The Best Biome

Our conservation spotlight this episode highlights the Monarch Butterfly as we chat with Katelyn Strack, an education Ambassador with Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. We get an update on their population trends, information on how to help preserve them, and chat a bit about our favorite bugs. Nicole then shares a few special grassland pollinators that many are unaware of: beetles and their 100 million year old relationship with flowers, how the Large Blue Butterfly convinces ants to take care of it, and a few other fun friends including... crustaceans? Learn more about Xerces Society on their website. Read the full USFWS EPA ruling on monarchs here. Primary Sources: Fallon, C. 2020. Notes from the Other Orders: Beetles as Pollinators . Xerces Society. Pollinator Syndromes . US Forest Service. The ant, the butterfly and their chemical warfare with an oregano plant . PBS News. Dajose, L. These Beetles Have Successfully Freeloaded for 100 Million Years . Caltech California Institute of Technology. Smokebush . In Defense of Plants. Tussenbroek, B., et al. 2012. Meso-fauna foraging on seagrass pollen may serve in marine zoophilous pollination . Marine Ecology Progress Series, Vol. 469, 1-6. Knauer, A., Bakhtiari, M., Schiestl, F. 2018. [Crab spiders impact floral-signal evolution indirectly through removal of florivores](

ALERT: NEW FAVORITE BIRD DROPPED. In this episode of The Best Biome, Rachel lets us live vicariously through bobolinks, the "lackadaisical migrants", whose home is wherever they are and whose destination is wherever they're going. With habitat use that spans grasslands across the western hemisphere and a lengthy migration unlike any other, the bobolink is an unpredictable traveler. But that's exactly what makes them so special! In this episode's Conservation Spotlight, Allan discusses the battle brewing between the federal government and buffalo on public lands. We cover the American Prairie Reserve's canceled leases, the concerns of tribal organizations, and vendetta-driven grazing policies that ignore science. Most importantly, we talk about what you can do to get involved. Actions Items: Provide a public comment on the Bureau of Land Management's proposed changes to grazing permits here. Learn more about the Indian Buffalo Management Act and contact your representatives! Primary Sources: Renfrew, R., A. M. Strong, N. G. Perlut, S. G. Martin, and T. A. Gavin (2020). Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. [https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.boboli.01 ]( This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

We open the episode with an update on the Lesser Prairie Chicken delisting, why all hope is not lost, and some interviews with experts in the field: Dr. Jackie Augustine (Executive Director, Audubon of Kansas) and Stacy Hoeme (Co-Lead, Lesser Prairie Chicken Landowner Alliance). The deep dive for this episode is led by Allan on the origin of cows: the mighty aurochs. Humans have lived and traveled alongside cows farther back then recorded human history. They shaped ancient and modern human pastoralist societies and we're finally giving them a spotlight on the pod. Primary Chicken Sources: Leave a comment on the Lesser Prairie Chicken delisting on the FWS Federal Register here Lesser Prairie-Chicken Landowner Alliance website Audubon of Kansas website Email Jackie Augustine your fan-mail or chicken stories at: [email protected] Primary Cow/Auroch Sources: Rossi, C., Sinding, MH.S., Mullin, V.E. et al. The genomic natural history of the aurochs . Nature 635 , 136–141 (2024). "The Story of Aurochs is More Complicated Than We Thought" by Andrew Coletti, Atlas Obscura. 12/12/2024. Global Biodiversity Information Facility: Bos primigenius +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

In our final episode of Season 4, The Best Biome team discusses the state of grasslands conservation in the current year (and what an eventful year it has been). We discuss the most significant threats and daunting challenges that we'll need to meet head on to protect our underappreciated and overlooked ecosystems. Topics include rollbacks to the Endangered Species Act, attacks on research funding, extraction on public lands, the truth behind grazing leases, and much, much more. Of course, we have plenty of good news to share as well! Join us as we bid 2025 farewell and get ready for whatever next year will bring. Note: There is some occasional strong language used in this episode, as a result of our passion about these topics. Primary Sources: Rachel's Sources: Jack Hatzimemos, Georgetown Environmental Law Review, "The Single Most Impactful Day of Deregulation in EPA History", Mar. 20, 2025 More Than Just Parks: "Mike Lee is Still Trying to Steal Your Land", Nov. 5, 2025 Inflation Reduction Act Rollback Tracker **** Columbia Law Climate Backtracker Bill McKibben: The Crucial Years, "A Different Kind of Leader Gives A Different Kind of Speech", Oct. 1, 2025 Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American" Oct. 16, 2025 **** Nicole's Sources: Center for American Progress: "The Trump Administration's Expensive Push to Sell Out Public Lands to the Highest Bidder" Sep. 22, 2025 More Than Just Parks: "Trump Administration Decides Endangered Species Act Will No Longer Be Followed" Nov. 21, 2025 Works for Nature: "Voters Deliver Big Wins for Conservation Funding in 2025." Nov. 10, 2025 H.R. 1: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act https://morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/trump-administration-decides-endangered?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share\&utm_medium=web\&triedRedirect=true https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-expansive-push-to-sell-out-public-lands-to-the-highest-bidder/ Allan's Sources: ProPublica and High Country News, "Wealthy Ranchers Profit from Public Lands", Dec. 2, 2025 Center for Biological Diversity: "Trump Administration sued over attempted removal of BLM's Public Lands Rule" Nov. 10, 2025 NYT: "The US is funding fewer grants in every area of science and and medicine", Dec. 2, 2025. Union for Concerned Scientists: Attacks on Science [Lawfare Litigation Tracker]( This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

'Tis the season FOR TERROR! Fortunately, nature is pretty metal and has no shortage of scary phenomena to discuss. On our Halloween episode of The Best Biome, we bring you three terrible tales of body horror... from the perspective of plants! These are guaranteed to strike fear into your fiber, send a shiver through your leaves and make your chlorophyll run cold. If these give your houseplants nightmares, you can't say we didn't warn you. Primary Sources: Nicole's Sources: https://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/insects-diseases/1452-aster-yellows/ https://agsci.colostate.edu/agbio/ipm-pests/aster-leafhopper-and-aster-yellows/ Rachel's Sources: Texas Plant Disease Handbook by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (https://plantdiseasehandbook.tamu.edu/landscaping/trees/cottonwood-and-poplar/) Mushroom Monday, Cracked Cap Polypore (https://www.mushroommonday.com/post/cracked-cap-polypore-fulvifomes-robiniae) Allan's Source: Torres-Cruz, Terry J., et al. "Insects visit Fusarium xyrophilum pseudoflowers on the host Xyris surinamensis (Xyridaceae) and carry fungal DNA on their bodies." bioRxiv (2024): 2024-03. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.05.583517 +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

In an episode chock full of PSA's, Nicole gives us a full slate of reasons to appreciate the ever-charismatic rattlesnake (and some helpful strategies for not dying on your next hike). From venomous vaccines that prevent unexpected disease, to prenatal predator practice, there's a lot to like about your local grassland rattlers. They have almost certainly helped far more than they've ever harmed- just don't touch them, please. Primary Sources: Beauvais, T.F. and Adler, K. 2014. Massasaugas, Michigan, and the American Origins of Snakebite Therapy. Herpetological Review. Smith, C., and Schuett, G. 2022. Ultrasound of fetal rattlesnake caudal luring. The Royal Society Publishing. SciNews. Iranian spider-tailed viper tricks bird. YouTube. +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

In this month's Best Biome, Nicole tells the story of a grassland ecosystem so rare and so endangered that neither of her co-hosts had any idea it existed! We're talking about the once-ubiquitous canebrake ecosystems of the eastern United States, which were quite literally American bamboo forests, complete with their own prehistoric red pandas. Find out what happened to the unique rivercane landscape, and what's being done to save it today. Let the search for 30 ft.-tall grasses become your new obsession! Also, check out these great organizations doing rivercane restoration! Cherokee Preservation Foundation Rivercane Restoration Alliance Chattooga Conservancy Primary Sources: Phylogenetic relationships and natural hybridization among the North American woody bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Arundinaria) March 2010 https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.0900244 Campbell, Julian. 2012. Growth of Cane. Bluegrass Woodland Restoration Center. https://bluegrasswoodland.com/uploads/Arundinaria__Growth_of_Cane_.pdf Giant Cane and Other Native Bamboos: Establishment and Use for Conservation of Natural Resources in the Southeast USDA - NRCS 2021 https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.0900244 +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Our view of nature is often constrained by the idea of competition: life as a zero-sum game, where the victorious survive, and the defeated fade into extinction. But not every relationship in life is competitive! Sure, as living things, we must always be aware of our enemies, but our survival is just as closely tied to our social entanglements- our family, friends, neighbors, and communities. In a rebuttal to the hyper-competitive view of ecology, Rachel shares evidence from a growing field of botany that dares to look at how plants behave by applying social theory to their choices. There are many conversations happening among the plants of our grasslands that we haven't been hearing, and it's time to unpack the complexity of these interspecies relationships if we want to really understand how this ecosystem works. Primary Sources: Cahill Lab - University of Alberta: https://cahilllab.ca/ Megan K. Ljubotina and James F. Cahill Jr., “Effects of Neighbour Location and Nutrient Distributions on Root Foraging Behavior of the Common Sunflower,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286, no. 1911 (2019): 20190955 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0955 Mónica López Pereira et al., “Light-Mediated Self Organization of Sunflower Stands Increases Oil Yield in the Field,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 30 (2017): 7975–80. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618990114 James F. Cahill Jr., “The Inevitability of Plant Behavior,” American Journal of Botany 106, no. 7 (2019): 903-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.1313 Robin W. Kimmerer, “Asters and Goldenrod,” in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2013) +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Phytoremediation. A fun word to say, but what does it mean? Turns out it's quite simple: using the superpower many plants naturally have to heal our wonderful Earth from terrible soil contaminants. Allan pulls us off the dark abyss edge that is our current world to deliver a wonderful tale of plants. Primary Sources: Gerhardt KE, Gerwing PD, Greenberg BM. Opinion: Taking phytoremediation from proven technology to accepted practice. Plant Sci. 2017 Mar;256:170-185. Epub 2016 Dec 5. PMID: 28167031. Lee, Jae. (2013). An overview of phytoremediation as a potentially promising technology for environmental pollution control. Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering. 18. +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org.

The Best Biome finally reps reptiles properly as Nicole tells us all about an enormous lizard of the South American grasslands. Buckle up for voracious appetites, raging hormones, and an unexpected peek into the evolution of endothermy. This is: the world's hottest reptile. Primary Sources: Tattersall, G., et al. 2016. Seasonal reproductive endothermy in tegu lizards. Hervas, L., et al. 2024. Mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle contributes to reproductive endothermy in tegu lizards. Herrel, A., et al. 2013. Aggressive Behavior and Performance in the Tegu Lizard Tupinambis merianae. Chicago Journals. +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch Bluesky +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org.