Slickrock Desert book nearly ready

 After two years of serious writing, my new book, The Slickrock Desert: Journeys of Discovery in an Endangered American Wilderness, is in final production. It uses stories of my own explorations of the canyons and mesas of the Four Corners region of the American Southwest to introduce the reader to its history, natural history, geology, ecology, and what we know of its earliest inhabitants. I've already received welcome testimonials from such notable people as the author Stephen Trimble, whose works include The Capitol Reef Reader and Redrock Stories, and Carolyn Z. Shelton, Assistant Monument Manager (retired) of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Both Stephen and Carolyn read my entire manuscript and gave me welcome feedback on how to make it the best book possible.

I just received printed copies of what is called an "Advance Reader Copy." The "ARC" is very close to the final book but usually needs a little more editing before publication. ARCs go to book reviewers so they have time to review the book and write about it in advance of publication.  The publication date for The Slickrock Desert is March 15, and everything is on track for that date. I only needed to edit a few lines of text, adjust a few margins, and optimize some of the photos for best reproduction quality. The final files are off to the printer now, with the first print run to be completed in a couple of weeks. Another couple of weeks to get those copies into distribution and it will be ready to go.  Here's what the ARC looks like. The final book will be nearly identical. To learn more, take a look at the Atenera Press website at www.atenera.com.

State of Utah to Challenge Biden's Restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase

The State of Utah has decided to move forward with a challenge to President Biden's restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments. They have hired a law firm (at $498/hour) to research potential litigation based on recent opinions from some members of the U.S. Supreme Court that the Antiquities Act is the wrong way to protect large landscapes in southern Utah. This action came several days after about one hundred members of a coalition of Hopi, Navajo, Utes, Ute Mountain Utes, and Zuni marched on the Utah State Capitol to protest the potential lawsuit.  Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has set up a website for you to share your thoughts with Utah Governor Cox. You can access the site HERE.

President Biden Restores Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

 It took nearly nine months, but President Biden restored the original boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments on October 8. Bears Ears now also includes 11,200 additional acres not part of the original proclamation but somewhat surprisingly added by Trump (I guess as sort of a "consolation prize") when he sliced its boundaries 85% in 2017.  Biden's proclamation was great, although I might have preferred the lawsuits against Trump's actions to be resolved (assuming the courts decided against Trump) so the same kind of thing couldn't happen with future presidents.  Of course there was always the possibility the courts could side with Trump, so perhaps it's better this way.  If any future president tries to do a similar hatchet job, we will just have to deal with it then.

You can read the Press Release from the U.S. Department of Interior HERE.

 

Hope for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

 With President-Elect Biden's inauguration imminent, there's hope he will restore the two national monuments that Trump drastically reduced back to at least their original boundaries. It's one of his campaign promises and appears to be on his initial list of action items. Even many Utah officials want it to happen. Both the Grand County Commission and the San Juan County Commision have sent letters to Biden requesting that the Bears Ears original boundaries be restored. The town councils in Moab and Bluff sent similar letters. Being that this is Utah, though, not everyone is in favor. The towns of Blanding and Monticello have both objected to restoration of the original boundaries, claiming they were set without sufficient local input.

Soon after Trump's proclamation, numerous organizations and all five of the region's Native American Tribes filed lawsuits claiming the Antiquities Act did not give him the legal power to shrink the size of the monuments. The lawsuits are still languishing in the courts. Ideally, the courts would rule in favor of the plaintiffs, as this would establish a precedent against any similar actions a future president might consider, but the lawsuits will probably be dismissed as moot once Biden takes action. And since there is always a possibility the courts could rule in favor of Trump, it's probably best to let them be dismissed and fight again if the issue arises again in the future.

I've hiked much of the disputed area and agree it is important to be protected.  Here's one example of an Ancestral Puebloan ruin that was within the original boundary of Bears Ears but excluded after Trump's proclamation:

A Surprise Graduate Degree

 

It’s not every day you find out a bona fide university long ago awarded you a graduate degree you never knew about. Not some honorary degree but a legitimate Master of Arts degree in engineering.  Well, I just discovered it happened to me.  And before you start questioning its authenticity, let me assure you it is indeed valid.  Here’s the story.  I did my undergraduate work at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California (it’s a good school, traditionally ranked #1 or #2 in undergraduate engineering programs by US News and World Report).  I could have just gone for a B.S. degree in engineering, but the school offered another option.  Stay on for a fifth year and earn a Master of Engineering degree.  It sounded attractive, so at the beginning of my junior year, I applied and was accepted.  The only catch was that Harvey Mudd was only accredited to be an undergraduate institution; they couldn’t award graduate degrees.  So, in some arcane way, they teamed up with Claremont Graduate University across the street to award the degree. The story I was told was that at graduation after my fifth year, Harvey Mudd would award my Master of Engineering degree first, then follow with my bachelor’s degree.  That way the ME degree would qualify as my first degree, which would allow them to retain their undergraduate accreditation.  And that’s what happened.  At the graduation ceremony, I received a nice diploma stating that Harvey Mudd College was conferring on me a Master of Engineering degree. Hidden away underneath it in the same presentation folder was the diploma for my B.S. degree in engineering.  I never really understood what role Claremont Graduate University played in all this until I recently received a letter from their alumni association.  They were asking for a donation because I was a CGU graduate with a Master of Arts degree in Engineering.  Having never heard this before, I contacted their alumni association and was assured that, yes indeed, I have an MA degree in engineering from their university.  At this point in my career it’s too late to have any impact on my resume, but it’s a nice little surprise—two master’s degrees for the price of one!  And by the way, Harvey Mudd ended their M.E. program some years later because of the complexity in administering it.  The only downside is that I now have one more school I should give donations to every year.

Staying in Touch in the Wilderness

 

Yes, we’re in the middle of a pandemic that has pretty much locked everything down, but that shouldn’t stop you from planning your next trip into the wilderness.  I’m already plotting a trip to southern Utah, even though I’m not sure when it will be.  I’m fairly confident that as usual, it will be a solo trip.  And that brings up an important point.  I’m not as young as I used to be, and while I’m still in reasonably good shape, I need to be prepared for potential hazards.

When I’m out alone in the wilderness, I subscribe to the philosophy espoused by the author Edward Abbey: “accidents are forbidden.”  But just to be on the safe side, I’ve added a new GPS receiver to my backpack: a Garmin GPSmap 66i with the InReach satellite messaging feature.  As long as I have access to the sky, in an emergency I can send an SOS message that will scramble a search-and-rescue team anywhere in the world.  And if I just want to text my wife to let her know I’m doing fine, I can do so pretty much as if I were texting on my cell phone.  The neat thing about this is because it uses the Iridium satellite network to send the messages, I don’t have to be within the range of a cell phone service provider.

I’ve found my subscription to the inReach service to be affordable and well worth the cost.  I use the Freedom Safety Plan, which allows me to only pay the monthly fee for the months I use it and suspend it for other months.  The $15 monthly fee allows me to send unlimited SOS messages, up to 10 ordinary texts, and an unlimited number of preprogrammed texts to specific people.  I won’t go through a full review of the inReach service here, I’ll only point out that if you spend much time in the wilderness away from cell phone coverage you should consider investing in something like this.  There are several manufacturers of similar products and I don’t get commissions from any of them, so feel free to purchase whichever one best meets your needs.

Uranium Country

Today is the 75^th anniversary of the detonation of the nuclear bomb over Hiroshima.  That event had a major impact on the canyon country of southern Utah, although it was not obvious at the time.  The start of the nuclear age suddenly put uranium in high demand, and this was the place to find it.  The US Atomic Energy Commission supported anyone who wanted to prospect by offering guaranteed minimum prices for ore. The commission built many of the dirt roads now popular with off-roaders and promised $10,000 bonuses for new finds.

By the early 1950s hordes of both amateurs and professionals were combing the landscape with handheld Geiger counters. Most didn't know what they were doing and went broke, but a few got rich, at least temporarily. The prospector who probably had the most influence early on was Charlie Steen, an unemployed geologist who couldn’t afford a Geiger counter but used his knowledge of geology to find the first big strike in 1952.  His Mi Vida mine produced hundreds of millions of dollars of ore, making him a rich man and the most influential person in Moab, Utah.  But frivolous spending sprees and ill-advised investments eventually drove him broke.

As part of the research I’m doing for my book on canyon country, I decided to pay a visit to his Mi Vida mine, long since closed down.  It was many miles down rough dirt roads, and I took wrong turns twice along the way.  But I eventually arrived and was able to explore its remaining relics.  The mine itself has been blocked with tons of dirt to prevent entry, but rusting equipment remains.  I was surprised at how small the site was; I had been expecting something covering many acres.  I subscribe to the premise that if you really want to see something off the beaten path you need to figure out how to get there on your own, so I won’t post directions here, but here are a couple of views from my visit.