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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

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

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

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

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

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

A live conversation with Dr. Chad Hanson about the deceptively named "Save Our Sequoias Act," wildfire, our new film, and public lands logging

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

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