Cattle are degrading water quality and habitat on the KNF's Carter Meadows Allotment

Project to Reform Public Land Grazing in Northern California

Felice Pace, Coordinator

28 Maple Road Klamath, Ca 95548 707-954-6588 unofelice@gmail.com

August 7, 2018

Ruth D'Amico, Acting Ranger, Scott-Salmon RD, Klamath National Forest

Stephanie McMorris , Range Specialist, Scott-Salmon RD, Klamath National Forest

Via Email

CC: Jonathan Warderman, Dean Pratt, Forest Fortesque, Bill Wall, Don Flickinger, Bobbie Dimonte, Karuna Greeberg, Petey Brucker, Emily Ferrel

Subject: Conditions on the Carter Meadows Grazing Allotment on August 3, 2018

Dear Ranger D'Amico and Specialist McMorris,

On August 3, 2018 Petey Brucker and I monitored portions of the Carter Meadows Grazing Allotment for which you are the responsible federal official and assigned grazing specialist respectively. Objectives for this monitoring included:

• Documenting conditions and grazing impacts at Thee Cedars Meadow (below Long Gulch Trailhead) and at the first wet meadow complex along Long Gulch Creek located upstream of the wilderness border. I refer to the latter meadow area as Restoration Meadow because Long Gulch at that location is deeply incised, extensively trampled and badly in need of restoration. The Grazing Reform Project is monitoring these two meadows/pastures and adjacent riparian areas once a month near the beginning of the month between June and November this year.

• Determine and document grazing impacts after the first month of grazing, including forage utilization, bank condition and waste deposition into and near streams.

• Determine, if possible, whether the permit holder is adequately implementing the 2018 Annual Operating Instructions (AOIs) provided by Forest Service Managers

Cattle were turned out on the Allotment in early July this year. Typical turn-out is July 15 to protect high elevation plants which flower and seed late. Early turn out was authorized because of the erarly spring.

We began at Trail Creek Campground and took FS Road 39N08 upstream. We observed 18 head of black cattle grazing along Road 39N08 a quarter mile or so upstream of the turn off for the Fish Lake Creek Trailhead. We then stopped at Cabin Meadows to examine conditions there. There was another group of 15 head or so resting in the shade at Cabin Meadows.

This was the first time we've walked this pasture. Cabin Meadows had been grazed but plenty of forage remained in most of the meadow. However, parts of the meadow that have preferred plants appear to have already been utilized to standard. We also observed several piles in the meadow of what appear to be willow stems with a remnant live willow growing out of one of them (see photo on the next page). It appears that sometime in the not to distant past, willows were pulled from the meadow soil and the stems were piled in the meadow in a mostly successful attempt to convert a large area of the the meadow from willow habitat to grass/sedge habitat. This could have been a FS “meadow enhancement” or “forage enhancement” project or it could have been done by the permit holder.

Whatever the cause, removal of willow habitat is ill conceived and likely negatively impacted Willow flycatcher (WIFL), a Region 5 sensitive species and a management indicator species pursuant to the KNF Land and Resource Management Plan. Please check the files for this allotment and let us know what actions created those willow stem piles in cabin meadows and when that occurred. Was it a FS action or done by the permit holder without authorization? If you need a FOIA request in order to gather and share that information, let me know immediately and I will provide one.

Over the course of the past 8 years, the Project has documented how poorly managed KNF grazing has degraded and fragmented large willow stands on several Klamath National Forest grazing allotments. Consistent with what is found in the literature, we've found that cattle grazing has destroyed WIFL breeding habitat which is within five feet of the ground in the dense interior of large (½ acre or more) willow wetlands. All WIFL breeding habitat we've observed on grazing allotments has been fragmented and destroyed by cattle. We've monitored for breeding WIFL on allotments and found none. However, both Project and the Klamath Bird Observatory each found and documented one breeding WIFL within the Marble Mountain Wilderness in dense willow stands outside KNF grazing allotments.

After eight years of monitoring KNF grazing management, we believe grazing as managed in recent decades on the Klamath National Forest has reduced the incidence, extent and functionality of large willow wetland habitat significantly. Based on the relevant literature and our monitoring, reducing Willow flycatcher breeding habitat likely has had a significant negative impact on the species which is a Management Indicator Species pursuant to the KNF Land and Resource Management Plan. I believe FS managers should have habitat and wildlife specialists examine the issue and take initiative to protect and restore this special habitat and the species which depend on it.

Because grazing has destroyed so much of the KNF's Willow flycatcher breeding habitat and has encouraged replacement of willow by alder (as is the case at Cabin Meadow and other grazed locations), KNF managers should engage in willow wetland restoration. Cabin Meadows is a good candidate for willow restoration and the Project would like to partner with KNF managers and the Salmon River Restoration Council to restore willow wetland habitat there.

We next inspected conditions at Three Cedar Meadows which is just a short distance down the East Fork Salmon River from the Long Gulch Trailhead. Three Cedars Meadow had been utilized by cattle but is probably not yet over-utilized. However, as we have observed in the past, there is too much bare soil in the dryer portions of the meadow. That is likely the result of repeated grazing during a single season which wipes out dry meadow bunchgrasses. As we have seen on allotments which are “vacant” for a decade or more, dryland bunchgrasses will recover if grazing is ended.

In both Cabin and Three Cedars Meadow we observed multiple locations where cattle had gone to the East Fork to drink, graze and cross. With less than 1/3 of the grazing season over, there is already too much bank trampling and waste deposition into near stream areas. Typical impacts are illustrated by the photos which follow.

PHOTOS REMOVED....SEE ATTACHMENT

We next examined the lower portion of Long Gulch up to and including Restoration Meadows, the first wet meadow inside wilderness. At the camp site near the trailhead and at each place where Long Gulch trail is next to or crosses Long Gulch Creek we observed large amounts of cattle manure in and on the margins of the creek as illustrated by the two photos below.

PHOTOS REMOVED....SEE ATTACHMENT

Forage utilization at Three Cedars Meadows and at the first dry meadow above the Long Gulch Trailhead (located just before the first stream crossing) appears to be at or approaching standard. We measured utilization along a transect across the entire moist meadow just downstream of where the trail crosses Long Gulch Creek, taking measurements every 10 meters. Average residual stubble height was 3 inches.

Overall, the amount of forage already utilized in the meadows we examined suggests that early removal will be necessary to avoid over-utilization of forage and extra degradation of riparian areas. To comply with utilization standards and to limit damage to riparian areas and wetlands, we strongly recommend that you, Ranger D'Amico, make sure the cattle are removed from the East Fork Salmon drainage for the month of September, as specified in the 2018 AOIs, and that you also instruct the permit holder to remove all his cattle from the allotment by October 1^st.

In light of excessive heat and drying, low precipitation last wet season and early turn out this grazing season, it is likely that cattle will need to be removed early from many, if not all, Scott-Salmon RD grazing allotments in order to avoid over-utilization of forage and extra damage to riparian areas and wetlands.

The first Long Gulch wet meadow complex lies along Long Gulch Creek a short distance upstream from the wilderness boundary. Long sections of the stream within this meadow complex are deeply incised with bare, vertical banks. There was evidence of recent “hoof “chiseling” and bank trampling as shown in the photos below. To reverse the degradation and raise the water table, we propose a partnership among the Forest Service, the North Coast Water Board, the Project, the permit holder, Salmon River Restoration Council and the NMFS to restore this and the next wet meadow complex upstream; both are heavily incised and degraded. Restoring the headwaters is essential to recovery of salmon and other beneficial uses in the Salmon River Sub-basin and, therefore, should be a priority.

 Project monitoring on August 3^rd as described above leads us to the following conclusions:

• So far, the permit holder appears to be implementing the AOIs. In fact, we met Carl and Carl III at the Long Gulch Trailhead. They were out there for a hike and to check on cattle distribution. We told them where we had seen cattle and how many we saw.

• After only a month of grazing, utilization in several pastures is approaching standard. To avoid over-utilization it is imperative that the permit holder move all the cattle out of the East Fork drainage for the month of September as specified in the AOI and that the cattle are removed from the allotment entirely no later than October 1st. In fact, Stephanie should check utilization and, if needed, Ranger D'Amico should order the cattle removed to Steveale and Rush Creek by mid-August and removed entirely from the allotment by mid-September.

• Even though we are only one month into the grazing season, a significantly amount of bank trampling and waste deposition has already occurred as a result of riparian grazing and watering. That's why we have previously suggested fencing the riparian areas at Three Cedars Meadow and piping water for cattle out of the riparian area. After 8 years monitoring KNF allotments, we have come to the conclusion that excessive riparian, water quality and wetland degradation is inevitable because most of the dry meadow bunchgrasses have been wiped out as a result of many years of passive, season-long grazing. Based on observations on “vacant” allotments, it would take a decade or more of no grazing for these dryland bunchgrasses to recover. Until that happens significant degradation of riparian areas , wetlands and water quality will continue because those locations are where most of the forage is now located. That is one major reason it is now necessary to install cattle exclusion fencing to protect riparian areas and wetlands.

I hope you will utilize the information we have provided above to better manage the Carter Meadows Allotment. We appreciate the effort you have made to require utilization of all the allotment's pastures and to end the practice of allowing cattle to congregate in preferred locations for long periods. However, follow through is needed to assure that the instructions are adequately implemented. Most importantly, low precipitation has resulted in reduced amounts of available forage. Coupled with early turn-out that means over-utilization and additional water quality, riparian and wetland impacts are likely unless you order and effect early removal of all cattle from the allotment. Based on what we saw on the ground on August 3^rd, I believe cattle should be removed no later than September 1.

Please call me at 707-954-6588 if you would like to discuss anything what we have reported above.

Sincerely,

signed via email

Felice Pace

PS: Ranger D'Amico, can you tell me the name of the new ranger and when they will be on the job in Fort Jones?

Celebrating Earth Defender Kathleen Dean Moore

It is always good to discover another Earth Defender. I discovered Kathleen Dean Moore and her work through her essay The view from 31,000 feet: A philosopher looks at fracking in the May 11th edition of High Country News. Here's an excerpt:

          Because we understand that the world’s systems are interconnected, we realize that damage to any part part is damage to the whole. This is the foundation of justice.

          Because we understand the world is interdependent, we acknowledge our reliance on one another and on the life-giving systems of the Earth. This is the foundation of compassion.

          Because we recognize that the Earth is finite, we embrace an ethic of restraint and precaution to replace a destructive ethos of excess. This is the foundation of prudence.

          Because we understand the planet’s systems are resilient, we are called to stop the harm and undo the damage that has been done. This is the foundation of hope.

          Because the Earth is beautiful, we will refuse to tolerate the oil industry’s wars against the Earth. This is the beginning of moral courage.

The US at night showing light from the Bakken Oil Fields

Kathleen Dean Moore has written several books and numerous articles. You can access her writing, read her bio and see if she will be speaking soon in a venue near you on her website.  There is an upcoming talk in Portland on June 25th. 

Here's the link to an interview with Moore published in The Sun magazine. Read it to learn about "the right to ice"! And from the interview, here's Moore's explanation of why she is a "ferocious grandmother":

          I agree with what my book’s coeditor, Michael P. Nelson, says about getting older. He doesn’t want to hear anymore about retirees being entitled to year-round perfect weather, an annual trip to Las Vegas, low taxes, easy Sunday crosswords, and reduced greens fees. Retired people often feel that, since they’ve worked all their lives, the world owes them a rest. That’s outrageous. Old age is precisely when we need to pay the world back. Yes, we have worked hard, but our successes depended on a stable climate, temperate weather, abundant food, cheap fuel, and a sturdy government — all advantages that our children and grandchildren will not have if we don’t act.

          We elders are at the peak of our ability to help. We have a wealth of experience. Many of us have sufficient income. And we have that huge commodity: time. Most of all we have a ferocious love for our grandchildren. Wouldn’t that love make us want to leave them the legacy of a beautiful world? To turn away from that into a kind of grouchy selfishness strikes me as tragic.

          If your granddaughter has asthma because there is dust in the air, get out in the street and demand clean air. If your grandson is not learning well because there are toxins in the water, you should be at the city-council meeting. Their parents are busy making a home for these children, but you have the time and the ability to make a difference in their future. To love someone is to have a sacred obligation to protect them. 

In the interview Kathleen Dean Moore is asked to define what she means when she calls herself a "sacred secularist". Here's her response:

           It means that I believe the world is extraordinary and mysterious, beautiful beyond human imagining and grand beyond human measure, worthy of reverence and awe. The word we have for something like that is sacred. You don’t have to believe in God to know that when you go out the door in the morning, you walk on sacred ground. A friend from New Zealand who had never seen a rufous hummingbird once said to me, “That’s the kind of creature that makes you believe in God.” And I said, “Or that’s the kind of creature that makes you believe we can’t let this world slip away.” If God doesn’t have his eye on the sparrow, somebody else had better, and that somebody is us. 

Amen to that! 

 

As part of The Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University ("a sort of think tank that brings together people with different backgrounds to reimagine our place in the world"), Kathleen Dean Moore joined with other thinkers and activists to create The Blue River Declaration: An Ethic of the Earth. Here's the introduction:    

           A truly adaptive civilization will align its ethics with the ways of the Earth. A civilization that ignores the deep constraints of its world will find itself in exactly the situation we face now, on the threshold of making the planet inhospitable to humankind and other species. The questions of our time are thus: What is our best current understanding of the nature of the world? What does that understanding tell us about how we might create a concordance between ecological and moral principles, and thus imagine an ethic that is of, rather than against, the Earth?  

Read the entire Blue River Declaration: An Ethic of the Earth at this link. 

Justice, compassion, prudence, hope and moral courage are the qualities Moore champions in her High Country News essay and in all her work. It strikes me that these are precisely the qualities, the virtues, we need to practice in order to fix the world. And as Moore puts it "We can find the ongoing strength to do this work if we keep in mind that it is powered by love." 

Thank you Kathleen Dean Moore for the insight and inspiration you provide. Onward!

Why the Big Greens can't "Save the Earth"...and what (maybe) can.

I recently came across an interesting article in Counterpunch which builds off furor over a Naomi Klein interview to present a critique of the Environmental Establishment:

Stockholm Syndrome in a Three Piece Suit

The Problem With the Big Green’s Naomi Klein Gripe

by MACDONALD STAINSBY

The article is worth consideration by those who seek environmental and social justice and, therefore, who recognize - if only intuitively - the connection between the two.

Over the years I have become increasingly concerned about what is called "The Environmental Movement" but which is increasingly an Environmental Establishment rather than a movement. Part and parcel of the concern is dissatisfaction with the extent to which environmental organizations - from the Big Greens right down to local "grassroots" groups - are indirectly controlled by foundations which emerged from or are still connected to natural resource exploiting corporations.

I am also concerned with the impact of self-selecting boards of directors, i.e. with the baggage that comes with the corporate structure which environmental organizations adopt in order to be able to accept foundation and other tax-exempt contributions. Over time many (most?) of these boards become dominated by those who have heavy stakes in systems which appears to be incapable of operating with respect for and in harmony with life on this planet.

 

As these concerns have grown, I've ended membership in all national green groups save the Sierra Club. I now work through the Sierra Club as a grassroots leader precisely because the Club has a democratic structure. And while the Club may be as oriented as the others toward corporate benefactors (too great a percentage of the budget comes from corporations and their foundations rather than from members), there still exists the capability for the membership to rise up and demand change in positions, policies and leadership. 

 

Furthermore, the potential for rank and file members to change the direction of the Sierra Club is not theoretical; it actually happens in both small and large ways. For example, grassroots Club activists recently pressured leaders to embrace distributed power generation and to moderate support for the Obama Administration's emphasis on massive centralized power generation far from points of consumption. The most significant application of democracy within the Sierra Club in recent times came at the hands of the  "Zero Cut" Campaign launched by activists calling themselves the John Muir Sierrans. Through the democratic process, the John Muir Sierrans were able to fundamentally change Club policy on national forest logging against the wishes of Sierra Club staff and most leaders.

 

It now seems to me that democracy - or more precisely democratic process - is inimical to corporate rule and the only real hope that we can marginalize the corporate-dominated Environmental Establishment and relaunch a genuine Environmental Movement. If such a relaunch is to happen, however, it will most likely not come from the so-called "environmental grassroots" as Doug Bevington believes. On the one hand "grassroots" NGOs have become too meek and too corporate, while today's "grassroots environmental movements" are too narrowly focused on issues and not focused enough on core critiques and sustained organizing for power.   

My hope lies more with contemporary Indigenous Movements which have led to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the UN and which are now advancing the Rights of Mother Earth, including enshrining those rights in the national constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador.  It is in supporting and joining with these Indigenous Movements that grassroots, rank-and-file environmentalists can most likely reclaim what was once a vibrant movement but has become an establishment for which (like all establishments) the first directive is to keep the funds flowing, i.e. to sustain the organization and the six digit salaries to which leaders have become accustomed. 

I recently attended a forum in Arcata California on the Rights of Mother Nature hosted by the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Development. Along with presentations from Indigenous leaders from Ecuador and the US, the forum included a panel of local (white) environmental leaders. But while good symbolism and abundant good will were in evidence, it was also evident that we have a long, long way to go before we will achieve a unified vision much less collective action. 

Still dialogue is a beginning and it was good to see that sort of dialogue happening at the local level and not just at international conferences held in far off places.  Which causes me to wonder what is going on in that regard in your neck of the woods. Is there dialogue among environmental and indigenous organizations; does that dialogue go beyond expedient alliances on particular issues with tribal governments; have ongoing relationships based on unified vision and understanding emerged? 

 

Please share your thoughts and what is going on in your corner of Pachamama in a comment. 

 

Modern interpretation of the concept of Pachamama.

 In traditional Andean culture, there are no images of Pachamama.

                     

Learning from Fire: The 2012 Fort Complex Fires on the Klamath National Forest

This KlamBlog features a report from a first time KlamBlog contributor. Luke Ruediger feels passionately about his home in the Upper Applegate River Valley near the Red Buttes Wilderness and Kangaroo Roadless Areas. But Luke goes beyond emotion. Operator of his own restoration company, Luke has studied the forests of the Klamath Mountains from the bottom up – applying on-the-ground experience and book knowledge – in order to gain a deep understanding.

When fire came to Luke’s “backyard” during the summer of 2012, he was concerned but also curious. Luke learned all he could from fire managers and – once the fire was contained – he ventured into the burned landscape to learn firsthand what the fire had done to the land and vegetation, as well as how the fire was fought, the consequences of the strategies and tactics employed by fire managers.

 View of the Goff Fire above Seiad Valley with Klamath River in the foreground.

Here is a link to Luke's Report. It is what I call the “natural history” of the Fort Complex Fires; since people are part of nature, the history of how the fire was fought is part of the story.

Unfortunately, fire histories like the one Luke has written about the Fort Complex are rare. Forest Service managers and firefighters do not like having the strategies and tactics they employed examined. The information that is shared by the Forest Service during a fire is of the public relations type; the details of how the fire was fought are obscured and difficult to obtain. Fire managers do not even map the areas they burn in backfires and burnouts’ making it difficult for anyone to study the manager’s discretionary suppression actions and the natural wildfires as distinct and different. As you will read below, however, wildfires and discretionary suppression fires often behave very differently in these Klamath Mountains and they have different impacts on land, vegetation and water.

Firefighters operating in wilderness and roadless backcountry are supposed to use Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics (MIST) in order to minimize impacts from suppression efforts. Links to several presentations of Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics are provided below.  Unfortunately, whether MIST is used or not is a local decision made by the forest supervisor and fire managers. In walking and studying every large fire which has burned in the Klamath Mountains since 1987, I've discovered that MIST was followed only in a few cases.

Typically firefighters have used the same strategies and tactics in wilderness and backcountry that they use where there are roads, homes and communities.  But, in spite of many miles of firelines, hot burnouts and massive backfires, firefighters have never successfully suppressed a Klamath Mountains wildfire which was burning in wilderness or roadless backcountry.  Since at least 1987 it has always been the coming of fall rain and snow which puts out the big backcountry fires.  

Because of the aggressive and destructive manner in which local Forest Service managers and firefighters have chosen to suppress fire in backcountry, I believe discretionary wildfire suppression is - along with livestock grazing -  the #1 factor degrading Klamath Mountains wilderness. Furthermore, aggressive wildfire suppression is inconsistent with the stated Forest Service goal of returning fire to a more natural role in the Klamath Mountains.

 Portion of the burnout along Portuguese Creek in the Kangaroo Roadless Area

Fire is a major force within the Klamath Mountains and throughout the American West; fire fighting and the impacts to land, water and vegetation that result from fire fighting are major and controversial. The natural histories of these wildfires make it possible for citizens and responsible officials to examine and learn from the wildfires and from efforts to manage and suppress them. Through open examination of fire fighting strategies and tactics at the community, agency, regional and (ultimately) national levels, we can learn how wildfire works and reform our approach to wildfire - including when, were and how we choose to "fight" them.

 <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

Follow this link to read Luke Ruediger's history of this year's Fort Complex Fires

Follow the links below to learn about Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics (MIST) 

• http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/GB_Mist_Guidelines.pdf
• http://archive.org/details/gov.nwcg.nfes.2916 
• http://www.nifc.gov/PUBLICATIONS/redbook/2003/AppendixU.pdf 
• http://www.wilderness.net/toolboxes/documents/fire/MIST_implementation.PDF

Why environmentalists should ban use of the word "pristine"

Have you noticed how much environmental organizations, environmental professionals and environmental activists use the word pristine?  It seems that anytime and enviro wants to protect something that something must be described as pristine.

In my neighborhood (the Klamath Mountains of Northwest California and SW Oregon) the term is regularly used to describe two of our rivers: The Smith and the Cal Salmon. Both rivers enjoy good water quality and both are strongholds for at risk salmon and steelhead. But neither the Smith nor the Cal Salmon is pristine. 

 Wooley Creek enters the Cal Salmon. While most of Wooley Creek is within National 

Forest Wilderness, even it has been impacted by roads, logging and cattle grazing.

During the Gold Rush, the Cal Salmon was dammed, diverted and the bed was turned over in search of "color" - as the miners referred to it. Whole hillsides were denuded of trees. During the 1970s and 1980s the US Forest Service built hundreds of miles of roads and clearcut thousands of acres of Old Growth Forest. Many of those roads failed in subsequent storms delivering millions of tons of sediment to the Salmon River and its tributaries. In the 5 years after the 1987 fires alone, 95 million board feet of timber was removed from the watershed.  The Cal Salmon is definitely not pristine.

The Smith River was also subjected to road building on steep unstable slopes and timber extraction through clearcutting. Fortunately, that destruction mostly ended with establishment of the Siskiyou Wilderness and the Smith River National Recreation Area by Congress. However, the Smith has a major US highway perched above one of its major forks from which diesel spills have occurred as well as lily bulb farms at the estuary which use more pounds of pesticides per acre than anywhere else in California. The Smith River is also not pristine.

Both the Cal Salmon and the Smith River are blessed with large areas of wilderness. As a result - and in spite of the indignities that have been visited on them by humans - the Smith and Cal Salmon still have some of the best water quality you can find in California. Both watersheds are among the few remaining stronghold for Wild Salmon. These are extremely important watersheds; but they are not pristine.  

Historical Critique

The penchant of environmentalists to misuse the term pristine has been noted - and criticized - by geographers and historians. The best known critique is probably contained in the book 1491 by Charles C. Mann. Another well known critique is William Denevan's 1992 scholarly article The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492.  

But the rethinking of assumptions underlying the Environmental Movement was pioneered by historian William Cronan. Cronan's The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature (which is also a chapter in the collection of essays he edited titled Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature). Cronan's article elicited howls of protest from the Environmental Establishment. The howls were so loud and the subsequent polarization into warring sides so strong, that dialogue and deep examination of the issue did not occur. Environmentalists continued (mis)using the term pristine and they continue (mis)using the term today. 

Indigenous Critique

Indigenous Americans (aka "Indians") reacted to the critique from historians with a resounding "duh!" The original inhabitants of North America, they tell us, have always known that wilderness is part of, not separate from, their society. 

The Indigenous critique is implicit in the work of Californian M. Cat Anderson. Her book - Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources - offers a wealth of information on the manner in which California's Indigenous inhabitants managed resources in what to white invaders was "howling wilderness". Anderson also helped republish a major work on Indigenous use of fire in North America: Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness. 

Rethinking Wilderness

While the Environmental Establishment ignored these critiques, a generation of college students learned about them and most came to consider the critiques as valid. As these students advance in the world of work they may take the critique into the Environmental Movement through the back door - or, more precisely, from the bottom up. I see evidence of that in books like Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World.

I am a wilderness advocate. But that does not require me to deny that what today we recognize as wilderness was once part of the seamless world of Indigenous peoples. Rather I see the pristine myth as unnecessary baggage imported into the Environmental Movement from discredited western philosophies that sought to separate humans from nature - an enterprise which I think is the height of conceit - not to mention downright silly.

In my view, it would be a good thing if the critique of the pristine myth gains traction within the Environmental Establishment. The European conceit of humans as separate from nature is is an impediment to the Environmental and Indigenous Movements finding common ground and making common cause in preserving biodiversity. Moreover the pristine myth is not needed to make a compelling case for protecting more wilderness. 

Wilderness without the pristine myth
 
While wilderness is not and never has been pristine (synonyms include immaculate, primal, spotless, sanitary, stainless, unadulterated, uncorrupted, unsullied, untainted, untouched, and virginal), it is also not the same as the “dusty world” where humans live and work. Wilderness today may not be - to use words from the 1964 Wilderness Act - "untrammeled" but it is a place where a human "is a visitor who does not remain." 

Wilderness advocates do not need the pristine myth because we have the wild. As poet-philosopher Gary Snyder points out in his collection of essays The Practice of the Wild, (http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Practice-of-the-Wild-by-Gary-Snyder.pdf) wild land is self-willed land – land that is not dominated or controlled by humans. And while the wild is not confined to wilderness, it is in wilderness that we can most easily connect to the wild in nature and in ourselves. 

The confusion between wilderness and wild is rampant among environmentalists. It is equally rampant among those historians, geographers and indigenous thinkers who critique the myth of pristine wilderness. The Practice of the Wild is an excellent tool for sorting out the difference.

Partners for wilderness protection

In the essay Good, Wild, Sacred Gary Snyder points out that Indigenous peoples everywhere appreciate the wild; in all traditional cultures high and wild places are places of spirit and of power.  In the Klamath Mountains, for example, Indigenous natives recognized special places - places where one went alone to cry for power. Certain sacred places were clearly and intentionally not actively managed, some were forbidden to humans. Mount Shasta is such a place; for traditional natives, going to its sacred summit is forbidden.    

While it is undeniable that Indigenous Americans managed and manage their environment, it is also clear that they honored and still honor wild places as sacred.  No traditional Indigenous native would place a dwelling or locate a business on a sacred mountain.

Wilderness as a special place which is simultaneously part of the world and a place apart can and should serve as the basis for a united front by the Environmental and Indigenous Movements in the struggle to protect those portions of the earth in which natural ecological processes still function with integrity. The persistence of the pristine myth within the Environmental Movement is an impediment to that collaboration.

In the US federally designated wilderness is to remain "without permanent improvements or human habitation” and is to be “managed so as to preserve its natural condition." Traditional Indigenous uses are part of that “natural condition” and can be accommodated by wilderness managers in compliance with applicable law and without compromising the integrity of the wilderness.

Wilderness areas are also reservoir of biodiversity where natural processes can function properly, that is, in a wild way. This too is an objective on which the Environmental and Indigenous Movements can find common ground and purpose. Preserving biodiversity corresponds closely with the Indigenous concept of respect for all creation.

In conclusion

Wilderness areas provide opportunities for humans to cultivate humility - a virtue which is in short supply these days on this planet. The Myth of the Pristine derives from the particular form of hubris which emerged within western European philosophy. It is in its essence the antithesis of humility. In the spirit of humility, let's get rid of it!

Why I'm writing this blog and what I hope to achieve

Greetings,

I'm Felice Pace; Bearitude in Black is my blog about the state of the Environmental Movement. By reporting and commenting on environmental issues, environmental history and the environmental establishment, this blog will examine where the Movement has been, where it is now and where it is going.

I'm writing the blog because I think the Environmental Movement is in trouble. Simply put, we are not getting the job done. The Earth and its habitats are in trouble and - in spite of the many "victories" proclaimed by the Environmental Establishment on a regular basis - we are losing ground. 

The fact that as a Movement we are failing demands deep examination and deep change. I don't see that happening...at least not very much. At its core, Bearitude in Black aims to advance a conversation about the change we need within the Environmental Movement in order to reverse the decline of the Earth and its habitats: What changes are needed in order for the Earth to begin to gain ground?    

My perspective is that of a veteran grassroots activist and campaigner. For many years, I was a grassroots environmental professional: founder, conservation director and executive director with the Klamath Forest Alliance. I am still a KFA volunteer activist and core group member. 

The blog name Bearitude in Black refers to my totem animal and to my history within the Environmental Movement. In a much read article on the Forest Protection Movement, I was referred to some time back as "Problem Bear". The description was apt then and remains so today; I am not about to go along with manipulated processes or with efforts not based in democratically derived strategy and tactics. I am, however, ready and eager to join with others to develop shared strategy, shared campaigns and shared action. 

These days I also work with the North Group of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter where I am "water chair" and a member of the Executive Committee. I'm with the Sierra Club because it has a democratic structure and therefore can be changed by its grassroots members. It is difficult to change other Environmental Establishment organizations which are governed by independent and insulated boards comprised chiefly of "one percenters" (elite corporate insiders). 

I also currently coordinate a project for EPIC (the Environmental Protection Information Center), KFA and Wilderness Watch which aims to reform livestock grazing practices and management on public lands in Northern California. We are currently focused on grazing reform within designated and de facto wilderness on the Klamath National Forest.

I still help a bit  with forest watch (within the Klamath River Basin) and more broadly with forest policy, and I still study what I call "the natural and human history of large Klamath Mountains wildfires." 

I'm a Clean Water Activist too focusing on controlling agricultural pollution on California's Northcoast, the Klamath River Basin and especially within the Scott River Basin - a major Klamath tributary and my home for many years.  

As editor and chief writer for KlamBlog, I work to uncover and reveal to the people and press decisions being made behind closed doors which impact Klamath River Communities and Public Trust Resources (water, land and wildlife). KlamBlog also uncovers restoration boondoggles and other hidden misuses of taxpayer funds. 

Most of my work these days is unpaid; I survive on social security, a bit of substitute teaching and occasional paid environmental work. For the most part, I've foresworn foundation funding because these days many of the foundations funding environmental organizations seek in one way or another to control the work of those they fund. I prefer to be independent so that I can freely call the shots as I see them - including naming names when I believe that is needed. I do welcome financial support from foundations that do not meddle in the work...and from individuals.   

If you are someone who wants to reverse the decline of the Earth and its habitats I hope you will follow this blog and share your perspectives in comments on the posts. Through shared analysis and perspective we can build momentum - a flow and force which, when joined with other streams, will create the change we need within the Environmental Establishment and within the broader Environmental Movement.