Working Wild U

96% of wolves in the Northern Rockies live in the working wild: public and private lands where people and wildlife share the landscape. But who pays the cost of supporting biodiversity?

In this episode from our first season on wolves in the West, we explore the economics of our food system and take a look at how one ranch family is getting creative in order to share the landscape with wolves and maintain open space.

Show notes

New York Times The Daily podcast episode on prices in the beef market: "Who do you want controlling your food?"

John and Weston Helle's wool apparel company, Duckworth

The Ruby Valley Strategic Alliance

Cole Mannix's enterprise: Old Salt Co-op

The Blackfoot Challenge

Lesli Allison's Director's Letter in On Land: "Working lands are the future of conservation"

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Wild pigs. Feral swine. Wild hogs. Whatever you call them, invasive wild pigs are rapidly spreading across the US and Canada - destroying crops and spreading disease along the way.

Experts are calling them one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in the country. What can we do about it?

To find out, we're talking with the show's own Dr. Jared Beaver to find out the dirty details (and solutions!) regarding wild pigs.

Find the show notes here.

Throughout this season, we've explored landowner- and community-led efforts to support imperiled species, from bears and birds to ferrets and fish. In the final episode of this season, we're looking ahead to the future of imperiled pollinators on working lands.

Across the country, there is a growing crisis when it comes to pollinators. What happens when wide-ranging species that reside across vast expanses of public, private and Tribal lands, like the western bumblebee and monarch butterfly, are listed under the Endangered Species Act, as appears likely in the coming years? And what role will land stewards and working lands play in this next chapter of conservation?

Complete show notes are available at workingwild.us

How do we restore salmon spawning habitat in the Upper Salmon watershed without harming the ranching communities that rely on the river? The answer lies in locally-driven collaboration. In this episode, we explore the decades-long community effort to restore spawning grounds for Columbia Basin salmon by letting landowners take the lead. Back in the 1990s the hurdles seemed so insurmountable, rancher Merrill Beyeler likened the task to making pigs fly. Hundreds of miles upstream of where the Columbia pours into the Pacific Ocean, along the Lemhi River in Idaho, Beyeler and a huge group of partners have figured out how.

Complete show notes, as always, can be found at workingwild.us.

In the heart of America's grasslands, a battle for survival is unfolding. The lesser prairie-chicken, an iconic species of the Great Plains, is on the brink of extinction. But there's a growing network of producers and partners across the plains looking to change that.

Today on the show, can ranchers and partners work together to save the lesser prairie-chicken while supporting their livelihoods and communities? We're headed to eastern New Mexico to find out.

Complete show notes can be found at workingwild.us.

When it comes to conservation, can a group of high school students really make a difference? Join Jared and Hallie as they dive into a story involving the Colorado River, an ancient endangered fish, and a group of high school students who are becoming the next generation of stewards.

Complete show notes are available on our website.

Finding an imperiled species on his ranch scared the daylights out of Russell Davis. What he and his neighbors did next may have saved their town.

Today on Working Wild U, join us as we return to the high plains of eastern Colorado to learn how a small ranching community transformed a migratory bird's imperiled status from threat to opportunity.

Complete show notes are at workingwild.us

Today on Working Wild U, we're spotlighting, quite literally, one special species that calls the Great Plains home. A small predator that was thought to be extinct.... twice! Meet the black-footed ferret, the most endangered mammal in North America.

Thanks to community-driven efforts spanning the Great Plains, from dedicated ranchers in eastern Colorado to the Fort Belknap Indian Community in northern Montana, this elusive predator is staging a remarkable comeback.

As always, find our complete show notes, including links, videos and other references from the episode at workingwild.us.

Grizzly bears are expanding their range. But where are they headed? To find out, we get out on the land with ranchers Erik Kalsta and Jami Murdoch, who are working with partners to monitor wildlife – including grizzlies – on their operation in southwest Montana.

Together with Erik, Jami and Blackfeet rancher Kristen Kipp, plus a band of other experts, we explore what it really means for grizzly bears to recover under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, and the real challenges bears, and people, face as they do.

Read the complete show notes, as always, at workingwild.us.

When a section of the Big Hole River in southwest Montana ran dry in 1988, all eyes were on the future of one of the last remaining populations of arctic grayling in the lower 48.

Out of the struggle, a collaboration emerged that change the future of the Big Hole - a future where human communities, wildlife and the ecosystems they depend on can thrive. And it might even serve as a model for how we can conserve species that are headed for the brink.

Complete show notes are available at workingwild.us.