Meet our Guests: Peter Sanzenbacher

Peter Sanzenbacher

Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Shoshone, CA

11/16/21

     Wearing an out-of-place New England Patriots hat in the Mojave Desert near the town of Shoshone, California, Peter Sanzenbacher shares his main project for the past four years or so: conserving the California condor, an iconic species of the Western United States. He says that this species, which almost went extinct in the wild in the 1970s, faces difficulties surviving amidst a rapidly developing world. Today, the main cause of condor mortality on the landscape is lead poising, ingested from people shooting wildlife and condors scavenging the carcasses. However, another particular threat to the species has turned out to be the wind energy industry. As more and more turbines pop up, they become dangerous obstacles for birds that call breezy areas their home.

     As a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Peter attempts to bridge the gap between condors and hunters and wind businesses alike. He makes sure to emphasize that he is working with industry in partnership, not fighting against it. In conversation, Peter shares a guiding question of his recent work: “how do we approach this in a way where we can protect condors and have a source of renewable energy on the landscape?” Peter hopes his work can be a model for other regions encountering the conflicts between species conservation and green energy.

By Ruthie Colburn

Meet our Guests: Kerry Holcomb

Kerry Holcomb

Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Mojave Desert, CA

11/12/21

     Deep in the Mojave Desert, giant boulders are playfully stacked atop one another while Joshua trees tilt and dance in the mid-day sun. The scene fits better into a Dr. Seuss novel than a modern-day conservation story.

      Amidst the fantasia, Kerry Holcomb, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), proclaims, “you can’t do conservation if you ignore the human element.”

      After moving from Appalachia to the desert, Kerry turned his focus to the endangered desert tortoise. At one time, desert tortoises were the dominant herbivores on the landscape, sequestering carbon and changing the mosaic of plant communities. But now, Kerry explains, “we have functionally extinct populations [of desert tortoises] in parts of the Mojave.” And he believes ravens are to blame.

     Thanks to the advent of the air conditioner, non-native people started settling in the desert, and raven populations began to multiply rapidly. Ravens are generalists, meaning they can adapt to a wide range of ecological conditions. Ravens adapted well to their new food source at landfills and as their populations soared, they added the desert tortoise to their menu as well.

     Both ravens and tortoises are holy to the Mojave and Chemehuevi people, but Kerry explains, “the Tribes see the dichotomy of the tortoise being higher than the ravens.”

     In a desperate attempt to save the desert tortoise, the USFWS has resorted to oiling, which causes suffocation of raven eggs to diminish their population. But, with new houses popping up in the desert every day, Kerry recognizes that the desert tortoise has a human problem, not a raven problem.

By Josh Matz

Meet our Guests: Bonnie and Billy Pat McKinney

Billy Pat and Bonnie McKinney

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

Terlingua, TX

10/29/2021

     Nestled in the heart of the Chihuahuan desert along the Rio Grande lies the old Adams Ranch, a 27,000-acre property that rests on the border of the United States and Mexico. Under the name El Carmen Land and Conservation Company, the ranch is owned by CEMEX USA, a branch of the Mexican multinational concrete and cement manufacturing company, and conservation philanthropist Josiah Austin. The property is managed by Billy Pat and Bonnie McKinney, two Texans passionate about land conservation. Billy Pat, the manager of the ranch, and Bonnie, the wildlife coordinator, work towards restoring this formerly overgrazed land and rebuilding sustainable wildlife populations.

     The ranch was purchased to bridge the gap between Big Bend National Park and Black Gap National Wildlife Area. Bonnie emphasizes the importance of the ranch as a connecting link between contiguous properties and two countries. This piece of unassuming desert brimming with thorny ocotillo and prickly pear cacti on the edge of the Mexican highlands is a known bird migration corridor and habitat for big mammals such as desert bighorn sheep, mule deer, and black bear.

     Bonnie and Billy Pat have worked tirelessly since moving to the ranch in 2007 to conserve the land because, as Bonnie highlights, “we need our wildlife, we need our waters, and we need our landscape.” The two desert dwellers know that the limiting factor for wildlife populations in this area is lack of water availability. To help remedy this issue they have initiated the installation of dozens of water guzzlers—tanks that collect and store rainwater to create a supplemental water source for wildlife. These water guzzlers serve as a lifeline for a multitude of species as the climate gets increasingly warmer and drier.  

Billy Pat conveys his and Bonnie’s conservation philosophy simply, saying “We don’t wear angel wings, we just try to dirty our hands and make something happen.”

By Claire Warncke

Meet our Educators: Mary O'Brien

Mary O’Brien

Scientist, activist, stakeholder member of Monroe Mountain Working Group

Castle Valley, UT

9/16/21 - 10/3/21

Mary O’Brien has worn a lot of hats during her more than 30 years of work on environmental causes. She is a Ph.D. botanist and an activist who has been involved with kickstarting regulations for toxic chemicals in Oregon, preserving the Hells Canyon National Recreation area, and, most recently, pushing for responsible management of range areas. In the intermountain West this applies to a vast amount of land given that most public land in this country is open to livestock grazing. Mary has seen and documented the negative impacts cattle have on these places—trampled and incised streams, loss of riparian habitat, and reduced biodiversity in forest—and she believes there need to be fewer cows on public lands.

On Monroe Mountain in south-central Utah, the Forest Service is currently undergoing a restructuring of grazing allotments. They will decide how many cattle will be allowed in what areas, and what environmental standards will be enforced for the foreseeable future. Mary gathers scientific data such as the height of grasses in riparian areas, to hold organizations like the Forest Service accountable to commitments they have made to conserve habitat.

Mary explains that “the interesting thing about numbers and methods that anyone can repeat, is that you can’t deny that . . .if they think we’re making stuff up, they can go to that spot and rerun their own transects.” The Forest Service must take this undeniable proof (i.e. data collected in the National Forest) into account when they make decisions. She sees science as a way of taking the human perspective out of the picture, and letting other species speak through the data. She firmly believes the nonhuman members of the Utah ecosystem deserve a seat at the decision-making table.

     Mary works hard, walks fast, and holds herself and her work to a high standard of accuracy. She pushed the Westies to do what it takes to get accurate and precise data, hiking far over cacti and scrambling through juniper trees to set the tape measure in a straight line for a transect. When it came time to write up reports, she edited the work that 20 students produced almost as fast as it could be written. Multiple drafts later, reports were sent in to the Forest Service to be considered when planning the new grazing rules in Monroe Mountain.

By Reya Fore

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: 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 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