To Rewild the Truckee River: The Rock-McCarran Flood Project

Danielle Henderson laughs when friends call her a water nerd, but for her, the Truckee River is more than just a job–it’s a living system she’s spent 18 years learning to protect.

Henderson is the Natural Resources Manager for the Truckee River Flood Management Authority (TRFMA). For years, she has pondered a particular part of the river corridor, an area now being considered for a major flood mitigation project: The Rock-McCarran Flood Project.

“The Rock-McCarran project is like the showpiece of our flood project,” said Henderson.

According to the TRFMA, “the Rock-McCarran Design Project is part of a larger inter-agency plan called the Meadows Flood Project which will create a community park located along the Truckee River in the reach between the Rock blvd. and McCarran blvd. Bridges.” As it stands now, the area between Rock and McCarran Boulevards, the river is bound to the north by the river path and warehouses, but to the south lies mostly undeveloped land.

*The Meadows Flood Project is TRFMA’s overall plan to alleviate flooding in the Truckee Meadows. (Courtesy: TRFMA)*

In her role with TRFMA, Henderson is eager to see this project break ground, which will encompass nearly 170 acres of open space that will be revitalized, with river health and flood mitigation at the forefront.

And floods can be a serious issue for Northern Nevada.

Since 1950, when there were two major floods, the Truckee River has caused major flooding in Reno seven times, roughly once every 11 years. The 2017 flood covered the Rock-McCarran Project area with one to two feet of water, affecting Hidden Valley, though it was not the region’s worst flood.

The 1997 “flood of record” occurred after a massive warm winter storm triggered a swift melting of mountain snowpack and severe runoff, submerging downtown Reno, the airport, and much of the southern valley.

*View of Sparks industrial area on Jan. 3, 1997. Photo courtesy of Pat Glancy, USGS Carson City, NV*

This event now serves as the baseline for what is considered a 100-year flood: a flood with a one percent chance of happening every year.

“The Rock-McCarran Project is designed to protect the community from flooding, and we are modeling our flood protection on the 1997 event,” said Henderson, adding that the project will restore and preserve open and green spaces.

This section of the river has undergone numerous changes: heavily constrained and incised river banks, extensive hardscaping, and flood walls that channel high river flows with increased energy. Biodiversity is limited, with no natural pools or riffles that slow water flow.

Shane Dyer, an engineer from J-U-B Engineers, the company partnering with TRFMA on the project, said the river’s unnatural flow requires regular maintenance. He also noted surrounding farmland contributes to biodiversity loss, calling this section, “really just a man-made stretch.”

One early challenge of the project was the varied ownership of the land. Since 2011, TRFMA has worked with private owners, acquiring all but two lots needed for the project. Businesses have been relocated, and many existing buildings demolished. Remaining concrete pads and parking lots help mitigate potential erosion, weed infestation, and dust during construction.

Climate change is increasing the risk of major flooding as well. A 2023 study published by the American Geophysical Union found that, even with moderate emissions, regions worldwide could experience 100-year floods every 9-15 years by 2050. And a story published by Yale Climate Connections found that climate change is increasing the frequency of this major flood event.

Henderson said that if the river remains unchanged, damages from the next 100-year flood could reach $2 billion.

“We’re talking about creating meanders, backwater areas, pools, and riffles and spawning gravels to support fish, floodplain terraces,” Henderson said.”

Project Details

To address the risk, TRFMA anticipates breaking ground within a few years. J-U-B Engineering has identified natural techniques to restore more natural river activity, including:

Reestablishing back channels and floodplains
Eliminating deep incising
Creating riparian corridors and habitat for fish and wildlife

The project requires an extensive permitting process but aims to return a natural flow to this corridor.

“Fire and foremost, the community should care about the Rock-McCarran Project because it will avoid damages, keep people safe and healthy, and improve the region’s economic vitality,” Henderson said.

Henderson is particularly excited about plans for the 70 acres south of the river, where two concepts are being considered:

Concept One: Nature-Based Recreation Area

Flood-resilient landscape
Picnic areas, gathering spaces, outdoor classrooms, pollinator gardens
Trails, interpretive signage, pedestrian bridge, and bird blind
Passive recreation and ecological restoration

Concept Two: Traditional Sports Complex

Ten athletic fields
Extensive parking, lighting, and asphalt
Same river restoration as the nature park concept, but more infrastructure and maintenance
Addresses immediate demand for youth sports

There is community support and benefits to both approaches. According to the City of Reno’s 2023 Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan, there is a shortfall of 45 flat fields needed for athletic competition and recreation.

*A conceptual plan for the nature park vision for the Rock-McCarran park along the Truckee River (Courtesy: TRFMA)*

“There’s quite a few programs and youth sports that can’t provide the programming they would like due to limited fields,” said Ian Anderson, board member of the High Sierra Lacrosse League. “Families have to travel further, and kids miss out on opportunities to play.”

Anderson emphasized the benefits of the Rock-McCarran location for athletics: central, accessible by bus, and near hotels for tournaments.

The nature park concept, by contrast, emphasizes open space and flood resilience while restoring natural river flows.

“It’s kind of an extension of the restored river corridor,” said Henderson. “It would include different types of native vegetation, some meadow areas, mixed in with some more traditional park landscaping.”

TRFMA has held public meetings to gauge interest. In March, feedback strongly favored the nature park, while August sentiment shifted slightly toward favoring the sports complex. Written comments, however, still favor the nature park. Concerns for a sports park include noise, light pollution, runoff, and impacts on wildlife, such as the Brazilian Free-tailed bats living beneath the nearby McCarran Bridge.

The project also considers downstream communities and tribal stakeholders. Representatives from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe serve on the technical advisory committee. Through negotiations, TRFMA has allocated $17 million to the tribe for restoration and bank stabilization. Coordination is ongoing with Lockwood, Wadsworth, and other downstream communities.

While still early in development, the TRFMA board will review public comments before deciding between the two concepts. Henderson emphasized that community feedback remains important even as plans progress from 15 to 30 percent design.

“People should care about the river,” Henderson said. “It’s our chance to protect the community, restore open space, and ensure a clean, healthy river for generations to come.”

Additional Reading: A Primer on TRFMA

TRFMA is a coalition representing the cities of Reno, Sparks, Washoe County, and other stakeholders. The agency’s ultimate goal is to reduce the negative impact of severe floods that can affect the overall health, economic, and social well-being of the community.

“We are funded entirely by local government funds,” said Daneille Henderson, Natural Resources Manager for the agency.

TRFMA gets some of its funding from a portion of sales taxes from Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County, which helps insulate the agency from broad-sweeping cuts from state and federal governments.

“We were not impacted by the recent funding cuts from the federal government,” said Henderson.

However, she mentioned the federal funding cuts have impacted several grant opportunities the agency had hoped to pursue.

According to the agency’s website, the “TRFMA is responsible for implementing the Truckee River Flood Management Project (Flood Project), which involves planning, designing, and constructing flood impact reduction projects and ecosystem restoration projects along the Truckee River. In addition, TRFMA works with the jurisdictions to maintain existing flood protection infrastructure along the river.”

Food is power

This article was produced in collaboration with High Country News. It may not be reproduced without express permission from FERN. If you are interested in republishing or reposting this article, please contact info@thefern.org.

Many communities have foods that define them: Los Angeles has tacos, Green River, Utah, has melons, while New Mexico’s Hatch Valley is famous for its green chiles. Historic power dynamics — from colonization to migration — have always influenced how and why people began growing, cooking and consuming these symbolic dishes and crops. Today, these foods and those who prepare, raise and sell them carry cultural power; people travel hundreds of miles to buy a juicy Crenshaw or sweet canary melon from a family-run stand in Green River. And yet the farmers themselves often struggle to stay afloat. They lose access to markets as large companies buy up smaller, locally run grocery stores.

Most grocery stores across the West trace back to a few major corporations. Whether you’re visiting King Soopers in Colorado, Smith’s in Utah or Fred Meyer in Oregon, you’ll find the same Kroger-brand products. The original names of the once-locally owned grocers might remain, but the shops are now just part of one of the nation’s largest grocery corporations.

A handful of companies control the production and distribution of most of our food, and the West plays a leading role in that system. The U.S. headquarters for the world’s largest meatpacker, JBS S.A., is in Greeley, Colorado, while Driscoll’s, the largest berry producer, is headquartered in Watsonville, California. These companies rarely confront the riskiest parts of agribusiness, raising the cows and growing the berries. Instead, they produce, brand and ship them.

This global food system has profound impacts on the West’s farmers, workers and consumers. It’s getting harder for family farms to turn a profit, and those who seek alternatives to the consolidated corporate market must navigate complicated policies and finances in order to sell directly to consumers. Berry-pickers and meatpacking workers — often immigrants — face exploitation and unsafe conditions, with workplace protections varying from state to state.

Meanwhile, food insecurity has increased across the West, and yet Republican-led states, including Utah and Idaho, opted out of a federal summer grocery program for kids last year, in part because of anti-welfare politics.

Beyond its connection to this international system, the West has deeply rooted myths and policies around water and land that create and sustain other layers of power. In the 1800s, settlers stole land from Native people and killed off bison as they drove tens of thousands of cattle westward. Ever since, the cowboy and his glorified cattle have held cultural power that politicians are rarely willing to tarnish.

As “The Big Four” meatpackers have consolidated most of the beef industry, the economic power of ranchers has dwindled. Only 2% of U.S. beef comes from cows that graze on public lands, and yet multigenerational ranching families and large landowners continue to influence and benefit from antiquated federal grazing policies.

Most land in the Eastern U.S. is privately owned, but the federal government owns nearly half of all land in the West. Ranchers graze cows on huge swaths of public lands, paying fees well below the actual cost of managing those lands. Over the past century, grazing policies have changed little even as cows destroyed native vegetation and degraded waterways. State and federal policies often put the health of livestock above that of the region’s arid soils or the lives of large carnivores like wolves and bears.

Ranchers and Big Beef also intersect and overlap with those who control water in the West. Agriculture consumes nearly 80% of the water diverted from the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin, primarily to grow alfalfa and other cattle-feed crops. An investigation by ProPublica and The Desert Sun found that most of the water consumed in California’s Imperial Valley goes to just 20 farming families, with one of them using more than the entire metropolitan area of Las Vegas. Only four of those families use the majority of their water rights to grow foods people consume, like broccoli or onions. The rest use their water to grow hay for livestock.

Many of these families have senior water rights, and that increasingly means power in the arid and rapidly growing West. Together with livestock associations, irrigation districts and their political allies, they have sought to influence food and water policy.

Yet in some parts of the West, other interests are gaining power. In the Northwest, years of advocacy from tribes and environmental groups led federal agencies to decommission dams on rivers like the Elwha and Klamath. The farmers might worry about their ability to continue irrigating, but tribes are reclaiming their traditional foodways as salmon return.

And the Northwest’s rivers aren’t the only places where tribes are reasserting their culture and food sovereignty: Indigenous-run restaurants, farms and cooking classes are springing up across the West.

Farmers markets, mutual aid efforts and community gardens are creating new forms of cultural, social and economic power, often led by and benefiting those who are excluded and marginalized, including queer, immigrant and Black farmers. Their efforts encourage people to take back intrinsic food traditions while they act in resistance to the global, capitalist food system.

Still, the corporate structures of our food system are so deeply entrenched that they can be hard to fully comprehend or even notice. In this region, food is power, and that power is not equally shared. Before that can change, however, we need to understand the complexities of this system, tracing its roots to the growth of retail giants and the consolidation of Western agricultural production.

The grocery giants

A handful of powerful corporations dominate the U.S. grocery market. Over the last few decades, these firms have consolidated their control, leaving a shrinking share of the market for local, independent grocers. Grocery giants and their supporters claim that economies of scale enable them to offer lower prices to consumers. But critics say that these conglomerates’ size gives them too much power, not only over their consumers, but also over suppliers and workers.

Corporate consolidation in U.S. grocery

Breaking down the big grocery firms

Note: Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Albertsons were the four largest firms in grocery by market share in 2023, according to industry reports. To estimate the footprint of these grocery giants, HCN used USDA data on SNAP-authorized grocery stores. While not every retail location accepts SNAP, we cross-referenced the data with corporate reports and found our totals closely matched the store counts listed by the largest firms.

Walmart & Costco: The West’s superstore empires

SNAP-authorized Walmart & Costco stores in the West

Note: Includes SNAP-authorized Sam’s Club
stores, which are owned by Walmart. Store totals
are for the 12 Western states.

The illusion of competition

Confronted by Walmart’s growing power, traditional grocers like Albertsons and Kroger responded with a spate of mergers and acquisitions starting in the early 1990s. Albertsons now owns over 1,300 stores in the West, though few of the shoppers patronizing Safeway and Haggen may realize that those stores are owned by the same firm. In December of 2024, the Federal Trade Commission blocked a proposed merger between Albertsons and Kroger after a number of Western states sued, arguing that it would further limit competition and raise prices for consumers.

Farmers markets — a bright spot in the grocery landscape

The rise in the popularity of farmers markets since the mid-1990s has been a positive counterpoint to the relentless march of corporate consolidation. Nationally, the number of farmers markets more than quadrupled from 1994 to 2019.

Get big or get out: Consolidation in agricultural production

The small family farm holds a special place in the American imagination. Today, however, a modest and diminishing portion of our nation’s food is grown on smallholder farms. Production is shifting to larger-scale factory farms in every Western state and across nearly every commodity.

Production shifts to larger farms

Marked growth for select goods

Giants of agricultural production

Net loss of 600,000 U.S. farms 1982-2022

The trend towards consolidation in the food system has made it increasingly difficult for smaller farmers to compete and stay in business.

Concentration in meatpacking

The meatpacking industry is concentrated to an extraordinary degree, with an estimated 81% of U.S. cattle and 65% of hogs processed by “The Big Four” meatpacking corporations as of 2021. Critics say this market stranglehold gives The Big Four too much control over both ranchers and consumers.

The above hourglass power dynamic is not unique to meatpacking; it’s also conspicuous in the seeds, agricultural chemicals and food retail markets. The concentration of power in these industries allows a handful of companies to dictate prices and production methods, trapping Western consumers in a food system that prioritizes corporate profits over sustainability, diversity and equity.

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Students Stung by Truckee Turning Down Bee City Proposal

*Ms. Colleen’s third grade class after giving their presentation at the town council meeting. Photo Kayla Anderson / Sierra Nevada Ally*

On a June evening during summer break for local schools, six third graders from the Tahoe Expedition Academy (TEA) donning “Bee Yourself” t-shirts and holding index cards took to the podium.

Their audience? The Truckee Town Council. Their goal? Get Truckee to agree to become an official Bee City.

“We would like to start by asking all of you on Town Council a question: What different types of bees can you name?” one girl asked.

One councilmember called out, “Yellowjacket.”

“That’s actually a type of wasp, and that is not a bee,” the girl corrected her. “But don’t worry, most adults can’t name very many native bees. Most often, when people think of the word bee, they think of honeybees or maybe bumblebees (and sometimes even wasps). But guess what, honeybees aren’t even native.”

The students explained that honeybee numbers are very stable while native bee numbers are decreasing. There are about 3,600 native bee species in the U.S. and 1,600 bees native to California. According to Bee City USA, up to 40% of invertebrate pollinator species globally are on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss, pesticides, diseases and climate change.

Native bees of Truckee informational poster — *The students’ board displayed in front of the town council podium showing the native bees of Truckee. Photo Kayla Anderson / Sierra Nevada Ally*

“That is not good statistics!” one student said.

Students described the bees native to our area, such as Mason Bees, Bumblebees, Carpenter Bees, Mining Bees, Cuckoo Bees, Sweat Bees, Long-Horned Bees, and Leaf Cutter Bees.

“These unfamiliar bees are the ones that we should be worried about. Without these native bees, our ecosystem would become imbalanced, and it would also cause a huge disruption to our food chain and many of the food crops that we eat,” a student said.

Another asked, “Do you have any ideas as to why our native bees are declining right now?”

“Loss of habitat,” Town Councilmember Dave Polivy answered.

The student confirmed that was indeed the case.

“The two main reasons are native bees are losing their habitat because people are building more houses or disturbing overwintering nests, and bees are getting sick and dying from people using chemical pesticides to kill weeds and other bugs,” the student said.

After a few minutes of persuasion, the students then issued a call to action to the town of Truckee: make the necessary requirements to become a Bee City USA affiliate.

“As a Bee City, Truckee would make a commitment to save native pollinators,” they said.

Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society, a conservation advocacy organization. To become an affiliate “Bee City,” the town of Truckee would need to establish a standing Bee City USA committee, create and enhance pollinator habitat on public and private lands, reduce the use of pesticides, incorporate more pollinator-friendly policies into city plans, and host pollinator awareness events, in addition to some administrative requirements.

Students gives their presentation at the town council meeting. — *Ms. Colleen’s third grade class gives their presentation at the Truckee Town Council meeting. Photo Kayla Anderson / Sierra Nevada Ally*

To help, the students offered to have their school help support the required committee, put together a native pollinator friendly plant list that could be distributed to individuals and at nurseries, host events at the school, and even help with funding.

“Our school is committed to helping pay the application fee from funds we raised selling our bee t-shirts and sweatshirts,” one student said.

The students said to become a Bee City, the town would create a pest management plan to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and expand the use of non-chemical pest management.

“Did you know that you can make sprays to prevent animals, insects and fungi from destroying your garden? You can make a spicy spray, a milk spray, and even a soap spray! Our school could also help put a list together for the public with suggestions to reduce pesticide use,” a student said.

Following the impassioned presentation, the town council thanked them and gave the kids a swag bag filled with a coloring book, a pair of socks, Chapstick, a pen, a sticker, and a bee-shaped cookie.

But, they ultimately said no to the proposal.

“That was a great job on the annual bee presentation. It is not in our work plan this year, but we will look into it for future years,” Polivy said.

All the other councilmembers remarked it was a great presentation, congratulating the students on their initiative, research, and becoming knowledgeable and informed on the topic. One councilmember suggested partnering with the Truckee-Tahoe Unified School District regarding its pest management plan it has in place and another councilmember offered to reach out to SWEP (Sierra Watershed Education Partnership) as it promotes environmental stewardship with students in the Truckee/Tahoe region.

“I looked into the Bee City and listened to the presentation. I realized that is a big project to become a Bee City and the Town Council [has] put the project on a waitlist, if you will. But I don’t think you should wait for the town on this and there are nonprofits we could work with,” Mayor Jan Zabriske said to the students.

Despite the recommendations and suggestions, the council’s response was disappointing to teacher Colleen Carr.

“They own this,” Carr said about the kids’ obsession with the bees. “Every class that’s been involved with this project has been so passionate about it.”

Ms. Colleen talks to her students following their presentation. — *Ms. Colleen talks with the students following their presentation. Photo Kayla Anderson / Sierra Nevada Ally*

Carr shares that passion. Wearing a blue t-shirt with a Mason bee on it–which she said people confuse for a fly–she also showed off the Mason bee tattoo she has above her ankle. That love is reflected in the passion of her third-grade class, which goes in the field every week to meet with environmental/biology experts.

“I’m now known as The Bee Lady,” Carr said. “I was that person who couldn’t name anything besides the bumblebee and the honeybee and now I absolutely love them.”

Carr has been working on this Bee City USA proposal for three years. In 2023, her class sent a series of persuasive letters to the town council, and her 2024 class spoke with Dave Polivy in the council chambers.

“This was a huge step in coming here on your summer vacation, and this is the first time in front of the entire city council,” Carr said.

When asked what the primary roadblock was to Truckee becoming a Bee City, Carr said it was the forming of a committee.

“There is a Help Save the Bees nonprofit in Reno, and maybe that helped them get their designation [of Reno being the Biggest Little Bee City],” she said.

Truckee Mayor Jan Zabriskie confirmed that there is a difference between endorsing a program and implementing it, while balancing the other issues that have taken precedence in Truckee’s town master plan, such as solving the housing crisis.

Gray 'Bee yourself' T-shirt — *A ‘Bee Yourself’ T-shirt designed by TEA students. Photo Kayla Anderson / Sierra Nevada Ally*

He believes that developing a plan is a project best spearheaded by a nonprofit.

“We do have in our [2040] General Plan protections for sensitive habitats, wildlife corridors, and wetlands, and the bees would be part of that. The resources are here with the Native Plant Society, SWEP, and others, just not within the town government,” Zabriskie said.

He also affirmed that becoming a Bee City is competing with other priorities such as building infrastructure and fixing housing needs–while managing town staff that is feeling pinched by all these projects.

“The town just went through an organizational assessment and one criticism is the town council is asking too much of staff,” Zabriskie said.

Zabriskie adds that the town council is happy to take more suggestions on the need for establishing a Bee City, how to approach it, and how to improve its current bee populations.

“There are two things going on here: 1) form a Bee City or not; and 2) how can we improve the bee habitat. Following the second one will help accomplish the first one.”

Ultimately for now, town leaders said they are interested in the idea, and are encouraging students in Carr’s class to connect with local nonprofits to help alleviate some of the burden on town staff.

“We can look at becoming a Bee City, but someone else needs to take that on and then we can endorse it,” Zabriskie said. “There’s much appreciation from the town council for TEA looking into this, but we need someone to spearhead, organize this, and bring in other groups. That’s the rub.”

Unfortunately for the third-graders in Colleen Carr’s class, the competing town priorities mean it’s unlikely that Truckee will BEEcome a Bee City anytime soon.

Bee stickers made by the TEA students — *Bee stickers handed out by the TEA students. Photo Kayla Anderson / Sierra Nevada Ally*

To purchase a Tahoe Expedition Academy bee-focused T-shirt or sweatshirt, visit tahoeexpeditionacademy.org.

Truckee Pride Week in Photos

*Photo Brooke Hess-Homeier / Sierra Nevada Ally*

As part of the larger Pride Month in June, the town of Truckee, Calif. held its second annual Pride Week last week. The celebration is a time when cities and towns all around the world host events celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in an effort to make their communities more diverse and inclusive.

“Rural environments across America are often harder places for queer people to live. That is why we believe bringing people together in all shapes and forms is so valuable and can have a meaningful impact,” said David Mack, Founder and Lead Organizer of Truckee Pride.

Truckee Pride offered a unique spin on the typical Pride celebration by bringing in a strong element of the outdoors. The week featured 37 events, many of which involved the outdoor adventure sports that Truckee is known for. There was a group mountain bike ride, a bouldering night, a queer film screening, yoga classes, a queer book fair, a dance party, a puppy parade, a lake paddle, and many more fun events that everyone was welcome to attend.

More than 2,000 people attended Truckee Pride events – many of which were hosted and sponsored by local businesses. Truckee Pride is a volunteer-run 501(c)3 non-profit, which plans to host this week each year in June.

Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land

Over 3 million acres of public land could be sold in the next five years, after Senate Republicans on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee reintroduced land sales into the party’s major spending bill.

Released on Wednesday night, the megabill text includes a proposal for extensive transfers of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, supposedly for housing but with leeway for other uses. The new bill text escalates a recent GOP push to sell federal land. In May, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a version of the spending bill that called for 500,000 acres of public land sales in Nevada and Utah.

The Senate bill instructs the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to dispose of .5%-.75% of all BLM and Forest Service lands, respectively. While the percentage appears small, each agency manages huge swaths of land, mostly in the Western U.S. The BLM oversees 245 million acres, equating to 1.23 million to 1.84 million acres for sale under this proposal. The Forest Service manages 193 million acres, which would mean 970,000 to 1.45 million acres would be sold off if the bill passes.

In all, the total amount of public lands for sale could be as high as 3.29 million acres. The bill text would allow sales in all western states, except Montana.

“This Senate version is just open season on public lands.”

“It’s a travesty that Senate Republicans are putting more than 3 million acres of our beloved public lands on the chopping block to sell at fire-sale prices to build mega mansions for the ultrarich,” Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an emailed statement. He noted that the proposal’s broad language differed from the House version that focused on lands already identified for disposal in resource management plans.

“This Senate version is just open season on public lands,” Donnelly added.

If passed into law, the new proposal would create a process for states, local governments and tribes to have a “right of first refusal” on public land sales — suggesting that if these entities did not want to purchase these parcels, private buyers would be considered. The proposal also prohibits the sale of national parks (which are not managed by the BLM or the Forest Service), national monuments, wilderness areas and national recreation areas, as well as land with mining claims, grazing permits, mineral leases and right of ways.

An aerial view from the Book Cliffs, Bureau of Land Management land, across the Grand Valley towards Grand Junction, Colorado. Credit: Luna Anna Archey/High Country News

Local governments near parcels that sold would get 5% of the proceeds “for essential infrastructure directly supporting housing development or other associated community needs,” while the public land agency would get 5% for deferred maintenance.

Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources — Members in the West:

Republican:
Chairman Mike Lee, Utah
John Barrasso, Wyoming
James E. Risch, Idaho
Steve Daines, Montana
Lisa Murkowski, Alaska

Democrat:
Martin Heinrich, New Mexico
Ron Wyden, Oregon
Maria Cantwell, Washington
Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada
John Hickenlooper, Colorado
Alex Padilla, California
Ruben Gallego, Arizona

Attempts to sell public land are not new. But during President Trump’s second term, opponents of federal land management have couched transfers as a solution to the housing crisis. The Senate committee’s one-page summary of the plan blames the federal government for “depriving our communities of needed land for housing and inhibiting growth.”

A recent analysis by Headwaters Economics found that public land transfers offer little promise as a housing solution.

“Our findings show that opportunities are limited to a few states, and are complicated by wildfire and drought risks, as well as other development challenges,” the researchers wrote. They found that less than 2% of Forest Service and Department of Interior land is close enough to population centers to make sense for housing development.

The only viable chunks of Forest Service land — defined as 5,000 acres or more — near towns are in Arizona, Utah and Oregon. Department of Interior parcels that could work for housing development are primarily in Nevada, Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah, according to the analysis. Economists also found that more than half of federal lands within a quarter-mile of towns needing more housing and a population of at least 100 people had high wildfire risk.

Research also shows that creating more housing in scenic resort towns and gateway communities doesn’t usually result in more affordable housing. “If you build more housing and your community is a very popular place to visit, then often that housing gets consumed by short-term rentals” or second homes, Danya Rumore, founder and co-director of the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region Initiative at Utah State University, told High Country News last year.

The Hughes Fire burns Forest Service land near Castaic, California, this January. Credit: Andrew Avitt/U.S. Forest Service

A broad bipartisan coalition opposes selling public land, especially among Western voters. Some members of the committee, like Steve Daines (R-Mont.), have specifically said they would not support disposing of federal land. “Sen. Daines opposes public land sales,” spokesperson Matt Lloyd told the Montana Free Press on June 4. Idaho Senator James Risch (R) has also publicly opposed such sales. Montana Republican Representative Ryan Zinke — also Trump’s former DOI secretary — was instrumental in removing land sales from the House spending bill.

“Our findings show that opportunities are limited to a few states, and are complicated by wildfire and drought risks, as well as other development challenges.”

Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) has long championed attempts to sell federal land or transfer it to the states. Other Energy and Natural Resources Committee members represent Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, California and Arizona and Alaska — all states with thousands of acres of public land.

If the committee passes this version of their megabill, a vote on public land sales would go to the entire Senate, and then, the House of Representatives. If this becomes law, it could “establish a model for members of Congress to liquidate America’s lands at any time to pay for their pet projects, with little benefit to local communities,” said Michael Carroll, director of the BLM campaign at The Wilderness Society, in a statement.

The post Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land appeared first on High Country News.

Trump asks Congress to cut at the heart of the West

Trump administration moves to shutter mine safety offices in coal country

Libby Lindsay spent 21 years working underground as a miner for Bethlehem Steel in West Virginia. She saw many safety improvements over the years, and always felt grateful that she could call the local Mine Safety and Health Administration office whenever she wondered whether a rule was being followed. She joined the safety committees launched by the local chapter of the United Mine Workers, which collaborated with the agency to watchdog coal companies. She understood the price that had been paid for the regulations it enforced. “Every law was written in blood,” she said. “It’s there because somebody was injured or killed.”

Still, she and others who work the nation’s mines worry President Trump is about to limit the agency’s local reach. As his administration targets federal buildings for closure and sale, 35 of its offices are on the list. Fifteen are in Appalachian coalfields, with seven in eastern Kentucky alone and the others concentrated in southern West Virginia and southeastern Pennsylvania. Of the remaining 20 offices, many are in the West, in remote corners of Wyoming, Nevada, and Colorado. Miners’ advocates worry these closures could reduce the capacity of an agency that’s vastly improved mining safety over the past 50 years or so and could play a vital role as the Trump administration promotes fossil fuels like coal, and as decarbonization efforts increase the need for lithium and other metals.

Since its inception in 1977, the agency has operated under the auspices of the Department of Labor to reduce the risks of what has always been one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Before Congress created the agency, known as MSHA, hundreds of miners died each year, in explosions, tunnel collapses, and equipment malfunctions. (The number was far higher through the 1940s, often reaching into the thousands.) Last year, 31 people died in mining accidents, according to the agency’s data. Even after accounting for coal’s steady decline, that tally, while still tragic, reflects major strides in safety.

“Coal mining is a tough business. It’s a very competitive business. There’s always a temptation to compete on safety, to cut corners on safety, to make that your competitive advantage as a mine operator,” Christopher Mark, a government mine safety specialist who has spent decades making the job safer, told Grist. “And it’s our job to make sure that nobody can do that.”

Trump’s pick to lead MSHA, Wayne Palmer, who is awaiting confirmation, previously was vice president of the Essential Minerals Association, a trade association representing extraction companies. The Department of Labor declined to comment on the proposed lease terminations. A representative of the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal offices, told Grist that any locations being considered for closure have been made aware of that, and some lease terminations may be rescinded or not issued at all.

Cowboy, change your ways

***A mural outside the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, which hosts the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering every year* – *Photo Claire Carlson* / *Sierra Nevada Ally***

Every January in Elko, Nev., an influx of cowboys and cowboy wannabes take over the town with events like rawhide braiding workshops, bluegrass concerts and poetry readings. It’s all part of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which celebrated its 40th year in January.

Hosted by the Western Folklife Center, this year’s gathering was the second most attended Cowboy Poetry Gathering in its 40-year history. Kristin Windbigler, chief executive officer of the Western Folklife Center, attributes this to a resurging interest in cowboy culture among younger people.

“This year was the year that it felt like everything tipped,” Windbigler said in a phone interview with the Sierra Nevada Ally. “It felt like the median age of the attendees dropped by about 20 years.”

She said this could be because the Center has put more effort into growing their social media presence and inviting younger artists to perform.

“We have a tremendous amount of reverence for the past and for traditions, but you can’t really pass on traditions if you don’t have the up and coming generations there too,” Windbigler said.

People from all over the country and beyond visit this small eastern Nevada town to celebrate the rural West and meet with old friends. The first gathering was held in 1985 for a little under 1,000 guests, and it has grown exponentially since then. About 14,000 tickets were sold at this year’s various events, and the Center estimates 8,000 people attended at least one portion of the gathering.

Windbigler said this bodes well for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering’s future – as long as the Center can remain afloat.

An article published by the Elko Daily Free Press in January claimed the Center has lost more than $2 million over 12 years. In response, Windbigler said that most of that loss is due to depreciation on their office building. It can also be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic that forced them to cancel the in-person portion of the gathering for two years in a row.

To build long-term financial stability, the Western Folklife Center is planning to turn the building they own – the historic Pioneer Hotel – back into a hotel. They already have a restaurant and bar in the Pioneer Saloon on the building’s first floor, and according to a feasibility study the Center paid for, renting the hotel rooms would likely fill their current profit gap.

The interior of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, where the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held. — The interior of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, where the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held – *Photo Claire Carlson* / *Sierra Nevada Ally*

They need $6.5 million to fund this project, and right now, they’re about one-third of the way there. Over the next several months, they will move into the permitting portion of the hotel project. Once that’s done – and if they can raise enough money – the project should be “shovel-ready,” Windbigler said.

Until then, their main focus is making the gathering the best it can be for as long as possible. That means honoring the many different versions of cowboy culture, including the one that existed 40 years ago at the gathering’s inception and the culture that still exists today–despite the challenges modern farming faces.

The number of U.S. farmers and ranchers has declined precipitously since the mid-1900s, while their average age has steadily increased. Small businesses have been bought up by large corporations across the farming industry, consolidating the number of operating ranches.

This means that the number of tried and true “cowboys,” – those who make a living off livestock and the land – has also declined.

But based on the thousands of people that visit Elko every January, it doesn’t seem like the interest in cowboy culture is going away anytime soon.

“I don’t really buy into all of the ‘cowboy is a dying breed’ and the ‘West is dead’ stuff,” Windbigler said. “You know, things change, but people are still out there living lives connected to agriculture.”

Her ultimate goal is to honor those lives and hopes her work can encourage younger generations to follow suit.

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is meant to do just that, and despite the hiccups of depreciating assets or a pandemic, Windbigler said the Western Follklife Center has no plans to stop hosting an event that many attendees return to year after year.

“The pandemic killed off a lot of arts and culture organizations like us, and we consider it a small miracle that we survived,” Windbigler said.

Yet, despite the challenges, arts and culture focused on rural life will always have a home in Elko, if Windbigler has anything to do with it.

“We live to fight another day.”

Judge rules federal job cuts ‘unlawful’

A U.S. District Court judge ruled Thursday that federal agencies illegally fired tens of thousands of employees over President’s Day weekend.

At the end of a March 13 hearing of American Federal of Government Employees v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management (AFGE v. OPM), Judge William Alsup placed a preliminary injunction on federal agencies, ordering them to immediately reinstate the employees that were fired per an OPM directive from President Donald Trump in February. The defendants swiftly filed an appeal, but unless another judge intervenes, Alsup’s ruling stands as the default.

The basis of his ruling, Alsup declared in scathing language, was that the government deliberately went after the workers with the least amount of appeal power, making them the easy targets of an unfair and arbitrary government slash.

“I got goosebumps,” said Don Neubacher after the judge issued his decision. He’s a former superintendent of Yosemite National Park and a board member of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, one of the plaintiffs in the case. “We’re very happy with the ruling. We’re going to celebrate it.”

Alsup’s order rang like a takedown of the federal government. It came from his review of the evidence: On Jan. 20, the OPM instructed federal agencies to compile a list of all their workers who had been hired within the past two years or had recently received a promotion, officially called probationary workers. Then, on Feb. 13 and over President’s Day weekend, the OPM ordered agencies to fire that group. In a template email, the OPM cited the employees’ poor work performance, even though many of the workers had earned stellar performance reviews.

Labor unions, including the AFGE, quickly challenged the OPM. At the first hearing of AFGE v. OPM on Feb. 27, Alsup granted a temporary restraining order and said the federal government’s efforts to expunge its employees were “unlawful, invalid, and must be stopped and rescinded.”

Elizabeth Turner-Nichols, center, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2110, is interviewed outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco in late February, where Judge William Alsup granted labor unions an emergency injunction blocking mass federal firings. Credit: Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

Alsup used nearly the same language Thursday morning. Ahead of the hearing, the plaintiffs had sought an injunction against an expanded list of defendants that included all 23 federal agencies that dismissed probationary staff. Alsup applied his ruling to the departments of Veteran Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Interior and the Treasury, where the record of the unlawful OPM action “was the strongest,” he said. But he invited the plaintiffs to submit briefs making the case for tacking on other agencies.

“It’s a very conservative ruling, and a very strongly worded ruling by the judge,” said Peter Jenkins, a senior counsel for the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility who wasn’t involved in the case. “It was a great ruling.”

The lawsuit is arguably the most successful one so far among the suits that labor unions, nonprofits and states have hurled at the OPM. In one lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia, a judge decreed that fired workers should direct their complaints to internal labor committees, such as the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), rather than resolve their grievances in court. In a legal challenge against another OPM initiative, a program that incentivized resignations, a Massachusetts judge ruled against the unions that brought the suit, declaring that they were not directly impacted by the OPM actions and thus did not have standing.

During the Thursday hearing, the federal government’s lawyers repeated their arguments, insisting that the plaintiffs’ case lacked standing. As part of its defense, the OPM also asserted that the agencies’ leadership had called the shots rather than simply obeying the OPM’s orders to lay off their probationary employees. The OPM revised its initial memo after Alsup’s restraining order, adding a disclaimer that OPM was “not directing agencies” to terminate employees. But during the second hearing, Alsup rejected the defendant’s claim. “It’s illustrative of the manipulation by the OPM to orchestrate this government lie,” he said.

At first, Alsup concurred with the rulings in previous lawsuits that he lacked the jurisdiction to hear the unions’ case, because fired workers should seek relief from their oversight boards rather than go through court.

But in the March 13 hearing, new arguments presented by the plaintiffs on how Trump has dismantled those independent groups made him reconsider.

President Trump targeted one Office of Special Counsel leader in particular, Hampton Dellinger, who was planning to restore all terminated probationary workers before he himself was fired, reinstated and then fired again. Trump also attempted to boot one of the chairs of the MSPB but was foiled by a judge. Had he succeeded, it would have left the board bereft of the minimum number of staff to vote on petitions. This erosion of the official channels of appeal made Alsup decide not to rule out litigation.

Alsup called the top-down firings a “watchdog cannibalization” during the hearing. “I have a feeling that’s where we’re headed now, that there’s no relief” for fired employees, he said.

“It is a sad, sad day, when our government would fire some good employees and say that it was based on performance. Well, that’s a lie.”

In addition, the plaintiffs in AFGE v. OPM include organizations other than unions, such as the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Western Watersheds and the state of Washington, to name a few. Since the first hearing, Alsup has concurred with those organizations that they have suffered concrete injury from the sweeping dismissals, to the point where they could no longer carry out their organizations’ missions.

The vast public outcry against the federal firings has already sparked some reversals. The National Park Service, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have rehired some of their terminated staff members. Three weeks after the Department of Agriculture dismissed nearly 6,000 probationary workers — including some 3,400 Forest Service employees, per AFGE’s recent legal filings — the MSPB issued an order to reinstate all terminated staff members for 45 days following Alsup’s Feb. 28 memorandum opinion. But as of March 13, many fired workers were still awaiting word from their supervisors about their employment.

Meanwhile, the MSPB is wading through the thousands of new complaints that have been filed each week — as much as a 21-fold jump since Trump took office — from federal workers who believe they were terminated unjustly.

Even after Alsup’s ruling, the judicial jousting between Trump’s government and federal workers continues. Following the government’s notice to appeal the federal court order, the case will now go to the 9th Circuit Appellate Court for further adjudication. “The bottom line is, there’s a lot of litigating still to be done here,” said Dave Owen, a law professor at the University of California Law San Francisco.

AS A CHILD, Riley Rackliffe dressed as a park ranger for Halloween. He carried his interest in the National Park Service into adulthood, giving up a university teaching position to become an aquatic biologist at Nevada’s Lake Mead National Recreation Area last year. Now, Rackliffe is on the job market once more, his dream job snatched away even before the afterglow of landing it wore off.

Rackliffe is one of the thousand National Park Service workers in the OPM’s crosshairs. But since the court rulings, he and his supervisor are still in the dark about whether Lake Mead’s sole aquatic biologist can get back to doing the work he loved.

A Protect Our Parks rally at Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nevada, March 1 in support of fired National Park Service employees. Credit: Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP

“I am definitely still holding onto hope,” he said. But he can’t afford to wait, he said: “I’ve got a mortgage and two kids and bills to pay, so hope isn’t a good financial strategy.” As he hunts for a new job, he’s not banking on landing another aquatic ecologist position in a state that receives only 4 inches of rain annually. “I got fired from the one lake in town,” he said.

More than just individuals’ lives and livelihoods turned upside down, a severely culled staff — not to mention a demoralized one — will challenge the ability of federal agencies to provide the crucial public services they are mandated to perform. In the case of the departments of Interior and Agriculture, the mass firings threaten the management of public lands, both now and in the future. Experts already predict a chaotic recreational season ahead, filled with unkempt campgrounds, heightened wildfire risk and unsafe trail conditions.

“Visitations are going up, but staffing and budgets are going down,” Neubacher said. “At some point something has to give, and we’re pretty close to that.”

Even if agencies comply immediately with the March 13 ruling, that might not be enough to prevent looming damage to public lands and more. Alsup acknowledged that the government could still legally pursue other mechanisms to pare back the workforce, to similar effect. For example, it could undertake a reduction in force, an official process to reorganize and reduce the number of federal employees. In fact, the Trump administration has already repeatedly promised to do so. March 13 is also the deadline that Trump set for agencies to submit plans for drastic downsizing, with another round to come in April.

Still, the Trump administration may not need to win in court to get its way. Legal experts suspect that it’s gambling on stirring up so much uncertainty that federal employees will simply choose to leave. Even if Rackliffe is reinstated, he said, the prospect of future cuts and the turbulent political climate might not make it worth returning.

And while Alsup’s latest court order halts what he concluded to be a hasty reduction in force in disguise, and an illegal one at that, there may be little to celebrate in the long run. “It is a sad, sad day, when our government would fire some good employees and say that it was based on performance. Well, that’s a lie,” Alsup said. “That should not have been done in our country.”

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A $250M investment will help this lithium mine get up and running. That’s bad news for these tribes.

A Canadian mining company behind a massive new lithium mine in northern Nevada has received a $250 million investment to complete construction of the new mine — a project that aims to accelerate America’s shift from fossil fuel-powered cars but that has come under fierce criticism from neighboring tribal nations and watchdog groups for its proximity to a burial site.

Lithium Americas is developing the mine in an area known as Thacker Pass where it plans to unearth lithium carbonate that can be used to make batteries for electric vehicles. The area, known as Peehee Mu’huh in the Numu language of the Northern Paiute, is home to what could be the largest supply of lithium in the United States and is also a site that tribal citizens visit every year to honor dozens of Native men, women, and children who fled American soldiers in an 1865 unprovoked attack at dawn.

The funding from Orion Resources Partners LP, a global investment firm specializing in metals and materials, will enable the first phase of construction to be completed by late 2027. The investment firm is also considering giving an additional $500 million to support later phases of the mine’s development.

The critical financial investment comes just weeks after a report from the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch called for a halt to the construction of the mine after concluding its approval violates the rights of Indigenous peoples whose ancestors are buried there.

“Orion’s commitment to this project highlights the strategic importance of Thacker Pass to national security and developing a domestic supply chain as we work to reduce American dependence on foreign suppliers for critical minerals,” said Jonathan Evans, Lithium Americas’ president and chief executive officer, in a press release.

Lithium Americas said that research indicates the actual burial site is located several miles away from the project site, and a federal judge agreed with the company, citing a cultural inventory study that did not uncover any human remains. Gary McKinney disagrees. He is a spokesperson for the group People of Red Mountain and is a descendant of one of the survivors of the September 12, 1865, massacre.

He and many others believe the project area to be a graveyard for his ancestors, in part due to Indigenous oral histories and a 1929 autobiography describing the massacre there.

“What that mine is doing is desecrating,” McKinney said. “They’re erasing parts of the history of the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone people.”

He said the mine was approved during the COVID-19 pandemic when reservations were shut down, Indigenous communities were grappling with high rates of the virus, and few realized the project was moving forward.