A’al Waipia, in Arizona, is dying because the park service, intending to preserve the natural integrity of the place as a bird sanctuary for tourists, removed the Papago Indians who had lived and farmed there. The place was naturally purer after the Indians were gone, but the oasis also began to shrink as the irrigation ditches silted up. As Mr. Nabhan puts it, ‘an odd thing is happening to their “natural” bird sanctuary. They are losing the heterogeneity of the habitat, and with it, the birds. The old trees are dying … These riparian trees are essential for the breeding habitat of certain
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