Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Ben Masters is a filmmaker and conservationist whose work explores some of the most important conservation challenges facing the American West today. He was the mastermind behind the award-winning documentary "Unbranded," which tells the story of Ben and his three buddies who ride wild mustangs from Mexico to Canada as part of an epic five month-adventure. The film also examines the Bureau of Land...

Stephen Smith is an agrarian, adventure, and lifestyle photographer who has successfully combined his love of ranches, farms, motorcycles, and travel into a full-time career in professional photography. Thanks to his artistic eye, hard work, persistence, and willingness to take risks, Stephen has successfully created a niche for himself in the crowded arena of professional photography. • He is obv...

Nicholas Coleman is an ultra-talented, hard-working artist based out of Provo, Utah, and he paints some of the most interesting and beautiful works I've ever seen. His primary subject matter is the American West, with a focus on landscapes, natural history, wildlife, Native American culture, and exploration. I came across Nick's work on Instagram of all places—in the midst of the app's thousands o...

Ann Johnston is Executive Director of the Crested Butte Land Trust (CBLT), a conservation organization that protects land in Crested Butte and Gunnison County, Colorado. Given the focused geographic area in which CBLT operates, Ann and her team must be creative and nimble, and they use a variety methods to protect a diverse array of landscapes, from large-acreage rural ranches to small in-town par...

Andrew Skurka is a highly accomplished adventure athlete who is most well known for his long-distance solo backpacking trips, including the 4,700-mile Alaska-Yukon Expedition, the 6,875-mile Great Western Loop, and the 7,775-mile Sea-to-Sea Route. He has also completed countless fast and light trips throughout the Sierras, Wind River Range, Zion National Park, and Appalachian Trail, just to name a...

Jim Howell is the CEO of Grasslands LLC, which is the land management arm of the Savory Institute, an organization that Jim co-founded. Both Grasslands and Savory focus on conserving and restoring the world's grasslands through what they call "Holistic Management." We discuss the details of Holistic Managment in the interview, but the basic idea is that the world's grasses evolved to be grazed, an...

Brady Robinson is the Executive Director of the Access Fund, a conservation and advocacy organization that helps to protect climbing areas throughout the United States. Despite being a relatively small non-profit, the Access Fund's work has a broad ripple effect far beyond the climbing community and extends into areas of conservation, public lands policy, and general outdoor recreation, just to na...

Lloyd Athearn is the Executive Director of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI), a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and preserve the natural integrity of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks through active stewardship and public education. CFI's work includes building and maintaining trails, educating hikers and climbers on best practices in the high country, conserving the native...

Connie Sciolino is the owner and head coach at The Alpine Training Center in Boulder, Colorado. The ATC is a no-frills gym on the outskirts of town that helps outdoor athletes become better skiers, climbers, runners, and bikers through strength training. Connie trains everyone from professional athletes to weekend warriors, including one of the climbers in the hit mountaineering documentary, Meru....

Spencer Williams started his career as a river guide in Colorado's Upper Arkansas River Valley. Those experiences on the water led him to law school and to a career as a water rights attorney. He now works for Ponderosa Advisors, advising clients on water rights and water markets across the American West. Spencer also works with Ponderosa's new software platform Water Sage, an innovative software...

Erik Glenn is the Executive Director of the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust, a land conservation organization that has protected over 465,000 acres of working ranches throughout the state of Colorado. In this episode, Ed and Erik discuss a wide array of topics including the importance of keeping ranches in agricultural production, the basics of land conservation in the West, Colorado'...