In this episode Bill and Anders talk with Chris Hill, the CEO of the Conservation Lands Foundation. Chris highlights CLF's commitment to the National Conservation Lands System and the communities that adjoin these special areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management. They talk about the 25th anniversary of the Conservation Lands System, grass-roots cultivation and how to never forget why you got into the work in the first place.

Learn more and find the resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.

This Labor Day, we’re turning the spotlight on the people behind our public lands. In this bonus episode, Bill and Anders sit down with three former federal employees who thought they had found their dream jobs in service to the land and the public, only to have those jobs abruptly taken away.

Learn more and find the resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week on The Wild Line, we dig into major developments for America’s public lands. The USDA has extended the comment period on its controversial Forest Service reorganization plan. At the same time, Secretary Rollins has opened public comment on a move to rescind the Roadless Rule, threatening 45 million acres of backcountry lands. In Texas, plans to expand Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge have been abandoned, even as a court ruling weakens protections for the lesser prairie chicken. We also bring you updates from Montana’s Western Policy Caucus, the Alaska Oil and Gas Association meeting, new wildfire research in California, and a union vote among Yosemite rangers.

Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.

How do we turn the scars of environmental injustice into real innovation for a healthier future? For the fourth part of our Southern Currents series, Bill talks with Josephus Allmond, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, about environmental justice and the push for fair energy solutions in Virginia.

Learn more and find the resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with Theodore Roosevelt IV, who they call Ted, to talk about Alaska, public lands, and what it means to carry forward a legacy of stewardship. From the North Slope to the Tongass, the conversation reveals a personal history in our 49th state with some critical policy and legislation data in the dialogue as well.

Find the resources and links mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this Southern Currents episode, Bill traveled back to Southern Appalachia early in the spring, just months after Hurricane Helene, to trace the impacts of a storm that has reshaped the region’s communities and forests hundreds of miles inland. We sit down with longtime conservation allies, Josh Kelly of MountainTrue, Ben Prater of Defenders of Wildlife, Sam Evans of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and later Jill Gottesman of The Wilderness Society, to reflect on what recovery really looks like. The conversation moves from personal stories of evacuations, power outages, and neighbors sharing water, to bigger questions about resilience, both human and ecological.

Find the resources and links mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this episode Bill and Anders head deep into the Okefenokee with guest Kim Bednarek, the executive director of the Okefenokee Swamp Park. Kim shares the story of how a local community created the park in the 1940s as a way to connect people with the swamp, and how today that mission has expanded into conservation education and community-led advocacy. We also cover the World Heritage Site nomination for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Find the resources and links mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

Today on the Wild Line we bring you some numbers of hope for Red Wolf recovery, a temporary restraining order on more development at the Everglades detention facility and win for the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. There is also a new map out there that shows the public lands at risk of disposal. These stories and more on this week's Wild Line.

Find the resources and links mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this second Southern Currents bonus episode of The Wild Idea, Bill chats with Stewart Noland, Tommie Kelly, and Martha Morris from the Ozark Society, the group that came together in 1962 to keep the Buffalo River from being dammed and went on to make it America’s first National River in 1972.

They swap stories from that fight, like riding the Jubilee Bus to Washington, D.C. and floating the river with Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and talk about how the work to protect the Buffalo has come up again and again with new threats like landfills, dams, and hog farms. They also share how the Society keeps pushing forward, protecting rivers and wilderness, building trails, and getting the next generation out on the water. 

Learn more and access the resources and links mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

Environmental justice scholar Joe Whitson joins Bill and Anders to talk about how our stories about nature shape the land itself.

Joe explains his concept of “wildernessing,” the process of making a place look and feel “untouched” through policy decisions, land management, and marketing, even though these landscapes have deep human histories. The conversation moves from history to the present, exploring how our cultural definition of “wilderness” has shifted over time, why climate change is challenging the myth of pristine nature, and what it will take to create a more just and inclusive future for public lands.

Find the resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.