Fitz Cahall, founder of The Dirtbag Diaries podcast and co-founder of the storytelling studio Duct Tape Then Beer, discusses Save Public Lands, a coalition campaign he leads alongside Outdoor Alliance, The Conservation Alliance, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, MeatEater, and The Wilderness Society. The campaign is collecting one million signatures ahead of National Public Lands Day, September 26, 2026, around three demands: no more public land sell-offs, no more backroom deals, and no more giveaways to foreign mining companies. Cahall traces his own history with Bears Ears National Monument, including helping fund and build the Bears Ears Education Center with Friends of Cedar Mesa’s Josh Ewing, and connects that fight to current threats including the Roadless Rule, the border wall through Big Bend, and a proposed private resort development inside Yosemite National Park. He argues the effort is designed to be nonpartisan, built around demands he says both parties have historically supported.

No more public land sell-offs, no more backroom deals, and no more giveaways to foreign mining companies

Fitz Cahall has spent nearly twenty years building The Dirtbag Diaries into one of outdoor recreation’s longest-running podcasts, turning stories from climbers, paddlers, and backcountry travelers into a digital campfire with more than 300 episodes and 20 million downloads. Alongside his wife and business partner, Becca, he co-founded Duct Tape Then Beer, the storytelling studio behind the show, built on a simple filter for the work they’d take on: does it foster connection to the natural world and to each other. That filter eventually led Cahall and Becca into Bears Ears, where they helped tell the story of the monument’s creation, worked alongside the tribes involved in its co-management, and later helped fund and build the Bears Ears Education Center with Josh Ewing of Friends of Cedar Mesa after the monument’s boundaries were first rolled back in 2017.

Now Cahall has stepped from storytelling into organizing. He leads Save Public Lands, a coalition launched with Outdoor Alliance, The Conservation Alliance, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, MeatEater, and The Wilderness Society, with a goal of one million signatures delivered to Congress and state legislatures by National Public Lands Day, September 26. The campaign is built around three deliberately narrow demands: no more public land sell-offs, no more backroom deals, and no more giveaways to foreign mining companies, chosen, Cahall says, to give the widest possible range of people, across hunting, climbing, paddling, and conservation communities, a reason to sign on together. He points to a proposed private resort development inside Yosemite National Park, tied to developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital, as the kind of deal the campaign is built to stop.

Cahall is direct about the current moment being politically lopsided without framing the campaign itself as partisan, pointing to Utah polling that found strong majority support for Bears Ears protections in a reliably Republican state as evidence that the divide is not where people assume it is. His hope for the campaign extends past this year’s signature count and the 2026 midterms: a durable habit of coalitions across the outdoor and conservation world working together, and a return to public lands debate that argues over management, not over whether the land itself is for sale.

In this episode:

• Save Public Lands and the million-signature goal Cahall explains the coalition campaign’s three demands, no sell-offs, no backroom deals, no giveaways, and the push to deliver one million signatures to Congress and state legislatures by National Public Lands Day, September 26.
• From The Dirtbag Diaries to Save Public Lands How two decades of telling outdoor stories, and the community built around them, led Cahall to step into direct organizing for the first time.
• Bears Ears as a throughline Cahall’s history with Bears Ears National Monument, from early visits in the Southwest through helping fund and build the Bears Ears Education Center with Friends of Cedar Mesa after the 2017 boundary rollback.
• A proposed private resort inside Yosemite Cahall names a land deal involving developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital as an example of the kind of giveaway the campaign is organized to stop.
• Keeping a coalition campaign nonpartisan Cahall points to Utah polling on Bears Ears support and argues the divide isn’t where people assume, while acknowledging the current pressure on public lands skews from one direction.
• How to get involved Signing the petition at savepubliclands.us takes about a minute; Cahall also points to sharing, connecting the campaign with local organizations, and other ways to participate beyond the signature itself.

Links & Resources

Organizations & Initiatives:

• Save Public Lands — Coalition campaign led by Cahall to collect one million signatures against public land sell-offs, backroom deals, and giveaways by National Public Lands Day, September 26. 
• Outdoor Alliance — Coalition representing human-powered outdoor recreation groups; a founding partner of Save Public Lands. 
• The Conservation Alliance — Business coalition of outdoor industry companies funding conservation work; a founding partner of Save Public Lands. 
• Backcountry Hunters & Anglers — Sportsmen’s organization advocating for public lands and waters; a founding partner of Save Public Lands. 
• MeatEater — Hunting and fishing media company and a founding partner of Save Public Lands.
• Friends of Cedar Mesa — Nonprofit working to protect the Bears Ears region, led by Josh Ewing; partnered with Cahall on the Bears Ears Education Center. 

Places & Landscapes:

• Bears Ears National Monument — Utah monument central to Cahall’s account of moving from storytelling into advocacy; its boundaries were rolled back in 2017 and again more recently.
• Yosemite National Park — Site of a proposed land swap that would give a private developer access for a resort near the park. 
• Big Bend — Referenced as one of several current public lands flashpoints, alongside a proposed border wall.
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — Referenced alongside Bears Ears as an example of monuments whose boundaries have been contested.

Government & Policy:

• Roadless Rule — Referenced as one of the current issues the Save Public Lands coalition is organizing around. Listen to our related episodes.

People Mentioned:

• Becca Cahall — Fitz Cahall’s wife and Duct Tape Then Beer co-founder, credited throughout with building the studio and its guiding filter for the work they take on.
• Josh Ewing — Executive director of Friends of Cedar Mesa; worked with Cahall on early Bears Ears storytelling and the Bears Ears Education Center.
• Adam Cramer — President and CEO of Outdoor Alliance, referenced as a partner in the Save Public Lands coalition. Catch our conversation with Adam in Ep 75.
• Paul Hendricks — Referenced as a partner working with Cahall on the campaign. Catch our conversation with Paul in Ep 16.

After pioneering the early days of online content through podcast, video and social media, Fitz Cahall co-founded the brand and story agency Duct Tape Then Beer with the belief that good brands tell stories, but great brands live them through action. His clients have included Patagonia, Google and REI as well as not for profits like the Conservation Alliance. He’s had the honor of helping craft stories and campaigns for some of the most pressing issues of our time from public land sell-offs to climate justice. Two decades later, he still
hosts his first successful project, The Dirtbag Diaries, the original outdoor adventure podcast and spends his free time outdoors with his family in the Pacific Northwest.

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