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The EPA weighed two LA beachfront sites for toxic waste sorting. These ‘hippies and hicks’ revolted

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Thursday, February 20, 2025

Twenty years ago, it was called Rodeo Grounds – an eclectic neighborhood of artists, musicians and surfers living in beach shacks where Topanga Canyon meets the Pacific Ocean. In a bizarre agreement with the former owner some paid as little as $100 a month for rent, raising multiple generations of their families here since the 1950s. But that was before the state purchased the property and started evicting residents in 2001. Julie Howell, who once owned Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery further up in the canyon, says the bohemians were kicked out.“I actually had a show in my gallery 20 years ago for the group of artists who lived there at Rodeo Grounds, who they kicked out of that spot because it was so environmentally sensitive,” says Howell.Whatever the bulldozers didn’t raze decades ago – including the shuttered Topanga Ranch Motel, a series of bungalow-style rooms originally built in 1929 by the media tycoon William Randolph Hearst and which closed in 2004 – is now decimated due to the Palisades fire that ignited on 7 January.Topanga Ranch Motel in Topanga, California, in July 2017. The building is now decimated due to the Palisades fire. Photograph: Jim Steinfeldt/Getty ImagesLeft behind is a scorched, flat parcel with a creek in back and the beach across the street. California state parks decided this was the perfect place to allow the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to construct a temporary staging area for household hazardous waste sorting, trucking in products like paints, solvents, bleach and insecticides, as well as EV lithium-ion batteries from destroyed Pacific Palisades properties some 8 miles (13km) away. About three weeks ago a brigade of EPA workers began sorting and bundling the hazardous materials to ultimately be taken en masse to appropriate recycling centers, according to Steve Calanog, EPA deputy incident commander for the Palisades and Eaton fires.As soon as word got out about plans to use the site, residents in the tightknit community of Topanga Canyon – often affectionately referred to as “hicks and hippies” though the median income and house prices in the canyon also suggests they are well-paid – went into action contacting officials, attending council meetings from Malibu to the Palisades to register their dismay, and protesting when the EPA workers showed up.Tears have been shed.“It’s heartbreaking,” says Howell. “Most of us here are environmentalists and we are just wondering how it makes sense to transport hazardous materials down to the water?”The name Topanga comes from the Indigenous Tongva people and is said to mean ‘where the mountain meets the sea’. Photograph: Courtesy of Topanga ResidentsThe name Topanga comes from the Indigenous Tongva people and is said to mean “where the mountain meets the sea”. Topanga resident Deb Rivera says she’s upset because Lower Topanga, where the EPA site sits, and Topanga Canyon are important sites of Native American heritage: “Doing this here is disrespectful.” She also points out that Topanga lacks representation. “We are unincorporated LA. We have no mayor; we have no city councilperson fighting for us.” Residents say through their countless meetings they learned the EPA wanted to use the paved parking lot of Will Rogers state beach, which is far closer to Pacific Palisades. Rivera and others believe this plan was nixed because Palisades and nearby Santa Monica had representatives pushing back for them, but EPA’s Calanog says decisions were made entirely for practical purposes and to get the job done quickly.“At the time we got mobilized, the Palisades fire was less than 50% contained,” Calanog explained. “There were a lot of firefighting personnel still actively fighting the fires and there’s not a lot of flat land of considerable space.” He said firefighters, National Guard, utility trucks and more all needed space –including at Will Rogers. “We were limited in terms of what was available.”Still, residents begged decision makers to reconsider, arguing that the debris should ideally be sorted in place, miles from the water. The Topanga mom, actor and environmentalist Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, has had regular strategy meetups with neighbors at the Topanga library and is collecting signatures on a petition to stop EPA’s use of Topanga. So far, she has some 13,000 signatures. Residents have been most concerned about the EV lithium-ion batteries, which contain toxic metals and are highly flammable.“This is a public health thing but it’s also about the economy. So many communities around here rely on tourism that the coastline brings. You don’t sort toxic debris at the beach,” says Wright.Though the activists say EPA staff have been respectful and willing to talk, they have also been unwavering.Calanog, an EPA veteran who has headed wildfire response for Hawaii and the west coast for the past 15 years, says he empathizes yet is confident in his agency’s safety protocols. “One of the misconceptions with all of this work is that somehow there’s some exotic chemical that’s being brought into the community,” he said. “What we’re pulling out of the homes are things that every homeowner buys for themselves to use in their day-to-day life.”Calanog says the chemicals are placed in containers upon pickup by one of the 50 teams working in the Palisades. “There are no errant fumes.” At the Lower Topanga worksite, EPA has also taken many precautions, including placing commercial, industrial grade barriers on the unpaved ground, surrounding the site to prevent any potential runoff, and installing air monitors. In addition, the agency soil tested before beginning work and will do so again after completion. The data will be given to the department of public works to release to the public. “In all my years of doing this, we’ve never impacted a property,” Calanog said.‘This is an incredibly well-organized community,’ says Woodland Hills resident Cara Kinkel, who learned of Topanga Canyon resistance efforts from a WhatsApp group with around 500 users. Photograph: Courtesy of Topanga ResidentsThe California state parks spokesperson Jorge Moreno also said Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians – Kizh Nation and the Gabrielino-Tongva Indian Tribe of California have been involved with the monitoring at the site.But when last week’s rainstorm loomed, Topanga Canyon activists went from high gear to ultra-high. Residents have a WhatsApp group specifically for air and water quality. Some 500 residents have joined, including Cara Kinkel, who lives in nearby Woodland Hills and whose daughter attends Topanga elementary school. WhatsApp lit up with information and ideas about appealing to officials. “This is an incredibly well-organized community,” says Kinkel. Bonnie Wright took to Instagram and blasted out information to her almost 4m followers.The hillside behind the creek and the entirety of Topanga Canyon and Pacific Coast Highway is known for its fragile hills. In one epic rain, a 300-tonne boulder rolled down a hill and closed Topanga Canyon boulevard – the one road in and out of the canyon – for more than a week. PCH often has weather-related debris slides. The residents were concerned the EPA site, which is now often referred to as Lower Topanga, could get slammed and hazardous waste would end up in the creek and ocean. Already, ash has been detected 100 miles (161km) off shore and scientists who were onboard a research vessel at the time of the fires have said the water smelled like burned electronics.On the eve of the storm, residents got heartening news: EPA had packed up the lithium ion battery sorting station and moved it from Lower Topanga to the Will Rogers beach parking lot. Calanog says now that the national guard and others have moved out, it simply became a better choice. “For the team that is handling the batteries, it was just easier to stage their equipment and their vehicles there.”For the “hippies and hicks”, though, it’s a mini win. One resident called it a heroic move on the EPA’s behalf. Phase one cleanup will be done by the end of the month and Calanog says Topanga will continue to be used for the rest of the household hazardous waste until then.But residents now worry that the site will not be closed when the EPA’s work is complete. “There’s still a chance that Topanga could be used for phase two cleanup when the Army Corps of Engineers take over,” says Howell.Calanog says though no decisions have been made, it’s a possibility. “I would caveat that their work is vitally important and I’m sure that they’re going to explore all areas from which to base their operation so they can do their work just as fast.”

Residents in Topanga Canyon – an area of Indigenous heritage and artists – mobilized against the state’s decision to bring in hazardous materials after wildfiresTwenty years ago, it was called Rodeo Grounds – an eclectic neighborhood of artists, musicians and surfers living in beach shacks where Topanga Canyon meets the Pacific Ocean. In a bizarre agreement with the former owner some paid as little as $100 a month for rent, raising multiple generations of their families here since the 1950s. But that was before the state purchased the property and started evicting residents in 2001. Julie Howell, who once owned Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery further up in the canyon, says the bohemians were kicked out.“I actually had a show in my gallery 20 years ago for the group of artists who lived there at Rodeo Grounds, who they kicked out of that spot because it was so environmentally sensitive,” says Howell. Continue reading...

Twenty years ago, it was called Rodeo Grounds – an eclectic neighborhood of artists, musicians and surfers living in beach shacks where Topanga Canyon meets the Pacific Ocean. In a bizarre agreement with the former owner some paid as little as $100 a month for rent, raising multiple generations of their families here since the 1950s. But that was before the state purchased the property and started evicting residents in 2001. Julie Howell, who once owned Howell-Green Fine Art Gallery further up in the canyon, says the bohemians were kicked out.

“I actually had a show in my gallery 20 years ago for the group of artists who lived there at Rodeo Grounds, who they kicked out of that spot because it was so environmentally sensitive,” says Howell.

Whatever the bulldozers didn’t raze decades ago – including the shuttered Topanga Ranch Motel, a series of bungalow-style rooms originally built in 1929 by the media tycoon William Randolph Hearst and which closed in 2004 – is now decimated due to the Palisades fire that ignited on 7 January.

Topanga Ranch Motel in Topanga, California, in July 2017. The building is now decimated due to the Palisades fire. Photograph: Jim Steinfeldt/Getty Images

Left behind is a scorched, flat parcel with a creek in back and the beach across the street. California state parks decided this was the perfect place to allow the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to construct a temporary staging area for household hazardous waste sorting, trucking in products like paints, solvents, bleach and insecticides, as well as EV lithium-ion batteries from destroyed Pacific Palisades properties some 8 miles (13km) away. About three weeks ago a brigade of EPA workers began sorting and bundling the hazardous materials to ultimately be taken en masse to appropriate recycling centers, according to Steve Calanog, EPA deputy incident commander for the Palisades and Eaton fires.

As soon as word got out about plans to use the site, residents in the tightknit community of Topanga Canyon – often affectionately referred to as “hicks and hippies” though the median income and house prices in the canyon also suggests they are well-paid – went into action contacting officials, attending council meetings from Malibu to the Palisades to register their dismay, and protesting when the EPA workers showed up.

Tears have been shed.

“It’s heartbreaking,” says Howell. “Most of us here are environmentalists and we are just wondering how it makes sense to transport hazardous materials down to the water?”

The name Topanga comes from the Indigenous Tongva people and is said to mean ‘where the mountain meets the sea’. Photograph: Courtesy of Topanga Residents

The name Topanga comes from the Indigenous Tongva people and is said to mean “where the mountain meets the sea”. Topanga resident Deb Rivera says she’s upset because Lower Topanga, where the EPA site sits, and Topanga Canyon are important sites of Native American heritage: “Doing this here is disrespectful.” She also points out that Topanga lacks representation. “We are unincorporated LA. We have no mayor; we have no city councilperson fighting for us.” Residents say through their countless meetings they learned the EPA wanted to use the paved parking lot of Will Rogers state beach, which is far closer to Pacific Palisades. Rivera and others believe this plan was nixed because Palisades and nearby Santa Monica had representatives pushing back for them, but EPA’s Calanog says decisions were made entirely for practical purposes and to get the job done quickly.

“At the time we got mobilized, the Palisades fire was less than 50% contained,” Calanog explained. “There were a lot of firefighting personnel still actively fighting the fires and there’s not a lot of flat land of considerable space.” He said firefighters, National Guard, utility trucks and more all needed space –including at Will Rogers. “We were limited in terms of what was available.”

Still, residents begged decision makers to reconsider, arguing that the debris should ideally be sorted in place, miles from the water. The Topanga mom, actor and environmentalist Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, has had regular strategy meetups with neighbors at the Topanga library and is collecting signatures on a petition to stop EPA’s use of Topanga. So far, she has some 13,000 signatures. Residents have been most concerned about the EV lithium-ion batteries, which contain toxic metals and are highly flammable.

“This is a public health thing but it’s also about the economy. So many communities around here rely on tourism that the coastline brings. You don’t sort toxic debris at the beach,” says Wright.

Though the activists say EPA staff have been respectful and willing to talk, they have also been unwavering.

Calanog, an EPA veteran who has headed wildfire response for Hawaii and the west coast for the past 15 years, says he empathizes yet is confident in his agency’s safety protocols. “One of the misconceptions with all of this work is that somehow there’s some exotic chemical that’s being brought into the community,” he said. “What we’re pulling out of the homes are things that every homeowner buys for themselves to use in their day-to-day life.”

Calanog says the chemicals are placed in containers upon pickup by one of the 50 teams working in the Palisades. “There are no errant fumes.” At the Lower Topanga worksite, EPA has also taken many precautions, including placing commercial, industrial grade barriers on the unpaved ground, surrounding the site to prevent any potential runoff, and installing air monitors. In addition, the agency soil tested before beginning work and will do so again after completion. The data will be given to the department of public works to release to the public. “In all my years of doing this, we’ve never impacted a property,” Calanog said.

‘This is an incredibly well-organized community,’ says Woodland Hills resident Cara Kinkel, who learned of Topanga Canyon resistance efforts from a WhatsApp group with around 500 users. Photograph: Courtesy of Topanga Residents

The California state parks spokesperson Jorge Moreno also said Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians – Kizh Nation and the Gabrielino-Tongva Indian Tribe of California have been involved with the monitoring at the site.

But when last week’s rainstorm loomed, Topanga Canyon activists went from high gear to ultra-high. Residents have a WhatsApp group specifically for air and water quality. Some 500 residents have joined, including Cara Kinkel, who lives in nearby Woodland Hills and whose daughter attends Topanga elementary school. WhatsApp lit up with information and ideas about appealing to officials. “This is an incredibly well-organized community,” says Kinkel. Bonnie Wright took to Instagram and blasted out information to her almost 4m followers.

The hillside behind the creek and the entirety of Topanga Canyon and Pacific Coast Highway is known for its fragile hills. In one epic rain, a 300-tonne boulder rolled down a hill and closed Topanga Canyon boulevard – the one road in and out of the canyon – for more than a week. PCH often has weather-related debris slides. The residents were concerned the EPA site, which is now often referred to as Lower Topanga, could get slammed and hazardous waste would end up in the creek and ocean. Already, ash has been detected 100 miles (161km) off shore and scientists who were onboard a research vessel at the time of the fires have said the water smelled like burned electronics.

On the eve of the storm, residents got heartening news: EPA had packed up the lithium ion battery sorting station and moved it from Lower Topanga to the Will Rogers beach parking lot. Calanog says now that the national guard and others have moved out, it simply became a better choice. “For the team that is handling the batteries, it was just easier to stage their equipment and their vehicles there.”

For the “hippies and hicks”, though, it’s a mini win. One resident called it a heroic move on the EPA’s behalf. Phase one cleanup will be done by the end of the month and Calanog says Topanga will continue to be used for the rest of the household hazardous waste until then.

But residents now worry that the site will not be closed when the EPA’s work is complete. “There’s still a chance that Topanga could be used for phase two cleanup when the Army Corps of Engineers take over,” says Howell.

Calanog says though no decisions have been made, it’s a possibility. “I would caveat that their work is vitally important and I’m sure that they’re going to explore all areas from which to base their operation so they can do their work just as fast.”

Read the full story here.
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Oregon Indigenous farm navigating uncertainty over federal grants

One federal grant awarded to the farm was recently restored but two others are still on hold.

A few miles south of Salem, the Elderberry Wisdom Farm uses generations of traditional knowledge to grow native plants, restore habitats and train Indigenous adults and other underrepresented students for careers in agriculture. The six-year-old farm has received much of its funding through state and federal grants — but a farm founded on principles of equity and sustainability is a target for cuts under the Trump administration. As she led U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, on a tour of the farm Wednesday, founder Rose High Bear half-jokingly asked if she could still use the words “equity” and “climate,” both terms Trump and his team have disparaged and used as keywords to find disfavored programs and policies. One $750,000 grant, awarded to the farm and community partners to expand tree canopies, was temporarily frozen but restored as of last week, following a letter from Salinas. Two other federal grants meant for workforce development are still on hold. “We need to restore the planet, and this is one way to do it,” Salinas said. “I keep saying, let’s bring all solutions to the table. This is just one, but if I can write a letter and unfreeze funds, I’m going to do it.” High Bear, an Alaska Native of Deg Hitʼan and Inupiat descent, founded the farm in 2019 after retiring as executive director of Wisdom of the Elders, a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and sharing Indigenous history. She said the work is spiritual, and that she trusts ancestors will help guide the farm’s workers to accomplish their task of restoring the earth and raising awareness of traditional ecological knowledge. “We have no doubt in our mind that what we’re doing is right,” High Bear said. “If a government doesn’t necessarily believe in it, that doesn’t mean they’re going to stop us from doing our work — no matter what, we’re going to accomplish it.”Right now, much of the work consists of developing a native tree nursery, with Willamette Valley ponderosa pines, as well as firs and other pines native to the region. About 1,000 of those trees, as well as companion shrubs and pollinator ground cover plants, will be planted in areas of Salem that lack tree canopies. The farm will work with local high school students, as well as its adult interns, on the project. Natural shade from tree canopies helps cool the air and reduce air pollution. Nearby trees also increase home values and help prevent stormwater runoff. The farm will also feature a garden planted with the “three sisters” — maize, beans and squash — growing together. Hopi corn will provide a natural trellis for the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, which convert nitrogen in the air to soil nitrates. Leaves of the summer and winter squash that make up the lower level provide shade, suppress weeds and retain soil moisture. The farm doesn’t use pesticides. Instead, workers manually remove most pests — and are resigned to some others, including deer who wander through nibbling on plants. “This is our oldest grandmother here, Mother Earth, and we’re not going to put poison on her just to get rid of our new neighbors,” High Bear said. Dawn Lowe, an Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge instructor of Hawaiian, Apache, Cherokee, and Mohawk descent, told Salinas the farm could always use more grant money to expand its work. “There’s a lot that we want to be able to achieve in the crisis we’re living through,” Lowe said. Each day at the farm includes some classtime, with videos or reading, and a discussion about a different topic. On Wednesday, that topic was seeds — saving, germinating and choosing them. Then interns spend time working with plants, including transplanting native pines and planting an elderberry forest heading up the hill.For Joaquin Ocaña, interning at the Elderberry Wisdom Farm is part of connecting with his heritage. On his father’s side, Ocaña is descended from the Kaqchikel people, an Indigenous Maya group from the highlands of Guatemala. Trying to connect to that side of his identity over the past few years led Ocaña to farming and spirituality, but feeling that connection is still a work in progress, Ocaña said. “I’ve never actually been to the place where my people are from, so I think that part is kind of lacking for now,” he said. “I’m still very young and figuring it out, but there are some things that as an individual that you can pay attention to and feel. Those can be my family guiding me and helping me along the way.”Intern Amanda Puitiza, an Oregon State University graduate student completing her Ph.D. in animal sciences, said she learned more about ecology and traditional practices at the farm than she did through her classes or prior work. She grew up in New York, and on the East Coast she said there wasn’t as much discussion about traditional practices outside of specific communities. “I’m really happy to get another perspective on how we’re protecting the environment or the ecosystem, trying to make it healthier,” Puitiza said. “I think it makes me a better learner and teacher in general, just to have more perspectives.” C.J. Senn, an enrolled member of the Umatilla Tribe, pivoted from 13 years working as a pastry chef to finishing her double major in environmental studies and science at Portland State University. After graduation, she’ll join her tribe working on huckleberry genealogy. The most valuable thing Senn has learned through interning at the Elderberry Wisdom Farm, and that she hopes to continue working on, is how to relate to plants and animals. “It’s really just about being a part of it, rather than trying to manipulate it,” Senn said. -- Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital ChronicleThe Oregon Capital Chronicle, founded in 2021, is a nonprofit news organization that focuses on Oregon state government, politics and policy.

Indigenous river campaigner from Peru wins prestigious Goldman prize

Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari led a successful legal battle to protect the Marañon River in the Peruvian AmazonPrize recognises seven activists fighting corporate powerAn Indigenous campaigner and women’s leader from the Peruvian Amazon has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful legal campaign that led to the river where her people, the Kukama, live being granted legal personhood.Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, 57, from the village of Shapajila on the Marañon River, led the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (HKK) women’s association, supported by lawyers from Peru’s Legal Defence Institute, in a campaign to protect the river. After three years, judges in Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazon region, ruled in March 2024 that the Marañon had the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination, respecting an Indigenous worldview that regards a river as a living entity. Continue reading...

An Indigenous campaigner and women’s leader from the Peruvian Amazon has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful legal campaign that led to the river where her people, the Kukama, live being granted legal personhood.Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, 57, from the village of Shapajila on the Marañon River, led the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (HKK) women’s association, supported by lawyers from Peru’s Legal Defence Institute, in a campaign to protect the river. After three years, judges in Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazon region, ruled in March 2024 that the Marañon had the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination, respecting an Indigenous worldview that regards a river as a living entity.It was a landmark ruling in Peru. The court in Iquitos, Loreto’s capital city, found the Peruvian government had violated the river’s inherent rights, and ordered it to take immediate action to prevent future oil spills into the waterway. The court also ruled that the government must mandate the creation of a protection plan for the entire river basin and recognise the Kukama community as its stewards. The government appealed against the decision, but the court upheld the ruling in October 2024.“She is the ‘mother of rivers’, the Marañon is born in the Andes and flows downstream to become the Amazon River,” Canaquiri said. The Kukama believe the river is sacred and that their ancestors’ spirits reside in its bed. for four decades, however, the Kukama have endured scores of oil spills which destroy fish stocks, damage the ecosystem and contaminate the water with heavy metals.The village of Shapajila on the Marañon River. Photograph: Goldman Environmental PrizeThe Peruvian state oil company Petroperú began building the the Northern Peruvian pipeline in 1970s, and the region around the Marañon River has accounted for 40% of the county’s oil production since 2014 – with devastating effects. There have been more than 60 oil spills along the river since 1997, some of them catastrophic.“My grandparents taught me that there is a giant boa that lives in the river, Puragua, the ‘mother of the river’,”said Canaquiri. The spirit represents the health of the river and its personhood, according to the Kukama’s cosmovision.In practical terms, the Kukama depend on the river for transport, agriculture, water and fish, which is their main protein source. As a result of the the oil drilling, however, they have become highly vulnerable to water contamination.Local people have suffered from fevers, diarrhoea, skin rashes and miscarriages after oil spills, and elevated levels of lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium were found in the blood of river community members in a 2021 study.Canaquiri, a mother of four with six grandchildren, remembers a blissful childhood with abundant fish and animals before the oil drilling began. “There was plenty of food. We shared everything, worked on each other’s farms and celebrated the festivals together,” she said.Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari out on the river with members of her community. Photograph: Goldman Environmental PrizeDespite the ruling, the river is not out of danger and Canaquiri and the HKK are asking the Peruvian government to implement the court’s ruling. The fight continues.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionPeru’s congress passed an anti-NGO law last month, which the country’s president, Dina Boluarte, approved last week. The law prevents civil society organisations from taking legal action or even giving legal counsel in cases against the state over human rights abuses.Canaquiri says the law could cripple their legal battle. “It is worrying because it means lawyers cannot take our cases to enforce our fundamental rights,” she said.“It is not just for us, it is also for the country and the world. Who can live without breathing? If it wasn’t for the Amazon, the forest, the rivers, we wouldn’t have clean air to breathe. How would we get food to eat every day, our fruits, our vegetables, our animals, our fish?”She says she and the HKK are motivated by the future of their children and grandchildren,: “The government needs to understand that it should not kill nature but protect it. Otherwise, what hope will our children, the next generation, have?

Brazil's Indigenous Leader Raoni Says He Is Against Drilling for Oil in Amazon Region

By Lais MoraisBRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil should not explore oil reserves in the Amazon region, because of the dangerous impact on local communities...

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil should not explore oil reserves in the Amazon region, because of the dangerous impact on local communities, Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, of the Kayapo people, told Reuters during the country's largest Indigenous gathering last week.Raoni's comments at the gathering, called Acampamento Terra Livre, come as debate heats up around Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras' bid to drill for oil off the coast of the Amazonian state of Amapa, in the sensitive Foz do Amazonas basin."I'm against this oil project," said Raoni, days after he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. "I personally told President Lula that I am against it, I do not accept this oil in the Amazon."Though Lula has sought to be recognized as a champion of the world's tropical forests and Brazil's Indigenous peoples, he has also said that the country should be able to drill in the environmentally sensitive Foz do Amazonas basin. He has criticized the country's environmental agency Ibama for its delay in giving Petrobras a license to do so.Raoni, who has been an internationally recognized environmental campaigner for decades, was one of the few people invited by Lula to stand by him when he was sworn in for his third term as president in January 2023. In May 2023, Ibama denied Petrobras' request for an offshore drilling license for Foz do Amazonas, citing environmental concerns. It later also highlighted concerns over the effects the drilling could have on Amapa's Indigenous communities. The oil company appealed, but a final Ibama decision is pending.The Foz do Amazonas basin is in Brazil's Equatorial Margin, considered the country's most promising oil frontier, sharing geology with nearby Guyana, where Exxon Mobil is developing huge oil fields. (Reporting by Lais Morais in Brasilia, writing by Fabio Teixeira, editing by Manuela Andreoni and Aurora Ellis)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

This Land Is Our Land: New Books About Public Lands, the Threats They Face, and Their Ecological Importance

These new books cover challenges to our shared land, ranging from Indigenous appropriation to current corporate grabs. The post This Land Is <i>Our&lt;/i> Land: New Books About Public Lands, the Threats They Face, and Their Ecological Importance appeared first on The Revelator.

In a perfect world, a book-review column focused on public lands would provide readers with exciting tips and insights about visiting national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges, and other breathtaking sites across the United States. But it’s not a perfect world: Today America’s public lands face their greatest threats as the Trump administration expands the extractive economy, slashes agency workforces, seeks to shrink national monuments, and makes plans to sell off many of our natural assets — even as attendance at our national parks continues to soar to record levels. That’s why several new and forthcoming books about public lands are essential reading: They put this new threat into historical context, reveal the complexities and contradictions in our public-lands policies, offer insight into their current and future protections, and remind us of their beauty and ecological importance. Some of them also teach us how to get maximum enjoyment out of a visit to a national park. Here are a dozen-plus new books about public lands, published in 2024 and 2025, along with their official descriptions. The links go to the publishers’ sites, but you should also be able to request these books through your local booksellers or public libraries. We’ve also provided a list of several must-have, critical, and fundamental books about public lands for your environmental library and book collections — a list especially for new and young environmentalists and those new to environmentalism who seek core information as a foundation for their advocacy and understanding in today’s world. Before we get to the traditionally published books, we thought it was important to mention one of the primary texts being used right now to attack public lands: Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership We include this one on the list to reveal the strategies of those trying to monetize and minimize America’s public lands. There’s a lot to digest and understand in this roadmap for unworking the federal government; for the primary section affecting national parks, monuments, and forests, skip to Chapter 16 on the Department of the Interior by self-styled “Sagebrush Rebel” William Perry Pendley. Making America’s Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands by Adam M. Sowards Environmental historian Adam Sowards synthesizes public-lands history from the beginning of the republic to recent controversies. The U.S. federal government owns more than a quarter of the nation’s landscape, managed by four federal agencies. It intersects history with nature, politics, and economics and explores how the concept of “public” has been controversial from the start, from homesteader visions to free-enterprise ranchers to activists. Americans have a stake in these lands: They are, after all, ours. Public Land and Democracy in America: Understanding Conflict over Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by Julie Brugger Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah has figured prominently in the long and ongoing struggle over the meaning and value of America’s public lands. In 1996 President Bill Clinton used the Antiquities Act to create the monument, with the goal of protecting scientific and historical resources. This book focuses on the perspectives of diverse groups affected by conflict over the monument. Brugger considers how conceptions of democracy have shaped and been shaped by the regional landscape and by these disputes. Through this ethnographic evidence, Brugger proposes a concept of democracy that encompasses disparate meanings and experiences, embraces conflict, and suggests a crucial role for public lands in transforming antagonism into agonism. The Other Public Lands: Preservation, Extraction, and Politics on the Fifty States’ Natural Resource Lands by Steven Davis A comprehensive primer on state public lands and the political dynamics that underlie their management. For most Americans state lands are the most accessible type of public land; however, despite their ubiquity, they remain largely terra incognita. Offering a wide-angle overview, Davis focuses on how states prioritize competing claims related to conservation, resource development, tourism, recreation, and finances. Exploring differences and common patterns in state land management, he examines the privatization and commercialization of state parks and the tensions between recreation, revenue, and the preservation of biodiversity and natural landscapes. He also raises issues about equity, access, appropriate development, and ecological health. With current demands to transfer federal lands to the states, Davis concludes with an appraisal of whether states could handle this transfer and suggests ways to ensure adequate access in an era of increased need. The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California’s Public Lands by Josh Jackson A galvanizing road trip across California’s immense public wilderness from a beloved adventurer. It all began with a camping trip. Outdoor enthusiast Josh Jackson had never heard of “BLM land” before a casual recommendation from a friend led him to a free campsite in the desert — and the revelation that over 15 million acres of land in California are owned collectively by the people. In The Enduring Wild, he takes us on a road trip spanning thousands of miles, crisscrossing the Golden State to seek out every parcel of public wilderness, from the Pacific shores of the King Range down to the Mojave Desert. Over mountains, across prairies, and through sagebrush, Jackson unravels the stories of these lands: The Indigenous peoples who have called them home to the extractives’ threats that imperil them today, and of the grassroots organizers and political champions who have rallied to their common defense to uphold the radical mandate to protect these natural treasures for generations to come. Conserving Nature in Greater Yellowstone: Controversy and Change in an Iconic Ecosystem by Robert B. Keiter For more than 150 years, the 23-million-acre Yellowstone region — now widely known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem — has played a prominent role in the United States’ nature conservation agenda. In this book Robert B. Keiter, an award-winning public land law and policy expert, traces the evolution and application of fundamental ecological conservation concepts tied to Yellowstone. Keiter’s book highlights both the conservation successes and controversies connected with this storied region. Extending across three states and twenty counties and embracing more than sixteen million acres of federal land as well as private and tribal lands, Yellowstone is a complex, jurisdictionally fragmented landscape. The quest for common ground among federal land managers, state officials, local communities, conservationists, ranchers, Indigenous tribes, and others is a vital, enduring task. (Available July 2025)  Land Back: Relational Landscapes of Indigenous Resistance across the Americas edited by Heather Dorries and Michelle Daigle Relationships with land are fundamental components of Indigenous worldviews, politics, and identity. The disruption of land relations is a defining feature of colonialism; colonial governments and capitalist industries have violently dispossessed Indigenous lands, undermining Indigenous political authority through the production of racialized and gendered hierarchies of difference. The collection of voices in Land Back highlight the ways Indigenous peoples and anticolonial co-resistors understand land relations for political resurgence and freedom across the Americas, examining the relationships of language, Indigenous ontologies, and land reclamation; Indigenous ecology and restoration; the interconnectivity of environmental exploitation and racial, class, and gender exploitation; Indigenous diasporic movement; community urban planning; transnational organizing and relational anti-racist place-making; and the role of storytelling and children in movements for liberation. Marketing the Wilderness: Outdoor Recreation, Indigenous Activism, and the Battle over Public Lands by Joseph Whitson While outdoor industry marketing promotes an image of “the wilderness” as an unpeopled haven, this book is an analysis of the relationship between the outdoor recreation industry, U.S. public lands, and Indigenous sovereignty and representation in recreational spaces. Combining social media analysis, digital ethnography, and historical research, Whitson offers nuanced insights into more than a century of the outdoor recreation industry’s marketing strategies, unraveling its complicity in settler colonialism. Complicating the narrative of outdoor recreation as a universal good, Whitson introduces the concept of “wildernessing” to describe the physical, legal, and rhetorical production of pristine, empty lands that undergirds the outdoor recreation industry, a process that further disenfranchises Indigenous people from whom these lands were stolen. Through the lens of environmental justice activism, Marketing the Wilderness reconsiders the ethics of the deeply fraught relationship between the outdoor recreation industry and Indigenous communities. Emphasizing the power of the corporate system and its treatment of land as a commodity under capitalism, he shows how these tensions shape the American idea of “wilderness” and what it means to fight for its preservation. National Parks, Native Sovereignty: Experiments in Collaboration edited by Christina Gish Hill, Matthew J. Hill, and Brooke Neely The history of national parks in the United States mirrors the fraught relations between the Department of the Interior and the nation’s Indigenous peoples. But amidst the challenges are examples of success. This collection of essays proposes a reorientation of relationships between tribal nations and national parks, placing Indigenous peoples as co-stewards through strategic collaboration. More than simple consultation, strategic collaboration, as the authors define it, involves the complex process by which participants come together to find ways to engage with one another across sometimes-conflicting interests. In case studies and interviews, the authors and editors of this volume — scholars as well as National Park Service staff and Tribal historic preservation officers — explore pathways for collaboration, emphasizing emotional commitment, mutual respect, and patience, rather than focusing on “land-back” solutions, in the cocreation of a socially sensible public-lands policy. Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies by Michael Albertus For millennia land has been a symbol of wealth and privilege. But the true power of land ownership is even greater than we might think. Political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment. With an overview of modern global land reallocation history, Albertus shows how the shuffle continues today as governments vie for power and prosperity by choosing who should get land. Drawing on a career’s worth of original research and on-the-ground fieldwork, Albertus shows that choices about who owns the land have locked in poverty, sexism, racism, and climate crisis — and that what we do with the land today can change our collective fate. Global in scope, Land Power argues that saving civilization must begin with the earth under our feet. Bison: Community Builders and Grassland Caretakers by Frances Backhouse Some 170,000 wood bison, North America’s largest land animals, once roamed northern regions, while at least 30 million plains bison trekked across the rest of the continent. Almost driven to extinction in the 1800s by decades of slaughter and hunting, this ecological and cultural keystone species supports biodiversity and strengthens the ecosystems around it. Bison: Community Builders and Grassland Caretakers celebrates the traditions and teachings of Indigenous Peoples and looks at how bison lovers of all backgrounds came together to save these iconic animals. Learn about the places where bison are regaining a hoof-hold and meet some of the young people who are welcoming bison back home. Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty A vivid portrait of the American prairie, which rivals the rainforest in its biological diversity and, with little notice, is disappearing even faster. The North American prairie is an ecological marvel, a lush carpet of grass that stretches to the horizon, and home to some of the nation’s most iconic creatures — bison, elk, wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bald eagles. Plants, microbes, and animals together made the grasslands one of the richest ecosystems on Earth and a massive carbon sink, but the constant expansion of agriculture threatens what remains. Exploring humanity’s relationship with this incredible land, this book offers a deep, compassionate analysis of the difficult decisions and opportunities facing agricultural and Indigenous communities. A vivid portrait of the heartland ecosystem that argues why the future of this region is essential far beyond the heartland. 2025 Rand McNally Road Atlas & National Park Guide Showcasing our country’s astonishing beauty, the Rand McNally Road Atlas & National Park Guide is packed with hundreds of photos, essential visitor information, and insightful travel tips for all 63 of America’s national parks. Includes a complete 2025 Rand McNally Road Atlas to make navigating a breeze, plus tourism websites and phone numbers for every U.S. state and Canadian province on map pages. More Must-Read, Fundamental Public Lands Books for Every Environmentalist’s Collection Literally hundreds of books about public land have crossed our desks since The Revelator started publishing eight years ago. Here’s a compendium of several must-have, critical, and fundamental books about public lands for your environmental library and book collections — a list especially relevant for new and young environmentalists who seek essential information to create a foundation for their advocacy and understanding in today’s often “anti-climate-change” world. In Defense of Public Lands: The Case Against Privatization and Transfer by Steven Davis Briefly lays out the history and characteristics of public lands at the local, state, and federal levels while examining the numerous policy prescriptions for their privatization or, in the case of federal lands, transfer. American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God & Public Lands in the West by Betsy Gaines Quammen Quammen, historian and conservationist, documents the ongoing feud between the Bundy ranching family, the federal government, and the American public, examining the roots of the Bundys’ cowboy confrontations, and how history has shaped an often-dangerous mindset which today feeds the militia movement and threatens public lands, wild species, and American heritage. George Meléndez Wright: The Fight for Wildlife and Wilderness in the National Parks by Jerry Emory The first biography of a visionary biologist whose groundbreaking ideas regarding wildlife and science revolutionized national parks. This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments by McKenzie Long One woman’s enlightening trek through the natural histories, cultural stories, and present perils of thirteen national monuments, from Maine to Hawaii. Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands by John D. Leshy A leading expert in public-lands policy, Leshy discusses the key political decisions that led to this, beginning at the very founding of the nation. He traces the emergence of a bipartisan political consensus in favor of the national government holding these vast land areas primarily for recreation, education, and conservation of biodiversity and cultural resources. History Comics: The National Parks by Falynn Koch Turn back the clock to 1872, when Congress established Yellowstone National Park as an area of unspoiled beauty for the “benefit and enjoyment of the people.” Meet the visionaries, artists, and lovers of the American wilderness who fought against corruption and self-interest to carve out and protect these spaces for future generations. See for yourself how the idea of national parks began, how they’ve changed, and how they continue to define America. Head to your public library or local bookstore for all these great books about public lands. For hundreds of additional environmental books — including several more on these and related issues — visit the Revelator Reads archives. Previously in The Revelator: Saving America’s National Parks and Forests Means Shaking Off the Rust of Inaction Trump’s Approach to Public Lands? Expanding the Extractive Economy and Declaring a War on Nature The post This Land Is <i>Our&lt;/i> Land: New Books About Public Lands, the Threats They Face, and Their Ecological Importance appeared first on The Revelator.

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