Hal Herring Returns – Live at the Old Salt Festival

Hal Herring is an award-winning outdoor journalist, fierce public lands advocate, and thoughtful, action-oriented conservationist. He’s also an accomplished podcaster and host of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers’ Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring. If you’re a longtime listener of Mountain & Prairie, you may remember my first episode with Hal back in December of 2019– pre-pandemic, when the world was a much different place. Like me, Hal was born and raised in the south, and also like me, his Southern accent has not faded. But he’s made Montana his home for many decades now and has established himself as one of the most respected voices in conservation here in the American West.

This episode was recorded live and on stage at the 2024 Old Salt Festival on the Mannix Family Ranch in Helmville, Montana. If you’re not familiar with Old Salt, it’s a three-day gathering in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley that combines live Americana music with artists like Sterling Drake and Summer Dean, wood-fired cooking with chefs including Eduardo Garcia, and a General Store featuring western makers such as Cate Havstad, Jillian Lukiwski, Christy Sing, and many more. The festival also includes a ton of on-stage conversations about land stewardship, conservation, history, literature, and more– and this is one of those conversations.

Most of you are probably already familiar with Hal, but if you’re not, you are in for a treat. Hal brings such energy, humor, and knowledge to everything he does, and he has helped me in my own personal journey to better understand this complex region known as the American West. In this conversation, we covered a lot, including: Hal’s journey from Alabama to Montana, his thoughts on the current state of family ranching and public lands, optimism vs pessimism, and who he admires in the conservation space. We also discuss his forthcoming book on public lands, an idea he is working on for a new podcast, and we take a number of questions from the audience.

I know you’ll learn a lot from this episode– I consider Hal a great teacher and leader, and it’s always an honor to spend time with him. Tickets for the 2025 Old Salt Festival are on sale now, so follow this link to learn more and secure your spot at what will surely be another amazing weekend with amazing people.

Thanks to Hal for the conversation, to the Mannix Family for opening up their ranch for this festival and to you for listening!

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Header photo courtesy of Old Salt, photo of Hal courtesy of BHA and by Tim Peterson

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RESOURCES:

Topics Discussed:

• 3:30 – Ed introducing Hal at Old Salt Festival
• 4:45 – How Hal ended up in Montana
• 7:15 – Hal’s thoughts on the consolidation, absorption of family ranches
• 9:30 – Threat to public lands 
• 11:15 – Hal’s “ah ha” moments as he’s researching his new book
• 12:45 – Hal’s book recs
• 15:00 – Finding common ground
• 18:15 – Keeping the energy going 
• 19:15 – Hal’s new podcast project 
• 23:45 – What Hal views as current threats to public lands (1872 mining law)
• 26:00 – Optimist or pessimist?
• 29:15 – Who’s taking action?
• 31:45 – Start of Q&A, Hal expanding on new podcast
• 34:00 – Broadening the audience
• 36:00 – What’s Hal doing beyond podcasting to trigger improvement?
• 37:15 – Ideas into action
• 39:00 – Project 2025
• 42:15 – Getting people’s attention without scaring them
• 44:00 – Future of journalism
• 46:00 – Montana Senate race

Information Referenced:

• Hal Herring
• Old Salt Festival
• Hal’s first M&P appearance
• Annick Smith and William Kittridge’s The Last Best Place. Annick was at a writers’ workshop with Hal in 1988.
• 1988 fires in Montana, during which about 36% of Yellowstone National Park burned.
• Homestead Act, during which 270 million acres of U.S. land was transitioned from public to private land in the Lincoln Administration to encourage westward expansion.
• Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, in Hal’s Russian anarchists phase.
• The Wilderness Warrior, Douglas Brinkley. In Hal’s FDR phase.
• Betsy Gaines Quammen’s True West
• Douglas Brinkley’s Silent Spring Revolution
• Silent Spring, touchstone of the environmental movement in the 1970s
• Nate Schweber’s This America of Ours 
• Hal’s Backcountry Hunters and Anglers podcast
• What do you really believe in? Hal discusses on Hunt Talk Radio’s podcast.
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• Life of Pi
• 1970s Toxic Substances Control Act 
• Michael Lewis’s The Fifth Risk
• Outdoor Afro
• Weeds of the West

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Enjoy this episode? Then you might like these too:

• David James Duncan – Live at the Old Salt Festival
• Douglas Brinkley – Exploring the Past to Find Inspiration for the Future
• Nate Schweber – A Forgotten Chapter of American Conservation
• Anna Borgman – Obsession, Curiosity, and Purpose-Driven Work
• Nick Offerman – Empathy, Nuance, & Good Hard Work
• Corissa Busse – Tribal-Led Buffalo Restoration in the American West and Beyond
• John Vaillant – A Riveting Exploration of Fire
• Sterling Drake – Roots Music, Ranching, and Giving Back
• Mark Kenyon – A Passion for Public Lands
• Kami Bakken – How to Build a Life and Career in the West’s Wide-Open Spaces

Visit the podcast page for a full, searchable list of episodes

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