Working Wild U

When grizzly bears find an easy meal, they tend to come back for more. On working ranches, dead livestock can attract bears and other predators, increasing the risk of conflict with people and livestock.

In this episode, we visit Montana's Blackfoot Valley, where the Blackfoot Challenge has worked with ranchers and local partners for more than two decades to keep livestock carcasses off the landscape. From carcass pickup to a community composting facility, we explore how this program works, why managing attractants matters, and what it takes to build a lasting, community-led approach to reducing conflict.

Want to learn more? Check out the Carcass Management Producer Tool Kit

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Carcass management, grizzly bear attractants and food conditioning, livestock carcass removal, carcass composting, Blackfoot Challenge, community-led conflict reduction, livestock depredation, roadkill management, composting science, chronic wasting disease (CWD), wildlife disease

Featuring: Randy Gazda (Vice Chair at Blackfoot Challenge, Retired US Fish & Wildlife Service), Jim Stone (Rolling Stone Ranch, Chair at Blackfoot Challenge)

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Cover image: Randy Gazda opens the gate to the carcass composting site used by ranchers and the Department of Transportation in the Blackfoot Valley. Credit: Zach Altman

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of the Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Matt Collins and Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

What does it take to keep livestock safe in grizzly and wolf country? Sometimes, the answer is as simple - and as complicated - as having someone out on the range.

In this episode, we meet range rider Will Munger to explore how an age-old ranching practice is being adapted to reduce conflicts between livestock and large predators.

From horseback to high-tech tools like virtual fencing and wildlife cameras, we look at how range riders protect livestock, monitor wildlife, and care for the land - and why human presence remains one of the most important tools in the conflict reduction toolbox.

Want to learn more? Check out the Range Riding Producer Toolkit.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Range riding, Centennial Valley Association, livestock-predator conflict reduction, grizzly bears and wolves, adaptive grazing management, livestock health and monitoring, virtual fencing and emerging technology, wildlife cameras and predator tracking, communication and collaboration, carcass management, bear safety, rangeland stewardship, funding and training for range riders, NRCS conservation programs

Featuring: Will Munger (former range rider for J Bar L Ranch in Montana's Centennial Valley)

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Cover image: Linnaea Elzinga moves the herd of yearlings through dense forest on Alderspring Ranch in southern Idaho. Photo by Melanie Elzinga.

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of the Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Matt Collins and Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

Montana's Rocky Mountain Front is a hotbed for conflicts between grizzly bears and people. As bear populations recover, what does that mean for the people who live and work alongside them?

In our latest episode of Working Wild University, we meet Blackfeet rancher and tribal elder Joe Kipp and rancher Trina Jo Bradley, who know firsthand the challenges of raising livestock, raising families, and making a living in grizzly country.

From Blackfeet traditions of living with grizzlies to the economic and personal costs of living with large predators, their stories reveal the challenges of sharing a landscape with recovering grizzly populations - and the difficult questions of where to draw the line.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Rocky Mountain Front, Blackfeet Nation, Indigenous perspectives on grizzly bears, human safety, livestock depredation, economic and emotional costs of living with grizzlies, drought and wildlife conflict, livestock loss compensation, tribal land ownership and funding challenges, conflict reduction and wildlife management

Featuring: Joe Kipp (Blackfeet rancher, tribal elder and former chair of the Blackfeet Nation Stockgrowers Association), Trina Jo Bradley (rancher, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Front Ranchlands Group and chair of the Montana Conflict Reduction Consortium)

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Cover image: Fresh grizzly tracks on Joe Kipp's ranch. Credit: Zach Altman

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Matt Collins and Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

What should you do if you come face-to-face with a grizzly bear?

In this video episode of Working Wild U, we head into grizzly country with wildlife filmmaker and bear expert Casey Anderson to explore how bears behave, why encounters happen, and what people can do to stay safe. From reading bear sign to carrying bear spray and staying calm during a close encounter, Casey shares lessons learned from decades spent around grizzlies - and why understanding bears may be one of our best tools for living alongside them.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Grizzly bear behavior and reading bear sign, staying safe while hiking and camping in grizzly country, avoiding surprise encounters, bear spray and preparing for close encounters, common causes of grizzly conflicts, securing attractants, ranching with grizzly bears.

Featuring: Casey Anderson (Host of Endless Venture) and Jared Beaver.

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Cover image: Casey Anderson and Jared Beaver watch grizzlies on working lands in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Credit: Zach Altman

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Video by Zach Altman with additional footage by Riley Mcclaughry; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

After a visit to an elementary school in Wyoming that practices "bear drills," we head to Gardiner, Montana, where living alongside grizzlies is part of daily life.

There, Evan Stout with Bear Awareness Gardiner shows us what it takes for a community to become bear-aware—and find surprising parallels between living with grizzlies in town and on working lands.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Bear Awareness Gardiner, Bear Smart Communities, community-led conflict reduction, bear-resistant trash and attractant management, electric fencing, fruit trees and gleaning, community education and buy-in, tourism and wildlife, funding for conflict reduction

Featuring: Elise Cole (teacher at Wapiti Elementary, where bear drills are a daily routine, also a rancher), Evan Stout (Bear Awareness Gardiner and owner of Yellowstone Wildlife Guide Company)

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Cover image: View of the Wapiti Elementary playground through a 6ft tall fence, where students regularly practice "bear drills" after a grizzly wandered by the school's front door in 2024. Credit: Zach Altman

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Matt Collins and Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

Grizzly management update: What's really going on with the USFWS new proposed grizzly rule

As grizzlies expand across the Northern Rockies, we're revisiting a story from last season that helps connect the dots.

We head to southwest Montana, where ranchers Jami Murdoch and Erik Kalsta are monitoring grizzlies and other wildlife moving through their working lands. Along with Blackfeet rancher Kristen Kipp and federal and state wildlife experts, we explore what grizzly recovery really entails - and what it takes for bears and people to share the landscape.

Note: This episode was first released in January 2024 as part of our second season about community and landowner-led endangered species recovery.

Show Notes

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Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced and edited by Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

Working lands help give expanding grizzly populations room to roam - but highways can turn those connected landscapes into isolated islands.

In this episode, we follow the movement of grizzlies across the Northern Rockies and explore how roads can become barriers to bears and other wildlife. From a bear that approached I-90 47 times before finally crossing, to a stretch of Highway 93 in Montana where vehicle collisions are a major source of grizzly mortality, we dig into the science of what grizzlies need to cross a road.

Environmental journalist and author Ben Goldfarb takes us into the emerging field of road ecology, while wildlife managers with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the US Fish & Wildlife Service show us how wildlife crossings can reconnect habitat and make highways safer for people and animals.

But a crossing is only as useful as the land it connects. What will it take to keep those landscapes intact, too?

Show notes

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Topics discussed: grizzly bear habitat connectivity, wildlife-vehicle collisions, road ecology, wildlife crossings and overpasses, Banff National Park wildlife crossings, private working lands and habitat connectivity, conservation easements and land stewardship, the economics of wildlife crossings, funding for wildlife crossing infrastructure

Featuring: Hilary Cooley (Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, USFWS), Ben Goldfarb (author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet), Payton Adams (Wildlife Biologist, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes), Kari Kingery (Wildlife Program Manager, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes).

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Cover image: The Peter Lougheed Wildlife Overpass in Alberta has led to an 80% reduction in animal-vehicle collisions. Courtesy DIALOG.

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network. Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

What if keeping cattle on public lands is also helping keep critical wildlife habitat intact?

In Wyoming's Upper Green, ranchers move cattle along the historic Green River Drift through one of the epicenters of livestock-grizzly conflict in the Northern Rockies. Public grazing helps sustain private ranchlands—including critical river bottoms and winter range that keep this landscape connected for wildlife.

As grizzlies recover, the challenge of keeping ranches viable while maintaining habitat for wildlife is growing. We ride with a range rider and hear from ranchers and wildlife managers about what it takes to keep working lands, rural livelihoods, and grizzlies on the same landscape.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Green River Drift, Upper Green River Cattle Association, public lands grazing, private ranchlands and wildlife habitat, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, grizzly bear recovery and livestock conflict, calf depredation and livestock losses, range riding, wildlife migration corridors, ranch economics and land development, compensation for livestock losses, conflict reduction tools, grizzly bear management, the Four Cs of conflict reduction

Featuring: Brittany Hesseltine (foreman and range rider for the Upper Green River Cattle Association), Albert Sommers (fourth-generation Upper Green rancher, former president of the Upper Green River Cattle Association, Wyoming legislator and former Speaker of the Wyoming House), Coke Landers (president of the Upper Green River Cattle Association and rancher), Dan Thompson (large carnivore supervisor with Wyoming Game and Fish), Matt Collins (Working Wild Challenge Manager, Western Landowners Alliance)

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Cover image by Matt Collins

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Matt Collins and Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the defining concepts in wildlife conservation. But where did it come from?

In the 1950s, Frank and John Craighead pioneered modern grizzly bear research, using radio telemetry to follow bears far beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. Their work revealed that grizzlies depended on a much larger, connected landscape (including working lands) and helped introduce the concept of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem - an idea that continues to guide wildlife conservation and grizzly bear management today.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: Frank and John Craighead, Aldo Leopold's 'Sand County Almanac', the birth of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as a concept, pioneering grizzly bear research and "cowboy biology," Yellowstone's garbage dumps, the rise of ecosystem-based conservation, radio telemetry and grizzly bear research, Craighead Institute, the conflict between the Craigheads and the National Park Service, the legacy of the Craigheads' work, Endangered Species Act, Yellowstone's role in wildlife conservation

Featuring: Dan Flores (Western historian, author of Wild New World, host of Meateater's The American West, Dan Tyres ( Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear habitat coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service, adjunct professor at Montana State University), Kerry Gunther (Bear Management Biologist for Yellowstone National Park).

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Cover art: courtesy of the Craighead Institute

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta. Special thanks to the Archives and Special Collections at Montana State University Library for granting access to the Frank Craighead Collection.

Grizzly bears are making a remarkable comeback across the American West. After decades of recovery, they're expanding into places they haven't occupied for generations - working ranches, rural communities, and the landscapes where people make their living.

So what happens when one of North America's most iconic predators returns?

In the third season premiere of Working Wild University, we trace the story of the grizzly bear - from its deep history on the continent, through near-extirpation, to one of the greatest wildlife recoveries in U.S. history. Along the way, we explore a question that will shape the entire season: Where do grizzly bears belong, and who gets to decide?

Through conversations with historians, ranchers, wildlife experts, and community leaders, we examine how conservation success has created a new set of challenges - and why the next chapter of grizzlies is as much about people as it is about bears.

Show notes

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Topics discussed: The Blackfoot Challenge, short faced bears of the ice age, Lewis and Clark's encounters with grizzly bears, grizzly bear decline and recovery, Endangered Species Act, tribal perspective (Blackfeet Nation), Richard Nixon's landmark environmental legislation, Jim Stone's ranch in the Blackfoot Valley in western Montana, how collaborative conservation works, the next chapter of grizzly bear conservation

Featuring: Jim Stone (rancher, board chair of the Blackfoot Challenge, Dan Flores (Western historian, author of Wild New World, host of Meateater's The American West, Joe Kipp (tribal leader and rancher on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana), David Diamond (leads the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee)

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Cover art: "Hunting of the Grizzly Bear," Karl Bodmer (1809–1893)

Working Wild University is a production of Western Landowners Alliance and Dr. Jared Beaver of Montana State University Extension, and a proud part of Natural Resources University podcast network.

Hosted by Hallie Mahowald and Jared Beaver; Produced by Zach Altman; Editing by Kathleen Shannon and Zach Altman; Executive producers: Louis Wertz, Jared Beaver, Hallie Mahowald and Erik Kalsta