I have been a vocal critic of the so called “Fix our Forests Act” or FOFA, that is making its way through Congress. I think it is a cynical, bad faith bill that at best, doesn’t address the wildfire issues it purports to solve, and could actually make those issues much worse.

Combined with the attempt to repeal the ‘roadless rule’, which protects vast swaths of public lands from road construction and extraction, and the Trump administration’s Executive Orders on dramatically increasing timber production on public lands, I fear we are in danger of the kind of rampant ecosystem destruction that we haven’t seen since the darkest days of the timber wars.

And I am not alone.  The vast majority of environmental and conservation organizations are fiercely opposed to FOFA. 

So I was really surprised to see some organizations that I respect lobby hard in support of the bill.  One of those orgs is Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a non partisan climate advocacy group that I respect and have worked with before.

I think that disagreeing respectfully and really listening to conflicting perspectives is a key part of civic engagement in a pluralistic society, so I invited them to come on the show and talk through the bill and some of our differences.  

Before we get started, I would love to hear from you, yes you!  Send me an email sometime at [email protected]

Show Notes:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/471

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1462

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/fix-our-forests-name-only

Benefits of Home Hardening for Wildfire 

https://grist.org/wildfires/logging-doesnt-prevent-wildfires-but-trump-is-trying-anyway/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/policy/our-fix-our-forests-advocacy-in-2025/

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

It is plain for anyone to see that the short rotation, financialized plantation management practiced by the Wall Street investors who own the vast majority of private timberland is destroying our communities and ecosystems.

Coast Range Radio has been highlighting the need for an alternative model of forest management that sustains both economies and ecosystems for years.  So when I heard about today’s guest’s research into community forests, I was all ears.

Alexander Harris is the Land and Water policy manager at the bellingham based non-profit ReSources.   Alexander recently completed a graduate program in Environmental Policy at Western Washington University, where his research explored how community-driven forest stewardship can help restore watersheds.

(Originally aired 2/26/24)

Research Links/Show Notes:
Restoring The Nooksak Through Community-Driven Forest Stewardship: https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2151&context=wwuet

Referenced in this episode:
https://www.nwcommunityforests.org/
https://stewartmountaincf.org/
https://nisquallylandtrust.org/our-lands-and-projects/nisqually-community-forest
https://www.dnr.wa.gov/Teanaway
https://co.chelan.wa.us/natural-resources/pages/nason-ridge-community-forest
https://www.sightline.org/profile/kate-anderson/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBKlofDmdpo&pp=ygUOamVycnkgZnJhbmtsaW4%3D

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

Today we’re joined by Nathan Daniel, Executive Director of the Great Peninsula Conservancy.  Nathan has helped guide some of the most ambitious conservation work going on in Western Washington - specifically on Kitsap Peninsula, the forested lowlands between Seattle and the Olympic mountains. 

Big thanks to Andy Shoemaker for co-hosting this episode!

https://greatpeninsula.org/

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

Are Amazon data centers fueling a water contamination crisis in Eastern Oregon

Rolling Stone recently published a major investigative piece asking that question. But Amazon is far from the only major corporation polluting the drinking water of Morrow County residents, and this crisis has been going on for decades.

Oregon Rural Action has been organizing in and advocating for communities in Eastern Oregon for years.  They were heavily quoted in that Rolling Stone article, and they have been a strong voice on this, and other environmental justice issues.

So I’m delighted to be joined by Kaleb Lay, ORA’s research and policy director, and Zaira Sanchez, director of community organizing.

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

Is the conservation movement being as effective as we need to be?  

This is a moment in time when so much is on the line, and we need to act not just boldly and quickly, but wisely and strategically.

To discuss all of this and more, my guest today is Mitch Friedman, founder and Executive Director of Conservation Northwest, and the author of a brand new memoir: “Conservation Confidential: A Wild Path to a Less Polarizing and More Effective Activism.”

Conservation Confidential is a highly engaging story about Mitch’s activism journey and a provocative exploration of his philosophies around what effective activism and strategy looks like.

I found myself both agreeing and arguing with those philosophies, which, alongside some charismatic storytelling, made for a great read.

I’m so excited to speak with Mitch today, and I hope you’ll let me know what you think of this conversation.

Our show email is [email protected], please reach out anytime!

Show notes:

https://conservationnw.org/

https://www.latahbooks.com/conservation-confidential

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

Should we be logging our drinking watersheds to protect them? That’s the question for residents of Walla Walla Washington, whose pristine drinking water  comes off of National Forest land.

The Forest Service is planning to a major and multi-faceted project with the stated purpose of protecting Walla Walla’s drinking water from wildfire.  

But what about the impacts of road building and commercial logging in intact, native forest?

These questions over how and whether to use so called “active management” to mitigate fire risk grow more relevant every year, and there is a growing body of evidence that, in many cases, the Forest Service is not coming up with the right answers.

My guest today is Paul Lynn, a Walla Walla based mycology business owner turned community organizer. Paul has been creatively working to bring his community together to oppose commercial logging within the Walla Walla watershed, and I’m delighted to talk with him.

My email is [email protected], please let me know what you think of the show!

Show Notes:

https://substack.com/@wallawallawatershed

theconfluenceseries.org

https://www.fungaia.life/ethos/

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

By now, many, if not most of you have heard that ICE has been secretly planning to build some kind of jail or detention facility in Newport here on the Oregon Coast.

The community pushback has been immediate, fierce, inspiring, and seemingly successful, at least so far.

This is a developing story, and only one skirmish in a wider war to protect our communities from these masked and lawless thugs.

The Newport City Council has been proactive, out front, and clear in their staunch opposition to ICE, so I invited Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan on to the show to talk through what’s going on with the facility, the huge groundswell of resistance, and what comes next.

Note: this interview was recorded on the morning on November 17th.

My email is [email protected], I would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, guest ideas, all of that.

Show Notes:

https://lincolnchronicle.org/evidence-mounts-for-possible-immigration-detention-center-in-newport-as-two-companies-advertise-for-work-there/

https://lincolnchronicle.org/my-dad-was-picked-up-sept-17-newport-girl-tells-packed-council-hearing-on-how-immigration-sweep-has-affected-her-family/

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

My guest today is Britney Van Citters, Political and Organizing Director at the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

Britney joins to discuss how the Environmental Protection Agency is being refashioned into the Environmental Destruction Agency, OLCV’s legislative Scorecard, and what we can do to push Oregon legislators to meet this moment of overlapping crises with real action.

My email is [email protected], I would love to hear what you think of the show!

Show Notes:

• https://www.olcvscorecard.org/2025/
• www.olcv.org/
• https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history
• https://www.npr.org/2025/07/29/nx-s1-5463771/epa-greenhouse-gas-regulations-cars-pollution
• https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/09/29/oregon-senate-votes-on-4-3-billion-transportation-package/

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

I’m joined today by filmmaker Jesse Andrew Clark, to talk about his recent documentary, “Free to Grow”.

Free to Grow uses deeply personal first person storytelling to highlight the harms of herbicide spraying on industrial timberlands in the Northwest.

Show Notes:

https://www.oldgrovefilms.com/forest-stories

https://www.opb.org/news/article/blm-investigates-after-company-sprays-pesticide-on-public-land-without-license/

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/

My guest today is University of Oregon professor and longtime activist, Sarah Wald.  Sarah is the author of multiple books, and as you’ll hear today, a profound thinker on a wide variety of issues concerning the conservation and environmental justice communities.

This is one of my favorite conversations I’ve ever had on this show, in part because Sarah was so game to explore some really complicated points of tension within our movements. I definitely learned a lot, and was happy to have some of my beliefs and understandings challenged. 

The show email is [email protected], please reach out anytime with guest ideas, feedback, your harshest criticisms, or if you’re interested in helping make this show!

Research Links/Show Notes:

Referenced: 

• Tradeoff Denialism: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4885&context=faculty_scholarship
• Bill McKibben on tradeoffs and the promise of renewables: https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/wind-and-solar-will-require-mining-but-not-as-much-as-fossil-fuels-bill-mckibben-sun-day

Sarah's Recommendations:

• The Anti-Creep Climate Initiative’s zine, Against the Ecofascist Creep.
• Olivia Aguilar, A Latine Outdoor Experience: Remembering, Resisting, and Reimagining (2025)
• Carolyn Finney, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors (2014)
•  Jessica Hernandez, Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science (2022)
• Tao Leigh Goffe, Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis (2025)
• Tiya Miles, Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation (2023)
• Alexander Menrisky, Everyday Ecofascism: Crisis and Consumption in American Literature (2025)
• Kyle Powys Whyte “Against Crisis Epistemology” in Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies (2021)
• Kyle Powys White, “Our Ancestors’ Dystopia Now: Indigenous Conservation and the Anthropocene” in the Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities (2017)

https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/