In defense of the disappearing Sagebrush Sea
The largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48 states is being sold off because Americans were trained to see it as wasteland.
conservation policy
Congress is about to legalize the liquidation of America’s national forests
Through the Fix Our Forests Act, Senate Democrats are about to hand the Trump administration permanent statutory authority to log America’s national forests at landscape scale.
Environmental protection depends on more than regulation
Wetlands, rivers and ecosystems do not stop functioning when legal definitions change. The long-term stability of environmental protection may depend less on enforcement than on cultural attitudes toward nature itself.
In Alaska, Tribal Governments Push for Larger Conservation Role
As climate change and population pressure strain the world’s delicate ecosystems, Indigenous peoples are pushing to make a larger contribution to environmental management in Alaska and beyond by working with government officials and scientists.
Accelerating recovery of wild European mammals brings hope of wider nature regeneration
In sum, while the world is facing a human-induced mass extinction event and unprecedented losses of biodiversity and wildlife worldwide, it is important to remember the power we have to make positive choices to protect species and the environments they live in and upon which we all depend.
Protect This Place: Oregon’s Twin Lake
No one ever imagined that the day would come in which the very existence of this important wetland would be threatened by construction of high-voltage electrical power lines. Special places require special protections, and once the threat appears, it may be too late.
Give Back Stolen Land
Viewed from the perspective of history, Treuer notes laceratingly, America’s national parks are a crime scene.
Radical Conservation: Misdirections, New Directions
Imagining conservation outside the capitalist box is a liberating exercise, countering eco-anxieties and catastrophic nightmares, while releasing positive collective energy. A movement united around a convivial conservation vision would be a powerful change agent in the Great Transition.
The Extinction Crisis in Watercolor and Oils: Using Art to Save Plants
My biggest challenge is our biggest challenge, and that is to engage people to appreciate the importance of plant life. I mean, it’s not just plants, of course. It’s all life and ecosystems. But plant life specifically, because it doesn’t have as much traction as animals.
Thoughts on Activism
Having spent a good deal of my life on projects intended to “save the world” (which decidedly does NOT want to be saved!), being confronted with the idea of sharing some of my thoughts about “activism” has provoked a flood of ideas about what to say on such an intriguing subject.
The Revolution Will Not Be “Green”
Long imagined as a bulwark against ecological destruction, players in the mainstream conservation movement—think big NGOs like The Nature Conservancy and their corporate partners—have actually been complicit in that destruction by propping up a fundamentally unsustainable capitalist system and the nature-culture dichotomy it’s built upon.
Two Important New Books
The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Mitigation and Food Security and Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.
