Trojan Wars

Oregon Public Broadcasting

The scramble to meet the energy demands of AI and data centers is leading to what some are calling a "Nuclear Renaissance," and the Pacific Northwest is at the heart of it. Oregon and Washington are the sites of the world’s first full-scale nuclear power plant (Hanford), the world’s then largest pressurized-water nuclear reactor (Trojan Nuclear Power Plant), the only company with regulatory approval to build small modular reactors (NuScale), and a growing number of power-hungry data centers — and yet Oregon has a constitutional amendment banning new nuclear projects. Why? It all comes back to the region's history with nuclear, and the legacy of the environmental movement in the Northwest.

"Trojan Wars," from OPB and 30 Minutes West, tells the story of how our grand plans for cheap, reliable, carbon-free power in the 20th century ended up in a heap of concrete and barrels of nuclear waste on the banks of the Columbia River. And we ask: What went wrong the first time around? And is it possible to get it right this time?

Play

Open in

20 episodes
Avg 32 min
English

Episodes 20

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Apr 24, 2024 · 13 min
Bonus Episode: Celilo Memories
We hear the voices of tribal elders who remember Celilo Falls before The Dalles Dam silenced this sacred fishing spot. Many of the voices you hear in this episode were shared, with permission, by Confluence. Confluence is a nonprofit focused on the Columbia River system. The organization has collected oral histories from Native people, many of whom remember Celilo Falls before the dam.
S2 · E6
Apr 17, 2024 · 33 min
Ep 6: The Future
Salmon hatcheries set up by the federal government prioritized ocean fishermen over river tribes and created genetically inferior fish. In this final episode, we visit a tribal hatchery to see how they’re doing things differently. And we’ll hear from 11-year-old Aiyana about how she thinks about carrying on her family’s legacy.
S2 · E5
Apr 10, 2024 · 37 min
Ep 5: The Crime
Salmon have been on the decline for more than 100 years. The federal government knows why. It knows who killed the salmon. And how. But for decades it’s been telling a tale of progress, and obscuring the ugliest truth. We’re going to uncover it.
S2 · E4
Apr 3, 2024 · 23 min
Ep 4: The Salmon’s Struggle
Salmon used to be plentiful and they’ve been a staple of tribal diets for centuries. Since the early 1900s, salmon populations in the Columbia River have steadily declined thanks to overfishing, dams, habitat loss and warming waters. Hatcheries are one way the U.S. government has tried to make up for the loss of wild salmon. But it hasn’t worked. In this episode, we examine what the decline of salmon has meant for Columbia River tribes.
Mar 27, 2024 · 15 min
Bonus Episode: LiaDonna Lopez Whitefoot
You heard from Randy Settler’s cousin, LiaDonna Lopez Whitefoot, in the most recent episode of Salmon Wars. She’s the one who was fearless in the face of a blockade of boats trying to block Native people from accessing fishing sites. She worked closely with Randy’s mom in the family fishing business. In this bonus episode, we’re bringing you more of her memories from that time, and of Randy’s mom, Mary, in particular.
S2 · E3
Mar 20, 2024 · 32 min
Ep 3: The Court Battles
Federal officials took away a way of life that had sustained Pacific Northwest tribes for centuries. So some tribal members became outlaws. During the 1960s and beyond, Native activists fought back against state and federal restrictions on their fishing rights – a period known as the “fish wars”. They held “fish ins” and fought for their rights in court. Randy Settler's parents won some major battles in the fish wars, but their methods were controversial even within their tribe.
S2 · E2
Mar 13, 2024 · 33 min
Ep 2: The Treaties
To understand the war over salmon, we have to go back to 1855. That’s when chiefs from the Yakama Nation and other Pacific Northwest tribes signed treaties that are still used as the basis for laws and policies around salmon fishing. Some tribal members believe the Yakama signed a treaty under duress. In some ways, this document represents the first of a multi-generational series of promises the U.S. government made and broke. It also created a powerful legal framework the Yakama still use to advocate for fishing rights.
S2 · E1
Mar 13, 2024 · 23 min
Ep 1: The Family
Host Tony Schick introduces us to Randy Settler and his family. The Settlers, members of the Yakama Nation, have been deeply affected by the Northwest’s salmon policies for generations. They lost their home, their primary food source, their ancestral fishing grounds. Randy and his parents went to jail for exercising their fishing rights. And they won some important victories along the way. Now, he’s passing the fight on to younger people in the tribe.
Mar 4, 2024 · 3 min
Season 2: Salmon Wars ... coming soon
“Salmon Wars” tells the story of salmon in the Northwest in a way you haven’t heard before – through the voices of one Yakama Nation family who have been fighting for salmon for generations. We dig in to uncover who is to blame for the salmon vanishing, what can be done before it’s too late and why their disappearance impacts all of us ... coming soon.
May 7, 2021 · 1 hr
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...
Jan 28, 2021 · 44 min
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...
Jan 22, 2021 · 1 hr
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...
Nov 21, 2020 · 19 min
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,...
Nov 14, 2020 · 35 min
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...
S1 · E7
Oct 3, 2020 · 38 min
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...
S1 · E6
Sep 22, 2020 · 33 min
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...
S1 · E5
Sep 21, 2020 · 38 min
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...
S1 · E4
Sep 21, 2020 · 34 min
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?
S1 · E3
Sep 21, 2020 · 34 min
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...
S1 · E2
Sep 21, 2020 · 33 min
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?

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes