Kate and Aaron talk to Syren Nagakyrie, founder and director of Disabled Hikers, a nonprofit group seeking to make the outdoors more accessible for people with disabilities. Nagakyrie has been outspoken about the tokenization of disabled hikers by U.S. Senator Mike Lee, who recently filed a bill called the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act that […] The post Hitting the trail with Disabled Hikers founder Syren Nagakyrie appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jul 17, 2024•22 min
Aaron and Kate talk to Dr. Hitesh Tolani, creator of the Gays of National Parks Instagram account, which is aimed at fostering community among LGBTQ people through a love of the outdoors. Hitesh began the account as a joke in 2022, but it has since grown into a community with over 15,000 followers. Hitesh talks […] The post How an Instagram ‘joke’ turned into an outdoor LGBTQ community appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jun 28, 2024•47 min
Murphy Woodhouse covers wildfires and wildfire policy across the West, informed by his past experience as a wildland firefighter. In a wide-ranging discussion, Murphy talks about the bleak state of wildfire pay, the possibility of much of the West becoming uninsurable because of wildfire risk, and much more. The post Reporter Murphy Woodhouse on the future of wildfire season appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jun 21, 2024•58 min
The proposed Mimbres Peaks National Monument would add protections for lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management in Luna County, New Mexico near the city of Deming. The collaborative effort is locally-led by elected leaders, business owners, economic development advocates, hunters, youth leaders, conservationists, and students. The proposal would protect approximately 245,000 acres in […] The post Protecting the Mimbres Peaks in Southern New Mexico appeared first on Center for Western Prio...
Jun 05, 2024
Aaron and Kate are joined by Kristen Miller, Executive Director of the Alaska Wilderness League, to talk about some big steps to protect public lands in Alaska made by the Biden administration this spring. They include increased protections for 13 million acres inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, as well as the cancellation of a proposed 200-mile […] The post A huge step forward for public lands in Alaska appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
May 23, 2024
Aaron and Kate are joined by Davina Smith, who represents the Navajo Nation on the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, and Lauren Henson, who is the Collaborative Management and Tribal Support Specialist for the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, to talk about the Bears Ears draft monument management plan, which came out in March. We talk about […] The post Behind the scenes of the Bears Ears draft management plan appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
May 10, 2024•26 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by the Wilderness Society’s Michael Carroll and Justin Meuse to talk through a handful of federal regulations, or rules, that were finalized in late March and April. These rules touch on everything from methane waste on public lands to ecosystem restoration to caribou herds in Alaska. Some of these rules […] The post Why April was a huge month for public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Apr 23, 2024•39 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Trout Unlimited CEO Chris Wood, who has been with TU for twenty years, following a career as chief policy director at the U.S. Forest Service during the Clinton administration. Chris talks about how an influx of federal funding for ecosystem restoration is supercharging the group’s work reconnecting streams and […] The post Swimming upstream with Trout Unlimited appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Apr 12, 2024•48 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by author Betsy Gaines Quammen to talk about public lands and extremism. Betsy has written two books about extremism in the West. Her first, American Zion, looks at the connection between Mormonism and extremism. Her second book, True West, which came out last year, digs into the myths that define […] The post Talking public lands extremism with Betsy Gaines Quammen appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by three members of the reporting team behind, Lithium Liabilities, a groundbreaking investigation into how lithium mining could affect the West’s water supply. Emma Peterson, Morgan Casey, and Lauren Mucciolo are part of a large team of editors, photographers, and reporters who worked on the investigation at the Howard Center […] The post Will lithium mining dry up the West? appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Mar 13, 2024•48 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by pollsters Lori Weigel and Dave Metz to discuss the 14th Annual Colorado College State of the Rockies Project Conservation in the West poll. The poll surveys voters in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Colorado on their environmental views. This year, it found support for conservation […] The post What Western voters want in 2024 appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Feb 28, 2024•36 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Justin Meuse, Director of Government Relations for Climate and Energy at the Wilderness Society, to talk about a proposal from the Bureau of Land Management to prioritize around 22 million acres of public land for utility scale solar development across the West. They discuss why planning matters, how much […] The post More solar on public lands? Digging into BLM’s plan appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Feb 22, 2024•34 min
Driven by high uranium prices, domestic uranium mining has resumed at three locations in the U.S. after an eight-year hiatus. Kate and Aaron are joined by Amber Reimondo, Energy Director at the Grand Canyon Trust and Scott Clow, Environmental Programs Director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, to discuss how that will impact the Grand […] The post Uranium mining returns to the Colorado Plateau appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Feb 08, 2024•43 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by I Ling Thompson, CEO of The Foundation for America’s Public Lands. The Foundation is the official charitable partner of the Bureau of Land Management. Its job is to engage with local communities and the public on behalf of the agency. Thompson discusses the challenges the BLM faces and how […] The post Inside the Foundation for America’s Public Lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jan 25, 2024•43 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Tony Caligiuri, president and CEO of Colorado Open Lands, a nonprofit land trust that exists to protect Colorado’s land and water resources. Colorado Open Lands works primarily with private landowners to place voluntary agreements called conservation easements on their property. Tony talks about how private land and water conservation […] The post The private land piece of the 30×30 puzzle appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jan 12, 2024•33 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala for a year-end public lands news roundup and a look ahead at 2024. Overall, 2023 was a great year for public lands. The Biden administration took some really important and concrete steps toward protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands by 2030, […] The post The year in public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Dec 27, 2023
Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage, a project of the Earth Island Institute. We had Dr. DellaSala on the Landscape back in June to talk about the Biden administration’s efforts to protect old growth forests. At the time, the U.S. Forest Service had just released data that […] The post Behind the headlines: old growth logging ban appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Dec 21, 2023•12 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Rachel Morgan, author of Sins of the Shovel: Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology. Rachel is an archaeologist based near Washington, DC, and her book, which was published last month, is largely focused on the Southwest. She gives a detailed account of the Wetherill family, which settled […] The post Sins of the shovel: How archaeology evolved from pot hunting to science appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Dec 06, 2023•33 min
Aaron and Kate are joined by Julia Stuble, Wyoming State Senior Manager with the Wilderness Society. Julia is a Wyomingite who’s lived and worked in the state for decades. She’s here to talk about a proposed Bureau of Land Management resource management plan, or RMP, for southwest Wyoming that’s making waves in the state. The […] The post How a Wyoming land use plan ended up in a misinformation war appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Nov 17, 2023•32 min
Aaron and Kate are joined by Laura Peterson, staff attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, to talk about the Bureau of Land Management’s recently finalized Labyrinth Rims/Gemini Bridges Travel Management Plan. The plan will guide land management decisions for a 300,000-acre landscape to the north of Moab for years to come, and will help […] The post Balancing trails, wilderness, and ATV’s in Moab’s backcountry appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Nov 02, 2023•27 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by three other members of the Center for Western Priorities for this episode focused on a new report from CWP. The Conservation Toolbox report is a directory of the major land protection tools available to help preserve federal public lands. CWP’s Director of Campaigns and Special Projects, Lauren Bogard, Policy […] The post Opening up the Conservation Toolbox to protect public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Oct 25, 2023•29 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Tim Davis, founder and executive director of Friends of the Owyhee, and Karly Foster, campaign manager at the Oregon Natural Desert Association, to talk about how we can better protect the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Owyhee Canyonlands span from southeast Oregon into southwest Idaho, and it is one of the […] The post Protecting the wild, vast Owyhee Canyonlands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Oct 11, 2023•41 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Alan Zibel with Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group focused on the influence of big business in government, and Nichole Heil with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a watchdog group focused on bringing transparency and accountability to the private equity sector, to talk about a report they co-authored. The report, […] The post The problem with Wall Street getting into public lands drilling appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Sep 26, 2023•32 min
Aaron and Kate are joined by Ben Goldfarb, an award-winning environmental journalist and author who covers wildlife conservation, marine science, and public lands management, to talk about his new book, Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, which is out now from Norton. In Crossings, Goldfarb explores how roads have made […] The post Author Ben Goldfarb on the power—and peril—of roads appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Sep 12, 2023•49 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by pollster Lindsay Vermeyen, senior vice president at Benenson Strategy Group, and Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala to dig into the results of our 2023 Winning the West poll. Spoiler alert: Western voters really love public lands, and they want to see them protected. Kate and Aaron […] The post Digging into our 2023 Winning the West poll results appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Aug 28, 2023•21 min
Aaron and Kate are joined by I Ling Thompson, vice president of strategy and engagement at the Trust for Public Land, to discuss a new report from the Trust called the Power of Parks to Promote Health. The report looks at the myriad ways urban parks improve human and environmental health, as well as how […] The post How urban parks improve public health appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Aug 22, 2023•30 min
In a special Road to 30: Postcards episode, Aaron and Kate talk to two members of the Havasupai Tribe about the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. The proposed monument would partially surround and help protect the Grand Canyon National Park, as well as the communities that live in and near the […] The post Inside the effort to protect the greater Grand Canyon region appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Aug 04, 2023•33 min
The Bureau of Land Management just proposed a rule that would essentially codify the oil and gas reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act as well as make a few other important changes to the federal leasing program. The proposed rule would fundamentally change the way oil and gas leasing occurs on public lands, putting the […] The post New oil and gas rule just dropped. What’s in it? appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jul 28, 2023•26 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Lori Faeth, senior director of government relations at the Land Trust Alliance, to discuss the Farm Bill and private land conservation. The Farm Bill conservation programs are the largest single federal source of funding for private land conservation. Farm Bill programs create significant opportunities for land trusts to protect […] The post How the Farm Bill promotes private land conservation appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jul 13, 2023•27 min
Kate and Aaron are joined by Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage, a project of the Earth Island Institute, to talk about the Biden administration’s efforts to protect old growth and mature forests. They also touch on reducing wildfire risk through forest management. Dr. DellaSala is the author of over 300 science papers […] The post What’s going on with old growth forests? appeared first on Center for Western Priorities ....
Jun 30, 2023•40 min
