This is the 200th episode of Mountain & Prairie, so I decided to celebrate the milestone by bringing back the first-ever M&P guest, my good friend Erik Glenn. Erik is the Executive Director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, a statewide conservation organization that protects Colorado’s agricultural land, heritage, and families for future generations by conserving working rural landscapes. Erik is also the President of the Partnership of Rangeland Trusts, a collection of nine ag-based, western land trusts who work together to “advocate for the conservation of working lands and western heritage for the benefit and wellbeing of future generations.”
When Erik and I spoke for episode number one all the way back in the spring of 2016, he was only about a year into his role as Executive Director. At that point, the organization had conserved just over 465,000 acres of land in Colorado. Fast forward seven and a half years to today, Erik and his team have added an additional 300,000 acres of conserved land, bringing the total to more than 765,000 acres. But most importantly, CCALT has served as a loyal and trusted partner for more than 400 agricultural families who are deeply committed to conserving Colorado’s western heritage and working landscapes.
I consider Erik a great friend and a wise mentor, and if not for his kindness, encouragement, and counsel, I doubt there would be a Mountain & Prairie, nor would I have ever worked in the conservation world. We sat down at his office in Lakewood and caught up on everything, including: how Erik spurs innovation without losing sight of the basics of land conservation; his thoughts on building culture and retaining the best team members; balancing his own intense work ethic with his desire set reasonable-yet-high expectations for his team; how having kids has changed him; the growth of PORT; his mentors; the evolution of the perception of conservation easements in the ag community; threats and opportunities; book recommendations; and much more.
A big thanks to Erik for letting me use him as a guinea pig for the first episode back in 2016, and for his willingness to join me again for episode 200. But more importantly, thanks to Erik for his leadership and commitment to conservation in Colorado, the West, and beyond. Hope you enjoy!
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Photos courtesy of CCALT.
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RESOURCES:
Topics Discussed:
- 3:30 – What the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust is
- 11:00 – How Erik balances innovation with the basics of conservation
- 15:30 – How Erik actually implements a culture in the workplace
- 23:30 – How Erik balances his work ethic with the desire to not set unreasonable work expectations for his team
- 29:30 – How having kids impacted Erik
- 35:45 – Discussing PORT
- 46:00 – Discussing whether or not good conservation tools have become good business tools for land owners
- 50:00 – Erik’s mentors
- 58:00 – The biggest threat and opportunity facing conservation
- 1:10:30 – Erik’s book recommendations
- 1:13:30 – Erik’s parting words
Information Referenced:
- Erik Glenn
- Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust
- Colorado Cattlemen’s Association
- CSU study on conservation impacts on private lands
- PORT (Partnership of Rangeland Trusts
- Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust
- Lynn Sherrod
- Montana Land Reliance
- South Dakota Agricultural Land Trust
- Ranchlands Trust of Kansas
- Nebraska Land Trust
- The Northwest Rangeland Trust
- California Rangeland Trust
- Chad Ellis of TALT
- Ken Mirr
- Chris West
- Larry Kueter
- Bill Silberstein
- Colorado College
- Colorado Transferable Conservation Easement Tax Credit
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
- Inflation Reduction Act
- Play to Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
- Vince Flynn
- Honestly Podcast with Bari Weiss
- Collective Illusions by Todd Rose
- Peter Thiel
- Call Sign Chaos by Jim Mattis
Enjoy this episode? Then you might like these too:
- Rebuilding a Resilient, Regional Meat Supply Chain – LIVE at the Old Salt Festival
- Matt Moorhead & Galen Guerrero-Murphy – Grasslands Conservation on the Southern High Plains
- Landscape-Scale Management in a Private Land State
- Cole Mannix – Building Community through Land Stewardship and Local Food
- Carlos Fernández, Part 2 – Creating Conservation Opportunities During Uncertain Times
- Francesca Claverie – A Borderlands Conservation Success Story
- Matt Pierson – Finding New Solutions for Food Insecurity
Visit the podcast page for a full, searchable list of episodes
