I was in the Southwest already and stopped by Big Bend National Park to take a look around at the site where they're bulldozing a service road for the border security stuff (not quite a wall). It's not that bad yet, but there's something a lot worse-- the fact that they waived about 30 environmental laws to pave the way to build this stuff is a terrifying precedent. Here's some stuff on Big Bend National Park, the wall-building odyssey of the past several months, the necessity of the environmental laws, and the bigger picture. See you on the trail... 

In which I literally just read you a list of National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Monuments, National Battlefields, and National Historic Trails! The National Park Service single-handedly protects more historic heritage across a wider array of historical narratives than any other single entity in the United States of America, including many most people don't know exist. This 250th, America is more confused than it's been in a very long time about its identity, and its future. There are few better places to look for these than in the past, in all the stories we can learn to tell of it. 

Most of the people I'm criticizing here are Republicans, so it's time I finally confirm to everyone that I actually do have cred as a Republican, and that this project actually is, in part, an internal critique of my own side. A lot of books, some of that political commentary people have been asking for, and some more extended looks at the ways conservative conservationists are continually failing to fight for the things that matter most in the public lands fight. See you on the trail...

Chris Keyes, editor of Republic.Land, joins the show to talk on why there aren't enough journals and magazines covering public land conservation issues these days, why the field has historically tilted left, what needs to be done to build a broader coalition and get more people in on the issues, and all the rest. Take a look at his work and follow https://www.republic.land/

There's a very simple, straightforward idea of the public land system everyone who thinks of themselves as a conservationist should hold themselves too: keep it staffed, funded, protected, managed, and whole. Unfortunately, my fellow Republicans do not seem to be getting the message much of the time. So a position that should be moderate is, nowadays, radical. Here's some unhinged ravings on public lands radicalism. So unhinged that your host even tongue-twists himself and casually mixes up the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service multiple times. Happy listening!

You're listening to Match My Mountains with Luke Nathan Phillips. 

When two or three conservatives are gathered together, there too is a conversation about philosophy with them. Andrew Sandstrom and I are no different. Beyond philosophical bases for conservation, we talk about the pendulum of national politics screwing up carefully-crafted local consensuses on land management, the mindsets and arguments of Utah Republicans supporting land sales, and the nitty-gritty backdrop of personal relationships and donor psychology making for the public land news you see every day in your inbox. Andrew's deadpan is delightful, and you can hear it more at The Public Lands Policy Podcast-- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-public-lands-policy-podcast/id1778290787 

You're listening to Match My Mountains hosted by Luke Nathan Phillips. 

Former Chief Ranger of the National Park Service Walt Dabney spent a long career pulling climbers off of Mount Rainier, counting alligators around the Everglades, keeping the gates open in Southern Utah, and otherwise having great adventures in public service around the national park system. He takes us deep, deep down in the weeds on the different tasks rangers do across the parks, how those need to change, what resources they need, and all the rest. If you don't have an inkling of a craving to get out and join the rangers by the end of this episode, I've failed as an interviewer! Follow Walt's work at https://americaspublicland.com/home.

You're listening to Match My Mountains hosted by Luke Nathan Phillips.

Here is a long and winding and obscure extended metaphor of the American identity as being, more than anything else, the the collaboration and compromise of multiple many things for the common good in the long term-- just like our wonderful National Forests. (And our chili bowls too, while we're at it.) So what are we all doing in this big beautiful American experiment together, and how should we think about the public land system helping us do it? Get out on the lands and find out. Happy 250th Anniversary of America, and Happy Fourth of July!

You're listening to Match My Mountains, with Luke Nathan Phillips. 

National Parks and public lands are an issue everybody cares about, after they care about everything else— and most people don’t really understand the dynamics of public land policy. This means it’s quite common for very well-intentioned supporters to completely lose their minds over comparatively unimportant things— most recently, the bad-but-not-existential restructuring of the U.S. Forest Service. But how can your average bear tell the difference between a nothingburger and a giant whirling black hole of doom? Certified veteran take-no-prisoners wilderness warrior Wes Siler joins us to suss out some helpful hints and rules of thumb. And with the big budget bills coming up this summer and all the Wile E. Coyote land grab tricks the rustlers are sure to sneak into them, it’s important the public lands movement direct the massive public freakouts to the things that matter most. We could’ve saved the Boundary Waters…

Take a listen and let us know what you think below— questions, comments, vicious personal attacks, etc. etc. etc— and make sure to follow Wes’s excellent SubStack below.

https://wessiler.substack.com

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Everybody knows about the two great American traditions of cOnSeRvATiOn aNd PrEsErVaTiOn (and if you don't, we're exploring it here!) Not many people look backward beyond John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. We all assume American conservation started when the big evil oligarchs cut down too many trees and a few idealists convinced Teddy Roosevelt to stop them. But conservation came from somewhere, and its true roots go deeper into the American past-- back to the romantic artists and writers around the Transcendentalists, back to the scientists and explorers the federal government sent out to map everything, back almost to the beginning of the Republic. These guys wrote their thoughts down as they wandered around the wilderness, and subtly shaped the ideas that the first rangers in the new National Parks and National Forests would bring with them to the great adventures of public land management in the 20th Century. 

It's not all hugging trees (even though that's the fun part!) Take a listen and let us know what you think below-- questions, comments, vicious personal attacks, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. And remember-- if you have ever had a wet dream about the U.S. Forest Service, nobody's judging you.

You're listening to Match My Mountains, with Luke Nathan Phillips.

Some notes:

-George Catlin did paint Native Americans, but the guy who went out west to get healthy was Francis Parkman, and his book was The Oregon Trail.

-"Our Common Ground: A History of America's Public Lands," by John D. Leshy

-"Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot and the Creation of America's Public Lands," by John Clayton

-"Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West," by William H. Goetzmann

-"Wilderness and the American Mind," by Roderick Nash

-"Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920," by Samuel P. Hays

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