Coast Range Radio

So I was all set to release a really thought provoking set of interviews exploring the highly controversial plan to kill thousands of Barred Owls every year in a hail mary effort to save the spotted owl from extinction... But I just learned this week about an incredibly consequential bill quietly sneaking its way through congress, and time is of the essence on this one so the barred owl debate will have to wait.

The so-called Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (or “BAAJA”) is framed as an effort to accelerate permitting for infrastructure projects, including renewable energy.

But environmentalists and climate organizations and activists, including no less than Bill McKibben, say it would likely have the opposite effect, entrenching fossil fuel projects for years or decades to come and further eviscerating environmental protection in order to do so.

The Western Environmental Law Center, also known as WELC, is one of the groups sounding the alarm about this bill, which Republicans could sneak through after the elections.

To learn all about BAAJA and what we can do to stop it, I’m joined by WELC’s executive director, Erik Schlenker-Goodrich.

Say hello! Send feedback to coastrangeradio@gmail.com, we respond to every email.

Show notes:

• https://westernlaw.org/
• WELC Analysis of BAAJA: https://westernlaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026.10.23-BAAJA-Policy-Analysis.pdf
• Bill McKibben Substack on why we need clean energy fast, but this bill is not the answer

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Wes Siler, author of the creatively named “Wes Siler’s Newsletter”, recently published a series of articles on the Trump administration’s secret plot to gut the National Parks, and I’m delighted to have him on the show today. We’re also going to get into his thoughts on the forest service, the roadless rule, and the opportunity this moment of crisis provides us.

• https://wessiler.substack.com/p/leaked-documents-reveal-trumps-plan
• https://wessiler.substack.com/p/on-public-lands-could-chaos-be-a

And if you’re hearing this by October 6th, you still have time to make your voice heard on the Trump Administration’s proposal to repeal the so called “Roadless Rule”, which protects over 45 million acres of public land from commercial extraction.

Go to http://roadless.org for a guided comment writing tool.

Our email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com

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I’m joined today by Aya Cockram from the Breach Collective and Dylan Plummer of the Sierra Club to talk about the Eugene Clean Energy Fund, or ballot measure 20-388.

The Eugene Clean Energy Fund is modeled after the wildly successful Portland Clean Energy Fund, and would impose a small tax on mega corporations to help fund clean energy projects in Eugene.

But whether or not you live in Eugene, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund is absolutely worth following and getting involved with.

We spend so much time fighting to stop bad things from happening, it is inspiring to see meaningful progressive policies that will actually make a difference in people’s lives.

https://www.eugenecleanenergyfund.org/

I would love to hear what you think of the show, and what you want us to cover, and who we should be talking with! Email me at coastrangeradio@gmail.com.

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If you are hearing this before September 21st and you care about public lands, they need you to act!

The Trump Administration is attempting to open 45 million acres of protected public lands to destructive road building, logging, and mining, by repealing something called the Roadless Rule.

This has fortunately gotten a lot of press, but if you aren’t familiar, here;s a quick primer:

Since 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule (or simply The Roadless Rule) has protected over 45 million acres of public lands, and the wildlife that rely on them, from commercial exploitation.

There are about 4 million acres of forests covered by the Roadless Rule in Oregon and Washington alone, including iconic Oregon landmarks like Larch Mountain, Iron Mountain, Mt. Hebo, and many more.

I am re-airing part of an interview I did with Len Montgomery, Director of Environment America's Great Outdoors Campaign and one of the leaders of the coalition to protect the Roadless Rule.

Len and I get into all the reasons that you should take action to help us protect the Roadless Rule from Trump and his fascist goons, but it all boils down to this:

The administration had a legally required comment period open until September 21st, and we need your help creating an absolutely massive show of resistance.

I know comment periods are not exactly storming the beaches of Normandy, but they are incredibly important for helping inevitable lawsuits, discrediting the administration’s actions, and showing politicians that public lands are a winning issue.

So whether or not you listen to the rest of this show, please go to one of the following websites TODAY and submit a comment telling Trump to keep his disgusting hands off public lands:

If you just want to sign a quick petition, great! Go to https://saveroadlessforests.com/. You’ll be done in less than a minute and no one will collect your information unless you give them permission.

If you want to check out a truly amazing resource that will help you create your own unique comment, go to https://roadless.org/. http://roadless.org has maps, research, an interactive comment writing guide, and everything you need to write a brief and passionate or deeply researched and nerdy comment.

The deadline to comment is September 21st, but again, TODAY, not tomorrow, but TODAY, go to https://saveroadlessforests.com/ to sign the petition or http://roadless.org to write a detailed comment. Like I said, no organizations will keep your information unless you give them permission.

Ok, my email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com, let’s learn more about the roadless rule with Len Montgomery!

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Have you ever heard of a June Hog??

June Hogs were legendary, gigantic summer run Chinook salmon that could weigh up to 100 pounds on their way up the Columbia river. These days, the average Chinook caught on the Columbia weighs between 10 and 20 pounds. So what happened to these giants?

You may be familiar with some of the reasons: dams, overfishing, habitat destruction, climate change, and hatchery fish. But what about where the fish are caught?

I’m joined today by Misty MacDuffee of Raincoat Conservation Foundation and Nick Gayeski with the Wild Fish Conservancy to talk about new research of theirs examining the effects of ocean based fishing on Chinook size and populations.

Please take just a minute and leave us a rating and review, and share this show with a friend or two! Thank you :)

Show Notes:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-49054-5
• https://www.raincoast.org/2026/06/how-harvesting-chinook-shrink-size-106500/
• https://www.newsdata.com/clearing_up/environment/study-ocean-fishing-reduces-chinook-size-sustainability/article_024b1c2a-83d0-4a53-908d-559d08b5d2fb.html
• https://wildfishconservancy.org/staff/dr-nick-gayeski/
• https://www.raincoast.org/team/misty-macduffee/

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Let’s talk about something hopeful for a change!

The ongoing renewable energy revolution is probably one of the most under-reported narratives in the story of climate change, and the American west is a literal hot bed for one of the most important green energy innovations - geothermal power.

Geothermal power taps into the functionally limitless energy generated by earth’s molten core. It uses a fraction of the space that other green technologies like wind and solar require, and delivers the holy grail of renewable power - steady, 24/7 baseload capacity.

So what’s the true potential of geothermal power in the Northwest, are the environmental concerns, and what are the barriers to deploying geothermal at the speed and scale we need?

To answer all these questions and more, we reached out to Dr. Adam Schultz. Adam is a professor of earth sciences at Oregon State University, as well as the founder of Enthalpian Energy, a geothermal consulting and engineering company.

Today’s episode comes via Coast Range Radio volunteer co-host Griffin Reim, who will be leading most of the interview.

Send me your questions, critiques, book recommendations, and guest ideas at coastrangeradio@gmail.com

Show Notes:

• Enthalpian Energy: https://enthalpion.com/index.html
• https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/06/super-hot-rocks-geothermal-technology-renewable-energy-three-rivers-mazama/
• https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/12/oregon-washington-green-energy-bonneville/

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Amidst the barrage of direct attacks that the Trump administration and their allies have been waging on public lands and the environment, you’d be forgiven for missing a potentially seismic shift in the Forest Service.

On March 31st of this year (2026), the US Department of Agriculture, the agency which the Forest Service is a part of, quietly announced a dramatic restructuring of the agency which manages almost 200 million acres of public land.

Responses have ranged from ‘Trump is destroying the Forest Service and we need to save it’, to ‘this isn’t that big a deal’, to ‘RIP and good riddance, Forest Service’!

So to understand what is actually happening with this so-called “reorganization” and the real implications it could have for public lands, I’m joined by Kevin Hood, Executive Director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.

My email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com, reach out anytime and let me know what you think of the show!

Show Notes:

• FSEEE: https://nationalforestadvocates.org/
• USDA Press Release: https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/newsroom/releases/usda-prioritizing-common-sense-forest-management-moves-forest
• https://www.andykerr.net/public-lands-blog/the-death-and-rebirth-of-the-forest-service
• More concerned perspective: https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-trump-administration-orders
• Less concerned perspective: https://wessiler.substack.com/p/the-sky-is-not-falling-on-the-forest

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Today’s show features the second half of a fascinating conversation I had with Patrick Hunnicutt, Assistant Professor of Environmental Administration at the University of Oregon.

Patrick is the co author of a yet to be published research project called Poisoning the Well: Process, recognition, and opposition to environmental policy in rural America.

His research argues that grievances rooted in procedural injustice, for instance, the perception of resource extraction dependent communities that they are excluded from meaningful participation in land management decisions affecting them, is a key and overlooked factor in rural resentment and environmental obstructionism.

This is one of my favorite conversations I’ve had in a long time, and while Patrick and I disagree in places, I think the arguments he makes are so important for environmentalists to grapple with.

Today in part two, we get into lessons the environmental community can learn from the history of the Timber Wars, why supporting rural timber workers is good strategy, and a lot more.

Patrick's Book Recommendations:

Rise of the American Conservation Movement: https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-rise-of-the-american-conservation-movement

Anatomy of a Conflict: https://www.ubcpress.ca/anatomy-of-a-conflict

Strong Winds and Widowmakers: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p086823

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My guest today is Patrick Hunnicutt, Assistant Professor of Environmental Administration at the University of Oregon.

Patrick is the co author of a yet to be published research project called Poisoning the Well: Process, recognition, and opposition to environmental policy in rural America.

His research argues that grievances rooted in procedural injustice, for instance, the perception of resource extraction dependent communities that they are excluded from meaningful participation in land management decisions affecting them, is a key and overlooked factor in rural resentment and environmental obstructionism.

This one of my favorite conversations I’ve had in a long time, and went a bit long. So I’m going to share the whole interview, spread out over two episodes.

In part 1, we’ll go deep on Patrick’s research, his impression of the fights around Oregon’s State Forests, and how exclusionary public processes foster divides and resentment.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts about the show. My email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com, please reach out anytime.

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Oregon forests recently got a big win in court.

Earlier this month, a US District Court Judge ruled that the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, had broken the law during the planning of its so-called “Blue and Gold” timber sale, and threw out the entire project.

The “Blue and Gold” is a nearly 3,500 acre tract of mature and old-growth forest on the eastern slopes of the Coast Range between Eugene and Roseburg.

I actually visited the Blue and Gold forest a couple years ago. It was immediately clear that it was a special place deserving of protection, and I’m grateful to the organizers, lawyers, and activists who worked for years to do just that.

I think it’s always worth taking time to celebrate our victories.

But the details of the BLM’s behavior in pushing this timber sale were shocking, and I wanted to make sure that the details of their actions don’t get lost, especially as they prepare to radically change their management plans to maximize industrial timber harvest at the behest of the Trump administration.

So I invited Nick Cady, Legal Director for Cascadia Wildlands to talk with me about the lawsuit, why he thinks the BLM is unfit to manage public land, and why he is so optimistic about defeating Trump’s maximum logging agenda.

I would love to hear your thoughts, email me anytime at coastrangeradio@gmail.com

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Unless you frequent the same activist email listservs I do, you may have no idea that, completely aside from the Trump administration’s assault on public lands, there is a bill quietly making its way through congress that would privatize and clearcut over one hundred thousand acres Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

Seems like a pretty obvious bill for environmentalists and allied congress people to oppose. But there’s a twist.

The bill, called the Alaska Native Landless Equity Act, or simply the “Landless Bill”, would transfer the land to Alaska Native Corporations, and is being billed as a form of Land Back by Alaska’s congressional delegation.

But is it? Or is this just a disguised form of extractivist colonialism?

I truly did not know what to make of the Landless Bill, so I invited Tlingit elder and activist Wanda Culp and Joshua Wright from the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition to talk me through why they oppose this bill, the short film they made about it, and other attempts to privatize public lands in Alaska.

I would love to hear what you think! The show email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com.

https://www.wlfdc.org/land-less-film

https://www.wlfdc.org/the-landless-bill

https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/target-on-tongass-the-wildest-national-forest-may-soon-lose-its-protections/

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How did the majestic forests of the Pacific Northwest come to be?

That may seem like an esoteric question, but if we want to know how to protect and steward them as we enter the chaotic era of the climate crisis, it’s a question worth asking

New research by University of Oregon researcher James Johnston is upending a big part of the conventional wisdom around the key role fire plays in the lifecycle of our forests. James is an Assistant Research Professor in U of O’s Institute for Resilient Organizations, Communities, and Environments.

This is a surprisingly fun and fascinating dive into the ecology and politics of forest stewardship on westside forests!

Special thanks to Beth Sheppard for co-hosting today's episode.

Show Notes:

https://www.klcc.org/environment/2026-02-08/university-of-oregon-research-overturns-long-held-ideas-about-forest-fires-in-the-western-cascades

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.70474

https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-trump-administration-orders

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As I’m recording this in mid-April, we are coming out of the one of the warmest and driest winters on record in the Pacific northwest, and snowpack is at catastrophically low levels.

Add in the Trump administration’s intentional sabotage and decimation of FEMA, the Forest Service, NOAA, and other federal agencies, and it is hard not to think that we are in for an unprecedented fire season.

Aside from the threat of homes and communities burning, and smoke potentially blanketing vast swaths of the country for months, we in the conservation and climate communities need to prepare for all out propaganda blitz from the timber industry and their allied politicians as they use people’s fear to open up public lands for industrial extraction.

Wildfire is a fact of nature, and we do have to learn again to coexist with it. But far too often environmentalists focus only on the science, ignoring or downplaying the lived experience and real fears the general public has.

It’s not enough to be right. We need to be more strategic about the stories we tell and what we focus on. And that is what today’s show is all about.

The Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance has just released a new wildfire messaging guide designed to cut through the confusion and misinformation about fire, offering simple and effective messaging to reframe the wildfire narrative in a way that centers forest health and community safety over backcountry logging interventions.

Alex Budd is an organizer with the forest climate alliance and one of the main authors of the new guide, and he joined me to talk through it.

Links:

https://forestclimatealliance.squarespace.com/wildfire-guide

Roads increase risks of wildfires:

Home Hardening Tips: https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/hardening-your-home/

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I’m so excited to be back with a new interview after taking a little time off.

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of bad news to come back to, but as ever, I am inspired by all the great work being done by activists and organizations to fight for a better world.

One of those people is Len Montgomery, Director of Environment America's Great Outdoors Campaign and one of the leaders of the coalition to protect the Roadless Rule.

Len has been working tirelessly to hold the line against the Trump administration’s assault on public lands, and one the the most important fights is the campaign to save the Roadless Rule, which protects tens of millions of acres from commercial extraction.

Since you are reading this anyway, please consider leaving the show a rating and review so more folks can find the show! As always, my email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com.

Show Notes:

Roadless Area Maps:

- https://oregonwild.org/resource/oregon-inventoried-roadless-areas-interactive-map/

- https://outdooralliance.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=bffb3fe5fdfb43519a84c6a0cf4f8ff5

More roads cause more fires: https://www.wilderness.org/sites/default/files/media/file/Summary%20NFS%20roads%20fire%20paper%20-%202025.pdf

Roadless Area Conservation Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3930/text/ih?overview=closed&format=xml

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Dr. Robert Michael Pyle is a pioneer and legend in invertebrate conservation research and advocacy, as well as an accomplished author and poet. In 1971, he founded the Xerces Society, which has grown into the most influential invertebrate conservation organization in the world.

He is also the author of many books of prose and poetry, and a great storyteller. This is part one of our conversation, part two will be out next week.

This episode was researched and co-hosted by Coast Range Radio volunteer, Griffin Reim!

Show Notes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Michael_Pyle

https://www.xerces.org/

Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide: https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/where-bigfoot-walks/

The Dark Divide: darkdividefilm.com

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The word fascism gets tossed around a lot these days, but what does that term even mean, and what does it mean to call, for instance, the Trump regime fascist as opposed to, or in addition to, authoritarian, or autocratic? And what about terms like eco-fascism or petro-fascism?

Last fall I interviewed University of Oregon Professor Sarah Wald and we touched on the term ‘eco-fascism’. That sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole on that term and the dangerous myths that many environmentalists may be unwittingly buying into.

Sarah was kind enough to connect me with the Anti-Creep Climate Initiative, a collective working to expose eco-fascism ideas and myths that permeate our culture and media.

Maybe this sounds like an esoteric subject, but I think it has real world importance, because our beliefs and actions are often shaped by stories and myths that are so subconsciously ingrained in us, they become like the air we breathe.

My guests are two of the co-founders of the Anti-Creep Initiative, co-presidents of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, and professors at the University of Connecticut, April Anson and Alex Menrisky.

Send me an electronic mail sometime at coastrangeradio@gmail.com and let me know what you think of the show!

Show notes:

• https://english.uconn.edu/person/alex-menrisky/
• https://april-anson.com/
• https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517918682/everyday-ecofascism/
• https://www.asle.org/wp-content/uploads/Against-the-Ecofascist-Creep.pdf
• https://spencersunshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/40ways.print_.pdf

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Today I’m featuring the second half of my conversation with author, speaker, entrepreneur, and wearer of many more hats, Jamie Workman.

Jamie is most recently the co-author, along with Environmental Defense Fund executive director, Amanda Leland, of the new book, “Sea Change: Unlikely Allies and a Success Story of Oceanic Proportions”, which highlights the under reported success of collaborative, rights-based management in restoring decimated oceanic ecosystems, and the human communities who rely on them, around the world.

It’s an inspiring story. and you can learn all about it in part one of our conversation.

Today in part two, we get into other aspects of his work, including so-called water credit trading systems, his experience as a wildland firefighter and how that shapes his work on bringing more fire (and chainsaws) back to forests, and whether we should, in his words, “Own The Wild”.

Show Notes:

https://www.jamesworkman.com/

https://www.edf.org/sea-change

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Of all the myriad harms modern society is inflicting on our oceans, overfishing is right up there with climate change itself as one of the biggest threats to both marine ecosystems and the billions of people who rely on seafood as a major source of nutrition and income.

The authors of the new book, “Sea Change: unlikely allies and a success story of oceanic proportions”, argue that there is a proven policy that has been working around the globe to rebuild fish populations while also creating sustainable and economically just commercial fisheries.

My guest today is Sea Change co-author, Jamie Workman. Jamie is an activist, author of multiple books, a speechwriter to U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and an all around raconteur.

Jamie and I covered so much ground (or water??) that I am breaking our conversation into two parts.

In part one, we go deep on the devastating impacts of overfishing and why he believes that a collaborative, rights based approach is the path towards recovery and sustainability.

In part two, we’ll get into other aspects of his work, including so-called water credit trading systems, his experience as a wildland firefighter and how that shapes his work on bringing more fire (and chainsaws) back to forests, and whether we should, in his words, “Own The Wild”.

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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 coastrangeradio@gmail.com

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/

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

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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

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