The Art of Range Podcast

How does barbed wire affect wildlife? Is there a better way to manage livestock location that distributes grazing effects and cares for the other animals occupying these landscapes? Maybe this is not a new idea? Jay Kehne with Conservation Northwest believes virtual fence is one of the answers. CNW facilitated and funded implementation of a virtual fence system for numerous ranchers affected by a large wildfire in 2020-21 that burned nearly half a million acres of sage grouse habitat in the Pacific Northwest. He's learned a thing or two about virtual fence and shares much of that in this interview.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-165-virtual-fence-benefits-wildlife-jay-kehne-conservation-northwest for links to resources mentioned in this interview and a full transcript.

The King Ranch is considered "The Birthplace of American Ranching". On its 150th birthday, King Ranch partnered with Texas A&M Kingsville to establish a masters program in ranch management, the only one of its kind. Rick Machen is the executive director of this program and speaks to the efficacy and reach of the Institute, still in its first quarter-century. Rick and Tip discuss why ranching well matters more than ever, why training future ranchers is critical, and how the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management functions to serve these Texas-sized goals.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission.

Go to the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-164-king-ranch-institute-ranch-management-rick-machen for links to resources mentioned in this episode as well as the full transcript of the conversation.

Andrew Coppin is the co-founder and CEO of RanchBot, a company aiming to reduce the cost and stress of managing stockwatering supplies in the large percentage of the world's surface where water really matters to grazing operations of all sizes. But as a former investment banker in corporate finance, Andrew has broader socioecological goals: "Ranchers are the largest custodians of natural capital on the planet outside of governments, and 98% of ranchers I know are trying to respect the land and work in sympathy with nature, and they're trying to leave the planet better than they found it for their children and their children's children. This is embedded in most ranchers' raison d'etre--RanchBot can help ranchers verify natural capital, to gather data that demonstrates stewardship."

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Go to the episode page for a full transcript and links to resources mentioned in this interview: https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-163-stockwater-monitoring-technologies-and-natural-capital-andrew-coppin-ranchbot

The Montana Grazing Lands Coalition 2025 Grazing Expo is an event designed to empower land managers with tangible resources while highlighting the West-wide impact of sound grazing lands stewardship. In this interview with Megan Terry, executive director for the Montana Grazing Lands Coalition, we discuss the importance of rancher peer-to-peer learning, integrated face-to-face grazing management education, and why people should attend the 2025 Grazing Expo in Billings September 4-7 and get involved with their state's or region's Grazing Lands Coalition. Listen to Megan's story about becoming an advocate for active management of wild rangelands.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-162-grazing-lands-expo-2025-megan-terry for a full transcript of this interview and links to resources mentioned in this episode.

What would rural finance look like if it truly supported long-term stewardship and resilience? This is the question Zach Ducheneaux has been asking himself and working toward for a couple of decades. Zach is an agricultural producer, a farming advocate, and the former Administrator of the USDA Farm Service Agency. From experiencing firsthand ag lending dysfunction in the 1980s farm crisis, to witnessing local community relationships in action that resulted in local lending based on trust, to helping USDA design lending programs that promote young farmers and ranchers, Zach understands ag lending like few others. In this interview he introduces principles that promote long-term capital reinvestment and producer-centered terms. This is good for borrower and lender. And it builds social capital, something badly needed in a modern economy.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Go to the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-161-5th-c-agricultural-lending-zach-ducheneaux for more information or to contact Zach.

Dan Dagget was one of the original members of EarthFirst!, one of the more radical environmental activist organizations of the last 50 years. In his efforts to achieve health for the Earth’s ecosystems, however, he found himself conflicted over environmentalism’s means and the ends those means actually achieved. With that in mind, he began investigating and writing about success stories where active participation by humans in the ecosystems they depended on for livelihoods made the environment healthier than if they were not there. Two of his books, "Beyond the Rangeland Conflict" and "Gardeners of Eden - Rediscovering Our Importance to Nature" have thus been influential for many of us concerned about the serious environmental problems confronting the contemporary American West.

This work is supported by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, project award no. 2022-38640-37487 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-160-dan-dagget-peoples-contributions-nature-and-ecosystem-successes-southwest-us for links to more of Dan's work, including photos on his website which he mentions in the interview, and these books.

"Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its laws." People think they are primarily 'thinking things', but this quote by a musician from ancient Athens speaks to the fact that most of our decision-making and the direction of our efforts in the world are shaped more by our affections. Creative and expressive arts are hugely influential. We should pay as much attention to what feeds our minds as we do to what feeds our physical bodies, and of course, we realize increasingly realize how connected minds and bodies are. This short monologue is an effort to get scientists to think about creative expression for science communication for artists to think scientifically about what values they portray and encourage in works of art.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-159-can-creative-arts-affect-public-perception-about-rangelands-brief-musing-tip for some related imagery and links to the project website.

Visual arts that draw attention to wild, open spaces have been culturally important in the United States. The outdoors painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were instrumental in making Americans aware of spectacularly beautiful places most people would not know about otherwise. And they catalyzed efforts to conserve these landscapes for ecological value and future enjoyment. Frank Stick was one of those painters, one whose work flowed out of deep personal experience and love of nature. Mike Mordell is an outdoorsman, forestry executive, and art collector who authored an illustrated biography of Frank Stick to draw attention to this important work. Art shapes us, directs our affections. Listen to this episode with Mike about the artwork of Frank Stick, "splendid painter of the out-of-doors."

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode are at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-158-frank-stick-splendid-painter-out-doors-biographer-mike-mordell

Can we effectively limit wildfire risk or change the fire risk profile using deliberate grazing? Or is this just wishful, simplistic thinking: "Cows eat fine fuel so that stops fire, right?" These are questions that demand scientific answers, not just anecdotes or coffee shop opinions. Sergio Arispe has worked with other researchers in the Western U.S. to better understand numerous questions around grazing for fire control and to fine-tune the timing, duration, intensity, and frequency of grazing that is most effective in shifting the plant community toward fire resiliency. A current ranch-scale research project aims to understand winter grazing effects on cheatgrass populations and associated wildfire risk in the subsequent summer. This is a timely topic for most rangelands in North America and especially drier ecosystem types with any species of exotic annual grasses.

This work is supported by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, project award no. 2022-38640-37487 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-157-grazing-fine-fuels-management-and-wildfire-mitigation-sergio-arispe for links to websites and research papers mentioned in this interview.

Over 15 years ago, the veteran journalist Steve Stuebner and Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission executive Gretchen Hyde set out to use the new media landscape to tell good news stories about rangeland landscapes and the unique people who care for them. This has been a wildly successful venture that has reached far beyond the borders of Idaho. Listen to this interview with Steve and Gretchen about the recent "15-year retrospective" story and video on Life on the Range.

The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission; Vence, a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health; and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center.

Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-156-15-years-life-range-steve-stuebner-gretchen-hyde for a full transcript of the interview and links to resources mentioned in this episode.