In this second half of our American Prairie series, we sit down with CEO Alison Fox and Director of Rewilding Danny Kinka to look at what the project has become and where it’s headed. Allie talks about how American Prairie has grown into a 600,000-acre public access landscape with a bison herd now twenty years in, a thriving field school for Montana students, and a team focused on everything from habitat restoration to community partnerships. Danny walks us through what rewilding looks like on the ground, from the return of key species to the human work of building social tolerance for wildlife.
Learn more about today's episode and find the links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line looks at the end of the shutdown, what the new continuing resolution means for public lands and civil servants, and how Congress is lining up for a busy set of hearings next week. We follow new pressure on the Public Lands Rule, a withdrawn National Park Service nomination, the latest turns in the Colorado River negotiations, and reactions to a federal move that sidelines tribal approval on hydroelectric projects. We also cover Chevron’s major energy plans in West Texas, new proposed activity in the Western Arctic, and a report highlighting key Colorado landscapes ready for lasting protection.
Learn more and access the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com
In this first of a two-part conversation about American Prairie, we talk with founder Sean Gerrity about what inspired him to take on one of the largest conservation projects in North America. Sean shares how a lifetime spent outdoors and a background in business led him to the idea of rewilding millions of acres of Montana grasslands. He talks about what it’s like to earn trust in ranching country, how he approaches relationships with tribal nations, and why he calls himself a “possibilist” rather than an optimist. For Sean, this work has always been about connection between people, between ecosystems, and between past and future.
Learn more about today's episode and find the links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
Author Malcolm Brooks joins us for a conversation that moves from the landscapes that shaped his fiction to the messy realities of modern wildlife management. We ask how he views landscapes as part of his storytelling, and then move on to the story that he has been tracing since the predatory mountain lion attack on his nephews, and the California wildlife policy shifts that possibly set the stage for it. We wrap by diving into his latest subject - Butte America!
Learn more about today's episode and find the links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line highlights the impacts of the ongoing shutdown on public lands and civil servants. We share the latest on uncertainty over backpay and high-profile firings and hirings in the conservation world, federal progress on wetlands protection, and concerning efforts to roll back protections in Chaco Canyon and allow chainsaws in wilderness areas. We look at the latest nomination to run the Bureau of Land Management, and close with a win for climbing access in North Carolina.
Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
Environmental historian Frank Uekötter joins Bill and Anders for a thought-provoking conversation about how good intentions and bad systems can collide, and what history can teach us about the moral boundaries of environmental action. Uekötter’s work, including The Vortex and The Green and the Brown, explores how modern environmentalism took shape in the twentieth century and how ideals of nature and progress became entangled with politics, ideology, and power. Together, they step back from today’s headlines to ask what happens when noble causes lose sight of their context, and how well-meaning people can drift into compromise when conviction overrides reflection.
Find out more and access the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line opens with a federal court order that halts layoffs at the Department of the Interior during the shutdown. In Washington, Senators launched a new bipartisan Senate Stewardship Caucus. House Democrats challenged Interior and USDA over shutdown decisions that favor extractive industries even as critical safety work is left to skeleton crews. Federal agencies announced new funding for Western migration corridors, and legal and political pressure reignited the debate over cattle grazing at Point Reyes. The episode also covers the push to rescind the BLM Public Lands Rule, the return of the Albert Pike statue and recent bear attacks in Arkansas, and a series of court rulings and political fights in Montana over trout, timber, grizzlies, bison, and American Prairie’s grazing rights.
Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
Author and essayist Barret Baumgart joins Bill and Anders for a Halloween special that leans into the stranger side of wild nature. His latest book, Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree, explores how this desert icon went from being despised as grotesque and “demonic” to adored as a backdrop for modern desert dreams. In a conversation that ranges from natural history to horror, they dig into what the Joshua Tree reveals about human nature, the stories we project onto wild places, and the uneasy line between wonder and fear.
Find out more and access the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line opens with new details on the ongoing federal shutdown, including Interior’s plan to cut more than 2,000 jobs across its agencies and furloughs at the Environmental Protection Agency. We look at a busy week on Capitol Hill, where the Senate advanced a package of wilderness bills and a controversial forest management proposal, while the House pressed for restoration of Stonewall National Monument’s LGBTQ+ history. We also cover deregulatory moves inside the White House, a major land acquisition in North Carolina, leadership news from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the Supreme Court’s decision on corner-crossing. From Alaska, we report on new resolutions from the Alaska Federation of Natives and breaking developments on the Izembek road and Arctic Refuge drilling. Plus, the Outdoor Alliance takes its work to Capitol Hill.
Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
Award-winning author, environmental philosopher, and clean energy enthusiast Christopher Preston joins Bill and Anders to discuss his book Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals. He shares stories of wolves, whales, and beavers making remarkable comebacks, offering a hopeful look at what can happen when we give nature room to recover and thrive.
Together they explore ideas of rewilding, animal agency, and the ethics of when and how humans should intervene, or simply step back and watch the wild world flourish. The conversation weaves in lessons from Europe’s rewilding movement, Indigenous perspectives that resonate with modern conservation, and how compassion and curiosity can guide better care for the natural world.
Find out more and access the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line opens with a look at the 17-day-old federal shutdown and its ripple effects across the public lands workforce, from widespread layoffs to the potential loss of recreation-driven economies. We share highlights from the Rocky Mountain Wilderness Gathering in Colorado, explore the latest developments in energy and climate policy, and report from Alaska where two Arctic villages have suffered devastating flood damage. We also cover new Congressional Review Act rollbacks, a rejected coal lease bid in the Powder River Basin, renewed litigation to save Columbia River salmon, forest recovery in the wake of Hurricane Helene, and a public lands storytelling project preserving the signs of our shared history.
Learn more about the topics discussed today and find links and resources mentioned at our website, thewildidea.com.
Rachel Franchina, Executive Director of the Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals, joins Bill and Anders for a conversation about leadership, resilience, and the people behind America’s favorite wild places. Together they look at what it means to build a healthy and sustainable recreation workforce in a time of shrinking budgets, early retirements, and record visitation. The conversation also explores how climate change is reshaping recreation design, how career pathways can evolve to attract and retain new generations, and how joy, community, and shared purpose keep people in the work even when resources are scarce. It’s a grounded, hopeful look at the future of the profession that keeps us all outdoors.
Learn more and access the links and resourced mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line begins with the President’s decision to greenlight construction of the Ambler Road through the heart of northwestern Alaska, a move that’s drawn fierce opposition from tribal and conservation groups. We also cover new developments in Congress affecting millions of acres of BLM lands in Montana and North Dakota, and legislation that would expand border patrol operations inside wilderness areas. Plus: setbacks in federal wildfire mitigation, the creation of a new Wildland Fire Service, changes to NEPA guidance, major EPA funding cuts, and state and local conservation news from Wyoming, West Virginia, Maine, Florida, and California. Finally, a Nobel Prize story that started deep in Montana’s backcountry.
Learn more and find the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at thewildidea.com
Faith, land, and stewardship come together in this episode with Joel Gill, Executive Director of Ferncliff, a 1,200-acre camp and conference center outside Little Rock, Arkansas. Joel joins Bill and Anders for a thoughtful conversation about creation care, a faith-based approach to conservation that blends theology, ecology, and the everyday choices we make to care for the land and for one another.
Learn more and find the links and resources from today's episode at thewildidea.com.
This week’s we dig into the government shutdown, which left thousands of federal workers in limbo and forced Interior to furlough half its staff, straining National Parks, gateway communities, and local economies. We report on the agency and Congressional actions impacting wild places, and share some good news from Oregon, Alaska, and South Carolina. We also highlight the winner of Fat Bear Week.
Learn more about the resources and news mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
Journalist Chris Keyes, former Editor in Chief at Outside magazine and now the founder of RE:PUBLIC, a nonprofit newsroom focused entirely on public lands, joins Bill and Anders for this episode of The Wild Idea. Chris talks about what pushed him to start something new, why independent reporting matters, and how RE:PUBLIC is stepping in to tell the stories that often get overlooked about the 600 million acres of land we all share.
Find out more in the show notes at thewildidea.com
This week Bill and Anders cover a range of land news, from Congress using the 'nuclear option' to approve Trump nominees for Interior to Climate Week updates from New York City. We are offered a preview of a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing scheduled for next week from friend of the pod, Susan Jane Brown, and we check in on the Forest Service Roadless Rule Recission process. All this and much more in under 15 minutes.
Learn more about the resources and news mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
This special episode marks our first live recording, in partnership with the National Wilderness Coalition during National Wilderness Week in Washington, DC. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota joined us to talk about the Boundary Waters, a place she calls one of her favorites on earth. She shares how the wilderness shaped her family’s story, why it’s a national treasure, and how being there offers restoration and a deeper connection to history and place.
Find more details and links for this episode at thewildidea.com.
This week’s Wild Line comes to you from Washington, DC, where wilderness advocates, recreation leaders, and conservationists gathered for the National Wilderness Coalition’s annual advocacy week. While citizens called for stronger protections, lawmakers pushed new mining bills, a permitting reform framework, and record-setting oil and gas leasing. We also cover the administration’s latest moves on climate reporting, Canada’s pivot toward fossil fuels, and a proposed U.S. Wildland Fire Service.
Learn more and access the resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com.
In this episode Bill and Anders talk with alpinist and conservation champion Conrad Anker about how his time in the mountains has brought him into the world of activism for people and place. We talk about seeing climate change in real time and how Conrad has worked to support the communities in Nepal. Yes - we talk a bit about mountain climbing and George Mallory too.
Learn more our guest, Conrad Anker, and the other resources mentioned today at our website, thewildidea.com