Joshua Zaffos

There are literally more than 59,000 abandoned mines around the West, and no one who is responsible to clean them up. That’s one sticky element that accounts for the long-standing impasse over reform of the country’s Mining Act of 1872. After decades of contention, mining officials and environmentalists claim the mining law could finally get a makeover.

I wrote an article, “Mining for Reform,” on what Congress is looking at to reform the 1872 law in the Fall 2009 issue of Forest Magazine. The issue brought together several articles looking at the consequences of abandoned mines on Western public lands, under the title of “Hardrock Headache.” (more…)

Five years ago this week, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 150 million people across nearly a dozen countries in southeast Asia. The natural event also displaced millions, leaving them without homes, jobs or schools. Researchers and aid groups that have worked toward recovery understand that rebuilding is only part of the answer, but addressing the social and emotional needs of affected people is a complex mission.

Growing populations and the altering climate and weather patterns are placing more people in risky situations, and making more individuals vulnerable to natural disasters. After attending a talk by Lori Peek, a sociology professor at Colorado State University, about the lag in research on how traumatic events affect families, I started pursuing this story to understand what we know — and what we have dispelled — when it comes to protecting and meeting the long-term needs of disaster victims and refugees.

My article, “After the Aftermath,” appears in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Miller-McCune magazine. (more…)

I spent some time reporting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota this past year, talking with Oglala Lakota tribal members about the complex land ownership patterns and rules on the reservation. Between spotting buffalo hooves on the roofs of homes (to dry them, of course), I saw this great bumper sticker on the side of a conversion van, which has gained a timely double meaning, as government-Indian relations have gone from military to litigious: Custer Was Sioux’d.

Government intervention on reservations across the country dates back more than a century, when policies unwittingly entangled many families’ land ownership so that the default and simplest form of management is through federal leasing programs. The short-sighted decisions of the time contributed to initiation of a landmark class-action lawsuit, Cobell v. Salazar, that accussed the federal government of mismanaging billions of dollars in royalties and other leases. First filed in 1996 and passed on by both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, President Obama and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced a settlement this week. The government has agreed to pay $3.4 billion to Native Americans, although officials don’t know how many individuals qualify for the payout because lease records are in a state of disarray.

On Pine Ridge, some families are trying to sort through their relatives’ fractionated land claims (divided among heirs of the original owner) and remove land from the government program that leases the parcels for cattle grazing. Instead of getting a few hundred dollars to allow a non-Indian to raise cows, these families are returning bison to the land, taking part in a buffalo meat co-operative and, more importantly, reestablishing a major component of their traditional culture.

As part of my reporting, I was fortunate enough to visit with a family raising a small herd of bison and to witness a family ceremony based around a buffalo kill. As part of the prayers of thanks to the animal for giving its life, each member of the family dipped a finger into a cup of blood collected from the dying buffalo’s throat. It didn’t taste much different than a scrape on my knee, although it lingered on my tongue for hours.

My story, “A new land grab,” appeared in the August 31 issue of High Country News, and it was recently liberated from behind the paper’s subscribers-only firewall. I also recorded an audio interview with associate editor Marty Durlin, talking about my reporting experiences. (more…)

Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for reading about.

High Country News has released two books this year that collect some of the publication’s past stories on Western water issues. The volumes complement each other: I think they offer a very readable recent history of the forces — natural, political, industrial — at play in shaping the development and conservation of the Western landscape around the single most valuable resource. Some respected and admired colleagues are among the contributors, including Matt Jenkins, Michelle Nijhuis, Alan Kesselheim, Laura Paskus, Tony Davis, Jane Braxton Little and Becca Clarren. (more…)

“Boy, did your mother do a number on you.”

If you’ve ever heard that, it may be truer than anyone would like to contemplate. A recent study, reported on in The Washington Post by Juliet Eilperin on November 24, links mothers’ exposures to plasticizing chemicals with “less masculine” playtime for their young sons. The chemicals, known as phthalates (pronounced “tha-lates”), are found in just about everything from toys to shampoo to IV bags.

The lead author of the new study, published in the International Journal of Andrology, finds the results stark enough that she advocates for labeling of products containing phthalates; a move that chemical manufacturers and merchandisers are set against. Another study released last week by the Washington Toxics Coalition found that babies typically emerge from the womb having already been exposed to another hormone-disrupting chemical, bisphenol-A, as well as phthalates and mercury.

A year and a half ago, I wrote a feature story, “Our Chemical Romance,” on chemical impacts to human bodies and the environment for the Rocky Mountain Chronicle. The article went on to run in the Colorado Springs Independent (“Chemical Imbalance,” June 12, 2008) and on the indie-media site, AlterNet, where it generated a lot of attention, at least partly, I imagine, because of the editors’ flashy title, “Low Sperm Counts and Deformed Penises: The Chemical Industry Has a Hold on Your Reproductive Future.”

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One of my favorite reporting assignments remains the few days I spent with the Buffalo Field Campaign near West Yellowstone, Montana, in late winter 2005. Perched along Hebgen Lake, the BFC uses direct action and around-the-clock field surveillance to protect Yellowstone-area buffalo and oppose the management policies of the state of Montana, which insists on rounding up animals that leave the park, testing for disease and often killing them.

A few weeks ago, the BFC and other environmental groups sued the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service for failing to protect buffalo outside the park — and allowing the state livestock managers to call the shots.  The case could force the federal agencies to do more to ensure that buffalo are allowed to migrate beyond park boundaries to favored breeding grounds, but one suggested solution has been to send some of the animals to Ted Turner’s Montana ranch, north of the park. I’ve driven around the edges of Turner’s land and it looks like a pretty sweet spread for a buffalo.

My 2005 story, “Buffalo Soldiers,” originally ran in the Bullhorn, and is still available via AlterNet, which published the article online back when.

In the past year, a few colleagues who are now college professors have asked me to speak to seminars they teach on environmental communication and writing. Lecturing to a bunch of 20-year-olds (give or take) is a good way to pretend like I’ve achieved some goals, but so far I have left feeling like I was the keynote speaker at a some sort of “Scared Straight” program.

One of the seminars’ students thoughtfully sent me a thank-you card, and I thought I’d share a few of the comments because that way it’s funny instead of sad. (more…)

Cloud seeding is some sort of great proof in the indomitable human spirit, or at least the bliss of uncertainty and ignorance. Water suppliers, ranching associations, ski resorts, and even Olympic host nations regularly spend millions of dollars sending silver iodide crystals into the sky with the prayers that the practice will increase precipitation. The technology has some theoretical scientific merit, but its effectiveness remains dubious and unclear.

Consider the words of Kay Brothers, the deputy general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, as quoted in an October 16 article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

“It’s hard to quantify if (the snow) would have fallen anyway or not,” Brothers said.

But though cloud seeding “is not an exact science by any means,” it is still a pretty good investment, she said. “It’s very economical to do this.”

Despite the lack of measurable evidence, the water authority recently chose to continue its long-running cloud seeding program, approving the use of about $900,000 over the next three years to try and boost mountain snowpacks. (more…)