Sarah Wentzel-Fischer, Quivira Coalition director, on Regenerate 2023
On Land
Sarah Wentzel-Fischer is a farmer, a writer, a connector, an advocate. Officially, she wears several hats. She is the Executive Director of the Quivira Coalition, an organization focused on building soil, biodiversity, and resilience on western working landscapes. Sarah raises pigs and makes compost with her partner on Polk's Folly Farm in northern New Mexico. Farmers in New Mexico elected Sarah to represent them on the board of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. We talk a little bit about what that means for Sarah's involvement in farm bill negotiations and other advocacy work related to...
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Martha Williams, USFWS director, reflects on the ESA at 50
On Land
Martha Williams is the director of the United State Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act (along with NOAA’s fisheries division). She grew up on a farm in Maryland and studied law at the University of Montana. From 1988 to 2011, she served as legal counsel for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. After a stint as Deputy Solicitor Parks and Wildlife in the Department of the Interior, she was appointed director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks from 2017 to 2020. She is an avid outdoorswoman, hunter and...
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Bonus: The Modern West from Wyoming Public Media
On Land
In this bonus episode, we're sharing an episode from our friends at The Modern West from Wyoming Public Media. The Modern West, hosted by Melodie Edwards, is a podcast documenting the evolving identity of the American West. The Rolling Stone: The Great Individualist Part 1. The cowboy roaming horseback across the American West is nearly inextricable from what it means to be American. Now a new generation of ranchers is working to reinvent this iconic way of life to fit a modern world. Complete show notes here:
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Drought and resilience in the Sonoran Desert with Sarah King
On Land
Sarah King and her husband manage the King’s Anvil Ranch in the Altar Valley, near Tucson, Arizona. Sarah is also the executive director of the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance. AVCA is a watershed based collaborative conservation organization founded in 1995. They use a strongly collaborative, science-based, community driven approach to conserve and sustain both the community and natural resources of the Altar Valley for future generations. Water is a critical issue for landowners south of Tucson. Sarah and the other members of AVCA are working on some interesting projects to manage...
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The big deal on the Colorado River with reporter Luke Runyon
On Land
This week on the On Land Podcast I welcome veteran water reporter Luke Runyon. Luke covers the Colorado River Basin for public radio station KUNC. His podcast, Thirst Gap, digs into stories that show how water issues can both unite and divide communities throughout the Western U.S. Before covering water at KUNC, Luke covered the agriculture and food beat for five years as KUNC’s Harvest Public Media reporter. I spoke with Luke about the big news in Colorado River politics: the announcement of a grand water savings bargain between California, Arizona and Nevada that now waits...
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Helping our water do more with Aaron Derwingson of the Nature Conservancy
On Land
Today on the show, Western Landowners Alliance's Programs Director Hallie Mahowald had the pleasure of talking to a good friend, Aaron Derwingson. Derwingson is the water projects director for the Nature Conservancy's Colorado River program. He and Hallie both live in Salida, Colorado. Derwingson has piloted water banking and other tools for flexible water management, conducted field research on the impacts of reduced irrigation, evaluated alternative low water use crops, and upgraded irrigation systems to help improve river flows. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, Aaron served as the...
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Building resilience to drought in the West with Dr. Caroline Nash
On Land
On today's episode, Western Landowners Alliance Programs Director Hallie Mahowald was joined by Dr. Caroline Nash, a hydrologist and geomorphologist with the consulting group CK Blueshift LLC. Dr. Nash got her PhD at Oregon State University and has done field work throughout the American West. She has extensive experience in rangeland conservation and stream restoration. She brought knowledge about the science and regulatory systems relevant to watershed scale conservation efforts to the conversation. At CK Blueshift, Dr. Nash leads the company's current projects and consulting work related...
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Water in California with Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources
On Land
Wade Crowfoot was appointed California Secretary for Natural Resources in 2019. As Secretary, Crowfoot oversees an agency of 19,000 employees charged with protecting and managing California’s diverse resources, including its fish and wildlife and rivers and waterways. Before becoming Secretary, Crowfoot served as CEO of the Water Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy based in California that supports shared water solutions for communities, the economy, and the environment across the American West. Wade spoke with Lesli Allison, executive director of the Western Landowners Alliance,...
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Landowners’ Eye on the Capital with Zach Bodhane
On Land
Today we're bringing you a new feature of the On Land podcast: Landowners' Eye on the Capital. In these conversations, we'll be talking with Zach Bodhane, policy director at Western Landowners Alliance. From his vantage in Washington D.C., Zach will share the latest on the most important issues bills and regulations that WLA is working on for landowners across the West.
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Place-based collaboratives and conflict reduction with Matt Collins
On Land
In this bonus episode, we take you live to the International Wolf Symposium, on October 11th, for a talk by Matthew Collins, Western Landowners Alliance’s Working Wild Challenge program associate. Before Matt joined WLA, he conducted research into how local groups, called place-based collaboratives, helped improve adoption of practices that reduce conflict between livestock and large carnivores while pursuing a masters degree at Colorado State University. At the International Wolf Symposium, Matt had 15 minutes to present his entire masters thesis project to a packed room. We think he...
info_outlineMiah Chalfant is a rancher, contemporary ledger artist, and passionate communicator of her community’s ways of life, both as a rancher and as an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.
Miah ranches with her family in southeast Montana, and is looking to study Agricultural Media and Communications as she heads off to college. Though still a young person herself, Miah is already supporting and educating the next generation of ranchers and farmers in her community, and she carries herself with a hopeful, determined attitude that is both refreshing and contagious.
She spoke with Western Landowners Alliance's Women in Ranching program director Amber Smith at Art of the Cowgirl in Bozeman, Montana.
Read more and find the topics and links from this episode at the full show notes: https://onland.westernlandowners.org/2021/podcast/the-future-of-agriculture-with-miah-chalfant/