The Wild Idea is an exploration of the intersection of wild nature and our own human nature. The hosts, Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds, through conversations with experts and thought leaders will dive into the ways that humans have both embraced and impact the function and vitality of our remaining wild places.
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking the Bureau of Land Management's rescission of the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's congressional testimony — including his description of designated wilderness areas as "death sentences for forests" — a House bill that would block North Atlantic right whale protections through 2035, the authorization of chainsaws in the Frank Church Wilderness, and state-level wins in Colorado and New Mexico. Find the details and links mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com
5/15/26 • 12:03
In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with Greg Treinish, founder of Adventure Scientists, and Lara Birkes, the organization's newly appointed executive director, for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens when outdoor skill meets scientific purpose. Greg launched Adventure Scientists 15 years ago after growing restless on expeditions across the Andes and Appalachian Trail, feeling that the time and effort spent exploring wild places could be put to better use. What began as a scrappy nonprofit driven by personal relationships and viral outdoor media has grown into a global network of more than 10,000 trained volunteers collecting data across projects spanning microplastics, antibiotic resistance, endangered species, coral reef restoration, illegal timbering, and high-altitude fungi.A central theme of the conversation is data quality: how Adventure Scientists has built protocols rigorous enough to hold up in court, and how that credibility has forced a broader reckoning in the scientific community about what community-gathered data can actually achieve. Greg and Lara also discuss the frontier of new tools, from eDNA sampling to LIDAR drones flown by indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, and how these technologies extend the reach of field science without replacing the irreplaceable value of boots on the ground. Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today on our website.
5/12/26 • 48:44
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking the Senate's imminent floor vote on Steve Pearce's nomination as BLM Director, Montana's escalating campaign against American Prairie's bison grazing permits, a federal land transfer tied to the Ambler Road corridor in Alaska, an Alaska court ruling allowing unlimited bear killing in southwest Alaska, a pending Forest Service decision on chainsaw use in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, and the death of conservationist Ted Turner. From nomination fights to wilderness policy to bison restoration, the pressure on public lands is building on every front.Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com
5/8/26 • 08:27
In this episode, Bill and Anders are joined by Autumn Gillard, coordinator for the Grand Staircase Intertribal Coalition, and Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), for a wide-ranging conversation about one of the most contested and celebrated landscapes in the American West: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Autumn brings a Southern Paiute perspective to the work, rooted in personal connection to ancestral land and galvanized by witnessing the vandalism of irreplaceable cultural sites. Steve brings 30 years of legal and conservation advocacy, including direct involvement in the monument's establishment in 1996 and the subsequent legal battles that followed.The conversation traces the full arc of the monument's history, from early twentieth-century preservation visions to the coal mining threat that catalyzed the 1996 designation, through the Trump administration's 2017 reduction of the monument boundaries and the Biden administration's 2021 restoration. Steve and Autumn explain how the collaborative management planning process that followed the restoration became an opportunity to elevate tribal voices in unprecedented ways, with coalition members sitting alongside elders without smartphones to hand-transcribe their knowledge into formal public comments. That process produced a management plan that now faces a new and potentially permanent threat: weaponized use of the Congressional Review Act by Representative Celeste Maloy and Senator Mike Lee.What emerges from this conversation is not despair but resolve. Autumn speaks with quiet power about carrying the weight of ancestral obligation and drawing strength from the land itself, preparing not for today's outcome but for seven generations forward. Steve lays out the legal landscape with clarity and urgency, while both guests leave listeners with a simple, actionable message: your voice matters, and raising it, whether by calling Congress or simply visiting the monument, is its own form of advocacy.Learn more about today's episode and find the links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
5/5/26 • 49:51
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking the withdrawal of the Trump administration's National Park Service nominee, a Forest Service plan to spray glyphosate across 10,000 acres of public land, a federal lawsuit to stop a controversial West Virginia highway, a proposed blast mine threatening the San Joaquin River, new University of Montana survey data on public lands attitudes, a coalition framework rejecting public land sell-offs as a housing fix, and the opening of a new trail at Red Rock Canyon. From farm bill stalemates to the gap between what Montana voters say and how their delegation votes, these stories cut to the heart of who controls — and who protects — America's public lands.Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
5/1/26 • 13:14
Dalton George is the mayor of Boone, North Carolina and the national organizing director for the Endangered Species Coalition. He came up through community organizing, founded a tenant rights organization, led the campaign to make Boone the first carbon-neutral municipality in North Carolina, and got himself elected to town council before becoming the youngest mayor in the state. The thread connecting Dalton's work across housing justice, voting rights, and wildlife advocacy is a conviction that displacement is displacement, whether it happens to people or species. He draws a direct line between luxury development pressuring working families out of Appalachian communities and the same pressures pushing the Eastern hellbender salamander toward extinction. Both stories, he argues, are about powerful outside forces reshaping a place and its character, often without the people who live there having much say. The episode was recorded while Dalton was in Washington, DC lobbying against the ESA Amendments Act, a bill that would have significantly weakened the Endangered Species Act. The morning they recorded, that bill was pulled from the floor after opposition mounted and its sponsors realized they did not have the votes. It was a rare and meaningful win, and Dalton's reflections on what made it possible, ordinary people from across the country showing up to tell their stories in congressional offices, cut to the heart of what he believes about organizing, advocacy, and the kind of power that's still available to regular people when they decide to use it.Learn more about today's conversation and find the links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/28/26 • 33:09
This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking a major Endangered Species Act victory on Capitol Hill, proposed Forest Service rule changes that would open wilderness areas to chainsaws and fast-track mining exploration on national forest land, Interior and Agriculture secretaries facing congressional budget scrutiny, and a landmark master plan approved for California’s Great Redwood Trail. From federal wilderness policy to tribal treaty rights, these stories reveal the high stakes of public lands management in 2026.Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/24/26 • 13:57
Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the most ecologically rich and historically layered landscapes on the American East Coast, and it faces a pivotal moment. In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with Jessica Howell-Edwards and Dani Purvis, the volunteer advocates behind Wild Cumberland, to explore what makes this Georgia barrier island so extraordinary and what forces are working to reshape it.Jessica and Dani walk listeners through Cumberland's layered past: from the Timucua people who first called it home, to the plantation economy built on enslaved labor, to the Carnegie family's sweeping land acquisitions in the late 1800s, and ultimately to the island's designation as a National Seashore in 1972. That history, they explain, is not just background. It's the foundation for understanding why the Park Service's current proposals, including a Visitor Use Management Plan that would more than double the daily visitor cap and a proposed land exchange with private inholders, deserve intense scrutiny.The conversation also turns to what makes Cumberland ecologically irreplaceable. The island accounts for eighteen miles of Georgia's undeveloped coastline and hosts between twenty-five and thirty-three percent of the state's sea turtle nests each year, in part because of its rare, nearly uninterrupted darkness. With only 4.7 percent of Georgia in public ownership, Cumberland carries an outsized conservation burden, and both guests make clear that protecting it requires not just passion but process, public engagement, and long-term thinking.Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/21/26 • 44:45
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking the Senate's passage of a Congressional Review Act resolution to enable mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the Forest Service's proposed headquarters relocation to Salt Lake City, the Conservation Reserve Program's final deadline for 2026 offers, evidence of Trump administration coordination with Sen. Mike Lee's federal land sell-off proposal, the Confluence of States' 2025 Outdoor Report highlighting the $1.3 trillion economic value of outdoor recreation, a Gallup survey showing widespread concern about environmental protection, and a lawsuit challenging the administration's use of the "God Squad" to grant broad exemptions from the Endangered Species Act for Gulf oil and gas leasing. From federal public lands management to conservation policy, these stories highlight the accelerating pace of regulatory rollbacks and their implications for American wilderness and wildlife.For more details about the links and resources mentioned today, visit our website at thewildidea.com.
4/17/26 • 11:48
Dr. Erica Smithwick, a distinguished professor of geography at Penn State University and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, joins us to explore the rapidly changing fire landscape in the eastern United States. For decades, fire was largely considered a western phenomenon, but shifting climate conditions and changing forest composition are transforming fire regimes across eastern ecosystems in ways that don't match historical patterns.In this conversation, we examine why eastern forests are burning in new and unexpected ways, what the Eastern Fire Network is doing to address these challenges, and how communities can work together to manage fire in an era of climate change. Dr. Smithwick brings both scientific expertise and personal conviction to the discussion, sharing her perspective as both a researcher watching these changes unfold in real time and a parent concerned about what we're leaving future generations.Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/14/26 • 48:25
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking the Trump Administration's proposed budget cuts to the National Park Service, the controversial Forest Service reorganization plan, a new consolidated NEPA rule at the USDA, and legislative calls to action in Congress. From federal land management challenges to endangered species protections, these stories highlight the stakes for public lands policy and the staff who steward America's natural resources.Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/10/26 • 16:43
Dr. William Keeton is a forest ecologist and silviculturalist at the University of Vermont who has spent most of his career studying old-growth forests in the eastern United States and around the world. In this conversation, he joins hosts Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds to examine what old growth actually is, where it still exists in the East, and why its fate matters for climate, biodiversity, and the landscapes future generations will inherit.The episode opens with a deceptively simple question: what is an old-growth forest? Keeton explains that old growth is not a fixed condition but a stage of forest development characterized by structural complexity, habitat diversity, and a suite of ecological functions including carbon storage, hydrologic regulation, and biodiversity support. He pushes back on the assumption that eastern forests have nothing to offer compared to towering Pacific Northwest Douglas firs or coastal redwoods, walking through the surprising inventory findings of the past few decades that reveal far more old growth in the eastern United States than was previously believed, from the Adirondacks of upstate New York to the Southern Appalachians and the longleaf pine systems of the Gulf Coast. The conversation also takes the listener below the surface, into the soil, where Keeton discusses the growing understanding of mycorrhizal fungi networks, deep soil carbon, and why a recent study found Swedish old-growth forests store eighty-three percent more carbon than middle-aged forests, with most of that difference buried underground.For listeners who care about public lands, forest policy, and the long arc of ecological recovery, this is a conversation that connects the science to the stakes with rare clarity. Find out more about the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/7/26 • 48:34
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking a proposed reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service, a sweeping Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations, a court ruling against the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, a public scoping period threatening Chaco Culture National Historical Park, commercial fishing access in Pacific Marine National Monuments, and a rare wave of conservation wins from San Francisco Bay to Arkansas. From federal agency restructuring to bedrock wildlife law, these stories define the stakes for public lands in 2026.Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
4/3/26 • 20:59
In this special episode, The Wild Idea brings its recent public webinar directly to podcast listeners. Join a high-powered panel of scientists, attorneys, policy veterans, and conservation advocates to examine one of the most consequential federal land protection policies in American history: the 2001 Roadless Rule. The rule has shielded 58.5 million acres of largely intact national forest land from new road construction and most commercial timber harvest for more than two decades, and it now faces a proposed rescission by the current administration.The conversation opens with Mike Dombeck, the former Forest Service chief who oversaw the rule’s development, tracing the road system’s explosive post-World War II growth and the maintenance crisis that made the moratorium on new road construction both necessary and politically viable. From there, the panel moves through the science of wildfire ignitions near roads, the rule’s flexibility for forest health treatments, the economic value of roadless areas to outdoor recreation, and the water supply those landscapes provide to more than 60 million Americans. Monte Mills and Martin Nie bring legal and policy depth to questions of tribal consultation, indigenous land rights, and the gaps that rescission would leave in existing forest plans. Vera Smith of Defenders of Wildlife walks listeners through two interactive mapping tools that illustrate which threatened and endangered species depend on roadless forests, region by region.The episode closes with the full panel reflecting on what, if anything, could be improved in the rule, and how everyday people can make their voices heard before the draft environmental impact statement is finalized. The answer that emerges, again and again, is that the public support which gave this rule its unusual durability remains the most powerful tool available to those who want to see it preserved.Learn more about today's episode and the resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/31/26 • 84:19
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking Oklahoma's new energy-executive senator, a congressional push to block wilderness at Big Cypress National Preserve, a proposed federal land swap with SpaceX in South Texas, and major staff cuts at E&E News. From Capitol Hill to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, these stories highlight the accelerating pressure on federal public lands and the institutions that cover them.Get more details and the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/27/26 • 13:42
In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with two researchers and advocates who are reshaping how we think about nature and public health: Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, President and CEO of the Trust for Public Land, and Dr. Pooja Tandon, a pediatrician and researcher at Seattle Children's Hospital who also serves as a senior scientist with TPL. Together they bring a rare combination of policy reach and clinical grounding to one of the most urgent questions facing American families: how do we make sure every child has meaningful access to the outdoors?The conversation raises a deeper question that runs throughout the episode: what does it mean to bring wild nature to people, rather than waiting for people to come to wild nature? With 100 million Americans living more than a ten-minute walk from a park, and with school yards representing 2 million acres of largely underused civic land, both guests make a persuasive case that the opportunity to change those numbers is already in front of us. The challenge is political will, funding, and the recognition that access to green space is a matter of public health equity.Find out more about the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/24/26 • 53:43
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking Congress's move to block federal lead ammunition and tackle regulations, the first convening of the Endangered Species Act's God Squad in over 30 years, a public lands crossroads symposium in Salt Lake City, and a contested land swap at Cumberland Island National Seashore. From wildlife toxicology to oil and gas exemptions on federal waters, these stories define the current frontlines of public lands policy.Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/20/26 • 16:41
Tim Mahoney has spent five decades navigating the corridors of Congress on behalf of wild places. A veteran of The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and the Pew Charitable Trusts, he is one of the most experienced wilderness lobbyists of his generation. In this special St. Patrick’s Day episode, co-hosts Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds sit down with the man Anders credits as his political mentor to trace the arc of a career built on the belief that the strongest protection you can give land is to protect it in law.The centerpiece of the conversation is the Irish Wilderness in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest, designated by Congress in 1984. Mahoney walks through the full legislative history of that campaign: the bipartisan coalitions and back-room alliances, the opposition from the mining industry, the procedural losses in the House, the creative use of appropriations riders to forestall mineral leasing, and the formal conference committee that ultimately split the difference on acreage. Mahoney does not pretend to know what the next twenty years will bring, but he is clear on what he values: the skills required to pass wilderness legislation, the willingness to work across deep ideological divides, and the humility to take a partial win over a virtuous defeat. His parting challenge to a new generation of advocates is as practical as it is pointed.Learn more about today's conversation at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/17/26 • 52:24
This week on The Wild Line: the federal government advances twin lease sale plans in Alaska’s Arctic Refuge and Western Arctic, the Department of Interior finalizes revised NEPA procedures, the Trump Administration moves to restart a spill-prone California pipeline, and a slate of state-level public lands stories from Virginia, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia. The independently released Nature Record warns of cascading consequences from continued environmental degradation.Listen to the full episode for context, commentary, and what to watch next. Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/13/26 • 10:34
Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, conservationist, and longtime voice for wild lands whose work bridges story, spirit, and public life. In this conversation, she joins Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds to reflect on her newest book, The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, and to explore what it means to remain present in a time marked by ecological crisis, political strain, and personal loss.Rather than offering easy optimism, Terry reframes hope as something active, something rooted in engagement. Drawing on experiences from the pandemic, her advocacy for the Great Salt Lake, the fight for Bears Ears, and life in Castle Valley, Utah, she speaks about neighbors, ritual, ancestors, and the importance of local love. In a moment when outrage dominates public discourse, Terry invites us back to attention, reciprocity, and the discipline of presence.Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/10/26 • 53:49
This week on The Wild Line, we're tracking House Natural Resources Committee approvals on sequoia stewardship and scenic trail designation, tensions over the farm bill's nutrition title and conservation programs, Trump administration moves on public lands leadership, Montana political shifts affecting conservation policy, border wall threats to Big Bend National Park, prescribed burn controversies in Illinois wilderness, and efforts to overturn the Grand Staircase-Escalante management plan. From shifting congressional priorities to landscape-level threats, these stories highlight the accelerating pace of federal public lands policy in 2026.Find out more and access links and resources from today's conversation at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/6/26 • 15:59
In this milestone 50th episode of The Wild Idea, Bill and Anders sit down in Helena, Montana, with rancher and entrepreneur Cole Mannix to explore the intersection of land stewardship, regenerative agriculture, and food system reform. Cole is a founding member of the rancher-owned Old Salt Co-op, an ambitious effort to create an alternative marketplace that reconnects producers, consumers, and landscapes across the American West.The conversation moves from federal grazing leases and grizzly bear coexistence in the Gravelly Mountains to the structural consolidation of the American food system. Cole explains why less than two percent of the meat consumed in Montana is both raised and processed in-state, and how centralized processing, global supply chains, and economic consolidation have reshaped rural communities. Rather than simply marketing a different product, Old Salt aims to rebuild the shelf itself, redistributing economic value upstream to ranchers and land stewards.They also discuss the Old Salt Festival, a growing annual gathering in the Blackfoot Valley that blends music, food, conservation dialogue, and working lands culture. At its core, this episode asks: What would a food system look like if it truly supported stewardship? How do we balance wild lands and working lands? And how can everyday choices help build a more resilient, place-based economy?Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
3/3/26 • 41:57
This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking the Senate confirmation hearing for Bureau of Land Management nominee Steve Pearce, a new Public Land Order revoking protections on 2.1 million acres in Alaska, federal changes to protections for the lesser prairie chicken, and a Vermont Supreme Court ruling on public trail access. From federal land oversight to wildlife policy and access rights, these stories highlight major shifts in public lands governance.Find the links and resources from today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
2/27/26 • 11:48
This week on The Wild Line, we’re tracking a lawsuit challenging alleged censorship within the National Park Service, looming federal water cuts on the Colorado River, debate over the stalled Farm Bill, proposed management changes to Montana’s Flathead River, and final public comments on a controversial visitor plan for Cumberland Island National Seashore.Find out more about the stories covered today and how you can take action at our website, thewildidea.com.
2/20/26 • 08:58
This week on The Wild Line: a key Senate vote on Boundary Waters mining protections is postponed, the Forest Service proposes limits on public comment, and the Trump administration rolls back protections at a major Atlantic marine monument. We also cover a National Park Service nomination, federal public lands legislation, and new state action in Oregon and Illinois.Learn more about today's stories and how you can take action at our website, thewildidea.com.
2/13/26 • 16:15
On this week’s Wild Line, we cover major developments in federal public lands policy, intensifying negotiations over the Colorado River, the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the rollback of climate journalism at the Washington Post. We also share timely opportunities for public comment and mark the passing of a giant in the conservation movement.Learn more about today's stories and how you can take action at our website, thewildidea.com.
2/6/26 • 10:12
This week on The Wild Line, we cover major developments affecting public lands, national forests, tribal sovereignty, water protections, national parks, and conservation policy—plus what to watch in Congress in the coming days.Learn more about today's stories and how you can take action at our website, thewildidea.com.
1/30/26 • 15:27
As The Wild Idea concludes Roadless Month, hosts Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds turn their attention north — to Southeast Alaska and the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States and the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest.Covering nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass has become a focal point in national debates over old-growth logging, climate resilience, rural economies, and the future of the Roadless Rule. Joining the conversation is Andrew Thoms, Executive Director of Sitka Conservation Society, who brings decades of experience working at the intersection of community, conservation, and economic transition in Southeast Alaska.Learn more about today's conversation and find the links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
1/27/26 • 42:57
This week’s Wild Line tracks a fast-moving series of decisions on Capitol Hill and inside federal agencies that could reshape protections for wilderness, public lands, and conservation efforts nationwide. Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds cover the House vote targeting the Boundary Waters, contentious testimony around the EXPLORE Act, Interior Department actions affecting grazing and bison restoration in Montana, and a long-stalled highway project approved inside a National Conservation Area.For more information on the stories discussed today, visit our website at thewildidea.com.
1/23/26 • 10:45
As The Wild Idea continues Roadless Month, hosts Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds turn their focus to one of the most culturally and ecologically significant landscapes in Montana: the Badger–Two Medicine. Situated along the Rocky Mountain Front, just south of Glacier National Park, the Badger–Two Medicine is a place where roadless protection, wildlife habitat, and deep Indigenous responsibility converge. Joining the conversation are Terry Tatsey, a member of the Blackfeet Nation with lifelong ties to the Badger–Two Medicine, and Peter Metcalf, Executive Director of the Glacier–Two Medicine Alliance. Together, they explore why this landscape matters, how decades of advocacy successfully ended oil and gas leasing in 2023, and what is now at stake as the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers rescinding the Roadless Rule.For more information about the topics discussed today, visit our website at thewildidea.com.
1/20/26 • 46:55