Coast Range Radio

Note: This is the second part of the interview that didn't make it into the radio version.  The podcast version includes the entire interview.

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Biomass energy, that is, burning pelletized wood for electricity generation, is a classic false climate solution.  It has been devastating forests and communities in the Southeast for years, and the Biomass industry is dead set on expanding into the Pacific Northwest. 

We did a deep ...

This show has been pretty Oregon-centric, but I’m told there is a large landmass just north of us that also has a lot of amazing people doing environmental and climate justice work.  

So I’m putting my Oregon bias aside for today to learn more about one of the most exciting and effective climate forest campaigns in the Pacific Northwest - Washington Legacy Forest Defense Campaign!

To find out what a legacy forest is, and how folks ar...

Today, to celebrate the first independent episode of Coast Range Radio, we are going to try something new! 

Sometimes its important to step back and place our work, and ourselves, in a larger context.  And even amidst the relentless assaults we are currently facing, I think this is one of those times.

So I am thrilled to be joined by bestselling Oregon author, John Larison, to talk about his transcendent new book, The Ancients.  It i...

On March first, the president issued two executive orders designed to dramatically increase commercial logging on our public lands.  These executive orders are bad news on their own, but the situation is actually even more dire.

These orders are part of a decades-long effort by industry, the ultra wealthy, and radical right wing anti-government legislators to privatize our public lands and extract maximum profit for the wealthy few....

The Forest Service is using the threat of wildfires to justify a drastic expansion of commercial logging on our public lands. 

That is the contention in an investigative reporting series from Nathan Gilles at Columbia Insight.  Many of us in the environmental world have long thought this to be the case, and this series brings the receipts, including internal Forest Service documents, emails, and more.

The Forest Service has received ...

This episode is part three of our deep dive into the Forest Service’s proposal to amend the Northwest Forest Plan, which covers 24 million acres over 17 nation forests spread across Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. 

As I've said before, it is one of the primary reasons we have any intact or recovering forests left in the Pacific Northwest. So, kind of a big deal…

What we haven’t gone in depth with yet is the conserva...

We are going to have a couple banger episodes on the Northwest Forest Plan in the coming weeks, but I’m recording this on February 24th, just over one month since Trump’s second term began, and I think we need to step back and take stock for a minute.   

Don’t worry, this episode is not going to be all about the dark lord, but the administration’s actions have already had huge consequences here in the Pacific Northwest, so we need t...

This is part two of our series on the Forest Service’s major proposed changes to the Northwest Forest Plan.  

As most of our listeners know, the 30 year old Northwest Forest Plan provides critical protections to over 24 million acres of public land in Oregon, Washington, and California.

The Forest Service has proposed sweeping changes to the Plan through their recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, and publi...

The Northwest Forest Plan is one of the primary reasons that we have any forest left in the Northwest.  Without it, and other protections that are now also at risk because of the Trump administration, our public lands would look no different than the industrial clearcuts and monocrop tree plantations that surround me in the Coast Range.

In December, the Forest Service released its planned amendment to the Northwest Forest Plan in wh...

Historic LA wildfires are still smoldering, the Oregon legislature is back in session, a massively controversial plan to drastically amend the northwest forest plan governing management policies on over 20 million acres of our most precious forests barrels forward, and that little matter of he who shall not be named returning to power and confirming that, like most sequels, this one will be worse, and yes, we are in the darkest and...

This is our first episode of 2025, and while we brace for the tidal wave of insanity coming our way on the federal level, we are also preparing for Oregon’s biennial legislative session.

If you don’t know, Oregon only has full legislative sessions in odd years, meaning that 2025 will be a big year for Oregon politics and policy.  Oregon’s session runs from late January through late June, but most of the important opportuni...

Today’s show is the second part of a recent talk by conservationist and author, George Wuerthner, on the failures and fallacies of some of the ingrained beliefs around wildfires and wildfire suppression.

George Wuerthner is a well-known ecologist and author who has dedicated his career to studying and advocating for wilderness and wildlife conservation. He is the author of nearly 40 books on environmental issues and natura...

Our last episode was a great discussion with a Forest Service scientist and a forest ecologist with the Nature Conservancy about the effects of various fire treatments on subsequent fire behavior.  While I appreciated their perspective and research, I wanted to bring in a different viewpoint on fire and forest ecology.

It’s important to remember that western forests have existed and thrived long before humans arrived in No...

Like it or not, fire politics affects every aspect of public forest policy and the rural landscape, and that is not changing anytime soon.

But is science or politics guiding the policy?  Are management decisions being made with forest ecology and community resilience as the top priorities, or are certain actors using fire as a smoke screen to score political wins, enrich wealthy mill owners, and prop up an outdated ideolog...

As we all collectively live through the unfolding trauma of the 2024 election results, I am going to share a conversation I had yesterday with two of my colleagues in the climate justice world that I found really helpful in starting to process what this election could mean for climate justice and our movement, and how to engage in these early stages.

I’m joined today by Brenna Bell from 350pdx and Forest Climate Alliance Organizer A...

“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled.  We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis”.

Those are the opening sentences of the 2024 State of the Climate Report, led in part by scientists at Oregon State University.  I’m willing to bet that not a single person listening t...

Oregon Rural Action and Food and Water Watch recently conducted a rare flyover of Threemile Canyon Farms, one of Oregon’s most notorious factory cattle farms, also known by the simultaneously anodyne and horrifying technical name: confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, in Morrow County.

In conjunction with that, both organizations have released detailed, interactive maps highlighting the extent of factory farms and as...

Freshwater, i.e. non-salinated water, is arguably the most precious resource on earth, and in Oregon, by law, all water belongs to the public.  However, if you examine who actually controls water usage in Oregon, you might come away with a very different impression.

Water rights, and the laws that govern them, are incredibly consequential for both humans and ecosystems, and will only become more so in the coming years and ...

Today’s episode is part two of my interview with Rand Schenk, author of a great new book on history of the Forest Service, its founder, Gifford Pinchot, and over 100 years of forest management and mismanagement in the Pacific Northwest.

The book, “Forest Under Siege: The Story of Old Growth After Gifford Pinchot”,  chronicles the Forest Service’s progressive populist origins, how it abandoned its founding mission of conser...