Episode 47: Laiken Jordahl Documenting The Destruction Of The Borderlands
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Laiken Jordahl, Borderlands Campaigner, Center for Biological Diversity
About Laiken
Laiken Jordahl, Borderlands Campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, works to protect wildlife and communities across the U.S.-Mexico borderlands from border wall construction and militarization. Before joining the Center, Laiken worked with the National Park Service researching threats to wilderness character at five National Park Service wilderness areas. He studied the impacts of border activity on wilderness resources at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Big Bend National Park, which led him to become an advocate against border walls and militarization. Laiken has also worked as a legislative fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives, a bike mechanic, and a clam farmer in Washington State.
Topics
- Border wall construction and its effects on wildland connectivity, water, communities, and wildlife
- The laws that are being “waived” to construct the border wall by the Trump administration
- Up close and personal with the wounds this wall construction is causing
- What it’s like to be a “disaster tour guide”
- What can be done about restoring the wildlands affected by the wall once Trump is out
Extra Credit
Read Laiken’s article: “Trump’s wall is destroying the environment we worked to protect”
“Imagine dedicating your entire life to protecting a place. Then imagine watching everything you’ve worked to protect be bulldozed by a desperate, self-serving president.
That’s what’s happening right now to career scientists and conservationists at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on Arizona’s border with Mexico.
I used to work there too. It breaks my heart.” [Read more…]
Trump is racing to build his despicable #BorderWall through the most stunning & remote corner of Arizona.
Last week I took a trip down the historic Devil’s Highway to document the heartbreaking destruction & share it with the world.
I came home horrified by what I saw. pic.twitter.com/9UrcWkOTwX
— Laiken Jordahl (@LaikenJordahl) April 29, 2020
#BorderWall construction in the rugged Tinajas Altas Mountains looks more like a strip mine than border security.
These are your tax dollars at work—blowing up an impassible range that already serves as a border in the most remote corner of Arizona.
— Laiken Jordahl (@LaikenJordahl) April 28, 2020
The tweet that really got me and made up my mind that Laiken needed to be our next guest on Rewilding Earth podcast:
Daily reminder: while we’re all stuck inside, the Trump admin is racing to build the #BorderWall, leaving nothing but carnage in its wake. pic.twitter.com/iDajTJdMEb
— Laiken Jordahl (@LaikenJordahl) April 21, 2020
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.