Land Ethic

Lakhan Clark is an outdoorsman and writer from Auckland, New Zealand. He's passionate about connecting to the natural world through the pursuit of wild food in the NZ backcountry. He's committed to helping preserve this human and wildlife connection by sharing his adventures and experience with others.We connected a while back on social media through shared interests in the outdoors and the tough questions surrounding ethical wildlife management. Lakhan has some interesting perspectives as a kiwi hunter. New Zealand is often thought of as a sportsman’s paradise with abundant wild game and relatively few restrictions. As you will hear, all of that comes at a price.We spent most of the episode talking about the various introduced species in New Zealand, how they got there, and how they are being managed. From Red Deer and Wallaby to Wild Turkeys and Peacocks, it’s a bizarre place. We also touched on firearms restrictions, culling programs, feral cats and all sorts of interesting wildlife stories. Thanks to Lahkan for coming on the show, and I hope you will check out his content online. I’d start by reading his articles on Meateater and by following him on Instagram @fillthefreezer2.0.

Robert Kent is the Texas State Director for The Trust for Public Land, where he leads a team of colleagues and volunteers working to make the health, climate, equity, and community benefits of parks and nature accessible to all. Born and raised in Dallas, Robert is passionate about building green, resilient cities in the Lone Star State.

Since joining the TPL in 2014, Robert has led their work to develop a network of parks and trails across southern Dallas, help pass a $310 million bond package for parks and trails, develop an open space plan for City of Fort Worth, and acquire hundreds of acres of land for new parks throughout Texas, to name a few things. In 2009, Robert completed a 2,100-mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, followed by a coast-to-coast hike across Scotland in 2011.

You will hear about Robert’s formative time at Baylor University in my home town of Waco, TX, his international studies in Scotland, his Appalachian Trail thru-hike, and all about the TPL’s work in Texas communities, from dusting off historic city plans for urban greenways and parks to the 2 billion dollar idea for a Texas Land and Water Conservation Fund.Head to TPL.org to find out more and to see some of the projects we discussed.

Dr. Jason LaBelle is a professor of anthropology at Colorado State University. He is the director of a research lab called the Center for Mountain and Plains Archaeology, and serves as the curator of the Archaeological Repository at CSU. He specializes in the study of hunter-gatherers, specifically pre and post-contact Native American cultures of the Intermountain West. He and his students research the early peopling of the North American continent, including such topics high altitude and mountain archaeology, communal hunting, and lithic technology.

We talked about some of the incredible archaeological sites found throughout Colorado that help tell the stories of the first people in the Americas. These sites include ancient hunting grounds in high mountain passes and seasonal camps in the plains, the oldest evidence dating back to over 12,000 years ago. Dr. LaBelle’s research, and his ability to communicate it to a broader audience, opens a window to our shared past, connecting us to an ancient story of survival. It’s fascinating to speculate on the lives these people lived, and hard to imagine how they withstood it all.

Jaden Bales is a sportsman and western hunting tag expert from Wyoming. He’s written for outdoor media websites like Rokslide and Modern Huntsman, and has appeared regularly on podcasts such as Eastman’s Elevated and the Rich Outdoors. When he’s not hunting or talking about hunting, he’s advocating for wildlife as the communications director for Wyoming Wildlife Federation, an organization that provides leadership in conservation for Wyoming’s wildlife, hunters, and anglers through policy, education, advocacy, and habitat projects.

We did a deep dive into western hunting, from some of Jaden’s personal stories, to how he helps people find good opportunities through his new venture, Hunt West. A few days after this recording, I hired Jaden for a consultation. He put a lot of effort into producing a custom package for me to help me achieve some of my hunting goals and understand where and how I need to be applying for tags. Well worth it for anyone from new hunters trying to understand the system to experienced sportsmen looking for some new opportunities or places to hunt.

One aspect of this podcast is that it gives me an avenue to connect with people that I admire and can learn something from. I found Jaden’s early hunting stories to be very relatable to my own experiences so far, and he’s been able to advance as an outdoorsman to the point where he’s having consistent success and some amazing adventures, so it was nice to pick his brain a bit, and I hope you enjoy the conversation. Even if you aren’t into hunting, this is about growth and love for the outdoors.

You can learn more at Huntwest.net, follow Jaden on Instagram at @HuntsWest, and see what the awesome team at Wyoming Wildlife Federation is doing by visiting Wyomingwildlife.org.

Dr. Mark Elbroch is a scientist, tracker, writer, and storyteller. His is the lead scientist for the Puma Program at Panthera, a global nonprofit focused on wild cat conservation. Mark’s research on mountain lions is changing what we thought we knew about the species, especially with regards to their social lives and their keystone roles in ecosystems. His work was the central storyline of the BBC film, Big Cats in High Places, and National Geographic’s Wild’s Cougars Undercover.

Mark earned a Senior Tracker Certificate in 2005 in Kruger National Park, South Africa, after successfully following African lions across the terrain without being detected. He was the 17th person to receive one and the first non-African. He has also authored 10 books on natural history, including field guides to animal tracking, animal skulls, survival skills, and his latest, The Cougar Conundrum, which we talk about in this interview.

We cover Mark’s scientific and academic background, his tracking experience, and then spend most of the conversation talking all about mountain lions and how we manage and coexist with them. You can learn more about his work with wild cat conservation at www.panthera.org, and you can peruse his books and scientific publications at www.markelbroch.com.

Stephanie Williams (her friends call her Steph) is a mountain guide, field biologist, and co-founder of the Cascades Wolverine Project. She has over a decade of experience in field science, and two decades in the outdoor industry. She first worked as a guide in 2003 on the glaciers of Alaska’s Wrangell Mountains. Since then, she has skied and guided in alpine wildlands of India, Iceland, Switzerland, New Zealand, China, Chile, and across western North America.

I contacted Steph after seeing her appearance in a short film called Finding Gulo - Gulo gulo being the scientific name for wolverines. Finding Gulo is about the Cascades Wolverine Project’s efforts to monitor and share images of the elusive creatures as they attempt to recover in parts of their historic range. The film shows the immense effort that goes into finding wolverines, and the people who are passionately trying to support them through field monitoring, storytelling, and backcountry community science.

We talked about what drew Steph toward living and working in the mountains, and the formative experiences that led to her backcountry skiing career. We covered wolverine behavior and characteristics and, finally, the recent film.

You can watch Finding Gulo online at CascadesWolverineProject.org. It’s really concise and beautiful, and you’ll get to see Steph in her element trying to track down these critters.

If you’re new to the podcast, welcome and thanks for listening. All I ask is that you please take a moment to rate and review the show on iTunes or wherever you listen. It takes less than a minute, and it really means a lot to me.

Kenyon Fields is a conservationist and rancher from western Colorado. His background is in conservation biology and landscape scale conservation planning. He worked for many years in Alaska for the U.S. Forest Service and as executive director of Sitka Conservation Society, before serving as western strategic director of Wildlands Network.

Kenyon was one of the founding members of Western Landowners Alliance, along with Mary Conover. Now husband and wife, Kenyon and Mary own and operate Mountain Island Ranch, a generational 32,000-acre cattle ranch along the Utah-Colorado border entirely under conservation easement, with another 100,000 acres of grazing allotments on public land.

We talked about Kenyon’s own “Green Fire” moment, a reference to Aldo Leopold and the experience that led him toward the ideas we now celebrate. Kenyon’s was a transformative summer spent working in forestry in Southeast Alaska. We also delved into Mountain Island’ Ranch's current operations, their restoration projects, and their approach to public grazing allotments.

I’d encourage you to visit KenyonFieldsPhoto.com for some context of the landscape we're discussing. He does a great job capturing the drastic seasonal change, the diverse wildlife, and the everyday ranching scenes out there, along with stunning landscapes across the world. And, of course, you’ve heard about Western Landowners Alliance by now in some of the recent episodes. I hope you’ll go to their website and peruse some of their content as well.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is a Linguist, author and film maker. She is the founder and director of the international non-profit organization, Local Futures, a pioneer of the new economy movement, and the convener of World Localization Day.

She is the author of several books, including Ancient Futures, which you’ll hear about in this conversation. Together with a film of the same title, Ancient Futures has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold half a million copies world-wide.

Her work, spanning almost half a century, has received the support of a wide range of international figures, including the likes of Jane Goodall and the Dalai Lama.

Starting in 1975, Helena worked in the Himalayan region with the people of Ladakh to find ways of enabling their culture to meet the modern world without sacrificing social and ecological values. She was the first Westerner in modern times to become fluent in the language. She has helped to initiate localization movements on every continent, and co-founded both the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network.

I was very honored to speak with Helena after reading her first book recently. She advocates for localized alternatives to the global economy, particularly involving the creation of robust local food systems and democratic structures that can effectively resist authoritarianism.

We talked all about her work in Ladakh and the effects of global economic pressures on that place, as well as her other writings, films, and the work she does with Local Futures. You can find all that content at LocalFutures.org.

Jeff Laszlo is a fourth-generation owner of the Granger Ranches, a 13,000-acre cattle ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley. Over the past 20 years or so, he and a team of public agencies and professionals have been restoring a large wetland on the property, which was drained generations ago for grazing use.

What has become known as the O’Dell Creek restoration project has restored some 15 miles of spring-fed streams and 1,000 acres of wetlands. The results include a 900 percent increase in waterfowl numbers, a 600 percent increase in waterfowl species diversity, an improved fishery with reduced water temperatures, the return of rare native vegetation, the reintroduction of imperiled species such as Trumpeter Swans and Arctic grayling, and a vast increase in use for migrating sandhill cranes.

With the rising water table, the bottomland became more productive and better able to support the ranch’s cow-calf operation and hay production. The Granger Ranches has actually grown its livestock operations, demonstrating that ecological balance, sustainable ranching, and economic viability can coexist. This work has garnered numerous awards, including the 2010 National Wetlands Award for Private Land Stewardship, and has been the subject of films and numerous articles.

Jeff and I talked about the history of the family ranch, draining of the valley floor, and all about the restoration project, from impetus through implementation. Jeff articulated the complexity of such an endeavor, and how this sort of local effort has far reaching positive benefits.

Links:

Western Landowners Alliance - Stewardship with Vision Ep. 1

Trout Unlimited - A Public Lands Story

Montana Audubon - O'Dell Creek Restoration