In this issue, a Los Angeles native recounts her lifelong commitment to a city now under lockdown, celebrating its defiance, vastness and paradoxes. We show how Arizona’s public health workers are adapting to COVID-19’s challenges in order to serve underserved communities, and we visit the Borderlands, where President Trump is building the border wall over local objections. In Washington, we explore the fascinating Pumice Plain in Mount St. Helen’s National Volcanic Monument, where important scientific research may be threatened. Elsewhere, we review a book about Lissa Yellow Bird’s search for the missing in Indian Country, and we talk to Antonio R. Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, about the challenges facing these institutions. Finally, in a lighter vein, we share tips on social distancing from some of the West’s most experienced social distancers — a useful reminder that we humans have a lot to learn from our fellow creatures.
Upended lives and excellent coverage
Be safe, dear friends.
True partnerships needed
This is a much-needed deep dive into the issue of land “grant” universities. Let’s hope this sparks real dialogue and action today as we move forward with true partnerships with Indigenous people, education of Indigenous students, hiring of Indigenous faculty and staff, and ethical research to support (and in collaboration with) Indigenous communities. —Michael Dockry,…
Two key components of journalism today: love and strength
As the pandemic grinds on, we in the media must continue to bear witness.
What action can we take?
I read the article about the National Park Service allowing new cell towers in the Teton Range. It sounds immediately like a horrendous idea, and yet it is happening. You’d think the Park Service would know better, but alas. I went to the Park Service site but could not find any comment opportunities on the…
What broadband offers
The author of “Wiring the Wild” (Outdoor Rec & Travel 2020) asserts that the Park Service’s mission is to “conserve and entertain,” but what about the essential mission of interpretation: enabling visitors to experience and learn about natural and cultural features, and in the process protecting the parks through greater public understanding and appreciation? The…
The threat below Mount St. Helens
Forty years after the mountain’s eruption, officials struggle to balance research and risk.
In difficult times, community matters
Supporting each other helps us all do our best.
Anti-rational racists
In his essay “The road to ecofascism” (April 2020), Brian Calvert is right about the Nazis’ perversion of environmentalism; their mystical feelings for the land did indeed add to a “romantic populism” that led in the “dark direction” of racism. But we need not worry about American environmentalists going in that direction; they care about the whole world, not just…
Antlers as calcium
In regard to “The ethics of shed-hunting”: Rodents and other animals consume shed antlers and bone as a valuable source of calcium and other nutrients, especially in arid and semi-arid environments. Once collecting becomes an industry, it is certainly bound to have a negative impact, much like wild gingko collecting in the Eastern U.S. —Craig…
Pandemic as prologue
A failure of imagination has stymied our outbreak response, but that’s just the beginning.
Endowments
“Land-Grab Universities” (April 2020) called for reconciliation efforts at schools that have endowments derived in part from the taking of Native American lands in the 19th century. South Dakota State University has dedicated around $636,000 in annual endowment income from these lands to programs and support for Native students. If all 52 universities in your…
Ethics per se
Most Western states have regulated seasons for shed hunting and designated open and closed areas (“The ethics of shed-hunting,” Outdoor Rec & Travel 2020). Nothing unethical about following these regulations to shed hunt. Those who flout the regulations are not only unethical but committing crimes. Shed hunting per se is not unethical. —Richard B. Jones,…
Fascism is already here
I think we’d best beware of the “fascism” that we already have! Trump is using the COVID-19 pandemic to relax environmental standards for industries as it is. If anything, we’re going in a totally opposite direction than what this suggests. Our once-relevant Environmental Protection Agency has been mostly hijacked early on by the Trump administration.…
Intrusive technology
While I share the concern as to the intrusion of technology and impact of placement of towers, I am also reminded of the multiple deaths and rescues that have occurred due to ill-advised flatlanders who attempted to climb Longs Peak or similar destinations in Rocky Mountain National Park in poor weather conditions. You’re not going…
More than ‘snow-blind’
In response to Nick Bowlin’s article about Backcountry Film Festival (“Snow-blind,” Outdoor Rec & Travel 2020), we at the Backcountry Film Festival and Winter Wildlands Alliance would like to address what Bowlin’s critique missed. BCFF’s films come from a variety of backgrounds, speak to relevant issues regarding a variety of backcountry and environmental issues, and…
Necessary history
We’re actually covering settler colonialism and some of its ramifications now in my class, specifically related to water resources and ecology, as it problematizes ideas of ecological restoration, stakeholders, historical water rights and other things we treat as givens in the dominant culture. And I totally agree with this last statement: “ ‘You can’t go…
New norms
The way forward requires a new norm. As David Sloan Wilson writes in The Neighborhood Project, “If you’re undermining the commons, you’re degrading your soul.” —Wesley Rolley, via Facebook This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline New norms.
Spookable sheep
This is sad news indeed, but after working with the Forest Service on bighorn sheep range studies for three summers in the backcountry, it comes as no surprise (“Competitor of conscience,” Outdoor Rec & Travel 2020). Bighorns are a sensitive and easily spooked genus. Researchers need to make sure their data is rock-solid, do additional…
Scraping bottom; underwhelmed by parks; bulldozed saguaros
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Jackson, whole: Community persists with an uncertain future
COVID-19 upends a Wyoming resort town.
The pandemic is battering oil-state economies
COVID-19 reverberates across the energy world.
Body brokers arrested for illegally selling body parts
The FBI has been investigating the owner of a now-closed Colorado funeral home since 2017.
Amidst North Dakota’s fracking boom, people keep disappearing
Journalist Sierra Crane Murdoch documents Lissa Yellow Bird’s search for the missing.
Triumph and tragedy: Trump’s border wall expands
Anger and despair rise as new projects are announced in the Southwest.
Hispanic-serving colleges and universities struggle to adapt to the pandemic
‘Government support is going to be vital.’
Pro tips on physical distancing from the nonhuman world
Get lit, howl and mind your paws.
Public health workers innovate around social distancing guidelines
Outreach to immigrant communities moves to Facebook and phones, as roving mobile health programs deliver food and medicine.
‘We run towards problems, not away from them.’
As COVID-19 closes in, a rural doctor awaits the inevitable.
Safe at home in Los Angeles
Even under restrictions, the city shines for all to see.
During the pandemic, how do you ethically get outdoors?
Sheltering responsibly doesn’t mean you have to stay inside.
Crowded cities and lonely country: See your county’s hospital bed capacity
In the West, nearly 100,000 people over 65 years old live in counties without a hospital bed.