Friday, June 10, 2022
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Roylene: ‘She is proactive, she is positive, she is persistent’
Continued from Page 1
This is a great example of
this.”
Longest-serving
conservationist
Roylene, 52, is the
nation’s
current
lon-
gest-serving state conserva-
tionist, having held the posi-
tion in two states since 2005.
Today, she steers the efforts
of the Natural Resources
Conservation Service in
Washington state.
NRCS tailors its pro-
grams to farmers’ and ranch-
ers’ needs to help them pro-
tect and improve water
quality and soil health and
gain efficiencies. Partners
include tribes, counties, con-
servation districts and other
agencies and land trusts
that help finance farmers’
projects.
“I love Washington’s atti-
tude, we don’t talk about it
— well, we do talk about it,
but we do it, and we get it
done,” said Roylene, who
grew up in Montana.
The old fence
An old five-wire slip
fence stands on the ridge
above Roylene’s fam-
ily ranch in northcentral
Montana.
Her great-great-grand-
father built it nearly 100
years ago, she estimated. It
divides her family’s ranch
and land owned by the
Blackfoot Nation, of which
she is a member.
When the reservation was
formed, many members of
the tribe did not know how
to raise livestock, so others
could use the land free of
charge, bringing in sheep.
Roylene’s family built
the fence to keep sheep out
and its horses in.
The family still operates
the original tribal allotment,
owning and leasing 4,000
acres.
The fence perfectly cap-
tures Roylene’s devotion
to her family, her tribe, the
land, and to farmers and
ranchers.
“It is so cool to go up
there and touch that wire
and know that all of six gen-
erations have worked on this
fence and hard on this land
to take care of it and ensure
that we continue,” she said,
visibly moved at the thought.
Roylene’s father, Roy,
was a rancher and her
mother, Cynthia, is a retired
science teacher. Their back-
grounds made NRCS a per-
fect fit for their daugh-
ter, who has worked for the
agency 33 years.
She earned a bachelor’s
degree in range management
at Montana State University.
Before arriving in Wash-
ington, she was state conser-
vationist in Rhode Island for
three years.
She longed to return to
the West.
“As a person who grew
up in Montana, the moun-
tains and the prairies are in
my spirit,” she said. And
Washington intrigued her,
with its diversity of natural
resources and crops.
“I was asked by the
(NRCS) chief in 2008
during the interview for the
Washington state conser-
vationist position, if I felt I
could build and (strengthen)
partnership,” she recalled.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Washington State Conservationist Roylene Comes At Night beams while looking over solar panels installed with
the assistance of the state Natural Resources Conservation Service on rancher Ben Merrill’s pasture.
“Without a doubt, I said,
‘Yes.’”
When she arrived, Wash-
ington state’s NRCS bud-
get was $9 million. Fund-
ing increased as partners got
involved through regional
conservation programs and
applied for more federal
support. Today, the budget is
$59 million.
Before Roylene’s arrival,
Washington State Conser-
vation Commission mem-
bers were frustrated, said
Bahrych, the former com-
missioner. The previous
administration had left a
huge backlog of grant appli-
cations for major federal
programs.
Because it didn’t process
the applications for shov-
el-ready projects quickly
enough, the state had to send
money back to Washington,
D.C., at the end of each fis-
cal year, Bahrych said.
“They were sending back
like $1 million a year just
because they couldn’t get
their act together to get it out
to the farmers and ranchers
for the conservation prac-
tices that they really wanted
and needed to do,” she said.
“And because we weren’t
using all our money, the next
year we got less.”
Roylene pledged to use
every dollar and access the
extra funding that came
back from other states.
“Within a very short
period of time, she had the
backlog completely gone
and ... she was the first
in line to get more fund-
ing from other states...,”
Bahrych said. “She did that
every year — she used every
dollar we got, it all went on
the ground for conservation,
and she got more.”
Doing right by the land
Roylene comes by her
love of the land naturally.
Her father would often buy
marginal land and revital-
ize it.
“One of the units he was
so excited about, it was
totally white, it had salts in
it, and I was like ‘Dad!’” she
remembered. “And he goes,
‘We’re going to rebuild it.’”
The family still owns that
piece of property, and it now
produces “some of the most
outstanding alfalfa,” she
said.
“It took about three or
four years to do right by that
land and restore it,” she said.
Her father died in 2016.
Courtesy photo
Roylene has always had a passion for the Earth and sci-
ence. Here, she competed in an international science
fair in 1985, where she studied the migration patterns
of deer mice.
Her nephew took over and
is the sixth generation to run
the operation, which now
raises cattle.
She visits often, serving
as an adviser and “absen-
tee landowner,” she said, but
remaining hands-off because
of her role in NRCS.
Her maiden name, Rides
At The Door, has special
meaning.
“We earned the name
because my great-great-
grandfather actually stole
medicine pouches from
other tribes that hung out-
side the tepee doors,” she
said. “He also counted coup
on other tribes (got close
enough to touch an enemy
without causing him harm,
considered the ultimate
act of bravery) by stealing
horses from them. At one
point he had 900 head of
horses. The horse was who
we were.”
NRCS later told the fam-
ily to sell all its horses and
switch to calves. “That
didn’t go over real well,” she
said.
“What I learned from
us being in the programs
is how they tried to change
us to fit the program,” she
said. “My goal is to make
sure we change the pro-
gram to fit the needs of the
producers. They shouldn’t
have to change something
they’ve been doing for six
generations.”
‘Tremendously
compassionate’
With the help of the NRCS
Environmental
Quality
Incentives Program, or EQIP,
rancher Ben Merrill installed
a solar-powered water pump
and water troughs made
out of two large tires at his
Cheney, Wash., operation.
The solar pump will help
balance the grazing system,
Roylene said, avoiding over-
grazing in parts of the pas-
ture where the plants already
could get water and getting
water to the plants that need
it.
The
12-foot-diameter
tires hold 1,200 to 1,500 gal-
lons of water for cattle.
Participation in EQIP
meant the pump and troughs
cost roughly half of what
they would have if he’d paid
for them himself, Merrill
estimated.
“It turned out to be a good
program,” he said. “It should
last for years.”
“This is why we do what
we do,” Roylene said as she
toured Merrill’s pasture.
After a busy week in the
office, she welcomed the
chance to get back to a ranch.
“Seeing our conservation
projects change the land for
the better so the producer can
stay in business and continue
or learn to better take care of
the land is why I have stayed
with NRCS for 30-plus
years,” she said.
She may no longer be
directly involved in the
implementation of those
practices, she said, but she
works to ensure Washington
has the technical and finan-
cial resources for staff and
partners.
“She’s always willing to
help farmers if she can find
funds and programs to fit,”
said Colfax, Wash., wheat
farmer Larry Cochran, who
is a Palouse Conservation
District supervisor. “A lot of
times, (she) finds the money.
She is willing to do whatever
she can.”
“She wants to understand
what the issues are and then
empower people to get a
solution,” said Mark Clark,
retired director of the con-
servation commission. “She
truly wants to work on rela-
tionships and understanding
what the problems are with
everyone. She won’t shy
away from that.”
“She is proactive, she is
positive, she is persistent,”
said Bahrych, the former
conservation commissioner.
“She’s also tremendously
compassionate. She brings
that compassion to the land-
scape, wildlife, tribes in the
state, farmers and ranchers
— to everyone.”
Building bridges
Roylene hopes another
part of her legacy is as a
bridge builder between cul-
tures and communities.
She’s conducted cul-
tural awareness training for
USDA for 28 years, leading
many courses and training
more than 10,000 people.
She hopes that’s one
of the reasons tribes have
become more included in
NRCS programs.
“I don’t necessarily
believe culturally we believe
different, but I think legally,
because of treaties and oth-
ers, there are some compli-
cations there that can cause
a barrier or be a benefit,” she
said. “I’m hoping that people
will see it as a benefit.”
She’s proudest of linking
partners together in water-
shed projects.
“To me, conservation and
Mother Earth are politically
neutral,” she said. “We all
want clean air, we all want
clean water. Sometimes, it’s
just getting the right people
at the right time at the table.”
“Being Native, a woman
and a producer means that
Roylene grew up with her
feet in multiple worlds,” said
Paul Ward, former manager
of Yakama Nation Fisheries.
“Roylene grew up on a tough
landscape doing all the work
that her father, brother and
male cousins did. She is an
accomplished horsewoman,
which shows through in her
patience and calm approach.”
Ward calls her presence in
Washington “fortuitous.”
“Roylene has taken what
can be a difficult bureau-
cracy to navigate and really
brought Washington NRCS
to a place of working closely
and productively with the
collective conservation body
across the state,” he said.
“We have a long way to go in
salmon and steelhead recov-
ery and water security for all
sectors, and Roylene’s lead-
ership style fits well to the
challenge we are facing in
Washington state.”
Roylene would like to
see large national companies
bring funding to the table.
NRCS can figure out how
to match any funding they’d
provide with federal dollars,
she said.
“We have some of the
lead corporations and com-
panies in Puget Sound and in
the state of Washington, but
I have yet to see them come
to the table and really be a
main partner in what we’re
doing,” she said. “I know
there are conversations going
on, but I still haven’t seen
them come to the table com-
pletely. I think we’re missing
that opportunity together. We
haven’t got there yet.”
Sundancing
Roylene is also a sun-
dancer, participating in a cer-
emony in which she dances
from sun up to sun down.
She fasts during the four-
day ceremony, which is an
offering to the Creator, ask-
ing him to hear the prayers
of the people, as well as her
own.
The ceremony includes
collecting plants such as
sage, sweetgrass, sweet pine,
cedar and others to burn in a
smudge as prayers are lifted
to the Creator. The plants are
collected in summer and pre-
pared in winter for the fol-
lowing summer’s ceremony.
She also spends time
with family and others in the
tribe, teaching and leading
ceremonies. Her husband,
Michael Comes At Night, is
also involved with spiritual
leaders in the tribe.
The couple hunts for buf-
falo and elk, preparing the
meat for ceremonies, which
can draw up to 400 people.
They attend other sun-
dances hosted by other fam-
ilies during the summer.
“The next ceremony, we
might be the family that pro-
vides a meal, or we might be
the family that helps to sing
the songs, or we might be the
person that helps the danc-
ers,” she said.
‘Keep fighting the fight’
Roylene’s not planning to
depart NRCS any time soon.
“I’ll still be the lon-
gest-standing (state conser-
vationist) for a few more
years,” she said.
Farmers and ranchers are
the foundation of who and
what America is, she said.
“As we know with his-
tory, if agriculture fails, those
countries fail,” she said.
Her goal is to help farmers
and ranchers continue their
work as they pass their cul-
ture and traditions on to new
generations.
Her message to them:
“Keep fighting the fight,
because I know days it gets
tough, and I know days it’s
hard, and I hope they will just
keep hanging in there and
keep helping us to build what
they need to continue. With-
out them, we’re nothing as a
country.”
Attack: A specialist spent several days Drought: California already
monitoring area; wolves did not return buys one-third of its power
from out-of-state sources
Continued from Page 1
would apply for compensa-
tion funds. The state Office of
Species Conservation distrib-
utes money for wolf-caused
losses of livestock as verified
by USDA Wildlife Services.
The state Department of
Fish and Game authorized
Wildlife Services to conduct
a control action in the area
through the end of May but no
wolves were killed.
Jared Hedelius, state direc-
tor for Wildlife Services, said
the agency sent a wildlife spe-
cialist to the site. The special-
ist spent several days moni-
toring the area and the wolves
did not return.
“Right now we are continu-
ing to monitor the situation up
there but do not have an active
control action in that area any-
more,” Hedelius told Capital
Press June 2.
“We know that wolves are
present on the Boise Front”
mountain range, Brian Pear-
son, a Fish and Game regional
spokesman, said in the release.
The attack was in Game
Management Unit No. 39,
where wolves chronically kill
livestock.
“We have expanded sea-
sons and methods of take” in
the unit “and often have to
address depredations using
control actions,” Pearson said.
Fish and Game officials
said they are unsure whether
the wolves were dispersing
from a pack or whether a pack
is in the Shaw Mountain area.
Shirts could not immedi-
ately be reached for comment.
The sheep have since moved
away from the area where the
attack occurred. Wildlife Ser-
vices typically removes five to
14 wolves annually from the
Boise foothills in response to
livestock depredation.
Fish and Game estimates
there are about 1,600 wolves
in the state after pups are born
in the spring. The popula-
tion typically dips below 900
during late winter due to hunt-
ing, trapping seasons and other
causes of wolf mortality.
Continued from Page 1
the EIA forecasts.
Normally, hydroelectricity meets
about 15% of the state’s summer
energy needs. This year, it will pro-
vide 8%, the EIA projects.
To partially fill the gap, California
will use more electricity generated
by natural gas. The EIA estimated
carbon emissions from the energy
sector will increase by 978,000 tons,
or 6%.
Even then, the state will need to
import another 2.9 million mega-
watts-hours. California already buys
one-third of its power from out-of-
state sources.
The EIA projected California
will generate about as much hydro-
power this summer as it did in 2015,
another poor water year.
The state, however, has less abil-
ity than it did seven years ago to
ramp up during peak demands to off-
set the lost of hydropower, according
to the EIA.
California has added solar power
and battery storage since 2015,
but 58% of the state’s natural gas-
fired power capacity was shut
down.
The EIA said droughts in Arizona
and Nevada also could push up the
cost of electricity. Prices could be
held down if retail customers adjust
and use less electricity during peak
times, according to the report.