This Poet and Tribal Attorney is Being Sued by a Mining Company

This is a repost of a new podcast I'm hosting with the Community Environmental Legal Defense fund. If you'd like to subscribe, you can find the show on Substack here (https://celdf.substack.com/p/patch-by-patch-the-habitat-is-being), or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. I'll be republishing episodes of this show on The Green Flame podcast. On this episode, we explore the greenwashed destruction of the last remaining Diamondback Terrapin nesting habitat in Virginia Beach, VA We speak with Dr. John Aquiar, a lifelong resident of the Virginia Beach area, who reached out to CELDF for help in February 2025. We’re used to getting requests from community members facing threats to the human community where they live, but this request was about protecting the Diamondback Terrapin from a supposed “restoration” project. This story is one of a growing number of examples — from forest thinning to spraying invasive species with herbicides — where “restoration” has been co-opted and used as a greenwashing technique. This isn’t an indictment of restoration as a whole, but it is a warning that there are active attempts to use the language emerging from this field to justify more destruction of our planet. In this podcast, Dr. Aquiar speaks for the terrapins because no one else is doing so, and explains the situation at a place called Pleasure House Point Natural Area. At Pleasure House Point, the city of Virginia Beach is currently clearcutting a mature native forest and destroying critical nesting habitat for the Diamondback Terrapin. It’s part of what they call a “restoration” project, and is happening as part of a wetlands-credit scheme whereby wetlands habitat elsewhere which is being destroyed for a flood-mitigation project is supposedly being “offset” by the creation of new wetlands at Pleasure House Point. In both cases, nature is losing. Many of the issues Dr. Aguiar raises are the same as we hear from other communities. Why is the community just learning of the project even though the city and the NGO’s in favor of it have supposedly known for years? Why were the only public meetings on the project held one week before Christmas and then the vote was the meeting right after New Year’s? What is the rush and why can’t more information from unbiased sources be collected and presented to the residents of the community to assess and then have a voice in making the decision? Who are the experts advising destroying this habitat? Why is it that nature always has to be destroyed? Why not bulldoze the golf course or the luxury homes instead and turn that land into salt marsh? Is there a profit motive involved here for various contractors and others? Rarely do we find people who are so concerned about a non-human species’ welfare and potential for survival into the future. That’s why we felt it was important to give Dr. Aquiar the chance to speak for the terrapins and see if there are others out there who are also concerned. Status of and Threats to Diamondback Terrapins The main threat to the Diamondback Terrapin is habitat loss, and this project is part of that. As we researched the background for this show, we found lots of people and organizations using the Terrapin’s image for promotion and fundraising purposes, yet mostly these groups don’t seem to mention them much other than that. According to the IUCN: Malaclemys terrapin [Diamondback Terrapin] is assessed as Vulnerable due to observed threats documented in the past and projected into the future with ≥35% population declines of monitored populations resulting from overexploitation, accidental mortality as bycatch in commercial Blue Crab fisheries, coastal habitat loss due to development, principally the loss of limited nesting habitat, in addition to extensive estuarine saltmarsh loss, and ongoing subsidized nest predation by mesopredators (threats reviewed in Roosenburg 2004; Butler et al. 2018; Chambers and Maerz 2018; Roosenburg and Kennedy 2018). Overall, it is our assessment that M. terrapin has sustained range-wide population declines over the last 30 years (two generations) of 25-30% and that the rate of decline is predicted to continue at the same rate for another 15 years (one generation), or about a 10-15% further decline, for a total decline over three generations (45 years) of 35-45%. How to support Diamondback Terrapins need every bit of their remaining habitat to be protected. That means that anyone living along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts is likely near to some terrapin habitat which is under immanent threat from development, aka destruction. If you live in the Virginia Beach area, want to get in touch with Dr. Aquiar, or discuss this issue with us, please reach out to CELDF’s Consulting Director Tish O’Dell (contact information here). If you want to support this podcast, Truth and Reckoning, here’s a few ways you can do so. First, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then, share this broadcast with your friends and family. Leave a positive review via your podcast app. Visit the Truth and Reckoning YouTube channel and leave a thumbs up and comment. The full scope of the work of CELDF, including this show, comes with a financial cost, so if you can donate, go to CELDF.org. But most importantly, our goal for this show is to empower you to act, so the best way you can show support is to get involved with your community and protect where you live. Thank you very much. See you on the front lines.  

This is a repost of a new podcast I'm hosting with the Community Environmental Legal Defense fund. If you'd like to subscribe, you can find the show on Substack here (https://celdf.substack.com/p/truth-and-reckoning-episode-1-the), or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. I'll also be republishing episodes of this show on The Green Flame podcast. ------------ On this show: Rights of Nature for the waters of New York State We speak to CELDF Education Director Ben Price, one of the organizers behind the 2006 Tamaqua, Pennsylvania passage of the first rights of nature law anywhere on Earth (at least in the western legal system. Of course, indigenous communities have recognized various forms of rights of nature for a long time). And, we speak with Tish O’Dell, Consulting Director from CELDF, and longtime community activist for the rights of nature. Both Tish and Ben have played a key role in the introduction into the New York State legislature of the Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights (New York Assembly Bill AO5156A), which Assemblyman Patrick Burke introduced on March 19th. If passed, it would be the first-ever state rights of nature law in the United States. In our conversation, we discuss: The history of how, despite significant pushback, the rights of nature movement as a means for communities to assert their rights against corporate interests has gained traction across the U.S. How local laws aimed at protecting the environment often face anti-democratic legal challenges from corporations and the state. The truly revolutionary and transformative potential of rights of nature, especially in the current political climate — if people are prepared to face down power to enforce these new laws. The path towards a legal and philosophical re-evaluation of human interaction with “the environment” to foster sustainability and collective rights. Rolling Stone recently covered this story: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/climate-crisis-environment-rights-of-nature-movement-1235321655/ How to support A wide range of community members has already begun to speak out in favor of the bill. Individuals, organizations, businesses, and experts are being asked to sign on to a list of supporters. To learn more about how you can support the rights of The Great Lakes, or to create a similar bill in your own community, please reach out to CELDF’s Consulting Director Tish O’Dell or Education Director Ben Price (contact information here). You can also donate to CELDF to support this effort. For those considering a contribution, Executive Director Kai Huschke can be reached here. If you want to support this podcast, Truth and Reckoning, here’s a few ways you can do so. First, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then, share this broadcast with your friends and family. Leave a positive review via your podcast app. Visit the Truth and Reckoning YouTube channel and leave a thumbs up and comment. The full scope of the work of CELDF, including this show, comes with a financial cost, so if you can donate, go to CELDF.org. But most importantly, our goal for this show is to empower you to act, so the best way you can show support is to get involved with your community and protect where you live. Thank you very much. See you on the front lines.

This is an audio recording of an article that can be found here: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/a-love-letter-to-my-old-home I recently moved away from my home for the last decade, a wooden cabin on the edge of an oak savanna. It was heartbreaking to leave that land, despite it being the right decision to make. So, I wrote a love letter to that place. Here's that piece, and a few of the beautiful moments from my time there.

This is an audio recording of an article that can be found here: https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/meet-the-native-american-mother-being This is the second in a series of articles introducing the Thacker Pass Six, a group of traditional indigenous people and grassroots activists — including myself — who are being sued by a Canadian mining company called Lithium Nevada Corporation. This article focuses on Bhie-Cie Zahn Nahtzu.

This episode is the audio recording of an article published at https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/this-poet-and-tribal-attorney-is. It is the third in a series of articles introducing the Thacker Pass Six, a group of traditional indigenous people and grassroots activists — including Green Flame host Max Wilbert — who are being sued by a Canadian mining company called Lithium Nevada Corporation. It was published on January 15th, 2025 — the four-year anniversary of the day that Will and Max set up a tent on the mountainside and launched the Protect Thacker Pass land defense campaign in 2021.

This episode is the audio recording of an article published at https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/your-tesla-is-killing-the-planet. In it, I write about Tesla's climate change impacts, which amount to more than 50 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year. According to one study, this quantity of emissions will cause 50,000 future human deaths from climate change, per year. So, according to their own data, Tesla is responsible for human deaths equivalent to the 2023-25 Palestinian genocide or the atomic bombing of Nagasaki every 16 months or so.

This episode is the audio recording of an article published at https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/remembering-the-lost-giants.  In it, I reflect on shifting baseline syndrome and the fact that redwoods aren't the tallest trees on Earth: they're the tallest which haven't been logged. 

This episode is the audio recording of an article published at https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/this-native-elder-is-being-sued-by. In it, I introduce Dean Barlese, a traditional knowledge-holder from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, an elder who was raised on old stories told by his father and grandparents. He’s the leader of the Pyramid Lake Spiritual Healing Center, and his ancestors fought in Snake War (1864-68) to protect Northern Paiute homelands from settler-colonial incursions. Dean is one of a group of land defenders and water protectors being sued by mining company Lithium Nevada Corporation after prayer actions took place at Thacker Pass in 2023.

The Wildlife Rescue was formed in 2010 to provide quality health care, often on an emergency basis, to native wildlife. Located in Delhi, India the NGO was founded by brothers Nadeem Shehzad and Muhammad Saud. This interview is a conversation with Nadeem and Saud. Their work was the focus of a 2022 documentary film, All That Breathes, which won Best Documentary at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals (the first documentary to ever win both), and was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature film. The film won at least 37 other major awards. On average, about 2,500 sick, injured and orphaned birds are treated and cared for annually by the Wildlife Rescue. The center is run by staff trained in emergency aid, with specialized avian veterinary care. The hospital treats a wide variety of injuries and illnesses that include broken bones, infections, diseases and malnutrition. It also cares for babies and juveniles that have been left orphaned. For whatever reason a bird is brought into the hospital, the aim of the center is to rehabilitate that bird back into the wild. Help raise funds for their work in India: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-all-that-breathes-protagonists-save-birds-in-india Their website: https://www.raptorrescue.org/  

A massive copper mine is planned 100 feet from the edge of Lake Superior (and may actually mine underneath the lake), adjacent to "the most beautiful State Park in the country" in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. Sound like a bad idea? It gets worse: Tom Grotewohl says this should be called a "toxic waste mine" because 98.55% of what is produced will be toxic waste, not copper. At stake is wolves, fish, forests, endangered species, and a full 10% of the freshwater on the surface of our planet. Tom is organizing with other individuals and allies to oppose this mine. To learn more, donate, and sign their petition, visit their website at: https://protecttheporkies.com/