The Landscape

Kate hosts a live episode in Grand Junction on CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour ! Guests discuss the importance of keeping our parks and monuments staffed and funded. Guests: Ken Mabery, former superintendent of Colorado National Monument, Cole Hanson, Grand Valley Outdoor Recreation Coalition board member and Gear Junction co-owner, Jessy Nuckolls, public lands advocate and Western Colorado Alliance...

Kate hosts a live episode in Salt Lake City on CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour ! Guests: Erika Pollard, National Parks Conservation Association ; Davina Smith, Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Grand Staircase Escalante Partners ; Scott Braden, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance ; Doug Tolman, Save Our Canyons . Resources Keep Parks Public: Tell us why you love public lands and want them pro...

Aaron hosts a live episode in Denver, kicking off CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour. Scott Fitzwilliams, former supervisor of the White River National Forest in Colorado, Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado , and Kara Matsumoto, public lands director at the Conservation Lands Foundation, join us to discuss threats to Colorado’s public lands posed by the Trump administration and Cong...

What the heck is Utah up to now that it’s land grab lawsuit has been snubbed by the Supreme Court and Senator Mike Lee has made public land sell-off untouchable in Congress? Kate and Aaron put that question to John Ruple, a Professor of Law and Stegner Center Fellow at the University of Utah, and Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. News We’re going on tour!...

Kate and Aaron interview author Barret Baumgart about his new book Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree . Baumgart became obsessed with Joshua trees during the pandemic and ended up uncovering some interesting facts and stories about them. News Trump admin to ink deals with states for forest management – E&E News The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for...

Kate and Aaron talk to Steve Ellis, a 38-year veteran of both the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and current chair of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees , about what the Trump administration is doing, and trying to do, to the Forest Service, and what that means for everything from logging to wildfires. News How Congress and Trump are working together to drill, l...

Kate and Aaron talk to writer, photographer, and adventurer Josh Jackson about his new book, The Enduring Wild , which beautifully captures the variety and vastness of California’s public lands—with a particular focus on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Josh is also the man behind the @forgottenlandsproject Instagram account, which he uses to share photos and stories of “forgo...

Kate and Aaron talk to experts at the National Parks Conservation Association about illegal mining inside of Mojave National Preserve and a recent uptick in mining claims on public lands, including those near national parks. News 250+ million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR budget reconciliation package – The Wilderness Society From ski resorts to popular trails, see the publ...

Trump’s Department of Justice just released an opinion stating that the Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to shrink or eliminate national monuments at will.  But what does that mean, for example, if Trump tries to undo Chuckwalla National Monument or shrink Bears Ears? Will this DOJ opinion stand up in court?  We put those questions and more to John Leshy, professor at UC Law and former S...

Kate and Aaron talk to Tracy Stone-Manning, former director of the Bureau of Land Management and current president of the Wilderness Society. Tracy tells us what it was like to inherit an agency that was decimated by the first Trump administration and what she’s worried about this time around—but also, what’s giving her hope for America’s public lands. We also cover the news that a provision to se...

Kate and Aaron talk to Kurt Repanshek, founder and editor of National Parks Traveler , about President Donald Trump’s proposed funding cuts to the National Park System as well as how staffing cuts imposed by Elon Musk’s DOGE are affecting the Park Service. News In the dead of night, House committee votes to sell off public lands – Center for Western Priorities Zinke wants public land sales o...

Kate and Aaron speak with Len Necefer, CEO & Founder of NativesOutdoors, a native owned outdoor media, apparel and consulting company. You may also know him as the man behind the Sonoran Avalanche Center Instagram account . Len talks about his latest project, a documentary film about the Colorado River basin titled The American Southwest , and how he’s advocating for public lands under t...

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. News Trump’s new goal: Revive a major climate pollutant th...

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...

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 to...

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. N...

Aaron and Kate break down the results of Colorado College’s annual State of the Rockies Conservation in the West poll with p ollsters 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 publ...

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 attorn...

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, i...

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. News Trump Signs Orders to Promote Fossil Fuels and End Climate Policies – New York Times EPA takes unprecedented step...

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 at...

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).  News House Republicans Pledg...

Kate and Aaron talk to Chris Clarke, host of the 90 Miles from Needles podcast , about the Cadiz pipeline project, a water mining project that poses a huge threat to the Mojave Desert. This project has been around in some form or another for over four decades and the latest iteration is especially insidious. News Stopping Cadiz is good for people, the environment and our water future – Deser...

In this special episode of The Landscape, Kate visits the Dolores River Canyon Country in southwest Colorado, along with CWP’s Lauren Bogard and Sterling Homard, to meet with folks who support protecting this special region. The Dolores River’s riparian zone contains the largest and most biodiverse stretch of unprotected public lands in Colorado. Advocates are currently working to prot...

Kate and Aaron are joined by CWP Executive Director, Jennifer Rokala, and Curtis Hubbard, a political consultant based in Colorado, to break down the what the results of the 2024 election mean for public lands. News With Ready Orders and an Energy Czar, Trump Plots Pivot to Fossil Fuels – New York Times Trump gave Interior nominee one directive for a half-billion acres of US land: ‘Drill.’ ...