Shepherds of the Wild Podcast

Recorded on location in Zambia's Lower Luano Valley in July, this episode takes listeners inside the early preparation for Operation Return of the Wild. Tom Opre and photographer Tony Bynum attend a traditional festival in Shikabeta, reconnect with the rural communities at the heart of the project and speak with conservationist Roland Norton about what has changed since the filming of Killing the Shepherd.

This is raw audio from the field—before the arrival of the buffalo and before anyone knew whether the operation would ultimately succeed. It captures the people, the landscape and the difficult groundwork required to restore wildlife in a place where conservation must also create tangible benefits for the communities living alongside it.

Learn more about Operation Return of the Wild at http://www.shepherdsofwildlife.org

Recorded on location in Zambia's Lower Luano Valley in July, this episode takes listeners inside the early preparation for Operation Return of the Wild. Tom Opre and photographer Tony Bynum attend a traditional festival in Shikabeta, reconnect with the rural communities at the heart of the project and speak with conservationist Roland Norton about what has changed since the filming of Killing the Shepherd.

This is raw audio from the field—before the arrival of the buffalo and before anyone knew whether the operation would ultimately succeed. It captures the people, the landscape and the difficult groundwork required to restore wildlife in a place where conservation must also create tangible benefits for the communities living alongside it.

Learn more about Operation Return of the Wild at http://www.shepherdsofwildlife.org

What does conservation really mean, and when does protecting nature become removing people from it?

Filmmaker Tom Opre sits down with Montana rancher, horseman, and Life in the West creator Trinity Vandenacre to discuss conservation versus preservation, wildlife management, hunting, ranching, predators, wildfire, and forestry.

The conversation also turns to the emerging financialization of nature, including carbon and biodiversity credits and whether putting a monetary value on ecosystems could ultimately change who controls natural resources.

Are we managing nature for abundance, or simply trying to keep people out of it?

In the final chapter of this 3-episode series, filmmaker Tom Opre talks to Allan about putting it all together, all the lessons of his life and research, and where this planet is headed. They talk about Allan's memoir, his life's work, and the big thing that everyone, from scientists to world leaders, keeps missing.

In the second part of this 3-part series, filmmaker Tom Opre talks to a world-renowned scientist and speaker about growing up in a Rhodesia divided by civil war, forays into the military and parliament, and how tracking animals and enemies informed his attitudes and philosophies on nature and humankind's ultimate survival.

Allan Savory is the Godfather of regenerative agriculture. In the first part of this three-part series, filmmaker Tom Opre talks to Allan about what brought him to wildlife, wild places, and the wise use of natural resources. They'll discuss his start, the cultural climate in Africa during the mid-19th century, during the demise of colonialism, and the trials and tribulations of trying to convince the world that we've been doing it wrong all this time.

In this episode of the Shepherds of the Wild Podcast, Tom goes in-depth with Roland Norton of Makasa Safaris. As documented in Tom's film "Killing the Shepherd", over a decade ago, at the behest of the area's chieftainess, Roland and Makasa Safaris moved into the lower Luano Valley in Zambia to help restore wildlife numbers. After a decade spent fighting poaching, and engaged in community projects, the people of the lower Luano, and the wildlife are starting to rebound in a big way. But a few vital, endemic species have not returned. So the next step is Project Return of the Wild. Tom and Roland discuss the problems, the solutions, and the best way to get involved.

In this episode of the Shepherds of the Wild podcast, filmmaker Tom Opre has a frank discussion with Pete Geddes. Pete is the Chief External Relations Officer for American Prairie, a non-profit dedicated to "restoring" a large swath of Montana to its previous state, before Lewis and Clark's Discovery of the Great Montana Plains. They'll discuss bison, land acquisition, the area's current residents, as well as the overall impact on the environment, the economy, and the people.

In this episode of Shepherds of the Wild, filmmaker Tom Opre sits down with Garrett Budds, Chief Conservation Officer of American Prairie, for a direct and wide-ranging conversation about one of the most ambitious conservation projects in North America. Budds explains American Prairie's vision to assemble a large, functioning prairie ecosystem in north-central Montana and addresses hard questions around land acquisition, grazing allotments, bison reintroduction, predator expansion, water rights, public access, and hunting. This episode explores what "rewilding" really means on the ground—and how conservation, agriculture, wildlife management, and rural communities collide in the modern American West.

In this episode, conservationist and filmmaker Tom Opre sits down with Mark Sather, a longtime Montana sportsman and employee of the Sieben Livestock Company, to unpack one of the most volatile and misunderstood issues in Western conservation: access, entitlement, and responsibility.

Raised hunting the Gates of the Mountains and the Bob Marshall, Sather brings a generational sportsman's perspective shaped by years working inside a large, wildlife-rich cattle operation. He speaks candidly about what happens when public wildlife, private land, federal agencies, state managers, and modern hunting technology collide—sometimes literally—with helicopters, drones, and rising tensions in the field.

The conversation moves deep into block management, helicopter access to landlocked public ground, changing hunter behavior, and the real-world consequences ranchers face when gates are left open, cattle are displaced, and trust breaks down. Sather also explains how proactive management—cow elk harvests, hazing with drones, and collaboration with Fish & Game—can reduce conflict while still putting meat in freezers.

This is not a theoretical discussion. It's a ground-level look at how conservation actually works—or fails—when emotion, politics, and entitlement replace humility, stewardship, and dialogue.

If you care about hunting, public land, private land, and the future of wildlife in the American West, this is a conversation you need to hear.