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
114 episodes
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
Why Oregon Needs an Environmental Rights Amendment
This is our first episode of 2025, and while we brace for the tidal wave of insanity coming our way on the federal level, we are also preparing for Oregon’s biennial legislative session.If you don’t know, Oregon only has full legislativ...
•
29:00
The Fallacy of "Chainsaw Medicine" for Wildfire, with George Wuerthner, Part 2
Today’s show is the second part of a recent talk by conservationist and author, George Wuerthner, on the failures and fallacies of some of the ingrained beliefs around wildfires and wildfire suppression.George Wuerthner is a well-known ...
•
29:00
The Fallacy of "Chainsaw Medicine" for Wildfire, with George Wuerthner - Part 1
Our last episode was a great discussion with a Forest Service scientist and a forest ecologist with the Nature Conservancy about the effects of various fire treatments on subsequent fire behavior. While I appreciated their perspective and...
•
29:00
Treating Fire with Fire (and Logging??): A Surprisingly Interesting Scientific Review of Fire Treatments!
Like it or not, fire politics affects every aspect of public forest policy and the rural landscape, and that is not changing anytime soon.But is science or politics guiding the policy? Are management decisions being made with fore...
•
52:25
Preparing for the Dark Days Ahead
As we all collectively live through the unfolding trauma of the 2024 election results, I am going to share a conversation I had yesterday with two of my colleagues in the climate justice world that I found really helpful in starting to process ...
•
47:01
State of the Climate Emergency, with Dr. Jillian Gregg
“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisi...
•
38:00
Exposing Oregon's Mega-Dairies, with Oregon Rural Action & Food and Water Watch
Oregon Rural Action and Food and Water Watch recently conducted a rare flyover of Threemile Canyon Farms, one of Oregon’s most notorious factory cattle farms, also known by the simultaneously anodyne and horrifying technical name: confined anim...
•
39:01
Water Rights and Changing Oregon's Water Law, with Christopher Hall of the Water League
Freshwater, i.e. non-salinated water, is arguably the most precious resource on earth, and in Oregon, by law, all water belongs to the public. However, if you examine who actually controls water usage in Oregon, you might come away with a...
•
32:15
Forest Under Siege, with Author Rand Schenk - Part 2
Today’s episode is part two of my interview with Rand Schenk, author of a great new book on history of the Forest Service, its founder, Gifford Pinchot, and over 100 years of forest management and mismanagement in the Pacific Northwest....
•
29:00
Forest Under Siege, with Author Rand Schenk - Part 1
Today’s episode is part one of a two part interview with Rand Schenk, author of a fascinating and timely new history of the Forest Service, its founder, Gifford Pinchot, and over 100 years of forest management and mismanagement in the Pacific N...
•
Episode 82
•
29:00