Dedication Point

David Feinman is the vice president of government affairs for the Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF). CLF is a nonprofit that advocates for better management of the Bureau of Land Management's protected land. They are focused specifically on BLM’s National Conservation Lands system, a system that includes the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA.

Although CLF has its HQ in the West - in Durango, CO - David is based in Washington, DC. He’s been working in politics and public policy for 20 years in a variety of roles, and he also teaches at American University.

James Skillen is a professor at Calvin University, and the author of several books about the history of land management and land management policy here in the US. His first book, “The Nation’s Largest Landlord”, chronicles the history of the BLM, while his most recent book, “This Land is Our Land”, explores conservative rebellion against federal land management agencies.

Emily Wakild is the Cecil D. Andrus Endowed Chair for the Environment and Public Lands at Boise State University. She has written books about this history of public lands management in Latin America, and she brings this unique perspective to our ongoing discussions about the management of public lands here in Idaho.

This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at this year’s Snake River Raptor Fest, an event that the Birds of Prey NCA Partnership hosts at Indian Creek Winery every June.

Josh Jackson is the author of the forthcoming book “The Enduring Wild: A Journey into California’s Public Lands”. He’s also the founder of the Forgotten Lands project, and has become an expert on the Bureau of Land Management.

In this episode, we explore a restoration site in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA. Just a few weeks ago, the Birds of Prey NCA Partnership hosted a public planting day in celebration of National Public Lands Day. Listen in as Birds of Prey NCA Partnership president Steve Alsup explains the restoration process, and Charlie Baun from the Idaho Army National Guard helps volunteers get plants in the ground.

This is our final episode of Season Four! We hope you enjoyed all of our restoration-focused interviews!

This week, we’re talking about growing native plants in a nursery setting. Lots of restoration projects include as one component, the planting of nursery grown seedlings. There are several plant nurseries in the region that specialize in growing native plants for restoration projects, and for this episode, we spoke with the owners and operators of Twin Peaks nursery in McCall, ID.

This week’s interview is focused on one crucial aspect of desert shrubland restoration efforts - the use of pre-emergent herbicides. These pre-emergent herbicides prevent seeds from germinating without causing significant harm to most established perennials, and they are used almost universally in restoration projects in sage-steppe ecosystems to reduce the cover of invasive annual grasses. Brynne Lazarus, biologist with USGS, will be guiding us through her research on the use of pre-emergent herbicides in desert shrubland restoration efforts.

This week’s interview is focused on the Soda Fire. This megafire burned nearly 280,000 acres in Southwest Idaho and Southeast Oregon - just adjacent to the the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA - in 2015. This wildfire generated a historic response, with more resources put into restoration, emergency stabilization, and research than ever before. We’re most interested in the research that has been conducted in an effort to test the effectiveness of a variety of different restoration strategies, and our guest is USGS ecologist Cara Applestein. Cara has been conducting research on post-fire restoration at the Soda Fire site since 2015, and shares a wealth of knowledge on this topic in today’s interview.

This week’s interview is focused on the strategic challenges associated with restoring sage-steppe ecosystems in the Great Basin. Our guest is Chad Boyd, a Rangeland Scientist and Research Leader who has been based in Eastern Oregon and working on restoration projects since 1999. His work is focused on establishing strategic decision-making protocols for land managers looking to restore sage-steppe ecosystems across the Great Basin. Despite the enormity of the problem, Chad is optimistic about the future of these landscapes, and I hope this optimism rubs off on some of our listeners!

This is the first episode of Season 4 of Dedication Point! Season 4 will be focused on restoration in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey NCA, and we're getting this conversation started with Matt Germino, supervisory research ecologist with USGS. Germino has been leading a research team focused on restoration strategies and techniques in the Intermountain West since 2011, and he shares his wealth of knowledge on this topic here in this episode!