Jenna Pollard – Timber Framing, Organic Farming, Community, and Purpose
Jenna Pollard is a timber framer, a farmer, and an advocate for organic agriculture, but at her core, she is a teacher. The list of Jenna’s inspiring projects, causes, and interests is too extensive to summarize in a few sentences, but to give you an overview: She hosts workshops for women in which they learn …
Diana Lane & Aaron Derwingson – Thriving Rivers, Resilient Agriculture, and Strong Communities
Diana Lane is the Director of Sustainable Food and Water at the Colorado Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and Aaron Derwingson is the Water Projects Director for the Nature Conservancy’s Colorado River Program. Both Diana and Aaron work at the intersection of water sustainability, thriving rivers, resilient agriculture, and strong communities– harnessing TNC’s relationships and …
Dr. Sara Dant Returns – “Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West”
Dr. Sara Dant is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of history at Weber State University, and she’s the author of one of my most-often recommended books, Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West. She is also one of the featured historians in Ken Burns’ newest documentary, The American Buffalo, which you can watch …
Corissa Busse – Tribal-Led Buffalo Restoration in the American West and Beyond
Corissa Busse is the Buffalo Restoration Program Manager for The Nature Conservancy, where she oversees TNC’s work to advance Tribal-led efforts to restore buffalo, grasslands, and communities at scale. Based in Rapid City, South Dakota, Corissa and her team at TNC partner with organizations including the InterTribal Buffalo Council and the Tanka Fund to bring …
Vincent Stanley – Lessons Learned from Patagonia’s First Fifty Years
Vincent Stanley is the Director of Philosophy at Patagonia, and he holds the honor of being the company’s longest-serving employee. He is also an author, poet, and a resident fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. His most recent book, which he co-authored with Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard, is titled The Future …
Nick Offerman – Empathy, Nuance, & Good Hard Work
Nick Offerman is an actor, author, humorist, and woodworker who is best known for playing the legendary character Ron Swanson on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. But his success as an actor is just the tip of the iceberg– he’s written five New York Times bestselling books, is the narrator of three of Wendell Berry’s audiobooks, …
Matt Cahill – A Deep Dive into the Sagebrush Sea
Matt Cahill is the Sagebrush Sea Program Director for the Nature Conservancy. Based out of Bend, Oregon, Matt leads all of TNC’s critical work restoring, managing, and protecting sagebrush habitat across six western states. This is a huge and complex effort– it combines protection and policy work with ground-breaking restoration advances, public and industry partnerships, …
James Prosek – Art, Philosophy, & Our Natural World
James Prosek is an artist, writer, and naturalist whose work deeply examines our relationship with the natural world. Over the course of his career, he’s focused his artist’s eye and philosopher’s mind on everything from trout to eels, from birds to ocean fishes. For the past two years, he’s been focused on understanding and documenting …
Anna Borgman – Obsession, Curiosity, and Purpose-Driven Work
Anna Borgman is a Montana-based butcher, chef, and writer whose work focuses on helping people better understand and appreciate the origins of their food. Whether writing an article for Steven Rinella’s MeatEater or helping to field harvest and process a bison, Anna has a gift for helping curious, conscientious people become more educated about the …
Carrie Segil & Duncan Gilchrist – Catalyzing Conservation in Colorado and Beyond
Carrie Segil is the People and Culture Manager at The Nature Conservancy in Colorado, and Duncan Gilchrist is a Climate and Natural Resources Policy Associate at The Nature Conservancy in Colorado. Both Carrie and Duncan are deeply involved with TNC Colorado’s Catalyst Fund, a cutting-edge conservation funding initiative that supports forward-looking projects that enable innovation …
David James Duncan – Live at the Old Salt Festival
David James Duncan is one of those Western literary legends who needs no introduction to Mountain & Prairie listeners. But for those of you who may be new to the podcast or to Western literature, David is a renowned Montana novelist, activist, and flyfisherman. He’s the author of The River Why and The Brothers K, …
Erik Glenn Returns – Leadership, Innovation, & Commitment to Conservation
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 …
SHED SESSION: Everything I Know About Landing a Job in the Conservation World
For many years now, listeners have been emailing me with lots of different versions of the same basic question: “How do I get a job in the conservation world?” Some of the inquiries come from college students or young professionals, while others come from folks who are deep into a specific career path but want …
Lorelei Cloud – Solving Modern-Day Challenges with Ancient Tribal Wisdom
Lorelei Cloud is a member of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council. Lorelei’s commitment to conservation, leadership development, and Ute language, traditions, and culture is evident by the staggering number of leadership roles she holds– she is Co-Chairman of the Indigenous Women’s Leadership …
Rebuilding a Resilient, Regional Meat Supply Chain – LIVE at the Old Salt Festival
This is a special live episode that was recorded in late June 2023 at the first-ever Old Salt Festival, which was held on the Mannix Family Ranch in Helmville, Montana. The Old Salt Festival is a three-day celebration of ranching, land stewardship, and wild places that features live Western music, wood-fired cooking, products from some …
Rob Addington – A Deep Dive into Western Wildfires and Forest Health
Rob Addington is the Director of the Forest and Fire Program with The Nature Conservancy in Colorado. He and his team are focused on increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration in Colorado to reduce hazardous fuels and promote landscape resilience to natural disturbances such as wildfire as well as climate change. You don’t …
Doug Peacock – 50 Years of Fighting for the Grizzlies
Doug Peacock is a legendary environmentalist, writer, filmmaker, and grizzly bear advocate. He’s the co-founder of two conversation nonprofits– Round River Conservation Studies and Save the Yellowstone Grizzly. Doug was also the inspiration for the character George Washington Hayduke in his friend Edward Abbey’s classic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. And to top it all …
Chris Hawkins – Using Nature to Build Healthier & More Equitable Communities
Chris Hawkins is the Colorado Urban Conservation Manager for The Nature Conservancy, where he leads the organization’s efforts in Denver to “solve global challenges like the biodiversity and climate emergencies by supporting and creating more sustainable, efficient ways of living.” When many people think of The Nature Conservancy, they may envision large-scale conservation efforts across …
Live from the Strenuous Life Retreat: In Conversation with Nancy Fishbein
Back in September of 2022, I held the first annual Strenuous Life Retreat at the renowned Zapata Ranch in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. The retreat consisted of five days of adventure and education inspired by Theodore Roosevelt’s well-known commitment to living “the Strenuous Life.” We hiked high into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, rode horses …
Jesse Griffiths – Humility, Curiosity, and Creative Cuisine
Jesse Griffiths is an Austin-based chef, author, hunter, and fisherman, and he’s also the co-owner of Dai Due Butcher Shop & Supper Club and the New School of Traditional Cookery. Jesse’s work has been featured everywhere from The New York Times to the Joe Rogan Experience, and he’s a regular contributor to Steven Rinella’s MeatEater. …
Matt Moorhead & Galen Guerrero-Murphy – Grasslands Conservation on the Southern High Plains
Matt Moorhead and Galen Guerrero-Murphy are conservationists who work for The Nature Conservancy on its Southern Highs Plains Initiative (SHPI), a collaboration between five states with the shared goal of protecting the nation’s grasslands. The Southern High Plains encompasses approximately 71 million acres across Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The region is home …
Landscape-Scale Management in a Private Land State
This is the second of two live episodes that were recorded at the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s 2023 annual meeting in Houston, Texas. The topic of this panel discussion was Achieving Landscape-Scale Management in a Private Land State. As you learned in the previous episode, Texas has very little public land compared to …
Equitable Access to the Outdoors in Texas
This is the first of two live episodes that were recorded at the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s 2023 annual meeting in Houston, Texas. The topic of this panel discussion was Equitable Access to the Outdoors, a subject that is timely and important in all areas of the West, but especially important in Texas, …
Taylor Hawes – Innovative Conservation in the Colorado River Basin
Taylor Hawes is the Director of the Colorado River Program for the Nature Conservancy. As the leader of the program, she guides TNC’s efforts to conserve the freshwater biodiversity of the Colorado River Basin while also meeting human demands for water– challenging objectives given the wide-ranging stresses facing the river today. But despite the challenges …
Cate Havstad-Casad, Part 2 – Building Businesses for the Greater Good
If you’ve listened to Mountain & Prairie since the early days, then I’m sure you remember Cate Havstad-Casad. She first joined me on the podcast in early 2018 for a conversation about her life and career as a hatmaker and farmer. In late 2019, she was one of the four amazing women who joined me …
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe – Effecting Change Through Authentic Conversation
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is a world-renowned climate scientist, professor, and Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, where she leads and coordinates the organization’s scientific efforts. She is also the author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, an excellent book you’ve likely heard me reference on the …
Bryce Andrews, Part 2 – “Holding Fire”
Bryce Andrews is a Montana-based rancher and writer, and he’s the author of the brand new book Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West. Longtime Mountain & Prairie listeners will remember my first conversation with Bryce back in 2019 when we discussed his writing, conservation work, ranching experience, and his first two books. I …
Cole Mannix – Building Community through Land Stewardship and Local Food
Cole Mannix is the President and Founder of the Old Salt Co-op, a new, purpose-driven company that “provides meat raised with integrity from Montana landscapes its customers know and care about.” Cole and his team partner with a growing number of Montana ranches, butchers, chefs, and businesses to connect customers and producers, while simultaneously encouraging …
Carlos Fernández, Part 2 – Creating Conservation Opportunities During Uncertain Times
Carlos Fernandez is the Colorado State Director of The Nature Conservancy, one of the most effective conservation organizations in the American West and around the globe. You probably remember Carlos from our first conversation back in August of 2020, in which we discussed his inspiring career trajectory, the importance of collaborative conservation partnerships, and several …
BONUS EPISODE: Kate Matheson & The Ranchlands Podcast
If you’re a Mountain & Prairie Patreon supporter, then you probably already know that I recently began hosting another podcast for my friends at Ranchlands. It’s called the Ranchlands Podcast, and it features conversations with members of the Ranchlands community. As of today, we’re about ten episodes in, and we feel very grateful that the …
