Desecration at Bears Ears
Plus: Phoenix getting water act together? Nature is Scary; Wildfire Watch
Last week the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition tweeted a disturbing image showing bullet holes in a rock art panel in the Bears Ears region. This kind of vandalism and desecration of sacred sites is hardly unusual in the area—pothunting and other forms of historical destruction have long been a sort of tradition among the white settlers and their descendants, especially in southeastern Utah. Few archaeological sites have not been dug or scraped clean of artifacts, and nearly every accessible rock art site has been graffitied or used for target practice.
It may be possible to attribute those long-ago acts of vandalism to simple ignorance: Maybe those olden time folks didn’t understand what they were doing. They just need to be educated. Maybe. The same cannot be said, however, for more recent perpetrators, which includes whoever shot up the aforementioned panel. This clearly was not someone innocently using a blank piece of rock as a target (that’s not okay, either, by the way) who didn’t see the rock art. This seems to have been done with malicious intent. And, according to the Coalition’s Twitter thread, this sort of vandalism is on the rise in the region.
I don’t know why someone would do this sort of thing. But I can’t help but wonder whether it’s politically-motivated, even in an unconscious way: a reaction to the designation and restoration of Bears Ears National Monument.
After all, the opponents of the monument, from the late Sen. Orrin Hatch down to then county commissioners, repeatedly called this effort to protect the place an “attack on an entire way of life,” they said it would “destroy lives and livelihoods,” that it was a way for urbanites to displace “rural culture” and “rural heritage,” and that it would steal money from Utah school children. These were all lies, of course, meant only to foment fear and outrage among their constituents, to spark a backlash from which they could profit politically.
That they would lash out at the very sites the monument is meant to protect is not without precedent. Cal Black, one of the Sagebrush Rebellion’s founding fathers, reacted to a proposal to designate Utah land as wilderness by threatening to “blow up bridges, ruins, and vehicles. We’re going to start a revolution.” He didn’t actually do any of that, but there was a subsequent rise in what appeared to be politically motivated vandalism of archaeological sites in southeast Utah.
Maybe we’re seeing a repeat of that. If so, then the Orrin Hatches, Phil Lymans, Mike Lees, and others who spewed false rhetoric about the destruction of culture and livelihoods are partly responsible, too.
In the meantime, it’s imperative that the Bureau of Land Management create a robust management plan for the monument backed up adequate funding for enforcement.
Aridification Watch
Phoenix is finally implementing water restrictions now that, you know, water’s in short supply in the desert.
Oh, wait, CORRECTION: The City of Phoenix is politely asking folks to “do their part” and “to voluntarily evaluate and reduce their water use in ways that will have minimal impact on their lifestyles. At this time, there will be no mandatory water reductions or restrictions.”
It’s so nice they aren’t messing with anyone’s lifestyle. I mean, would you really want anyone to sacrifice their lifestyle—or their lawn, long showers, swimming pool—in a place where:
there has been zero precipitation in over two months—and only a half inch so far this year;
the mercury topped out above 100°F on 11 days in May (and where there’s nothing but triple digit highs in the forecast);
the heat killed 339 people last year.
Given those kinds of stats, you might think folks would be fleeing Phoenix in droves. Nope. Quite the opposite, in fact:
Also: Things are looking up—relatively speaking—for the Colorado River. Late-season snows in the northern mountains of the river’s upper basin buoyed snowpack levels and extended spring runoff (but only in the northern basin). That, combined with big releases of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir and lower than normal releases from Glen Canyon Dam, has brought up Lake Powell’s levels by about 10 feet in the last several weeks. Still, the lake’s level is 30 feet lower than it was a year ago.
From the Nature is Scary Department
Wow! Lake Powell is all kinds of crazy these days:
Also: A bison charged and gored a 25-year-old woman in Yellowstone National Park after she got too close to the animal. A mountain lion attacked a 9-year-old girl at a church camp in Washington. And a moose trampled a trail runner near Breckenridge after the woman, who was looking at the trail, surprised the animal. And three climbers were hit by an avalanche in Rocky Mountain National Park, killing one and injuring the other two.
And then there are the feral cows.
Wildfire Watch
The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire in New Mexico has reached 316,654 acres in size, which is about 500 square miles, which is probably about as big as some state in the Eastern U.S., but since my knowledge of that part of the country is basically zilch it means nothing to me. So, the fire is huge. But its growth has slowed considerably, it’s 59% contained, and the weather is cooperating with firefighting efforts.
Federal officials recently determined that not only did the Hermits Peak Fire start as a prescribed burn, but so did the Calf Canyon Fire, which merged with the Hermits Peak blaze weeks ago. And, a much smaller fire in Western Colorado in May was also rooted in a prescribed burn.
In response, the U.S. Forest Service paused prescribed burns for 90 days to review the program and come up with better protocols. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, couldn’t help but respond with this:
Ummm… okay. Let me just say that, as much as it nauseates me to say so, Boebert almost makes a good point here. Halting all prescribed burns indefinitely would be really bad. Even a 90-day pause would be questionable if it began in, say, October. But this pause is occurring during the summer—a hot, dry, windy summer during which fire danger is expected to be extremely high (see below). I kinda doubt the Forest Service would have conducted any burns during the 90 days anyway: It’s just not the season for it. But Boeberts will be Boeberts.
Anyway, with all the attention on the Hermits Peak Fire, another monstrous blaze, the Black Fire in southern New Mexico, has received less notice. But it continues to rage and has grown to an astounding 263,132 acres, making it the third largest fire on record in the state. It’s 30% contained and is mostly burning in a wilderness area.
Here’s what to expect in the next two months. Notice things look better for the Southwest starting in July. That’s because: “The North American Monsoon is likely to arrive on time and be robust this summer, but potential early moisture surges during June could result in periods of lightning across the Southwest, Colorado, and the southern Great Basin.”
Hallelujah to that!
Certainly there's a lot that Phoenix can do to reduce water consumption; however, when agriculture accounts for 78% of the Colorado River flow, the solution is obvious. Agriculture established itself in the Southwest because of an overabundance of water; that is no longer the case. Let's grow cotton and melons where it rains.
I agree with Carl - pretty sure its time for the agriculture industry to re-think WHAT they are trying to produce in DESERT like areas. Not only in Colorado, but most of the Southwest & West. Growing crops that need more water in drought areas seems kind of ass-backwards at this point. And regarding the "feral" cattle? Strange the lack of concern there is compared to "feral" WILD Horses! Just saying....
Anyone here read the Wildlife News? Another good source of information -