Working Wild U

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...

Today's episode is a special guest in our podcast feed, from the Down to Earth: the Planet to Plate Podcast, presented by our friends at the Quivira Coalition and Radio Café. Working Wild U cohost Jared Beaver sat down with Down to Earth host Mary-Charlotte Domandi to discuss why we started Working Wild U, why we chose to wade into a season on wolves, and the important role working lands play in s...

Today, Alex and Jared explore how livestock producers and researchers are working together to adapt old world tools into new world technologies to help reduce conflicts. They'll look at how innovative solutions can often be simple, and how new tools can help keep people, livestock, and wildlife safe. Find the show notes at workingwild.us

In this episode, Alex and Jared dive into techniques that can help ranchers reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock. They'll explore how a new spin on an old tool increases the effectiveness of fencing, how putting riders back on the range can have a multitude of benefits, and how one valley in Montana is working together to compost carcasses to reduce attractants on the landscape. But apply...

This is a special bonus episode of Working Wild U. In the northeast corner of Washington on the Colville Reservation, wildlife managers are working to ensure a balance across all wildlife species as wolves re-establish themselves. Today, Alex and Jared hear from Cody Desautel, the executive director and former natural resource director for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Full...

So far this season, we've been spending a lot of time in the Northern Rockies, in the states where grey wolves first returned to the West – by reintroduction or recolonization. But in 2008, dispersing wolves from Idaho denned in both eastern Oregon and Washington, where wolves hadn't been seen since the 1940s.  In this episode, Alex and Jared explore how different geography, politics and managemen...

When wolves disperse, they are increasingly moving through human-dominated landscapes where they often get into trouble.  In today's episode, Alex and Jared explore where wolves are, where different people think they should be, and the tricky business of managing and living with wolves in a changing world. Complete show notes are always available at workingwild.us .

Many people, when they think about wolves, think of Yellowstone National Park. And for good reason; it has some of the best wolf watching in the world. But tensions rose when changes to Montana's wolf hunt along the Park border were made just before the 2021-22 hunting season. In this episode, Alex and Jared explore wolves in and around Yellowstone National Park. They'll look at how wolves are man...

In 2021, the Montana and Idaho legislatures each passed a suite of bills liberalizing wolf hunting. These changes ignited national debate around fair chase ethics, norms of state wildlife management decision-making, and potential relisting of wolves in the Northern Rockies under the Endangered Species Act. Honing in on Montana, hosts Alex and Jared explore what these recent changes to wolf hunt re...

It's easy to see wolf management in two buckets: full protection under the Endangered Species Act or unregulated wolf hunting. But successful management of established wildlife populations is most often somewhere in the middle, with hunting used both as a tool and a conservation funding mechanism. Join Alex and Jared as they explore hunting as a management tool and take a look at how the North Ame...

Today we're introducing you to one of our favorite podcasts, Reframing Rural, a show working to "reframe the narrative on rural America." In this episode from their third season, "Groundwork," Reframing Rural producer Megan Torgerson shares the intimate journey of her family's farm succession, as well as others in her home community of Dagmar, Montana, giving listeners an inside look into the emot...