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At Coast Range Radio, we interview folks who work to build just communities that provide for people and the natural world. We are particularly interested in the connections between Pacific Northwest forests, social justice, and the climate crisis.
Coast Range Radio is an independent radio show and podcast hosted by Michael Gaskill. Michael is a lifelong rural Oregonian and climate justice organizer.
136 Episodes
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Today we’re joined by Nathan Daniel, Executive Director of the Great Peninsula Conservancy. Nathan has helped guide some of the most ambitious conservation work going on in Western Washington - specifically on Kitsap Peninsula, the forested lowlands between Seattle and the Olympic mountains. Big thanks to Andy Shoemaker for co-hosting this episode! https://greatpeninsula.org/ https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/
Are Amazon data centers fueling a water contamination crisis in Eastern Oregon Rolling Stone recently published a major investigative piece asking that question. But Amazon is far from the only major corporation polluting the drinking water of Morrow County residents, and this crisis has been going on for decades. Oregon Rural Action has been organizing in and advocating for communities in Eastern Oregon for years. They were heavily quoted in that Rolling Stone article, and they have be...
Is the conservation movement being as effective as we need to be? This is a moment in time when so much is on the line, and we need to act not just boldly and quickly, but wisely and strategically. To discuss all of this and more, my guest today is Mitch Friedman, founder and Executive Director of Conservation Northwest, and the author of a brand new memoir: “Conservation Confidential: A Wild Path to a Less Polarizing and More Effective Activism.” Conservation Confidential is a highly ...
Should we be logging our drinking watersheds to protect them? That’s the question for residents of Walla Walla Washington, whose pristine drinking water comes off of National Forest land. The Forest Service is planning to a major and multi-faceted project with the stated purpose of protecting Walla Walla’s drinking water from wildfire. But what about the impacts of road building and commercial logging in intact, native forest? These questions over how and whether to use so called...
By now, many, if not most of you have heard that ICE has been secretly planning to build some kind of jail or detention facility in Newport here on the Oregon Coast. The community pushback has been immediate, fierce, inspiring, and seemingly successful, at least so far. This is a developing story, and only one skirmish in a wider war to protect our communities from these masked and lawless thugs. The Newport City Council has been proactive, out front, and clear in their staunch opposition to ...
My guest today is Britney Van Citters, Political and Organizing Director at the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Britney joins to discuss how the Environmental Protection Agency is being refashioned into the Environmental Destruction Agency, OLCV’s legislative Scorecard, and what we can do to push Oregon legislators to meet this moment of overlapping crises with real action. My email is coastrangeradio@gmail.com, I would love to hear what you think of the show! Show Notes: https://ww...
I’m joined today by filmmaker Jesse Andrew Clark, to talk about his recent documentary, “Free to Grow”. Free to Grow uses deeply personal first person storytelling to highlight the harms of herbicide spraying on industrial timberlands in the Northwest. Show Notes: https://www.oldgrovefilms.com/forest-stories https://www.opb.org/news/article/blm-investigates-after-company-sprays-pesticide-on-public-land-without-license/ https://www.instagram.com/coastrangeradio/
My guest today is University of Oregon professor and longtime activist, Sarah Wald. Sarah is the author of multiple books, and as you’ll hear today, a profound thinker on a wide variety of issues concerning the conservation and environmental justice communities. This is one of my favorite conversations I’ve ever had on this show, in part because Sarah was so game to explore some really complicated points of tension within our movements. I definitely learned a lot, and was happy to have ...
As I’ve talked about on this show before, the Trump administration is using every tool available to target public lands and our mature and old-growth forests (along with, of course, democracy, basic human rights, any shred of protection against corporate oligarchy, etc etc. But this is primarily a show about northwest conservation and climate, so as much as I want to rant about all the things, I’m going to keep it focused!) As we gear up for a new round of the Timber Wars, I’ve been thinking ...
I don’t have to tell anyone how bleak things look at the federal level. Here in the Pacific Northwest, if we’re being honest, there is not a lot that we can do at the moment to influence federal policy. But when it comes to climate and the environment, I’ve always been a little ambivalent about how much can be done at the state and local level. I want to be clear, local activism and organizing are incredibly important, and that’s where most of us can make the most difference. But ...
We’re heading East today! Oregon’s Blue Mountains encompass some of the most beautiful landscapes and habitats anywhere. Within the Blue’s 15,000 square miles, you’ll find such Oregon gems as the John Day river, the Eagle Cap wilderness, Hell’s Canyon, and a huge percentage of Oregon’s forests. But because they are geographically isolated from major population centers, they often don’t get the recognition they deserve. That remoteness also makes them vulnerable to resource extrac...
My guest today is author and journalist, Paul Koberstein. I spoke with Paul in 2024 about a book he co-authored called “Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest”. I recently read a great new article of his entitled “Greenwashing in the Evergreen State”, exploring how an industry funded quasi-academic entity got the Democratically controlled Washington State Legislature to endorse industrial logging as beneficial for the climate. I’m a sucker ...
If you’re hearing this before September 19th, I need you to do me a favor: the Trump administration is attempting to eliminate a policy called the “Roadless Rule”, which would open tens of millions of acres of vibrant forests and public land to industrial logging and mining. The Forest Service is accepting public comment on the plan to eliminate the Roadless Rule until September 19th, and it is important that we flood them with comments and petitions to leave these critical forests and ecosys...
I just got back from a really amazing backpacking trip in the wilderness of Wyoming, and I’ve been reflecting on how nature, wilderness, sacred lands, whatever you want to call them, have always been a source of refuge, spiritual rejuvenation, and healing for humans. But a question I and so many others are grappling with right now is, how do we continue to find inspiration and healing in a world that is being so deeply harmed. My guest today is author, travel writer, and speaker, Adam Sawyer....
Just keeping up with the Trump administration’s all out war against our environment is exhausting. Fortunately, we in the northwest are blessed with incredible activists, organizers, and more relevant to today, environmental attorneys to help us understand the attacks so we can fight back effectively. One of the best of those attorneys is Brenna Bell, formerly of 350pdx and now with the Crag Law Center. This episode features a recent presentation Brenna gave along with Laure...
I’m delighted to be joined today by Rebecca Heisman, freelance journalist and the author of “Flight Paths: how a passionate and quirky group of pioneering scientists solved the mystery of bird migration”. Flight Paths is a fascinating and engaging deep dive into the history and science of bird migration research, and how understanding bird migration matters for effective conservation efforts. My 'emailbox' is always open coastrangeradio@gmail.com, drop me a line with show ideas, guest suggest...
I’m off this week, so you’re going to hear the second half of one of my favorite interviews, with author and activist Rand Schenk, which I first released in July of 2024. I loved this conversation, but I feel like it needs a little context at this point, since 2024 seems like a millenia ago, and the fierce arguments forest defenders and policy makers were having about forest management now seem like friendly disagreements. Obviously our politics have undergone a cascadia megathru...
(I’m off this week, so I’m featuring one of my favorite interviews, which I first released in July of 2024. I hope you like it!) Today’s episode is part one of a two part interview with Rand Schenk, author of a fascinating and timely new 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”, explores the Forest Service’s...
I’m recording this in the aftermath of what I consider a largely failed Legislative session in Oregon and the passage of what will likely be remembered as one of the most extreme and destructive pieces of legislation in modern history at the federal level, aka the One Big Bill. On the state level, Democrats failed to pass their major priority, a much needed transportation funding overhaul, despite having supermajorities in both chambers, and also failed on a number of other legislative fronts...
Earlier this year, I did an episode on the Legacy Forest Defense Campaign in Washington. Since then, that campaign has only heated up, and in May, activists took to the forests in the Olympic peninsula to set up tree sits and road blockades in protest of State Land timber sales in the Elwha Watershed. To learn more about protecting the Elwha watershed, Earth Law philosophy, and more, I’m delighted to be joined by Elizabeth Dunne, the director of legal advocacy for the Earth Law Center....
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