Green Root Podcast

On episode 94 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we report breaking news on the destructive logging threatening the Bell Smith Springs National Natural Landmark in Illinois and the legal battle on which the future of the Shawnee National Forest depends, with Sam Stearns, founder of Friends of Bell Smith Springs & John Wallace, vice president of Shawnee Park and Climate Alliance)

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Sam and John about:

-The rare wonder that is the Bell Smith Springs National Natural Landmark

-Their lawsuit alleging that the Forest Service has “illegally withheld information from the public” to push through logging plans, including breaking news on its current status

-The crucial role eastern deciduous forests play in climate regulation and biodiversity

-The campaign to designate the eco-region as a Climate Preserve

Support Friends of Bell Smith Springs at https://www.fobss.org/ and Shawnee Park and Climate Alliance at https://www.shawneentlpark.org/

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 93 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we get political on the topic of whether elected officials in the Democratic party are walking their talk when it comes to protecting the natural world, with Karen Breslin, democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate from Colorado.

-Most Republican politicians don’t hide their indifference towards nature

-Many Democrat politicians—including most of Colorado’s congressional delegation—are pushing legislation to spend huge sums of taxpayer dollars to log public forests

-Neither political party will acknowledge the root causes of the ecological crisis, much less address them

-The Democratic party might regain its identity—and conscience—by becoming actual champions of the natural world

(Disclaimer: Eco-Integrity Alliance and the Green Root Podcast do not endorse elected officials, however we are open to speaking with them about their stances on public lands and the natural world.)

On episode 92 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we get scorched by FOREST FIRE MALFEASANCE (ForestFireMalfeasance.org), a new report exposing a government coverup of peer-reviewed science to promote logging on public lands, with Dr. Chad Hanson, research ecologist and director of John Muir Project.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Chad about:

-Eco-Integrity Alliance’s new report, FOREST FIRE MALFEASANCE, revealing hundreds of emails from a public records request showing indisputable evidence of 25 government agencies, elected officials, logging industry trade groups, NGOs, a university, a fire department, and a government-funded “collaborative” colluding on a disinformation campaign to ramp up logging in public forests under the pretense of “wildfire fuel reduction”

-Proof that those carrying out this logging are privately aware of—yet have been advised to publicly deny—the vast body of science contesting its effectiveness at protecting communities from wildfire

-Why agencies such as U.S. Forest Service must stoop personal attacks and even defamation to silence critics

-How these colluding entities have intentionally deceived and/or strongarmed media into covering up the story

-What can be done by ecological advocates to protect forests and communities from wildfire disinformation

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 91 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we get off the beaten path to discuss current threats to roll back the “Roadless Rule” and whether the decades-old conservation strategy of defending the status quo of weak public lands protections is working, with Gary Macfarlane, board member of Friends of the Clearwater.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Gary about:

-The history of the Roadless Rule

-The U.S. Forest Service’s efforts to roll it back

-The existing loopholes in the current rule that allow clearcutting and old-growth logging

-The even weaker state Roadless Rules in Idaho and Colorado

-How Colorado’s biggest logging project of the century (116,000 acres) is planned for 18,500 acres of Roadless areas under the guise of wildfire

-Whether advocating for stronger public lands protections would “undermine” the Roadless Rule

Gary Macfarlane and Katie Bilodeau's "The Roadless Report: Analyzing the Impacts of Two Roadless Rules on Forested Wildlands" 

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 90 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we peek behind the green curtain to uncover the REAL reasons why we keep losing our public lands to more logging, mining, drilling, and grazing, with Denise Boggs, director of Conservation Congress (conservationcongress-ca.org).

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Denise about how:

-Large, corporate-funded foundations have hamstrung public lands advocacy

-Billions of dollars have propped up “environmental groups” that not only don’t protect public lands from extractive industries but advocate for corporate interests

-Both Republicans AND Democrats have advanced policy to gut public lands protections

-Partisan media outlets have hidden these scandals from the public

-The only way to save the public lands movement is to support grassroots ecosystem advocacy

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 89 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we shine a bright light through the media blackout of what may be the single most destructive public lands scheme of the century with Andrew Rothman, Wildlife Habitat Conservationist and founder of the Rainforest Biodiversity Group.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Andrew about:

-The fake “emergency” authorization that the Trump administration has made literally 100 times worse by sacrificing 112 million acres of public lands—59% of National Forests—to the chopping block

-The endangered species and Roadless Areas at risk in what may be the largest logging project in Colorado history

-Why it’s so hard to get media to cover such an unprecedented scope and scale of forest destruction and sidestepping of environmental law

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 88 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we unearth an alarming level of public forest destruction, science denial, and sidestepping of participatory democracy in Jefferson County, Colorado with citizen advocate Mike Rawluk.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Mike about:

-How he went from being an unwitting supporter of “wildfire fuel reduction” to speaking out about the unprecedented level of aggressive and scientifically-contested logging in Jefferson County Open Space (including clearcutting and removal of mature and old-growth trees up to 211 years old)

-His concerns with opening forests to wind that can spread fires quicker to communities, cut off escape routes, and endanger firefighter

-What he believes we should do about local, state, and federal government increasingly cutting the public out of decision making on crucial issues that impact our environment, safety, and lives.

On episode 87 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we celebrate the campaign to protect public forests as climate refuges with Rick Bass, Executive Director of the Yaak Valley Forest Council.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Rick Bass about his organization’s work defending the uniquely biodiverse Yaak Valley in northwestern Montana; their success in stopping (for now) the U.S. Forest Service’s “Black Ram” old-growth logging project; their strategy to turn the eco-region into a Climate Refuge connected to a globe-spanning “Curtain of Green”; the creation of an acoustic guitar from an ancient spruce (damaged by Forest Service roadbuilding) as an advocacy tool; and the role of music and storytelling in fostering a culture of nature lovers.  

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 86 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we delve deep into the ecological, physical, cultural, and spiritual harm caused by mining public lands with Dov Korff-Korn, legal director of the Sacred Defense Fund.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Dov Korff-Korn about his work as an attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project to defend Indigenous lands and sacred sites from extractive industry; the impacts of a graphite mine proposed for the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota, a sacred site known as Pe'Sla to the Lakota People; and how our movements might bring people of all backgrounds together to protect public lands from extraction.

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 85 of the Green Root Podcast, we question whether anger is always the best fuel for activism, while pondering some ways we might make our campaigns more enjoyable, welcoming, and effective.