Congress has taken 65 separate actions against U.S. public lands this year, and three outdoor industry leaders are done staying quiet about it. Recorded live on a panel at Switchback Spring 2026 in New Orleans, this conversation brings together Paul Hendricks of The Conservation Alliance, Jen McLaren of Altra, and Dawn Mancini Moyer of Fjällräven to talk through the real risk-reward calculus behind corporate advocacy: what it costs a brand to speak up, what it costs to stay silent, and how they're each building tools, coalitions, and community partnerships to do something about it. They cover The Conservation Alliance's 170-company Brands for Public Lands coalition, a new economic study on national monuments, Altra's trail-running access work, and Fjällräven's fire-mitigation partnership in Boulder, Colorado, plus a candid take on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's framing of public lands as a financial asset.

Find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week, the Forest Service opens a comment period on a proposed rule that would narrow public input into how national forests are managed, and the window closes July 31. The Interior Department signs a partnership with "de-extinction" company Colossal Biosciences on species genomics, raising the question of whether the tools complement or replace habitat-based recovery. A new lawsuit tests how far Congress can stretch the Congressional Review Act against land management plans. We also cover a volunteer-built replacement for the shuttered Climate.gov, the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, and hard news from the fire line in Colorado alongside the closing of National Parks Traveler.

Find the full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.

Wilderness visitation surged 75% during the pandemic and hasn't come back down. Federal staffing hasn't kept pace. Meryl Harrell of Friends of the Forest Service and Lisa Ronald of American Rivers joined The Wild Idea at the National Wilderness Skills Institute to talk honestly about what that gap looks like on the ground, and where the stewardship community is actually filling it.

They cover the federal capacity crunch, American Rivers' 2025 National Protected Rivers Assessment (which found that over 80% of U.S. rivers lack adequate protection), the management pressure building on the Flathead Wild and Scenic River, and the technology reshaping how visitors move through wild places. They also bring specific examples of partnership models working right now: a single advocate driving a Wild and Scenic designation for Florida's Myakka River, and the Flathead Rivers Alliance building community river patrols in Montana. And they're direct about what "showing up" actually requires, beyond the trail.

Before diving into that conversation, we kick off the episode with host Ashley Arnold previewing Raising Wild, Wild Idea Media's new podcast about raising kids in nature.

Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.