2022-09-01 National Geographic Interactive

09.2022

America the Beautiful

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FOR PROTECTING
LAND, WATER,
AND WILDLIFE

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FURTHER SEPTEMBER 2022

CONTENTS On the Cover

Hikers trek to the Citadel
in Utah’s Bears Ears
National Monument, an
American treasure that’s
been politically contested.
The photograph is a com-
posite of 44 images taken
over a period of 36 hours.

STEPHEN WILKES

PROOF EXPLORE

19
THE BIG IDEA
8 31
Everest Broke It.
The Bears of Summer Scientists Fixed It. AT L A S
Polar bears lounging Climbers installed a
in soft beds of purple next-gen weather A Turbulent Trip
flowers? A photogra- station to withstand Around the World
pher reveals the lesser extreme conditions at On the 500th anniver-
known life of the ice the top of the world. sary of the first circling
bear during the Arctic’s of the globe, its history
warm season. BY FREDDIE WILKINSON remains murky in spots.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY A R T I FAC T BY MONICA SERRANO,

MARTIN GREGUS, JR. On the Trail of SOREN WALLJASPER,
Toxic Green Tomes
These pretty but poi- PAT R I C I A H E A LY, A N D
sonous books may be
lurking in your library. EVE CONANT

BY JUSTIN BROWER I N N OVATO R

ALSO Seeking Solutions in
Amazonian Microbes
Grass-Cutting Voles Scientist Rosa Vásquez
Grenades of the Crusades? Espinoza hopes to find
therapeutic organisms
in Peru’s Boiling River.

BY HICKS WOGAN

S E P T E M B E R | CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S America in Keepers of Saving History
a New Light Community in Yemen
As the climate warms, In a politically divided Preservationists try to
it’s more important time, altruists bring salvage a rich culture
than ever to protect Americans together. as civil war rages on.
the nation’s natural
wonders—for the sake BY REBECCA LEE BY IONA CRAIG
of animals, plants, and
people. A big part of SANCHEZ; PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS BY
this effort: expanding
how we think about B Y A N D R E A B R U C E . . . . P. 64 M O I S E S S A M A N . . . . P. 100
conservation.
Out of Sight A Beach for All
BY EMMA MARRIS Forest floors teem In Bangladesh, locals
with microscopic and from varied walks of
PHOTOGRAPHS BY fantastical creatures. life stroll this long
stretch of sand.
STEPHEN WILKES BY FERRIS JABR
BY NINA STROCHLIC
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PHOTOGRAPHS BY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
D E N I S E N E S T O R . . . . . . . . P. 36 OLIVER MECKES AND
I S M A I L F E R D O U S . . . . . P. 126
N I C O L E O T TAWA . . . . . P. 82

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S E P T E M B E R | FROM THE EDITOR

SINCE 1888, Meet the New
THE MAGAZINE Editor in Chief

HAS HAD
11 EDITORS IN

CHIEF.

B Y NATHAN LUMP P H OTO G R A P H B Y MARK THIESSEN

W H E N I WA S A K I D growing up in a associated with an organization that At National Geographic’s
small town in Wisconsin, I was a vora- has had such outsize influence on my Washington, D.C., head-
cious reader with eclectic tastes. One life. In the coming months, we’ll be quarters, the magazine
week I’d get into comets. Then whales. formulating plans for National Geo- archive is full of issues I
Herculaneum. Tectonic plates. Senegal. graphic’s future, in our effort to remain remember from my youth,
I’d read something that would pique my as essential, relevant, and authorita- including this May 1986
interest, and head to the library to find tive as ever. I’m excited about what we edition with a cover story
books from which I could learn more. have ahead for you, and I hope you’ll about the Serengeti.
join us on the journey.
I was lucky that my grandmother—
someone who taught me a lot about the
benefit of remaining curious through-
out life—gave our family a subscription
to National Geographic when I was
eight or nine years old. More often than
not, the catalyst for my new obsession
was an article in the magazine that
exposed me to something I hardly
knew existed or that I thought I knew
but didn’t really understand.

As I grew older, it was National Geo-
graphic that opened my eyes to the
wonder of our world. What I discovered
in its pages helped me build a more
complete and nuanced picture of our
planet—the glory, the challenges, and
above all, the thrilling diversity of peo-
ple, places, and things.

It was also National Geographic
that ultimately inspired me to get
out there and do my own exploring.
Experiencing more of our world not
only increased my knowledge; it rein-
forced the importance and urgency of
preserving and protecting our planet.

Although this issue is my first as
National Geographic’s editor in chief,
our incredibly talented team produced
it mostly before my arrival. As a reader,
I’d particularly recommend our fasci-
nating cover story, “America in a New
Light,” which explores the frontiers
of American conservation as we look
to protect 30 percent of our land and
water by 2030.

I’m delighted to be able to intro-
duce myself here, and honored to be



EDITOR IN CHIEF Nathan Lump STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Becky Hale, Mark Thiessen NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS
PHOTO ENGINEER Tom O’Brien
SENIOR MANAGEMENT JUNIOR PHOTO ENGINEER Matt Norton BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ENGINEERING COORDINATOR Eric Flynn
EXECUTIVE EDITOR/HISTORY & CULTURE SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER Alexandra Moreo Rebecca Campbell, Jean M. Case, Joshua W.
D’Amaro, Kareem Daniel, Robert H. Langer, Kevin
Debra Adams Simmons CARTOGRAPHY J. Maroni, Debra M. O’Connell, Fredrick J. Ryan, Jr.,
MANAGING EDITOR/MAGAZINES David Brindley Jill Tiefenthaler, Michael L. Ulica
SENIOR EDITORS Riley D. Champine,
SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR/NEWS & FEATURES Matthew W. Chwastyk, Christine Fellenz NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MEDIA
EDITORS Soren Walljasper, Rosemary P. Wardley
Indira Lakshmanan SENIOR MAP EDITOR Scott Zillmer EVP & GENERAL MANAGER
GIS MANAGER Yanli Gong
DIRECTOR/VISUALS & IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES RESEARCH EDITOR Patricia Healy David E. Miller

Whitney Latorre INFOGRAPHICS SENIOR MANAGEMENT
MANAGING EDITOR/DIGITAL Alissa Swango
DIRECTOR John Tomanio VP INTERNATIONAL MEDIA Yulia Boyle
MANAGING EDITOR/INTEGRATED STORYTELLING SENIOR ARTISTS Fernando G. Baptista, Alberto VP DIGITAL EXPERIENCES Marcelo Galdieri
Lucas López VP MARKETING Julianne Galvin
Michael Tribble SENIOR EDITORS Manuel Canales, Monica Serrano, SVP & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Nathan Lump
Jason Treat DIRECTOR/PRINT OPERATIONS John MacKethan
NEWS/FEATURES ASSOCIATE MANAGER/PRODUCTION Diana Marques
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Katie Armstrong, Taylor NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
EXECUTIVE EDITOR/LONG FORM David Lindsey Maggiacomo, Lucas Petrin
EXECUTIVE EDITOR/SHORT FORM Patricia Edmonds CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR/SHORT FORM Brooke Sabin INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING
EDITORS AT LARGE Peter Gwin, John Hoeffel Dr. Jill Tiefenthaler
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, DIRECTOR Kennedy Elliott
Heather Greenwood Davis, Nadia Drake, Robert MANAGER Brian T. Jacobs SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Draper, Cynthia Gorney SENIOR EDITOR Ryan Morris
SENIOR EDITOR/SHORT FORM Eve Conant PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Gretchen Ortega SENIOR DEVELOPERS Abhinanda Bhattacharyya,
EDITORIAL PROJECT MANAGER Nia Cheney Eric Blom, Alice Fang Michael L. Ulica
UX DESIGN EDITOR Nicole Thompson
ANIMALS GRAPHICS EDITOR Ben Scott CHIEF DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION OFFICER

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Rachael Bale DESIGN Shannon P. Bartlett
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Christine Dell’Amore
SENIOR EDITOR Oliver Payne DIRECTOR Marianne Seregi CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING & BRAND
SENIOR WRITER/EDITOR Douglas Main MANAGER Hannah Tak
WRITER/EDITOR Natasha Daly SENIOR EDITORS Elaine Bradley, Tim Parks, OFFICER Crystal Brown
WILDLIFE WATCH REPORTERS Dina Fine Maron, Hilary VanWright CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER Mara Dell
Rachel Fobar EDITOR Sandi Owatverot CHIEF SCIENCE & INNOVATION OFFICER Ian Miller
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sakke Overlund CHIEF EXPLORER ENGAGEMENT OFFICER Alex Moen
ENVIRONMENT CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER T.J. Tucker CHIEF ADVANCEMENT OFFICER Kara Ramirez Mullins
RESIDENT Alisa Gao CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER Sumeet Seam
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Robert Kunzig
SENIOR EDITOR Lori Cuthbert IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & INFORMATION OFFICER
SENIOR WRITER/EDITOR Laura Parker
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WRITERS Alejandra Borunda, Sarah Gibbens SENIOR MANAGER Jennifer Murphy CHIEF OF STAFF & PROGRAM ALIGNMENT Kim Waldron
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HISTORY & CULTURE Zach Baumgartner, Veda Shastri CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Rob Young
PRODUCERS/EDITORS Rebekah Barlas, Tiffany
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR Nancy San Martín D’Emidio, Shweta Gulati, Milaena Hamilton BOARD OF TRUSTEES
SENIOR EDITOR Glenn Oeland
SENIOR ARCHAEOLOGY WRITER/EDITOR Kristin Romey AUDIO CHAIRMAN Jean M. Case
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SENIOR EDITORS Jay Bennett, Bijal P. Trivedi Mark C. Moore, George Muñoz, Nancy E. Pfund,
WRITERS Michael Greshko, Maya Wei-Haas SOCIAL MEDIA & AUDIENCE Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., Rajiv Shah, Ellen R. Stofan,
REPORTING RESIDENT Priyanka Runwal Jill Tiefenthaler, Anthony A. Williams
DEVELOPMENT
TRAVEL EXPLORER IN RESIDENCE
DIRECTOR Chris Thorman
EXECUTIVE EDITOR George W. Stone SENIOR MANAGERS Sarah Gardner, Josh Raab Enric Sala
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EDITOR Allie Yang Nathan Strauss
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Starlight Williams AUDIENCE PRODUCERS Delaney Gordon, Shahidul Alam, Robert Ballard, Lee R. Berger,
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Brad Scriber MULTIPLATFORM PUBLISHING

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Janey Adams
MANAGER Francis Rivera
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ANIMALS
PRODUCTION SERVICES
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Alexa Keefe
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PRODUCTION MANAGER Mike Lappin
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ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Anne Farrar INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS
PHOTO EDITOR Dominique Hildebrand
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SCIENCE

SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Todd James
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ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Ian Morton

TRAVEL

SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Maura Friedman
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PHOTO EDITOR/SHORT FORM Julie Hau
SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHY SPECIALIST Elena Sheveiko
PHOTO COORDINATOR Maya Valentine

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|N A T G E O E X P E D I T I O N S . C O M 1 - 8 8 8 - 3 5 1 - 3 2 7 4

PROOF

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
VOL. 242 NO. 3

THE BEARS
OF SUMMER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LOOKING
MARTIN GREGUS, JR. AT THE
EARTH
During the short summers of the FROM
Canadian Arctic, polar bears take to E V E RY
the land—and the land takes on a POSSIBLE
vibrant array of colors. ANGLE

8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Even as a drone hovered
above to get this shot,
a large male polar bear
that photographer Martin
Gregus, Jr., calls Scar never
stirred in this bed of fire-
weed. Gregus says he
named many of the bears in
hopes it would help people
relate to them as individu-
als needing protection.

SEPTEMBER 2022 9

PROOF

Top left: The bears that Gregus calls Betty and Veronica wrestled over this boulder for nearly an hour before he caught
them forming the shape of a heart. The two seemed inseparable, often playing and hunting together. Top right: Two large
cubs appear to guard their mother while a male passes by, just out of the frame. For Gregus, the image recalls Cerberus, the
10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

multiheaded dog of Greek mythology. Bottom right: Aurora and her cub, Beans, hunker down as a storm approaches.
Thunder and lightning have recently become more frequent in this region as a result of climate change, Gregus says.
Every time the sky cracked, the bears started shaking, like dogs hearing fireworks.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 11

PROOF

Polar bears spend so much time in the water that many scientists consider them to be marine mammals. In some cases,
they’ve been recorded swimming for more than a week straight and clocking over 400 miles. To get underwater images
12 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

like this one of a polar bear moving from melting sea ice onto dry land, Gregus developed camera rigs and techniques that
allowed him to get close to the animals without being seen by them.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 13

PROOF

In this part of the Arctic, everything’s flat, Gregus says. That means even a small boulder can provide a better view—if a
bear hasn’t succumbed to sleep, that is. The bears, including Veronica (shown), often stood on this rock, scouring the area
14 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

for seals to eat or bears to avoid. Gregus hopes to return to this coast, where he sees the bears “thriving and adapting to
the environment.” But he knows that in most of their range, polar bears are suffering from the warming temperatures.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 15

PROOF

THE BACKSTORY

A MONTH AMONG SUMMERING POLAR BEARS SHOWS A SOFTER
SIDE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST TERRESTRIAL PREDATOR.

“ YO U A LWAYS S E E polar bears on ice female, Wilma, appeared to be so
and snow,” says photographer Martin comfortable with Gregus that she’d
Gregus, Jr. “But it’s not like they stop nurse her cubs, Pebbles and Bamm-
living in the summertime.” Determined Bamm, close enough for him to hear
to reveal this less depicted angle on the their purring. Gregus also witnessed
bears, he constructed a field station on behaviors he’d rarely seen before, such
the back of a small boat and spent 33 as bears grazing on plants and hunting
days north of Churchill, Manitoba, in tern chicks by chasing them into the
the summers of 2020 and 2021. surf. For now, actions like those may be
helping this polar bear population cope
The more Gregus studied the bears, with the effects of climate change—but
the more he learned of their person- others elsewhere are starving.
alities. There was the persistent cub
he named Hercules. He lost a leg yet “All of these pictures show bears that
managed to survive his first two sum- are fat, healthy, and playful,” Gregus
mers. An enormous female, Wanda says. So although from a global per-
(below), seemed to be feared by other spective everything may be going wrong
bears but spent her days doing yoga- for polar bears, “obviously something’s
like stretches in the fireweed. Another going right here.” —JA S O N B I T T E L

“We’d look around and say, ‘Where’s Wanda?’ Because if she was there, we didn’t have to
worry about any other bears,” says Gregus, of the large but laid-back female.



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detachment 777 Old Saw Mill River Road
Tarrytown, NY 10591
• You may experience temporary visual changes after an EYLEA injection
and associated eye exams; do not drive or use machinery until your EYLEA is a registered trademark of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
vision recovers sufficiently
© 2020, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. All rights reserved.
• Because EYLEA is composed of large molecules, your body may react to Issue Date: November 2020
it; therefore, there is a potential for an immune response (allergy-like) Initial U.S. Approval: 2011
in patients treated with EYLEA based on the August 2019 EYLEA® (aflibercept) injection full Prescribing information.

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EXPLORE IN THIS SECTION

Poisonous Books
Lawn Mowing Voles
Amazonian Microbes
Spanning the Globe

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 242 NO. 3

Everest Broke It.
Scientists Fixed It.

IN 2020 EARTH’S HIGHE ST WEATHER STATION WENT DARK. NOW A NEW,
IMPROVED VERSION HAS BEEN DEPLOYED AT THE ROOF OF THE WORLD.

BY FREDDIE WILKINSON

O N A P I C T U R E - P O STC A R D DAY I N 2 0 2 1 , Tenzing Gyal-
zen Sherpa crested the Balcony, a windswept rest spot
high on Mount Everest’s Southeast Ridge. In front of
his crampons, half buried in the hardened snow, were
the remains of the world’s highest weather station.

When the station was first assembled and bolted to
the rock, it looked like an elaborate backyard antenna
festooned with bird feeders and weather vanes. In
reality it was $30,000 of precision instruments to
measure wind, humidity, temperature, solar radi-
ation, and barometric pressure. Now the mangled
seven-foot-tall mast lay on its side, embedded in ice.

Tenzing, a 31-year-old electrician and mountain
guide, removed his phone from his down suit and
began taking pictures of the scene. The Balcony
Station had stopped transmitting on January 20,
2020—seven months after it was installed. It was
one of five automatic weather stations placed in May
2019 as part of a partnership between the National

PROPELLER ANEMOMETER ILLUSTRATION: TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFF

E X P L O R E || THE BIG IDEA What the weather
stations detected
READINGS FROM THE
STATION INSTALLED IN 2019 NECPHAINL AMt. Everest
29,032 ft
HAVE PROVIDED A TROVE 8,849 m
OF INSIGHTS INTO THE
Balcony Station
METEOROLOGICAL ‘HIDDEN
REALM’ OF EVEREST AND 2 mi ASIA
2 km
SURROUNDING MOUNTAINS. Mt.
Everest
Geographic Society; Tribhuvan University in Kath-
mandu, Nepal; and the Nepalese government, with
funding from Rolex. The project’s co-leaders, climate
scientists Tom Matthews and Baker Perry, say the sta-
tion readings relayed via satellite have provided a trove
of insights into the meteorological “hidden realm” of
Everest and the surrounding Hindu Kush Himalaya.

Kneeling in the snow next to the wrecked station,
Tenzing removed a screwdriver and wrench from his
pack and unfastened a small gray Pelican case that
was bolted to the mast. In it was a data logger that
contained the last information the station had col-
lected before succumbing to the extreme conditions.

A B O U T T H E T I M E the Balcony Station stopped trans-
mitting, the wind sensors below it—at the next high-
est station, on the South Col—went off-line as well.
“We saw a gust of about 150-odd miles an hour right
before, so there’s no wondering what happened,”
Matthews says. Then before that technology could
be repaired, COVID-19 halted all activity on Ever-
est’s south side for 2020. It wasn’t until last year that
Tenzing and another Sherpa finally could visit the
Everest network for its first official maintenance.

At the lower stations they installed new sensors,
replaced batteries, and inspected fittings and bolts.
Tenzing then proceeded up to the Balcony Station
to assess the damage and retrieve its data logger.

But he wasn’t done. The team already was plan-
ning the mangled equipment’s replacement, an
improved weather station, and Tenzing was to survey
a new, higher location for it. He continued upward
until he reached Bishop Rock, a landmark named for
Barry Bishop, a former National Geographic maga-
zine editor and member of the first U.S. expedition to
summit Everest, in 1963. At 28,904 feet, Bishop Rock
is about 131 vertical feet below the summit—and the
chosen site for the new station.

AGA I N ST T H E W E AT H E R , any moving part will even-
tually fail. Ask Keith Garrett.

As director of technology at the Mount Washington
Observatory in New Hampshire, Garrett maintains
a network of 18 automated weather stations across
the White Mountains. Sitting in the trajectory of
three major storm tracks and only a hundred miles
from the North Atlantic, Mount Washington rou-
tinely records winds in excess of 100 miles an hour
during more than a hundred days a year. “We’ll see

20 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Among the revelations still emerging from 2019 and 2020 On the 2022 National
weather station data: High-altitude snow and ice have been Geographic Society–led
vanishing much faster than previously thought. “The summit expedition, Kami Temba
of Mount Everest may well be the sunniest place on Earth,” Sherpa (at left) and
climate scientist Tom Matthews says—and when that energy Tenzing Gyalzen Sherpa
is reflected from or absorbed into the mountain’s surface, it install the new weather
causes solid ice to change directly to vapor, producing signifi- station. Its data will
cant losses of the ice mass even at air temperatures well below provide information on
zero. “There’s more melting going on than we knew at high subjects from melting
altitude,” he says, “which affects our estimates of how much glaciers to changing
snow there is” and can affect appraisals of glaciers’ sensitiv- crop cycles.
ity to temperature change. Station data also produced useful
findings for Everest mountaineers: For example, Matthews PHOTO: ARBINDRA KHADKA,
discovered that the amount of oxygen available to climbers NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
on the upper slopes varies considerably with the weather. NGM MAPS

Ultimately, what the station network tracks will touch the lives S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 21
of 1.9 billion people who rely on the region’s freshwater. —F W

E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA

temperature sensors ripped clean off,” Garrett says. Bishop Rock at 9 a.m. The wind raked over Everest at
“I’m trying to think of something that has not broken.” 45 miles an hour, pushing the windchill down
All this made Mount Washington ideal for testing to 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
version two of the Everest weather stations.
As weather station setup began, Matthews found
Violent winds were a key factor the team had to the fingers on his right hand were wooden with frost-
consider. Part of the benefit of putting a weather bite; he could offer no real help. But the Sherpa guides
station near Everest’s summit is that it can measure had been preparing for this moment since 2019. Eight
the jet stream. But that also means the wind sen- team members each climbed with a 24-volt battery
sors have to be able to endure sustained periods of in their down suit, warming it for use in the drill
hurricane-force winds. installing the vital anchor bolts.

And yet a station’s wind sensors generally are In the biting air, installation took about three hours,
among its most vulnerable instruments. Even sturdy an hour longer than the team had hoped. Tenzing
devices will require maintenance or new parts, Gar- completed the final wiring to power up the station.
rett says, especially in Everest’s harsh conditions. By the time he, Matthews, and their Sherpa partners
made it back to the South Col several hours later,
By far the most durable wind sensor is a pitot the new station was already sending data. “We have
tube anemometer, invented in the 18th century by a good chance of measuring a full winter’s wind,”
French engineer Henri Pitot. Widely used in modern Matthews notes. “That would be fascinating.”
aviation, it’s the narrow metal tube protruding from
the wings and noses of aircraft. It has a big advan- Meanwhile, news had broken that a Chinese team
tage of no moving parts and the big disadvantage of had installed its own network of seven weather sta-
weighing a lot to carry up a mountain. So, working tions on Everest—on the mountain’s north side, the
in collaboration with the National Geographic team, opposite side from the climb Tenzing, Matthews, and
Garrett radically stripped down existing pitot tech- Perry led. As for the altitude of the highest station in
nology, reducing a 44-pound system to less than five. the Chinese network: It’s reported to be roughly the
same elevation as Bishop Rock. Just a stone’s throw
After a winter of testing on Mount Washington’s from the summit.
summit, the new sensor seemed viable. It only needed
to be carried to the roof of the world and installed. Does this mean that there’s a new international
race to put weather stations on the world’s highest
T H I S PA S T S P R I N G , P E R RY, M AT T H E W S , and Tenzing mountain? Matthews downplays such talk. “I believe
returned to Everest. With them were 12 other Sherpas, more information coming from Everest is far better
most participants in the original weather station expe- for everyone,” he says. j
dition. The team assembled at Base Camp, along with
hundreds of recreational mountaineers and guides Freddie Wilkinson is a professional alpinist and mountain guide.
congregating for the main 2022 climbing season. The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and
protecting the wonder of our world, funds the work of Explorers,
The new station they brought to install on Bishop from mountains and rainforests to the ocean. Learn more about
Rock had several upgraded components, including the Perpetual Planet Expeditions at natgeo.com/perpetualplanet.
the new ultralight pitot tube wind sensor design. The
plan was to remove parts of the destroyed station at 1
the Balcony and assemble the new one at the Bishop
Rock site Tenzing had scouted the year before. 2
3
Though the trek to install the station was not with-
out risk, it would yield direct benefits. Weather data 4
are essential to a big mountain climb, helping guides
plan expeditions and keep clients safe. Then if things 5
go wrong and a climber must be retrieved, provid- 7
ing real-time data to helicopter pilots and rescuers
greatly increases the odds of success. Tenzing puts 68
it simply: “We save more climbers’ lives.”

On May 9, team members began to arrive at

Top of the world tools 9

1. Lightning protection device 2. Wind vane 3. Stainless steel, 10
three-cup anemometer (wind speed) 4. Propeller anemometer
(wind speed and direction) 5. Satellite communication device
6. Pitot tube anemometer (wind pressure) 7. Air temperature
and relative humidity sensors 8. Net radiometer 9. Solar panels
10. Protective cases housing data logger, barometric pressure
sensor, radios, and battery. Instruments in blue are updates
or additions to the original 2019 weather station.

TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFF. SOURCE: BAKER PERRY, APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY



E X P L O R E | ARTIFACT

ON THE TRAIL F RO M M U R D E R M YS T E R I E S to forensics manuals,
OF TOXIC TOMES the books in libraries and collections often contain
poison. The word “poison,” that is; poison the subject.
TWO CONSERVATORS’ MISSION:
TO SHED LIGHT ON THE POISONOUS But in a toxic twist, poison the substance is being
PIGMENTS IN 19TH-CENTURY BOOKS found in books, like the lucent green ones below. Their
PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE bindings were dyed with a Victorian-era pigment that
was known as emerald green—and contained arsenic.
In the 1800s, the vivid
green pigment in these Melissa Tedone and Rosie Grayburn, conservation
books’ bindings was scientists at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, are
popular in parts of working to locate and catalog the books, and to raise
Europe and the U.S.— public awareness of them. Their effort, the Poison
even though arsenic’s Book Project, has uncovered 88 of the arsenic-laced
toxicity was known. volumes by using advanced spectroscopic techniques.
The detection processes are intentionally careful so
they’re not “damaging works of art,” Grayburn says.

Most emerald-green-treated books were produced
in the 1850s, and thousands still may exist around
the world, Tedone and Grayburn say. Chronically
handling the poisoned books might make a person
mildly sick, they say—but nothing short of devouring
one would pose a serious risk. Tedone’s advice: “You
don’t need to panic and throw them away.”

To help get books identified, the project sent book-
marks with safety warnings and images of the green
covers to institutions in the United States and 18
other countries. So far, toxic books have turned up
in six collections. “Any library that collects mid-19th-
century cloth publishers’ bindings is likely to have
at least one or two,” Tedone says. —J U ST I N B ROW E R

TAKE A
SMART STEP
TOWARD A
MORE SECURE

FUTURE

Establishing a charitable gift annuity with
the National Geographic Society is a great
way to receive guaranteed payments for
life and save on taxes—while protecting
our planet for generations to come.

COPYRIGHT 2022 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIET Y
PHOTO COURTESY OF EDSON VANDEIRA

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E X P L O R E | BREAKTHROUGHS

D I S PATC H E S Acres of aspens = one colossal tree
FROM THE FRONT LINES
At more than 6,500 tons, a grove of quak-
OF SCIENCE ing aspens growing on 106 acres in Utah is,
AND INNOVATION by weight, Earth’s largest known land
organism. What look like 47,000 separate
trees are in fact genetically identical stems
rising from one root system. Deer and cattle
eating new aspen shoots threaten to kill
this peculiar being—a tree that for millennia
has been its own forest. — C R A I G W E L C H

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR ARCHAEOLOGY

CUTTING THEIR RISKS Grenades
hurled in
TO K E E P B I R D S O F P R E Y AT B AY, T H E S E F O U R- F O OT E D Crusades?
LAWN MOWERS ENGINEER THEIR ECOSYSTEM.
In the Near East,
Trimming the grass around their homes may ceramic vessels
be a chore for many humans, but for Brandt’s in spheroconical
voles it’s a matter of life and death, new shapes are com-
research shows. The little rodents are found mon artifacts.
in grasslands in Mongolia, Russia—and China, Recent chemical
where they’re regularly observed trimming analysis suggests
tall grasses near the openings of their burrows so they can watch that some were
the skies for predators such as shrikes, their chief avian adversary. used as explosive
When shrikes are flying around, Brandt’s voles use their teeth grenades during
to fell the bunchgrass dotting their home fields. But the rodents the Crusades
neither eat the plant nor bring it into their burrows, scientists in 11th- or 12th-
observed. As a test, the scientists put nets over the voles’ burrows so century Jerusalem.
shrikes couldn’t get close—and the voles stopped cutting the grass.
The shrikes seem to have adapted also: They began avoiding Incendiary de-
areas where their hunting cover had been mowed by the voles, vices weren’t new.
according to the study. Its findings are a reminder of how a single Archaeologists have
species, however small, can alter an entire ecosystem. —ANNIE ROTH found evidence of
hand grenades in
PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT): DIANE COOK AND LEN JENSHEL; ERICH LESSING, ART 12th-century Cairo,
RESOURCE, NY; ZHIWEI ZHONG; KLEIN & HUBERT, NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY naphtha firepots
in ninth-century B.C.
Assyria, and a chem-
ical fireball used
against Alexander
the Great in 327 B.C.

—ADRIENNE MAYOR

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In Amazonian microbes,
she seeks solutions to
big challenges.

Flowing through Peru’s rainforest is
a roughly four-mile stretch of water
known as the Boiling River. Fed by
geothermal springs, it reaches more
than 200°F—hot enough to kill animals
that slip into its path. The river has long
been the stuff of legend, even dismissed
by some Peruvians as nonexistent.

But to Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a
Lima-born chemical biologist and
National Geographic Explorer, the
Boiling River is very real. As the creator
of MicroAmazon, a multidisciplinary
examination of the rainforest at its tini-
est, she’s studying the microbes in the
river’s extreme environment. “No one
has ever explored these organisms,”
says David Sherman, head of the Uni-
versity of Michigan lab where Vásquez
Espinoza is a researcher. The aim is to
determine if the microbes “could offer
new avenues to developing antibiotics,
antifungal agents, or antivirals,” he says.

In 2019 Vásquez Espinoza and her
collaborators took microbial samples
from 19 sites in and along the river. Now
they’re making a virtual map of their
work featuring video, photography, and
data. Vásquez Espinoza hopes it will
facilitate further research. Her ultimate
goal: “When we think about the Ama-
zon rainforest biodiversity, we think
beyond what we see with our eyes.” j

The National
Geographic Society
has funded Vásquez
Espinoza’s work since
2019. Learn more about
its support of Explorers
researching our planet’s
critical landscapes at
natgeo.com/impact.

ATLAS | E X P L O R E

A TURBULENT TRIP
On the 500th anniversary of the first circling of the globe,
the journey remains murky. Only one of five ships completed

the expedition—and Ferdinand Magellan wasn’t on it.

B Y MONICA SERRANO, SOREN WALLJASPER,
PAT R I C I A H E A LY, A N D E V E C O N A N T

I N T H E FA L L O F 1 5 2 2 , a leaky ship made 550 tons of spices in two years. The voy-
port in Spain with 18 haggard crewmen, age stretched to three, as sailors charted
all that survived of some 240 who’d routes by the sun and stars. They sur-
manned a bold, mercantile mission. vived with help from Indigenous people
Charles I, the young Spanish king, no they met, treating some fairly but others
longer was willing to rely on overland cruelly or violently. Forsaking trade for
trade routes for the cloves and nutmeg conquest, Magellan attacked an island
so coveted in Europe. He commissioned in the Philippines and was killed in the
an expedition to find a new route to surf. That left a new captain, Basque
Pacific islands rich with spices, and as navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, to
captain he hired Ferdinand Magellan, guide the Victoria home to Sanlúcar de
a skilled Portuguese sailor who firmly Barrameda (below). The ship returned
believed the Earth was round, a theory with a fraction of the trip’s intended
not yet proved. In September 1519, five cargo and an unplanned achievement:
ships set sail, outfitted to collect nearly proof that the Earth was round.

ILLUSTRATION: MATTHEW TWOMBLY

E X P L O R E | ATLAS

AROUND THE WORLD

The armada was commissioned to find a westward and proselytizing. Magellan would violate the man-
route to the Moluccas, or the Spice Islands, and return date, with disastrous and historic results. This first
the same way. Leaders were to honor treaty lines, circumnavigation of the globe—a singular feat of
approved by the pope, dividing global exploration exploration and science—changed the world forever,
rights between Spain and Portugal. They also were sparking globalization, the spread of Christianity,
to focus on trade routes and refrain from conquest and abuses of colonization for centuries to come.

EUROPE

NORTH PORTUGAL DEPART AUG. 10, 1519
AMERICA SPAIN RETURN SEPT. 8, 1522

Seville

Sanlúcar de
Barrameda

A tlan tic Tenerife

TROPIC OF CANCER Gulf of
Mexico

Ocean

New Spain Treaty of The leaking ship’s hungry crew
Caribbean Tordesillas stops at the Portuguese Cape
(SPAIN) Verde Islands for food; 13 men
Sea demarcation line row ashore and are arrested
FOR SPAIN Cape Verde Is. for violating treaty lines.
FOR PORTUGAL
(PORTUGAL)

Castilla de Oro Gulf of AFRICA
Guinea
(SPAIN)

EQUATOR

Foods spoil and supplies SOUTH Zanzibar
run low during the Pacific AMERICA
Ocean crossing. Lacking (PORTUGAL)
fresh fruit or vegetables, Guanabara Bay
many sailors die of scurvy. (Rio de Janeiro) Mozambique

Pacific (PORTUGAL)

TROPIC OF CAPRICORN

Ocean

Río de Once across the Atlantic, the
la Plata crew trades with Indigenous
people for fresh provisions
PATAGONIA and hunts wildlife, including Cape of
penguins and sea lions. Good Hope

On land and sea Cape St. Julian
Desire Unsuccessful mutiny
Much of the arduous journey involves Santa Cruz
long stops to make repairs, build trade Strait of Magellan
relations, and wait out stormy weather.
Cape Horn
Armada leader Stopped
Magellan Carvalho Sailing
Espinosa Elcano
Remaining ships San Antonio Magellan
returns to dies; a new
Santiago stop for winter leader is chosen
Spain 1521
1519 1520 sinks months MAR.
JAN.
SEPT. NOV. JAN. MAR. JULY SEPT.

Tenerife Río de St. Julian Santa Cruz Guam Cebu
Sanlúcar la Plata
de Barrameda Navigating Crossing Homonhon Mactan
Guanabara Bay Strait of Pacific
Seville Ocean Limasawa
Magellan

ILLUSTRATIONS: MATTHEW TWOMBLY. SOURCES: ELKANO 500 FOUNDATION; JOSE ELEAZAR R. BERSALES AND GEORGE EMMANUEL R. BORRINAGA,
UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS; GUADALUPE FERNÁNDEZ MORENTE, FUNDACIÓN NAO VICTORIA

San Antonio* Trinidad Concepción Victoria Santiago FIVE SHIPS TO ONE
Freight (tons): 144 132 108 102 90 Only the Victoria, the arma-
da’s second smallest vessel,
returned—but the sale of
its cargo, 381 sacks of cloves,
made the trip profitable.

Exceeding the mandate The crew amicably nego-
for the voyage—to chart a tiates for provisions with
new trade route—Magellan some groups of maritime
meddles in local affairs and traders, but clashes with
loses his life in battle. others on land and sea.

JAPAN

ASIA Philippine P acific
Sea
TROPIC OF CANCER
INDIA PHILIPPINE Magellan killed
O c e a n Hawaii
(PORTUGAL) Goa Bay of ISLANDS Homonhon Guam
Arabian Sea Bengal More than three
Cebu months at sea
Mactan without stopping

Palawan Limasawa EQUATOR
Balabac Mindanao

Malacca Brunei Bay Sarangani

(PORTUGAL) Moluccas

EQUATOR SUMATRA BORNEO Tidore (Spice Islands)

Indian Makassar NEW
GUINEA
(PORTUGAL) Wetar
Timor Coral
Victoria risks a new Archipelago

O c e a n southwest route in
Portuguese waters

Sea Tuamotu

TROPIC OF CAPRICORN After two years, the expe-
dition finds the Moluccas.
AUSTRALIA Loaded with spices, its last
two ships head for Spain by
opposite routes: one east-
ward, one westward.

Amid headwinds and raging storms, NEW
the voyage is slowed and a mast breaks ZEALAND

Kerguelen Is.

Lacking enough Ships stop to Trinidad heads The crew discovers Expedition
crew, Concepción repair leaking east and is a time change of returns to Spain
is set aflame hulls captured a full day

JULY 1522

SEPT. NOV. JAN. MAR. MAY SEPT. EXPEDITION
TOTAL
Brunei Balabac Moluccas Cape Seville
Bay Sarangani Verde Is. 1,123 DAYS
AWAY
Mindanao Sanlúcar
de Barrameda 37,800
Balabac Sailing around NAUTICAL
the tip of Africa MILES
Palawan Palawan TRAVELED

*SHAPE OF EACH SHIP IS APPROXIMATED. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 33

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SEPTEMBER 2022

F EAT U R E S America, Illuminated ...P. 36
Community Keepers... P. 64
Soil Micro-Magic ......... P. 82
Yemen’s History........ P. 100
Bangladeshi Beach ..... P. 126

82

A SINGLE
GRAM OF
FOREST SOIL
CAN CONTAIN
AS MANY AS
A BILLION
BACTERIA,
OFTEN THE
QUARRY OF
ORGANISMS
SUCH AS THIS
BALLOON-LIKE
CILIATE.

IMAGE: OLIVER MECKES AND NICOLE OTTAWA, EYE OF SCIENCE

America

IN A NEW LIGHT

Parks and refuges aren’t enough. Preserving
our land, water, and wildlife in a warming climate
means practicing conservation everywhere.

BY EMMA MARRIS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN WILKES
ILLUSTRATIONS BY DENISE NESTOR

36

Bears Ears

SOUTHEASTERN UTAH

This spectacular landscape is a
symbol of the risk to some of the
country’s unique and irreplaceable
places. One president preserved
it at the urging of Native Americans
who hold it sacred; another tried
to open it to drilling and mining.
A national monument rich with
archaeological sites, it includes the
Citadel, once a fortified cliff dwell-
ing, now a popular hiking spot.
Stephen Wilkes took 2,092 photos
over 36 hours and selected 44 for
this image, capturing a sunrise, a full
moon, and a rare alignment of four
planets. “Beyond the sense of awe
and beauty,” he says, “there’s a pal-
pable sense of history with every
step you take.”

To create these landscapes, Wilkes
found a vantage point and photo-
graphed all day and all night. He then
chose a number of photos to merge
digitally into a composite image to
tell a story about a single day.



J Bar L Ranch

MELVILLE, MONTANA

Near Yellowstone National Park,
the ranch aims to raise cattle while
also conserving habitat for prong-
horn, moose, trumpeter swans, and
sage grouse, to name a few. Many
fences have been modified to allow
wildlife to cross the ranch. Herds are
bunched and moved frequently to
mimic buffalo, whose tread shaped
these grasslands. The bulls in this
scene—assembled from 60 photos
out of 2,509—graze before moun-
tains known as the Crazies, as time
passes from daybreak to sunset
to starlit night. Wilkes was deeply
impressed by the ranch hands.
“They’re the real deal,” he says.
“Their whole being, their whole life,
is connected to this land.”

Shi Shi Beach

NORTHWESTERN WASHINGTON

An isolated strand in Olympic National
Park showcases the need to protect
earth and water, as the Makah—whose
ancestral land this is—have done for
centuries. During treaty negotiations,
the chief at the time insisted, “I want
the sea. That is my country.” This
seashore, Wilkes says, is “spellbinding”
and unlike any he’s ever seen. The
tide arrives explosively, whirling
around sculpted sea stacks, and reveals
kelp and sea stars when it recedes.
“I was able to capture these dramatic
changes in light—in the color in the
water and in the actual tide itself.”
In merging 46 of 1,626 photos, Wilkes
contrasts this dynamic seascape with
a woman in a contemplative moment.



Conservation But last year, the federal government proposed
works. In the taking 23 species of plants and animals off the
past century endangered species list—not because they’ve
or so, efforts to recovered, but because they’re now extinct. We
save American have to do better.
species like
the peregrine My friend Karl Wenner shows up to meet me
falcon, the wearing scrubs with a canvas jacket thrown on
American bison, top. He’s a retired surgeon, but he still spends a
and the Pacific few hours a month teaching. He also co-owns
gray whale have Lakeside Farms in the Klamath Basin, a dry
succeeded. part of southern Oregon that has lost nearly all
its wetlands. Without marshes, water runs into
Upper Klamath Lake unfiltered and carrying
phosphorus-rich volcanic soil, causing algal
blooms that harm two federally listed sucker
species found nowhere else on Earth. Every
summer for decades now, nearly all the juvenile
fish have died, leaving an aging population.

Wenner’s farm floods its fields in the winter,
both to kill weeds and to create waterfowl habi-
tat. In the past, I’ve come by to see huge flocks of
ducks and swans coasting in to spend the night.
We’d post up on a dike with binoculars and watch
great vortices of waterfowl swirl down onto the
water. His passion for birds is infectious.

But when the water was pumped off in the
spring, it was so full of phosphorus that it
counted as pollution. So this year, with about
$350,000 from the U.S. government, Wenner
and his co-owners created permanent wetlands

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

Explore how geography drives
the forces of nature, shaping
and reshaping the land.
Streaming now on Disney+.

A yellow-headed
blackbird perches
above four ducks—
clockwise from top,
a northern shoveler,
canvasback, buffle-
head, and northern
pintail—nestled amid
barley and water
willow, which flourish
in wetlands.

A M E R I C A I N A N E W L I G H T 47

Large public protected areas States—but agreeing on the specif-
were the backbone of ics of what will count toward the
30 percent is sure to be contentious.
America’s conservation strategy Allowing working lands and waters
and city parks to be counted is likely

in the 20th century, to upset some conservationists. But
any plan to designate almost a third
and they are still important. of the country as strictly protected
is also almost certain to alarm those

who see thoughtful use as compat-

on 70 of their 400 acres. The tangle of wetland ible with conservation—a group that includes

plants will capture phosphorus-laden sediment many farmers, ranchers, fishers, hunters, and

before the farm’s irrigation water is returned to members of tribal nations eager to continue or

the lake. In addition, it’s year-round habitat for resume traditional practices.

plants, birds, and—soon—baby suckers. “You As it slowly rolls out its 30x30 vision, the Biden

can’t go back to before Europeans came to the administration is sending signals that it intends

basin,” he says, “but you can make it rhyme.” to define “conserved” expansively, including

Despite his enthusiasm, Wenner tells me he can’t efforts outside of parks and refuges. Conserva-

sacrifice profit to carve out this space for wildlife. tion can be “something that brings us together as

“It has to pencil out,” he says. a country,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland

His new wetland is a perfect rectangle, bor- told me. “We have worked very hard to make

dered by reeds and willows, with a partially sure that we’re engaging tribal communities,

submerged dike—a dotted line of islands for private landowners, folks who both make their

geese to nest on. As we drive alongside, Wen- living with the Earth, and folks who use it as a

ner tells me about the wildlife he’s seen in the means of recreation.”

new marsh, including lots of ducks: buffleheads, Large public protected areas were the back-

scaup, shovelers, canvasbacks, mallards. He bone of America’s conservation strategy in

spots a flash of color in the reeds. “Oh! The first the 20th century, and they are still important. The

yellow-headed blackbirds of the year!” total area of parks and sanctuaries may even

There is no single way to do conservation. grow. Several new marine sanctuaries have been

Restoring ecosystems, fighting climate change, nominated: Chumash Heritage in California,

regulating hunting and fishing, eliminating St. George Unangan Heritage in Alaska, and

pollution, helping trees beat deadly diseases, Hudson Canyon in New York among them. On

moving plants and animals to cooler habitats, land, advocates for protected areas have called

killing introduced predators—all can play a role. for new national monuments, including Castner

But the core idea is very straightforward: Range in Texas; 750 square miles of meadows,

Plants and animals need somewhere suitable mountains, and old-growth forest in Oregon’s

to live. Overharvesting is the main threat in the Cascades; and Spirit Mountain—called Avi Kwa

sea; on land and in freshwater, it’s habitat loss. Ame by the Mojave people—in southern Nevada.

To work, every other strategy depends on the But monuments and parks are not enough. To

existence of a suitable environment. safeguard all our species, all our ecosystems—

Seven days after his inauguration, President and to make sure that they have the resources

Joe Biden signed an executive order that set and space to adapt as the climate continues to

a goal: “conserving at least 30 percent of our warm—we need to do conservation everywhere.

lands and waters by 2030.” What counts as “con- On private timberland. On farms. In cities.

served,” however, remains to be decided. The

“30x30” proposal derives from a push to set a The National
similar target for the entire planet, organized Geographic Society,
by the Campaign for Nature, a partnership of committed to illuminat-
the Wyss Campaign for Nature and the National ing and protecting the
Geographic Society. wonder of our world,
has funded Explorer
Conservation itself is broadly popular—a Stephen Wilkes’s pho-
truly bipartisan issue in a deeply divided United tography since 2016.

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY

48 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

CHAPTER ONE

APPALACHIAN LACE

To connect habitat with corridors so nature can adapt,
conservationists are turning to working lands.

S E V E N T Y- E I G H T P E RC E N T A bull elk
bugles
of the protected land in during
the United States is in the the rut.
West, but most of the
vulnerable biodiversity is
found “back East,” as we
Westerners say. Just one
river in the Appalachian
Mountains, the Clinch,
has 118 native species of
fish—almost as many
freshwater species as the
entire state of California.
The South is truly “a
piscine rainforest,” as one
scientific article puts it.

I went back East myself, wanting to see what’s create a diversity of habitat types and mimic
being done for species like eels and elk and oys- natural disturbances, although critics dispute
ters in a landscape with fewer large national that clear-cutting can ever be considered con-
parks and preserves. I found people working to servation. In other areas, they’re selling the
protect species in the places where people live carbon credits for the trees they don’t log to
and work, so that humans and threatened spe- companies or other institutions looking to off-
cies can thrive together. set their emissions. Carbon markets, too, have
been criticized as a “dangerous distraction” from
The Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest systemic change. In addition, the project man-
conservation nonprofit, recently arranged the agers are leasing the hunting and recreational
acquisition of 253,000 acres of Appalachian for- rights on much of the property. And on seven
est, rich with freshwater habitat, for $130 mil- former coal-mining sites, they plan to install
lion. The parcels lie in southwest Virginia and solar farms.
on the Kentucky-Tennessee border—an area
larger than Shenandoah and Acadia National I’d heard about “mountaintop removal” min-
Parks combined. The property’s new owner is a ing but had never seen it up close, so I ask Brad
limited partnership managed by the nonprofit Kreps and Greg Meade, two conservancy staffers
but backed by “impact investors,” people look- who work on the Cumberland Forest Project, to
ing to use their money to make a profit and a take me to the site of a proposed solar farm. On
difference. It’s still working land. the way, we drive through hollows so steep and
narrow that only one row of small, run-down
I’ll admit I was skeptical that land could make houses fits along the creek. Just beyond their
enough money to please investors while protect- backyards, the Cumberland Forest property
ing species, but I was willing to be convinced. begins. Kreps points out railroad cars used to
The conservancy staff managing the project are carry coal, idle for so long that kudzu vines
logging some areas, leaving very large buffers have clambered all over them. Coal is fading.
around streams. They say small, strategic cuts

A M E R I C A I N A N E W L I G H T 49

If you want to do former coal-mining site—that is
conservation everywhere, now part of the Cumberland For-
est property.
then you have to include places
Leon Boyd, chairman of the
Southwest Virginia Coalfields

where people are using Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk
the land or sea to make money. Foundation and self-described old
country boy, volunteers with the
reintroduction project. Boyd shows

me some antlers shed this year, fan-

Appalachia knows it. The communities here are tastical objects. It astonishes me that the animals

poor, and there’s not much work. can produce a set of these anew every year. It

The solar farms will create a few jobs, though feels like a magical power.

a fraction of those being lost in the coal industry. Boyd takes me, along with two state scientists,

Logging supports a few more. The Nature Con- to see the animals in their new habitat. We drive

servancy says ATV and hiking trails are already up through trees, past coal-bed methane pumps,

encouraging more tourism. The organization then pop out onto another Appalachian mesa,

also intentionally structured the purchase so this one a pale green meadow. Silhouetted on the

that the land would still be taxed. “People live horizon is a massive bull elk, its heavy antlers

in these landscapes,” says Kreps. “If we bought ready to drop.

all this land, put a fence around it, and took it “Growing up in this area, we had very little

off the tax rolls, we wouldn’t have local support.” wildlife to hunt or even see,” Boyd says. His father

Meade, director of the Cumberland Forest was a timber cutter and a coal miner, and Boyd

Project, nods. “The bigger you get in scale, the himself is a well driller for the oil and gas indus-

more you need to incorporate mixed use.” Set- try. It wasn’t until his boss took him and a few

ting aside a postage-stamp park is one thing. But other employees to New Mexico to hunt elk that

conserving large areas means that you have obli- he fell in love with the species, with “how they

gations to communities that live there. move and travel as a herd over the landscape.” 

The mining on the mountaintop is fin- We go walking across the field, tacking to the

ished. The accessible coal is gone, along with left of a gang of elk, through a mix of plants

the mountaintop itself. What remains is a flat developed by state biologists to feed elk, pol-

plain—an incongruous mesa among the pointy linators, and birds. It includes grasses but

ridges that characterize this landscape. There’s also wildflowers: black-eyed Susans and other

very little to see here. Dirt, small plants, a fire coneflowers. Virginia’s elk project leader, Jackie

ring with empty shotgun shells in it. It seems like Rosenberger, points out a slight depression in a

an ideal site to install a bunch of solar panels. rocky patch of ground—a killdeer nest, with four

What this place does have is a remarkable view sea green, speckled eggs.

of ridge after ridge of forested land, receding into The elk aren’t far off, and I can smell them,

a misty horizon. The property is a complex set of a strong musky scent. They gaze serenely at

discontinuous parcels punctured by inholdings, us, their massive roan bodies held up on long,

an Appalachian lace. But it contains a variety of ballet-dancer legs. This population hasn’t been

latitudes, altitudes, and microclimates that offer hunted—yet. But the goal, Rosenberger explains,

options for the future—and enough continuity is a “huntable population,” and this year will

that animals can range freely. Among those ani- see the very first hunt, for just six bulls. Almost

mals is one long missing from these woods: elk. 32,000 people have applied. In addition, from

Elk were hunted out of the East by the late viewing stands, tourists can see elk fight and

19th century. In the early 2010s, with consider- bugle during the fall rut or tend to their calves

able volunteer labor from enthusiastic hunting in the spring. “We are already seeing return vis-

organizations, Virginia imported 75 elk from itors, spending money in nearby communities,”

Kentucky—a population that itself had been Boyd says. “Each year it keeps getting better.

seeded from those in the Rocky Mountains. Vir- That’s how we know it’s working.”

ginia officials decided to release the majestic The Nature Conservancy doesn’t want to

ungulates on a flattened mountaintop—another manage this land indefinitely. The plan is

50 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

ALASKA YUKON Free to Roam
(U.S.)
Many animals will adapt to new climate conditions
Fairbanks by changing habitats—if they can find a safe route.
To see where animals might be able to move, sci-
Anchorage entists modeled the continent’s most likely wildlife
corridors. The aim: to conserve connections that
Wildlife has space to remain and restore flow where it’s been lost.
move freely in large
natural areas such as
Alaska and the Yukon.
Protecting specific
paths is rarely needed.

ROCKY Edmonton

Vancouver 2 CANADA
Seattle

Portland GREAT Montréal 6
Boise Ottawa Boston
YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK Toronto
MOUNTAINS LA C HIAN
Minneapolis M
T S.
Salt Lake City 3 New York
Las Vegas Chicago Philadelphia
Washington, D.C.
San UNITED S TAT E S
Francisco 4
Denver St. Louis A P PA

PLAINS

Nashville

Los Angeles Phoenix Atlanta
1

Dallas

The wall on parts Hermosillo Houston New Orleans 5
of the U.S.-Mexico Chihuahua Miami
border blocks wildlife
crossings, endangering Torreón
species such as jaguars,
ocelots, and Mexican La Paz Monterrey
gray wolves.
MEXICO

Guadalajara

Mexico
City

Modeled flow 1 3 5
of wildlife
In Los Angeles, a wildlife Chicago’s Burnham Wildlife The Florida Wildlife Corridor
HIGH overpass being built will be Corridor preserves native is a nearly 18-million-acre
concentrated the world’s largest, spanning ecosystems used by patchwork of parks, forests,
into corridors 10 highway lanes, to let three million migratory rivers, ranches, and farms that
cougars and other animals birds along the city’s connects habitats for about
MODERATE safely pass. lakefront. 700 plant and animal species.
diffused over
broader areas 2 4 6

LOW The Yellowstone to Yukon The Cumberland Forest In Vermont, a statewide
impeded by Conservation Initiative Project conserves more network of volunteer crossing
cities, agriculture, aims to create a 2,000- than 250,000 acres of guards with flashlights escorts
or bodies of water mile-long wildlife corridor private forests, many frogs and salamanders across
for elk, grizzlies, and with vital links to roads at nighttime during
golden eagles. public forests. spring migrations.

MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF; MARTY SCHNURE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER
SOURCES: R. TRAVIS BELOTE, THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY; USGS

Conserving the Future Protecting Nature

The United States has joined more than 90 countries in a pledge Land in just about every par
to combat climate change and species extinction by safeguarding categories needing conserv
30 percent of Earth’s land and water by 2030. These maps show areas to its environment that mat
where scientists think conservation would offer the greatest benefit far have included diverse vo
to people and nature, based on four key environmental goals. safeguarding cultural herita
innovative, community-led

Unprotected Protected 100% of counties in the contiguous U.S. contain at least Shi Shi New Seatt
one of the four priority areas mapped below. Beach congestion
Top 30% most important places 8% of the priority regions mapped below without ca
for four key conservation goals are currently protected. Seattle
Providing clean drinking water 13% of all U.S. land and inland waters are WA S H I N G T O N Flathead
officially protected. Reservation
Saving wildlife Portland
Preserving ecosystem diversity

Trapping carbon

Other established
protected area

PROVIDING CLEAN DRINKING WATER SAVING WILDLIFE OREGON Boise
Natural landscapes filter rain into drinking water. In Preserving 30 percent of the nation’s most essential IDAHO
the lower 48 states, 83 million people rely on forested wildlife habitat could protect 99 percent of its mammals, Lakeside Farms
watersheds for over half their drinking water. birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Lower Klamath N.W.R.

Reno As Nevada rapidly
urbanizes, residents are
San Francisco collaborating to protect
corridors on public lands.

Fresno N E VA DA U
CALIFORNIA Las
Vegas
Bakersfield

PRESERVING ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY TRAPPING CARBON Los Angeles AnahReiivmerside ARIZO
Some portion of every native ecosystem needs to be main- Today’s forests—if protected from major disturbances— Long Beach Santa Ana Scott
tained to safeguard Earth’s natural processes. Great Plains grass- can absorb nearly all the carbon dioxide produced by
lands and eastern woodlands are among the least protected. U.S. passenger cars every year. San Diego Phoenix
Chula Vista

In Arctic Alaska, the e
Imago Initiative supports h
more sustainable rural
livelihoods and new n
models of Indigenous- n
led land protection. a
s
ALASKA
Fairbanks

Anchorage

MONICA SERRANO AND MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF; MARTY SCHNURE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER TOP 30 PERCENT
SOURCES: R. TRAVIS BELOTE AND TIM FULLMAN, THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY; SETH SPAWN-LEE, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON; ISRIC SOILGRIDS; LINDA HWANG, DATA UNAVAILA
TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND; FORESTS TO FAUCETS, U.S. FOREST SERVICE; GLOBAL DEAL FOR NATURE; CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS; USGS