On Land

Today we sit down with Linda Poole, a rancher and working lands director at Western Landowners Alliance. Linda and her border collies and livestock guardian dogs care for colored finewool sheep, laying hens and sometimes cattle on a prairie homestead south of Malta, Montana.

In 2023 Linda was awarded a Field Work Project grant from the LOR Foundation, which allowed her to experiment with different ways to use waste wool to combat water scarcity and improve soil health on her ranch. Let's dive in to hear what she learned from these experiments. 

Find more in the show notes.

How does human-related sound impact wildlife around us? From trails to roads to cities, this question propels Dr. Jesse Barber, a leader in the emerging field of sensory ecology.

Jesse Barber is a professor of biological sciences at Boise State University. He was recently appointed as the chief conservation curator and chief conservation scientist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

In today's episode, Barber joins Lesli Allison, CEO of Western Landowners Alliance, for a fascinating conversation about the field of sensory ecology, the role of private lands in sustaining a teaming realm of life largely invisible to humans, and its implications for land management and public policy.

Explore links and more in our show notes.

In this episode of the On Land Podcast, we sit down with Chrissy McFarren, the owner of Badger Creek Ranch in Cañon City, Colorado. Chrissy shares her journey from a first-generation rancher, originally from California, to becoming a dedicated land steward in the American West.

We explore the challenges and triumphs of managing a 6,500-acre ranch, where Chrissy and her team balance the demands of producing food with the critical work of land conservation, including her innovative strategies she employs to restore and preserve the Badger Creek watershed, including the use of virtual fencing and prescribed grazing techniques.

Find more details in the show notes at onland.westernlandowners.org.

The first Western Landowners Policy Talk, a special monthly edition of the On Land Podcast, hosted by Louis Wertz of the Western Landowners Alliance, featured Jason Fearneyhough, chief policy officer with WLA, and WLA CEO Lesli Allison. Jason joined WLA as chief policy officer in February 2024, after stints as the deputy commissioner of agriculture for the state of Texas and director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. The discussion started with Jason sharing his vision for WLA's policy program and strategies for engaging within the current political and environmental challenges, such as recent Supreme Court decisions, national elections, and natural resource challenges. Lesli and Jason went on to share thoughts on federal farm bill modifications, drought and water policy, endangered species like pollinators, wolves and grizzly bears, and various state-level initiatives like New Mexico's Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund. The conversation also highlighted ongoing work to support ranch viability, succession planning, and public-private partnerships for conservation, alongside dealing with increased recreational impacts, forest management, and energy development.

Complete show notes are available at onland.westernlandowners.org.

Sarah Wentzel-Fischer is a farmer, a writer, a connector, an advocate. Officially, she wears several hats. She is the Executive Director of the Quivira Coalition, an organization focused on building soil, biodiversity, and resilience on western working landscapes.

Sarah raises pigs and makes compost with her partner on Polk's Folly Farm in northern New Mexico. Farmers in New Mexico elected Sarah to represent them on the board of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. We talk a little bit about what that means for Sarah's involvement in farm bill negotiations and other advocacy work related to that role in our conversation. But most of our conversation focused on the upcoming Regenerate Conference. Quivira organizes the annual event together with American Grassfed and Holistic Management International. This year, it's taking place November 1st to 3rd in Santa Fe.

Western Landowners Alliance is a sponsor of the event and the online podcast will be there. Recording content and sharing stories in a planned podcaster's corner. Sarah and I talked about the theme of this year's event and some of the highlights, for both of us, on the agenda. And, the first day of the conference this year is completely free to attend.

See complete show notes, including links to references from the show, here: onland.westernlandowners.org/podcast/.

Martha Williams is the director of the United State Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act (along with NOAA’s fisheries division). She grew up on a farm in Maryland and studied law at the University of Montana. From 1988 to 2011, she served as legal counsel for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. After a stint as Deputy Solicitor Parks and Wildlife in the Department of the Interior, she was appointed director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks from 2017 to 2020. She is an avid outdoorswoman, hunter and angler. She spoke with Lesli Allison, CEO of Western Landowners Alliance, in August 2023 in the living room of Granger Ranches HQ in the Madison Valley of Montana. Their conversation took place after meeting with landowners and touring the ranch’s remarkable stream restoration project.

Complete show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at onland.westernlandowners.org/podcast/

In this bonus episode, we're sharing an episode from our friends at The Modern West from Wyoming Public Media. The Modern West, hosted by Melodie Edwards, is a podcast documenting the evolving identity of the American West.

The Rolling Stone: The Great Individualist Part 1. 

The cowboy roaming horseback across the American West is nearly inextricable from what it means to be American. Now a new generation of ranchers is working to reinvent this iconic way of life to fit a modern world.

Complete show notes here: onland.westernlandowners.org/2023/podcast/the-modern-west-the-great-individualist/

Sarah King and her husband manage the King’s Anvil Ranch in the Altar Valley, near Tucson, Arizona. Sarah is also the executive director of the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance. AVCA is a watershed based collaborative conservation organization founded in 1995. They use a strongly collaborative, science-based, community driven approach to conserve and sustain both the community and natural resources of the Altar Valley for future generations.

Water is a critical issue for landowners south of Tucson. Sarah and the other members of AVCA are working on some interesting projects to manage water and enhance their watershed. WLA's chief programs officer, Hallie Mahowald, dove into this tricky topic with Sarah in today's episode. 

Full show notes, including a complete transcript, topics discussed, and links to references from the conversation are at onland.westernlandowners.org/podcast/.

This week on the On Land Podcast I welcome veteran water reporter Luke Runyon. Luke covers the Colorado River Basin for public radio station KUNC. His podcast, Thirst Gap, digs into stories that show how water issues can both unite and divide communities throughout the Western U.S. Before covering water at KUNC, Luke covered the agriculture and food beat for five years as KUNC’s Harvest Public Media reporter. 

I spoke with Luke about the big news in Colorado River politics: the announcement of a grand water savings bargain between California, Arizona and Nevada that now waits for Bureau of Reclamation review: what does the deal mean for landowners, what are the implications for the Upper Basin water savings programs now that the lower basin has made a deal, and what does all this really mean in terms of who is saving water and how? Enjoy the show!

Complete show notes, including links, a timecoded list of topics, and a full transcript, are available at onland.westernlandowners.org/podcast.

Today on the show, Western Landowners Alliance's Programs Director Hallie Mahowald had the pleasure of talking to a good friend, Aaron Derwingson. Derwingson is the water projects director for the Nature Conservancy's Colorado River program. He and Hallie both live in Salida, Colorado.

Derwingson has piloted water banking and other tools for flexible water management, conducted field research on the impacts of reduced irrigation, evaluated alternative low water use crops, and upgraded irrigation systems to help improve river flows. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, Aaron served as the Stewardship Director for the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust. They discussed the current situation on the Colorado River, some of the many ways that landowners, in partnership with organizations like TNC, are making their water go farther and do more, and the role of water markets in creating the flexibility in the river system that is needed.

You can find links to references from the conversation, as well as a complete transcript of this episode, at onland.westernlandowners.org.

Topics discussed

[00:01:30] Shortage challenges in the Colorado River Basin

[00:02:19] Doing more with less water

[00:04:50] Examples of solutions for making our water go farther

[00:05:56] Maybell irrigation District diversion improvements

[00:08:31] Minute 323 water for the environment

[00:09:59] Role of water markets

[00:11:38] All water is local

[00:12:20] Power, rural communities and water

[00:13:30] Federal funding and the big opportunity right now

[00:14:56] Role of the states in water funding

[00:16:38] Are our institutions nimble enough for the water crisis

[00:18:09] How water rights holders can be involved in solutions

[00:19:00] Auto Tarp and appropriate technology

[00:20:11] Low-tech restoration

[00:20:57] Compensation for leaving water instream

[00:21:46] Markets for flexibility and public benefit

[00:22:58] Creative water sharing agreements

[00:24:41] Integrate the social with the technical

[00:27:07] The urgency of the Colorado River crisis keeps him up at night

[00:28:25] Elinor Ostrom and the tragedy of the commons

[00:29:37] We need landowners to solve this crisis