The value of large public lands is largely dependent on adjacent private lands. Charismatic megafauna that characterize the American West will, perhaps ironically, only survive if large livestock ranches remain profitable. Rick Knight, conservation biologist at Colorado State University, discusses with Tip the unequal ecological value of private lands, the rise of the radical center, and the economics of maintaining habitat through ranching.

PUBLICATIONS MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

The book Rick co-authored, Ranching West of the 100th Meridian, is available at https://islandpress.org/books/ranching-west-100th-meridian.

Beef and Beyond: Paying for Ecosystem Services on Western US Rangelands. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/viewFile/19306/18969

Ranchers as a keystone species in a West that works. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/view/12293

Patterns of rangeland productivity and land ownership: Implications for conservation and management. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.1862

TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/2l9fhmE