable, so finding a way to invite it back so that it does good things: burn up dead wood, thin out trees, is the goal.”

By Jade Strapart

Meet our Guests: Alexa Whipple

Alexa Whipple

Executive Director, Methow Beaver Project

Methow Valley, WA

9/5/2021

         Along the Methow River’s Silver Side Channel, Alexa Whipple, Project Director for the Methow Beaver Project, emphasizes that diversity is key to the stream health. The river channel here weaves through riparian vegetation, side pools, debris, rapids, and two beaver ponds. At the end of the second pond, a large section of plastic tube allows for fish to pass through an existing beaver dam. It is one of many on-the-ground restoration projects that Alexa manages.

Today, beavers have largely been removed from the Methow River watershed by human trapping and their habitat replaced by houses built next to streams. This means that reintroducing the mammal to these parts hinges on landowner cooperation. To Alexa, the short-term goal is to protect current beaver habitat and introduce them in key, manageable locations. The long-term goal is to move people out of the floodplain and allow streams to flood and meander again. Restoration projects like the one on Silver Side Channel are proactive steps toward a beaver-filled watershed, but Alexa recognizes they will not accomplish this goal on their own, saying, “solutions don’t have to be the final option.”

Efforts to restore beaver to the Methow River are slow-moving and face a variety of challenges. Perhaps most severe: the species is not protected in the U.S., so trappers may kill the beaver that Alexa and her organization have invested so much in. Still, Alexa often carries a forward-looking beam on her face as she works.

By Fielding Schaefer

Photo credit: Haley Post

Meet our Guests: Gabe Spence and Zoë Hanley

Gabe Spence and Zoë Hanley

Wolf Biologist, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; and Northwest Representative, Defenders of Wildlife

Methow Valley, Washington

9/2/21

Crouched over a dusty road in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Gabe Spence and Zoë Hanley point out aged prints of a wolf pack living in the area. Gabe is a wolf biologist with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and an expert tracker. Zoë Hanley is a wildlife ecologist with the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. In many areas including this one, wolves naturally returned from surrounding regions after being hunted out of existence. This has caused significant conflict with livestock producers in rural communities, and Zoë and Gabe are right in the middle of this conflict.

Through the muddled dust, Gabe can tell that the wolf chased a coyote in full sprint down the road and then laid down, the prints exposing the movements and the size of the animal. He can use his tracking abilities and collars on the wolves to study them and keep track of how they are doing. Zoë primarily works to mitigate conflict between livestock producers and wolves. She explains the complicated relationship between cows and wolves and how the American public has let cattle graze in wolf territory, leading to the death of ranchers’ cows, especially calves. Ranchers cannot handle the economic loss. But it is also the rancher’s choice to have their cows in wolf territory and the wolves don’t see the difference between a deer and a cow, they just see dinner for their pack. Zoë believes that it is possible for humans to learn to coexist with wolves, but it is difficult to navigate the challenges of non-lethal forms of protection. Both Zoë and Gabe show a deep love for the animal they study as well as a hint of weariness in their eyes caused by the challenges they face in their work.

By Haley Post

Meet our Guests: Betsy Devin Smith, Casey Smith, Johnnie Duguay-Smith

Betsy Devin Smith, Casey Smith and Johnnie Duguay Smith

Owners and Operators, BCS Livestock

Twisp, WA

9/1/2021

Betsy Devin Smith and her husband, Skip, started BCS Livestock, a farm that sells grass-fed lamb meat and wool products in the Methow Valley in Washington state. The business became a full-family endeavor when Casey, their son, and Johnnie, Casey’s wife, graduated college and moved to the Methow (BCS stands for “Betsy, Casey, Skip”). Together, the family practices regenerative agriculture. They focus on using mob-style grazing; placing many sheep in an area for a short period, which they believe improves soil health.

BCS grew from the family’s realization that the traditional cow-calf operation was no longer financially viable for them. Betsy believes that “the producer isn’t capturing enough of that dollar value [of the beef sold]” to break even. After taking a holistic ranch management class with Washington State University, the family realized that they could change the way they thought about agriculture.

Betsy says that they asked themselves: “’Are we really cattle ranchers, or are we grass farmers — land managers?’” After some discussion, they decided to raise sheep, which can be sold more quickly, and to focus on understanding the environment in which the sheep graze.

Now, the family works within the Methow Valley community and provides local services. BCS Livestock sells directly to the Valley’s occupants, mostly through word-of-mouth. They also rent many irrigated properties in order to graze their sheep and “mow” lawns for events.

“The ranch today is not going to be like your father’s ranch,” Betsy said. “The agriculture of tomorrow is not going to be necessarily like your father’s or your grandfather’s agriculture. It’s new and different.”

By Emma Fletcher-Frazer

Meet our Guests: Jason Paulsen and Daniel Senner

Jason Paulsen and Daniel Senner

Executive Director and Community Conservation Coordinator, The Methow Conservancy

Methow Valley, WA

09/01/21

A lover of the magical landscapes and vibrant community of Washington’s Methow Valley, Jason Paulsen thinks he has “the best job in the American West.” As Executive Director of the Methow Conservancy, Jason oversees the organization’s conservation efforts and works to inspire the community of the Methow Valley to care for the land. An important focus of Jason’s work is securing affordable housing in a region that plays host to many second homes. Jason explains that affordable housing supports the longevity of the community, and it also gives folks the baseline comfort and security that provides an opportunity to put time and energy into conservation work.

Jason’s colleague Daniel Senner is the Community Conservation Coordinator at the Conservancy, focusing primarily on community engagement: hosting volunteer projects, crafting education programs, and creating experiences that celebrate the valley’s ecology and foster a strong stewardship ethic.

At the core of the Conservancy’s work are the 100+ conservation easements the organization manages to protect land in the valley. As a result, both Jason and Daniel work closely with private landowners to reach conservation goals. Jason and Daniel agree that, while sometimes challenging, this collaboration yields effective and fair approaches that both meet the needs of landowners and prioritize the health of the land.

By Erika Goodman

Meet our Guests: Tom and Sonya Campion

Tom and Sonya Campion

Founder of Zumiez, Founders of Campion Foundation and Campion Advocacy Fund

Methow Valley, WA

8/28/21

Nestled at the base of a 1,500-foot tall wall of granite in the Methow Valley, WA sits a pristine property owned by Tom and Sonya Campion. The property was once under threat of being developed into a ski resort by an out-of-state corporation until concerned locals stepped in to stop development. The Methow Valley Citizens Council reached out to the Campions to see if they would be interested in purchasing the property, and after doing so the Campions placed it under a conservation easement, ensuring that the land will be protected from future habitat destruction and development.

The acquisition of their property is just one example of how Tom and Sonya have used their wealth and resources to support their community and protect the places they love. For Tom, one of those places is the Alaskan Arctic, a location he describes as “wider than any wilderness we have”. Tom founded the clothing company Zumiez in 1978, but in the years after his retirement he has shifted his focus towards building a non-profit and engaging in political lobbying for the protection of public lands. With his support, the Campion Advocacy Fund has successfully lobbied to prevent oil drilling on nearly one million acres of pristine wilderness along the costal planes near Prudhoe Bay, AK.

While protecting pristine wilderness is important to Tom, it is not the only focus of the Campions’ non-profit. Working with Seattle and Washington’s local governments, Sonya has aided in the creation of affordable housing, chaired committees focused on ensure access to mental health care and provided valuable insight to elected officials working across various social service agencies.

Commenting on the importance of engaging with our public lands and governments, Tom remarks, “we all have a stake in management based on how much we want to participate.” It is clear that Tom and Sonya embody this message in all of their work.

By Alli Shinn

Meet our Guests: Morgan Moomaw

Morgan Moomaw

Methow Valley Interpretive Center

Twisp, WA

8/27/2021

On a sunny afternoon in the Methow Valley, Morgan Moomaw stands beside a pit house, the traditional dwelling of the Okanagan people, and explains the tribe’s connection to this valley. Morgan is a member of the Okanagan Tribe and works at the Methow Valley Interpretive Center and the accompanying Native Garden, a facility dedicated to reconnecting the tribes of the Methow Valley to their homelands. After helping develop regenerative agriculture projects in Native Hawaiian communities, Morgan was inspired to bring these experiences back home and work to bridge the gap between present day members of the Okanagan Tribe and their ancestral knowledge of plants and the Colville-Okanagan language. In addition to working at the Methow Valley Interpretive Center, Morgan teaches in schools on the Colville Reservation about the language and traditional foods. Educating about the dying language is so important for the Okanagan Tribe because as Morgan describes it, it is “the water to all of our roots.”

Morgan shared about some of the traditional plants used by the Okanagan people, from ts’kwikw (elderberry) used for immune system support, to łexwłáxw (chokecherry) which is mashed into a paste and eaten. She talked about the idea of breaking the word “restoration” into the words “re” and “story:” a reflection of the way she and many other community members are working to return the Tribe’s story to the Methow Valley. She implores all who visit the Methow to feel a connection to the land, walk lightly, and carry an awareness of the people who have been living here since time immemorial.

By Morgan Sharp