America's Most Visited Wilderness

America's Most Visited Wilderness

There's a place in northeastern Minnesota where the water is so clean you can drink straight from the lake. Where thousands of people a year paddle into a wilderness so protected that there are no roads, no buildings, no cell signal — just 1,100 lakes and a thousand years of silence. Last month, Congress voted to open its headwaters to copper mining. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is America's most visited Wilderness area. It anchors a million-dollar outdoor economy and provides thousands of jobs in northeastern Minnesota. And it is now one Senate vote, one presidential signature, and one Chilean mining company away from a type of mining that has contaminated nearly every site it has ever touched... Cited Sources: Kraker, Dan. "Trump Ends Ban on Mining near the Boundary Waters." MPR News, 27 Apr. 2026. CNBC. "Senate Overturns Boundary Waters Protections, a Boon for Chilean Mining Company." CNBC, 16 Apr. 2026. Radelat, Ana. "Big Win for Mining as Senate Votes to Remove Moratorium on Boundary Waters Watershed." MinnPost, 16 Apr. 2026. Washington Post. "Congress Lifts Biden-Era Ban on Mining near Boundary Waters Wilderness." The Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2026. Sierra Club. "U.S. Senate Disapproves Mining Ban in Boundary Waters." Sierra Club, 16 Apr. 2026. Minnesota Reformer. "Congress Overturns Ban on Mining near the Boundary Waters." Minnesota Reformer, 15 Apr. 2026. Schneider, Keith. "Boundary Waters Mining Ban Overturned: Key Insights." Circle of Blue, 28 Apr. 2026. Stateline. "Scores of Forest Service Plans Could Be Upended after Boundary Waters Mining Vote." Stateline, 16 Apr. 2026. Earthjustice. "Senate Votes to Strip Minnesota's Boundary Waters of Protection from Mining Pollution." Earthjustice, 16 Apr. 2026. Star Tribune. "What to Know about Twin Metals, the Company at the Center of the Overturned Mining Ban." Star Tribune, 16 Apr. 2026. Outdoor Life. "Twin Metals Paid Former Trump Officials $380K." Outdoor Life Huffman, Jared. "Ranking Member Huffman Slams Backdoor Attempt to Open Boundary Waters to Toxic Mining." U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, 21 Jan. 2026. Great Lakes Now. "Why Mining in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Matters to Wisconsin." Great Lakes Now, 8 May 2026. MeatEater. "Mining Matters. So Do the Boundary Waters." MeatEater Conservation News, 23 Feb. 2026. Save the Boundary Waters. "What Is the Threat?" Save the Boundary Waters Save the Boundary Waters. "Release: New Report Shows 'Modern' Mines Still Pollute U.S. Waters." Save the Boundary Waters, 26 Sept. 2025. Save the Boundary Waters. "The Economic Value of the Wilderness." Save the Boundary Waters U.S. Congress. H.J.Res.140, 119th Congress: Providing for Congressional Disapproval of Public Land Order No. 7917. Congress.gov, 2026. U.S. Forest Service. "Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Permit and Visitor Use Report." Superior National Forest, Nov. 2024. Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. "Toxic Mining near the Boundary Waters." Friends-BWCA.org Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. "Defending the Boundary Waters from Sulfide Mine Pollution." MNCCenter.org, n.d. American Rivers. "Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness." American Rivers, n.d. Save the Boundary Waters. "The Facts: The Key State Bill to Permanently Protect the Boundary Waters." Save the Boundary Waters Boundary Waters Business Coalition. Why Business, Manufacturing, and Wilderness Thrive Together in Minnesota. Save the Boundary Waters Explore Minnesota. "Tourism and Minnesota's Economy Factsheet." Explore Minnesota "Plan to Locate Twin Metals Mine in BWCA Watershed Is Risky." Star Tribune Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth. "Water Quality Research Program." Natural Resources Research Institute Ekwurzel, Brenda, et al. "Assessing Acid-Sensitive Lakes in the Superior National Forest." University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy

What Just Happened In The Gulf of Mexico?

Fifty. Not fifty thousand. Not fifty million. Just fifty. That's how many Rice's whales are left on Earth. Every single one living in the Gulf of Mexico. And on March 31st, 2026, a committee of Trump administration officials took fifteen minutes to strip the Endangered Species Act protections that were the last thing standing between those whales and the oil drilling operations scientists say are pushing them toward extinction. Most people have never heard of this committee. But its nickname tells you everything: the God Squad. It has the power to decide whether a species lives or dies in the face of human development. It was created in 1978 as an emergency valve — meant for extreme situations, strict legal criteria, and years of process. It has met exactly three times in its entire existence. Until now. This episode is the full picture — the history, the receipts, the lobbying trail, the legal challenge already in federal court, and what you can actually do about it. Cited Sources: Sierra Club. "Can America's Only Endemic Whale Survive the Next Four Years?" Sierra NOAA Fisheries. "Rice's Whale." NOAA Fisheries NOAA Fisheries. "Rice's Whale Spotlight." NOAA Fisheries Hersher, Rebecca. "Endangered Species Committee Invokes National Security to Exempt Gulf Oil and Gas from Wildlife Rules." NPR, 30 Mar. 2026.  Duster, Chandelis. "Trump's 'God Squad' Votes to Exempt Gulf Oil and Gas Drilling from Endangered Species Protections." CNN, 31 Mar. 2026.  Dearen, Jason. "Trump's Endangered Species Committee Exempts Oil and Gas Drilling in the Gulf from Rules." PBS NewsHour, 31 Mar. 2026.  Alter, Charlotte. "Endangered Species Protections Committee Exempts Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Drilling." TIME, 31 Mar. 2026.  Natural Resources Defense Council. "Trump Administration Uses 'God Squad' to Allow Gulf Oil and Gas Industry to Bypass Endangered Species Act." NRDC Earthjustice. "Gulf Environmental Groups Sue Trump Administration over Decision to Exempt All Gulf Oil and Gas Activities from Endangered Species Act." Earthjustice U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "Whitehouse Investigates Trump's God Squad Waiving Endangered Species Protections to Expand Oil Drilling." EPW Senate Center for American Progress. "Trump's God Squad Is Killing Whales under the Guise of National Security." American Progress Harvard Environmental and Energy Law Program. "Endangered Species Act Regulations." EELP Tracker U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "ESA Section 7 Consultation." FWS.gov Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153 (1978). Supreme Court of the United States, Justia. PBS SoCal. "The Endangered Species Act: 40 Years of Compromise." PBS SoCal CBS News. "Endangered Species Act Oil and Gas Gulf Exemption: God Squad." CBS News, 31 Mar. 2026.  Holland & Knight. "Invoking the God Squad in a National Energy Emergency." Holland & Knight, Mar. 2026.  Boyles, Kristen, qtd. in Duster, Chandelis. "Trump's Endangered Species 'God Squad' Hasn't Met Despite Orders." Bloomberg Law Defenders of Wildlife. "What Is the God Squad? A Matter of Life and Death for Imperiled Wildlife." Defenders of Wildlife, Mar. 2026.  Defenders of Wildlife. "Secretary of Defense Invokes False National Security Rationale to Eviscerate the Endangered Species Act." Defenders of Wildlife, Mar. 2026.  Defenders of Wildlife. "Defenders Slams Unlawful God Squad Vote to Strip Endangered Species Act Protection from Wildlife." Defenders of Wildlife, Mar. 2026.  NOAA Fisheries. "Trophic Interactions and Habitat Requirements of Rice's Whales." NOAA Fisheries Southeast NOAA Fisheries. "How a Unique Population of Bryde's Whales Became Rice's Whale." NOAA Fisheries Southeast U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division. "Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill." DOJ

Still Here: Five Species on The Edge

Last episode, we built the framework — the Endangered Species Act, the five drivers of extinction, and the policy shifts happening right now. Today, we meet the patients. Five to be exact. Each one maps to a different driver. Each one has a different kind of human pressure pushing it toward the edge — and a different kind of human effort trying to pull it back. The Endangered Species Act is not really about the animals. It's about us — what we've built, what we've consumed, what we've made too loud, too toxic, too warm, and too small. Tune in this week to meet the species! Cited Sources: McGrath, Matt. "Number of Earth's Species Tagged at 8.7 Million." BBC News, 23 Aug. 2011. Ritchie, Hannah. "How Many Species Are There?" Our World in Data, 30 Nov. 2022. World Wildlife Fund. "The IUCN Red List Categories Indicate How Close a Species Is to Becoming Extinct." WWF World Wildlife Fund. "Habitat Loss and Degradation." WWF Global International Rhino Foundation. "Black Rhino." Rhinos.org Wildlife Conservation Network. "Study Confirms Rhino Horn Has No Medicinal Value." Wildnet.org, 6 Nov. 2025. UCLA Newsroom. "Which Is Most Valuable — Gold, Cocaine, or Rhino Horn?" UCLA Newsroom Beaubien, Jason. "Some African Nations Say the Only Way to Protect Rhinos Is to Let People Buy Their Horns." NPR, 17 Jan. 2024. International Rhino Foundation. "Rhino Poaching." Rhinos.org Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, South Africa. "Minister Creecy Releases Rhino Poaching Statistics — 2024." DFFE, 27 Feb. 2024. Save the Rhino International. "Poaching Stats." Save the Rhino World Wildlife Fund. "Black Rhino." WWF Species Emslie, R. "Diceros bicornis." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, ver. 2020-1, e.T6557A152728945, International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2020. Environmental Investigation Agency. "Rhinos." EIA Milliken, Tom, and Jo Shaw. The South Africa–Viet Nam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus. TRAFFIC, 2012. NOAA Fisheries. "North Atlantic Right Whale Road to Recovery." NOAA Fisheries NOAA Fisheries. "North Atlantic Right Whale." NOAA Fisheries NOAA Fisheries. "North Atlantic Right Whale Calving Season 2026." NOAA Fisheries NOAA Fisheries. "Numbers in 2026: North Atlantic Right Whale Calving Season." NOAA Fisheries NOAA Fisheries. "North Atlantic Right Whales and the Dangers of Vessel Strikes and Entanglement." NOAA Fisheries, n.d. Earth Island Institute. "Fishing Gear Entanglement: North Atlantic Right Whale Protection." Earth Island Journal Kraus, Scott D., et al. "North Atlantic Right Whales in Crisis." Science, vol. 294, no. 5548, 2001, pp. 1844–1845. New England Aquarium. "Identifying Right Whales." Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life National Geographic. "Monarch Butterfly Migration." National Geographic Monarch Joint Venture. "Estimating the Number of Overwintering Monarchs in Mexico." Monarch Joint Venture, n.d. World Wildlife Fund. "Area of Forest Occupied by the Colonies of Monarch Butterflies in Mexico during the 2022–2023 Overwintering Period." WWF, 2023. Alliance for Science. "Monarch Butterfly Population Decline: Glyphosate and Milkweed." Alliance for Science, Aug. 2020. U.S. Geological Survey. "Billions More Milkweeds Needed to Restore Monarchs." USGS U.S. Department of the Interior. "Management of Wolves." DOI Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Florida Manatee Facts and Information." MyFWC.com Prokupecz, Shimon, and Amanda Watts. "Florida Manatee Deaths Hit Record High in 2021." CBS News WUSF Public Media. "2022 Was the Second-Worst Year for Manatee Deaths, Florida Wildlife Agency Says." WUSF, 10 Jan. 2023. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Manatee Habitat." MyFWC.com Indian River Lagoon Species Inventory. "Seagrass Habitat." IRLspecies.org PBS. "Rhino Ops: Wild Hope." PBS Video, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Hluhluwe.org.za

On the List: The Endangered Species Act

You scrolled past the headline. So did I. But when I finally stopped to understand what the Endangered Species Act actually does — and what's quietly changing right now — I couldn't look away. This episode breaks down the ESA from the ground up: how the listing process works, why critical habitat designation is the law's most powerful tool, what recent rule changes have scientists genuinely alarmed, and what a 99% survival rate for listed species actually tells us. This one will change how you read wildlife headlines.  Works Cited Corn, M. Lynne, Kristina Alexander, and Betsy A. Cody. Endangered Species Act (ESA): The Exemption Process. Congressional Research Service, Report No. R40787, updated 2017. Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Conservation Innovation. "Overexploitation and Endangered Species." Defenders-CCI, n.d. (Fact sheet — cited twice in your list; appears once here) Demuth, Bathsheba. Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. W. W. Norton & Company, 2019. "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: Regulations for Designating Critical Habitat." Federal Register, vol. 90, no. 225, 21 Nov. 2025. IUCN. "Conservation Successes Overshadowed by More Species Declines — IUCN Red List Update." IUCN, n.d. IUCN. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN, n.d. Kareiva, Peter, et al. "Observed Impacts of Climate Change on Species' Range Shifts." Biological Conservation, vol. 190, 2015, pp. 1–9.  Marine Mammal Commission. The Effects of Noise on Marine Mammals. MMC, n.d. National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution. "Black-Footed Ferrets: Top Milestones for a Species Once Presumed Extinct." NationalZoo.si.edu, n.d. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. "Endangered Species Conservation." Fisheries.NOAA.gov, NOAA, n.d. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. "Section 7 Types of Endangered Species Act Consultations: Greater Atlantic Region." Fisheries.NOAA.gov, NOAA, n.d. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. Technical Memorandum: Guidance v3.0. NOAA, Oct. 2024. Nature Conservancy, The. "Flint Hills Initiative." Nature.org, The Nature Conservancy, n.d. Oregon Wild. Climate Change and Oregon's Wildlands: A Global Warming Report. Oregon Wild, 2024. Phys.org. "Climate a Growing Threat to Imperiled Species, Study Finds." Phys.org, Apr. 2025. Thomas, Chris D., et al. "Extinction Risk from Climate Change." PMC / Nature, 2004.  United States Department of the Interior. "America's Bald Eagle Population Continues to Soar." DOI.gov, n.d. United States Environmental Protection Agency. "DDT: A Brief History and Status." EPA.gov, EPA, n.d. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)." FWS.gov, USFWS, n.d. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "California Condor Recovery Program." FWS.gov, USFWS, n.d. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Endangered Species Act Basics. USFWS, Feb. 2023. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Endangered Species Act Consultation Handbook. USFWS, n.d. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "ESA Section 7 Consultation." FWS.gov, USFWS, n.d. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "Recovery Planning: 3-Part Recovery Planning Framework." FWS.gov, USFWS, n.d. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "Section 4: Listing and Recovery." FWS.gov, USFWS, n.d. United States Government Publishing Office. "Endangered Species Act — 50th Anniversary." GovInfo.gov, GPO, n.d. United States Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service. The Endangered Species Act: Overview and Implementation. Report No. R46677, updated 2021. Wildlife Society, The. "Endangered Species Rules Rollback to 2019." Wildlife.org, The Wildlife Society, n.d. World Wildlife Fund. "Habitat Loss and Degradation." WWF Panda, WWF, n.d. Zipkin, Elise F., et al. "Impacts of Overexploitation on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services." (PMC9796953) PLOS ONE / Conservation Biology, 2022–2023.

The Clock is Ticking

Utah is at a crossroads — and the deadline is June 2nd. Isabelle sits down with the people behind the Utah Renewable Communities Program (also called the Community Clean Energy Program) to break down what it is, why it matters, and why the next few weeks are critical. From Rocky Mountain Power's fossil fuel dependency to the lowest snowpack ever recorded in Utah's history, the stakes are real — and local. We're talking about what this program actually means for your energy bill, your community, and your mountains. If you live in one of the 19 eligible communities — including Park City, Oakley, Coalville, Ogden, and Salt Lake County — this one's for you. Action links & public comments→ linktr.ee/URCadoption Sources: Miranda, Luis. "Utah Renewable Communities Program." Sierra Club Utah, Sierra Club, sierraclub.org/utah. "Utah Renewable Communities Program." Utah Renewable Communities, utahrenewablecommunities.org. "HEAL Utah." HEAL Utah, healutah.org. "Stewardship Utah." Stewardship Utah, stewardshiputah.org. "URC Adoption Action Toolkit." Linktree, linktr.ee/URCadoption. "Summit County Votes to Join Clean Energy Program." TownLift, Apr. 2026. (Add the direct article URL from TownLift's site.) "Community Renewable Energy Act." Utah State Legislature, 2019. (Find the bill text at le.utah.gov and add the direct link.)