Mining Episodes

Chris argues that federal environmental law remains indispensable but insufficient, calling for durable local power, community narratives and relationships capable of defending desert places when national protections are weakened or ignored.

Writer Morgan Sjogren describes the emotional and ecological stakes of renewed attacks on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante, connecting monument boundaries to rivers, cultural landscapes, resource extraction and everyday life in southern Utah.

Chance Wilcox explains how Dateline Resources’ proposed rare-earth mine could industrialize roughly 20,000 acres beside Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park, threatening residents, wildlife, water, air quality and a tourism-dependent economy.

Timbisha Shoshone leaders commemorate the Homeland Act’s 25th anniversary in Death Valley, recounting displacement, return and the continuing struggle for honest representation, cultural survival and respectful federal partnership.

John Dougherty of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas explains how Hudbay’s Copper World proposal would expand open-pit mining, deplete groundwater, damage cultural and wildlife resources and exploit the 1872 Mining Law.

Michael E. Ketterer's plutonium fingerprinting reveals that eastern California received Nevada Test Site fallout comparable to recognized downwind areas, strengthening the case for expanded mapping and compensation.

Writer Morgan Sjogren reads from Path of Light, tracing the beauty of Glen Canyon alongside the lasting damage uranium mining has inflicted on Indigenous communities, wildlife, water and public lands.

Chris sounds the alarm over a Senate proposal to sell millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land, explaining what privatization could cost Western communities and urging immediate action.

Diné leader Davina Smith explains Bears Ears as a living cultural landscape, the legacy of her grandmothers' resistance and the necessity of Indigenous leadership in protecting sacred lands.

Journalist David Helvarg revisits his 1994 investigation The War Against the Greens and explains how the Wise Use movement's tactics evolved into today's attacks on environmentalists, public lands and democracy.

Chris challenges claims that genetically edited gray wolves amount to resurrected dire wolves, asking whether de-extinction can succeed without habitat, ecological relationships and learned animal culture.

Writer and photographer Josh Jackson discusses The Enduring Wild, his travels across California's BLM lands, the tension between exposure and protection, and threats from mining and agency cuts.