PODCAST · society
Timber Wars
by Oregon Public Broadcasting
It’s the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. A march of chainsaws clear-cuts the country’s last available old growth forests. Protesters spend months sitting in the tallest trees in the world. And at the center, the northern spotted owl becomes the most controversial bird in the country. The "Timber Wars" podcast tells the story of how this conflict reshaped the Northwest and the nation as a whole, and transformed the way we see—and fight over—the natural world. "Listeners are left with both an appreciation of the magnificence of old growth forests and the toll paid by logging communities when those forests were protected. Environmentalists and loggers don't agree on much, but I think they will concur that 'Timber Wars' is fair and brilliant journalism." —"New York Times" columnist and Oregon-native Nicholas Kristof With original music by singer-songwriter Laura Gibson. Winner of the National Headliner Award for Narrative Podcast, the MIT Knight Scienc
Episodes
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Bonus Ep: Suzanne Simard and the Social World of Trees
What if, instead of competing with each other, trees work together? What if they even communicate? Renowned forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has spent her life digging into the "wood wide web"—the mycorrhizal network of fungi and roots through which trees share resources and information. Her work...
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Bonus Ep: Wildfire
In 2020, wildfires swept across the West, consuming millions of acres of forest and destroying thousands of homes and even whole communities. And sadly, this is just the beginning. Fire is the future here in the West. But what we often forget is that fire is also the past. It’s what our landscape...
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Guest Ep: How to Save a Planet
In the final months of the Trump administration, there were a flurry of environmental rollbacks that hearkened back to the Timber Wars, including changes that would make it easier to log old trees and a huge reduction in the area protected for the northern spotted owl. So we wanted to bring you…
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Guest Ep: Grouse
If you’ve been enjoying Timber Wars, there’s a new show you should check out. It’s about a weird and wonderful bird: the greater sage-grouse. You’ll find these creatures in wide open sagebrush country, trying to hang on alongside oil and gas drilling, recreational activity, development and...
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Bonus Ep: Big Money Bought the Forest
In 'Timber Wars,' we've talked about how the northern spotted owl took the blame for a lot of other things that cost jobs and hurt timber-dependent towns, like automation and international competition. Well, there was another huge thing the owl took the fall for—something that cost timber towns...
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Ep 7: A Way Forward
Is the Northwest fatally divided, or can we overcome our differences and work together? We tell the story of one group of loggers and environmentalists who have found some semblance of common ground. But it didn’t come easy. And no one knows how long it’ll last. If you want to learn more about…
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Ep 6: The Backlash
Before the Northwest Forest Plan had a chance to succeed, Congress seized upon the threat of wildfires to create a loophole and throw the plan out the window. With old growth once again being logged, the fight to defend it grew both more mainstream and more violent, seeding the tactics for many...
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Ep 5: The Plan
The Timber Wars grew so hot that one of President Clinton’s first acts in office was to fly half his cabinet to Portland to resolve the conflict. The result was the Northwest Forest Plan, the most sweeping conservation plan in U.S. history. But it might never have happened if not for some...
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Ep 4: Mill City
Mill City was one of dozens of flourishing timber towns, where a job in the woods or at the local sawmill could support a good life. But protests and court cases upended that, leaving locals to ask: are owls more endangered than loggers?
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Ep 3: The Owl
Throughout the 80s, environmentalists lost in the woods and in the courtrooms. There just weren’t many laws that protected trees. But there were laws that protected animals. And the idea started to percolate: what if they could protect the old growth by protecting an animal that depended on it....
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Ep 2: The Ancient Forest
For most of America’s history, trees were seen as crops, and the plan was to log the country’s last virgin forests and make them de facto tree farms. We see forests very differently today. How did things change so quickly?
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Ep 1: The Last Stand
When loggers headed into the forest on Easter Sunday in 1989, they found a line of protesters blocking the road. The ensuing battle would help catapult old-growth forests into a national issue, and become known as the “Easter Massacre.”
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Timber Wars Trailer
It’s the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. A march of chainsaws clear-cuts the country’s last available ancient forests. Protesters bury themselves in front of bulldozers and spend months sitting in the tallest trees in the world. And at the center, the northern spotted owl becomes the most...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
It’s the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. A march of chainsaws clear-cuts the country’s last available old growth forests. Protesters spend months sitting in the tallest trees in the world. And at the center, the northern spotted owl becomes the most controversial bird in the country. The "Timber Wars" podcast tells the story of how this conflict reshaped the Northwest and the nation as a whole, and transformed the way we see—and fight over—the natural world.
"Listeners are left with both an appreciation of the magnificence of old growth forests and the toll paid by logging communities when those forests were protected. Environmentalists and loggers don't agree on much, but I think they will concur that 'Timber Wars' is fair and brilliant journalism." —"New York Times" columnist and Oregon-native Nicholas Kristof
With original music by singer-songwriter Laura Gibson.
Winner of the National Headliner Award for Narrative Podcast, the MIT Knight Scienc
HOSTED BY
Oregon Public Broadcasting
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Timber Wars have?
Timber Wars currently has 13 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Timber Wars about?
It’s the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. A march of chainsaws clear-cuts the country’s last available old growth forests. Protesters spend months sitting in the tallest trees in the world. And at the center, the northern spotted owl becomes the most controversial bird in the country. The "Timber...
How often does Timber Wars release new episodes?
Timber Wars has 13 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Timber Wars?
You can listen to Timber Wars on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Timber Wars?
Timber Wars is created and hosted by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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