Imagine a water conference focused not on fluvial geomorphology, hydraulics, creek restoration, riparian grazing management, stream bank erosion, non-point source pollution, cumulative water resource impact assessment and the like, but instead on water as a mysterious, magical, extraordinary substance.

That’s what former Hopi chairman Vernon Masayevsa had in mind when he conceived “Braiding Through Water: Weaving Traditional and Western Sciences and Knowledge,” a conference held in Flagstaff, Ariz., last month.

In Hopi, water is life and energy, the connecting power that links living beings, islands and continents, and earth to other planets in the cosmic sea. To employ water as a mere commodity – as, for example, Peabody Energy did when it used the pure water of the Navajo Aquifer under Northern Arizona’s Black Mesa to make coal slurry – is to take the wrong path. In 1998 Masayevsa formed the Black Mesa Trust to save the dwindling aquifer, claiming the company had taken so much water that washes and sacred springs on Hopi land had begun to run dry.

“At first we had to play the game according to their rules,” says Masayevsa. “And there was no way for us to win (that way). So we asked the water and the water said: Bring the fight to your territory, talk about water as the ancestors talked about it. So we went to our ancient traditions and knowledge, and that was when Peabody could not fight us.”

In mid-April, writer Laura Paskus told us of a dozen murdered women whose remains were found in the New Mexico desert. This week, the desert has given up additional bodies -- one an explorer who disappeared 75 years ago, the other a hiker missing only since November. 

Everett Ruess, artist, poet and aesthete, was 20 years old when he vanished on a solo mule trip through Utah in 1934. He left only his woodblock prints, letters to his family, and the word "Nemo" inscribed in various canyons. Theories abounded -- he'd run off with a Navajo girl, drowned crossing the Colorado River, been murdered by cattle rustlers. Finally, this week the mystery was solved when researchers revealed that human bones found by a Navajo man were a DNA match with Everett's living relatives. The Navajo had gone in search of the remains last year, after learning that his grandfather saw a young white man being killed in the '30s and buried the body.

The discovery puts decades of questions to rest for the Ruess family. And the discovery of a much more recently vanished wanderer -- Rose Backhaus -- has finally answered her family's questions. 

Has camelina's time arrived? A new study -- funded by the camelina industry and conducted with jet fuel from seeds developed by a Bozeman company called Sustainable Oils -- says fuel made with the oilseed camelina could cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 84 percent compared with fuel made from petroleum.

Just last September, the FDA granted permission to include two percent camelina meal -- a byproduct of producing the fuel -- in the mix given to feedlot beef cattle and swine. The meal has protein levels of 40 percent or more, and is also high in Omega-3 fatty acids. 

Camelina is well suited to Montana and other arid states because it can withstand cold temperatures and it needs very little water. In 2007, more than 20,000 acres of the crop was cultivated in the state -- but that number fell by almost half in 2008, probably because farmers could get more money from growing wheat, which hit record highs.

Back in mid-March, I wrote about a wonderful development on one of my favorite local dog-walking routes. The federal Bureau of Land Management had blocked motor vehicles from this half-mile stretch of old bad road along the Arkansas River just east of Salida.

I predicted that the closure sign would get knocked down, the blocking boulders would be moved, and there would be agitation to re-open the road to pickups, ATVs, motorcycles and the like.

The post with the closure sign hasn't fared well. Soon after it went up, it was pushed hard by a vehicle. It was cracked and leaning, but still standing, more or less. By last weekend, though, it was fully broken off and lying in the dirt.

However, the boulders are still in place, and we've seen only one violator, a motorcyclist who briefly intruded, then turned back.
 

Last night, I flew home to Colorado to find that my car had changed color. During my weekend away, a wild dust-and-rain storm had rolled over Grand Junction, covering my car -- and the rest of town, it seemed -- with bright orange splotches of desert dirt. “Yep, half of Utah blew through here,” said the attendant at the airport parking lot.
It’s been a dusty winter here in western Colorado -- spooky orange clouds keep busting in from the west, leaving layers of grit on cars, people, and our snowpack. And since darker snow absorbs more heat, dirty snowpack melts faster -- a lot faster, researchers find. The Washington Post recently published a story on our dusty skies, including their causes and implications for Western snow and water -- well worth a look. A couple of winters ago, I trekked into the San Juan Mountains with snow scientist Tom Painter, who studies the effects of dust on snow -- check out the HCN story I wrote about our trip, and his and his colleagues’ disturbing findings.

How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world — the paragon of animals!  ~ William Shakespeare

In the Sacramento Bee today, Republican Rep. George Radanovich of California's 19th District accused environmentalists of fish idolatry: calling regulations that protect endangered smelt in the Sacramento Delta "draconian," because they "turn simple fish into the worshipful gods of the environmental community...We need the government to protect the safety and happiness of people, not fish."   

 "All men are equal before fish," noted Herbert Hoover.  "Fish recognize a bad leader," observed Conan O'Brien. What do the Delta smelt think of Mr. Radanovich? 

Poor smelt. Caught in the crossfire of California's water wars, they never asked for adulation. Smelt are an indicator species and their disappearance bodes ill for the Delta ecosystem. Enviros say the California drought is being used politically to push new hydro projects — it's not that there isn't enough water, it's that the whole system has been so badly planned. Moving forward, conservation and better irrigation practices are in order, not sacrifice of the ecosystem. 

Republicans like 4th District Rep. Tom McClintock are also skeptical of the drought, but for opposite reasons, saying that environmental regulations, not farming or conservation, are the problem. McClintock seems to have inherited his predecessor John Doolittle's talent for subtle analysis: "The question comes down to a very simple choice between people and fish." (Doolittle, who is now under investigation for corruption, is famous in my hometown of Coloma, Calif.,  for his obsession with building the Auburn Dam on the American River. He called opponents to the dam "conniving environmentalists"). 

It must be acknowledged that certain fish fans are fanatics. PETA, for example, has gone off the deep end with its "Sea Kitten" campaign.  Obviously geared toward children, PETA's propaganda stretches, nay, snaps the cords of reason: 

"Contrary to popular belief, the technical term for sea kitten offspring is "baby sea kitties," not "caviar." Many sea kittens build nests where they can raise their baby sea kitties, and others collect small rocks off the sea floor to made widdle hiding pwaces where they can rest."

Oh, retch. 

Perhaps we should turn to Lao Tzu for answers about the Delta smelt:  "Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it."

The housing/growth boom of the last decade was a wild ride for the West, feeling a bit like a euphoric all-night meth binge. Only the drug in this case was easy credit and an unshakable belief that the good times could never end. Nearly three years after the housing bubble reached its bursting point -- easy now to pin at mid-2006 -- we're still suffering from serious withdrawal. The rash of foreclosures may have slowed a bit at the end of last year, but now they appear to be jumping back up again (Krissy Clark at American Radio Works did a great series on Las Vegas' foreclosure nightmare). Housing starts are lower than ever. Check out these building permit comparisons:

                            March 2006          March 2009

Phoenix                    4,658                     544

Las Vegas                 5,353                     278

Albuquerque               873                     120

Denver                          398                    278

Wow!

Home sales are so low, and values along with them, that people aren't even moving anymore -- the great, mobile America is stuck. Given how crucial in-migration was to the West's growth machine, this will just slow the slowdown to the speed of cold molasses. It's gotten so bad that golf courses in Phoenix are going into foreclosure.

What I'm really interested in is: What's next? Some folks believe that as soon as the economy turns around (if it turns around), the Western growth machine will kick itself back into gear. I, for one, am not so sure. I tend to believe that things were shifting even before the crash, and that the downturn will totally readjust how we think about and do growth. But I'm really interested in your thoughts. Read our stories on the topic -- which focus on Phoenix -- and let us know what you think, either in the comment section of the story, or at our Facebook pages.

If you paid any attention at all to national forest issues during Bush's tenure, you heard the name "Mark Rey" a lot. Appointed Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment, Rey oversaw the Forest Service for eight years. From the start, environmental groups were wary of Rey's logging-friendly record, while his supporters praised Rey's expertise in forestry and his emphasis on local involvement.

Over the years, HCN covered Rey's often-controversial actions extensively: helping create the "Healthy Forests" plans; "streamlining" the forest planning process; attempting to sell off thousands of acres of public lands; shutting down  a Forest Service team that analyzed public comments; planning the closure of thousands of national forest campgrounds and sites.

Now, three months out of office, Rey spoke to Martin Nie (associate professor of natural resource policy at the University of Montana)  about his years as undersecretary. Nie asked some incisive and fairly pointed questions; Rey answered in his usual style, neatly evading some, and replying to others with exhaustively detailed, bordering-on-pedantic responses. The 38-page transcript is posted on Headwaters News:

Back in 1991 when the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment set up the call center to process people who need unemployment benefits, it seemed like a good way to increase efficiency and prevent long lines at the office. Back then, there were about 400 calls a day.

Fast forward to 2009. "What we're seeing now is 4000-5000 calls a day," says Bill Thoennes, who handles press questions in the office of Government, Policy and Public Relations. With more than 200,000 people out of work in Colorado, the phone system -- and the 100 or so people who are fielding calls -- simply can't handle the volume. Thoennes says more people are being hired, but it takes up to six weeks to train employees so that they can answer questions about the state's employment laws.  

Meantime, people who have questions or problems regarding their unemployment benefits are forced to wait for up to two hours on the phone -- that is, if they get beyond the busy signal.

Colorado's unemployment figure is 7.5 percent -- still under the historical high of 9.1 percent in 1982, and a modest number compared to California's 11.2 percent and Oregon's 12.1 percent, both at historical highs. "It's frustrating," says Thoennes. "We're trying everything we can think of. Some retirees have volunteered to come back to work, and some of the adjudicators are taking phone calls. We just keep hoping the recession will level out."

With an extra 13 weeks of emergency unemployment now authorized, people out of work can receive up to 59 weeks of benefits. Unless they hit what Thoennes termed "the endless brick wall."

Doubtless you've heard of George Will, a prominent member of the chattering class. He wears a bow tie. And now this fop, with prominent sartorial affectations of his own, presumes to give us fashion advice. 

In a recent syndicated  column, Will rants against blue jeans, also known as "Western wear."
 
Will borrows many of his critiques from a Daniel Akst, who earlier wrote in the Wall Street Journal that denim is "hot, uncomfortable and uniquely unsuited to people who spend most of their waking hours pushing keys instead of cows."
 
Well, pushing keys is how I spend most of my working hours, and I wonder. Has Daniel Akst ever had to crawl down on the floor to find an errant computer cable? Had a sharp-clawed cat jump on his lap while he was trying to work? Had to venture down into a dusty cellar to find the file from something he wrote years ago?