Could climate fuel more extremism in the West?
It’s sometimes said that worsening wildfires, droughts and farming conditions — products of climate change — will lead to more conflicts and extremism, including in the West. Imagine a repeat of lawless mobs confronting and terrorizing federal land managers, as occurred at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 and could happen again amid the Klamath Basin water crisis, as The Times’ Anita Chabria has reported from the California-Oregon border.
Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell doesn’t succumb to that gloomy theory. She sees opportunities for Westerners to overcome political differences and find common ground on their shared love for the land.
“Whether you are a farright extremist or someone on the far left, nobody wants to see the habitat burn,” Jewell said in a recent interview with Chabria.
Jewell served as President Obama’s Interior secretary for nearly four years, from early 2013 to 2017. Before that, she served in top executive positions at REI, helping build the outdoor industry into a lobbying force to protect public lands — a counterpoint to “Sagebrush
Rebellion” adherents who want states to take control of federal properties.
Less known is Jewell’s career path before she became the face of REI. Graduating with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Washington in 1978, she took a job with Mobil, moved to Oklahoma with her husband and worked there in the company’s oil and gas fields. She then spent nearly 20 years in the banking industry, during which she joined the REI board in 1996.
The job of Interior secretary is often described as being the nation’s largest landlord, overseeing roughly 500 million acres. In that role, Jewell made a priority of expanding youth access to national parks and other open spaces. She also approved the first phase of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a contentious effort to balance desert conservation with the need to set aside vast expanse for clean energy projects, which Times reporter Sammy Roth has written about extensively.
Jewell’s background in industry gives her an empathy for people who work the land, and as Interior secretary, she was careful not to amp up the conflict between her department and rural Westerners. When followers of Ammon Bundy stormed the Malheur refuge and occupied it, carrying highpowered weapons, Jewell came under criticism from the left for not quickly denouncing the armed action.
“Jewell ought to be the first person to stand up for these treasures when they come under attack. Instead, we got complete silence,” Matt Jenkins wrote in High Country News.
In her interview with The Times, Jewell made clear she saw Bundy and his hardcore followers as “domestic terrorists.” But she also argued that their clout is waning as people view them as interlopers, trying to exploit federal policies for their own political gain. That’s a viewpoint that Chabria captured in her recent story, with The Times’ Hailey BransonPotts, about Klamath farmers trying to find compromise in the region.
With the federal government coming under scrutiny for its response to this summer’s wildfires and farmers losing water supplies, it’s hard to imagine tensions in the West becoming cooler anytime soon. Still, the former Interior secretary is hopeful. Chabria’s interview with her has been edited for brevity and clarity:
What do you see happening with land-use extremists as conditions on the ground become more intense?
What’s most interesting now is that climate change has the potential to bring people together around a shared concern. Let me give you an example — cheatgrass.
This is a very problematic invasive species, particularly in the Great Basin area, where it increases fire risk but also undermines grazing and undermines the sagebrush sea (the expanse of imperiled sagebrush across 11 Western states). That’s critical habitat for wildlife such as the sage grouse, a threatened species, but also other wildlife that hunters rely upon.
For people who live on these landscapes and make a living from these landscapes, there is more common ground than is maybe popular to discuss.
And yet tensions are building in many places. You had to deal with the Bundys during the standoff at Bunkerville, Nev., in 2014, and then the occupation of Malheur. Do you consider them as dangerous today as you did then?
I don’t think so. I think the Bundys and others got a bit of a scare with the way people showed up [at both Bunkerville and Malheur] with weapons. So it is an open question if they actually want to see that kind of violence, or see it as more of a business opportunity and an opportunity for visibility.
These are people who are exploiting problems, and the trouble with exploiting things is you don’t always remain in control. We saw that on Jan. 6.
You’ve voiced frustration about the unsuccessful prosecutions of the Bundys and other defendants at Bunker ville and Malheur. Can you elaborate?
It does not feel to me like justice was served in either of those. In the case of Malheur, the laws were not very strong. If you have a showdown but someone doesn’t fire their weapon, the courts might see that as criminal trespassing but not conspiracy. So the consequences were not very significant. That is something Congress needs to examine.
Given what happened Jan. 6, why are you so optimistic that there are opportunities for finding common ground?
I am hopeful that federal public servants, and also activist groups on both sides, will take this as an opportunity to come together, on water and other issues. Arguing and fighting over an increasingly scarce resource is not going to serve anyone.
I can’t tell you how many people I met with and worked with on the question of listing the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, which we chose not to do, in part because of the deep collaboration across interests.
I met with a lot of ranchers, who no question leaned much to the right, but they were not activist people. They just wanted to pass on their ranch and their life to their children and grandchildren.
If you recognize that, listen to their concerns, and also listen to those who are managing land and understand the science, you can come to a meeting of the minds.
Can you give an example from your time as Interior secretary?
One of the reasons that the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge did not become more of a crisis was because Chad Karges, the refuge manager, had been working with a county judge in Harney County and ranchers and farmers in something they called the High Desert Partnership. They collaborated on how to actually improve wildlife habitat while improving farming practices.
The Fish and Wildlife Service could help farming by doing things like removing invasive species. And the farmers could help species by using flood irrigation, helping wetland habitat for birds as they flew through.
So you know, there’s been a lot of press and concerns about conflict, but I saw many, many instances where people actually worked together and found points of common interest.
And yet, as secretary, you helped forge a compromise in the Klamath Basin to help resolve conflicts over water and wildlife, and it fell apart, leading to this year’s tensions. How do you feel about the standoff happening again there?
I’m frustrated. That agreement really called on people’s better angels, and the disputes that people are trying to exploit right now call on our dark sides. That is very, very unfortunate.
I am just hopeful that people will recognize that they will live a lot longer if they work together and collaborate than if everybody’s blood pressure goes up.