Working Wild U

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...

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...

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 fr...

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 — Topics discussed: Bear Aw...

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 Kriste...

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 wh...

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...

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)...

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 t...

Grizzly bears are making a comeback - and their return is one of North America's greatest conservation success stories. But as bears expand into places they haven't occupied in generations, new questions emerge. Where do bears belong in the modern West? What does it actually take to share a landscape with a large carnivore? And who bears the costs and responsibilities of recovery? This season on W...

California's recent decision to remove four members of a wolf pack near Lake Tahoe sparked national attention - but the story behind it is much bigger.   In this episode, Wildlife Management professor at UC Berkeley, Dr. Arthur Middleton, joins us to dig into his recent New York Times op-ed and explore why America's predator recovery has outpaced our ability to support the people living in these l...

UPDATE: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the public comment period on proposed changes to the grizzly bear's Endangered Species Act listing. The new deadline is May 16. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing changes to the grizzly bear's listing under the Endangered Species Act, and a public comment period is open until March 17th. But what exactly would this new rule mean...

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 m...

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 solutio...

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 va...

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, ranch...

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 a...

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...

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...

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're excited to announce the second season of Working Wild U: Imperiled.   This season we're exploring community and landowner-led wildlife conservation on working and tribal lands across the West. From grizzly bears to lesser-known species, join us as we discover the challenges and successes of how communities are working together for common-ground solutions.   We'll dive into the action, meetin...

In today's bonus episode, we get an update on the Colorado wolf management plan from Hallie Mahowald with Western Landowners Alliance. Hallie was appointed as a member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group to ensure landowners and managers in Colorado were represented in providing input to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. As we explored in episode 13, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is currently drafting the...

We've covered a lot this season: wolves, working lands, and some of the ideas and management practices that divide and unite the people of the American West. In our final episode of the season, Alex and Jared head to Colorado, where a ballot initiative, passed in 2020, requires Colorado Parks and Wildlife to reintroduce wolves to the western part of the state by the end of 2023.  Show notes: worki...