Public lands in the West — including in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys — are under fire.
The Trump administration has rolled back several protections this year, but EcoFlight is trying to promote conservation using small aircrafts.
Jane Pargiter is the executive director of the Roaring Fork Valley-based nonprofit.
She spoke with Aspen Public Radio’s Regan Mertz about its mission to educate and inspire environmental action.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: While EcoFlight isn't experiencing federal funding cuts [itself], some of the organizations that you're working with are.
How have you had to shift your business model, or the way that you operate your nonprofit, to accommodate those cuts?
Jane Pargiter: I think what we really focused on is the deregulation and the rolling back of things like the Clean Water Act, the Roadless Rule, public lands, and public lands sell-off, things like that.
Where we're really targeting people from both sides of the aisle is to get in the plane, get that really intimate relationship with the landscape or the watersheds that they're flying over, and really feel that they're connected to it. [That] develops an intimate relationship, and it makes such a difference with how they might vote when votes come up, for example, to sell off our public lands.
Mertz: I've been on one EcoFlight for Colorado Public Lands Day, and it seems like you're using the landscape to speak for itself.
You're not necessarily pushing talking points when you're on the flight. You're just, like, “This is what's happening.”
So, how does that show-not-tell attitude help?
Pargiter: When you put people in the airplane, everybody's a little bit excited. Everybody's a little bit nervous. They physically touch it. It's a small space in there.
So, you have folks from different backgrounds, perhaps from opposite sides of the aisle. They're all looking at the same landscape, the same watershed, which is not an alternative fact, and suddenly they have a lot in common. So, the conversations you have in the cockpit while you're up in the air can be life-changing.
Mertz: Could you describe one of those aha moments to me, where you're like, “This is why I do what I do”?
Pargiter: We have quite a lot. I could mention one of our favorite landscapes to fly — and we've literally flown over 100 flights over it — is Bears Ears National Monument.
We flew that before there was ever an idea of being a national monument. The tribes had come together, and they were proposing a national monument. They thought the recreationists were opposed to this.
For example, Indian Creek is a big climbing destination.
So, we brought the climbers together, with the press, and with the tribes to introduce them to each other. That was a real aha moment, when they realized they were all actually on the same side. They all wanted to protect this lovely landscape — for different reasons — but the ultimate goal was to protect it.
Mertz: We were talking about before Bears Ears was even a national monument, you guys were out there. Now, that's one of the monuments that Trump’s targeted.
Can you talk to me about seeing that change?
Pargiter: Conservation takes a long time to achieve protection. All of these landscapes that we have worked on protecting — and ones that have been protected — whether it's Thompson Divide locally here, they take many, many years of flying, of conservation groups on the ground working, getting local support, getting national support, getting electeds to vote for them.
So, I truly believe in the long term. I'm a little concerned about how quickly this administration is undoing protections and regulations.
For example, one of the landscapes we fly is in Montana — the American Prairie. We spent years and years working with different groups who've reintroduced Bison, and that takes many years to bring the bison back onto the landscape.
There’s just been an executive order, for example, undoing that. That is going to take years to rectify. So, we're in it for the long haul.
We believe that change can happen, that people really do care about public lands and care about their backyard and their landscapes and their watersheds. And I think, ultimately, conservation will come out on top. I certainly hope so.
Mertz: When you're up in the plane, do these things go through your mind every time you take someone on a flight — these lands being in peril?
Or, on the other hand, do you think about the positivity of the land — how much progress has been made?
Pargiter: I find it very positive to do our fights, and we spend a lot of time now on coalition calls, on Zoom calls, doing triage, paying a lot of attention to what's going on in the conservation world. Because in this space, deregulations and protections are being undone weekly. This is not once a month. This is happening all the time.
So, it's quite depressing being on the phone calls all the time with our partners. However, when you go on a flight, it is so uplifting. Our partners are working so hard. They're doing wonderful work. They're wonderful people, and the landscapes are gorgeous. So, I've really encouraged my staff this year, ‘Please get out on the flights. Go with the pilots.’
Because it's so uplifting, and it really shows that there is some hope there, that we can protect these wild landscapes.
Mertz: Thank you for speaking with me today.
Pargiter: Well, thank you.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
