2025 Sep/Oct Mazama Bulletin

INSIDE:

■ “Enchantments Emergency” - Alpine wilderness pays the price for agency neglect

■ “Luke Espinoza’s Story” - One firefighter’s mission to save irreplaceable ecosystems

■ “Oregon’s Wolf Recovery” - 25 years of conservation wins and setbacks

MAZAMA BASE CAMP FALL 2025 PROGRAM

Base Camp evening programs are back! After a very successful second season in 2024, we’re very excited to bring back another season of events at the MMC for both the Mazamas and members of our community. In the spirit of community, Base Camp events are free of charge and open to all. A donation box will be available to support speaker travel. All Base Camp events are on Wednesdays from 6:30–8:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise.

OCTOBER 10: DENALI’S SOUTH BUTTRESS

Retired 40-year Denali Ranger Roger Robinson will compare the tragic 1954 first ascent of Denali’s South Buttress—where leader Elton Thayer died, prompting the mountain’s first helicopter rescue—with his own 1975 climb of the same route with OSU students. Robinson developed the Clean Mountain Can waste system and is featured in the 2017 book “Denali Ranger” by Lew Freedman.

OCTOBER 22: NO MAN’S LAND FILM FESTIVAL

No Man’s Land is an all-women + genderqueer adventure film festival celebrating non-male athletes in climbing and outdoor sports, hosted by She, They, Us—an inclusive Mazamas community for women, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming climbers. The evening features short films, runs 7–9 p.m. with intermission, and tickets are $20.

NOVEMBER 11: TRACKING OREGON’S GLACIER CHANGES

Anders Carlson and Megan Thayne will discuss Oregon’s rapidly retreating Cascade glaciers and introduce a new mobile app for citizen scientists to track glacier changes through repeat photography. Carlson founded the Oregon Glaciers Institute with 20+ years of cryosphere research experience, while Thayne leads the institute’s digital mapping and education programs.

NOVEMBER 19: THE EMBODIED INTELLIGENCE METHOD

Valerie Brown is founder of the “Embodied Intelligence Method™” who helps outdoor athletes move smarter and recover faster. This presentation covers recognizing early overtraining signs, nervous system recovery techniques, movement strategies for joint protection, and breathwork for managing stress to improve long-term performance and prevent injury.

DECEMBER 3: SISKIYOU MOUNTAIN FILM TOUR

The Siskiyou Mountain Film Tour features three new short documentaries about public lands across southwest Oregon and northwest California. Siskiyou Mountain Club is a nonprofit managing 400+ miles of trails in the region, using volunteers and staff who backpack to remote sites for trail maintenance, often in post-fire environments, plus fire lookout rebuilds and campground maintenance.

MAZAMA BULLETIN

Volume 107 Number 5

September/October 2025

IN THIS ISSUE CONTENTS

FEATURES

Bears Ears National Monument: A Mazama Outing Through Time, p. 14

Forest Service, In Crisis, Elevates Logging as its Sole Priority, p. 18

The Enchantments Emergency: A Case Study in Forest Service Collapse, p. 20

Taking on the Heat: The Story of Luke Espinoza, p. 22

Understanding Oregon’s Climate Future: An Expert Perspective from Dr. Paul Loikith, p. 24

Oregon’s Rainforest Reserve: A Story of Successful Community Conservation, p. 26

Twenty-five Years of Wolves in Oregon, p. 28

Why is Habitat Important? The Fight to Keep Protection in the Endangered Species Act, p. 32

Conservation Land Trusts: Building Bridges Between Communities and Conservation, p. 34

GlacierTracker: Turning Summit Snapshots into Citizen Science, p. 36

Finding Your Self to Find Your Way, p. 39

Five Years Carbon Neutral: MMC’s Solar Success Story, p. 40

Eight Books That Built Modern Mountaineering, p. 42

COLUMNS

Mazama Base Camp Fall 2025 Program, p. 2

Executive Director’s Message, p. 4

Board of Director’s Message, p. 5

Upcoming Courses, Activities & Events, p. 8

Mazama Supporters, p. 10

Successful Climbers, p. 12

New Members, p. 13

Advanced Rock Wraps Up, p. 13

Critical INcident Stress Management Survey, p. 13

Looking Back, p. 16

Letter from the Editors, p. 17

Mazama Library, p. 46

Board of Directors Minutes, p. 47

Cover: Triptych of Creative Commons images.

Art work: Mathew Brock.

Above: A view of the Rainforest Reserve— which includes Onion Peak and parts of the Angora Peak Complex—from Ecola Point.

Photo: Justin Bailie.

“The multiple use mandate is being tossed aside like an empty bag of Cheetos by a careless hiker.” p. 18

“Climate change is contributing to a dramatic loss of our extreme cold, not an increase.” p. 24

Instead of thinking ‘this is a nice place to hike,’ I’d like to see more people think ‘this is an animal’s home.’” p. 28

Sometimes going out into nature is like visiting a sick friend; when we do that, we always feel better.” p. 39

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

by Jill Orr, Interim Mazama Executive Director

It’s a privilege to introduce myself as your Interim Executive Director. I joined the Mazamas in early August during a time of significant leadership transition, and I’m honored to help guide this remarkable organization through its next chapter. I also want to acknowledge and thank former Executive Director Rebekah Phillips for her leadership and for graciously meeting with me before her last day. While transitions can bring uncertainty, my promise to you is that I will care for the Mazamas and its people with the same dedication and respect for our mission that she did.

Since many of you may not know me yet, I thought I’d share a little about myself. I grew up in Iowa, where my love for the outdoors began long before I knew the word “conservation.” My childhood was filled with exploring trails in Hartman Reserve, riding bikes until dark, and catching lightning bugs (aka fireflies). As a Camp Fire Girl, I spent summer weeks at camp learning outdoor skills, paddling canoes (which became a favorite pastime with my father), and enjoying that mix of independence and belonging that comes from time in nature—long before the distractions of cell phones and social media. Those early experiences planted the seed for a lifelong love of nature and, eventually, my call to the West.

For more than two decades, I’ve worked with nonprofits in California, Colorado, and Oregon—helping them navigate change, foster inclusion, and deliver lasting impact. Here in Oregon, I’ve guided organizations through leadership transitions in fields ranging from food security and housing to foster care and youth arts programs. Before that, my work in museum education connected people of all ages with culture, creativity, and lifelong learning.

When I’m not working, you’ll most likely find me outdoors. I’m a lifelong athlete—cycling, running, swimming, hiking, and, more recently, backpacking in the Rockies thanks to my partner, Stan. In recent years, I’ve ventured into triathlons, earning my first 70.3 Ironman finish. The mountains, trails, and beauty of the Pacific Northwest are a big reason I chose to make Portland home with Stan, who teaches at Portland State University.

In the weeks and months ahead, my priorities as your interim ED will be:

■ Listening and learning – connecting with the board, staff, members, and volunteers to understand what’s working well, where there are challenges, and what matters most— while recognizing I won’t be able to meet with everyone individually.

■ Supporting our incredible staff –overseeing day-to-day operations, helping ensure programs, events, and our fundraising plan activities continue running smoothly during this transition.

■ Strengthening communication and alignment – working with board leadership to clarify roles between the board, staff, and volunteers, improve communication where possible, and maintain relationships with land managers.

■ Laying the groundwork for the future – assisting the board as needed and helping position the Mazamas for success with its next Executive Director, including onboarding support once that person is in place.

This issue of the Bulletin is devoted to conservation—a theme deeply aligned with our mission and personal to me. Every trail I’ve hiked, every mountain I’ve climbed (I can claim one 14er!), every alpine lake I’ve admired has been shaped by the choices of those who came before. We are the stewards for those who will come after. Whether it’s advocating for policy change, joining restoration projects, modeling Leave No Trace ethics, or making a financial contribution, each of us can help protect the places we love.

The outdoors doesn’t take care of itself—we have a part to play in keeping it healthy and worth coming back to. Sharon

The outdoors doesn’t take care of itself—we have a part to play in keeping it healthy and worth coming back to.

Selvaggio’s piece on the U.S. Forest Service urges us to watch policy shifts that could reshape our public lands. Suzanne Cable’s case study on the Enchantments shows the consequences when stewardship capacity is lost.

Other articles offer hope: Oregon’s Rainforest Reserve shows how communities can protect critical ecosystems; the GlacierTracker project invites us to turn summit photos into valuable data; and Jeff Hawkins’ look at five years of carbon neutrality at the Mazama Mountaineering Center proves conservation can be part of our daily operations.

As we navigate this transition together, I welcome hearing your ideas, concerns, and hopes for the Mazamas. I value your input and will be listening through the many conversations, events, and gatherings we share. This organization’s strength has always come from people like you—passionate, committed, and eager to both enjoy and protect our natural surroundings.

Thank you for welcoming me into this extraordinary community. I look forward to crossing paths with many of you—whether at the Center, on the trail, or in the pages of the next Bulletin.

BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

From Trail to Summit: Protecting What We Love

by the Mazama Board of Directors

From our first steps on a forest trail, whether it’s the outset of a hike, the beginning of a trail maintenance project, or the pursuit of a summit, the Mazamas have always been guided by a simple truth: what we love, we protect. For more than 130 years, we have spoken up for the mountains and wild places that inspire us, and we have cared for them through hands-on stewardship. Our mission is guided by these values and our work is more important now than ever.

As we know, the natural environments we cherish face growing threats. Federal agencies charged with the oversight of public lands have seen resources cut, longstanding environmental safeguards have been rolled back, and designations that protect these lands are in danger. These changes affect the landscapes we enjoy, as well as the communities and ecosystems that depend on them.

The mountains are more than the rocky, snowy peaks we might see on the horizon.

For us, mountain environments are central to our community. Our advocacy and stewardship efforts, whether influencing policy, collaborating with conservation partners, or restoring damaged trails, are how we return a dividend to these places that give us so much.

Healthy ecosystems depend on diversity and balance, and so does a healthy Mazama organization. We must seek ways to diversify our revenue, create more ways for members to connect meaningfully, and ensure that volunteer roles remain rewarding. By aligning our internal health with the sustainable world we work to protect, we can strengthen our ability to advocate for and steward the mountains.

We invite every Mazama to join in this effort. Lend a hand on a stewardship project. Add your voice to an advocacy campaign. Join a climb, attend a program, or bring a friend into the community. Your energy, ideas, and commitment make us stronger.

While we continue this work, the Mazamas is navigating a critical transition with our organizational leadership. As of this writing, the Board of Directors is seeking a new Executive Director to engage our members, volunteers, staff, and outside partners to continue our journey into a sustainable and vibrant future. The 2025–2027 Route Ahead strategic plan continues

From trail to summit, the journey of the Mazamas has always been about more than reaching the top. It’s about protecting what we love, for today and for generations to come.

to serve as our compass, focusing us on the priorities that create a more substantial and more impactful future. To perform this search, a board and member-based hiring committee has been formed and is actively reviewing and interviewing candidates.

If you have comments or questions during our time of change, or have input or suggestions on how the organization could be more involved in advocacy and stewardship efforts, let us know at transition@mazamas.org. Your perspective matters.

From trail to summit, the journey f the Mazamas has always been about more than reaching the top. It’s about protecting what we love, for today and for generations to come. Together, we can ensure that the mountains, and the Mazamas, endure.

Above: Mazama work party on the Mazama Trail, July 10, 2025.

Photo: Nimesh Patel.

Peaks and perspectives

Spring Participant Survey

Thanks to the 686 current members and 138 nonmembers who shared invaluable insights into the Mazama experience. In addition to updated demographic data, the survey illuminated trends around why people join (or leave), what they value, and where they see room for growth. Here are a few early highlights:

Why people join (and why some leave)

The Mazamas empowers people to lead fuller outdoor lives—on their own, with friends, and within the organization. Most members join to learn new skills and find community. However, some members and nonmembers noted:

• Difficulty connecting or integrating

• Concerns about fairness and access to activities

• Lack of options for those with limited time or shifting interests

Nonmembers cite time, cost, and accessibility— not lack of interest—as barriers. Lapsed members primarily pointed to limited access and expressed lower regard for the organization overall.

The personal impact

Over 70% of members reported gains in physical and mental health, social connection, and appreciation for nature. More than 80% of volunteers and members under 30 also cited personal development and a stronger sense of belonging.

Opportunities by age group

Under 30s are enthusiastic, especially missionaligned, and eager for more field sessions and flexible learning formats. 50+ members want more peer-led activities and online instruction.

Education programs

All segments requested more hands-on learning, shorter courses, and skill-builder sessions. Instructors seek more training and clearer educational standards.

Volunteers

Highly committed, volunteers asked for a centralized system to find roles, track hours, and stay connected.

What members want

Over 200 comments surfaced four key needs:

• Better understanding of participant selection process

• Improved digital tools and infrastructure

• More affordable and accessible gear opportunities

• Stronger onboarding for newcomers

What’s next?

Leadership will explore these findings in more depth through summer focus groups. However, as a community, members are always encouraged to pursue opportunities and ideas— want to help? Get in touch!

2024 Annual Impact Report now available

We’re proud to share the 2024 Annual Impact Report, a comprehensive look at the year’s milestones, member engagement, and organizational growth. From welcoming over 640 new members to offering more than 700 volunteer-led activities, 2024 reflected our community’s deep commitment to adventure, education, and stewardship.

The report celebrates the 1,060+ individuals who advanced their outdoor skills through Mazama education programs, as well as the nearly 500 volunteers who made our programs possible. It highlights progress in inclusivity, conservation, and governance, along with new initiatives. You’ll also find highlights from community partnerships, grantmaking, risk management improvements, and our strategic priorities for 2025–2027.

Visit mazamas.org to read the full report, and learn how your support shaped a year of meaningful impact— and where we’re headed next!

CONTACT US

Mazama Mountaineering Center 527 SE 43rd Ave., Portland, OR, 97215

Phone: 503-227-2345

Email: help@mazamas.org

Hours: Tuesday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Mazama Lodge

30500 West Leg Rd., Government Camp, OR 97028

Hours: Closed

PUBLICATIONS TEAM

Editor: Mathew Brock, Bulletin Editor (mazama.bulletin@mazamas.org)

Members: Darrin Gunkel, chair; Patti Beardsley, David Bumpers, Theo Cantalupo, Aimee Frazie, Brian Hague, Owen Lazur, Ryan Reed, Michele Scherer Barnett, Jen Travers. (publications@mazamas.org)

MAZAMA STAFF

MATHEW BROCK

Director of Special Collections and Media Mazama Bulletin Editor mathew@mazamas.org

RICK CRAYCRAFT Building Manager facilities@mazamas.org

EMILY FASNACHT

Finance & Administration Manager emilyfasnacht@mazamas.org

JILL ORR

LEAVE A LEGACY

for the love of the mountains

Learn more about how you can integrate charitable giving to support the Mazamas.

Whether you’re considering a bequest in your will, setting up a charitable remainder trust, or exploring other options, by including a planned gift in your legacy, you’ll secure our continued success while ensuring that your passion endures for generations to come.

If you’ve already decided to include the Mazamas in your estate plans, we invite you to let us know. You’ll want to be sure that you’ve recorded the Mazamas with the Tax ID (EIN) 93-0408077.

Even ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference.

CONTACT US: Lena Toney, Development Director 971-420-2505 | lenatoney@mazamas.org

Interim Executive Director jillorr@mazamas.org

BRENDAN SCANLAN Operations & IT Manager brendanscanlan@mazamas.org

LENA TONEY Development Director lenatoney@mazamas.org

For additional contact information, including committees and board email addresses, go to mazamas.org/contactinformation.

MAZAMA (USPS 334-780):

Advertising: mazama.bulletin@mazamas.org. Subscription: $15 per year. Bulletin material must be emailed to mazama.bulletin@mazamas.org.

The Mazama Bulletin is currently published bi-monthly by the Mazamas—527 SE 43rd Ave., Portland, OR 97215. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MAZAMAS, 527 SE 43rd Ave., Portland, OR 97215. The Mazamas is a 501(c)(3) Oregon nonprofit corporation organized on the summit of Mt. Hood in 1894. The Mazamas is an equal opportunity provider.

UPCOMING COURSES, ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION EVENT

Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Time: 6–8 p.m.

Location: Nordic Northwest

The Mazamas has hundreds of volunteers, and many have given their time, talent, and expertise for decades. In any given week, they are lecturing, leading climbs, taking people on hikes and rambles, strapping on skis, strategizing about conservation, and more.

The organization could not function without our volunteers, and we can’t wait to honor them. Please mark your calendars and join us for this year’s Volunteer Appreciation Night Wednesday, December 3 at Nordic Northwest in southwest Portland. It’s a night of celebration with great appetizers, drinks, and company. We’ll be unveiling the winners of our prestigious service awards and the newly elected 2026 Board of Directors!

This event is made possible by a generous bequest from Yun Long Ong, whose love for the Mazamas called him to lead climbs on all 16 peaks.

SAVE THE DATE: 2026 NORDIC SKI SCHOOL

Are you ready to glide into winter fun? Mark your calendars for our upcoming Nordic Ski School Info Night on Wednesday, October 29 at 7 p.m.

Join us to discover everything you need to know about our January–February cross-country skiing classes. Whether you’re a beginner eager to learn or looking to enhance your skills, this info session is perfect for you. We’ll cover essential topics like selecting the right class level, understanding equipment needs, and answer all your questions in an interactive Q&A.

Registration opens in late October, so don’t miss this chance to meet fellow skiing enthusiasts and prepare for an amazing winter on the trails. Get ready to embrace the snow and think Nordic!

Watch the weekly eNews and the Mazama calendar for exact dates and registration details.

STOP THE BLEED INSTRUCTORS NEEDED

Have you considered becoming a Stop the Bleed (STB) instructor? The Mazama First Aid Committee is looking to expand our first aid skill-builder mini-course offerings. The Mazamas recently applied to become a national STB education center and are applying for an STB instructional material grant. Having more STB instructors and more classes helps with our application and provides a community benefit. Goto www.bit.ly/MazFASTB and see if you are eligible to become an STB instructor. The list of eligible health care and non-health professionals includes WFR, Ski Patrol, OSHA instructors, lifeguard, dietician, pharmacist, and law enforcement, to name a few. If you check your eligibility and are committed to becoming an STB instructor, send an email to firstaid@mazamas.org. Thank you for considering becoming a part of the Mazama First Aid community!

DIGITAL ONLY BULLETIN?

Help us reduce our environmental footprint by opting out of receiving the printed Mazama Bulletin. By choosing the digital-only version, you'll:

■ Save trees and reduce paper waste

■ Decrease carbon emissions from printing and shipping

■ Access the same great content instantly on any device

■ Support our commitment to responsible environmental stewardship

The digital Bulletin offers enhanced features like searchable text, clickable links, and high-resolution photos while helping preserve the natural spaces we all cherish.

Ready to make the switch?

Simply visit tinyurl.com/ MazBulletinOptOut. Thank you for helping us protect the environment we love to explore.

Our vision

We envision a vibrant, inclusive community united by a shared love for the mountains, advocating passionately for their exploration and preservation.

Our values

INCLUSION

We value every member of our community and foster an open, respectful, and welcoming environment where camaraderie and fun thrive.

SAFETY

We prioritize physical and psychological safety through training, risk management, and sound judgment in all activities.

EDUCATION

We promote learning, skillbuilding, and knowledgesharing to deepen understanding and enjoyment of mountain environments.

SERVICE

We celebrate teamwork and volunteerism, working together to serve our community with expertise and generosity.

SUSTAINABILITY

We champion advocacy and stewardship to protect the mountains and preserve our organization’s legacy.

Building a community that inspires everyone to love and protect the mountains.

Above: Moon House Ruins, Bears Ears National Monument.

Photos: Bob Breivogel

MAZAMA SUPPORTERS

We gratefully acknowledge contributions received from the following generous friends between May 1, 2024 – May 15, 2025. If we have inadvertently omitted your name or listed it incorrectly, please notify Lena Toney, Development Director, at 971-420-2505.

INDIVIDUALS

Anonymous (27)

David W Aaroe and Heidi A Berkman

Patricia Akers

Louis Allen

Stacy Allison

Jerry O Andersen

Dennis H Anderson

Edward L Anderson

Peggy B Anderson

Justin Andrews

Alice Antoinette

Carol M Armatis

Jerry Arnold

Kamilla Aslami

Chuck Aude

Brad Avakian

Gary R Ballou

Tom Bard

Dave Barlow

Jerry E Barnes

Michele Scherer Barnett

John E Bauer

Scott R Bauska

Tyler V Bax

Larry Beck

Steven Benson

Daven Glenn Berg

Erwin Bergman

Bonnie L Berneck

Bert Berney

Joesph Bevier

Rachel Bieber

Ken and Nancy Biehler

James F Bily

Pam J. Bishop

Gary Bishop

Bruce H Blank

Anna N. Blumenkron

Peter Boag

Tom G Bode

Andrew Bodien

Barbara Bond

Mike Borden

Jeffrey F Boskind

Brookes Boswell

Steve Boyer

Bob Breivogel

Rex L Breunsbach

Scott P. Britell

Alice V Brocoum

Elizabeth Bronder

Richard F Bronder

Amy Brose

Jann O Brown

Anna Browne & Barry Stuart

Keller

Barry Buchanan

Carson Bull

Eric Burbano

Joel Burslem

Rick Busing

Neil Cadsawan

Keith Campbell

Patty F Campbell

Ann marie Caplan

Jeanette E. Caples

Riley Carey

Kenneth S Carlson

Emily Carpenter

John D Carr

Ken Carraro

Marc Carver

Jacob Case

Susan K Cassidy

Rita Charlesworth

Nancy Church

Catherine Ciarlo

Max Ciotti

Matt Cleinman

William F Cloran

Kathleen Cochran

Jeff Coffin

Carol Cogswell

Justin (JC) Colquhoun

Charles Combs

Kristy J Comstock

Brendon Connelly

Toby Contreras

Elisabeth (Lis) Cooper

Patti Core Beardsley

Dylan Neil Corbin

Doug Couch

Lori Coyner

Darrel M Craft

Adam Cramer

Rick Craycraft

Mark Creevey

Cynthia Cristofani

Tom F Crowder

Liz A. Crowe and Grant Garrett

George Edward Cummings

Julie Dalrymple

Teresa L. Dalsager

Ellen Damaschino

Gail Dana-Sheckley

Alexander S. Danielson

Betty L Davenport

Larry R. Davidson

Tom E Davidson

Howie Davis

Chris Dearth

Edward Decker

Alexander Dedman

Richard G Denman

Sumathi Devarajan

Brad Dewey

Donald Keith Dickson

Sue B Dimin

Jonathan Doman

MaLi Dong

Mark Downing

Robyn Drakeford Wonser

Keith S Dubanevich

Deborah Driscoll

Keith S Dubanevich

Debbie G. Dwelle & Kirk

Newgard

Richard R Eaton

Heather and Joe Eberhardt

John Egan

Rich Eichen

Toni Eigner

Donna Ellenz

Kent Ellgren

Roland Emetaz

Becky Engel

Mary L Engert

Stephen R Enloe

Bud Erland

Kate Sinnitt Evans

Shelley Everhart

Joshua Ewing

John Facendola

William F Farr

Patrick Feeney

Travis Feracota

Darren Ferris

Aimee Diane Filimoehala

Lilie Chang Fine

Jonathon Fisher

Steven Fisher

Erin Fitzgerald

Ben Fleskes

Peter C Folkestad

Diana Forester

Caroline Foster

Dyanne Foster

Mark Fowler

Joe Frank

Daisy A. Franzini

Aimee Frazier

Michael C. French

Trudi Raz Frengle

Ardel Frick

Jason Fry

Suzanne Furrer

Brinda Ganesh

Matthew Gantz

Becky Garrett

Kevin Gentry

Paul R Gerdes

Pamela Gilmer

Lise Glancy

Drew Glassroth

John Godino

Zoe Goldblatt

Richard Goldsand

Sandy Gooch

Diana Gordon

Michael Graham

Ali Gray

Dave M Green

Kanjunac Gregga

Shannon Hope Grey

Loren M. Guerriero

Tom & Wendy Guyot

Jacob Wolfgang Haag

Jeff L Hadley

Dan Hafley

Sohaib Haider

Noma L Hanlon

Martin Victor Hanson

Terrance Heath Harrelson

Brook B. Harris

Duncan A Hart

Freda Sherburne & Jeff

Hawkins

Marcus Hecht

Lisa Hefel

Amy Hendrix

Gary Hicks

Elizabeth Hill

Marshall Hill-Tanquist

Maurene Hinds

Natasha Hodas

Frank Hoffman

Gregg A Hoffman

Rick Hoffman

Sue Holcomb

Lehman Holder

Mike Holman

Kris Holmes

Patty H Holt

Steven Hooker

Michael Hortsch

Charles R Houston

Hal E Howard

Nathan Howell

John A Hubbard

Flora Huber

Chip Hudson

Valoree Hummel

Michael Hynes

Kirsten Jacobson

Rahul Jain

Irene M James-Shultz

Chris Jaworski

Scott Jaworski

Joanne Jene

Brita Johnson

Megan Johnson-Foster

Truth Johnston

Greg J. Jones

Mark Jones

Thomas Jones

Julia Jordan

Nathan Kaul

George Alan Keepers

Joe Kellar

Jill Kellogg

Shawn Kenner

Charles R Kirk

Sergey Kiselev

Ray Klitzke

Dana S. Knickerbocker

Susan E Koch

Craig Koon

Chris Kruell

Barbara N Kuehner

Martin Kreidl

Dennis V Kuhnle

Cathy Kurtz

Lori S LaDuke

Richard A LaDuke

Lori A Lahlum

Brenda Jean Lamb

Carol Lane

Jackson Lang

Donald E Lange

Barbara Larrain

Sándor Lau

Nathan Laye

Thuy Le

Petra D LeBaron-Botts

Seth Leonard

Diane M. Lewis

Ernest (Buzz) R Lindahl

Jason N. Linse

Natalie Linton

Margery Linza

Jacob Lippincott

Jeff Litwak

Craig H Llewellyn

Vlad Lobanov

Robert W Lockerby

Christie Lok

Meredith K. Long

Bill E. Lowder

John L MacDaniels

Alexander L. Macdonald

Joan MacNeill

Patti Magnuson

Ted W Magnuson

Barbara Marquam

Bartholomew “Mac” Martin

Bridget A Martin

Ted and Kathryn Maas

Laurie Mapes

Larry G Mastin

James Mater

Donald C. Mather

Allan McAllister

Adam Marion

Robert A McClanathan

Margaret McCue

Mike McGarr

Jamie K. McGilvray

Reed Davaz McGowan

Wesley McNamara

Wilma McNulty

Melanie Means

Jeff I Menashe

Forest Brook MenkeThielman

George T. Mercure

Barbara A Meyer

Daniel J Mick

Dick Miller

James (Jim) Miller

Thomas M. Miller

Sarah A Miller

Keith Mischke

Gordy James Molitor

Michael Jeffrey Mongerson

Mary Monnat

Alex Montemayor

Yukiko Morishige

Joanne Morris

Ryan Morrow

Kristen Mullen

Dawn Murai

Megan Nace

Cheryl Nangeroni

Stephan P. Nelsen

Rachael Nelson

David L Nelson

Leah Nelson

Veronika and Jerry Newgard

John Niemeyer

Kae Noh

Cait Norman

Patricia M Norman

Ray North

Jim Northrop

Andy A. Nuttbrock

Jennifer Oechsner

Christine Olinghouse

Kathy Olson

Michael Olson

Jim Orsi

Kim Osgood

Nell Ostermeier

Brent Owens

John B Palmer

Alan James Papesh

Jooho Park

Nimesh “Nam” Patel

Kellie Peaslee

Ryan Peterson

Phillip Petrides

Theo Pham

Rebekah Phillips & Lars

Campbell

Cindy L Pickens

Robert T Platt

Judith Platt

Steve Polansky

Richard Pope

David Posada

Bronson Potter

Atalanta Powell

Devyn W Powell

William J. Prendergast

Morgan Prescott

Rosemary Prescott

Joe Preston

Frances Prouse

Walker Pruett

Emily Grace Pulliam

Michael Quigley

Sarah Raab

Kathy Ragan-Stein

Sandy Ramirez

Cullen Raphael

Walter Raschke

Rahul K Ravel

Stacey M. Reding

Ally Reed

Elizabeth Reed

Ryan Reed

Steph Reinwald

Kristina Rheaume

Anne Richardson

Judy Ringenson

Gary T Riggs

Lisa F Ripps

Echo River

Andy Robbins

Reigh Robitaille

Margaret Rockwood

Jeffery V. Roderick

David Roethig

Kirk C. Rohrig

John Rowland

Steven Ruhl

Gerald Runyan

Mark R Salter

Ellen Satra

Janice E Schermer

Liz Schilling

Bill Schlippert

Janice Schmidt

Ron Schmidt

Michael Schoenheit

Caleb Schott

Donna Schuurman

Leigh Schwarz

Diana R Schweitzer

Colby Schweitzer

Greg A Scott & Bonnie

Paisley Scott

Marty Scott

Tim Scott

James E Selby

Astha Sethi

Lucy Shanno

Roger D Sharp

Shahid Sheikh

Joanne Shipley

Rob Shiveley

Richard B Shook

Gary Shumm

Ellen P. Simmons

Patricia Ann Sims

Liz Sinclaire

Suresh P Singh

Jeanine Sinnott

Joan D Smith

Rachel Smith

Joseph Hoyt Snyder

Monica Solmonson

Dorothy Sosnowski

Cassie Soucy

Mark Soutter

Carrie Spates

Tony and Mary F Spiering

Tullan Spitz

Mark S Stave

Paul Steger

Bill Stein

Steve Stenkamp

John Sterbis

Lenhardt Stevens

Lee C. Stevenson

Scott Stevenson

John Stewart

Linda Stoltz

George Stonecliffe

Peter W Stott

Celine T Stroinski

Lawrell Studstill

Carol Stull

MaryAnn Sweet

Roger W Swick

Heidi Tansinsin

John G Taylor

Claire Tenscher

Ned Thanhouser

Amanda Carlson Thomas

Jodi Thompson

Lena Toney

Jen Travers

Seth Truby

Gerry Tunstall

Kenneth Umenthum

David A. Urbaniak

Katrin Valdre

Stephen A. Wadley

Harlan D Wadley

Jean Waight

Benjamin Ward

Cheryl L Weir

Donald G Weir

Dick B Weisbaum

William B Wells

Steve Wenig

Jeffrey W Wessel

Joe Westersund

Guy Wettstein

James P Whinston

Brian White

David White

Joe Whittington

Robin A Wilcox

Gordon Wilde

Debra A Wilkins

Thomas J. Williams

Scott C Willis

Harry Wilson

Richard Wilson

Fendall G Winston

Verena Winter

David Winterling

Gordy Winterrowd

Ingeborg Winters

Liz Wood

Joanne Wright

Jordan Young

Cam (Caroline) M Young

Roberta Zouain

Jason Zuchowski

IN MEMORIAM

In honor of Yun Long Ong for his love of mountains and enthusiastic dedication to the Mazamas, from his husband and fellow Mazama, Bill Bowling.

Katie Barker, by Charles and Louis E Barker

Fred Blank, by Bruce H

Blank

Edith Clarke, by Joesph

Bevier

Jane Dennis. A dear friend & outdoor companion who has

passed away 3 yrs ago., by Robyn Drakeford Wonser

Brian Holcomb, by Sue Holcomb

Werner & Selma Raz, by Trudi Raz Frengle

Jeff Skoke, by Seth Truby

Ray Mosser, by Keith Mischke

David Schermer, by Janice E Schermer

Will Hough, by Zoe Goldblatt

Will Hough, by Maurene Hinds

Elva Coombs, by Joanne Shipley

Martin Hanson, by Steven Bensen & Lisa Brice

Happy belated birthday, Greg Scott!, by Deborah Driscoll

Rodney Keyser, by William J. Prendergast

Greg Scott, by Anonymous

Ray Sheldon, by Mary F Spiering

Rocky Shorey, by Susan E Koch

Cecilia M, by Jason Zuchowski

George Sweet, by MaryAnn Sweet

Anthony Wright, by Joanne Wright

Robert Skeith Miller, by James (Jim) Miller

Ralph & Ellen Core, by Patti Core Beardsley

My mom, Jean Fitzgerald, by Erin Fitzgerald

Krista and Neil, by Sara A Miller

Kevin Mischke, by Brian White

Andrew Robin, by Tullan Spitz

Sharon Herner, by Reed Davaz McGowan

Jean Fitzgerald, by Louise Allen

IN-KIND DONATIONS

Anonymous

Bob Breivogel

Liz A. Crowe and Grant Garrett

George Cummings

Debbie G. Dwelle

Kate Sinnitt Evans

Armin Furrer Family

Peter and Mary Green

Tom & Wendy Guyot

Martin Victor Hanson

Duncan A Hart

Jeff Hawkins

Mike Holman

Chris Jaworski

Eric Jones

David L Nelson

Alan & Kristl Plinz

Elizabeth Reed

Richard Sandefur

Greg A Scott

John Sheridan

Steve Stenkamp

Claire Tenscher

Lena Toney

David A. Urbaniak

William B Wells

Owen Wozniak

Margaret Zimmermann

CORPORATE SUPPORT & MATCHES

Abbott Apple

Applied Materials

Autodesk

Benevity Community Impact Fund

Broadcom

CGC Financial Services LLC

Ebay, Inc.

Edward Jones

Elasticsearch

Glacier House

Intel

KEEN

Lam Research

McKinstry Charitable Foundation

Microsoft

Nike

Oakshire Beer Hall

Household

Paypal Giving Fund

Portland General Electric

Ravensview Capital Management

Rock Haven Climbing

Springwater Wealth Management

The Standard Timberline Lodge

Wildflower Meadows, LLC

CORPORATE IN-KIND

Arkangel Technology Group

Better Bar

Broadway Floral and Gifts

Five Stakes

Google

Johns Marketplace

Never Coffee Lab

Mountain Shop

Portland Syrups

Trailhead Coffee Roasters

Westward Whiskey

SUCCESSFUL CLIMBERS

Jun 1, 2025-Castle/Pinnacle, Standard/East Ridge. Janelle M Klaser, Leader; Kelsey Sullivan, Assistant Leader. James Jula, Assistant Leader. Colin Baker, Jacy Clare, Donald Kennard, MaryBeth Morris, Frank Squeglia, John Sullenbarger, Kylie Wells.

Jun 1, 2025-Unicorn Peak, Snow Lake. Ann Marie Caplan, Leader; Kyle Tarry, Assistant Leader. Saad Ahmed, Alex Brauman, Shelby Eagleburger, Lilie Chang Fine, Kristen Frank, Zach Green, Moinul Mahdi, Jordan Reaksecker, Ellen Satra.

Jun 1, 2025-South Sister, Devil’s Lake Ski/Board Tour. Nimesh Patel, Leader; Scott Nasello, Assistant Leader. Stephen Schutts, Assistant Leader. Michele Barnett, Stefan Butterbrodt.

Jun 2, 2025-Mt. Hood (Wy’east), South Side. Lynne Pedersen, Leader; Sergey Kiselev, Assistant Leader. Justin Bourne, Liz Hamilton, William Kazanis, Sean Knight, Mi Lee, Elizabeth Reed.

Jun 3, 2025-Mt. Hood (Wy’east), South Side. Gary Bishop, Leader; Jen Travers, Assistant Leader. Finn Ramos, William Withington.

Jun 4, 2025-Mt. Hood (Wy’east), South Side. Tim Scott, Leader; Astrid Zervas, Assistant Leader. David Bumpus, Seth Dietz, Charlie Guidarini, Isabelle Kennedy, Kaitlyn Klein, Heather Nesheim, Gregory Schrupp, Edward Stratton, Gus Swanson, Syringa Volk.

Jun 7, 2025-Unicorn Peak Climb. Carol Bryan, Leader; Lynne Pedersen, Assistant Leader. Samantha Dowgin, Brandon Hopkins, William Kazanis, Mi Lee, Kristine de Leon, Gregory Schrupp.

Jun 7, 2025-Middle Sister, Hayden Glacier, North Ridge. Duncan Hart, Leader; Richard Hall, Assistant Leader. Michele Scherer Barnett, Alex Cant, Mark Creevey, Milton Diaz, Kaitlyn Klein, Evan McDowell, Elise Rupp, Tanvi Singh, Jordan Williams.

Jun 8, 2025-Unicorn Peak, Snow Lake. Guy Wettstein, Leader; Theo Pham, Assistant Leader. Jon Brown, Mike Harley, Isabelle Kennedy, Jackson Lang, Natalie Linton, Grant Stanaway.

Jun 11, 2025-Mount St. Helens, Swift Creek Worm Flows. Marty Scott, Leader; Shirley Welch, Assistant Leader. Kaitlyn Klein, Seth Leonard, Rebekah Phillips, Scott Stevenson, Gus Swanson.

Jun 12, 2025-Mt. Ellinor, SE Chute. Judith Baker, Leader; Kshitij Kulkarni, Alex Kunsevich, Jonathan Llindgren, Logan Mante, Briana Pavlich.

Jun 13, 2025-Middle Sister, Hayden Glacier, North Ridge. Jen Travers, Leader; Matthew Gantz, Assistant Leader. Allison Boyd, Ali Gray, Scott McClure, Melanie Means, Maddy Otto, Andy Veenstra.

Jun 14, 2025-Unicorn Peak, Snow Lake. Tim Scott, Leader; Evan McDowell, Assistant Leader. Isabel Arnold, Daniel Bryan, David Bumpus, Sarah Dugan, Zachary Homen, Frank Liao, Natalie Rowell, Quinn Schwartz, Nikki Thompson, Richard Zheng.

Jun 14, 2025-Eagle, Chutla, Wahpenayo. Greg Scott, Leader; Patricia Akers, Assistant Leader. Paxton Alsgaard, Seth Leonard, Alex Montemayor, Gabriela Sisco, Gus Swanson, Kathryn Villarreal, Syringa Volk.

Jun 15, 2025-Pinnacle Peak, East Ridge. Tim Scott, Leader; Patricia Akers, Assistant Leader. Isabel Arnold, Daniel Bryan, David Bumpus, Sarah Dugan, Zachary Homen, Frank Liao, Natalie Rowell, Quinn Schwartz, Nikki Thompson, Richard Zheng.

Jun 15, 2025-Middle Sister, Hayden Glacier, North Ridge. Pushkar Dixit, Leader; Brian Bizub, Matthew Delgado, Phil Fargason, Matthew Gordon, Matthew Haglund, Alyssa Koida, Emily Kramer, Nisha Krishnan, Alex Mechler-Hickson, Joe Robinson.

Jun 15, 2025-Unicorn Peak. Greg Scott, Leader; Evan McDowell, Assistant Leader. Paxton Alsgaard, Seth Leonard, Alex Montemayor, Gabriela Sisco, Gus Swanson, Kathryn Villarreal, Syringa Volk.

Jun 15, 2025-The Castle, Standard Route. Tim Scott, Leader; Patricia Akers, Assistant Leader. Isabel Arnold, Daniel Bryan, David Bumpus, Sarah Dugan, Zachary Homen, Frank Liao, Natalie Rowell, Quinn Schwartz, Nikki Thompson, Richard Zheng.

Jun 16, 2025-Mt. Shasta, Hotlum Bolam Glacier. Darren Ferris, Leader; Heather Nesheim, Assistant Leader. Daven Glenn Berg, Zack Crandell, Becca Hawkins, Del Profitt, Mark Stave, Astrid Zervas.

Jun 17, 2025-Mt. Shasta, Avalanche Gulch, Ski Climb. Forest Brook MenkeThielman, Leader; Matt Mudrow, Assistant Leader. Milton Diaz, Lucas Illing, Evan Sloyka.

Jun 22, 2025-Mt. Thielsen, West Ridge/ Standard Route. Matthew Sundling, Leader; Janelle Klaser, Assistant Leader. Benjamin Briscoe, Dylan Neil Corbin, Lydia Hernandez, Chase Verbout.

Jun 24, 2025-Mt. Ellinor. Sue B Dimin, Leader; Linda Blake, Rick Busing, Bruce Giordano, Kayla Miles, Kellie ODonnell, Diane Peters, Echo River, Donna Vandall.

Jun 27, 2025-Mt. Shasta, Clear Creek. Gary Bishop, Leader; Neil Connolly, Assistant Leader. Ian Edgar, Anna Lio, Michelle Martin, Evan McDowell, Beatrice M. Robinson.

Jun 28, 2025-Mt. Adams, South Side. Kevin Ritscher, Leader; Janelle Klaser, Assistant Leader. Andy Hargis, Anthony Hayes, Sharon Jones, Matthew Meyer, Audrey De Paepe, Scott Stevenson.

Jun 28, 2025-Mt. Rainier, Kautz Glacier. Ryan Reed, Leader; Bikash Padhi, Assistant Leader. Agreen Ahmadi, Byung Gi Han, Kyle Mangione.

Jul 4, 2025-Mt. Baker, Easton Glacier. Guy Wettstein, Leader; Alicia Antoinette, Assistant Leader. Allison Boyd, Corey Johns, Scott McClure, Heather Nesheim, Colleen Rawson, Scott Stevenson.

Jul 5, 2025-Mount St. Helens, Monitor Ridge. Gary Bishop, Leader; Brad Dewey, Assistant Leader. Lindsay Ang, Jacy Clare, Isabelle Ehlis, Matthew Pittman, Ryan Popma, Echo River, Alison Roberts, Julia Ronlov.

Jul 6, 2025-Mt. Olympus, Blue Glacier. Darren Ferris, Leader; Matthew Gantz, Assistant Leader. Erin Courtney, Leana Goetze, Jonathan Lawrence Hart, Petra LeBaron-Botts, Joe Robinson, Edward Stratton.

Jul 13, 2025-Mt. Aix, Nelson Ridge. Bill Stein, Leader; Amanda Lovelady, Assistant Leader. Mee Choe, Mario DeSimone, David J McDonald, Ellen Satra, Kristofel Simbajon, Tim Spengler, Shelley Stearns.

Jul 13, 2025-Beacon Rock Southeast Corner. Pushkar Dixit, Leader; Prajwal Mohan, Assistant Leader. Brian Bizub, Alex Mechler-Hickson.

Jul 14, 2025-Mt. Rainier, Disappointment Cleaver. John Sterbis, Leader; Thomas Clarke, Assistant Leader. Read Caulkins, Lorena Caulkins.

Jul 18, 2025-Mt. Olympus, Blue Glacier. Gary Bishop, Leader; Laetitia Ma. Pascal, Assistant Leader. Ian Edgar, Matthew Graham, Kyla Skerry.

NEW MEMBERS

Between June 1, 2024, and July 31, 2025, the Mazamas welcomed 63 new members. Please join us in welcoming them to our community!

Turtle Ala

Michael Archer

Jimmy Baker

Al Bevacqua

Mamta Bhargava

Marc-Alexander

Blassnig

Philip Coufal

Benjamin Crockett

Emily Davis

Josh Deleon

Kyle DeMarco

Micah Dickinson

Jason Edwards

Isabelle Ehlis

James Falkner

John Fischer

Lindsay Fredrickson

Jason Fry

Bryan Gillespie

Max Goldsmith

Yon Gomez

Charles Gray

Tyler Guzman

Gary Harland

Alyssa Hausman

Randy Hestand

Elias Hestand

Jon Hixon

Reed Hooke

Claire Jouseau

Rakhsha Khani

Andrzej Kozlowski

Caira Lessick

Nicholas Lim

Alexander Long

Rhonda MacAllister

Quinne MacAllister

Eustacia MacAllister

Patrick Maddox

Nicole McCallum

Kimberly Mckeown

Angela Merritt

Joshua Meyers

Bumsoon Park

Kendall Parks

Alyssa PerdomoHazen

Antoinette Pietka

George Pulliam

James Rankin

Ruth Rice

Jeri Richard

Irene Robinson

Andrew Robinson

Shana Savikko

Aubrey Sharwarko

Caitlin Shrigley

Kathryn Stocking

Kirstin Thompson

Dahlia Ugarte

Chase Verbout

Andrea Ward

Alden Wessel

Mike Wiegand

Jul 19, 2025-Mt. Pugh, NW Ridge. Bill Stein, Leader; Amanda Lovelady, Assistant Leader. Nicole Egeler, Lydia Hernandez, Sara Elizabeth Jensen, Briana Pavlich, Ryan Popma.

Jul 19, 2025-Sahale Mountain. Jeffrey Welter, Leader; Milton Diaz, Winnie Dong, Martin Fisher, Charlie Guidarini, Alex Kunsevich, Hariank Mistry, Elizabeth Reed.

Jul 20, 2025-Mt. Jefferson, South Ridge. Tim Scott, Leader; Ryan Zubieta, Assistant Leader. Saad Ahmed, Jocelyn Alyse Brackney, Brad Dewey, Matt Egeler, Becca Hawkins, Walker McAninch-Runzi, Martin Taylor, Leesa Tymofichuk, Sabrina Wolfe, Astrid Zervas.

by Advanced Rock Committee

And that's a rap! On May 20, 2025, a class of 26 students celebrated their last lecture of Advanced Rock. This crew put in serious work, anchored their technical rock skills both in and out of the Mazama Mountaineering Center. Through many lectures and field sessions, they never stopped belay-ving in themselves and stayed calm when the weather got a little

CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT SURVEY ADVANCED ROCK WRAPS UP

Have you participated in a CISM debriefing in the past? If so, please consider sharing about your experience of the debriefing process through this brief anonymous survey. Your input will help the Critical Incident Stress Management committee better understand what members value about our work and how we can improve the service we offer.

The survey can be accessed by viewing and tapping the QR code on the right using your smartphone's camera app. Feel free to email cism@ mazamas.org with any questions or comments about the survey.

Jul 25, 2025-Pyramid Peak, Standard. Jen Travers, Leader; Melanie Means, Beatrice Robinson, Astrid Zervas.

Jul 26, 2025-The Tooth. Pushkar Dixit, Leader; Agreen Ahmadi, Assistant Leader. Stefan Butterbrodt, Omar Najar.

Jul 26, 2025-Copper and Iron, Tahoma Creek. Jen Travers, Leader; Beatrice M. Robinson.

Jul 27, 2025-Sloan Peak, Corkscrew Route. Tim Scott, Leader; Evan Conway Smith, Assistant Leader. Seth Dietz, Leana Goetze, Ali Gray, Nimesh Patel, Kevin Ritscher.

nuts. We're excited for them to return next year to mentor the next generation of climbers.

A huge thank you to all our assistants. We could NOT do this without you! We truly appreciate the time and energy it takes to assess gear placements, anchors, develop, give a lecture, or climb Cinnamon Slab for the n-th time.

Jul 27, 2025-Mt. Olympus, Blue Glacier. Guy Wettstein, Leader; Sabrina Wolfe, Assistant Leader. Allison Boyd, Elena Ivanova, Scott McClure, Evan McDowell, Tyler Sievers, Leesa Tymofichuk.

Jul 28, 2025-Mt. Triumph, NE Ridge. Darren Ferris, Leader; Ryan Reed, Assistant Leader. Drew Dykstra, Alexander Macdonald.

Jul 29, 2025-Pinnacle Peak, East Ridge. Mark Stave, Leader; Alex Breiding, Truth Johnston, Alyssa Koida, Emily Kramer, Seth Leonard, Kayla Miles, Linda Musil, Kelly O’Loughlin.

BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT: A MAZAMA OUTING THROUGH TIME

by Bob Breivogel, Outing Committee Co-chair

Agroup of Mazamas explored a remote part of southern Utah for ten days in April 2025. Starting in Salt Lake City, we traveled to Moab, Bluff, and Blanding. The prime focus was Bears Ears but we also hiked in Arches National Park and Natural Bridges National Monument.

Bears Ears is a newer national monument, created by President Obama in 2016. It preserves the land where, for hundreds of generations, native peoples lived in the deep sandstone canyons, mesas, and mountaintops; it is one of the densest and most significant cultural landscapes in the United States. Abundant rock art, ancient cliff dwellings, ceremonial sites, and countless other artifacts provide an extraordinary archaeological and cultural record of 700–1000 years ago.

Bears Ears National Monument has been controversial and has been reduced and then restored in the last nine years.

The threat of fossil fuel extraction and mining remain issues. The outing was intended to take advantage of the current status before possible future changes.

We arrived in Salt Lake City April 17, rented cars, and drove to Moab and a motel for two nights. The next day we visited Dead Horse State Park in the morning for a short hike and then spent the afternoon in Arches National Park, where we hiked to Delicate Arch, one of its most famous sights.

On April 19, we drove south to the small town of Bluff, spending three nights at the Bluff Garden Cabins. Bluff is near the southern end of Bears Ears, and is a significant site in the Mormon expansion beyond Salt Lake City. There are interesting historic displays (including multimedia presentations) at Fort Bluff. After settling in the cabins, we headed up nearby Lower Butler Wash to hike into Wolfman Panel, a petroglyph site with some ruins. The hike required a bit of scrambling to reach the bottom of the canyon floor where it is located.

The next day, April 20, we further explored Lower Butler Wash to see the Monarch Cave and Cold Springs Cave.

Monarch has impressive and largely intact ruins beneath a large overhang.

April 21, was mostly spent driving. First we went to Goosenecks State Park, where the San Juan river provides a dramatic example of an entrenched river meander. Later, the group drove up the Moki Dugway, a backcountry road famous for its steep, unpaved, but sharp switchbacks, which ascend 1,200 feet to the top of Cedar Mesa. Following a return down the Dugway, we drove through the Valley of the Gods, with towering rock formations and open desert landscape. This is somewhat similar to nearby Monument Valley, but relatively uncrowded,

Our last day in Bluff, April 22, we spent the morning with a short hike into a wellknown procession panel. The impressive petroglyph, representing a ceremonial gathering or migration story, depicts 179 humanlike forms coming from three different directions and converging on a central circle. We returned to Bluff, then traveled an hour north to the larger town of Blanding. Here we spent four days in a comfortable, four bedroom condo.

On April 23, we drove west on Highway 95, then south on Cedar Mesa to reach the Moon House ruins. This hike requires

getting limited advance permits. Of all the archaeology sites on the mesa, many consider Moon House to be among the best. The well-preserved site, consisting of three separate dwellings with a total of 49 rooms, is one of the largest on the mesa. The approach road is rather slow and rough. The hike in requires more scrambling than any of the others and has a crux that is somewhat exposed class 3, which was assisted with a short hand line.

On April 24, we drove to Natural Bridges National Monument, and did the three most significant bridges: Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo. The hikes involved some interesting travel over slickrock with a number of ladders in spots.

April 25, we drove to the South Fork Mule canyon, 20 miles west of Blanding, just north of US-95. A mile of easy hiking reaches 700-year-old ruins, which consist of about five rooms and that are frequently referred to as the House on Fire because patterns in the alcove’s red and white sandstone ceiling look like flames shooting from the roofs of the structures. The next objective was Fish Mouth Cave. This is a very large cave-like overhang in lower Butler Wash road. This is part of Comb

Ridge, a stunning sandstone ridge of steeply tilted rock layers called a monocline.

April 26, we said goodbye to Blanding and headed north to Salt Lake City and our return to Portland.

Overall, this was a rewarding trip. Bears Ears does not have the crowds of the better-known national parks. It requires research to identify suitable hiking objectives and archaeological sites to visit. The roads and trails can be a bit rough at times and hard to follow. It is especially worthwhile for those who have the time and interest and are looking for something different.

Bob Breivogel, leader; Rex Breunsbach, assistant; Alice Brocoum; Jay Feldman; Gaoying Ren; Edward Kaiser; Pam Rigor; Leigh Schwartz.

BOB BREIVOGEL

Bob has been a Mazama member since 1982. He is a climb, trail trip, and outing leader, having lead over 300 climbs and 15 outings. He has served two terms on the Mazama Board of Directors. He is currently the Outing Committee co-chair.

Facing: Moon House Ruins, Bears Ears National Monument.

Above top: Outing members at Goosenecks State Park, Utah.

Above left: Procession Panel, Bears Ears National Monument.

Above right: Hiking in Natural Bridges National Monument

Photos: Bob Breivogel

LOOKING BACK

by Mathew Brock, Director of Special Collections and Media

Welcome to “Looking Back,” an occasional column that delves into the rich history of the Mazamas. As we journey through the annals of time, we’ll revisit the remarkable events, happenings, and adventures that have shaped the organization’s legacy. From awe-inspiring mountaineering triumphs to community milestones, this column serves as a nostalgic look back at the moments that have shaped the Mazamas.

2000

The September and October 2000 Bulletins marked a significant transition with the departure of beloved lodge managers Jasmine and Jason Star after four years of exceptional service. Their culinary skills had become legendary among members, and they were praised for maintaining solid financial footing while creating a welcoming atmosphere. Todd and Wendy Koebke were welcomed as the new managers, bringing fresh enthusiasm for continuing lodge traditions.

A major honor was bestowed when Bradford and Barbara Washburn were nominated as Honorary Members for 2000 and 2001. Brad’s extraordinary accomplishments included mapping areas of the Northeastern US, Alaska, Yukon Territory, and Grand Canyon using innovative photogrammetric techniques. Barbara was noted as the first woman to summit Denali (Mt. McKinley). Their joint nomination recognized collaborative work that advanced mountaineering and exploration.

The Explorer Post achieved a remarkable milestone during a 9-day trip to the British Columbia Coast Range, completing a first ascent of an 8,700-foot unclimbed peak. Students decided to name the peak for Vera Dafoe, recognizing her dedication to the Explorer Post through regular climbs and soliciting donations for expensive equipment.

1950

The September and October 1950 Bulletins revealed the Mazamas involvement in wildlife conservation through the Oregon State Game Commission’s project to reintroduce mountain goats throughout Oregon’s Cascade Range. The organization took particular pride in this initiative involving their namesake animal and organizational symbol.

The Washington Department of Game permitted Oregon to trap 25 mountain goats in exchange for pronghorn antelope Oregon had previously provided to Washington State. Live-trapping experts successfully relocated six goats—three billies and three nannies—to the Wallowa Lake area. One nanny died shortly after

release, but the others showed as healthy specimens when last seen.

Mazama members were encouraged to watch for released goats during climbs of nearby Joseph Peak. The organization viewed this as both a conservation victory and symbolic heritage connection— reintroducing their namesake animal to Oregon’s high country represented a tangible contribution to wilderness preservation.

1925

The September and October 1925 Bulletins showcased pioneering scientific work with the Mazama Research Committee’s systematic study of Eliot Glacier movement on Mt. Hood. The committee established precise measurements using iron pipes and large yellow circles painted on terminus rocks. Eight-foot stakes were placed at varying distances, with measurements taken every three weeks for nine weeks. Data revealed maximum movement of about two feet, equally distributed across periods. This groundbreaking research was planned to continue for years, providing valuable Pacific Northwest glacial behavior data.

Jack Harvey achieved a remarkable mountaineering feat by setting a new Mt. Rainier speed record. The Seattle PostIntelligencer reported Harvey broke the existing record, climbing from Camp Muir to summit in three hours, then returning in two hours and fifteen minutes creating dual records that demonstrated exceptional Mazama climbing standards.

Betty London’s “A Mazama in Norway” provided fascinating international glacial exploration accounts. Writing from aboard the S.S. Araguaya, London described Norwegian glaciers that “spurred themselves carelessly over mountain tops,” rising 6,000 feet from deep fjord waters. She observed unique local techniques for glacier travel, providing comparative knowledge that enriched the Mazamas understanding of international climbing conditions.

Above: Mazama Research Committee member on Eliot Glacier, September 15, 1935.

Photo: Mazama Library & Historical Collections

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

by Mathew Brock, Mazama Bulletin Editor, Darrin Gunkle, Publications Committee Chair, and

Kate Evans, Conservation Committee representative.

Welcome to the conservation issue of the Mazama Bulletin. As climbers and outdoor enthusiasts, we’ve witnessed firsthand the dramatic changes affecting the landscapes we love—from retreating glaciers on our beloved peaks to the increasing frequency of wildfire closures that alter our access to wilderness areas. This issue confronts these challenges head-on while celebrating the remarkable conservation efforts taking place across the Pacific Northwest.

This issue arrives during a significant transition for our organization. We’re honored to introduce Interim Executive Director Jill Orr, who joined the Mazamas in August following Rebekah Phillips’ departure. Jill brings more than two decades of nonprofit experience and a deep personal connection to the outdoors— from her childhood exploring Iowa’s trails to recent adventures backpacking in the Rockies. Her priorities during this transition include listening and learning from our community, supporting our incredible staff, strengthening communication, and laying groundwork for our next permanent Executive Director. As she writes in her message to members, “The outdoors doesn’t take care of itself— we have a part to play in keeping it healthy and worth coming back to.”

The Mazama Board of Directors echoes this sentiment in their report, reminding us that “what we love, we protect.” With federal agencies facing resource cuts and environmental safeguards under threat, the board emphasizes that our advocacy and stewardship work is more crucial than ever. As they search for our next Executive

Director through a board- and memberbased hiring committee, they continue to be guided by our 2025-2027 Route Ahead strategic plan, focusing on priorities that create a more substantial and impactful future.

Our feature articles tackle some of the most pressing conservation issues of our time. Sharon Selvaggio provides a sobering analysis of how the U.S. Forest Service, under current policies, is elevating logging as its sole priority at the expense of the multiple-use mandate that has guided our National Forests for decades. Suzanne Cable follows with a case study from the Enchantments, examining how staffing cuts and policy changes are creating an environmental crisis in one of our most cherished alpine destinations.

From there, we shift to the human stories within conservation. Luke Davis profiles Mazama member Luke Espinoza’s journey from insurance work to woodland firefighting, offering an intimate look at those on the front lines of protecting our forests. Joe Riedl interviews Dr. Paul Loikith of Portland State University about Oregon’s climate future, providing the scientific context for the changes we’re seeing in our mountains.

The issue celebrates conservation successes as well. The North Coast Land Conservancy staff details how community collaboration created Oregon’s Rainforest Reserve, while Tom Bode examines 25 years of wolf recovery in Oregon—a complex story of both progress and ongoing challenges.

We dive deeper into the science with the Oregon Glaciers Institute team explaining how their new GlacierTracker app (still in development) will turn summit photos into citizen science, and Brenda McComb’s detailed analysis of proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act that could fundamentally alter habitat protection.

Conservation isn’t just about policy and science—it’s about building community connections to the land. Barry Buchanan explores how conservation land trusts create bridges between communities and conservation efforts, while Darrin Gunkel interviews Dr. Thomas Doherty about his

new book on climate anxiety, offering tools for processing environmental grief while maintaining hope and engagement.

The issue concludes with practical inspiration. Jeff Hawkins celebrates five years of the Mazama Mountaineering Center’s carbon neutrality, demonstrating how conservation can work on an institutional level. And from our rare book collection, we feature eight foundational mountaineering texts that show how our relationship with wild places has evolved over centuries.

Throughout, you’ll find the regular features that connect our community— new members, successful climbers, upcoming Base Camp programs, and conservation book recommendations from the Mazama Library.

A special thanks to Darrin Gunkel, Publications Committee Chair, and Kate Evans, Conservation Committee representative, whose expertise and dedication were instrumental in pulling this conservation-focused issue together.

As we face an uncertain future for our public lands and wild spaces, this issue reminds us that conservation is not a spectator sport. Whether through citizen science, community involvement, or simply bearing witness to change, each of us has a role to play in protecting the mountains and landscapes that define our region and our organization.

Happy reading, and may this issue inspire your own conservation efforts!

FOREST SERVICE, IN CRISIS, ELEVATES LOGGING AS ITS SOLE PRIORITY

by Sharon Selvaggio, Mazama Conservation Committee member

The last mountain you climbed involved a long approach through a forested landscape before hitting the summit rock, right? And the one before that, and the one before that? What is that forested land? Why is it there? What purpose does it serve?

Each of the Mazama Sixteen Peaks is surrounded by national forest land. These are public lands, belonging to every U.S. citizen, and managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Our own local Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which encompasses both Mount St. Helens and Mt. Adams, was named after the first chief of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, best remembered as a conservation-oriented leader who ensured cut and run forestry would not be the modus operandi of his nascent agency. He saw the interconnectedness of land, water, soil, forests, and people, including future generations, envisioning forests managed

for “the permanent good of the whole people.”

As a recreationist, you may see these forests as a network of trails and campsites. But turn on your faucet at home to draw water, likely piped straight from the rivers draining our local national forests. The sweet clean taste is what you get when rain is filtered through deep forest soils, layered for millennia with needle fall. Peer behind the sheetrock covering your walls and you’ll find two by fours—which could have easily come from trees that grew on your local national forest —holding up your roof. Go to the store and you’ll find salmon—birthed in Northwest and Alaskan rivers kept cold for millenia by glaciers and forest canopy. Walk through the forest and you may see salamanders, hear grouse, touch wildflowers, or sense countless other species who evolved in these forests long before humans arrived on the scene. More recently, scientists have realized that forests also play a role in mitigating climate change, by storing carbon in standing trees and soils.

The point is that national forests provide a treasure of interlinked benefits, or under the somewhat wooden language of the National Forest Management Act

and its implementing regulations, “multiple uses.” And under law and regulation, the Forest Service is required to balance these sometimes competing “uses”—timber, recreation, watersheds, wildlife, and more—through an interdisciplinary and public forest planning process. Even the restorative spiritual benefits for people spending time in forests are formally recognized in regulation.

Except now, one use is being mandated from the top to swamp all others. Logging. Timber production. Under new policy— which includes two executive orders issued this spring by President Trump, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act ” (OBBBA) passed in July by Congress, and a secretarial memo issued by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees national forest lands, the Forest Service is now set to massively increase logging.

The OBBBA mandates that in the years 2026–2034, the Forest Service must exceed each previous year’s total timber harvest by an additional 250 million board feet each year, which will nearly double the amount of timber hauled off national forests by 2034. If it all came from the Pacific Northwest (and we can expect that a lot of it will) an estimated 6,000 acres per

year would be clearcut just to meet the mandated annual increase.

Sadly, such mandates violate and undermine not only the Forest Plans currently governing each national forest, but also the principle of sustained yield written into national forest law since 1960. But it doesn’t matter. Through the executive orders (EOs) and secretarial memo, the administration has declared an “emergency” for national forest lands, citing threats ranging from national security to wildfire risk to forest health.

By declaring an “emergency” the administration has created a justification for short circuiting normal environmental reviews; forcing fast-tracked endangered species evaluations; and curtailing public involvement. Just to be on the safe side, the EOs also direct the Secretary to repeal any regulations that create an “undue burden” on logging.

While the so-called national security threat has been widely panned as a pretext, national forests do face threats from wildfire, drought, insects, and diseases. These are serious threats that need to be handled by serious, farsighted leaders. But rather than take a thoughtful approach to the real issues facing national forests by utilizing scientific expertise and collaborative public involvement, this

administration and Congress are pursuing logging above all else.

Shortly after the EOs were signed, Secretary Rollins made good on the order to repeal any regulation posing an undue burden to logging. She announced her intent to rescind the 2001 “Roadless Rule,” that protects nearly 60 million acres of roadless Forest Service land across the country from roadbuilding and timber harvest. Again, mitigating wildfire risk was the purported rationale. But evidence shows that roaded areas experience more fire ignitions (fire starts) than roadless areas.

The Tongass and Chugach National Forests in southeast Alaska are at special risk if the Roadless Rule is abandoned. Their roadless areas, home to 800 year old Sitka spruce, cedar, and hemlock trees, feed rivers that supply 48 million salmon annually to the commercial fishing industry. Their roadless watersheds contain thousands of miles of clean, cold rivers full of the aquatic invertebrates salmon require.

Oregon State University’s Climate Impacts Resource Consortium finds that rising temperatures due to human-caused climate change are a significant factor in the increase of wildfire in recent decades,

continued on page p. 45

HOW TO PROTECT OUR FORESTS

The outcome is uncertain. With reduced public input and gutted Forest Service staff, logging operations may happen with little notice.

WHAT

YOU CAN DO:

■ Stay Alert While hiking, watch for new logging or roads. If you spot activity, call the Forest Service supervisor and ask: Why is this being logged? What environmental review was done? How does this prevent wildfires? Consider alerting the National Association of Forest Service Retirees.

■ Show Up Join my postcard and oped writing party at Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne, Monday September 15 at 7 p.m. (back tables).

■ Use Your Network Know influential people? Whether it’s business leaders, mayors, or brewery executives (who need clean water), ask them to speak up too.

■ Support Conservation Groups Back organizations like Oregon Wild and Bark that fight for our National Forests.

TOGETHER, WE CAN PROTECT OUR FORESTS.

Facing: AI image of logging impacts.

Image: Adobe Firefly

Above: Map of National Forests in the United States.

Image: U.S. Government Printing Office.

THE ENCHANTMENTS EMERGENCY: A CASE STUDY IN FOREST SERVICE COLLAPSE

by Suzanne Cable

The U.S. Forest Service is headed for obsolescence. Due to recent personnel reductions, proposed budget cuts, and reorganization plans, the ability of the Forest Service to meet its legislatively mandated multiple-use mission to the American public is being systematically dismantled.

I, and many Americans, welcome thoughtful strategic reform of federal agencies, but what we have seen occur over the last several months to the Forest Service is nothing like that. We’ve seen an agency systematically and deliberately dismantled by indiscriminate firings, forced retirements, and coerced resignations. And the chaos is not over, with a drastic structural reorganization planned and looming in the future.

The large number of personnel leaving the federal government has been widely reported in the news media. What has not been daylighted, however, and specifically in the case of the Forest Service, is that since firefighter and law enforcement

positions were not eligible for the various incentives offered to encourage employees to leave, nearly all the employee reductions have come from the far-lessthan fifty percent of the remaining agency workforce. That includes personnel that serve as wilderness managers, recreation specialists, fisheries and wildlife biologists, botanists, archeologists, research scientists, and the many varieties of forestry technicians doing work on the ground.

The short-term impact of personnel reductions is being seen this summer, as all remaining employees and resources are devoted to responding to wildland fire now that we have reached national preparedness Level 3, as directed by a joint memo released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Rollins and U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Burgum1. This is after thousands of qualified callas-needed firefighters and fire operations support personnel have lost their jobs. This will come at the expense of the many other

1 www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/pressreleases/2025/05/20/secretary-rollins-andsecretary-burgum-sign-joint-fire-memoahead-peak-fire-season-receive-fire; www. fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/updateinterim-operational-planning

mission-critical responsibilities of those remaining employees.

We’re also seeing the impact now that recreational access, information and education, law enforcement, and infrastructure maintenance is reduced or absent, even as summer public visitation to our National Forests is surging. Not unlike 2020, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, agency personnel are again directed by their leadership to keep open all recreational access and facilities regardless of whether they can safely and responsibly operate those sites and facilities to established standards. Instead, we are seeing unmitigated damage to nature from unchecked visitation to sensitive landscapes due to unmanaged recreation. We’re seeing impacts to water quality, wildlife, and vegetation that in the most fragile and heavily used areas will never recover.

A local and especially acute example in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest is in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The cherished Enchantments area of the Alpine Lakes is one of the busiest wild land destinations in Washington state for Above: Goats in the Enchantments, 2022. Facing: The author at Asgaard Pass in the Enchantments, 2022.

Photos: Anonymous.

outdoor recreation, with up to 100,000 people hiking there each year in the short summer and fall season. There are usually ten to twelve wilderness rangers on rotational patrols that care for the Enchantments each summer. Due to staffing reductions, the Wenatchee River Ranger District has one wilderness ranger on duty this summer to patrol not only the Enchantments but the other 150,000plus acres of designated Wilderness in the district. Additionally, the district now has one trail crew leader and no trail crew. Usually, the District has two or three full crews not only doing their own work to maintain trails but also working with and supporting volunteers, youth crews, and professional partner crews to accomplish trail maintenance.

This situation has caused irreparable damage to wilderness character and natural resources as well as unsafe and unsanitary conditions for visitors, including unmitigated human waste and trash, parking congestion, and blocked access for emergency vehicles and search and rescue operations. As described in a recent letter to Secretary Rollins and Chief of the Forest Service Tom Schultz by Washington Congressional Representatives Kim Schrier and Adam Smith, the crisis is currently unfolding as the Forest Service does nothing to mitigate the damage2. Unlike the impacts to public lands due to visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, this is an entirely self-inflicted crisis by the current administration due to implementing a poorly planned and executed deliberately destructive takedown of the ability of the Forest Service to deliver services to the American public.

The gutting of the Forest Service is just one example of a national crisis that will take years or decades to recover from once we, as a society, choose to stop the damage to our federal system of governance. We must individually and collectively speak out to all our elected officials and demand a stop to the out-of-control damage being done. We need to begin to rebuild a federal government that we can rely on to deliver critical services to the American public, including re-creating a functional Forest Service, and protecting our wild landscapes from destruction.

2 www.schrier.house.gov/media/pressreleases/congresswoman-schrierdemands-reinstating-critical-staffingaddress-dire

Suzanne Cable retired in January 2024 after a 30-year career with the U. S. Forest Service. She finished her career as the forest-wide program manager for Recreation, Trails, and Wilderness

on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Suzanne continues her advocacy for wilderness stewardship in central Washington and nationally.

TAKING ON THE HEAT: THE STORY OF LUKE ESPINOZA

by Luke Davis

We’ve all seen the effects of the wildfires in recent years, but none see real-time effects more than the woodland firefighters. This includes Mazama member Luke Espinoza. Espinoza, age 27, joined the Mazamas in 2023 after climbing Mt. McLoughlin. However, he hasn’t been able to use his membership for climbing yet because last year he also joined the woodland firefighters.

I’ve known Espinoza since 2016 in college and I wanted to chronicle his journey from insurance companies to woodland firefighting. It was late April 2024 when Espinoza first heard of the openings with the Oregon Department of Forestry for seasonal woodland firefighters, through a past co-worker. He didn’t have any qualifications besides Mazama activities, but the recent “radio silence” from financial and mid-level office jobs was getting frustrating. Not only that, he was looking for something more ethical than another insurance company. Espinoza saw the firefighting job as a chance to learn about and experience more environmentally related jobs in the field, as well as providing a physical challenge.

The first day on the job was June 10. Training took place mostly at Sweet Home High School, where participants pitched tents around the school for the next 5 days. During his time there, Espinoza said they were in classrooms and field sessions from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. They learned all about the tools and processes with the trucks, how to dig a line (a trench-like strip in the ground to act as a barrier and travel), deploy a fire shelter (a sleeping bag like structure with a metallic antiflame coating), run a pump, and several other skills. Weather, natural fuels, and atmospheric models and changes, as well as maps and navigation were also covered. They also participated in several physical

training sessions; the final test being 13 laps (3.125 miles) around the track with a weighted vest in 45 minutes. In the field, Espinoza was trained to drive both the modified pickup truck and the modified semi-truck.

When I asked Espinoza what surprised him most about the job, he listed a few things. The first was what he described as “gym strength” and “trade strength.” The type of endurance and adaptability to rugged terrain was a new type of physical challenge to him. He described everything as a bushwhack, where he had to develop “forest legs” for quick travel. They would often have to climb ridgelines up to 60 degrees to get views of the situation from above. The upper body strength to carry tools and the standard 40 pound pack was also an adjustment, even for past football players, Espinoza described. He noted that before this job, he would have been intimidated by Mazama hikes that were

described as “strenuous,” “fast-paced,” or for “experienced” participants. He said that he wouldn’t think twice about applying for those today.

The other big surprises Espinoza described were the different types of forest and their different environments. One part of his job is that he has keys to nearly every gate on every road and has seen a lot of land that most hikers/ climbers never will. One stark difference was federal and state forests versus private lands used for logging. He said that while the federal and state lands are generally biologically diverse, the private lands are often monotonous: Douglas Firs. They are “native” [Espinoza’s quotes] so loggers can plant them everywhere, but they don’t allow for any undergrowth. He described walking through lands that felt like “a giant Above: Luke Espinoza tending hotspots. Photo: Unknown.

Christmas tree farm with no life on the forest floor.” Another surprise from the forests was the temperatures. On hot days, Espinoza feared overheating. However, he said the forests were surprisingly cool, with shade, water, vegetation, and wind acting as natural coolants. He said there were some days where the cemented cities almost felt hotter than traveling through the forest.

Espinoza was not free from overheating though. During one fire, on a 95 degree day, Espinoza was hosing flames while helicopters dropped water from above. He became the third person to get heat exhaustion that day and ended up in an ambulance. Fortunately, he described his vitals stabilizing quickly and he was able to recover with an I.V. After an hour he was able to leave the ambulance and was moved to hose embers for the rest of the day, away from the central heat.

When I asked Espinoza about his favorite part of the job, he immediately said his co-workers. He described his team as being from all walks of life, that there was no sense of competitiveness or drama between them, and that safety has been a top priority among his team. However, he was also thankful for spending so much time in nature seemingly untouched by man (although he stressed that humans are affecting all of nature, whether we have physically been there or not). He described beautiful, deep blue alpine pools on private lands, wildlife such as bull elk, and lots of huckleberries!

When I asked what his least favorite part was, he described how “bad” he was at some of the physical aspects. He described his struggles with learning different tools, not knowing where to start a process, forgetting technical jargon, asking for help, and being challenged by “3D hardware” instead of “2D software.” However, he said that these were the areas where he saw the most improvement, as he mastered them over time. He reminds us that “if you remain humble, vulnerable, and teachable, then you will discover that there is always something more to learn.”

Espinoza’s seasonal position ended October 25 and he was able to participate with the Mazamas some more! This summer, Espinoza will be returning to ODF as a woodland firefighter, but he hopes to one day study forestry.

Partner with Us: Corporate OpportunitiesSponsorship

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UNDERSTANDING OREGON’S CLIMATE FUTURE: AN EXPERT PERSPECTIVE FROM DR. PAUL LOIKITH

by Joe Riedl, Mazama Conservation Committee member,

with Dr. Paul Loikith of PSU’s Climate Science Lab

Dr. Paul Loikith, Associate Professor at Portland State University, was trained in climate science and meteorology at Rutgers University. Following his studies, he went to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. He eventually made his way to Portland where he began teaching weather and climate science at Portland State University. It was there that I met him and eventually became one of his graduate students. There, I worked as a research assistant in his lab. I learned very quickly that he was not just an expert in climate science but also in communicating the science clearly and for a wide-ranging audience. I also learned of his deep commitment to his students and to the outdoors. I recently reached out to Paul with several questions regarding Oregon’s climate, Portland State, and his love for getting outside.

We often hear that Oregon is going to get hotter and wetter because of climate change. Is it that simple? Are we seeing those changes already?

It is fairly straightforward that Oregon is getting warmer. Summers are warming faster than winters in Oregon, but all seasons are getting warmer. This makes hot extremes hotter and cold extremes less

cold. We've seen a fairly dramatic decrease in the frequency and severity of extreme cold and a notable increase in the frequency and severity of extreme heat, when compared with the past.

For precipitation it is much more complex. Climate models generally show that most of Oregon should get wetter overall in the future. This is most pronounced in the fall through spring wet season with drying projected in the summer, over western Oregon. We are not, however, seeing this trend in observed data at this point. There has been very little in the way of observed changes in precipitation across Oregon at all, and specifically in the Portland region this lack of trend is clear.

You studied the June 2021 heat dome extensively. Can you talk a bit about that event? What surprised you the most about it? Will it happen again?

The 2021 heat wave [across Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia] was one of the most extreme weather events ever observed, globally. I'm using the term extreme as a reference to how far it departed from the long-term average, not how impactful it was. The meteorology that led to this event was remarkable. Almost every feature one could imagine to bring extreme heat to the region came together at the same time in the perfect location(s) to bring us what has been estimated to be possibly a 1 in 10,000 year event. The main driver of the heat wave was a very large, strong ridge of high pressure in the upper

atmosphere centered over central British Columbia (this was the "heat dome"). This combined with several other more minor factors, each adding a little more heat, to smash all time high temperature records. Will we experience this again? Well, if it happened once, it can happen again. However, the likelihood of such an unusual atmospheric configuration happening in a similar way again is very low. But, as the climate warms we won't need such an unusual weather pattern to bring such high temperatures. So in several decades, a pattern that, today, could be considered a 1 in 10 year event may be enough to cause similar temperatures that were observed in June 2021. There is no evidence at this point that the weather pattern that drove the 2021 heat wave will become more common due to climate change, but studies have shown that climate change made the heat we experienced up to a few degrees hotter than it would have been in the absence of human caused climate change. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is, especially if you extrapolate that into

the future when the climate will be even warmer.

What are the biggest misconceptions when it comes to climate change in Oregon?

I run into a lot of misconceptions about climate change in Oregon, some of which are pretty firmly entrenched. One big misconception I run into a lot is that extreme cold is getting more frequent or more severe. It is very much the opposite. Oregon used to see cold so extreme it would blow people's minds today! For example, in February 1950, Portland Airport dropped to -3 degrees Fahrenheit. Climate change is contributing to a dramatic loss of our extreme cold, not an increase. We've also seen no notable change in ice or snow, although we expect to see a decrease overall in both as winters get warmer.

Another one I've run into for the 10 years I've worked at PSU is that it rains harder now than it used to. There is no evidence of this. In fact if you look at Portland data, there's been a small, but insignificant, decrease in rainfall intensity over the last several decades. People are quite convinced of this one, but it just isn't supported by data or evidence.

There are many others, but these two are the most common for Portland in my experience.

Tell me a bit about your role at Portland State. Have you seen any big changes in the institution and in your research since you started there?

At Portland State I direct a research and teaching lab called the Climate Science Lab (CSL) which has been active since 2016. The CSL is and has been composed of an amazingly talented group of graduate students (PhD and Master's) and sometimes postdoctoral scholars. We also host undergraduate researchers from time to time. We conduct research on a variety of topics around the atmospheric science of extreme and impactful weather events including what causes them and how they will change in the future. While we don't solely focus on the Pacific Northwest, a lot of our research attention is regional.

The main change in the research landscape that I've experienced is the sudden and dramatic reduction in federal support for research that has taken place since the start of the current administration. Our lab relies almost

entirely on federal grants to support student researchers and the research outcomes we produce. These grants are mostly from NASA and the National Science Foundation. The cuts to federal research funding threaten our ability to conduct weather and climate research and puts the crucial support needed for graduate students to learn and grow into the next generation of scientists at extreme risk. This presents us and our entire scientific community with a great challenge and a lot of uncertainty about the future. I think it might be underappreciated how important federal funding for research is for training the next generation of scientists whether they be undergraduate students, graduate students, or postdoctoral scholars. So it’s not just the research itself that is being affected, but the impacts of a reduced investment will be felt well into the future as fewer students are able to pursue research-focused degrees. Lastly, you recently hiked Cactus to Clouds (to Cactus). Could you tell me a bit about your training process for that hike? What were your favorite spots while you trained? Any big trips coming up?

Well I just returned from a week of hiking with my wife Natasha Hodas (who is a Mazama!) in Northern California where we covered 116 miles and climbed over 26,000 vertical feet in 7 days. So I think we'll take it easy for a week or two!

For Cactus to Clouds to Cactus ... this was a very challenging day hike. The hike begins a few hundred feet above sea level in Downtown Palm Springs and goes to the top of Mt. San Jacinto, which is roughly 10,800 feet. Most people then hike down 2,500 feet to the Palm Spring Aerial Tram and use that to return to the bottom (Cactus to Clouds). However, in May when we did this, we skipped the tram and hiked all the way back down for a 30 mile and roughly 11,000 vertical feet day of hiking. We started and ended in the dark (ending in the dark was not the greatest idea) and in total took about 15 hours to complete the hike. This was truly epic and a great personal accomplishment for both of us. To train, we increased our mileage and vertical gain each weekend leading up to the hike on local trails. Being early in the season, we were limited by snow in how high we could climb. So we would find hikes where we could go up and down at lower elevations enough to build our endurance.

Our last training hike was the Mt.Defiance/ Starvation Creek loop where we completed the loop and then climbed half way up Mt. Defiance again for a total of 8,000 vertical feet of climbing. I think the training paid off, but the C2C2C hike was still extremely challenging!

OREGON’S RAINFOREST RESERVE: A STORY OF SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY CONSERVATION

By North Coast Land Conservancy Staff

Oregon’s Rainforest Reserve. A coastal landscape of epic proportions. Basalt cliffs rising high above the rugged shoreline below. Since long before we humans first ascended its peaks to soak up its breathtaking views, these mountains have been home to an abundance of rare and diverse plants and wildlife.

Beyond its natural magnificence, these forested mountains—standing between Cannon Beach and Manzanita along Oregon’s North Coast—play an invisible role in sustaining our everyday lives, cleaning the air we breathe and purifying the waters that quench our thirst. Just as wildlife depends on this land to survive, so do we.

In the fall of 2021, North Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC), a nonprofit land trust, acquired 3,500 acres of temperate

rainforest, establishing Oregon’s own Rainforest Reserve. Together with the adjacent Oswald West State Park and Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, the Rainforest Reserve helps form a continuous 32-square-mile conservation corridor stretching from the summits of coastalfronting mountains to the nearshore ocean. This accomplishment came at the end of a $12.1 million capital campaign that involved support and donations from more than 1,000 donors, organizations, and agencies. Now, conserving the Rainforest Reserve will create ripples that resonate for generations to come.

A Haven for Biodiversity

Within this evergreen realm thrives a complex community of plants and animals—from dragonflies to elk and eagles. Some of the plant and animal species found in the reserve live nowhere else on the planet. Additionally, the beloved basaltic ridgeline has become a familiar backdrop to the coastal communities clustered at its feet. It is well known to generations of residents and visitors alike. It figures in the stories of Indigenous

people, in seafaring captains’ logs, in works of art, and in countless photographs.

“Bringing this land into conservation allows us to unlock its future,” NCLC Executive Director Katie Voelke says. “It is a living, breathing, flowing and evolving place. Conservation allows it to live its most dynamic and abundant life. This is a living museum, a living laboratory, a globally rare and precious place, and it’s our community backdrop. Conserving this land gives us all a chance to be in the right relationship with the land and the people it sustains.”

The primary purpose of the Rainforest Reserve is conserving important habitat for plants and animals and enabling the landscape to heal and rewild itself under our care. Habitat that is uninterrupted from summit to sea enhances survival of all species and helps them adapt to a changing world. Some of the plant and animal species that call the Rainforest Reserve home include the black petaltail dragonfly (Tanypteryx hageni), Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), northern pygmy owl (Glaucidium gnoma), queenof-the-forest (Filipendula occidentalis), Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis), Olympic

onion (Allium crenulatum), Chamber’s paintbrush (Castilleja chambersii), bobcats, black bears, salamanders, and much more.

Connecting People to Place

However, the Rainforest Reserve is also a special place where the community can connect to conservation. For centuries, families have been hiking the mountains now within the reserve, including Angora and Onion peaks, and using the landscape to forage, hunt, and fish. Under our care, we continue to welcome visitors to the Rainforest Reserve—a beautiful place that belongs to us all. However, to protect this ecologically sensitive land, we must be good stewards.

We ask the public to follow some guidelines within the reserve, such as going on foot or by bicycle only; not camping, smoking, or building fires; and following access closures signs and staying on the road where indicated. Most importantly, we ask people to respect the land and follow “leave no trace” principles.

Since the acquisition in 2021, our stewardship team has been caring for the Rainforest Reserve. We worked with

partners, supporters, stakeholders, and community members—including the Land Trust Alliance, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, The Climate Trust, the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Park Service—to create a climate-focused management plan that was finalized in 2024.

NCLC’s stewardship team is also engaged in various other projects in the Rainforest Reserve, including forest restoration, rare species monitoring, invasive species management, and road decommissioning.

“Caring for these lands is both a privilege and a responsibility,” NCLC Stewardship Director Melissa Reich says.

“We watch, listen, and learn from the coastal forests and ancient mountains, so we may be thoughtful stewards—honoring a reciprocal relationship with the land and waters, where care flows in both directions.”

Above: The Rainforest Reserve will be part of a vast conservation corridor—linking the nearshore ocean of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve and shoreline of Oswald West State Park to the summits and headwaters above.

Photo: NCLC

Inset: Chamber’s Paintbrush in the Rainforest Reserve.

Photo: Justin Bailie

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF WOLVES IN OREGON

by Tom Bode

Wolf advocates find themselves torn between celebration and concern. The statistics show why. Take this one, there were only 17 breeding pairs of wolves in Oregon at the end of 2024, the fifth year that number declined from its peak in 2019. Or in the 25-plus years since wolves started repopulating Oregon, only 12 are known to have died from natural causes. Most of the rest were killed by humans (cars, legal and illegal shootings, poison). These facts show the obstacles wolves face. But there is also something to celebrate—wolves actually made a comeback. Even as their presence makes Oregon wild

spaces more wild and is incredibly exciting to environmentalists and nature lovers, there is still work to do. Wolf advocates aren’t ready to hang a Mission Accomplished banner on an aircraft carrier, according to Rob Klavins with Oregon Wild. In some areas of the state, populations are flat or declining. And although the state’s population overall is growing, legal protections are disappearing.

A brief history

Wolves and humans have been competing for a long time. From the beginning, wolves were winning–hunting prey, raising pups, and howling into the night everywhere in North America. Not anymore. When white settlers arrived in the 1800s, wolves were deemed predators and pests. In the lawless Oregon territory, some of the first hints of government were

the “Wolf Meetings” held at Champoeg in 1843, when white male settlers gathered to discuss the problem of wolves and other predators. Anti-wolf forces gathered strength until 1946, when the last wild wolf was killed in Oregon for a $20 bounty.

The story of Oregon’s wild wolf recovery is one of wolves’ perseverance and changing human politics. In the 1990s, the federal government reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho, where they thrived. Soon, the wolves were at Oregon’s doorstep. In 1999, a female yearling named B-45 crossed the Snake River in the Hells Canyon Wilderness, the first wild wolf in Oregon in 53 years. B-45 was unwelcome. State officials arranged for B-45 to be chased by helicopter, tranquilized, and transported back to Idaho. It was a short-term solution. Wolves were coming back.

Above: Male member of White River Pack in Mt. Hood National Forest, March 2025. Photo: Cascadia Wild.

B-45’s appearance turned the starter on the state’s regulatory machinery. The state assembled the Wolf Advisory Committee (1999-2003), which spent two contentious years writing the Oregon Wolf Plan (2003-2005). The 14-member committee that wrote the Oregon Wolf Plan included academics, ranchers, a trapper, a manager of Safeways, a Native American representative, and a politician. Some members outright opposed any wolves in Oregon, while others were conservationists who had spent their entire professional lives advocating for wolves. They had lots to talk through.

The committee composed the plan against the backdrop of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As long as wolves were listed as endangered, the ESA provided strong legal protections against harassing, injuring, or killing wolves. Even a rancher who caught a wolf in the act of attacking his livestock could not harm the wolf without a state-issued permit. The ESA made the survival of wolves outside of areas of pure wilderness possible. But for the Oregonians who ran cattle and sheep on public land in eastern Oregon, these legal protections were noxious government regulations: they endangered lives and made earning a living more difficult.

management of wolves would not be science-based. Rather, the committee created a political document that compromised on those issues. Pro-wolf forces prevailed on the issue of control— all but the most notorious wolves would be protected from lethal management as long as the species remained endangered. Ranchers would be required to use nonlethal control methods before seeking to kill wolves or have them killed. In exchange, the committee set a low threshold for delisting wolves.

Two key disagreements emerged from the committee. First was criteria for “delisting” wolves, i.e. removing them from ESA protection. Second was the control methods that ranchers or the state would use to reduce livestock kills. Control measures range from high-tech, non-lethal approaches, such as light-and-sound boxes activated by wolves’ radio collars, to killing by poisoning, trapping, or shooting. Those two issues remain focal points for wolf policy today.

Disagreements in the committee and in the public meant that the state’s

The state finally adopted the plan in February 2005. At that time, there were no known wolves in Oregon. Then, in July 2008, after an Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife employee spent months howling into the northeast Oregon woods, (a scientifically validated wolf survey method), he heard a chorus of howls and yips all around him. It was a pack of adults and pups; a family of wolves making their home in Oregon. They were back.

Wolves in Oregon today: hanging on, not thriving

Fast-forward to today, and zoom in to the eastern half of the state. Ranchers raise cattle and sheep on arid public lands. Residents are few and include the most

vocal of the anti-wolf crowd. Wolves are once again losing the competition with humans. There are fewer packs in the eastern zone than in 2019 and the number of breeding pairs is at its lowest since 2017. In 2011, Congress delisted wolves in part of the eastern zone, allowing lethal management as a matter of course, subject only to state law. This has allowed for more lethal removal of wolves associated with livestock predation. Poaching and unsanctioned killings are a major source of wolf mortality. The numbers reflect the reality: being a wolf in eastern Oregon is not easy.

For anti-wolf ranchers, on the other hand, the situation has improved. With the feds out of the picture, they have an easier time arranging wolf kills with state regulators. And in the horsetrading at the Legislature, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is winning big. This year, large bipartisan majorities passed legislation to increase livestock compensation in areas of known wolf activity. If livestock go missing, ranchers can receive the market value of the animal. If the incident is a confirmed or probable wolf kill, the state pays five times market value in compensation. Although ranchers are required to use non-

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Wolves, continued from previous page.

lethal control methods to be eligible for compensation, conservationists complain that the high compensation rates create perverse incentives and promote conflicts with wolves.

Wolves in the western management zone perhaps have an easier time. The politics are friendlie—Sisters has a homegrown “Wolf Welcome Committee” that hosts book clubs and educational events. The nearby Meotlius Pack hasn’t been targeted by poachers; instead an enterprising 14-year-old made local headlines with studying the wolves with trail cams—until this spring, when the pack’s breeding male was illegally killed. Less public land is allotted to ranching, so potential wolf predation is lower. The differences are reflected in state statistics. Breeding pairs in the western zone increased to 7 from 3 between 2023 and 2024. The population is still small—just 49 individuals for half of the state—but it is growing.

Wolves and Mazamas

It shouldn’t be a surprise that many of the Mazamas’ favorite places are also home to wolves. The east side of Mt. Hood is within the range of the White River pack (3 members at end of 2024). The Warm Springs pack (7 members) calls Mt. Jefferson home. Further south, Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Bailey, and Diamond Peak are within the range of the Indigo pack (6

WOLVES IN BOOKS

Above: Wolf pups on Warm Springs Reservation, 2022.

Photo:Oregon Department Fish & Wildlife

Wolves dominate human imagination, leading to many excellent books. Here are some recommendations.

■ Wolfish by Erica Berry (2023) - local author! This book, aptly named, is only kind-of about wolves. It’s also part memoir and coming of age story, ranging all over, from the author’s childhood home adjacent to Forest Park, to a cooking school in Italy, to a wolf sanctuary in England. Along the way, Berry navigates threatening men everywhere, using them as set pieces in a deft cultural commentary on fear, violence, gender, and wolves. Powells might still have autographed copies from the author’s recent talk there.

■ American Wolf by Nick Blakeslee (2018). This award-winning bestseller can get anyone hooked on wolves. It tells the story of O-Six, a charismatic, powerful wolf in Yellowstone whose death earned an obituary in the New York Times. Blakeslee relies on years of near-daily records, from both radio collar and human observation, to tell a story from a wolf’s perspective. Highly recommended.

■ Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West by Emma Bland Smith (2016) - for little readers. This picture bookprobably best for ages 2 to 5 - tells the story of OR7, the first wolf to return to California, famous for his sojourn from eastern Oregon.

■ Of Men and Wolves by Barry Lopez (1978) - enduring classic! This book remains fresh and relevant in its descriptions of the contest over wolves in a modern world: foes to be eliminated or part of a bygone natural world to be appreciated. Lopez describes wolf biology, contrasts their honored role in Native American cultures with the United States’ extinction campaign, and provides personal reflections on seeing wolves and meeting wolf killers. Nearly every book about wolves written later seems to quote it.

members). The odds of seeing a wolf are slim. State wolf biologists like to say the best place to see a wolf in Oregon is Yellowstone. But they know you’re there. Wolves don’t like people. Maybe it’s because you stand like a bear, and wolves don’t like bears. Maybe it’s because humans have been hunting wolves for centuries. Regardless, as long as you are following sensible wilderness recreation guidelines, you don’t need to do anything special in wolf habitat (where you may already have been without knowing it). If one sees you, it will likely just leave. Do keep in mind, wolves can act aggressively towards dogs. Even if you don’t have to change your behavior, perhaps you should. Teri Lysak of Cascadia Wild teaches wildlife tracking and coordinates surveys for signs of wolverines, foxes, and wolves on Mt. Hood. She would like people to be more alert to the presence of animals in the forests. She says, “Instead of thinking ‘this is a nice place to hike,’ I’d like to see more people think ‘this is an animal’s home.’” Lysak’s philosophy is part of a cultural narrative. For her, wilderness cannot be complete without wolves. Their presence demonstrates that a natural world of predator and prey exists in the mountains and deserts, in starkly beautiful contrast with our “artificial” human society. People who don’t like wolves subscribe to a different narrative. To them, protecting livestock from wolves is an opportunity to prove strength and build a livelihood in a hostile landscape. They see the government’s support for wolves as it wrongly siding with predators instead of its citizens.

Coyotes kill more livestock than wolves. Snakes kill more people. Wolves receive more attention than either. For whatever

reasons, wolf policy has escaped the realm of science, and now emanates from politics and culture. The future of wolves in Oregon is a quintessentially democratic issue: to be resolved by voters, activists, politicians— and the wolves themselves.

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WHY IS HABITAT IMPORTANT? THE FIGHT TO KEEP PROTECTION IN THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

by Brenda McComb, PhD

That seems like a silly question, right? Of course we need habitat to sustain species. But the answer is important to understand to appreciate the effects of an impending change to the Endangered Species Act. The federal government is now proposing to eliminate habitat as a cause for jeopardizing a species’ extinction. Let’s take a closer look at what habitat is and how an understanding of habitat relates to these proposed changes to federal policy.

What is habitat?

People often say, “Habitat is the place where a species lives”, but we can find individuals of some species living in very odd places that we would not consider habitat for that species. For instance, young spotted owls occasionally disperse into suburban areas where they would be unlikely to persist. Hence, we need to be more specific—habitat includes those resources necessary to support both individuals and populations. These resources are food, cover to provide protection from weather and predation, and the space over which these specific food and cover resources are available in sufficient supply to support individuals and populations. Each species and each population have their own habitat requirements (Krausman 1999). References to “wildlife habitat” are meaningless unless a particular wildlife species is identified because everything is habitat for something (Krausman 1999, Hall et al. 1997, Garshelis 2000, McComb 2016). We prefer to define “habitat” as the set of resources necessary to support a population over space and through time (McComb 2016). The ultimate function of habitat is to

ensure survival of individuals, and more importantly of populations.

How is habitat federally protected?

When a species is listed as threatened or endangered, the government includes habitat within its scope of protection.

The ESA prohibits the “taking” of endangered species where "take" is defined as “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.” For the last 50+ years, the government has recognized the importance of protecting listed species from both direct harmful actions (killing or injuring) AND from indirect harmful actions, such as loss of habitat, or habitat modification that may lead to injury or death or reduce population viability.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of "harm" and rely solely on the statutory definition of "take." This proposed change would narrow the scope of "take" to exclude some forms of habitat modification that indirectly impact species. But defining habitat as critical for species persistence and recovery has been a key component of ESA policy. For those species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as threatened or endangered, the federal government will designate “critical habitat” for any listed species (FWS 2017). Once designated, any alteration of critical habitat that imperils one or more individuals of any protected species constitutes a violation of the law (Sagoff 1997), unless the nonfederal landowner has an incidental “take” permit (ITP) (Smallwood 2000). If a federal agency concludes that a Habitat Conservation Plan developed by the landowner will result in no net population decline then the agency can issue an incidental take permit, that allows the landowner to continue to manage the land without violating the

law even though some individuals of the protected species are harmed. To date, without an ITP, alteration of habitat would constitute harm to a species, and this has been a powerful tool for habitat protection and species recovery. Indeed, many listed species have been listed based on loss of habitat (Eichenwald et al. 2020). Habitat protection and recovery have been key to recovery for species such as the redcockaded woodpecker of the southern pine forests, whose status was changed from endangered to threatened.

Should habitat be removed from federal protection?

The USFWS and NMFS are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act regulations (USDI 2025 a, b). They state that the existing regulatory definition of “harm,” which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term “take.” (USDI 2025a,b). Currently harm may include “significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.” (USDI 2025b). The agencies contend that “harm” in the definition of `take' in the Act means an act which actually kills or injures wildlife but not

habitat. The agencies propose to rescind the current regulatory definition of “harm” (i.e., habitat modification). Such a change would mean that if a landowner were to cut down a nest tree for an endangered bird, and that nest had young in it, then ESA would be violated (direct harm to individuals of the species). But if the nest tree were no longer being used, or if a potential nest tree that could be used in the future was not being used now, then that nest tree could be cut down without legal “harm” to individuals of that species. While this revision would not affect ITPs that have been granted as of the date this new regulation becomes final, the implications for land managers and for biologists responsible for sustaining populations or recovering populations is obvious in that habitat important to sustaining the species can be lost over time.

Is this policy change logical?

If we accept that habitat provides the resources for an individual to survive or a population to sustain itself, as it would appear the federal agencies do when describing “critical habitat” (FWS 2017), then not considering habitat loss or degradation as ‘harm’ and a form of ‘take’ is illogical, resulting in a law that has lost its connection with reality. What happens to individuals which do not receive an adequate quantity or quality of food? Or protection from cold or heat (likely more important in a warming future with climate change), or a means of escaping predators or competitors? What would happen to those individuals is the same as would happen to you or me: we would be under several forms of stress and eventually with

References

■ USDI (Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 2025a. Proposed Rule: Rescinding the Definition of “Harm” Under the Endangered Species Act. Federal Register 90 (73): 1610216105. https://www.federalregister.gov/ documents/2025/04/17/2025-06746/ rescinding-the-definition-of-harm-under-theendangered-species-act

■ USDI (Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. 2025b. Part 17 -- Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants, Subpart A —Introduction and General Provisions, 17.3 Definitions). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/ title-50/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-17/ subpart-A/section-17.3

■ Eichenwald, A.J., M.J Evans, J.W. Malcom. 2020. US imperiled species are most vulnerable

continued lack of access to resources, we would die. Similarly, if we wish populations to be self-sustaining, then the resources must be available over areas large enough to provide those resources for multiple generations of a population. Quite simply, habitat for a species is a part of its inherent biology and ability to exist and is clearly a part of any recovery plan to rebuild populations that are listed under ESA. To ignore loss of habitat as a component of ‘harm’ or ‘take’ would ignore the thousands of scientific studies that have related habitat quantity and quality to species occurrence, distribution and sustainability. It is both illogical and inconsistent with our state of knowledge about animal habitat relationships and will very likely contribute to continued declines of some species listed under ESA.

Acknowledgements and a Disclaimer

I thank Drs. Candace Bonner, Dianna Fisher, Sharon Selvaggio, and Joan Hagar for their helpful comments on this article. Be aware that while I was asked to write this piece as someone who has studied animal habitat relationships for over 45 years, I do not have a background in law, so I recognize that my interpretation of the ESA may be inadequate.

The comment period for this change in policy has passed, so at this time you can contact Gina Shultz, Acting Assistant Director, Ecological Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 703-358-2171 or ADEcologicalServices@fws.gov with a subject line of “1018-BI38.” (USDI 2025a). You can also contact your Senator and Representative to Congress.

Dr. McComb is Professor Emerita, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, and a current member of the Oregon Board of Forestry. She is the author of over 100 technical publications including a textbook in its second edition, Wildlife Habitat Management: Concepts and Applications in Forestry.

to habitat loss on private lands. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 18 (8): 439-446. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2177

■ FWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) 2017. Critical habitat. What is it? U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Endangered Species Program. Falls Church, VA. https://www.fws.gov/sites/ default/files/documents/critical-habitat-factsheet.pdf

■ Garshelis, D.L. 2000. Delusions in habitat evaluation: Measuring use, selection, and importance. Pages 111–164 in L. Boitani and T.K. Fuller (eds.). Research Techniques in Animal Ecology: Controversies and Consequences. Columbia University Press, New York.

■ Hall, L.S., P.R. Krausman, and M.L. Morrison. 1997. The habitat concept and a plea for standard terminology. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25:173–182.

■ Krausman, P.R. 1999. Some basic principles of habitat use. In K. L. Launchbaugh, K.

D. Sanders, and J.C. Mosley (eds.). Grazing Behavior of Livestock and Wildlife. Idaho Forest, Wildlife and Range Exp. Sta. Bull No. 70. University of Idaho, Moscow, pp. 85–90.

■ McComb, B. C. 2016. Wildlife habitat management: concepts and applications in forestry. 2nd ed. CRC Press, available as open source: https://open.oregonstate.education/ wildlifehabitat/

■ NOAA Fisheries. 2022. Glossary: Endangered Species Act. USDI NOAA https://www. fisheries.noaa.gov/laws-and-policies/glossaryendangered-species-act

■ Sagoff, M. 1997. Muddle or muddle through?: Takings jurisprudence meets the Endangered Species Act. William and Mary Law Review 38:825–993.

■ Smallwood, K.S. 2000. A crosswalk from the Endangered Species Act to the HCP Handbook and real HCPs. Environmental Management 26(1):23–35.

CONSERVATION LAND TRUSTS: BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN COMMUNITIES AND CONSERVATION

by Barry Buchanan, Co-chair Mazama Conservation Committee

The Northwest’s incredible lands provide us with clean air and water, local food, forest products, and amazing recreation opportunities. And yet our natural assets are under threat, from climate change and ecological decline, a retreating federal presence, and many competing state challenges. Fortunately for us, over the last three decades we have seen the emergence of a new strategy to keep our most special natural places intact: private land conservation. Today we have more than 30 land trusts working in every corner of Oregon and also across the state of Washington to build collaborative, lasting outcomes.

Land trusts are nonprofits that acquire land, or work with private landowners, Tribes, and public agencies to establish agreements on how land is used. In the process, diverse groups of people

work together and communities are strengthened. Frequently working behind the scenes, conservation land trusts employ multiple approaches to protect and restore lands:

■ Land acquisition: Land trusts simply buy land or receive donated land.

■ Conservation easement: Land trusts partner with private landowners or government agencies to conserve land under a legally binding agreement known as a conservation easement.

■ Management and restoration: Land trusts engage in the management or restoration of conserved land.

One of the more well-known conservation land trusts is The Nature Conservancy, which is protecting over 125 million acres of land worldwide and in all 50 U.S. states. In our area we are familiar with the Friends of the Columbia Gorge and the Columbia Land Trust.

It may be less well known that nationally there are currently over 1,200 land trusts. Local and state land trusts contributed to 70 percent of the growth in land protected in the United States since 2015. Accreditation is maintained by the Land Trust Alliance (LTA), which also gathers the above statistics. LTA created its accreditation commission in 2006, establishing common standards and practices for land trust organizations.

Qualifications include 501(c)(3) charitable status, annual monitoring, development of comprehensive management plans, and standard documentation. The results are very encouraging.

Conservation easements allow land trusts to restrict development and work with landowners to restore habitat, wildlife, biodiversity, and clean water. Landowners wanting to conserve natural or working lands get scientific help from the trusts to ensure sustainable practices are deployed. As science and experience marches on, these practices become better.

There are agricultural land trusts specifically set up to protect farmland and support sustainable family farms and ranches, as well as community land trusts that support more affordable housing by separating land ownership from home ownership. There are even urban garden land trusts.

In 2021, the Oregon Desert Land Trust (ODLT) purchased the 16,645acre Trout Creek Ranch, in the Pueblo and Trout Creek Mountains of southern Oregon. These private lands hold grazing permits and connect several important conservation areas. The ODLT is working to support other ranchers in the area to open up controlled grazing and experimenting with “virtual fencing” where cows wear GPS collars and receive

mild electrical encouragement to graze in designated areas. This helps prevent damaging overgrazing and reduces fencing so that wildlife can move more freely through the area.

Another common goal of land trusts is to secure recreational access where feasible. Land trusts may acquire (or work with the owner of) private lands to open these to public access for outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, or hunting. Frequently these additions make up the so-called “checkerboard lands” which are adjacent to or “land-locked” within public lands. According to the LTA, there are over 9,700 miles of trails held by the trusts in the US.

The Deschutes Land Trust (DLT) acquired the 1,240-acre Metolius Preserve in 2003. It has actively managed the preserve, which includes Lake Creek, a tributary of the Metolius River, to promote wildlife conservation and also provide public access for hiking. The DLT also manages the Whychus Canyon Preserve (2010), which includes old growth juniper, aspens, cottonwoods, and 7-plus miles of hiking trails.

Land trusts also support communities, including those that have been historically marginalized. Tribal partnerships are increasingly front-and-center in land justice projects, and some Tribes have

established their own land trusts. An important goal of some land trusts is to learn from and partner with Tribes to incorporate and sustain indigenous practices and culture, ultimately working towards returning ancestral lands. Last year, multiple partners cooperated in the historic sale of Cape Foulweather to the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, returning 27 acres of ancestral land. McKenzie River Trust acquired the land from an out-of-state developer, serving as a temporary owner until the Tribe secured funding, including a grant from NOAA made possible by the US Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Siletz Tribe plans to sustainably conserve the land to promote biodiversity, connect Tribal members to their culture, and engage the public in understanding the importance of Oregon’s coastal habitats.

In some places, local communities decide to establish their own land trusts to protect watersheds, conserve habitat, or provide outdoor recreation. In 2022, working with the North Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC), the Arch Cape Domestic Water Supply District acquired a 1,500-acre Arch Cape Community Forest that makes up the cape’s drinking watershed. This required coordination, scientific expertise, educational outreach,

For further information visit:

■ Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT): oregonlandtrusts.org/

■ Washington Association of Land Trusts (WALT): walandtrusts.org/

■ Land Trust Alliance (LTA): landtrustalliance.org/

■ Columbia Land Trust (CLT): columbialandrust.org

■ Deschutes Land Trust (DLT): deschuteslandtrust.org

■ McKenzie River Trust: mckenzieriver.org

■ Northwest Community Forests: www.nwcommunityforests.org/

■ North Coast Land Conservancy: nclctrust.org

■ Oregon Community Foundation: oregoncf.org

and funding secured from Oregon agencies that NCLC helped provide.

Efforts like these are examples of community-based conservation approaches, which engage local communities in conservation efforts, realizing that collaboration between scientists, governments, and people in the local communities is essential for effective long-term protection.

Land trusts engage in environmental advocacy and education, lobby local governments, and reach out to the public by holding educational lectures, workshops, and volunteer restoration events. Southern Oregon Land Conservancy conducts educational

continued on page p. 45

Facing: Cape Foulweather, from viewing platform. Photo: Unknown.

TURNING SUMMIT SNAPSHOTS INTO CITIZEN SCIENCE

by Megan B. Thayne, Dr. Anders E. Carlson, Nicolas BakkenFrench, Oregon Glaciers Institute

Glacier retreat has emerged as a compelling symbol of a warming climate. Across the United States, glaciers often lie in mountains of remote national parks, removed from major population centers, making their disappearance feel equally remote to much of the public. But in Oregon, the story is different. The glaciers on Oregon’s Cascade volcanos—Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Broken Top—are surrounded by communities that depend on these high-elevation water sources.

Mt. Hood, unofficially cited as the most climbed mountain in the world, serves as a significant gateway for generations of mountaineers that depend on its accessibility and safety for crucial skill development. The other glaciated peaks of Oregon are significant mountaineering targets in their own right, with many of their routes relying on glacier travel. But these aren’t just mountain summits or climbing destinations; they’re dynamic sources of water, refuge, and ecological stability. Nestled high in the alpine, Oregon’s glaciers are frozen reservoirs, storing winter snowfall and gradually releasing it throughout the dry summer months. This steady lifeline supports the rivers, ecosystems, farms, and communities downstream. As climate change intensifies, this lifeline becomes more crucial while also increasingly at risk.

Despite their critical role in sustaining Oregon’s ecosystems and communities— and their increasingly fragile state—these glaciers have long been ignored by federal monitoring efforts and often overlooked in the public consciousness. In the 1980s, the

Oregon Cascades were home to 35 named glaciers spread across seven volcanoes. By the year 2000, 34 of those glaciers remained. In the decades since, the fate of Oregon’s glaciers have become increasingly precarious.

Based on five years of field observations by the Oregon Glaciers Institute (OGI)— supported by funding from the Mazama Conservation Committee—five glaciers have vanished entirely, four are on the brink of disappearance, and eight are now considered critically endangered. In total, half of the glaciers in the Oregon Cascades have either disappeared, are nearly gone, or face imminent disappearance–an alarming shift in just a few short decades. In particular, these glaciers are retreating so fast that physical changes are readily discernible in a span of less than five years. Unlike seasonal snowpack, which renews each year, glaciers hold layers of ice that have built up over decades and even centuries. When a glacier disappears, it’s not just a seasonal shift—it’s a permanent loss. And with it goes a reliable source of summer streamflow that buffers against drought.

Still, for some Oregonians, glaciers remain distant abstractions—firmly fixed in place by nostalgia until some future visit to the mountain. In that detachment, the silent retreat of these glaciers are missed despite the consequences undoubtedly echoing loudly in the valleys below: forests becoming more vulnerable to fire and disease, salmon and trout losing their essential cold water refuge, and irrigation supplies dwindling.

Meanwhile, we live in the golden age of outdoor photography. High-quality cameras tucked into our pockets make it easy to document and share every adventure: images uploaded with a few taps, briefly celebrated, then relegated to cold storage. But the opportunity exists to transform these summit snapshots into powerful citizen science.

OGI was founded on the belief that Oregon’s glaciers merit both attention and advocacy. From its inception, OGI’s

mission—to identify the number of glaciers past and present, measure their ongoing health, and project their future—has been propelled by a dedicated network of volunteers and inspired by outdoor enthusiasts. Most notably, OGI’s repeat photography effort was sparked by the curiosity and concern of a Portland-based mountaineer, Mazama, and physician with a master’s degree in glacial science: Dr. Steve Boyer. In 2003, driven by curiosity and concern rather than institutional mandate, Boyer photographed and surveyed the glaciers on Mt. Hood. His images proved invaluable, offering a baseline against which future change could be measured. In 2023, two decades later, OGI volunteers returned to those same vantage points to replicate his photos. The contrasts were dramatic.

Boyer’s self-directed work laid the foundation for a new method of glacier tracking, one powered by everyday people. His legacy now serves as the launch pad for OGI’s GlacierTracker app, a repeat photography initiative that will invite hikers, climbers, and outdoor enthusiasts to contribute their own images to a growing visual archive. GlacierTracker transforms casual snapshots into scientific data, providing many more data points for monitoring glacier retreat than can be achieved by any one small group of people, like OGI’s staff. Each photo becomes part of a growing visual timeline, revealing how Oregon’s glaciers are changing. Participants don’t need technical training or expensive equipment—just the phone they already have in their pocket and the willingness to capture an image. Repeat photography offers a ground-level perspective—one that’s often more intuitive and emotionally resonant. It’s the kind of data that speaks not just to scientists, but to the public. Recognizing both the urgency of glacier retreat and the ubiquity of outdoor photography, OGI saw an opportunity to turn the cultural norm of trail photography into a powerful tool of citizen science—

continued on page 38

Above: Then and now photos of the Coe, Ladd, Langille, and Coe Glaicers on Mt. Hood, 2002–2023.

Photos: Oregon Glaicer Institute.

with the hope of sparking awareness and action.

In 2025, OGI is beginning this citizen science visual archive through 58 repeat photography stations established across all six glaciated volcanoes in Oregon. These stations, documented initially in 2020 and revisited in late summer 2025, will anchor a structured five-year comparison— one made especially resonant by the timeframe itself. That lived memory becomes a parallel reference point, offering GlacierTracker users a striking chance to witness and document how much the landscape has changed since then. Using the GlacierTracker mobile application, citizen scientists will be able to geolocate these vantage points, align with past images, and contribute new photos directly to a central database accessible to the public. Each submission will include observed changes and descriptions from OGI scientists, transforming field participation into real-time glacier education. By facilitating side-by-side comparisons, the app allows users not just to visualize glacier retreat, but to feel it, by matching environmental change with their own lived experiences. And with the opportunity and interest in expanding the use of the application to other regions, Oregon is just the beginning.

GlacierTracker is more than just a data collection tool—it’s a crucial bridge between public engagement and scientific understanding. When individuals contribute a photo, they’re not just assisting with a scientific cause. They’re forming a relationship with the landscape and nurturing an understanding of connection and dependency. Participation

in the repeat photography effort transforms passive recreation into active participation, building a community of glacier advocates—people who understand that these icy remnants are not just beautiful, but essential. A photo once intended for social media feeds and memories becomes part of a scientific record and helps to ensure that these ice masses—and the communities they sustain—remain central to the broader climate conversation. Users begin to more consciously understand that our water doesn’t simply emerge from the tap; it originates from these mountains. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then GlacierTracker, empowered by citizen scientists, will give a powerful voice to Oregon’s vanishing glaciers—articulating a compelling narrative of a changing climate. This vital effort to record and protect glaciers is entering a new phase: one defined not by the absence of oversight, but by the power of community observation and engagement.

■ Attend the November 11 Mazama Base Camp presentation to see a live demo of the GlacierTracker app.

■ Watch the OGI website for an announcement that the GlacierTracker app is avaiable to download.

Above: Then and now of the White River Glaicer, Mt. Hood, 2003–2023.

Photo: Oregon Glacier Institute.

FINDING YOUR SELF TO FIND YOUR WAY

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR OF SURVIVING CLIMATE ANXIETY: A

AND THRIVING.

by Darrin Gunkel, Mazama Publication Committee Chair

The New York Times has called Dr. Thomas Doherty “the most prominent American advocate of ecopsychology,” the study of how our connection with—or separation from—the natural world affects mental health and well-being. Doherty has been a Mazama for 20 years, in which time he balanced building successful therapy practice, raising a daughter, climbing peaks, and studying Brazilian drumming. Surviving Climate Anxiety is available for pre-order now, and will be in bookstores October 7.

Doherty_SurvivingClimatAnxiety_HC_9780316572781_4P.indd 1

Why are you a Mazama?

I just feel like I’m with my tribe, people that get me. Being in the Mazamas bolsters my outdoor identity. It provides a very concrete manifestation of that. Being able to take my daughter when she was young to go spend nights at the lodge. Being around the artifacts and the old climbing tools, you tap into this history that goes back a hundred years, history that lets me partake in a whole alpine heritage, and that’s super important.

Has being a Mazama inspired your work?

I’ve gotten a lot out of the organization. I wouldn’t be the same person without it. And I think a lot of members get the same thing. In terms of the language in my book, everyone has a unique environmental identity, and the Mazamas really add to your environmental identity. The more varied the parts of your environmental identity are, the more you tap into that, the more resilient it is and you are.

Your book is called Surviving Climate Anxiety. Explain that.

a hard look at what we face, then offers wise counsel. In the face of all hard news and dark prophecy, is it possible to keep your head up, your heart steady, and even to thrive? This book says yes, and tells you how.” —Kim Stafford, author of As the Sky Begins to Change and former Oregon Poet Laureate

The book so many of us need right now...draws on years of clinical experience to meet readers honestly in the distress of our climate-altered world, then skillfully guides them toward a hope that feels genuine and earned.”

—Leslie Davenport, author, Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change Doherty is a calm and wise companion through the labyrinth of feeling that more of us are confronting as the planet changes...likely to become a mainstay for people encountering climate anxiety.”

—Anya Kamenetz, author, The Stolen Year

The title is meant to speak to the people that really are struggling, either because they’re concerned with the physical dangers, or they’re trapped in a cycle of doom and hopelessness, emotionally or psychologically. As with the podcast that I do, Climate Change Happiness, it’s really about the larger questions, “What does it mean to be happy in the modern world? What would it mean to be happy in an era of climate change?” Not in a way that you’re denying the reality of the issues or minimizing them, and even if you’re working hard on them. Is there potential for thriving and feeling happy in the midst of the struggle? And if you do feel like you’ve been damaged, in terms of your mood or your mental health, how could you heal that?

Climate change literature is a pretty crowded field these days. What sets your book apart?

Mine has a larger kind of perspective than some other books. I’ve seen the development of this field, and it’s really heartening that there are so many books and resources out there for people. That’s a good thing.

What my book does is hopefully move that whole process forward by suggesting that it’s possible for you and your children to be happy and to imagine a future that can indeed include action, but it might not just be taking action. It’s really more about understanding your identity and your values and learning to be happy in the world as it is right now.

What does the reader take away from this book?

There are sections on coping, how to think, how to feel, how to look at your climate impacts. There are chapters on identity and values, on healing and relationships, family, the arts. Some people are going to gravitate to chapters on identity, some to healing, some to the action section, some to the art and

Surviving Climate Anxiety

A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving

Dr. Thomas Doherty

spirituality chapters. It’s kind of a menu of things designed to meet a number of readers in different ways. There’s even a playlist. One of my personal sayings is, “My higher power is music and nature.” And so I’m reminded of how much my environmental values, my sense of the outdoors is driven by films, books, media, songs.

How's the book set up? Is it a self-help book? Is it a bunch of case studies?

It has aspects of self-help, there are summaries of the research, and a lot of case studies. One of the unique parts of the book is that it helps you go deeper into your identity, your background, your values, your family history, your culture. People take a lot of these things for granted, but they haven’t really clarified that they have an environmental identity, too, a sense of their relation to nature. We’re not often taught to talk about that.

FIVE YEARS CARBON NEUTRAL: MMC’S SOLAR SUCCESS STORY

by Jeff Hawkins

Perhaps you’ve seen this sign on the front of the Mazama Mountaineering Center (MMC). In the fall of 2023, mini split heating/ cooling systems were installed in the auditorium and throughout the basement; the boiler, radiators and piping were removed; and the natural gas supply was disconnected. These changes along with the solar array make the MMC carbon neutral. I’ve been waiting to see if the additional electricity consumption by the mini splits exceeds what is generated by the solar panels; it doesn’t. The chart here is an updated version of one I’ve shared previously. There are several interesting things to point out.

Mini Split energy usage

Since the mini splits were installed the MMC’s energy usage has declined slightly. It’s unclear if this is statistically significant. The boiler had pumps and a blower, both used a fair amount of power; there were multiple electric space heaters in use throughout the building; and a significant number of light fixtures were upgraded to LEDs shortly after removing the boiler. Maybe the mini splits and LED lights use less energy than the boiler and space heaters. We’ll see if the trend continues.

For five years we haven’t purchased energy from the grid. Impressive. Our power bill is $34 per month. Think of it as a battery rental fee. We charge up during the summer and get it back during the winter.

Donated energy

The horizontal axis has been relabeled to align with PGE’s solar fiscal year* which begins in April and ends in March. This is because the excess solar energy that was produced throughout the year, banked in the grid, and not used by March

is donated to the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program. Our solar panels have produced excess energy for five years, worth approximately $2,650 annually at a commercial rate of 20.24¢ per kWh. Donated energy is shown by the bars extending below the horizontal axis and shaded with diagonal yellow lines.

* Solar fiscal year is my term, not PGE’s.

Why do we generate excess energy?

Starting in 2020 the MMC’s usage dropped from an average of 70,000 kWh/ year to 30,000 kWh/year. There are several factors contributing,

The old over-sized inefficient heat pump in the copier room failed in the fall of 2020 during COVID. It was replaced by two high efficiency variable-speed heat pumps.

At about the same time the old oversized inefficient climate control system in the archive failed too. The archives were without climate control until the mini splits and dehumidifiers were installed in fall of 2023, over two years.

Mazamas switched from our own computer server, and accompanying air conditioning unit, to Google hosted web services.

Mini split heating/cooling throughout the basement replaced multiple small electric space heaters. A mini split produces between 3–4 units of heat for every one unit of electricity while space heaters are 1-to-1.

All lighting throughout the MMC is now LED. LEDs use 50–70 percent less energy than the previously installed T12 fluorescent.

Prior to these changes the solar array was sized appropriately for the energy used by the MMC at that time.

Savings:

Since installation the solar array has generated 324 MWh of energy. We used 245 MWh and donated the rest. The amount we used would have cost ~$28,500. Add $2,500 for two winters of natural gas that we did not use (~$1250/year) and our total energy savings are $31,000. The upfront investment from the Mazamas Foundation to install the solar panel array was $20,000 so net savings to date are ~$11,000. For each year going forward there are additional savings of ~$6,000 per year in electricity alone, $7,250 per year when

savings of natural gas are included.

Where next?

What shall we do with the excess solar energy generated rather than giving it away? It’s about $2,650/ year in unused value. I’ve been musing about car charging. Not only would we recoup lost energy, but we would also generate revenue through car charging fees. Would you use it? What type of plug is most common? Which chargers and charging services are best? At what rate per kWh should we sell energy?

Please let me know what you think, jeff.hawkins.pdx@gmail.com

Facing: Carbon Neutral plaque outside the MMC, August 2025.

Photo: Mathew Brock.

Above: Mazama Mountaineering Center’s solar panel array.

Photo: Jeff Hawkins.

EIGHT BOOKS THAT BUILT MODERN MOUNTAINEERING

Treasures from the Margaret and Price Zimmermann Collection

by Mathew Brock, Director of Special Collections & Media

From the first scientific ascent of Mont Blanc to the revolutionary solo climbs of the Himalayas, mountaineering has evolved from curious exploration into one of humanity's most compelling expressions of adventure, discovery, and personal challenge. The foundational ideas that guide today’s climbers were not born on summit peaks—they emerged from the pages of books that captured breakthrough moments in climbing history.

Late in 2024, the Mazama Library began acquiring one of the more significant collections in the Mazama Library’s history: the T.C. Price Zimmermann Collection. Over several months, I worked with member George Cummings and collector Peter Green to review hundreds of volumes, identify gaps in our existing collection, and negotiate with Price’s widow, Margaret Zimmermann. In June 2025, George flew east to inventory the books and hand-carry the most valuable works home. By mid-July, seventeen boxes containing the balance of the collection had arrived at the Mazama Mountaineering Center’s Mazama Library.

historians, authors, scientists, climbing enthusiasts, and members.

Housed in the climate-controlled vault in Portland, Oregon, these reference-only volumes provide unique insight into mountaineering’s technical evolution, expedition planning, environmental science, and adventure literature. Access is available by appointment through the Mazama Library (library@mazamas.org), ensuring these irreplaceable resources remain available for scholarship while

preserving them for future generations.

T.C. Price Zimmermann

The Mazama Library’s Rare Book Collection

The Mazama Library's Rare Book Collection now stands as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most significant repositories of mountaineering literature. With over 1,500 volumes spanning three centuries— from the 1700s to present—the collection preserves the intellectual DNA of modern climbing. Established in 1915, just two decades after the founding of the Mazamas in 1894, the collection serves researchers,

T.C. Price Zimmermann (1934-2024) was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and became a distinguished historian specializing in late Medieval and Renaissance history. He earned degrees from Williams College, Oxford University, and Harvard University, where he completed his PhD in 1964. Zimmermann began his academic career at Reed College in Portland, Oregon (1964-1977), rising from assistant to full professor and serving as chair of the History Department. In 1977, he joined Davidson College in North Carolina as vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty, later becoming the Charles A. Dana Professor of History until his retirement in 2000.

Beyond academia, he was an accomplished mountaineer and leader in the climbing community. Price joined the

Mazamas in 1965 after climbing Mt. Hood. He served as a member of the board of directors of the American Alpine Club from 1975 to 1983 and as president from 1979 to 1982. During his AAC presidency, he led the development of major policy statements on mountaineering ethics, environmental practices, and land use, while also addressing the Club's financial challenges through fundraising initiatives. A career highlight was making the first ascent of Mt. Skarland in Alaska, a mountain peak outside of Fairbanks that reaches upwards of 10,000 feet. He and his wife Margaret had an asteroid named after them by the Lowell Observatory in 1983, and he remained active in cultural organizations including Opera Carolina throughout his life. Zimmermann died on October 5, 2024, remembered as an educator who combined scholarly excellence with deep commitment to teaching, institutional service, and the mountaineering community.

Eight Books That Changed Everything

The Zimmermann Collection contains numerous treasures, but eight volumes stand out as works that fundamentally shaped how we approach mountains—not merely as obstacles to overcome, but as laboratories for human potential, scientific discovery, and philosophical reflection.

Spanning nearly two centuries (1780 to 1956), these books trace mountaineering's transformation from gentleman scientists with barometers to lightweight alpinists pushing the boundaries of high-altitude possibility. Each represents a pivotal moment when someone redefined what it meant to climb mountains through revolutionary techniques, groundbreaking expeditions, or new ways of thinking about risk, achievement, and our relationship with the natural world.

Together, they tell the story of how a handful of curious individuals in the European Alps created a global community

continued on page p. 44

Voyages Dans les alpes

by

Benedict de Saussure (1780)

The foundational text of alpine exploration and scientific mountaineering. De Saussure's four-volume work documented his systematic exploration of the Alps and established the scientific approach to mountain study. His methods and observations laid the groundwork for modern glaciology and alpine research.

Scrambles

Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860–69

by Edward Whymper (1871)

The seminal work of the Golden Age of alpinism. Whymper’s account of his Alpine adventures, including the first ascent of the Matterhorn and the tragic accident that followed, became the most influential mountaineering book ever written. It inspired generations of climbers and established many conventions of mountaineering literature.

Narrative of an Ascent to the Summit of Mont Blanc

by John Auldjo, (1830)

One of the earliest detailed accounts of Mont Blanc ascents, Auldjo’s work helped establish Mont Blanc climbing as a legitimate pursuit and provided practical guidance that enabled the development of Alpine tourism and guided climbing.

The

Ascent

of

Denali by Hudson Stuck (1915)

The first credible account of reaching North America’s highest summit, this book documented the challenges of extreme coldweather mountaineering and established protocols for major Arctic expeditions.

Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers

Edited by Edward Shirley Kennedy (1862)

The first compilation of Alpine Club members’ experiences, this collection established the literary tradition of mountaineering and documented the systematic exploration of the Alps during the sport’s formative period

The Ascent of

Nanda Devi by H.W. Tilman (1937)

Tilman’s account of the first ascent of this Himalayan giant exemplified the lightweight expedition approach and influenced decades of highaltitude climbing strategy through its emphasis on simplicity and self-reliance.

Hours of Exercise in the Alps

by John Tyndall (1871)

Tyndall’s work combined scientific inquiry with mountaineering adventure, establishing the intellectual framework for understanding mountain environments and promoting the Alps as a legitimate field of study.

Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage

by Hermann Buhl (1956)

Buhl’s account of his solo first ascent of Nanga Parbat revolutionized high-altitude climbing philosophy and demonstrated the possibilities of lightweight, alpine-style ascents on 8,000-meter peaks.

Zimmermann, continued from previous page.

of climbers whose influence extends far beyond mountain summits into literature, science, philosophy, and our understanding of human endurance. These books didn't just document climbs—they created the culture, ethics, and techniques that guide mountaineers today.

These eight works represent more than historical artifacts—they contain the intellectual foundation of modern mountaineering. From de Saussure’s scientific methodology to Buhl’s psychological insights, from Whymper’s risk assessment to Tilman’s efficiency principles, today’s climbers still apply lessons first articulated in these pages.

Whether planning an expedition to an 8,000-meter peak or introducing someone to their first mountain climb, contemporary mountaineers draw on wisdom first captured in these foundational texts. The Zimmerman Collection preserves not just rare books, but the intellectual foundation of one of humanity’s most enduring adventures.

Through careful stewardship in the Mazama Library, these works remain accessible to researchers, historians, and climbers seeking to understand not just

where mountaineering has been, but where it might go next. In an age of digital everything, there’s something profoundly fitting about accessing mountaineering’s foundational wisdom through the same medium—books—that first captured and preserved it.

What to know more?

Be sure to check out the online exhibit Eight Books That Built Modern Mountaineering visiting www.bit.ly/8MtnBooks or by scanning the QR below on your smart phone.

USFS Crisis, continued from page 19

and predicts severe wildfire incidents will continue to increase into the future. A serious effort to prevent wildfire would address its primary causes, including climate change. But the “Big Beautiful Bill” not only ramps up logging—it also guts federal clean energy incentives that were starting to make solar a viable option for homes and businesses across the country.

At a time when we need clear data and science-based leadership in the Forest Service, Trump’s 2026 budget request reduces funding by a third, fully eliminating forest research, and state and Tribal forestry funding. Meanwhile, widespread firings and layoffs since February have drained capacity (including firefighting capacity) and morale among Forest Service staff, as with other federal agencies. The most recent news is that all nine Forest Service regional offices are to be eliminated, effectively cutting out the most senior science and resource managers in the agency.

The Forest Service is in crisis. Its work is being driven by politics rather than by its mission and science. The multiple use mandate is being tossed aside like an empty bag of Cheetos by a careless hiker. The answer to the national forests’ wildfire and forest health problems is not unbridled logging shielded from public scrutiny. There is so much we stand to lose by subordinating the multiple use and sustained yield approach to a timber first and only approach. Everything mentioned earlier—clean water, wildlife and fish habitat, carbon storage—is at risk.

And lastly, while public land advocates successfully beat back a proposal to sell off public lands that had been included in the OBBBA (thank you Mazamas and others!), the threat of losing our public lands, including national forests, still looms, though hidden in the fine print. The president’s proposed 2026 budget justification for the Forest Service proposes to “right-size the federal estate” by “returning” those lands to local governments. Ask yourself—is your local government prepared to take on the management you expect on your Forest Service lands?

Sharon Selvaggio is a Mazama who spent most of her career working in wildlife and natural resource management for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Above: Margaret and Price Zimmermann at their home, June 2017.

Photo: George Cummings

Land Trusts, continued from page 35.

programs ensuring that conservation has a presence in Salem and Olympia during legislative sessions.

In Oregon and Washington, there are organizations to coordinate and support state land trusts—the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT) and the Washington Association of Land Trusts (WALT). Other environmental nonprofits like the Bird Alliance of Oregon are partnering with these organizations to provide further support. Oregon State University frequently provides scientific support. These coalitions help start-up trusts along the path to accreditation and may provide legal services. COLT, along with the LTA and the Oregon Community Foundation, has established the Oregon Lands and People Project, a five-year plan to “supercharge” land conservation by deepening community partnerships and building funding.

With the federal government alarmingly retreating on long-established environmental protections, support of science, and furthermore recognizing that the state of Oregon “spends a smaller percentage of its annual budget on natural resources than almost any other state” (COLT), the work that land trusts are doing is even more essential. They are wellpositioned to help guide us to resiliency and adaptation in the face of climate change. Land trusts are creating bridges in the long-term effort to restore and sustain ecosystems across both public and private lands, pointing us to a future where humanity can live in the best possible harmony with the natural world and each other.

Climate Anxiety,

What’s your environmental identity?

I didn’t grow up in a particularly outdoors-oriented family or around nature or wilderness. I grew up in Buffalo, New York, in the industrial northeast. I had a classic kind of coming out West experience after college, where I hitchhiked across the country, went to Alaska and worked on fishing boats, bummed around climbing and river guiding, and worked for Greenpeace.

Why is it important to think about this sort of identity?

It’s a really fascinating thing to sort of deconstruct, “Why do we go outdoors and what is nature?” What does it mean to be in the wilderness? A lot of this is not conscious, we just absorb a lot of messages and go toward the cultural archetypes that we like. At a certain point, we can become conscious of what we’re doing and why, and where our identities actually came from.

There’s a saying in therapy, “We hurt where we care.” So, if you’re hurting about something or you’re distressed, it’s because something you care about is under threat. If we want to really get underneath climate anxiety, or anxiety about extinction or pollution, about environmental destruction in general, it’s really helpful to know what values we have and what’s being threatened and why it’s important for us. Knowing that helps us tap into more durable, healthy aspects of our values.

How does that translate into behavior?

We start to become more proactive instead of reactive. If you’re constantly just under threat, all you see is danger and dark forces coming from all sides. But if you can come back into your own values and your own connections with nature, and start to nurture your sense of place, or your understanding of natural history, then that’s where you begin. Then you can decide what directions you want to go from there.

So building more of a solid core of ourselves helps because a lot of eco-anxiety and eco-distress is very reactive. We know, even from the research, when people do outdoor education, climbing, adventure sports, that the confidence and capacity that they build translates into other parts of their life.

But for a lot of people, it’s really difficult not to be reactive.

One of the paradoxes of the modern era is that, for a lot of people, going out into nature has now become itself a trigger for environmental despair, particularly when you start to think about heat, drought, wildfire, and glaciers disappearing. Because it exposes you to a lot of environmental degradation, mountaineering is not necessarily emotionally or psychologically safe these days. We need skills to accept the earth and the planet as it is.

Sometimes going out into nature is like visiting a sick friend; when we do that, we always feel better. So there’s this whole learning curve about really understanding what nature and natural systems are in the climate change era. These things are doorways, not walls. When you approach them, much like a challenge in climbing, it’s a doorway, an opportunity to come out of your comfort zone or to try new things or to build your capacity. Feeling and being confident, and helping others think and grow and build that capacity, is at least as important of a skill these days as keeping someone safe on belay.

MAZAMA LIBRARY

Learn more about the Library & Historical Collection at mazamas.org/library.

Established in 1915, the Mazama Library is nationally recognized as holding one of the top mountaineering collections in the country. Located on the ground floor of the Mazama Mountaineering Center, the library is a fantastic resource for members and the general public to find information on hiking, climbing, camping, and exploring the rich history of regional and global mountaineering culture.

Did you know?

■ The first Earth Day in 1970 became one of the largest single-day protests in human history, with an estimated 20 million Americans participating. Sparked by a massive 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, its success led directly to the creation of the EPA and landmark legislation like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

■ Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) launched the modern environmental movement but faced fierce opposition from the chemical industry, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to discredit both the book and Carson personally. Despite the attacks, it led to a nationwide DDT ban and changed how Americans viewed pesticides.

■ The Wilderness Act of 1964 was the result of an eightyear legislative battle led by Howard Zahniser, who rewrote the bill 66 times and died just four months before President Johnson signed it into law. The act initially protected 9.1 million acres and has grown to over 111 million acres today.

Books on conservation

A People’s History of Wilderness

edited by Matt Jenkins

Examining the complex and often contested history of wilderness preservation in America, A People’s History challenges the traditional narrative that wilderness areas exist in pristine isolation. The collection reveals how Indigenous peoples, working-class communities, and marginalized groups have been both displaced by and integral to wilderness conservation efforts, exploring the social justice implications of land protection policies and questioning who gets to define and access “wild” spaces.

0Mazama Library call #333.78 J41

Ecoforestry

edited by Alan Drengson

This book presents an alternative approach to forest management that emphasizes ecological sustainability over maximum timber production. The collection compiles essays from foresters, ecologists, and environmental thinkers who advocate for forest practices that maintain biodiversity, soil health, and ecosystem integrity while still allowing for selective harvesting and human use, offering practical examples of how forests can be managed as complex living systems rather than timber farms.

|Mazama Library call #333.75 D81

Oregon Wild

by Andy Kerr

This book serves as both a passionate celebration of Oregon’s diverse ecosystems and a call to action for their protection. Kerr, a longtime environmental activist, combines detailed knowledge of the state’s natural history with sharp political analysis, documenting threats to Oregon’s forests, rivers, and wildlife while outlining strategies for conservation and arguing for the expansion of protected wilderness areas throughout the state.

Mazama Library call #333.75 K46

All the Wild That Remains

by David Gessner

This book follows the author on a literary pilgrimage through the American West as he traces the footsteps and explores the legacies of two towering figures in environmental writing: Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner. Gessner examines how these very different writers— Abbey the rebellious desert anarchist and Stegner the measured conservationist—shaped our understanding of the Western landscape and environmental activism. Through personal reflection, interviews with those who knew both men, and vivid descriptions of the places that inspired them, Gessner grapples with questions about wilderness, development, and what it means to fight for the natural world in an era of climate change and increasing environmental destruction.

Mazama Library call #363.72 G33

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES

JUNE 3, 2025

Attending: Petra LeBaron Botts, Liz Crowe (Treasurer), Debbie Dwelle (President), Marty Hanson, Chris Jaworski, Chris Kruell (Secretary), Jessica Minifie, Matthew Sundling (Vice President), Claire Tenscher, Robin Wilcox; Staff: Rebekah Phillips (Executive Director).

WELCOME & CALL TO ORDER

■ The meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m. by President Debbie Dwelle.

■ A quorum was present.

MEETING AGENDA

■ Approval of Meeting Minutes

■ Matt moved to approve the meeting minutes for the May 6, 2025 Board Meeting; Petra seconded.

□ Unanimous approval

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S UPDATE

■ Budget on track; Kern & Thompson has completed its independent review of our 2024 financial statements and they have been filed.

■ Filed extension for form 990 (in process).

■ The Friends’ free lunch program causing friction in neighborhood, with up to 150 people/day loitering in the area. Discussions with the Friends and neighborhood are in process.

■ Nike denied our grant proposal; the Mazamas is applying for Jackson Foundation Grant.

■ The Canyoning class registered 12 students; 20 was the goal. Results in $9,000 in revenue vs $15,000 expectation.

TREASURER’S REPORT

■ We are tracking to budget to date when variances are taken into account. The current revenue forecast for 2025 is $908,000 and the current expense forecast is $1.05 million.

■ Net assets available for operations was $656,000 at the end of April 2025.

■ In the Mazama investment account, as of April 30, 2025, the balance is $1.27 million, with $455,000 in unrestricted funds and $814,000 in restricted funds. The June drawdown to fund expenses is projected to be $30,000, which is less than the $70,000 originally forecast. This would leave us with $425,000 in unrestricted funds and $814,000 in restricted funds, for a total of $1.24 million.

■ Cash balances forecasted into 2026 anticipate another investment account drawdown in June 2026.

■ Fundraising Report Suggestions

□ For better understanding of Mazama fundraising activities, a report template was proposed. The executive director will evaluate for use in future board meetings.

PRELIMINARY SURVEY RESULTS

■ The executive director presented preliminary results of the participant survey conducted in April. A total of 824 responses were received, with 686 coming from current members and 138 from nonmembers.

□ Key findings include that those under age 30 tend to be the best promoters, while the majority of the detractors are in the mid-career and retiree age brackets. The most-desired member enhancement was better or more access to climbs.

■ The ED will provide the survey data to the board, and the Strategic Plan Members and Volunteers working group will delve into the details of the survey responses to create focus groups for further discussion and feedback, as well as formulate action plans to articulate membership value and increase member retention.

WORKING GROUP LEADS (STRATEGIC PLAN)

■ Board communication: Matt will set up a Discord channel, which is owned by the Mazamas, to facilitate communication more easily than email or ad hoc conversations.

■ Governance/Board Development. Matt has organized (for the July meeting) all charters and two policies. They’ll come to us via email for approval at the July meeting.

■ Three types of docs to be reviewed:

□ Docs that can be reviewed to retire.

□ Full board approval required.

□ After triaging, use a subgroup to review. Board accepts their sign-off. ie, not everyone needs to review these docs.

■ Greg Scott wants to come in July to discuss nominating’s current status, as well as to clarify the board’s role in the nominating process.

■ Revenue. Has been looking at the business model and staff responsibilities.

■ Membership/Volunteers. The member survey has been completed, and the next phase is to conduct focus groups to elicit discussion and more feedback.

■ Facilities. The executive director and past president Greg Scott met with Timberline to understand their plans and gauge interest in running or using the lodge. The July team meeting will evaluate comparisons across models with the goal of deciding how to proceed at that meeting.

■ Programs. No movement to report.

■ There’s a need to dive deeper into the work of the teams for better cross-board understanding of the work in progress. A proposed board retreat has been suggested as a good forum for sharing this information.

2026 BUDGET

■ A conversation was held to discuss what level of deficit might we be willing to approve for the 2026 budget. The sentiment was to strive for a revenueneutral (ie, no deficit) budget. The budget process will focus on developing a baseline budget with additional packages or proposals to evaluate based on return on investment and prioritization to address operational and strategic needs. A near-final budget will be presented in November with a vote to approve in the December board meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

■ The meeting was adjourned at 7:57 p.m.

Above: Jen Travers (leader), Andy Veenstra, Maddy Otto, Ali Gray, Scott McClure, Melanie Means, Allison Boyd, and Matt Gantz (assistant leader) on Middle Sister.

Photo: Patti Beardsley.