Our Public Lands

Adam Bronstein
  • 4.8 (46)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

A podcast about our beloved and treasured public lands where I interview subject matter experts and activists from across the country who are working to protect and advocate for our public lands and their wildlife, wilderness, and cultural values. ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com

  1. 3H AGO

    #72 - Halting the Big Bend Border Wall w/ Bob Krumenaker

    In this episode, I interview Bob Krumenaker, retired Big Bend National Park superintendent, about the recently proposed Big Bend border wall and its implications. Bob describes Big Bend’s desert, Chisos Mountains, and the Rio Grande riparian corridor, emphasizing biodiversity, cross-border wildlife movement, and the park’s international protected-area status. He argues Big Bend has the lowest illegal crossing activity on the southern border—about 200 apprehensions annually within the park—and says a 30-foot bollard wall would require new roads, towers, lighting, and secondary barriers, harming wilderness character, dark skies, river access, and wildlife. The discussion covers existing surveillance infrastructure, an MOU guiding Border Patrol conduct, prior wall impacts in Organ Pipe and Coronado, and a nonpartisan coalition opposing the wall while supporting less intrusive, cooperative technology. Bob also outlines advocacy steps and links the fight to long-stalled wilderness designation efforts. Thousands in Texas protest against border wall through national park: ‘big love for Big Bend’ Sign the Change Dot Org Petition Five Call - Stop Construction of a Border Wall in the Big Bend Region Capitol Switchboard Number - (202) 224-3121 Keep Big Bend Wild No Big Bend Boarder Wall 00:56 Episode Preview 02:12 Support the Podcast 03:03 Meet Bob Krumenaker 03:26 Career Path to Superintendent 04:56 Advocacy Inside NPS 06:48 Park Service Mission and Management 11:43 Pivot to Big Bend Tenure 13:57 Big Bend Ecosystems Overview 16:30 Sky Islands and Rare Species 17:41 Wildlife Comebacks and Connectivity 19:49 Crossings Data and Border Patrol Role 21:58 Wall Impacts in Other Parks 26:00 MOU and Working with Border Patrol 27:53 Wall Proposal Timeline and Map Changes 33:00 What a Wall Would Build 35:20 River Access At Risk 36:21 What Smart Wall Means 38:57 Surveillance Tradeoffs 42:15 How Crossings Really Work 45:46 Coalition Against The Wall 54:01 Wilderness History And Future 01:00:18 How You Can Help 01:03:05 Why Public Lands Matter Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 7m

  2. 4D AGO

    #71 - The Life, Legacy and Cancellation of John Muir w/ Harold Wood

    In this episode, I interview Harold Wood, writer and historian, who specializes in the life and work of John Muir, one of the nation’s most influential and now, controversial, wilderness advocates. Harold discusses his lifelong interest in Muir and explains why his blend of scientific observation and poetic writing remains influential today. He outlines Muir’s role in the wilderness movement and the Sierra Club’s early conservation campaigns. The conversation addresses presentism and claims about Muir’s views of Native Americans. Harold disputes allegations linking Muir to Indigenous removals, racism and eugenics. Harold argues that we have much to learn from the life and advocacy of Muir and that we should come together as conservationists to address the challenges of the present day. John Muir and Native Americans John Muir: Racist or Admirer of Native Americans? Criticizing Muir and misunderstanding the foundation of American nature conservation Who was John Muir, Really? Battle for the Wilderness by Michael Frome 00:56 Episode Overview 02:05 Harold Wood Background 03:03 Why Muir Matters 03:49 Who Was John Muir 04:55 Roosevelt Yosemite Trip 06:38 Fame and Hetch Hetchy 11:18 Sierra Club Origins 13:15 Outings and Modern Era 16:17 Presentism Explained 20:02 Early Native Views 23:13 Views Evolve Through Travel 26:11 Ecocentric Worldview 28:35 Indigenous Land Management 31:42 Yosemite Removal Claims 33:53 Parks and Displacement 36:18 Muir Backlash 41:26 Eugenics Claims Rebuttal 42:19 Sequoia League Support 46:46 Unity Through Grassroots 49:42 Wilderness Big Lie 56:14 Agency Politics and Wilderness Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 6m

  3. APR 1

    #70 - Fighting to Keep Wilderness Untrammeled w/ Kevin Proescholdt

    In this episode, I welcome back Kevin Proescholdt of Wilderness Watch to discuss wilderness policy debates, focusing on large prescribed-burning proposals like the Forest Service plan to burn all 289,000 acres of Illinois’s Shawnee National Forest, including about 40,000 acres of designated wilderness, and a Boundary Waters project proposal to burn roughly 87,000 of Wilderness. Kevin and I dispute claims that Indigenous people broadly burned entire regions and landscapes, citing newer research suggesting more localized burning around village sites and for food cultivation. We argue agencies use false Indigenous fire narratives to justify forest thinning and landscape manipulation. We also critique Claire Boerigter’s recent article: “How protecting wilderness could mean purposefully tending it, not just leaving it alone,” which advocates active management of wilderness. Wilderness, Indigenous land zones and regionality in North American forests For Wilderness to remain wild, it must remain unmanipulated 02:03 Kevin Proescholdt background 04:01 Current wilderness hotspots 06:59 Holding the wilderness line 12:20 Why wilderness matters 15:31 Fire narratives and logging cover 18:58 Shawnee National Forest burn proposal 21:36 Indigenous burning 24:22 Boundary Waters burn plan 25:28 Flawed fire history methods 26:46 Habitat loss and species decline 27:16 Wilderness Act Misread 30:53 Wilderness Pristine Straw Man Arguments 35:47 Let Lightning Fires Burn 38:14 Why High Intensity Matters 40:21 Wildness and Mental Health 41:27 Fire Regeneration Perspective Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    48 min

  4. MAR 18

    #69 - Defending Alaska’s Brooks Range w/ John Gaedeke

    In this episode, I interview John Gaedeke, who was raised around a remote wilderness lodge near Inuk Lake in the Brooks Range, Alaska, and now helps lead Defend the Brooks Range. Our conversation centers on threats from proposed infrastructure and expanded mineral development, including the Ambler Road and changes to protections along the Dalton Highway corridor, which John says could enable heavy ore trucking, intensify industrialization, and increase risks to rivers, salmon, and caribou while exporting raw copper overseas with limited benefits to Alaskans. 01:39 Land Transfers and Oak Flat 03:08 Meet John 03:22 Life in the Brooks Range 04:16 Winter Travel and Lodge Logistics 06:29 Building a Remote Wilderness Lodge 08:28 From Hunting to Ecotourism 10:15 Why Protections Matter 11:40 Extraction Economics and Dividends 14:31 Defend the Brooks Range Origins 15:33 Brooks Range Extremes and Fragility 17:48 Wildlife Encounters Up North 20:21 Fishing Inuk Lake 22:37 Recreation Changes and Elite Wilderness 24:49 Brooks Range Humility 25:19 Dalton Corridor Rules 27:39 Mining Meets Pipelines 28:48 Ore Economics Explained 30:42 Roads Change Wilderness 32:57 Ambler Road Risks 34:59 Litigation And Unknowns 38:01 Biggest Red Flags 41:51 How To Push Back 46:32 Public Lands Giveaway Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    52 min

  5. MAR 10

    #68 - Resisting the Whitewashing of National Park History w/ Gerry James

    In this episode, I interview Gerry James, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All Campaign. Gerry describes his upbringing as a military brat that fostered a love of the outdoors and environmental protection, and discusses challenges he has faced as a Black man recreating outdoors. He outlines efforts to close the nature equity gap through youth programs, transit access to nature, and partnerships that train students as Sierra Club outings leaders, connecting outings to advocacy. Much of the conversation focuses on the Trump administration’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity” executive order and resulting attempts to remove or sanitize historical and climate-related interpretation on public lands, such as Philadelphia’s President’s House slavery exhibit and its restoration after a city lawsuit. Gerry details Sierra Club organizing, public records requests, coalition-building with historians, and planned actions to protect inclusive public history. Outdoors for All Campaign Save Our Signs Campaign LANDSCAPES OF EXCLUSION: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South 02:31 Military Brat Roots 04:10 Learning Black History 05:13 Racism Outdoors 07:51 Outdoor Equity Renaissance 09:06 HBCUs Outside Partnership 11:19 Outings To Advocacy 14:38 Skiing And Youth Trips 16:51 Outdoors For All Campaign 18:51 Fighting History Whitewashing 21:50 Organizing And Records Requests 24:31 Philly Rally And Win 31:02 Resistance Rangers Network 32:04 Whitewashing Civil Rights 33:52 Tribal History Under Fire 34:46 Lawsuit And Truth Debate 36:59 Interpreting History 39:09 Climate Science Attacks 41:25 Sustainability And Comments 43:27 Coalitions And Day Of Action 47:20 Save Our Signs And Juneteenth 52:44 Black State Parks Legacy Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 1m

  6. MAR 6

    #67 - The Great Big Giant Sequoia Scam Film Discussion + Live Q&A w/ Dr. Chad Hanson

    A live conversation with Dr. Chad Hanson about the deceptively named "Save Our Sequoias Act," wildfire, our new film, and public lands logging Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    49 min

  7. MAR 3

    #66 - Wilderness and the American Mind w/ Roderick Frazier Nash

    In this episode, I interview Roderick Frazier Nash, author of Wilderness and the American Mind, retired UC Santa Barbara professor and founder of its interdisciplinary Environmental Studies program, who discusses his background as a historian, longtime Grand Canyon commercial river guide, and reflects on his influential book Wilderness in the American Mind, which grew from his University of Wisconsin PhD work during the rising public interest in environmental protections back in the 1960s. He argues wilderness appreciation and preservation largely emerged from urban culture, citing figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Bob Marshall. Nash explains the historical shift around 1890 from wilderness as enemy to asset, and connects wildness to the human psyche. He recounts early work recovering Aldo Leopold’s legacy and promotes environmental ethics around The Rights of Nature, warns about “gardening” wilderness, and outlines his “Island Civilization” vision of shrinking human footprint to leave more of Earth wild. Wilderness and the American Mind Wilderness, Indigenous land zones and regionality in North American forests 06:52 Meet Roderick Nash 09:00 Writing Wilderness and the American Mind 10:59 Urban Roots of Wilderness Appreciation 12:41 Bob Marshall Story 16:23 Nash Leaving Manhattan 21:42 Nash’s First Wild Moments 27:02 Frontier Ends 1890 29:43 Defining Wilderness 36:34 Wilderness Act Origins 38:17 Wilderness Shapes America 40:54 Scarcity Makes It Valuable 44:51 Wildness Within Us 47:05 Aldo Leopold Land Ethic 51:45 Future Threats And Restraint 59:34 Rights Of Nature Law 01:02:48 Island Civilization Vision Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 11m

  8. FEB 24

    #65 - The Water Remembers: The Story Behind Historic Dam Removal on the Klamath River w/ Amy Cordalis

    In this episode, I interview Amy Cordalis, Yurok Tribal member, attorney and environmental activist about the historic decommissioning and removal of the four lower Klamath dams — the largest U.S. dam removal project in history. Amy shares the Yurok creation story about living in balance with a living river and the tribe’s responsibility to steward salmon and water. She discusses the history of U.S. violence and dispossession of the Yurok and other California tribes, including unratified treaties, reservation reductions, and the allotment era. The conversation centers on the 2002 Klamath fish kill—about 70,000 adult salmon perished—linked to drought-year water diversions ordered over scientific objections by then vice president Dick Cheney, which propelled Amy to law school and helped spark the movement that led to removal of four Klamath dams in 2024 through grassroots organizing and FERC relicensing. She discusses the Yurok rights of nature ordinance granting the river personhood under tribal law, early signs of ecological recovery after dam removal, ongoing upper-basin water quality challenges (including groundwater connections, grazing impacts, and the endangered sucker fish), and how Indigenous and non-Indigenous environmentalists can better work together. Purchase Amy’s Book - The Water Remembers Ridges to Riffles 04:07 Meet Amy Cordalis 05:39 Why Yurok Country Hasn’t Changed Much 08:12 The Yurok Creation Story 15:01 Living Connection to Place 26:17 2002 Klamath Fish Kill: Drought, Diversions, and Politics 31:38 “It’s Your Turn”: Off to Law School 35:36 From Grief to Movement: Grassroots Organizing and the FERC Relicensing Path 41:03 Rights of Nature for the Klamath: Personhood Under Yurok Law 44:03 Why Ecosystems Need Standing: Limits of U.S. Environmental Law 46:37 Behind-the-Scenes Dam Removal Lesson: Fight for All Four Dams 51:10 After the Dams Came Out: Salmon Return, Cleaner Water, River Reborn 59:13 Upper Basin Challenges: Sucker Fish, Groundwater, Grazing & Public Lands 01:02:41 Working Together For a Better Future Get full access to Our Public Lands Podcast at ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 17m
See All (72)

4.8
out of 5
46 Ratings

About

A podcast about our beloved and treasured public lands where I interview subject matter experts and activists from across the country who are working to protect and advocate for our public lands and their wildlife, wilderness, and cultural values. ourpubliclandspodcast.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Adam Bronstein
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    72
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Our Public Lands Podcast
  • Show Website
    Our Public Lands

You Might Also Like