Conservation Matters® Podcast

Listen to Shane Mahoney, CEO of Conservation Visions, speak of how the events of the past (Cecil, the Lion and others) have been the spark - not the fuel - of making change - and how the time is NOW to act in the field of conservation. Shane is speaking at the 2017 Dallas Safari Club annual convention,  and asks attendees to walk in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt. Be bold. Be decisive. Be generous.  Learn more about Conservation Visions at . Follow us at  and  and watch more keynote speeches at

Do you ever think about where your food comes from? How it was procured? Hunters and anglers know EXACTLY where their food comes from - while not everyone personally chooses to hunt or fish, we can agree that these activities do procure a significant amount of healthy, organic rich food by humans. And not just the people who got the food to begin with - neighbors, friends and even shelters benefit from this protein source. What would it cost to replace that protein source? What it is worth economically, nutritionally, socially? The Wild Harvest Initiative® will provide empirical answers to these questions. This is also a YouTube video found here:  Learn more about Conservation Visions at  Follow us on Facebook at  and on instagram at

Public ownership of firearms was instrumental to the birth of the conservation movement in North America and still contributes to its continued success. This audio was made into a short video found on Boone & Crockett Club's YouTube channel here:  Learn more about Conservation Visions and Shane Mahoney at  Follow us at  and  and

Pollinator habitat is in peril and should be of utmost important to us. Pollinators are an integral part of our environment and they are sending a clear signal that all is not right in the world. As an example, populations of Monarch butterflies have decreased by 90%. We rely on pollination to help produce one in every three bites of food we consume. Organizations such as Pheasants Forever are helping to restore pollinator habitat. Pollinator habitat is created in the same wild areas our wildlife need to flourish. Watch this on YouTube at   Learn more about Shane Mahoney and Conservation Visions at  and join us at  and

We sometimes believe we will never be surprised anymore. But then, in one of the great cities of the world, in one of the great zoos of the world...people jump over a barrier, shoot a rhino for his horn and then make their getaway. Sounds like fiction? But it is fact. And it is taking place in the same world where there is a rising empathy for animals as well as rising tension for hunting and the sustainable use of wildlife.  Listen to Shane's passionate speech from the GOABC Convention, spring 2017. In it, Shane explains living in the past is not going to help us move forward; he believes in building coalitions of strengths instead of silos of weakness and how conservation is the most complicated business in the world.  Shane ends the speech discussing the Wild Harvest Initiative, which is well underway. For example, we've discovered, conservatively speaking, the average hunter shares their harvest with four other people. They don't knock on their neighbor's door and and hold up a plate of meat and say, "I'm sharing with you this prime rib from the grocery store."  Learn more at  Follow Shane on Facebook at  and

Shane Mahoney, CEO of Conservation Visions, speaks at the 2017 Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation National Convention. Learn more about Shane at   Follow Shane on Facebook at  and on Instagram   "There can be no doubt, that we live in a constantly changing world now. A world that seems to bring unending challenge to things that we hold dear and to the values that we cherish. The world is becoming an incredibly different place. We are seeing massive changes in the way the land is used. Massive movements of people away from the rural lifestyles that were part and parcel of nourishing the hunting tradition in our countries. We are 4.5% of the people in this nation who hunt. In some states it is 1.5%. We know, that if we become too few, we will become irrelevant. Yet despite these problems, I am now incredibly optimistic. It is because those social trends that were moving people away from hunting, away from the lifestyle we believe in, away from the values that we cherish, they like all social trends eventually bend back on themselves. And now what we have, in our cities, in our suburbs, in the very places we thought where it was lost, we have people that want to be locavores. They want organic food. They want a lifestyle that will have them live forever. One of the things they are realizing, is that our tradition, our lifestyle, our venturing out onto those lands, and pushing ourselves in these hunting experiences. In harvesting those animals that have lived wild and free their entire existence. In harvesting them for food and sharing them with friends and family, they are coming to understand, that this is something valuable. This is something precious." - Shane Mahoney

Shane Mahoney, CEO of Conservation Visions, speaks in front of a group in Missouri about the critical conservation challenges we face. He discusses the rising empathy for wildlife, how conservation groups need to respond, and how we all need to realize this is more complex than simply trying to label it coming from one particular outlier group. Conservation is a global effort and Shane stresses we all need to find ways to speak about conservation issues on levels everyone can understand.  Thank you for listening. Learn more about Conservation Visions at

Shane Mahoney, CEO of Conservation Visions, argues that allowing legal trade of rhino horn could, possibly, save the species. What do you think? Listen to this brief explanation and find us at  or

Poaching is often defined as unlawful hunting, almost as a subset of hunting, which it is not. Poaching is the illegal taking of wildlife. Poachers are not hunters - they are thieves. But often today, poaching and hunting are being confused in the public mind. Poachers act in complete disregard for conservation practices - and thusly, erroad the public trust in hunting altogether. Shane Mahoney, CEO of Conservation Visions, explains more in this brief podcast.  Learn more about Shane, his works and Conservation Visions at  Follow Shane at  and

The model of conservation has been around for 120 years – but yet as hunters and anglers we have never explained our activities in the form of harvested food. There are approximately 35-40 million people in U.S. and Canada who fish or hunt, and records are kept of the many state natural resource associations of harvest. We know those 35-40 million people are harvesting a remarkable amount of food - in the billions of pounds. In addition to all the economic impacts hunting has, how are we as a society going to replace those billions of pounds of harvested protein each year?  The Wild Harvest Initiative is going to reframe the debate of the modern relevance of hunting   This speech is also in video form found on Conservation Visions' YouTube page - link is here --->