Grant Curry indicates the height of the saplings he planted last year along the top of the swale. Most are now close to 6 feet tall. Photo by Sonja Horoshko

A visit to Hannaniah’s Rest Ranch west of Cortez takes visitors on a gravel road to the head of Trail Canyon at the last electrical pole in the line.

Remote, rural, and waterless, the ranch is the site of a huge working permaculture swale, an earthen berm. Ranch owners Grant and Kathy Curry carved the meandering 3,800-foot structure across the sage-covered desert with a bulldozer and lots of sweat last year.

It resonates with the familiarity of a giant childhood sandbox where summer hours are spent in the company of peers drawing “S” shapes with a stick and using plastic shovels to hump up dry sand to hold water poured from a red bucket.

This place conjures that memory and brings it to life in the adult-scale agricultural project the Currys built into their sloping 80 acres. With no water on the land, they have engraved a restoration project supporting their belief that a cluster of perennial and edible crops will someday provide good nutrition for their family and friends.

A swale is basically a hump of earth. Water is absorbed near the base when it collects, for example after a rainfall, delaying runoff just enough to soak the land before it travels on. The delay causes a plume of swelling earth underneath that increases the nutrition and arability of the soil by amplifying access to scant rainfall.

The banks of the 15-to-20-foot-high berm shape and hold the water course in place. Plants growing on the bank seek the moisture, stretching their roots down and increasing in size and strength. The Currys’ swale has become the site of a future forest. They planted 600 trees after the swale was completed last year.

“The saplings were only 2-3 feet tall when we planted them,” Grant Curry said. “We slipped tubes over the trunks to protect them from deer, but also because trees shut down in the wind. They will not grow when the wind is blowing.”

Many of the trees are now 6 feet tall.

According to Curry, the swale project took only three days to complete because they studied the application of permaculture theories to their site carefully. Now, it is possible for them to share their budding success through workshops and events they present at their ranch and through their Permaculture Provision Project organization.

This month they are offering a two-day weekend convergence of sustainable-agriculture information, diverse techniques and inspiration, on May 23 and 24 at their ranch. The speakers include local, regional and well-known practitioners who will expound on eco-technology, harvesting and holistic practices that function in the local rural landscape.

A “gourmet weed” event is a highlight that will be hosted by Katrina Blair of Durango, author of “The Wild Wisdom of Weeds,” a New York Times-reviewed book that focuses on 13 edible weeds that provide a complete food supply and are a source of medicinal components.

Blair will lead participants on a wildweed walk during the day in addition to offering a slide show featuring the wild 13 perennials. They include purslane, thistle, dandelion, amaranth, dock, lambsquarter, and other familiar names. Her catering business, based at Turtle Lake Refuge, is preparing the Saturday night dinner. “We use the weeds in hundreds of recipes, like pestos, pies, deserts and chais. We’ll be using local foods and some seeds, roots and some of the weeds we find.

“If we can open our eyes to see the wisdom found in these weeds right under our noses, instead of trying to eradicate them as invasive, we will achieve true food security.”

Blair told the Free Press she collects seeds and sends them along with the order when people buy the book from her Turtle Lake Refuge website.

Another presenter will be David Temple, owner of Trees of Trail Canyon, a local source of large specimen species.

“Mature 25-to-30-year-old trees are more effective at carbon capture than saplings because they offer more leaves, more surface and shade canopy,” Temple said. “Maintaining the old ones is very important.”

Temple is a Colorado native and one of the nation’s few board-certified master arborists. Silviculture, the focus of his talk at the convergence, is a forester’s term, he explained.

“It’s the study of ecosystems in groups of trees, like a forest rather than individual trees. I am an arboriculturist. I study the individual tree and its health.”

He said 40 percent of the trees in Cortez are mature elms, which are very important to the health of the community.

“Cortez has a unique location in the high desert and could be an oasis if planning was more proactive, more biodiverse,” he said. “The value of trees in an urban environment is much greater because the work they must do is exponentially larger. In an altered landscape where the pollution is greatest, such as a town or city, the contribution of the individual tree is much greater than in a forest.”

Cindy Dvergsten, a certified educator with Holistic Management International, will offer an overview of holistic management, which goes hand in hand with permaculture. “Permaculture provides an innovative set of practices and tools based on ecological principles and holistic management provides a means of making sound decisions about the human, natural and financial resources we manage. People who learn and practice both are far more successful in managing for long-term sustainability.”

Dvergsten focuses on decision-making that is environmentally, socially and economically sound. Much of her work takes place on the Navajo Nation.

“I have worked with Navajo farmers and ranchers, mostly at the grassroots level, introducing holistic management since 1997.” The most extensive project was called Kéyah’ Be’ Iina’ (Land is Life) based in Hard Rock, Ariz., a community on the Navajo-Hopi partitioned lands.

The project was sponsored by Heifer International in cooperation with Holistic Management International and provided training in the Hard Rock area as well as for the Choctaw people in Oklahoma. Dvergsten helped write the handbook, “Sheep and Wool Production on the Navajo Nation.” Through experience she has learned to appreciate the complexities of Diné agriculture and ranching.

“It is very difficult to understand and work through the myriad of barriers imposed on the Navajo people, especially those who raise sheep, who desire to be good stewards of the land. Holistic management makes sense to agro-pastoral people who manage with the ebb and flow of nature. Traditional Navajo sheepherding practices, for example, kept their flocks moving constantly with the seasons from low to high country; seldom staying in any one place long enough to overgraze.”

At that time the land was healthy, and there was a robust economy based on sale and trade between various tribes and with traders, she added.

“This natural way of managing grazing came to an end with the creation of the reservation and the current grazingpermit system, which destroyed traditional land and grazing stewardship, which forced people to stay too long in one place promoting overgrazing, continuous de-stocking of Navajo lands and over-resting, which is equally damaging.”

Dvergsten owns Arriola Sunshine Farm Navajo Churro Sheep with her husband, Mike Rich. They are well-known for their flock of pure churro sheep.

The Currys have assembled more than 27 experts on sustainable community and agricultural practices, a network of projects, classes and events. Also:

• Joel Glansburg is slated to speak on “The Permaculture Mind…The Pattern of Regeneration.”
• Roxanne Swentzell will present “The Food Experience.”
• Jude Schuenemeyer will update the gathering on the local Apple Restoration Project.
• Neil Bertrando will tackle “Largescale Land Restoration.”

Many more topics and experts are scheduled. The convergence will also provide a taste of exotic food at the dinner Saturday night. For tickets and information go to www.permacultureprovisionproject. org

Motorists in an ATV protest ride in May 2014. Photo by Shannon Livick

SALT LAKE CITY – San Juan County, Utah, Commissioner Phil Lyman and a local blogger, Monte Wells, were found guilty May 1 of two federal charges in connection with an ATV protest ride a year ago near Blanding.

Two other men who had been charged, Trent Holliday and Shane Marian, were found not guilty.

The ride drew hundreds of people to a warm, dusty trail a few miles from Blanding on the morning of May 10, 2014. The route cuts through a portion of Recapture Canyon that has been closed by the Bureau of Land Management since 2007 under a temporary order designed to protect archaeological resources.

The verdict was hailed by some, criticized by others.

“I was pleased to see the guilty verdict for Commissioner Lyman and Monte Wells,” said Rose Chilcoat, associate director with Great Old Broads for Wilderness, an environmental group that has been involved in issues in San Juan County.

“Those were intentional and willful acts that just can’t be tolerated in a civil society where you have to have some constraints and it can’t be a free-for-all of everybody doing what they want. It is refreshing to see the federal government pursue cases where people have been flouting federal law, especially as it relates to public lands.”

Bob Turri of SPEAR (San Juan Public Entry and Access Rights), a grassroots group advocating for motorized use, had another take.

“I don’t feel good about the verdict,” he told the Free Press. “I feel those guys are being railroaded. They did some things that were probably wrong, but I don’t think the federal government is really upfront. Out of all the people who violated the rules that day, why were these four selected?”

Turri said he did not join in the protest ride, but watched it. “I told Phil Lyman I didn’t think it was probably a good thing to do, there was a better way to do this, there was all the ammunition in the world for a lawsuit against the federal government. He did what he believed was right, but that’s why I didn’t ride it, but the violation itself was not that serious.”

The 12-member jury deliberated seven hours, following two and a half days of testimony and arguments by attorneys for the U.S. government and the four defendants, who were tried simultaneously.

“On May 10, 2014, each of these four defendants crossed the line,” said assistant U.S. attorney Lake Dishman in opening arguments. “They willingly and willfully drove an ATV through an area they knew was closed to off-road vehicles.”

All four, he said, were members of a conspiracy. “They conspired or agreed with each other to break the law.” It was not a conspiracy “shrouded in secrecy,” he said, but an open one where they invited others to join them.

But Jered Stubbs, Lyman’s attorney, countered that locals were frustrated because “year after year the BLM did not lift the temporary closure,” so finally Lyman “decided to lead a lawful political protest.”

“Phil and others believed they had a right to be in that canyon,” Stubbs said.

Jason Moore, the state chief ranger for the BLM in Utah, testified that there is a multitude of archaeological sites in the canyon, including cliff dwellings, potsherds, fire hearths, midden piles, burial cysts, storage cysts, and rock walls.

He said on May 9, the day before the ride, he and other BLM officers set up four motion-activated trail cameras in the canyon and checked to make sure the closure signs were standing. On May 10 he hiked into the canyon about 6 a.m. but left about 11 a.m. at the request of San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge.

The BLM and sheriff ’s office had agreed the sheriff would provide protection for BLM rangers so long as they agreed to follow his instructions. “At 11 o’clock he asked us to leave the canyon so we did,” Moore said.

The ride followed a rally in Blanding earlier in the day drew a large crowd of media, local citizens, and people from outside the area, including supporters of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who had clashed with BLM officials a month earlier for refusing to pony up grazing fees. Lyman has told the Free Press there were undercover instigators rabble-rousing at the ride. (See sidebar, Page 5.)

Chilcoat told the Free Press that Great Old Broads pulled back from initial plans to walk the trail during the protest. “Our organization and members had received death threats,” she said. “We ended up modifying our plans and just deciding to witness. Then, because of militia in town brandishing weapons, death threats, etc., we eventually were compelled by friends and others not even to go in San Juan County that day.”

The quiet, briskly air-conditioned courtroom in Salt Lake was a sharp contrast to the sunny trail rumbling with ATVs a year earlier.

Josh Ewing, director of Friends of Cedar Mesa, a nonprofit in San Juan County, testified the protest ride was the talk of the county for weeks.

“If you lived in San Juan County and hadn’t heard about this ride there was something wrong with you,” he said, to laughter.

Ewing said he served with Lyman on a citizens’ group that advises the county commissioners on public-lands issues. “Commissioner Lyman is one of the hardest-working, most responsible and knowledgeable public officials I’ve ever encountered,” Ewing said. “We don’t agree on public-lands issues entirely” but Lyman is willing to listen, he said.

“I certainly wouldn’t be here today if I wasn’t compelled to be.”

Friends of Cedar Mesa was not directly involved in the Recapture controversy, he said, and Ewing hadn’t planned to attend the ride.

“But I found out the other conservation groups weren’t going to be there, primarily out of concerns for safety of their volunteers,” he said. “I decided I couldn’t leave it to BLM or others” to document the event, so he decided to film it himself, hiking into the canyon to a point on the closed section “where I felt if people drove past there, they would do damage” to the natural or cultural resources.

Clips from Ewing’s footage were shown in court and included shots of ATVs, one driven by Wells, trundling down the road past Ewing. Lyman was in some footage as well.

Juan Palma, state director for the BLM in Utah from 2010 through 2014, when he retired, testified that no rightof- way had been granted to the county as of May 10, 2014. He also testified that he, Lyman and Wells had had lunch once prior to the planned ride and spoke about it, and that he and Lyman discussed the ride in emails and phone conversations. In one email, Lyman wrote Palma that “my hope indeed my prayer is that the BLM will. . .make this a legal rather than illegal movement.”

In another email, Lyman wrote that “San Juan County plans to withdraw our silly Title V right-of-way application,” but Palma said the other two county commissioners did not agree with that and the application was not withdrawn. San Juan County did not give approval for the protest ride and did not officially participate.

Meanwhile, BLM officials were urging Lyman not to hold the ride. Lance Porter, then BLM district manager for Utah’s Canyon Country District, wrote Lyman, “I strongly urge you to cancel the proposed ride” and added that “BLM will seek all appropriate civil and criminal penalties.”

Palma said the environmental assessment regarding the county’s right-of-way application was initially delayed because of litigation concerning two local men who illegally improved a road through the remainder of the canyon. Then reviews of impacts to wildlife, water, soil, and archaeology had to be conducted. Palma also said the county “kept changing the application,” causing delays.

“Throughout this whole thing Mr. Lyman and I had conversations about how close we were to completing our environmental work to complete this right-of- way,” Palma said, adding, “We were so close to the end.”

The defense brought up a May 1, 2014, phone conversation between Lyman and Palma, apparently recorded by Lyman, in which Palma, referring to the ride, said, “Nobody is going to get arrested and nobody is going to do all that kind of stuff.” Defense attorneys said that could be construed as giving permission for the ride.

Palma testified that the context of his remark was “given what occurred in other parts of the West, we [the BLM] were not going to have all kinds of law enforcement there to arrest people.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Bennett asked him, “Did BLM arrest somebody on May 10 in Recapture Canyon?”

“No,” Palma said, he’d just told his officers to observe and to photograph any damage done to archaeological sites.

Later, Porter testified that he had hand-delivered a letter to Lyman on April 28, 2014, asking him to cancel the ride.

BLM special agent Brian Loftin testified that he’d done an Internet investigation and found numerous instances in which Lyman discussed the planned ride on his Facebook page, even complaining that when the Deseret News published an opinion piece by him, the paper removed his invitation to people to join the ride.

Wells had also publicized the ride on his website, Petroglyph.com.

Holliday and Lyman had liked and shared some posts between them on Facebook. Marian’s name was not found in the Internet investigation, Loftin said.

The defense hung its hopes on the stalwart shoulders of Ferd Johnson, a seemingly ageless Blanding man who after working for the Utah Department of Transportation for 31 years then served 11 years on the board of the San Juan Water Conservancy District, then became its water master, a position he still holds.

He testified that he regularly rides the Recapture road from the district’s pumphouse at the north end to a turnaround point beyond which the route becomes a foot path. The road, he said, sits on top of the pipeline and the district has a right-of-way from the BLM that extends 25 feet from each side of the pipe.

The northernmost part of the route is open to motorized travel. Then there is a BLM closure, but the road is still pass able and the water district has a right-of- way continuing to the turn-around point, where the pipeline goes up a hill.

Johnson said Lyman had approached him prior to the ride and asked if it would be all right if the riders drove on the closed “pipeline trail” to the turnaround, and Johnson said yes.

A gate at the north end is “usually locked to keep cows out,” Johnson said, so on the Monday before the Saturday ride he made sure it was open.

“They had permission,” he stated.

However, a stipulation agreed to by both sides, and read to the jury, stated that the water district “held a limited right-of-way in a portion of Recapture Canyon [that] flowed from a grant from the BLM in 1986 for the purpose of operating and maintaining a pipeline.”

The prosecution pointed out that the protesters were not doing any maintenance.

Referring to a video clip of riders milling about in the closed area, attorney Bennett asked Johnson, “Do you see anybody digging? Do you see them looking at the pipeline?”

“They probably didn’t know they was on top of it,” Johnson replied.

Bennett then referred to Lyman, who was in the video. “Is he digging?” he asked.

“Why would he be digging?” Johnson asked, prompting laughter.

Although Lyman was careful not to drive onto the footpath part of the route, others did.

The jury apparently did not believe Johnson’s permission was sufficient to override the BLM closure, finding Wells and Lyman guilty on both charges. It acquitted the other two men despite the fact that photographs placed them on the closed pipeline road as well.

The charges of conspiracy and driving on public lands closed to motorized vehicles, both misdemeanors, carry penalties of up to one year in jail and $100,000 in fines. Lyman and Wells are to be sentenced July 15.

The Four Corners Free Press received nine awards, six of them first-place, in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Top of the Rockies regional competition for work done in 2014. The awards were announced May 15 in Denver.

The winners were as follows.

First place:

▪ Headline-writing, Gail Binkly and Rhonda Binkly. The judge’s comment was: “Interesting headlines with catchy phrasing that will make readers want to read the stories.”

▪ Editorials, Gail Binkly and David Long. Three editorials about a controversy involving the Cortez Sanitation District, the Dolores River Valley Plan, and the need for political candidates to speak the truth.

▪ General reporting, series or package – Gail Binkly and David Long, “Strained relations,” a two-part series about carbon-dioxide company Kinder Morgan’s relationship with Montezuma County. “This series is a nice illustration of an obviously tense to the point of ugliness relationship between a county and a company giant that has a variety of implications for all residents and players involved.”

▪ Legal general reporting, Sonja Horoshko, “Racial-discrimination lawsuit still pending,” about a lawsuit involving voting districts in San Juan County, Utah. “Good reporting on a tough issue.”

▪ Arts and entertainment single story, Sonja Horoshko, “Artistic uprising,” about a new Indian Market that arose in Santa Fe, N.M., out of dissatisfaction with the traditional market. “Fascinating look at the inner workings of the Indian Art Market and the changes the artists face during a tough transition. Really clear writing and pace.”

▪ Agriculture reporting, enterprise, Paul Ferrell, “For hemp advocates, green could mean gold.” “An interesting look at the history, uses and issues with the hemp industry along the Western Slope in Colorado. Well researched and an interesting read.”

Second place:

▪ News reporting, single story – Gail Binkly, “Debate still raging over Dolores River Valley Plan.” “The reporter takes the reader into a community to show conflicts that can stymie progress that some seek for their future and the environment.”

Third:

▪ Arts and entertainment single story, Janneli F. Miller, “Shall we dance?” “Fun story.”

▪ Business general reporting, Paul Ferrell. “Red Arrow Mine owner says he’s done no wrong.”

The annual competition includes media outlets from four states: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The Free Press competes in the under-10,000 circulation category. Other newspapers competing in that category included the Colorado Springs Business Journal, Southern Utah Drum, Albuquerque Business, Evergreen Newspapers, Biz West, New Mexico Street Press, Xconomy, and New Mexico In Depth.