National Geographic UK 09.2022_downmagaz.net

life; they are where I learned to Peregrine falcons, endangered value other species, starting with until they were saved crows and cedars. My friend Roy Tsao, who teaches political theory by breeding and reintroduction, and philosophy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, says taking up birding actually thrive better in cities later in life has made him a happier than in the countryside. man. “It has completely changed the way I feel about living in New York City,” he says. “It makes you aware of the seasons. In late March there are I take a train from Manhattan to Yonkers to woodcocks in Midtown.” see it. The creek turns out to be visible from Urban green space—from rooftop gardens the platform. Just outside the station, I am met to pocket parks to the linear forests of street by Brigitte Griswold and Candida Rodriguez of trees—isn’t just about making us feel good, Groundwork Hudson Valley, one of the many though. Real conservation can occur in these organizations that helped unbury the creek. spaces—especially for birds, plants, insects, We cross the street and take in the satisfying and other small wildlife. A naturalist studying sight—and sound—of a burbling river in the cen- the Gottlieb Native Garden, a single acre in Bev- ter of downtown. We see a fish ladder, installed erly Hills, California, documented over 1,400 for the sea-born eel babies—called “glass eels” species in the past five years, from cougars because they are completely transparent—to and ospreys to varieties of bark lice previously climb upstream to grow big. unknown to science. This project, initiated by community lead- Greenways and urban streams can be corri- ers more than 20 years ago, is a hard-won and dors through the concrete for plants and wildlife. expensive reality, involving the state, the city of Sometimes cities can even be refuges. New York Yonkers, Groundwork, Scenic Hudson, and the City’s Central Park is famous among birders U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That first 800 feet because it’s a haven for birds migrating up and cost $24 million. But Yonkers mayor Mike Spano down the East Coast. Grassland birds such as says the project has been “a major catalyst for the dickcissels and Savannah sparrows are more renaissance of downtown Yonkers and the city likely to see their eggs hatch and chicks fledge as a whole,” adding that it inspired more than in urban areas around Chicago than in rural Illi- four billion dollars in redevelopment, includ- nois. Peregrine falcons, endangered in North ing 3,000 apartments. “Green gentrification” America until they were saved by breeding and can be an ironic consequence of urban conser- reintroduction, actually thrive better in cities vation, but Yonkers has required some units to than in the countryside, because there are so be low-income housing. many pigeons and other birds for them to eat. After native plants were installed along the Nothing illustrates the promise of urban con- new channel, wildlife appeared as if by magic. servation more poetically than “daylighting” a Muskrat, herons, turtles, and ducks are spotted creek. It’s easy to forget that all cities were built here regularly. Another section hosts a hydro- on ecosystems, and many had rivers and creeks electric wheel that powers nearby streetlights. running through them. As cities grew, these In a streamside park, two men are whiling away waterways were typically confined to pipes or the afternoon. “I like the water. I like the ducks,” culverts. In Yonkers, an unofficial “sixth bor- one tells us, appreciatively. ough” just north of New York City, Saw Mill Griswold once worked on more traditional River, which once powered mills to cut timber conservation projects, but she wanted to do and grind grain into flour, gradually turned something that connected people to the non- into a polluted mess. In the 1920s the last 2,000 human world—in part so they would come to feet was covered with a parking lot. But since care for it enough to fight for it. That meant 2012, 800 feet of that section has run through doing it in the city. Not everyone can afford to a landscaped channel, sparkling in the sun in a visit flagship national parks, she says. new 2.2-acre park. More recently, other sections, Rodriguez shows me areas on a Yonkers map deeper downtown, have been uncovered. that were redlined—set aside for nonwhite A M E R I C A I N A N E W L I G H T 61

residents, spurned by lenders. They have fewer Rodriguez says the daylighted creek offers trees and more concrete. Access to nature is not a place for people to unwind, creates a buzzy evenly distributed. location for businesses, and protects threatened species like eels. “A triple win,” she calls it. Gris- Fixing that injustice may be the best way to wold sums it up: “There’s a beautiful thing in create a generation that cares enough about downtown Yonkers, and it belongs to all of us.” other species to save them. EPILOGUE GROWING RELATIONSHIPS Instead of walling ourselves out, we need to learn to live well with other species. BACK HOME IN THE A c’waam, a type of sucker, swirls Klamath Basin, I think around three about water—how juvenile fish. it is both beautiful and essential to life. Much of our area is in what the National Weather Service terms an “extreme drought.” The Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge is normally a stopover for half of the Pacific flyway’s migrating waterfowl. It relies on water managed by the U.S. Bureau of when winter food stocks ran low. Every spring, Reclamation and gets whatever’s left after farm- the fish are honored and blessed by tribal elders ers take their share. These days, there’s nothing in a ceremony. They are a deeply significant cul- left. The refuge turns to dust. Irrigation also draws tural food, but because of their decline, tribal down water from Upper Klamath Lake, which can members haven’t harvested them since 1986. limit access to areas where suckers spawn. “I am really concerned about losing our One solution would be to use less water for koptu,” Gentry says, citing the more gravely farming. That’s anathema to many farmers, but endangered species. “When I go along the lake, it may be necessary to support bird migration, and I look at the mountains with their snow, I save the suckers, and send enough clear, cold just think about how beautiful our homeland is,” water down the Klamath River to keep endan- he says, but his thoughts always turn to the fish. gered Chinook and coho salmon alive. “It doesn’t take long to go there. I can’t wake up in the morning and not think about this.” Don Gentry, until recently the Klamath Tribal Council chairman, is very worried about the The tribe is working to recover the suckers, c’waam and the koptu, as the suckers are called running a hatchery to preserve the genetic in the Klamath language. Before colonization, diversity of the species and researching the these fish were crucial for the tribe’s survival conditions they need to thrive. This spring, 62 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

the tribe sued the federal govern- Conservation needs to be ment for sending water to farmers about protecting other species at a time when lake levels were lower than the minimums called with people. It’s about for in the government’s own report on the species’ needs. Gentry improving our relationships believes that the basin has “a cer- with the nonhuman world. tain resilience and productivity,” which should allow it to support agriculture as well as waterfowl and suckers. But he says sharing the water, espe- hatchery. It’s time to put this human-made wet- cially as climate change worsens and leads to land to work as a nursery for endangered fish. longer droughts, will require cooperation. That Wenner, as is his nature, is in an ebullient isn’t happening yet—in part because of ideolog- mood. Despite the drought and tensions over ical divisions rooted in colonialism. scarce water, he’s optimistic about the future. The model of conservation centered on parks He’s seen how fast wetland species returned to and other strictly protected areas is sometimes his farm when he invited them back. “Immedi- called fortress conservation, and it too can be ately, this fall, we had 10,000 ducks and geese traced to colonialism. It has been increasingly on these 70 acres.” With more cash and help for criticized for setting as its goal a wilderness landowners to navigate the red tape, he thinks devoid of humans, a fantasy that never really the Klamath Basin could be a case study for existed. In what is now the United States, humans landscape-scale conservation. The question, he were already present as the glaciers from the last says, is “whether we can look at the big picture ice age were retreating, meaning that our ecosys- and get everyone pulling in the same direction. tems all developed with humans in them. It is not happening yet.” But, he adds, “if we can Many grasslands, wetlands, and forests were do it here, we can do it anywhere.” shaped for millennia by people through peri- Tree swallows catch midges above our heads, odic burning. And many species were carefully and blackbirds call over the white noise of traffic tended, including oaks in California; clams in the on the nearby highway. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Northwest; Four Corners potato, goosefoot, wolf- biologist opens a valve on the tank, and a cascade berry, and sumac in the Southwest; and chestnuts of water and fish rushes into a waiting net. Baby in the East. The Klamath people managed 10,000 suckers are about four inches long, dark olive on acres of a wetland lily called wocus, whose seeds their backs, silver on their bellies. Wenner car- produce excellent flour. Today wocus is hard to ries the first net to his marsh. The moment the find around Upper Klamath Lake. Sometimes, little fish hit the water, they disappear, perfectly removing people hurts other species. camouflaged. In a few weeks, another batch will Reviving Indigenous management tech- arrive, this one from the tribal hatchery. Wenner niques—such as prescribed fire, clam gardens, is a barley farmer and a fish farmer now. “How do and traditional fishing practices—is all the rage you feel, Karl?” I shout out, like a sports reporter in conservation. Like conservation in timber- interviewing a winning quarterback. “I feel good!” lands, farms, and cities, tribal management is He shouts back. “I feel good.” about simultaneously meeting the needs of peo- As the scientists work, one fish sloshes out ple and of other species. It’s about flourishing of the net, landing in the muddy road. Without together. Conservationists are realizing their thinking, I reach down and pick it up. Feeling its work isn’t about protecting other species from muscular body wriggle in my hands, I run to the people—although limiting access or harvests water and let it go. It flashes silver, rights itself, can at times be necessary. Instead, conservation and swims off into the future. j needs to be about protecting other species with people. It is about improving our relationships Emma Marris is the author of Wild Souls: Free- with the nonhuman world, not severing them. dom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World. Stephen Wilkes has been pursuing his epic Day to On a cold spring afternoon, a truck hauling a Night project since 2009. As a kid, Denise Nestor 600-gallon tank arrives at Wenner’s farm. Inside learned to draw by sketching animals and people are 1,712 baby c’waam and koptu from a federal that she found in National Geographic. A M E R I C A I N A N E W L I G H T 63



KEEPERS OF COMMUNITY THEY STEP UP, AND MAKE US BETTER What makes a community in a divided nation where many people are suffering? Across the U.S., it’s altruists and volunteers dedicated to helping others. BY REBECCA LEE SANCHEZ PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREA BRUCE Members of the Black- feet Nation’s Tatsey family watch for grizzly bears from a safe distance at Badger- Two Medicine—130,000 acres of sacred, for- ested terrain for the Blackfeet in Montana. The tribe has been involved in a decades- long battle against oil and gas develop- ment on this land. 65

T H E Y A R E T H E G LU E that holds com- munities together, stepping up to assist their neighbors in times of crisis, need, and other challenges. Some are volunteers whose projects uplift their neighborhoods; others work to pre- serve their community’s culture. Still others are Good Samaritans who help older residents get basic necessities, or assist those displaced by disaster. And on and on. Throughout U.S. history, such altruists have stitched a sense of unity among their neighbors. Nearly 190 years ago, in his book Democracy in America, the French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville was impressed by how much of life in the young nation revolved around community-based leaders and groups. He saw them as local democracies that set social mores and helped ward off tyranny. During the past five years, National Geo- graphic journalists traveled across the United States to see how the ideas Tocqueville described are holding up in a country that can seem inex- orably divided by race, income, politics, and religion. They visited health workers, farmers, coal miners, students, and many more to iden- tify a sampling of those who are sewing the threads of community in today’s America. What the journalists found most pressing was not division shaped by politics or other beliefs, but rather a deep need that unites people. Carmona Cruz Mon- serrate gets a house Whether it was because of a lack of healthy food visit from Sonia Ven- tura, who founded an in Detroit or the 2018 fires that ravaged the West organization to help residents on the island Coast, many stressed communities are barely of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Ventura, shown holding things together. But they’re resilient, in May 2021, died recently at the age thanks partly to residents who dedicate much of of 79, but her group’s work continues. their lives to helping their neighbors. Here are a few of those keepers of community; read about more at natgeo.com. —T H E E D I T O R S ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY IN THIS PROJECT WAS PROVIDED BY CATCHLIGHT.

The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminat- ing and protecting the wonder of our world, has funded Explorer Andrea Bruce’s work chronicling democracy in America since 2018. ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY K E E P E R S O F C O M M U N I T Y 67

CHAPTER I: THE GARDENER HE PLANTED SOME CROPS, AND GREW SO MUCH MORE

Mark Covington returned to his child- hood street in Detroit in 2008 to find aban- doned lots littered with illegally dumped trash. Rather than just clean up the garbage, he planted a garden, which has grown to a sprawling community collective that helps feed residents and enrich their lives.

CHAPTER I: THE GARDENER MICH. MICHIGAN MICHIGAN UNITED STATES Lansing Detroit CHRISTINA SHINTANI, NGM STAFF I F MARK COVINGTON HAD A LOOKOUT Jamesha Irving point to see the duality of life in his gathers vegetables Detroit neighborhood, the corner of at Covington’s urban Georgia Street and Vinton Avenue would garden at the Georgia be it. Street Community At first you might notice what’s officially Collective in Detroit called blight—the decaying, boarded-up homes with her fiancé, William and the eeriness of dereliction. But stand a min- Knight, and daughter, ute longer on the corner, and in the quiet of the Alijah Davis. morning you might hear the grunt of a pig, then two or three. Suddenly, there’s a ruckus. The “getting in where you fit in.” pigs—five American guinea hogs, to be exact— Covington’s odyssey began after he lost his job have gotten out again. The gate to the Georgia Street Community Col- at a hazardous-waste facility in Sterling Heights, lective has been left ajar, and the pigs are on the Michigan, in 2007. Within a couple of months he loose outside their pen. Covington, founder of had returned to his childhood street. Walking the collective and its urban farm, isn’t far behind. to a store one day, he saw garbage piled high in It’s a typical morning scene at the collec- vacant, abandoned lots. tive. Early in the day, the vibrant green crops giving life to tomatoes, cabbages, eggplants, “It was dirty,” he says. “There were always legumes, and more are awash with gold, as if vacant lots, but they had always been main- being watered by the sun. The sounds of dogs tained for children to play on. I knew that if I just and goats, pigs, roosters, and a colony of stir- cleaned them up, people would dump on them ring bees drown out the sounds of the city. All at again, but if I planted stuff, they might not.” once the neighborhood blight, though still just across the street, feels at a distance. Covington started with a small community In a place where many homes and shops are garden, and almost immediately neighbors shuttered or burned out, Covington reflects began asking to participate. One mother sent what Tocqueville called the “spirit of provin- three children to help him build a larger garden cial liberty”—community participation in self-governing—amid what Covington calls “systemic demise.” “The city has a history of neglecting us,” Cov- ington says. He’s focused on bringing back the lively neighborhood where he grew up—even as years of neglect have led some longtime residents to flee. To him, community is about 70 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

where the kids could grow food, stay busy during accumulation. They now make up a small col- the summer, and add structure to their lives. lection that helps educate visitors. When older residents dropped by to recount their difficulty paying for medicine and food, What began as an effort to remove trash and Covington made the garden a little bigger so deter littering has turned the intersection of they could pick what they needed. To his sur- Georgia and Vinton into a site of communion. On prise, the community began to grow around the one corner: a public garden with vegetable and growth of his garden. flower beds, a movie screen, and picnic tables. On another: the fruit orchard and pollinator gar- Little by little the seeds, now literal and fig- den. On another: a farm and a community center urative, took root, as the hands on the garden in a building that was established with the help that would evolve into a farm multiplied. The of a benefactor and granted to the collective by a collective now owns 15 lots, purchased from probate court judge. Nearby are garlic beds and the city with donations and grants. How the a greenhouse, funded by a grant. animals—goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, tur- keys, honeybees, two dogs, and a cat—came “It’s somewhat spiritual for me,” Covington to live at the farm is a story of serendipitous says. “It’s like a sanctuary. People come here and don’t want to leave.” K E E P E R S O F C O M M U N I T Y 71

The Tatseys hold a birthday party for a family member and invite other children from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana. They have made it their mission to help Blackfeet children learn and connect with their tribal ancestry. CHAPTER II: THE GUARDIANS ON A MISSION TO SAVE NATIVE LAND AND CULTURE



CHAPTER II: THE GUARDIANS GLACIER N.P. Blackfeet Indian Reservation Badger-Two Medicine area M O N TA N A Helena MONTANA UNITED STATES T R AV E L I N G TO T H E S AC R E D L A N D S of Badger-Two Medicine, Montana, is a journey of two parts. The first starts on a solitary road that runs to a horizon split into green and blue, cutting across broad plains and big sky. On the left is Heart Butte mountain, where fire-charred vegetation rests on land that once hoisted emer- ald pines toward the heavens. Farther along, the road cuts between the Twin Lakes and becomes John Murray, a historic preservation only tire tracks in the dirt. It’s not long before officer for the Blackfeet Nation, says that young you leave the car and mount a horse for a short people in Browning— headquarters of ride up one last jagged, rocky incline to a plateau the Blackfeet Indian Reservation—are at overlooking a gigantic expanse of nature. risk of losing their con- nection to their roots. On this day, our path farther into Badger-Two and gas drilling is one of two main causes that Medicine—130,000 acres of sacred, forested ter- are the focus of tribal leaders and at the center of Blackfeet life. The Blackfeet have fought energy- rain for the Blackfeet Nation—is temporarily related development in the region bordering the approximately 1.5-million-acre reservation and blocked by three grizzlies. Glacier National Park. It’s a battle that reflects many of the conflicts that date to the beginning This is land where, in the 1980s, the U.S. gov- of the United States’ expansion across the conti- nent: the U.S. government’s treatment of Native ernment granted 47 leases to pave the way for oil Americans, its imposition of reservations, and its acquisition of Native lands. and gas drilling, a move vigorously opposed by The other cause for Blackfeet leaders is the Blackfeet. The land’s beauty is undeniable: teaching traditions to a generation that many elders say is plagued by problems they link to Blackfeet leaders say that six years ago, when the influences of Western culture. 17 oil leases remained, Devon Energy agreed to “Sacred areas are tied to places that connect return the 15 it held after company represen- tatives visited tribal elders and recognized the land’s magnificence. (At the time, Sioux protests over a proposed pipeline in North Dakota also had drawn unfavorable attention to those seek- ing to drill on Indigenous peoples’ land.) Leases that belonged to Louisiana-based Solenex LLC were canceled by the Obama administration in 2016, a decision upheld in court in 2020. The Blackfeet, alongside activ- ists and environmental groups, continue to fight appeals by Solenex. The effort to protect the land and prevent oil 74 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

our people, families, and individuals to origin paying Native Americans a fraction of their stories, spiritual experiences, and resources land’s worth and removing them from it would needed for our ways and survival,” Terry Tatsey, be more convenient and “agreeable to the forms whose family has worked to protect the land of justice, as well as more merciful, than to assert and educate children on Blackfeet history, said the possession of them by the sword.” in an email. It’s important to connect young Blackfeet to “the practices, values, protection, The Blackfeet are still fighting the effects of and stories of our relationship to all things.” this strategy, and the role Badger-Two Medi- cine has played in keeping culture and spirit During his travels across the United States in alive here is impossible to replicate, archaeolo- the early 19th century, Tocqueville noted Con- gist Maria Nieves Zedeño says. It’s a place, she gress’s actions to claim Native lands, quoting says, where the Blackfeet historically could “be from legislative documents that described the free”—and perform ceremonies such as Sun government’s strategy to pay tribes for their land Dances outside the purview of missionaries and based on what it would be worth after the game government agents, without persecution. on it “is fled or destroyed.” Like Tatsey, John Murray, a historic preser- The documents state that to the government, vation officer for the Blackfeet, fears the tribe K E E P E R S O F C O M M U N I T Y 75

CHAPTER II: THE GUARDIANS is at risk of forgetting its traditions. Young people living in downtown Browning, Mon- tana—headquarters for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation—face the challenges of poverty, drug addiction, and suicide. Those problems have plagued a community where, in the words of the late chief Earl Old Per- son, some “strive to come back from Western influence,” while others try to embrace it. In an effort to link younger generations with their roots, Blackfeet leaders take children on field trips throughout the sacred land to teach them about the ancestors who lived there and the value in keeping it free of development. The plants, the wildlife, and the soil all have ties to the tribe’s cultural traditions. Zedeño, who has worked alongside Mur- ray for years, leads an archaeological dig that focuses on land where Blackfeet ancestors practiced a now extinct way of life. Its find- ings provided an extensive record of Blackfeet existence on the land for the lawsuits that kept Murray entangled in the decades-long battle against drilling leases. “It’s been a long road—35 years or so—but there are no wells up there,” Murray says. “There will never be drilling in Badger-Two Medicine.” The story of the Blackfeet and Badger-Two Medicine is about protecting one of America’s Native lands—a place at the genesis of Indige- nous history and creation stories, the foundation of every value in Blackfeet culture and commu- nity: family, education, identity, survival. The Blackfeet see the land as their keeper. It’s where they learned about buffalo running and pack building from the wolves and got their songs from the birds. The Blackfeet way of life is imbued with the spirit of the land. One without the other means both cease to exist in the same way. Leaders are passing on those lessons, with increasing urgency, to Blackfeet in Browning. Each July, the nation’s traditions are honored at the North American Indian Days celebration. The annual parade “brings our traditions back to people living in the downtown,” says Darrell DeRoche, a Blackfeet youth mentor. “There are some people here who have never been to Badger-Two. We are doing our best to change that, bring our traditions here, and bring people to the land. To keep our history strong.” 76 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Darrell DeRoche, wearing traditional regalia, and other Blackfeet take part in an annual summer parade in Browning for North American Indian Days. Ancestral traditions include passing on a way of life that revolves around what Blackfeet call the spirit of the land. K E E P E R S O F C O M M U N I T Y 77

Valerie Murufas sits on a tree stump next to where her house once stood in Paradise, California. She’s rebuilding her home, one of the nearly 14,000 burned down in the 2018 Camp fire—the most destruc- tive wildfire in the state’s modern history. CHAPTER III: THE caregivers A HEALING TOUCH FOR THOSE WHO LOST EVERYTHING



CHAPTER III: THE CAREGIVERS Paradise CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES Sacramento CALIFORNIA F O R R E S I D E N T S H E R E , November 8, 2018, was life changing. The Camp fire, the deadliest firestorm in California’s modern his- tory—and one of the most devastating in the United States in a hundred years—had scorched the town of Paradise in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Eighty-five people were killed in Butte County, about 50,000 displaced. Roughly Elisabeth Gundersen, a nurse practitioner, 19,000 structures—including 14,000 homes— bandages the leg of Chip Bantewski, were destroyed. who suffers from diabetes-related sores. Federally funded aid and nonprofit human- Bantewski, like some 50,000 other people, itarian organizations came and went. In some was displaced by the 2018 fire. Gundersen ways it was just as well, because there seems helped set up medical care for those in need. to be a consensus in Paradise that long-term Denise joined from neighboring Magalia, and assistance came with too many restrictions. So they held their first mobile clinic in March 2019. The clinic essentially is made up of tables and residents largely declined it. chairs set up sometimes in a building, other times in tents. It relies on donations to provide free care. Birgitte Randall, a nurse, says many who “We used our community to get what we remain in the town are living without a safety needed,” Elisabeth says. “We would get what we needed without the rules.” net. And everyone was affected, so residents Drawing from a network of volunteers, they couldn’t lean on neighbors who’d likely lost their do things made difficult by the lack of resources: refill prescriptions, order lab tests, replace docu- homes and jobs themselves. ments lost in the fire, and check vital signs. They host quarterly clinics, give vaccines, provide men- Feather River Hospital was the biggest tal health counseling, and offer general wellness screenings. When the pandemic hit, they set up employer in town and was closed for a while a 24-hour phone line to ensure that patients with after the fire. It’s where Randall and her mother, Denise Gundersen, also a nurse, had worked. “We gave good care at that hospital,” Randall says. Randall and her sister, Elisabeth Gundersen, a nurse practitioner, realized there were several gaping holes in aid. Among them: medical care and housing, which were long-standing prob- lems in the county, one of California’s poorest. Together, the sisters and their mother helped create what became Medspire Health. It started as triage. They also put out calls on social media for help. Elisabeth returned to Paradise from San Francisco, where she had lived and worked, 80 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

chronic conditions, or who were afraid to leave diabetes-related sores on his legs. their homes, could get care. They make house Bantewski describes his sores as phantoms calls or arrange for doctors to do so. The Med- spire team also works telehealth lines and treats he can feel but not see. Elisabeth and Denise, patients living in tent cities. meanwhile, teach his companion the wrapping technique so she can dress his legs at home. “When you’re poor and you need services, Almost four years after the fire, Bantewski is liv- the system really beats you down. That can be ing in a tent trailer. The Medspire team is trying degrading,” Elisabeth says. Some patients “feel to find him a proper trailer before winter. worthless, and their health is de-prioritized because of that, so we try to do concierge Medi- “We don’t care about who you are, if you have care for poor people.” insurance, if you’re rich or poor,” Elisabeth says. “You need health care; we know how to do it. Chip Bantewski, who was one of Denise’s Let’s just do it.” j patients at the hospital, was discharged the day before the fire. Today he relies on Medspire This is multimedia journalist Rebecca Lee Sanchez’s for medical care. Elisabeth and Denise meet first story for National Geographic. Andrea Bruce him with supplies in hand before dressing the photographed a story about women in politics around the world for the June 2020 issue. K E E P E R S O F C O M M U N I T Y 81

BY FERRIS JABR IMAGES BY OLIVER MECKES A N D NICOLE OTTAWA Out of Sight

The newfound species seen here is one of about 1,300 known types of tardigrades. It was discovered in moss growing on dead tree trunks in Germany’s Black Forest. Far too small to see with the unaided eye, this crea- ture is among billions of life-forms on the forest floor that are essential to the health of the planet. Magnified 24,000 times At the microscopic level, soil from Germany’s Black Forest is a fantastical realm—one that’s mirrored in wooded ecosystems worldwide. 83

A single gram of forest soil can contain as many as a billion bacteria, up to a million fungi, hundreds of thousands of protozoans, and nearly a thousand roundworms. Fungi like this Resinicium bicolor are among the first deni- zens of the forest soil to start breaking down dead trees because they can digest lignin, the complex compound that helps form woody cell walls in plants. There would be no soil without microscopic fungi, mites, worms, and other minuscule life decomposing organic material this way. 7,000 X





Scales of silica cover the single-celled body of a testate amoeba. These types of amoe- bas are named for the hard shells they create, possibly for pro- tection against envi- ronmental changes within the forest litter. 14,000 X

SCOOP A HANDFUL OF SOIL FROM THE BLACK FOREST IN GERMANY, OR THE TONGASS IN ALASKA, OR THE WAIPOUA IN NEW ZEALAND. LIFT IT CLOSE TO YOUR EYES. What do you see? D I RT, O F C O U R S E — S O F T, R I C H , and dark as cocoa. Pine needles and decaying leaves. Flecks of moss or lichen. The pale concertina of an inverted mushroom cap. An earthworm wriggling away from the light, perhaps, or an ant perplexed by the sudden change in altitude. Sue Grayston knows there is so much more. 88 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Black Forest ranger Charly Ebel (at right) helps photographer Oliver Meckes (mid- dle) and biologist Nicole Ottawa collect samples of earth where the forest has been untouched by logging for more than a hun- dred years. Meckes and Ottawa’s work is revealing the spectacu- lar diversity of life that thrives belowground and sustains the ecosystem above. ESTHER HORVATH Grayston’s lifelong devotion to soil began In college, where Grayston had access to in her backyard. As a young girl in Stockton- microscopes, she became fascinated by soil’s on-Tees, England, she helped her mother sow constellations of creatures too small to study seeds and tend to the apple trees, roses, and with the naked eye. She knew she had found her rhubarbs in their garden. Grayston loved the calling. After earning a Ph.D. in microbial ecology author Beatrix Potter—not only for her chil- from the University of Sheffield, in 1987, Grayston dren’s books about mischievous rabbits but worked for an agricultural biotechnology com- also for her scientific illustrations of fungi and pany in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, followed by the many fabulous forms they thrust through a research position with the Macaulay Land the earth. Use Research Institute (now the James Hutton O U T O F S I G H T 89



HOW WE MADE THESE IMAGES The pictures in this article were taken with a scanning electron microscope, which uses electrons instead of light to capture fine details. SEMs produce grayscale images, so these have been colorized to showcase different life-forms. A single piece of woody debris can be a bustling hub for forest microbes. Here, a bristle worm (at left) and two types of mites meet in the uppermost layer of soil in the Black Forest. Mites are particularly important to forest ecosystems, breaking down a cornucopia of dead and living matter and cycling nutrients back into the earth. 110 X

Institute) in Scotland. There she began collabo- typical lifetime of about one and a half years. rating with plant ecologists, sowing the seeds for Other creatures are so tiny that they can move an undertaking that would engross her for much of her career: the complex connections between only by squirming or paddling through the thin soil’s smallest and largest inhabitants, microbes films of water that surround plants and particles and trees. of soil. Those bizarre beings include transpar- ent, noodle-shaped roundworms; rotifers with By combining innovative field studies with whirling crowns of hairlike fibers that pull food sophisticated techniques in genetic sequenc- into their vaselike bodies; and tardigrades, ing, Grayston and other ecologists have created a which resemble eight-legged gummy bears with much richer portrait of a secret society hidden in claws and spiky suction tubes for mouths. the forest floor—a largely invisible community without which that ecosystem would collapse. Even tinier are the protozoans: a diverse group of single-celled organisms that sometimes move “A great deal of biodiversity is belowground, by fluttering their numerous appendages or by but historically, we have not known much contorting their gelatinous interiors. The forest about it,” Grayston says. “That’s really started floor also teems with all manner of bacteria and to change in the past couple decades.” archaea, which are superficially similar to bacte- ria but make up their own kingdom of life. F A R B E LOW T H E L E A F Y C A N O P I E S of many forests, webs of filamentous fungi link A single gram of forest soil can contain as roots into mycorrhizal networks through many as a billion bacteria, up to a million fungi, hundreds of thousands of protozoans, which trees exchange water, food, and and nearly a thousand roundworms. information. Single-celled amoebas fuse into Soil is not, as was once believed, an inert sub- stance in which trees and other plants conve- shape-shifting blobs called slime molds, which niently anchor themselves to extract whatever they need. It’s increasingly clear that soil is a ooze within or along the earth, hunting bacteria dynamic network of habitats and organisms—an immense, ever changing tapestry woven with the and fungi. Tiny arthropods known as springtails threads of innumerable species. Soil is itself alive. scurry around, occasionally catapulting them- Grayston and other ecologists now argue that this modern understanding requires selves more than 20 times their own body length substantial changes to forestry. The common practice of clear-cutting does far more wide- in a fraction of a second. Oribatid mites, each spread and long-lasting damage than ever imagined, they’ve discovered. It’s not enough to about one-tenth the size of a lentil, lumber along consider how felling trees alters the forest from the trunk up. To be truly sustainable, forestry what to them are mountains and canyons, walk- also needs to reckon with the consequences for all that lies beneath. ing only half the length of a bowling lane in a GERMANY EUROPE Berlin B I L L I O N S O F Y E A R S AG O, Earth had no soil—only a rocky crust that rain, BLACK FOREST wind, and ice gradually wore down. As Tuttlingen microbes, fungi, lichen, and plants pop- ulated the land, they greatly accelerated the ero- sion of rock by burrowing into it, dissolving it with secreted acids, and breaking it apart with roots. At the same time, decomposing life enriched the mineral crust with organic matter. Recogniz- able forest soils first appear in the fossil record during the Devonian period, between 420 and 360 million years ago. Today life continues to maintain Earth’s soils in all terrestrial ecosystems. The forest floor is 92 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C ROSEMARY WARDLEY, NGM STAFF. SOURCE: GREEN MARBLE

full of essential nutrients, such as carbon, nitro- Recognizable forest gen, phosphorus, and potassium. Without the soils first appear daily activities of tiny creatures, Grayston and her colleagues point out, many of these ele- in the fossil record ments would remain locked in place or other- during the Devonian wise be inaccessible. period, between As plants photosynthesize, converting the 420 and 360 sun’s energy into carbon-rich molecules, they exude a portion of these compounds through million years ago. their roots into the dirt, where microbes and fungi consume them. In exchange, mycorrhi- scientists have learned much more about the zal fungi and certain rootbound microbes help interdependence of plants and soil microbes and them absorb water and nutrients and convert the importance of these relationships for forest chemically recalcitrant forms of nitrogen into ecosystems as a whole. molecules the plants can use.  G R AYS TO N M OV E D to Vancouver in 2003 When plant parts wither and die, worms, to become a professor of microbial soil arthropods, fungi, and microbes decompose their ecology at the University of British often resilient tissues into smaller components, Columbia and has worked there ever returning their nutrients to the soil. In parallel, the continual movements of tiny animals—all since. She’s grown particularly fond of the their crawling, slithering, and tunneling— mix different layers of soil together, distrib- region’s towering western red cedars and simi- ute nutrients throughout, and keep it aerated. By digesting huge quantities of dirt, secreting lar conifers, as well as the morels, chanterelles, slimy substances, and depositing durable fecal pellets, worms, slugs, and arthropods imbue the and other delicious fungi that spring up between earth with organic matter and help particles stick together, improving soil structure. them like gifts from the forest. Here, Grayston In 2000, while working for the Macaulay Insti- and several collaborators have further inves- tute, Grayston traveled to Tuttlingen, a German town that straddles the Danube River, so that tigated how different types of forestry change she and her colleagues could investigate soils in the Black Forest. This roughly 2,300-square- soil’s microbial communities. mile region in the southwestern part of the country, known for its mountain woodlands, Many of their studies compare three types has long been prized by the mining and lumber industries. The researchers visited a few sites of logging: clear-cutting, which strips all trees distinguished by 70-to-80-year-old beeches with supple, silver barks and gnarled trunks. Beech is from a given site; aggregated retention, which one of the most common deciduous tree species in Europe, valued for firewood and timber. Some preserves clumps of trees; and dispersed reten- of the areas the team surveyed had been heavily logged; others were relatively untouched. tion, which selectively removes individual trees, Grayston used metal augers to extract plugs retaining a uniform distribution. of forest soil from the different sites, stored the samples in coolers, and whisked them back to To test soil health, Grayston and her colleagues Scotland for closer examination. Laboratory tests and cell cultures revealed that in one part buried nylon-mesh bags filled with fine roots of the woods, intensive harvesting had signifi- cantly diminished the abundance of microbes. in patches of forest that had been harvested in At the time, these connections were tantalizing different ways. They left the roots to be decom- but still rather mysterious in their details. In the past two decades, however, Grayston and other posed by the tiny animals, fungi, and microbes and dug them up a few months to several years later. Back at the lab, the researchers performed various tests—such as sequencing DNA and mea- suring levels of essential nutrients—to identify the organisms associated with the roots and determine how active they had been. In many cases, clear-cutting reduced soil bio- diversity and hindered nutrient cycles. Intensive logging also frequently shifted the demographics O U T O F S I G H T 93

Fungal filaments frame a spiky-bodied rotifer, a microscopic animal common in freshwater ecosystems. In soil, rotifers propel them- selves through the thin films of water that surround plant parts and dirt particles, eating organic debris along the way. 2,400 X



CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Looking like a fairy’s gift basket, the fruiting body of a slime mold releases spores from its perch on woody debris draped in fungal filaments. Slime molds feast on other microbes found in decaying plant matter. 400 X Commonly known as hairybacks, the micro- scopic animals in the phylum Gastrotricha survive in the thin films of water that perme- ate soil particles. They move through damp earth using their hairlike cilia, searching for bac- teria, microalgae, and other microbes to eat. 2,500 X Most springtails, like the pair seen here, grow no larger than a fifth of an inch. The name comes from the tail-like appendage that allows them to leap more than 20 times their own body length to escape danger. 100 X This amoeba from the genus Korotnevella was found in wet forest soil. These single-celled crea- tures can be formidable predators, enveloping bacteria, fungi, and other microbes with their amorphous bodies and digesting them whole. 10,000 X 96 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

O U T O F S I G H T 97

of soil communities, allowing a relatively small researchers moved from the remaining patches number of species to dominate. of trees, the more lifeless the soil became. But not all harvesting methods were equally Related research tracing the flow of carbon detrimental. The abundance, diversity, and through tree roots revealed that the zone of activity of microbes remained relatively high influence of a tree or cluster of trees—the area throughout stands that had been uniformly across which they actively supply microbes thinned. In sites reduced to clumps of trees, and other tiny organisms with carbon-rich the researchers found similarly robust and lively molecules—extends about 33 feet on average. communities of microbes only in the immedi- Retaining patches of trees in otherwise naked ate vicinity of those clumps. The farther the soil—even large patches—can do only so much. 98 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Outside of a 33-foot zone surrounding those veg- etal islands, microbial populations will suffer. Dispersed retention is better for soil health, Grayston says, because it typically preserves a tree every 46 to 52 feet, which allows their roots and respective zones of influence to overlap, providing carbon to microbes throughout the forest floor. Dispersed retention and other selective meth- ods of harvesting are becoming more common in some regions of the world, but clear-cutting is still widely practiced in North America because it is more efficient, costs less, and requires less complicated machinery. Aggregated retention usually is favored over dispersed retention for similar reasons. “We need to reconsider forestry practices,” says environmental microbiologist Petr Baldrian of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology. “Clear-cutting is economical, but it comes at a huge cost to the state of the soil. We need to find a balance between the needs of industry and the needs of the forest.” R E F L E C T I N G O N T H E F U T U R E of Earth’s forests—in particular, their soils—Gray- ston is both excited and concerned. She’s thrilled by the grand mystery of all that remains to be discovered, which is essen- tially why she chose to study microscopic life in the first place. “We’ve made a lot of strides,” Grayston says, “but we still don’t know who is actually active at certain times and which spe- cific organisms are really important for different processes in the soil.” At the same time, she is alarmed by the con- tinued decline of forests in many parts of the world because of overharvesting, poor land man- agement, and the stresses of climate change. Some mycorrhizal Given that Earth’s overlapping ecosystems are fungi make their homes so highly interconnected and so integral to the inside plant cells, as seen in this cross survival of complex life, the damage we inflict section of a European blueberry root. This on the planet’s trees and soils ultimately harms symbiosis allows soil residents of very differ- us too. ent sizes to exchange nutrients—a beneficial “We’d be buried knee-deep in litter if we didn’t balance for the forest. have soil microorganisms,” Grayston says. “With- 2,200 X out them, life on Earth would cease. They could do fine without us, but we couldn’t do much without them.” j Ferris Jabr is a science writer based in Oregon. Photographer Oliver Meckes and biologist Nicole Ottawa document the microscopic world through their project Eye of Science. O U T O F S I G H T 99

SAVING YEMEN’S As war threatens millions of Yemenis, historians and archaeologists are struggling to

HISTORY preserve symbols of a prosperous, ancient culture. BY IONA CRAIG PHOTOGRAPHS BY MOISES SAMAN Laborers in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa rebuild a 350-year-old mud-brick residence owned by the Al Jerafi family. The city, controlled by Houthi rebels since 2014, is subject to air strikes from a coalition force led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. One attack in 2015 damaged the Al Jerafis’ home, which has been in the family for 150 years. 101



Young souvenir ven- dors playfully await visitors at the rubble- strewn entrance to Kawkaban, a popular tourist destination. An air strike in February 2016 destroyed the millennia-old citadel, killing seven people.

Aida Ahmed Moham- med (behind desk), the director of the National Museum of Aden, meets with her staff in an empty exhi- bition hall. More than 2,000 of the museum’s most valuable artifacts are stored in a bank vault in the port city of Aden.



S TA N D I N G AT T H E B OT TO M of a Children forced from dusty wadi, I crane my neck to take in the huge their homes by Houthi structure rising above me: row upon row of pre- advances pass time cisely cut stone, set seamlessly without mortar around a tree in a dis- some 2,500 years ago, soaring 50 feet into the placement camp in the fading desert sky. desert on the outskirts of Marib. Once the To call this ancient engineering marvel a seat of the powerful mere dam feels almost derogatory. When the ancient kingdom of Great Dam of Marib was built in what is now Saba, modern Marib Yemen, its earth-and-stone walls spanned an has evolved from a area nearly twice as wide as Hoover Dam. The sleepy oil town to the still standing colossal sluices were part of a front line of a civil war. sophisticated system that controlled the flow of seasonal rains from Yemen’s highlands to its parched desert in the east, nurturing agri- cultural oases across almost 25,000 acres of wasteland. And in the middle of it all, a thriving economic hub: Marib, capital of Saba, the Ara- bian kingdom most famously associated with its legendary leader Bilqis, immortalized in the 106 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Bible and the Quran as the queen of Sheba. wealth now lies in oil and gas reserves beneath At Marib’s peak, starting in the eighth century the sands of the surrounding governorate with the same name. This makes the city a stra- B.C., this dam was the source of prosperity for tegic target in the war between Yemen’s Houthi the Sabaean capital—and the reason it existed as rebels and a Saudi Arabia and United Arab a fertile, food-producing, water-abundant stop- Emirates–led coalition supporting local forces ping point for thirsty camels and hungry traders. opposed to the Houthis’ expansion, a war that has wracked Yemen for eight years. Since 2020 The kingdom flourished in southern Arabia, the ancient capital has been the primary front where prized frankincense, myrrh, and other and one of the last metropolitan redoubts for the aromatic resins were bought and sold at the internationally recognized Yemeni government. affluent heart of an incense trail that stretched from India to the Mediterranean. Saba was also In the failing light I wander around the remain- a critical point of the caravan economy, where ing walls of the dam’s network of barriers, awed valuables such as ivory, pearls, silks, and pre- at the construction of the massive earthen walls cious woods were taxed as they moved between and wondering at the complex logistics required East and West. to sustain a thriving city in southern Arabia Fast-forward to the 21st century, and Marib’s S AV I N G Y E M E N ’ S H I S T O R Y 107

TURKEY TURKM. FRACTURED LAND Medit. Sea SYRIA Tehran Yemen has long been divided among various factions. In the IRAQ A AFG. seventh century A.D., its disparate kingdoms gave way to conflict I IRAN between Shiite and Sunni Muslim sects. Centuries later, its stra- JORDAN S tegic trade location piqued the competitive interests of foreign KUWAIT powers. Today a civil war is costing Yemen both its past and its A present, as archaeological riches are destroyed and lives are lost. BAHRAIN PAK. QATAR EGYPT Red Sea Riyadh Abu Dhabi SAUDI ARABIA ian Sea 750 miles, U.A.E. OMAN maximum range of Arab Houthi missiles SUDAN 300 mi 300 km ERIT. YEMEN Sanaa AFRICA Houthi forces have launched Iranian-supplied missiles into Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. Farasan Sadah COHGNCOOTOUVRNTOEHTRLRINOMLENT Al Kharitah Sand Islands Al Harf Kingdom of Saba Midi Harad From about 800 B.C. until A.D. 275, the kingdom prospered through the lucrative incense trade. Some scholars believe the biblical queen MAIN of Sheba hailed from here. Red Hajjah Amran YE Al Mahwit BA Kamaran I. Tihamah A As Salif KawkabaSnANAA S Great Dam of Marib Al Hudaydah Once omvoere2t,0h0a0n f2e,0e0t 0lonfege,tthloisng, Sea ethigishethig-chethnt-uceryntBu.Cry. eBn.Cg.iennegerinineger- Dam ifnegatfeoaf thoef tShaebaSeabanaekainngkdinogmdodmis- M dtriisbturitbeudtseedasoenaasol wnatl ewrsa,taelrlos,w- ḨIMYAR Great a ainllgofwoirnigrrifgoartierdrigfaartmedingfaarmnding. Shabwah Most rib air strikes, over 1,700 Timna Bayt al Faqih QATABAN Dhamar Zabid Rada A W S A N Jabal Zuqar Ataq Island Al Hanish Ibb Habban al Kabir I. EA District with Taizz Al Bayda R the highest total IT air strike deaths, 348 R E Al Mukha (Mocha) ed) u n c i l National Resistance TArraabnEsmi itriLaotaehnsijbCaock Shuqrah (U.A.E. backed) Port of Aden H S o u thern Jaar (United This natural harbor has been a ETHIOPIA Bab el MMaa ndeb hub of trade for over three mil- yyuinsn(PMeruimra)d lennia. The Yemeni government DJIBOUTI Aden moved to the city in 2015 after Houthi rebels captured Sanaa. Gulf of Aden Brief history of yemen 1000 B.C.-A.D. 600 525-628 897 1839 NOV. 1967 Caravan kingdoms Religious strife Shiite north Age of empires Independence Ancient city-states Spreading Jewish Followers of Zaidi Britain captures the Hastened by a including Main, Saba, and Christian faiths Islam, a Shiite sect, port of Aden, which bloody insurgency, Qataban, and Him- replace native poly- establish a dynasty in becomes a protector- Britain fully with- yar flourish in the theism. They yield northern Yemen that ate. A decade later draws from South relatively fertile high- to a succession of endures for centuries the Ottoman Empire Yemen. North Yemen lands along profitable Muslim leaders in a variety of forms occupies the north, had been autono- trade routes. starting in 628. until the 1960s. including Sanaa. mous since 1918. MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF. SCOTT ELDER SOURCES: ARMED CONFLICT LOCATION AND EVENT DATA PROJECT; CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE; RISK INTELLIGENCE; YEMEN DATA PROJECT; ANCIENT YEMEN DIGITAL ATLAS, GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE; LANDSCAN 2020, OAKRIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY; DATA @OPENSTREET MAP

RUB AL KHALI SAUDI ARABIA Empty Quarter The Rub al Khali, meaning “quarter of emptiness,” is a nearly Texas-size desert on the Arabian Peninsula— and holds the largest “dune sea” in the world. Ibn Hamudah Desert Shiqaq al Maatif Sand N OMAN Shihan Thamud h il E M a Fatk Mountains n As Sayar a M Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Formed from the Saudi and Yemeni branches of the militant Islamist group, the nonaligned AQAP remains active, car- Shibam rying out sporadic attacks in the region. Sayun Al Ghayzah Al Qamar Al Mahrah Bay HADRAMAWT Haswayn a m i E l i t e Forces H a d r Q u a y t i Sayhut Al Sea Al Mukalla Ash Shihr Arabian Civil war factions Deaths from coalition air strikes Ancient Yemen Houthi populated area (Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., and regional Archaeologically rich area allies backed by the U.S., 2015-2022) SABA Major ancient kingdom Houthi Yemeni government control populated area 300 fatalities in district Government Force allied 150 control with government 50 Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) District bombed, no fatalities 30 mi N 30 km MAY 1990 OCT. 2000 SEPT. 2014 MAR. 2015 APR. 2022 Unification U.S.S. Cole bombed Rebellion Wider conflict Stepping down South Yemen loses Al Qaeda attacks the Amid protests A Saudi and Emirati– President Abdrabbuh crucial support U.S. warship in Aden’s against a planned led coalition enters Mansour Hadi, who from the collaps- harbor. In 2002 the new constitution the war in support replaced Saleh in ing U.S.S.R.; north U.S. retaliates with its and rising fuel prices, of the ousted gov- 2012, cedes power and south join under first successful tar- Zaidi Houthi forces ernment and begins to a governing northern leader Ali geted drone strike, seize Sanaa and the an aerial bombing council amid a Abdallah Saleh. near Marib. port of Al Hudaydah. campaign. nationwide truce. AREAS OF CONTROL ARE SHOWN AS OF JUNE 2022.

Members of a wedding party made up of local tribesmen visit the ruins of the nearly 3,000-year-old Awwam Temple, where Sabaeans once worshipped their god of irrigation and agriculture, Almaqah. The temples of Marib are at risk as Houthis fight to seize the city.