Topophilia

Topophilia is excited to bring you the first episode of The Current. In a time where there are so many things competing for our attention, we want to be a source of relevant information about the places you care about and the issues that affect them. Here’s what you can expect: every 2 weeks (or so) we’ll bring you a new episode with 3-4 summaries of insightful and noteworthy stories. Whether it’s books, podcasts, articles or films, the idea is to give you a chance to stay on top of the issues you care about and maybe learn something new. This week, we have four stories to share: With the public release of Patagonia’s latest film Public Trust just a few weeks away, Topophilia hosted a pre-release screening and discussion with our listeners. The film pushed us to think critically about issues that face our public lands and how we can come together to fight for them. Click here for more info about Public Trust. After the coronavirus pandemic shuttered ski areas early last spring, resorts across the country have begun releasing their plans for operating during the upcoming winter. Will reservation systems make it impossible to have a casual day of skiing? Or is this a potential model for the future to combat the overcrowding that has recently threatened the ski resort experience? Check out the following: Letter to Epic Pass Holders (Vail Resorts) Mt. Baker Ski Area COVID-19 Notice Letter to Ikon Pass Holders (Alterra Mountain Co.) With the pandemic making most summer city activities like concerts and farmers markets prohibitive, people all over the country are spending unprecedented amounts of time outdoors. Many of them are first time campers or hikers, and there have been reports across the west of overcrowding and destruction of public lands. We talked to Lynda Mapes, author of the Seattle Times article, Recreation becomes ‘wreckreation’ as careless outdoor adventures turn destructive, spark wildfires. Link to the Seattle Times article. As the Black Lives Matter movement has forced a reckoning on police brutality and race relations in America, high scrutiny has been paid to corporations and how they perpetuate these problems. After weeks of silence, Patagonia acknowledged its shortcomings in an Instagram post. Music in this episode courtesy of freemusicarchive.org.

If you’re a skier near a big city, you’re probably familiar with the typical weekend routine: pack the car at 9PM, get up early, make a big cup of coffee, and hit the road for a few hours’ drive to the ski resort. You’re probably planning on sitting in some traffic, but the skiing will make it all worth it. This winter though, skiers headed to Washington’s Crystal Mountain, newly owned by Alterra Mountain Company and a member resort on the Ikon Pass, have experienced a unique blend of pre-ski challenges. Unusually long traffic delays, parking lots filling up earlier than usual, and busy bathrooms have led many to claim that the resort simply can’t handle the growing demand for skiing. In response, Crystal Mountain management changed their ticket policy: there would be no more walk-up ticket sales on the weekends. On the first weekend of this bold new policy, we headed up the mountain to take the pulse of the resort and see what people thought of the changes. Some audio courtesy KING5 News.

Taylor Sanders, together with her partner Ryan, practices regenerative agriculture on a small farm (Long Table Farmstead) on the front range of the Colorado mountains. A former vegan intent on changing the way our food is raised, Taylor’s path took a radical turn when she took a butchery apprenticeship in Italy and returned with a new view on the role of livestock in our food system. When the call came to take over a small plot of land in Lyons, Colorado, she and her partner Ryan knew they couldn’t pass it up. This episode is chock full of stories of global change at a local level, building trust and connection in a new community, and how being open to new opportunities can lead you in unexpected directions. Links: Long Table Farmstead Long Table Farmstead Instagram

Valerie Cleland is a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the United States Senate, where she works to improve the quality of United States legislation concerning our oceans, their ecology, and their adjacent communities. Since she was young, Val has known that she had a passion for protecting the ocean––this past January, after finishing her Master’s degree, she moved to Washington D.C. and got to work. As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee for the Minority, she works to review bills and other legislation for their ability to protect ocean resources, and–in her own words–has learned more in 6 months on the job than in a whole year of grad school. Join us as Val pulls back the curtain on how our government makes effective policies to protect natural resources. Links: Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Senate Commerce Committee Senator Maria Cantwell

This is part 2 of our mentorship series, which we recorded live during a story-telling event at the Patagonia store in Seattle. This story comes to you from Molly Bayer, who reminds us why it’s important to remember what it’s like to be a beginner, even as you become an expert. This episode is a part of a short series recorded live at a storytelling event focused on mentorship in the outdoors. Thanks to Patagonia Seattle for their support and for hosting this event. Links: BOEALPS

This is part 3 of our mentorship series, which we recorded live during a story-telling event at the Patagonia store in Seattle. This episode’s storyteller, Claire Giordano, tells us about her path to becoming an independent artist and the importance of having mentors who push us to take that first big step. Claire presented photographs and paintings along with her story, which you can find on our website! All images © Claire Giordano, used with permission. © Claire Giordano, used with permission. This episode is a part of a short series recorded live at a storytelling event focused on mentorship in the outdoors. Thanks to Patagonia Seattle for their support and for hosting this event. Links: Girls On Ice / Inspiring Girls Expeditions Claire on Instagram (@claireswanderings) Claire’s Website

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to host a live storytelling event at the Patagonia store in downtown Seattle. The theme of the evening was mentorship: we asked four individuals to share their stories of mentorship in outdoor spaces. We really enjoyed the chance to connect in person with some of our listeners, and it was a really fun and powerful experience to hear stories told live. But, if you weren’t able to join us, have no fear! Over the next few weeks we’ll be releasing each speaker’s story as a standalone episode. Whether you’re listening for the first time, or reliving the experience, we hope these stories resonate with you as much they do for us. Our first speaker in the series is Mark Ursino. Since 2010, Mark Ursino has partnered with Mike Johnson to create and run the “Climbing out of Homelessness” program, which takes promising men and women in substance abuse programs and gives them the opportunity to form a team that trains in the outdoors, ultimately leading to a summit attempt on Mt. Rainier. This episode is a part of a short series recorded live at a storytelling event focused on mentorship in the outdoors. Thanks to Patagonia Seattle for their support and for hosting this event. Links: Recovery Beyond

Elma Burnham is a commercial fisherman, passionate seafood advocate, and community builder based in Bellingham, Washington and Bristol Bay, Alaska. In Late 2017, Elma began a movement called “The Strength of the Tides is Hers Also,” which seeks to support, celebrate and empower women working on the water. It all started with “The Pledge,” which challenged deckhands, captains, and others in the fishing industry to hold each other accountable in raising the bar for respect and affirmation of women who work in maritime industries. Strength of The Tides has since grown into a broad and deep community of maritime women via a weekly Instagram series featuring female role models in fishing and through in-person gatherings of women working in the industry. What follows is a fun, wide-ranging, and insightful conversation with a young and passionate community advocate. We hope you enjoy listening. Links: The Pledge Strength of the Tides Instagram: @strengthofthetides Strength of the Tides Website

Welcome to the first installment in our new series Wild Work, which highlights individuals who, motivated by their connections to place, are devoting time and resources to create something amazing. These folks are passionate, driven, and inspired to do their work by the places that they choose to surround themselves with. They are athletes, fishermen, scientists, activists, and more. What unites them is their sense of commitment to a cause which is rooted in their communities, livelihoods, and the places they call home. Our first conversation is with Carey Favaloro, an Aspen Mountain Ski Patroller, educator, and badass mountain athlete, among many other things. We called up Carey to discuss an inspiring and important project that she’s working on. Carey is racing the Grand Traverse, a 40-mile ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen, Colorado, through the rugged elk mountains. Along the way she’s raising money for the Wilder Women Project, a Colorado non-profit that creates opportunities for women to spend time in wild places together. So far Carey and her partner Sammy Podhurst have raised over $5,000 and counting. During the race Sammy and Carey will have to rely closely on each other to assess avalanche problems, make route-finding decisions, and pick each other up when they are feeling down. As Carey explains, the race is a perfect example of why it’s so important for women to get outside together to learn more about themselves and the spaces they find themselves in. We hope you enjoy listening. Carey and Sammy’s GoFundMe for the Wilder Women Project. The Wilder Women Project Website Some Photos of Carey and Sammy Photo: Katie Cassetta

Picture this: you’re deep in the desert, hiking down your favorite trail, when you stumble upon some “For Sale” signs right alongside it. How would you react? For thousands of visitors to the Narrows trail in Zion National Park, this quickly became reality. When a long-running negotiation between a private landowner and the National Park Service came to a head, this world-famous trail faced an uncertain future. In our most recent Contours we dig into the backstory of these dramatic signs and discover the complex web of public-private land ownership and how it affects access to iconic landscapes. In This Episode Bill Dunn: Manager, Zion Adventure Company Jim Petterson: Southwest and Colorado State Director, Trust for Public Land

What does it mean to be a “local” somewhere? For us, local status is deeply connected to intimate knowledge of a place — the best secret camping spots, the cheapest happy hour, leftover powder stashes, and empty saturday morning trails. In this episode we look into how we define locals, and along the way we confront some of our own preconceptions. We speak with three people—Alison Miller of Leavenworth, WA; Matt Lanning of Aspen, CO, and Gabe Joseph of Santa Fe, NM—who help us along this journey. It turns out that local identity is a little more nuanced than we imagined. Music in this episode is provided by The Good Lawdz and Free Music Archive. We’d also like to thank our guest editor Molly Bayer for her expert opinions and advice on the final drafts of the episode. Got opinions? hey@topophiliapodcast.com. In This Episode Gabe Joseph: Software Engineer and former dirtbag. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Alison Miller: Climber, architect, business owner, and President of Leavenworth Mountain Association. Leavenworth, Washington. Matt Lanning: backcountry skier, mountain biker, and Suerte Tequila ambassador. Aspen, Colorado.

The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington is a place that, for us, is incalculably valuable for its many special backcountry campsites, wild rivers, ski lines, and soul-healing wild lands. When legislatures and other governing bodies must make decisions about the forest, however, they look for hard dollar values on the services these places provide which have been missing from the conversation—until now. Our first “Contours” short explores a recent economic study detailing the value of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and reveals some interesting issues. If you’re interested in the full text of the report, you can find it here.

Wilderness is a fundamental part of the American land preservation equation. First designated by the U.S. Forest Service in 1924, and later formally established by the 1964 Wilderness Act, America’s 764 federally-designated Wilderness areas represent almost 110 million acres (an area roughly the size of California) of permanently protected roadless land. In this inaugural episode of Topophilia, we dig into two questions about wilderness. First: how do the boundaries around wilderness areas actually get drawn? Will tells the story of the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness, and we speak with Dr. Kevin Marsh, professor of environmental history at Idaho State University and author of Drawing Lines in the Forest, about Washington’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and make some interesting discoveries about the role of grassroots community movements in creating wilderness areas. We also seek to determine the place of wilderness designation in our current and future political climates. We chat with Ben Greuel, Washington State Program Director for the Wilderness Society, to get at this question. To highlight the rich history of Wilderness designation in the United States, we have created this accompanying interactive data graphic, embedded here below. Click here for a full-page version. We have many people to thank for helping with this episode, especially: Ben Greuel and Dr. Kevin Marsh for their time, knowledge, and willingness to talk; our many friend-editors who endured drafts and gave great feedback; our respective housemates Liz, Sarah, Paul, Max, and Granite for being quiet while we recorded things, and the makers of Rainier for fueling our late-night recording sessions. Music in this episode courtesy of Broke For Free, Latché Swing, and freemusicarchive.org. Additional sound effects from ZapSplat.