Coast Range Radio
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.
Episodes
123 episodes
Grieving In Nature, and Grieving For Nature, with Adam Sawyer
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, ...
•
28:59
How the Trump Administration is Sabotaging Environmental Regulations
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 ...
•
56:14
Flight Paths: Why Understanding the Mystery of Bird Migration Matters for Effective Conservation
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 fascin...
•
29:00
Best of (With Updates!): Forest Under Siege, with Author Rand Schenk - Part 2
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 ...
•
28:57
Best of: Forest Under Siege, with Author Rand Schenk - Part 1
(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 an...
•
29:00
The New Federal Attacks On Our Forests, Explained - PNWFCA Presentation Series, Part 1
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 fe...
•
Episode 109
•
59:05
"Earth Law" and the Elwha Watershed Campaign, with Elizabeth Dunne of the Earth Law Center
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 ...
•
31:44
A Frank (and Fun!) Conversation with a Former Forest Service NEPA Planner
One of the things I try to do on this show is get away from the binary good vs bad framing that so many of us fall into, and explore the messy complexities and grey areas within the environmental and conservation movement here in the northwest....
•
42:19
Why is Oregon's Treasury is Addicted to Fossil Fuels?! With the Divest Oregon Coalition
I’m willing to bet that most Oregonians don’t know who our State Treasurer is, much less what the State Treasury does.But we should. The office of State Treasurer, currently Elizabeth Steiner by the way, is a powerful position, and...
•
Episode 106
•
35:38
Born Of Fire And Rain: Journey Into A Pacific Coastal Forest, With Oregon Author Peg Herring!
An absolute gem of a conversation with Oregon author M.L. Herring about her new book, “Born of Fire and Rain: Journey Into a Pacific Coastal Forest”. Born of Fire and Rain is one of the best books I’ve ever read on our bioregion.&n...
•
Episode 105
•
29:00
What's Up With Sea Otter Reintroduction In Oregon?
Today’s episode is all about one of the most charismatic of all charismatic megafauna, the sea otter! Sea otters are a crucial part of nearshore marine ecosystems, but they were wiped out along the Oregon coast over 100 years ago.T...
•
Episode 104
•
29:00
Why Do Oregon Democrats Keep Killing Climate Legislation, With State Rep. Mark Gamba
As of this recording on May 6th, we are well into the 2025 Oregon Legislative session. And I, like many others, am still struggling to find a coherent throughline to the session.And many climate justice advocates are increasingly w...
•
44:35
Protecting Eelgrass & Rocky Habitats with the Oregon Ocean Alliance
All of us in the northwest love our ocean, but we often don’t show it the love that it truly deserves.Ocean conservation is chronically underfunded and under prioritized, but the newly formed
•
Episode 102
•
29:00
.png)
Radio Bonus - CRR #101.5: Lessons from Southern Activists on Fighting Biomass - Continued!
Note: This is the second part of the interview that didn't make it into the radio version. The podcast version includes the entire interview.-----Biomass energy, that is, burning pelletized wood for electricity gene...
•
16:32
What Southern Environmental Justice Organizers Can Teach Us About Fighting Biomass in the PNW
Biomass energy, that is, burning pelletized wood for electricity generation, is a classic false climate solution. It has been devastating forests and communities in the Southeast for years, and the Biomass industry is dead set on expandin...
•
Episode 101
•
43:54
Washington's Legacy Forest Defense Campaign & Twin Harbors Waterkeeper
This show has been pretty Oregon-centric, but I’m told there is a large landmass just north of us that also has a lot of amazing people doing environmental and climate justice work. So I’m putting my Oregon bias aside for today to ...
•
33:49
Bestselling Oregon Author John Larison on ‘The Ancients’, Climate Resilience, and More
Today, to celebrate the first independent episode of Coast Range Radio, we are going to try something new! Sometimes its important to step back and place our work, and ourselves, in a larger context. And even amidst the relent...
•
Episode 99
•
42:18
Fighting Back Against Trump's Clearcut Agenda
On March first, the president issued two executive orders designed to dramatically increase commercial logging on our public lands. These executive orders are bad news on their own, but the situation is actually even more dire.Thes...
•
28:59
Is The Forest Service Using The Threat Of Wildfire To Increase Logging??
The Forest Service is using the threat of wildfires to justify a drastic expansion of commercial logging on our public lands. That is the contention in an investigative reporting series from Nathan Gilles at Columbia Insight. ...
•
29:00
Now is the Time to Take Action on the Northwest Forest Plan, with Grace Brahler (NWFP series, part 3)
This episode is part three of our deep dive into the Forest Service’s proposal to amend the Northwest Forest Plan, which covers 24 million acres over 17 nation forests spread across Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. As I'...
•
42:00
How Trump's DEI Witchunts Impact the Environmental Movement, and How We Can Resist
We are going to have a couple banger episodes on the Northwest Forest Plan in the coming weeks, but I’m recording this on February 24th, just over one month since Trump’s second term began, and I think we need to step back and take stock for a ...
•
38:23
Labor Exploitation in Forestry and the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP Series, Part 2)
This is part two of our series on the Forest Service’s major proposed changes to the Northwest Forest Plan. As most of our listeners know, the 30 year old Northwest Forest Plan provides critical protections to over 24 million acres...
•
29:00
Tribal Sovereignty & The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP series, Part 1)
The Northwest Forest Plan is one of the primary reasons that we have any forest left in the Northwest. Without it, and other protections that are now also at risk because of the Trump administration, our public lands would look no differe...
•
41:00
NWFP Series Update & Wildfire Myths vs Facts Revisited
Historic LA wildfires are still smoldering, the Oregon legislature is back in session, a massively controversial plan to drastically amend the northwest forest plan governing management policies on over 20 million acres of our most precious for...
•
28:59