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In this episode, I speak with Defenders of Wildlife’s Kelly Cox and Christian Hunt about the Wildlife Corridors Act and why it’s needed to counter habitat fragmentation and improve wildlife movement across landscapes that don’t match jurisdictional boundaries. They explain the bill’s goal of creating a national wildlife corridors system focused primarily on federal lands, requiring agencies to coordinate through a corridor committee, use mapping and science to prioritize corridors, and adopt implementing regulations within a couple years of enactment. The act defines connectivity around movements that support genetic exchange, range shifting/expansion, seasonal movement, and recolonization after disturbances, with urgency heightened by climate-driven range shifts.
Beyer, Buchanan, Lofgren, and Fitzpatrick Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To Support Wildlife Migration and Protect Biodiversity
www.defenders.org
02:59 Meet Kelly and Christian
03:39 Defenders Parks Program
06:45 Refuges Rulemaking and Predators
10:38 Why Corridors Matter
14:48 Defining Connectivity and Roads
17:53 Climate and Private Lands
21:14 State Models and Crossings Funding
28:04 Science and Political Hurdles
31:16 Mapping Agencies and Sideboards
36:36 Economics ESA and Future Vision
43:49 Public Lands Reflections
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I this episode, I interview Dave Stalling, writer and wildlife advocate based in Missoula, Montana. Dave recounts his time serving in Marine Corps Force Recon, struggling for years with self-acceptance, and finding his footing by spending long periods alone in remote Montana wildlands, influenced by Doug Peacock’s Grizzly Years and writers like Edward Abbey and Jack Turner. Dave explains his deep connection to grizzlies as teachers of humility, and critiques how modern hunting culture, commercialization, and hunter-dominated agencies use “science” to justify politically driven predator killing and maximizing harvest of game animals. Dave argues wildlife management should include all citizens, discusses ballot initiatives, and shares how hiking with his son Cory, who has a muscular disease, taught him to slow down, notice small details, and practice “forest bathing.”
https://substack.com/@davidstalling
Doug Peacock’s Grizzly Years
Jack Turner’s The Abstract Wild
01:47 Meet David Stalling
03:27 Gray Hair Hypocrisy
05:21 Force Recon Self Acceptance
08:32 Father Roots in Wild
12:53 Grizzlies Teach Humility
16:43 Hunting Culture Critique
17:32 Anti Hunter Who Hunts
25:20 Science Versus Politics
27:03 Elk Bears Misused Science
34:59 Commercialized Hunting Takeover
37:51 Conservation Groups Letdown
38:51 Reforming Wildlife Management
40:33 Ballot Initiatives vs Science
45:31 Calling Out Hunter Culture
47:54 How Dave Learned to Write
53:05 Lessons From Cory
58:18 Rethinking Wild Places
01:03:56 Forest Bathing and Healing
01:07:17 Public Lands Are Everything
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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In this episode, I interview Alex Kelloff, a first-time candidate running in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. Alex launched his campaign after Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, citing concerns about January 6, public-lands selloffs and leasing for oil and gas, federal land-agency staffing cuts, and opposition to Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd and Project 2025-style policies. We discuss top voter concerns including cost of living, rural hospital instability, Medicaid cuts, and the need for universal affordable healthcare with an independently managed public system. Drawing on a 30+ year telecom career, Alex critiques AI data-center “land grab” spending, opposes data centers in his district due to land, water, and utility constraints, and discusses renewable transmission, mining tradeoffs, and public-lands governance.
https://alexkelloff.com/
00:57 Episode Preview Alex Kelloff
02:54 Campaign Trail and Voter Struggles
05:15 Public Lands as Economic Lifeline
06:00 Inside Colorado Third District
08:13 Why He’s Running Now
10:52 Trump Era Impacts on Public Lands
12:22 Top Issues Healthcare and Hospitals
14:14 Universal Healthcare Vision
17:33 Telecom Career and Infrastructure
20:44 AI Data Centers and Public Lands
22:31 AI Land Grab
28:46 Opposing Data Centers in District
30:05 Siting Data Centers Smartly
30:43 Geothermal Drilling Risks
31:43 Mining Materials Tradeoffs
35:46 Rare Earths and War Strategy
39:05 Renewables on Public Lands
41:23 Transmission and Grid Bottlenecks
44:13 RMPs and Project 2025
49:41 Grazing Permit Retirement
51:47 Public Private Models
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In this episode, I interview Paul Lynn, a Walla Walla, Washington-based mycology educator, business owner and public-lands advocate, about fungal ecology, mycelium networks, and how logging disrupts soils’ “sponge” function that stores and releases water. Paul links fungi to forest hydrology, climate processes, and a precautionary approach given how little is known about fungal communities. Our conversation focuses on the 38,000-acre Tiger Mill Project, a quote, unquote, “wildfire-risk-reduction timber sale” in and around Walla Walla’s heavily protected municipal watershed within a roadless area adjacent to the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. Paul argues the project is a subsidized extraction effort using black-box models and flawed assumptions, risking worsening forest drying, fire behavior, sedimentation, and flood impacts in a rain-on-snow zone, and is positioned as a pilot for watershed logging elsewhere like in Bend and Portland Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.
https://youtube.com/shorts/XX0jIhtVjFg
https://youtube.com/shorts/qOhp9yqJidU
https://youtube.com/shorts/hLPbptKCzYE
https://youtube.com/shorts/fFXVC_Hldl8
Confluence Series
Walla Walla Watersheds
Fungaia
02:18 Meet Paul Lynn
03:41 Mycology to Ecology
06:36 Mycelium and Precaution
08:43 Logging Impacts Soil Sponge
10:47 Foraging and Drought
12:33 Disturbance Morels and Spores
15:01 Responsible Mushroom Picking
18:04 Roots and Walla Walla
20:55 Blue Mountains Microclimates
24:48 Into Forest Activism
29:15 Tiger Mill Pilot Project
32:55 Wildfire Risk Narrative
34:48 Water Stakes Floods and Fire
36:59 Why Logging Worsens Hydrology
40:21 Fire History and Recovery
41:39 Endless Management Loop
42:59 Trout After Wildfire
44:41 Local Politics And Players
48:36 Fire Risk Logging Debate
51:05 Grassroots Education Strategy
54:58 Money Grants And Liability
59:13 Tiger Mill Project Details
01:02:36 Modeling And NEPA Loopholes
01:08:12 Flood Risk And Sediment
01:12:07 Water Scarcity Big Picture
01:16:18 Confluence Series And Links
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In this episode, I interview Sam Forstag, a former Missoula-based Forest Service smokejumper and union local vice president now running for Congress in Montana’s 1st District, motivated by DOGE-related cuts that fired many of his co-workers and by frustration with Rep. Ryan Zinke’s lack of response. Forstag shares his upbringing, education at the University of Montana, and eight years in firefighting, arguing that gutting agencies leads to privatization, higher costs, and weaker public-land stewardship. Our conversation covers money in politics, Citizens United, tax-code inequities, and healthcare. We debate and discuss public lands issues around wildfire strategy, WUI priorities, fuels work, NEPA timelines and staffing, logging versus local milling capacity, roadless-rule repeal, and the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act.
“Fuel Reduction” Logging Exacerbates Wildfire Effects and Puts Communities at Greater Risk
Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands
Home hardening and defensible space can halve wildfire damage, study finds
A More Effective Approach for Preventing Wildland-Urban Fire Disasters Jack Cohen, PhD; Research Physical Scientist; US Forest Service, retired
Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act
03:55 DOGE Cuts Spark Campaign
06:57 Unionizing The Forest Service
09:49 Organizing Spreads To NPS
13:56 Money In Politics
17:19 Healthcare Medicare Choice
22:22 Why Run For Congress
26:31 Life As A Smokejumper
28:31 Letting Fire Burn
31:42 WUI Home Hardening Debate
33:09 Fuels Work And Logging Nuance
36:26 Fuels Treatments
38:03 Home Hardening
41:33 WUI Definition
44:48 NEPA Timelines and Courts
53:18 Local Timber Milling
01:01:00 Restoration Jobs With NREPA
01:04:24 Roadless Rule Under Threat
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In this episode, I interview Alison Fox, executive director of American Prairie, about the organization’s 25-year effort to build a 3.2-million-acre grassland reserve anchored by the 1.1-million-acre Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Ali describes on-the-ground restoration including a bison herd grown from 16 animals to nearly 1,000, fence modification/removal, stream work, junk removal, and prairie dog restoration, plus wildlife successes like swift fox reintroduction and grizzly sightings. Our conversation centers on BLM’s proposed reversal of a 2022 decision allowing bison grazing on seven allotments they lease in Phillips County, introducing a new “production” standard under the Taylor Grazing Act that could affect other bison permittees and tribal herds; American Prairie has protested and is preparing further challenges while contingency-planning for herd relocation. Ali also discuss public access and hunting programs, local reactions and misconceptions, donor criticism, tribal partnerships, and a closing invitation to visit the reserve and the importance of public lands.
www.americanprairie.org
03:33 Meet Alison Fox
04:27 Alison’s Background and Montana
05:51 American Prairie Mission
06:45 Origins and Why Grasslands Matter
08:03 Acreage Breakdown and BLM Leases
09:25 On the Ground Restoration Work
11:39 Wildlife Comebacks Swift Fox
13:23 Rewilding and Grizzly Return
15:57 Land Acquisition and Ranching Leases
17:48 Anchor Ranch and Public Access
20:20 BLM Move to Rescind Bison Grazing
24:33 Taylor Grazing Act Production Standard
27:01 Precedent Risks and Next Steps
28:42 Contingency Plans
30:39 Cattle Only Permit Shift
31:05 State Land Legal Fight
31:47 Tribal Partnerships
35:20 Stocking Rate Decisions
36:08 Bison Versus Cattle
38:10 Donors And Transparency
41:55 Local Reception And Critics
44:01 Hunting Access Programs
46:05 Dispelling Bison Myths
49:13 Negative Bison Easements
50:15 Working With BLM
50:50 Visit American Prairie
51:54 Why Public Lands Matter
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In this episode, I am joined by Wanda Culp and Joshua Wright to discuss their new film, Land Less, and the “Landless Bill” (S.2554 / H.R.41), that would transfer 115,000 acres of Southeast Alaska public lands on the Tongass National Forest—about 60,000 currently protected by the Roadless Rule—to new Native corporations created under ANCSA. They describe ANCSA’s corporate model and contend past Tongass transfers, including the 2014 Sealaska Bill and the Alaska Mental Health Trust exchange, have repeatedly led to large-scale old-growth clearcut logging. They criticize major environmental groups like The Nature Conservancy and The Wilderness Society for supporting the bill, warning it functions as a workaround to NEPA and federal oversight, and discuss Sealaska’s cease-and-desist letter over a filmed boardroom scene.
www.LandLessFilm.com
00:56 Episode Preview Landless Bill
02:12 Alaska Land Transfers Context
04:04 Meet Wanda and Joshua
04:24 Why Make Landless?
06:47 Wanda’s Story
09:22 Past Tongass Transfer Deals
11:41 Why Landless Enables Logging
14:41 Big Greens Backlash
18:43 Sealaska Cease and Desist
28:32 Tribal Governance and Youth
34:07 No Public Process After Transfer
38:44 Climate Crisis and Extraction
41:30 How to Take Action
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In this episode, I speak with long-time wilderness advocate Gary MacFarlane. Gary discusses moving from Idaho to France, still active with Wilderness Watch and Friends of the Clearwater, he explains his long connection to the Northern Rockies and why the Clearwater Basin is so special to him, with diverse habitats and notable wildlife history including wolves, grizzly sightings, and the decline of woodland caribou tied to habitat change and human access. Our conversation covers threats to roadless areas, weaknesses and loopholes in the Roadless Rule, and the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. We discuss mechanized recreation, core Wilderness Act protections, and concerns about Forest Service ties to industry, outsourcing, and reorganization harming wilderness stewardship, plus critiques of fire-logging justifications.
02:03 Idaho to France Life
03:17 Wild Places in France
05:29 Why the Clearwater Matters
07:29 Inland Rainforest Ecology
09:15 Wolves Grizzlies Caribou
14:29 Roadless Rule Loopholes
16:41 Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act
19:26 Politics Jobs and Subsidies
24:10 Recreation Versus Wilderness
29:54 What Wilderness Protects
31:46 Logging Bans Explained
32:38 Grazing and Guiding Loopholes
34:10 Chainsaws and Trail Ethics
36:33 Forest Service Reorg Fallout
38:58 Losing Wilderness Professionals
45:23 Devolution to State Control
47:29 Research Stations and Fire Science
50:32 Privatization and Canada Warning
53:25 Reform Ideas for New Agencies
58:26 Prescribed Fire and Home Hardening
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In this episode, I speak with Ryan Busse, Democratic congressional candidate running in MT-01. He is currently projected to win the upcoming primary election in early June. On public lands issues in Congress, Ryan argues calls and letters aren’t enough without electoral change, citing the example of the recent vote on the Boundary Waters, and lays out his case as to why he’ll be a strong fighter for public lands in Washington for all Americans. We discuss “collaborative conservation” and Montana public-lands bills that protect limited wilderness acres at the expense of vast swaths of roadless forests. We discuss Montana’s logging past, new economies, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, restoration jobs, and a wildfire approach focused on home hardening and defensible space rather than backcountry logging.
https://busseformontana.com
00:34 Guest Intro
03:36 Campaign Life on the Road
05:17 Boundary Waters Disaster
08:10 Public Lands Laws
09:40 Zinke and Daines Exit
11:57 Hunting Season Sacrifices
12:56 Public Lands Campaign Plan
15:28 Why Elect True Advocates?
17:24 Busse’s Conservation Resume
19:13 Democratic Opponents
21:20 Public Lands for All Americans
23:23 Polls and Montana’s Stakes
25:17 Public Lands on the Ballot
25:59 Collaborative Conservation
27:43 Why Collaboration Fails
29:31 Montana’s Collaborative Bills
32:45 Roadless Habitat
35:43 NREPA and Restoration Jobs
37:30 Wild Places Drive the Economy
41:30 Lumber Mill Automation and Jobs
43:42 Wildfire Science and Home Hardening
48:09 Election Stakes
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U.S. Senate passed H.J. Res. 140 (50–49) to overturn a 20-year mineral withdrawal protecting 225,504 acres in the Boundary Waters’ Rainy River headwaters, sending the resolution to President Trump. Ingrid explains the Quetico-Superior ecosystem’s vulnerability to sulfide copper mining, the history of canceled Twin Metals leases and the 2023 public land order, and argues the Congressional Review Act use is unprecedented and threatens broader public land orders. She outlines next steps including likely issuance of federal mineral leases, expedited federal and state permitting and environmental review, possible litigation, and pursuing permanent protections through federal and Minnesota legislation, while urging supporters to thank supportive senators, hold others accountable, volunteer, donate, and stay engaged.
Save the Boundary Waters Action Fund
00:56 Senate Vote Fallout
02:08 Meet Ingrid Lyons
02:49 Why the Boundary Waters Matter
05:26 Mining Threat Explained
06:51 How Protections Were Won
09:48 Withdrawal Area Breakdown
11:42 Legislative Attacks Timeline
13:34 How the CRA Was Used
17:02 Senate Vote and Precedent
18:51 Coalition Strength and Vote Count
23:23 What Happens Next
28:56 How You Can Help
33:23 Q and A Begins
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In this episode, I interview Diane Boyd, wolf biologist and author. Diane describes learning wolf trapping and collaring during her early years in Minnesota, then moving to Montana in 1979 during early natural wolf recolonization before the 1995–96 Yellowstone/Idaho introductions. She explains why biologists trap wolves, what radio-collars reveal about pack behavior, reproduction, territories, diet, and genetics, and how wolf management has become politicized. Our discussion critiques state population modeling, increasingly liberal wolf-killing rules, and persistent misinformation blaming wolves for game declines despite elk numbers being high and livestock losses from wolves being small. We also discuss public-lands grazing impacts, nonlethal coexistence tools, fears of escalation to poisoning, and the need for better public communication of science, advocating for public lands, and her new book — A Woman Among Wolves.
Diane’s book - A Woman Among Wolves
00:56 Episode Preview
02:51 Meet Diane Boyd
03:24 Hunting Talk
05:00 Wolf Origins
06:01 Trapping And Collars
07:34 Montana Recolonization
08:56 Research Questions
10:06 Models And Trends
11:42 Wolf Hunting Debate
15:27 Elk Deer Myths
17:22 Grazing And Habitat
19:31 Coexistence Tools
23:31 People Politics Data
25:44 Why Wolves Get Blamed
26:49 Control Culture and Old Predator Wars
28:53 Common Myths
30:52 Hunting Pressure and Poison Fears
34:41 Changing Minds With Better Science
36:08 Agency Misinformation and Suppressed Research
40:10 Grizzlies Next?
42:36 Why Wolves Adapt Everywhere
45:04 Hope, Tolerance, and Public Lands
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In this episode, I interview Bob Krumenaker, retired Big Bend National Park superintendent, about the recently proposed Big Bend border wall and its implications. Bob describes Big Bend’s desert, Chisos Mountains, and the Rio Grande riparian corridor, emphasizing biodiversity, cross-border wildlife movement, and the park’s international protected-area status. He argues Big Bend has the lowest illegal crossing activity on the southern border—about 200 apprehensions annually within the park—and says a 30-foot bollard wall would require new roads, towers, lighting, and secondary barriers, harming wilderness character, dark skies, river access, and wildlife. The discussion covers existing surveillance infrastructure, an MOU guiding Border Patrol conduct, prior wall impacts in Organ Pipe and Coronado, and a nonpartisan coalition opposing the wall while supporting less intrusive, cooperative technology. Bob also outlines advocacy steps and links the fight to long-stalled wilderness designation efforts.
Thousands in Texas protest against border wall through national park: ‘big love for Big Bend’
Sign the Change Dot Org Petition
Five Call - Stop Construction of a Border Wall in the Big Bend Region
Capitol Switchboard Number - (202) 224-3121
Keep Big Bend Wild
No Big Bend Boarder Wall
00:56 Episode Preview
02:12 Support the Podcast
03:03 Meet Bob Krumenaker
03:26 Career Path to Superintendent
04:56 Advocacy Inside NPS
06:48 Park Service Mission and Management
11:43 Pivot to Big Bend Tenure
13:57 Big Bend Ecosystems Overview
16:30 Sky Islands and Rare Species
17:41 Wildlife Comebacks and Connectivity
19:49 Crossings Data and Border Patrol Role
21:58 Wall Impacts in Other Parks
26:00 MOU and Working with Border Patrol
27:53 Wall Proposal Timeline and Map Changes
33:00 What a Wall Would Build
35:20 River Access At Risk
36:21 What Smart Wall Means
38:57 Surveillance Tradeoffs
42:15 How Crossings Really Work
45:46 Coalition Against The Wall
54:01 Wilderness History And Future
01:00:18 How You Can Help
01:03:05 Why Public Lands Matter
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In this episode, I interview Harold Wood, writer and historian, who specializes in the life and work of John Muir, one of the nation’s most influential and now, controversial, wilderness advocates. Harold discusses his lifelong interest in Muir and explains why his blend of scientific observation and poetic writing remains influential today. He outlines Muir’s role in the wilderness movement and the Sierra Club’s early conservation campaigns. The conversation addresses presentism and claims about Muir’s views of Native Americans. Harold disputes allegations linking Muir to Indigenous removals, racism and eugenics. Harold argues that we have much to learn from the life and advocacy of Muir and that we should come together as conservationists to address the challenges of the present day.
John Muir and Native Americans
John Muir: Racist or Admirer of Native Americans?
Criticizing Muir and misunderstanding the foundation of American nature conservation
Who was John Muir, Really?
Battle for the Wilderness by Michael Frome
00:56 Episode Overview
02:05 Harold Wood Background
03:03 Why Muir Matters
03:49 Who Was John Muir
04:55 Roosevelt Yosemite Trip
06:38 Fame and Hetch Hetchy
11:18 Sierra Club Origins
13:15 Outings and Modern Era
16:17 Presentism Explained
20:02 Early Native Views
23:13 Views Evolve Through Travel
26:11 Ecocentric Worldview
28:35 Indigenous Land Management
31:42 Yosemite Removal Claims
33:53 Parks and Displacement
36:18 Muir Backlash
41:26 Eugenics Claims Rebuttal
42:19 Sequoia League Support
46:46 Unity Through Grassroots
49:42 Wilderness Big Lie
56:14 Agency Politics and Wilderness
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In this episode, I welcome back Kevin Proescholdt of Wilderness Watch to discuss wilderness policy debates, focusing on large prescribed-burning proposals like the Forest Service plan to burn all 289,000 acres of Illinois’s Shawnee National Forest, including about 40,000 acres of designated wilderness, and a Boundary Waters project proposal to burn roughly 87,000 of Wilderness. Kevin and I dispute claims that Indigenous people broadly burned entire regions and landscapes, citing newer research suggesting more localized burning around village sites and for food cultivation. We argue agencies use false Indigenous fire narratives to justify forest thinning and landscape manipulation. We also critique Claire Boerigter’s recent article: “How protecting wilderness could mean purposefully tending it, not just leaving it alone,” which advocates active management of wilderness.
Wilderness, Indigenous land zones and regionality in North American forests
For Wilderness to remain wild, it must remain unmanipulated
02:03 Kevin Proescholdt background
04:01 Current wilderness hotspots
06:59 Holding the wilderness line
12:20 Why wilderness matters
15:31 Fire narratives and logging cover
18:58 Shawnee National Forest burn proposal
21:36 Indigenous burning
24:22 Boundary Waters burn plan
25:28 Flawed fire history methods
26:46 Habitat loss and species decline
27:16 Wilderness Act Misread
30:53 Wilderness Pristine Straw Man Arguments
35:47 Let Lightning Fires Burn
38:14 Why High Intensity Matters
40:21 Wildness and Mental Health
41:27 Fire Regeneration Perspective
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In this episode, I interview John Gaedeke, who was raised around a remote wilderness lodge near Inuk Lake in the Brooks Range, Alaska, and now helps lead Defend the Brooks Range. Our conversation centers on threats from proposed infrastructure and expanded mineral development, including the Ambler Road and changes to protections along the Dalton Highway corridor, which John says could enable heavy ore trucking, intensify industrialization, and increase risks to rivers, salmon, and caribou while exporting raw copper overseas with limited benefits to Alaskans.
01:39 Land Transfers and Oak Flat
03:08 Meet John
03:22 Life in the Brooks Range
04:16 Winter Travel and Lodge Logistics
06:29 Building a Remote Wilderness Lodge
08:28 From Hunting to Ecotourism
10:15 Why Protections Matter
11:40 Extraction Economics and Dividends
14:31 Defend the Brooks Range Origins
15:33 Brooks Range Extremes and Fragility
17:48 Wildlife Encounters Up North
20:21 Fishing Inuk Lake
22:37 Recreation Changes and Elite Wilderness
24:49 Brooks Range Humility
25:19 Dalton Corridor Rules
27:39 Mining Meets Pipelines
28:48 Ore Economics Explained
30:42 Roads Change Wilderness
32:57 Ambler Road Risks
34:59 Litigation And Unknowns
38:01 Biggest Red Flags
41:51 How To Push Back
46:32 Public Lands Giveaway
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In this episode, I interview Gerry James, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All Campaign. Gerry describes his upbringing as a military brat that fostered a love of the outdoors and environmental protection, and discusses challenges he has faced as a Black man recreating outdoors. He outlines efforts to close the nature equity gap through youth programs, transit access to nature, and partnerships that train students as Sierra Club outings leaders, connecting outings to advocacy. Much of the conversation focuses on the Trump administration’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity” executive order and resulting attempts to remove or sanitize historical and climate-related interpretation on public lands, such as Philadelphia’s President’s House slavery exhibit and its restoration after a city lawsuit. Gerry details Sierra Club organizing, public records requests, coalition-building with historians, and planned actions to protect inclusive public history.
Outdoors for All Campaign
Save Our Signs Campaign
LANDSCAPES OF EXCLUSION: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South
02:31 Military Brat Roots
04:10 Learning Black History
05:13 Racism Outdoors
07:51 Outdoor Equity Renaissance
09:06 HBCUs Outside Partnership
11:19 Outings To Advocacy
14:38 Skiing And Youth Trips
16:51 Outdoors For All Campaign
18:51 Fighting History Whitewashing
21:50 Organizing And Records Requests
24:31 Philly Rally And Win
31:02 Resistance Rangers Network
32:04 Whitewashing Civil Rights
33:52 Tribal History Under Fire
34:46 Lawsuit And Truth Debate
36:59 Interpreting History
39:09 Climate Science Attacks
41:25 Sustainability And Comments
43:27 Coalitions And Day Of Action
47:20 Save Our Signs And Juneteenth
52:44 Black State Parks Legacy
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In this episode, I interview Roderick Frazier Nash, author of Wilderness and the American Mind, retired UC Santa Barbara professor and founder of its interdisciplinary Environmental Studies program, who discusses his background as a historian, longtime Grand Canyon commercial river guide, and reflects on his influential book Wilderness in the American Mind, which grew from his University of Wisconsin PhD work during the rising public interest in environmental protections back in the 1960s. He argues wilderness appreciation and preservation largely emerged from urban culture, citing figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Bob Marshall. Nash explains the historical shift around 1890 from wilderness as enemy to asset, and connects wildness to the human psyche. He recounts early work recovering Aldo Leopold’s legacy and promotes environmental ethics around The Rights of Nature, warns about “gardening” wilderness, and outlines his “Island Civilization” vision of shrinking human footprint to leave more of Earth wild.
Wilderness and the American Mind
Wilderness, Indigenous land zones and regionality in North American forests
06:52 Meet Roderick Nash
09:00 Writing Wilderness and the American Mind
10:59 Urban Roots of Wilderness Appreciation
12:41 Bob Marshall Story
16:23 Nash Leaving Manhattan
21:42 Nash’s First Wild Moments
27:02 Frontier Ends 1890
29:43 Defining Wilderness
36:34 Wilderness Act Origins
38:17 Wilderness Shapes America
40:54 Scarcity Makes It Valuable
44:51 Wildness Within Us
47:05 Aldo Leopold Land Ethic
51:45 Future Threats And Restraint
59:34 Rights Of Nature Law
01:02:48 Island Civilization Vision
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In this episode, I interview Amy Cordalis, Yurok Tribal member, attorney and environmental activist about the historic decommissioning and removal of the four lower Klamath dams — the largest U.S. dam removal project in history. Amy shares the Yurok creation story about living in balance with a living river and the tribe’s responsibility to steward salmon and water. She discusses the history of U.S. violence and dispossession of the Yurok and other California tribes, including unratified treaties, reservation reductions, and the allotment era. The conversation centers on the 2002 Klamath fish kill—about 70,000 adult salmon perished—linked to drought-year water diversions ordered over scientific objections by then vice president Dick Cheney, which propelled Amy to law school and helped spark the movement that led to removal of four Klamath dams in 2024 through grassroots organizing and FERC relicensing. She discusses the Yurok rights of nature ordinance granting the river personhood under tribal law, early signs of ecological recovery after dam removal, ongoing upper-basin water quality challenges (including groundwater connections, grazing impacts, and the endangered sucker fish), and how Indigenous and non-Indigenous environmentalists can better work together.
Purchase Amy’s Book - The Water Remembers
Ridges to Riffles
04:07 Meet Amy Cordalis
05:39 Why Yurok Country Hasn’t Changed Much
08:12 The Yurok Creation Story
15:01 Living Connection to Place
26:17 2002 Klamath Fish Kill: Drought, Diversions, and Politics
31:38 “It’s Your Turn”: Off to Law School
35:36 From Grief to Movement: Grassroots Organizing and the FERC Relicensing Path
41:03 Rights of Nature for the Klamath: Personhood Under Yurok Law
44:03 Why Ecosystems Need Standing: Limits of U.S. Environmental Law
46:37 Behind-the-Scenes Dam Removal Lesson: Fight for All Four Dams
51:10 After the Dams Came Out: Salmon Return, Cleaner Water, River Reborn
59:13 Upper Basin Challenges: Sucker Fish, Groundwater, Grazing & Public Lands
01:02:41 Working Together For a Better Future
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In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Wanda Culp, a Tlingit elder living in the Tongass Rainforest in Southeast Alaska, about how clearcut logging and other extraction have impacted Southeast Alaska communities and subsistence resources. She argues the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which created for-profit Native corporations, concentrates power and profits while many shareholders remain poor and landless. Our conversation focuses on Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Alaska Native Landless Equity Act, which would amend the Settlement Act, and transfer about 115,000 acres from the Tongass National Forest (80,000 acres are ancient old growth forests and Roadless) to five Native corporations for clearcut logging and mining, Wanda calls the bill a misuse of “equity” language that advances privatization and extraction. She urges tribes and corporations to reunite decision-making with the people and calls for louder public opposition amid the climate crisis.
02:56 Meet Wanda Culp: background, climate whiplash, and path to activism
06:10 Clearcut shock: how ANCSA corporation logging hit village hunting & fishing grounds
09:12 Tlingit history & why the Tongass is sacred
10:47 Subsistence lifeways and a personal connection to Glacier Bay
12:35 Vanishing herring and salmon
13:24 From logging to mining: the next extraction wave in Southeast Alaska
14:22 What ANCSA created: for-profit corporations and poverty
18:42 Reform vision: return authority to tribes and grassroots voices
20:30 Murkowski’s S.2504 explained: ‘Landless Equity’ and Tongass land transfers
23:24 Conservation groups back the bill? Wanda’s reaction and call to oppose it
Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe - Visa fler
