The Wolf Connection

Carolyn Johnson is the Founder/CEO/Mechanical Engineer of GuardUs Innovations. Their mission is to save animals, both domestic and wild. GuardUs Innovations strives to create a world where livestock are protected and our natural predators thrive. We plan to achieve this through novel and effective non-lethal predator deterrent innovations.  Carolyn spoke about her background as a mechanical engine...

Sami Godlove is the is the Central Oregon Field Coordinator at Oregon Wild, which works to protect and restore Oregon’s wild lands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations. Sami spoke about his early influential moments in nature, the importance of the Roadless Rule, potential large environmental rollbacks, and the effects these policies have on large ecosystems, old grow...

Marc Bekoff is a professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Marc has published over 30 books and has won many awards for his research on animal behavior, animal emotions (cognitive ethology), compassionate conservation, and animal protection. He worked closely with Jane Goodall as co-chair of the ethics committee of the Jane Goodall Institute, an...

Naïma has been a professional artist for over 6 years, after her work as a graphic designer for a decade. She describes her connection through art in this way: "Each work is conceived as an intimate space, where anyone can project their own story, emotions, and memories. Over time, I’ve come to understand that this silent connection between a painting and the viewer lies at the heart of my wo...

Cadence Truchot has been the Tribal Community Engagement Fellow with Grand Teton National Park for over a year and a half. Her work within the park helps underserved Indigenous communities reconnect with their ancestral lands in week long programmatic settings.  Cadence shares her deep connection to the natural world and how those values shape the programs she leads in Grand Teton. She speaks to t...

Eric Washburn is a fifth-generation Coloradan who is a big game hunter, who is a Senior Policy Advisor for Pioneer Public Affairs. PPA works on clean energy technologies and advocacy movements to combat the climate crisis, protect natural wonders, and empower marginalized communities across America.  Eric discussed many issues from affecting winter, water and wildlife in Colorado, including the sp...

Brianna Godberson is the host of the Find Your Wild podcast, an artist, and business owner of Femme Sauvage based in Long Island, NY.  Brianna reflected on her transformative visits to three wolf sanctuaries in California alongside Candace Dyar, sharing the lessons, and teachings she's taking with her from the wolves and wolf dogs that she experienced on this trip. She spoke about taking a st...

Candace Dyar is a nature and conservation photographer, educator, wildlife & wolf advocate based in Washington State for two decades. She has used her platform to collaborate on environmental issues with organizations including Wildlife for All and Team Wolf.  Candace reflected on her transformative visits to three wolf sanctuaries in California alongside Brianna Godberson, sharing the profoun...

Eleri Lopp is a photographer, videographer, and nature guide in Estonia. She has been tracking wolves for over a decade and observing ecological changes happening within her country.  Eleri described wolf populations and movements within Estonia, the difference between EU protections and Baltic countries enforcing them for wolves, and the underfunding of science and research to conduct research on...

Eleanor Keisman is an American writer living in Vienna, Austria. She holds a BA from The New School and an MFA in creative writing from Drexel University. Her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in Litro Magazine, The Bangalore Review, Tough Crime, Last Stanza Poetry Journal , and The Wild Umbrella , as well as adapted for "The Other Stories" podcast. New Animal is her first...

Paul Koberstein cofounded Cascadia Times in 1995 and has been its editor ever since. Paul, a journalist for forty years, was a staff writer for The Oregonian and Willamette Week in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the co-author of Canopy of Titans examining the global importance of the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest that stretches from Northern California to Alaska.  Paul discussed the book Canopy...

The Anderson family is a multi-generational ranching operation in Tom Miner Basin, the grizzly bear corridor near Yellowstone National Park's northern boundary. Rather than dominate nature, the Andersons work to prevent predation of livestock by coexisting more harmoniously with wildlife.  Malou has implemented holistic regenerative grazing management so that these grasslands become more abun...

Doug Smith retired as the Senior Wildlife Biologist in Yellowstone National park after 28 years of service where he supervised the wolf, elk, and bird programs. Doug has studied wolves for 44 years, done over 2,000 interviews, and appeared on numerous documentaries about wolves and birds for National Geographic, BBC, and CBS 60 Minutes. He is a member of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team, the Re-Intr...

Annick Hus is a Belgian Freelance Journalist who has studied Animal Welfare Science and Ethics and Law at the University of Winchester. Arie Trouwborst is a Nature Conservation Law Professor at Tilburg University. They have both chronicled the political, societal, and legal perspectives of wolves naturally recolonizing Europe.  They both discussed the challenges within each of these categories, as...

John Potter grew up in the Upper Great Lakes region, spending his formative years immersed in the lush forests of the Great Northwoods, where he developed a profound love for the natural world that continues to inspire his work today. After a successful 20-year career as an award-winning illustrator, John transitioned to painting full-time in 2002.  John visited Wolf Connection for 3 days, immersi...

Melissa Smith is the Executive Director & Founder of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife and has served on D.C. environmental committees with a deep understanding of the Endangered Species Act.   She explored the significance of sociological sciences within state policy management of species, how this influences the effectiveness of State Endangered Species Acts (SESA) and State Wildl...

Dr. John Vucetich has been working on the Isle Royale Wolf & Moose Project for over 30 years. He is a distinguished Professor at Michigan Technological University where he teaches Wildlife Ecology and Environmental Ethics.  We discussed the global biodiversity crisis we are currently in at the moment, the value of species within the context of an environment, his co-authored paper titled Gover...

Leo Miranda was the USFWS Southeast Regional Director from 2018-2022, and is the Founder and CEO of Leo Miranda LLC which creates innovative wildlife conservation policy solutions. He also serves at the Executive Director for Conservation Without Conflict, a proven approach to conservation and a coalition of public and private partners with highly diverse goals who are united in their commitment t...

Adam Bronstein has been with Western Watersheds Project since 2020 and is the Oregon Director for the organization. Adam grew up exploring the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, and received a BS from SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY in Environmental Studies and Geographic Information Technologies. He discussed the parameters of the Roadless Rule, explained specifics on protections for Inventoried...

Lizzy Pennock has been the Carnivore Coexistence Attorney for WIldEarth Guardians for 4 years. Earlier in August, a federal district court in Missoula r uled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it determined that gray wolves in the western United States do not warrant federal protections.  Lizzy went into great detail describing Senior District Ju...

Axel Hunnicutt has been with California Department of Fish & Wildlife for over 4 years and is the State Gray Wolf Coordinator. He has previously worked in Africa with multiple endangers and threatened species, protecting habitats and wildlife while promoting coexistence benefits to the surrounding communities.  Axel discussed the recolonization of wolves in California, their territories, pack...

James Holt has been a tribal member of the Nez Perce for 13 years and has worked in Environmental Sciences & Tribal Community Engagement for nearly three decades. He also specializes in tribal public policy, including natural resources and water policy development; climate change planning; wilderness management; and utilities administration for the Nez Perce.  James shared insights into his up...

Laurie Cousins is a Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Teacher who has been with Wolf Connection since 2018. Known for her work in healing trauma and addiction recovery, Laurie focuses on treating the cyclical root causes of compulsive behaviors while building self-love and resiliency.  She spoke about the ways that nature based therapy can help us reconnect with the environment, how those practices inte...

Alma "Rosie" Sanchez is the Carnivore Biologist for the Nez Perce Tribe and is also a PhD student at The University of Colorado Boulder. She combines Indigenous political ecology and carnivore ecology in both fieldwork and research. Rosie has focused on revitalizing management plans, deploying field projects to determine occupancy and migration, and expanding opportunities for community...

Nita Strauss is a Los Angeles born guitarist who has toured around the globe, playing with musical artists like Demi Lovato and Alice Cooper, while releasing two solo albums Controlled Chaos (2018) and The Call of the Void (2023). She was also the first female to have a signature guitar through Ibanez guitars, the Ibanez JIVA.  We spoke with Nita about her creative process, both in her instrumenta...