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 Educators: Kent Woodruff

Kent Woodruff

Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Forest Service (retired)

Methow Valley, WA

8/28/21 – 9/2/21

     The mid-afternoon sun glistens from a cloudless sky as Semester in the West arrives at the Methow Valley Interpretive Center. A pair of vibrant blue eyes and a warm, youthful grin greet the group at the entrance to Twisp, Washington. Kent Woodruff, Methow Valley local, will be the Westie programming guide for the next ten days.

     Kent’s professional life has been as rich and complex as the natural landscapes that he works within. While in the Methow, the retired U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist shares three of his most prized regional conservation projects with the program: beaver and wetland restoration with the Methow Beaver Project, raptor conservation on Chelan Ridge with HawkWatch International, and a freelance project to relocate and nurse rare Townsend big-ear bats.

     Despite his myriad of accomplishments, Kent insists that his greatest pride comes from working with young environmentalists. During this era of climate change and mass ecological destruction, Kent is devoted to educating and nurturing the successes of an upcoming generation of biologists, ecologists, and activists.

     On Kent’s final day with the Westies, one student asks him how we are going to get through these perilous times. Kent pauses. Water pools at the base of his blueberry-bright eyes. He reaches down and fastens his fingers around the hand nearest to his own. “By finding people to hold on to and care about. And partner with and find solutions with. I think that’s the way we are going to get through this. Make connections and hold those people close. Love will help us get through.”

By Kate Joss

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: Kristen Kirkby

Kristen Kirkby

Fisheries Biologist, Cascade Fisheries

Twisp, WA

8/31/2021

There are nine dams on the Columbia River between the ocean and the spawning grounds for salmon and steelhead in the Methow River Basin. During migration their chances of survival exponentially decrease with each obstacle. For Kristen Kirkby, Fisheries Biologist with Cascade Fisheries and 2004 Westie, protecting this migration route is key. Spring Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, and Pacific lamprey (Kristen’s favorite water dwellers) are all listed under the Endangered Species Act as either threatened or endangered. The populations of these species have been plummeting over the past century due to a variety of factors Kristen says can be summarized as the four “H’s”: habitat, hatcheries, harvest, and hydroelectric dams. Overconsumption, habitat degradation, disease from hatcheries, and dams create a nearly impossible path to sea for these fish.

In an effort to ameliorate the dire situation, Kirkby utilizes mitigation funds from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the organization that manages Columbia River hydroelectricity, to restore and rehabilitate rivers and tributaries that can help safely house and transport fish on their journey through the Columbia River. These funds stem BPA, which promised to pay out $900 million from their revenue for fish habitat restoration projects over a period of ten years.

Kristen has been working on projects with Cascade Fisheries for more than a decade, one of which located at Wolf Creek in the Methow Valley. Westies were fortunate enough to suit up and snorkel with some of the many fish that inhabit and thrive within the restored riparian area. The work that Kirkby is doing is limited in its ability to drastically alter the survival chances of salmonids trapped in a dammed river system once they leave protected habitats upriver. And yet, her confidence remains reassuring despite the unpredictable flow of fish politics in the Pacific Northwest.

By Elio Van Gorden

Meet our Educators: Sarah Gilman

Sarah Gilman

Freelance writer, editor, illustrator

Methow Valley, WA

9/6/21- 9/8/21

Gliding up a small hill covered with crunchy bluebunch wheatgrass, Sarah Gilman tosses a juniper branch to her rambunctious terrier, Taiga, and looks out over the expansive North Cascades in the Methow Valley. Twenty students walk with her, and as she crests the peak, she motions for them to find a seat before giving a journal prompt: “Write about something that gives you hope.”

Sarah, a member of the first Semester in the West in 2002, is a writer whose illuminating work about the intersection of people, landscape, and other species has been featured in The Atlantic, High Country News, National Geographic News, Smithsonian.com, The Guardian, Patagonia’s The Cleanest Line, and The Last Word on Nothing.

Sarah joined Semester in the West 2021 to host a writing workshop, helping Westies digest their experiences with biologists, fire experts, ranchers, land managers, and tribes in rural Washington and Oregon, into short, creative essays known as Epiphanies. To some, it may seem odd that Sarah encouraged Westies to walk the landscape, write poetry, and journal about topics unrelated to their papers’ focus. But with a soft smile, she candidly explained, “The best ideas don’t come from staring at a computer screen.”

Every afternoon for three days, Sarah met with Westies one-on-one to brainstorm, workshop, and edit their pieces. She encouraged concise and focused writing by challenging students to make sure every part of the essay actively grounded the main idea in evidence and tangible experience.

During the last evening of the writing workshop, Westies read their creations to their peers under the night sky. The next morning, as Sarah drove away with Taiga barking out the truck window, Westies smiled knowing her presence will undoubtedly guide their future as writers, critical thinkers, and community members. 

By Josh Matz

Photo Credit: Nathaniel Wilder

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

Meet our Guests: Neil Kornze

Neil Kornze

CEO of the Campion Foundation and Campion Advocacy Fund, former Director of the Bureau of Land Management

Methow Valley, WA

8/29/21

A Nevada Native, Neil Kornze grew up with over 60% of his home state’s land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). By age 35, Neil was the director of that agency and oversaw that land in his home state and millions of other acres, altogether comprising 10% of the nation’s land area. Neil graduated from Whitman in 2000 and went on to study at the London School of Economics. In 2014, he was confirmed under the Obama administration as the director of the BLM. Neil was an innovative force within the BLM. During his three-year tenure, Neil worked to expand renewable energy generation on BLM lands and protect culturally and ecologically significant areas, all while making them more accessible to the public.

Today, Neil still works with the nation’s public lands in a different capacity as the CEO of the Campion Advocacy Fund (CAF). CAF was started by Tom Campion, co-founder of Zumiez, and his partner Sonya, with the main goals of protecting intact wilderness ecosystems in the U.S. and working to find solutions to homelessness across the nation. At the forefront of CAF’s priorities is permanently protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Neil recently led a host of White House officials to this remote region to experience its raw landscape and captivating wildlife.

Neil hopes for a future where government agencies can collaborate more and reduce conflict in land management. A possible starting strategy that he proposes is “being able to walk down the hall and have a conversation with the people making decisions…colocation [of agencies] is a simple but powerful thing.” What could result from such a collaborative structure are what Neil calls the National Trust Lands, “a combination of the forest service, the refuges, the BLM…and some set of the parks…I would like to see us erase those lines.”

By Ani Pham

Meet our Guests: Matt Ellis

Matt Ellis

Fire Management Officer, Methow Valley Ranger District, U.S. Forest Service

Methow Valley, WA

08/30/2021

Standing amongst an old-growth forest stand in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Matt Ellis, Fire Management Officer for the Forest Service’s Methow Valley Ranger District, speaks to the dilemmas in managing National Forest land from a wildfire management perspective. When looking at this dense, multi-layered old-growth forest, Matt sees a continuous availability of fuel and the potential for high-severity fire. However, Matt’s Forest Service colleague, wildlife biologist John Rohrer sees an ideal habitat for the northern spotted owl, an animal that was listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to loss of habitat. The spotted owl’s status under the ESA means that the Forest Service has to prioritize preserving its habitat. Nevertheless, Matt knows that without thinning the vegetation in old growth stands, fire will blacken the landscape on a large scale.

Dilemmas such as this often don’t have easily defined answers. Matt emphasizes that there’s not one person or agency that fully gets their way in the management of forest lands. In the old growth stand Semester in the West visited only small diameter trees were thinned to reduce fire risk, while the large ponderosa pines that provide habitat for the spotted owl still stand tall.

Despite the demanding nature of reconciling fire safety with the variety of uses on forest lands, Matt continues to believe “one of the coolest things about the Forest Service is we offer opportunities for all these different users.”

By Claire Warncke

Meet our Guests: Lincoln Post

Lincoln Post

Carpenter, former President of the Methow Valley Citizens Council, co-founder of Cinnamon Twisp Bakery 

Twisp, WA

8/27/2021

Lincoln Post is a born storyteller and a stalwart protector of his home: north-central Washington’s Methow Valley. He believes in commitment to place. To Lincoln, “being a local means being a contributor.”

In the 1990s, a Colorado-based corporation proposed development of a ski resort complete with condo units, a couple of golf courses, and a “boutique town.” Some Methow residents were weary of the site’s impact on their small farming and ranching community, a population of around 2,000. Lincoln attended a meeting to review the corporation’s environmental impact statement. He left as the president of the Methow Valley Citizens Council, the only person willing to sign an appeal. Lincoln entered the political scene as the valley emerged into two distinct groups: those in favor and those opposed to the resort project. To many, the remote location was a tourism gold mine waiting to happen; to others it was home, and already felt too much like a vacation destination. Lincoln and other residents fought against the proposed resort. As he puts it “there’s a strong community here even if it was small.” The development operation was slowed by the resistance put forth by MVCC and was eventually halted by water rights: the corporation couldn’t purchase enough water to realize their plans. 

Lincoln’s efforts speak to the power of small, determined groups of citizens to influence the future of their home, even when faced with economic pressure to alter their way of life.

By Neave Fleming

Meet our Guests: Dana Visalli

Dana Visalli

Organic Farmer and Editor of The Methow Naturalist

Winthrop, Washington

August 28, 2021 

A self-proclaimed “refugee from American culture,” Dana Visalli moved to the Methow Valley in 1970, built an off-the-grid house, and began preparing the sandy soil surrounding it for farming. He wanted to know how to grow food, and how to make something by hand—two things his city upbringing had not taught him.

“It’s a tough way to start: living in the country, growing up in the city,” Dana states. “I just constantly put everything together backwards. You have to learn how to do everything, but that makes life challenging and exciting.”

Disenchanted by conventional American agricultural practices—which he notes were “built on energy addiction”—Dana embraced the ethos of challenge and excitement, and set about farming with ecological processes in mind.

Dana explained how the alchemy of ingested food becoming manure, and manure returning to enrich the soil is one cycle that has been wholly undervalued. It’s a cycle of reciprocity that demonstrates humans’ embeddedness in ecological processes. But that cycle has been broken, Dana claimed. Rather than treasuring our “humanure,” as Dana calls it, we label it “waste” to be disposed of. Rather than enriched soil, we end up with fertilizer dependencies and mass scale waste problems that, Dana claims, are wholly unsustainable.

An example of his penchant to take the road less traveled, Dana’s garden tells a different story: the once sandy soil is rich and dark with organic matter and humanure, the air hums with pollinators, and the garden rows swell with bounty. As a result, the compost pile is well-fed, and so are Dana’s neighbors who come by on weekends to buy his produce.

Standing amidst it all, Dana declares with reverential glee: “I’m entranced by the miracle of life!” Then, more quietly: “I don’t know what the question is, but the answer is ecology.”

By Nicki Caddell