Green Root Podcast

On episode 134 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), a woodland owl offers some insight into the four biggest obstacles to effective grassroots environmental advocacy and how to overcome them. 

The owl hoots about:

-Distraction - electronics, entertainment, and human-centric causes;

-Laziness - our natural habit to save energy by avoiding difficult tasks;

-Fear - exaggerated or unfounded worries about negative feedback or blowback;

-Infighting - our species’ difficulty getting along with each other;

-How advocates might acknowledge and overcome these obstacles to start reversing the eco-crisis.

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support. Email eia@eco-integrityalliance.org to get plugged into your state today!

On episode 133 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), concerned citizen Mike Rawluk questions a Colorado government/corporate scheme to poison a watershed and drinking water source inside designated wilderness with a fish-killing pesticide.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Mike about:

-How Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Denver Water plan to use the pesticide/piscicide rotenone to extirpate an “invasive” trout subspecies native to Colorado from McQueary Creek and Lake in the Vaquez Peak Wilderness;

-The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2006 ban on rotenone for agricultural and household due to potential health risks;

-Recent legal victories in Montana to stop spraying rotenone in watersheds as a violation of the Wilderness Act;

-Whether poisoning entire waterways to remove certain fish species—including in Rocky Mountain National Park—does more harm than good; 

-Mike’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.

On episode 132 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg shares Eco-Integrity Alliance’s brand new “Ponderosa Pine Model,” a winning model for grassroots environmental organizing.

Read about the model here: https://eco-integrityalliance.org/ponderosa/

Josh talks about:

-The lack of structure in a lot of well-meaning grassroots environmental campaigns;

-Movement successes and failures that birthed the Ponderosa Pine Model;

-The various roles, minimal time commitments, and specific tasks that let organizers, advocates, and volunteers plug in to take effective action without burn out;

-How grassroots organizers might use the Ponderosa Pine Model to win grassroots campaigns and start reversing the eco-crisis!

On episode 131 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), Melissa Soderston, president of Tahoe Forest Matters, exposes California “land management” agencies’ scheme to log, burn, and poison public lands surrounding Lake Tahoe.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Melissa about:

-How the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies spray toxic herbicides after destroying forest ecosystems with ineffective “wildfire fuel reduction” logging;

-How glyphosate/Roundup threatens the waters of California’s iconic Lake Tahoe;

-How the region’s forests are growing back beautifully after the so-called “devastating” Caldor fire of 2021;

-The myth that California’s public lands are “unmanaged” as they are subjected to some of the largest, most destructive logging schemes in the U.S.;

- Melissa’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.

On episode 130 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg asks the controversial question: Will more recreationists (Nature Users) join with wildland and wildlife protectors (Nature Lovers) or keep teaming up with resource extractors (Nature Abusers)?

Josh talks about:

-The difference between being a Nature Lover, User, and Abuser;

-How important it is for those of us who take from nature—recreationists—to give back;

-Why such a small proportion of recreationists support and/or are engaged in genuine conservation;

-How recreationists are running cover for resource extraction, such as Colorado’s Clearcut Initiative 308 (coloradosmokescreen.org/clearcut-initiative), which would fund industrial logging in endangered species habitat, old-growth forest, and protected Roadless Areas;

-How Nature Lovers might bring more Nature Users over to our side.

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 129 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), forest defender and artist, Holly English (Hollyenglish.com), fills us in on the state of Australia’s native hardwood forests along with past and ongoing campaigns to protect these ecosystems from industry, government, and NGO degradation and destruction.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Holly about:

-Her past involvement in nonviolent direct-action forest defense campaigns;

-Australians’ awareness of and politics around environmental issues;

-How wildfire is exploited as an excuse by industry, government, and some NGOs to log forests;

-The connection of indigenous Australians to these iconic landscapes;

-Holly’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 128 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg asks whether a new ballot initiative to expand taxpayer funded logging on public lands—“Clearcut” Initiative 308—might be violating the Colorado State Constitution.

Josh talks about:

-Clearcut Initiative 308, which would fund clearcutting and industrial logging in endangered species habitat, old-growth forest, and protected Roadless Areas;

-How it’s being sold to the public under the guise of recreation and “conservation”;

-How the measure is funded by Trump-aligned NGOs that take tax dollars to promote and/or carry out public lands logging;

-How its language makes outright false claims—that logging can somehow “prevent wildfires”—that not even the U.S. Forest Service defends;

-How Clearcut Initiative 308 may violate the Colorado State Constitution’s “Single Issue Rule” by lumping three topics—recreation, conservation, and logging—under one measure.

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 127 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), Delia Malone, president of ColoradoWild, pulls the curtain back on how Colorado government and certain NGOs promote some conservation efforts while also decimating the state’s iconic wildlife and wildlands at the behest of well-funded special interests.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Delia about:

-The successes and challenges of Colorado’s wolf reintroduction;

-The stranglehold the state legislature’s Agriculture, Water, and Natural Resource Committee has on conservation policy;

-How Colorado Parks and Wildlife is stacked with hunting and trapping interests;

-How Delia was banned (!) by the Sierra Club for her powerful advocacy for wolves;

-Delia’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.

On episode 126 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), host Josh Schlossberg talks about—and not-so-subtly coerces you to read—his latest semi-controversial essay for Eco-Integrity Alliance’s Substack entitled, “The Environmental Activist’s Paradox: Unite or Divide?”

Josh talks about:

-How good Organizing seeks to Unite while strong Advocacy looks to Divide;

-How both roles are crucial—each with benefits and risks—yet seemingly contradictory;

-A specific example of Uniting coming into conflict with Dividing;

-Whether enviros have focused too much on feel-good Uniting at the expense of necessary Dividing;

-How to better integrate both Uniting Organizing and Dividing Advocacy into the grassroots environmental movement.

The mission of Eco-Integrity Alliance (eco-integrityalliance.org) is to unite U.S. grassroots ecosystem advocates through common campaigns of mutual support.

On episode 125 of the Green Root Podcast (the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance), Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, writer at “Speaking for the Trees, No Matter Where They’re From,” guides us through the wild enchanted forests of J.R.R. Tolkien’s (Lord of the Rings) Middle-Earth.

Host Josh Schlossberg talks with Kollibri about:

-Kollibri’s five-part essay series on Substack, “Tolkien & Trees”;

-The factual and fictional forest ecology of The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion;

-The ongoing relevance of Tolkien’s work for taking action against environmental destruction;

-Ents!!!

- Kollibri’s take on a root cause of the ecological crisis.