Kate and Aaron nerd out with John Ruple, public lands professor at the University of Utah and a former member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) about recent changes to how the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is being implemented across federal agencies, like the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

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Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Logging in national forest; USFS

The post How the White House is making federal permitting less efficient appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron talk to two experts about recent executive orders that negatively affect public lands. Mitch Friedman, founder and executive director of Conservation Northwest, talks about how Trump’s executive order aimed at increasing logging in national forests squares with existing law and forest management plans, while Rachael Hamby, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities, covers Trump’s recent order seeking to ramp up mining on public lands.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: The White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, USA; weesam2010/Flickr

The post Unpacking Trump’s mining and timber EOs appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Jimmy Tobias, a public lands reporter and contributor to the Public Domain substack, and Jacob Malcom, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Environmental Management at the Interior Department, to talk about Elon Musk’s attacks on the Interior Department and its employees. Jimmy has been covering changes inside Interior since President Donald Trump took office, and Jacob chose to leave his job at the Interior Department last month in response to the mass firings and changes implemented by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Interior Dept/Wikimedia Commons

The post How Elon Musk is trying to dismantle the Interior department appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

This week, we take a break from bad news to talk about what nature does to your brain. Kate and Aaron speak to author Florence Williams about her book, The Nature Fix, which came out in 2017 but is just as relevant today. Her book looks at the science behind why nature makes us feel happier, healthier, and more connected to humanity. Qualities we could all probably use a bit more of these days.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Young tots and caregivers take a walk through a green forest looking for treasures. Photo by D. Coble, BLM Alaska 

The post How nature makes us feel happier, healthier, and more connected to humanity appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Aaron and Kate break down the results of Colorado College’s annual State of the Rockies Conservation in the West poll with pollsters Lori Weigell and Dave Metz. The poll found that voters in the West support preserving and protecting public lands more than ever before in the poll’s 15-year history. That’s right—just as President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are working to open up public lands for unfettered drilling and mining—majorities of Western voters, including Republicans, are saying “We want those lands protected.” (The poll was conducted in eight Western states January 3-17, 2025.) 

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Family hike at Zapata Falls; Photo by Allison Miller, BLM

The post Western voters reject Trump agenda on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Mitch Flanigan, a former ranger at Denali National Park, to talk about recent firings across Interior department agencies, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Managment, as well as at the U.S. Forest Service. Prior to joining PEER, Tim was a senior attorney at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Mitch recently lost his job as the assistant manager of Denali National Park’s sled-dog kennel.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Sled dog demo at Denali National Park, National Parks Gallery 

The post Layoffs at Interior are causing chaos and heartbreak appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Aaron and Kate are joined by Mark Squillace, natural resources law professor at the University of Colorado Law School. Professor Squillace provided legal counsel to the Interior Department under President Bill Clinton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and he’s a two-time veteran of this podcast. Today, we discuss the legality of President Trump’s executive orders on public lands, including which are likely to end up in court and whether the Trump administration will have the manpower to implement these orders, after making sweeping layoffs.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Long Canyon, Burr Trail, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah; Ken Lund/Flickr

The post Can President Trump even do that? Public lands edition appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron talk through the effects of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders on public lands with Drew McConville, a senior fellow on the Conservation Policy team at the Center for American Progress. His research is focused on energy, public lands, and Alaska.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: President Trump signs executive orders following his inauguration. Source: White House

The post Trump’s Day One attack on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron talk to CWP colleagues Lauren Bogard and Sterling Homard about our recent report on President Joe Biden’s final year on public lands, which looks at the president’s conservation achievements over the past year in the context of his full presidential term. They also recap Trump Interior Secretary Nominee Doug Burgum’s Senate confirmation hearing and discuss a new legislative attack on the Antiquities Act.

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: President Biden establishes the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni -Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument; Source: Interior Department/Flickr 

The post Looking back on Biden’s conservation record appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Kate and Aaron are joined by Alan Zibel, a research director at Public Citizen who focuses on energy and environmental issues. He breaks down what Donald Trump and the incoming Congress’s so-called “energy dominance” agenda could mean for public lands—given that the U.S. is already the world’s top exporter of natural gas (otherwise known as methane). 

Hosts: Kate Groetzinger & Aaron Weiss 

Feedback: [email protected]

Music: Purple Planet

Featured image: Oil and gas development on federal lease managed by BLM California; BLM California 

The post What Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda means for public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.