Artemis

This week we're joined by biologist Nova Simpson, who works for the Nevada Department of Transportation to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in our travel corridors. We talk about wildlife overpasses and underpasses (even for things like snakes and toads), how those projects are funded, and whether they're effective at reducing vehicular collisions with wildlife. Plus: horses, whitefish dip, and HEAT.

4:00 "Large mammal mitigation specialist" - how can we help animals live more comfortably in our shadow? Also... state road departments have biologists on payroll!

6:00 "Road ecology": The study of how wildlife moves/adjusts to road infrastructure

7:00 Animal-vehicle collisions

12:00 There are 15-20 varieties of threatened animals for whom vehicular collision is a pretty significant source of mortality. Example: Florida panther

13:00 Roads fragment habitat. How can we restore connectivity? 

14:00 (RE)CONNECTING WILD: Restoring Safe Passage Mitigation project over Nevada's I-80 on the species’ migration route. Win for drivers, win for deer

18:00 Conservation priority so often comes down to available funding and time resource

19:00 Roadkill collision app in the works

20:00 Overpasses/underpasses on highways, fencing projects, bridge crossings, "animal sidewalks," etc

26:00 Only about 2% of crashes in Nevada involve wildlife

32:00 Agency vs. private funding for wildlife crossings

34:00 How do animals safely cross a highway? New York Times article on wildlife crossings (including the rattlesnake underpass)

37:00 Toad crossings

38:00 Current transportation bill in D.C. includes funding for wildlife mitigation for the first time in U.S. history

41:00 Check out the NWF Outdoors podcast wherever you get your programming

42:00 Wildlife cams... THE THINGS YOU SEE!

47:00 Anyone apply for draw tags? Not drawing in an area with 90%+ draw odds... #darnit

51:00 Training our horse pals :) 

55:00 Whitefish dip

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Tia Shoemaker grew up in a remote Alaskan hunting lodge. Christine Cunningham didn't come to hunting until she was an adult. Both women found they had a passion for telling authentic stories from the hunt field, and together they launched the outdoor journal, "Traverse." The first issue is out now, and both women join us to talk about what makes for meaningful experience in the field. 

1:00 Growing up on a historic homestead in Alaska at a family-owned hunting/fishing lodge. Pilot's license = mandatory

4:00 Hunting ptarmigan with a bow as a five-year-old... also, playing "guide and client" with a sibling

7:00 Traverse - an outdoor journal focused on hunting ethos, edited by Tia Shoemaker and Christine Cunningham

12:00 Christine Cunningham's book "Women Hunting Alaska"

13:00 "Ready? Fire!! Aim?"

15:00 Recovering from a surgery can make you zero in on what you'd most like to be doing

17:00 Feeling more "awake" in the hunt field + crawling at cockroach speed

22:00 Traverse = "the cave paintings of our time"... storytelling at the nexus of connection and place

28:00 Do hunting stories where everything goes right paint an authentic picture of the sport? 

30:00 Celebrating experience as much as we celebrate success

32:00 First issue of Traverse is out now! TraverseJournal.com

36:00 "Be fearless and available to the moment"

41:00 Tia on NWF's "Vanishing Seasons" podcast ... "Wealth isn't about how much we have, it's about how much we enjoy it."

43:00 Pebble Mine prospect in Bristol Bay... it's been a long fight

48:00 Submissions at Traverse mag

50:00 Artemis Book Club - our first read is "Braiding Sweetgrass," virtual book club chats are on the horizon

51:00 Other book recs: "The End of the Game" by Peter Beard (LINK); "The Living Mountain" by Nan Shepherd; "The Old Ways" by Robert MacFarland; "Heartsblood" by David Peterson

58:00 2021 Artemis Ambassadors... you're going to meet them soon!

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Have you heard of the Artemis book club? The club's summer read is "I Don't Know Why I Swallowed The Fly" by Jessica Maxwell. In the spirit of fly-fishing season, here's a treasure from the Artemis Archives -- Ali Bear giving us the play-by-play of casting. It's simply wonderful. Don't forget to join our community online in the Artemis Facebook group, or email us at [email protected] if you know of a book we should all read. 

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Kaitlin Barnhart is one of the co-founders of The Mayfly Project, an initiative to connect fly-fishing mentors with foster kids. A lot of the lessons we learn on the water carry over to the rest of our lives. Slow down and work out all the knots. Seek help from those with more experience. Kaitlin also tells us what it's like to grow a passion project into a national organization with employees and volunteers galore.

00:40 Remember Sarah Topp and Timberdoodle?

3:00 Ground-nesting bird species and dogs-always-leashed rules, even on public lands

5:00 Timberdoodle: The dog who pulled her owner on rollerblades six miles in 24 minutes... "It was terrifying, but I find that fun."

8:00 When you learn to fly-fish in Alaska and then return to Idaho... "Oh, I guess I'm not as awesome as I thought I was."

9:00 The Mayfly Project -- linking foster kids with fly-fishing

10:00 Foster kids and access to sports/the outdoors

12:00 Becoming a mentor with the Mayflly Project

14:00 From the genesis of an idea to 53 locations with mentorship projects in place

17:00 Teaching a conservation ethos alongside fishing

21:00 Fly-fishing gives us so much bounty

25:00 Slow down and work out the knots (Fishing lesson, or life lesson?)

28:00 When people are in and out of someone's life, the outdoors can be its own kind of steady relationship

32:00 When Mayfly project kids teach OTHERS to fly-fish

35:00 Making an investment of time into a kid is huge

38:00 Bringing a Mayfly type of project to a new place: it usually starts with a single invested, committed, connected person

41:00 When a non-profit grows from a self-motivated, two-person hustle to an organization with employees and volunteers galore

42:00 Find the Mayfly Project on Facebook and Instagram

45:00 Fly-fishing as a mom with three kids... and when fishing kids evolve from littles to teens

48:00 Fishing as a meditation / escape

52:00 Did you miss our fly-repellent tip on Amber Rose from Victoria's Secret?

56:00 Getting some instruction vs. teaching yourself

57:00 Hey, everyone... exciting news! Artemis's Fly-Fishing Tactics event is ON. There's a goodie bag, a storytelling contest, and loads of tips. Join us! Register here!

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Artemis heads afield this week to talk with storyteller and adventurer Mandela van Eeden in Montana. Mandela's upbringing was split between South Africa, where her family harvested from the sea, and Montana - where they gratefully accepted the river's bounty. She went on to become a raft guide in the Grand Canyon and in New Zealand. Mandela talks to us about connecting to place, pursuing your dreams, and how we can care for what sustains us. Plus, a black bear walks in on Marcia and Mandela mid-way through the episode. (No jokes, folks!)

4:00 All the 'boks' in Africa, which is Afrikaans for 'deer' (springbok, bontebok, gemsbok)

5:00 A childhood split between the African bush and Montana, leaving your heart in both

11:00 Three Gorges Dam & the Yangtze River

12:00 Storytelling with sound and music AND raft guiding both hemispheres

16:00 What's the core value that makes us do what we do?

18:00 The Oily River Rendezvous and seeing an oil spill from the river's view

19:00 "If you think you're too little to make a difference, you've obviously not spent the night with a mosquito."

22:00 "Grand Canyon pink" - a rattlesnake endemic to that space

24:00 Getting Primitive program gets kids into bushcrafting

27:00 Fish in one hand, shark in the other

30:00 Fly-fishing as a family affair

32:00 Podcast interrupted by a black bear... yep, bonafide bear strolling through!

37:00 The myriad of ways in which people gather from the sea

38:00 NWF Outdoors podcast, Vanishing Seasons

41:00 If you want to connect with a place... BE there. Fully present. Cease the wandering mind.

42:00 Yoga sutras written by Pantanjali

49:00 Connection to the outdoors through harvest + patience and mindfulness

50:00 The value of a mentor

54:00 Riverboarding the Grand Canyon for 15 days... the dream started with a flip (link to article?)

56:00 Thalweg: the fastest current in the river

59:00 "Go into your dream closet and dust off some of those ones you've filed away."

1:03 Introducing family to game - antelope and bear... and recruiting a nephew into the ranks

1:06 Listen to what your body tells you to eat (plus, spearfishing)

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BeBe Dalton Harrison was raised in a South Carolina fishing family. They often caught their supper from the salt marshes -- fish like large-mouthed bass, sea trout, and flounder. As an adult, Bebe now has the dream job of sharing her love for the salt marsh with other women, families and kids. Today on the show: A Carolina bug-battling tip straight outta Victoria's Secret, sea trout versus freshwater trout, and tackle-purses.

2:00 Tips for not scratching mosquito bites, other than willpower. A hot tip from Victoria's Secret (picked up at a tackle shop)... it's called Amber Romance

5:00 Other sensory vibes: The aroma of a salt marsh

7:00 South Carolina Wildlife Federation effort to restore a coastal bird rookery

10:00 Growing up in a fishing family on the South Carolina coast - sea trout, flounder, crab, sea bass, weakfish, etc

14:00 Taste test: Freshwater vs. sea trout

16:00 Hush-puppy fish fry

19:00 Growing up in fishing, growing away from it, then circling back around as an adult

21:00 Finding your path (however circuitously)

22:00 Want to break into an agency job? Persistence + volunteering + keep applying

25:00 R3 - Recruitment, Retention, Reactivation

26:00 Developing a salt marsh education program + Angling Women, a business to teach introductory marsh fishing to women and families

30:00 Poll: Who do you think asks for fishing lessons more often... men? Or women?

33:00 The tackle-purse! No, really. Plus, rod charms.

35:00 Environmental education bearing fruit: When a kid in a salt marsh ed program becomes a fishing guide

37:00 The $700 fish pic

42:00 From spin rods to fly rods + that first tug on a fly

45:00 Taking someone new? Especially a kid? Try leaving your rod at home. And maybe pack some non-fishing entertainment, too

50:00 "However you treat the trip is how they're going to remember it."

53:00 Find BeBe and Angling Women on Facebook and Instagram

59:00 Get in touch! [email protected], or, check out our Facebook group

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This week we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes - we're here to 'pick' the brain of mushroom expert Kristen Blizzard (see what we did there? Pick the brain? Har, har.) Kristen and her husband run ModernForager.com, an online resource for foragers across the country. Kristen tells us about everyone's favorite -- the morel -- plus other mushrooms you can easily add to your repertoire with a little extra know-how. We also discuss how to harvest for success in the kitchen. The culinary possibilities are endless!

3:40 - Harvesting arnica when the mushrooms aren't in

5:00 - Kristen and Trent Blizzard run ModernForager.com

9:40 - Mushrooms totally have a terroir, a sense of flavor imparted by the place they were harvested. It's simply lovely.

12:30 - What apple is to tree, mushroom is to mycelium. The mycelial network is everywhere! Under every forest floor. They're tree-like. 

14:30 - "The Wood-Wide Web" – check it out

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-wood-wide-web/478224/; https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/from-tree-to-shining-tree

21:00 - Morel hunting wonderfully overlaps with spring bear season. Wild mushrooms complement wild game so beautifully.

23:00 - Adding a new mushroom to your foraging repertoire is a big deal! On posting a mushroom pic to an online forum, and having multiple different (very confident) answers on what it is

24:00 - Coral mushrooms are very hard to tell apart. Some cause gastric upset, others are fine. (Corals = mushroom jerky)

26:00 - Safe foraging is like any hobby: The more you do it, the better you get. Don't eat random mushrooms. Work on your ID skills

28:00 - People from Michigan = Michiganders

30:00 - Burn Morels vs. Anywhere Morels: You're collecting in a 5-gal. bucket versus just trying to find enough for dinner

32:00 - Do the time to find your spots, then those mushrooms come back over and over again. Black morels come out at higher elevation. The blonde ones often show up lower.

33:00 - Porcinis (boletes), chanterelles, and oyster mushrooms

39:00 - Start with a good mushroom book, then build your know-how. Chanterelles, for example, have a white interior. Less-edible look-alike have an orange-colored interior.

40:00 - Different geographies come with different look-alike of edible mushrooms. If you're foraging in California, waaaay more look-alike mushrooms than, say, in Colorado

41:00 - Timing of mushroom season is somewhat correlated to moisture... you can find mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest at Thanksgiving that might only be found in spring in Colorado

43:00 - On harvesting mushrooms sustainably - it's a hot topic! Cutting versus pulling is less important than protecting the environment where mycelium thrive

45:00 - On etiquette, pick what you'll use, and maybe consider leaving some for other pickers

46:00 - "Shrub" = A mushroom-infused drinking vinegar. Chanterelle shrub... fruity and delicious. Matsutaki shrub... cinnamon and socks. Pick your flavor, everyone!

48:00 - Mushroom confit

50:00 - Mushroom ice cream (candy caps, everyone! The maple flavor is astounding.)

51:00 - Chanterelle sorbet, chanterelle-apricot jam... the possibilities are truly endless

52:00 - Different mushrooms keep differently. Some don't keep their flavor when dehydrated, so try cooking and freezing those. It varies by the species.

53:00 - SAFETY... it's pretty intuitive, right? Don't eat something unless you know what it is. Apart from that, walking in circles looking at the ground is a great way to get lost. A GPS app helps.

58:00 - Check out the Modern Forager harvesting bag ... and LOTS of tips on how to harvest for success in the kitchen

1:05:00 - Getting started? Join a mycology society (yes, they actually exist) and meet some geeky mushroom people. Second thing: Find those mushroom groups on Facebook. They're great. (And all the #humblebragging totally tells you when certain mushrooms are in.) Lastly, get a mushroom book. The David Arora guide is a staple. Plus, "All That the Rain Promises and More"

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This week we hear from South Carolina hunter Morgan Harrell, who checks in with us on Artemis's first turkey camp in the region. Plus, what's different about hunting with other women? Also in this episode: snow geese parts, what we remember from our childhoods, and eating the non-traditional cuts of meat.

2:00 "The only thing between Columbia and hell is a screen door."

4:00 Artemis South Carolina takes flight - women are coming together to share the sport

6:00 Nuts/flour/fish/moonshine... peek into thy freezer, peek into thyself

7:30 Canning wild game... yay or nay? (Pressure canning and the fear of blowing your house up)

10:00 Snow geese hearts and livers

12:00 Liver puddin'

17:00 Heart slices over the camp fire + other family memories

18:00 Being the only woman on the trip; Making use of every last bit of your harvest

21:00 Eating the non-traditional cuts - neck roasts, caul fats, etc

24:00 The regional ethics of what we do/don't eat

29:00 Family hunt camp and dead rattlesnakes that keep on wiggling

33:00 Childhood memories from the outdoors that persist

36:00 Artemis South Carolina does turkey camp! 

38:00 What's different about a hunt with all women? 

44:00 Finding turkeys (or not)

45:00 Hogs do the darnedest things

51:00 Are we ready for the Official Mary Lynn Fan Club yet?

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It seems like a no-brainer: Let's conserve all wildlife, right? Jen Syrowitz of Washington state joins Artemis to talk about the importance of funding, which is possibly one of the least sexy parts of conservation. We also talk about upland bird hunting (dog, or no dog?), grouse, prairie chickens, and partridge.

6:00 Saving your seasonal bounty in the freezer... then realizing harvest time is almost upon us. Time to use those huckleberries/grouse/[insert food here]

7:30 Sand County Almanac 

8:00 Graduate school in Manitoba to bird hunting to a conservation career

9:00 Conservation Northwest = the NWF affiliate in Washington state

11:00 Prairie chickens

15:00 Upland bird hunting: Dogs vs no dogs

19:00 First bird: a Hungarian partridge flushing overhead

21:00 Funding for wildlife management... but first, let’s go back to early environmental ed

26:00 How can we give people the right ecological literacy to understand (and participate in) wildlife management decisions?

31:00 We invest in what we know and love

32:00 Missouri conservation tax - a miniscule sales tax add-on that earns big

35:00 Recovering America's Wildlife Act  - proposed legislation to fund conservation work to revive wildlife populations on the brink of ESA listing

41:00 Funding = the most unsexy conservation topic... but also vital 

43:00 Northern gardening woes

45:00 Bear cub on the trail! Plus, channeling Tina Turner when you need her

49:00 Grassroots conservation + changing gender dynamics of land ownership

52:00 Missing a shot

53:00 "The honorable harvest" + Artemis book club: "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer

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What does it mean to be a conservation advocate? It's different for every person. This week, Artemis ambassador Anne Jolliff talks about what she's learned over the past year about how to best advocate for wild spaces. She shares her "why" and her "how," and more on how it's going.

00:20 Montana Wildlife Federation + Artemis 101

1:00 "Go Confident as an Advocate" program

3:00 Ladies and gentlemen... we are hearing from a mother of 5-year-old triplets

6:00 Why be a conservation advocate? 

8:00 First thing: What's holding you back?

10:00 The first time you speak up for something you believe in

13:00 Writing an op-ed, testifying at a hearing, sharing what you know with others

15:00 Preconceptions about what it means to "be an advocate"

16:00 "I'm not here to be the magic bullet that changes everyone's minds and pivots this whole discussion, as much as I would like it to... but I am going to show up."

21:00 When was the last time you changed your mind? 

23:00 Wear fancy dresses in the dirt, ya'all

28:00 Start by watching... hearings, the political process, everything. Follow the groups that fit your beliefs. Engage. Reach out. Talk to people.

33:00 Don't be afraid to fail... failure is integral to how you learn this kind of thing

37:00 Ethos, logos, pathos

39:00 Bear! Right there!

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