Episode 178: The High Stakes of State Wildlife Governance and the Fight for Direct Democracy with Michelle Lute

Summary Fourteen years in the making, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over Southern California’s ten-lane Highway 101 is finally nearing completion. In this episode of the Rewilding Earth Podcast, Beth Pratt, California regional executive director with the National Wildlife Federation and founder of The Wildlife Crossing Fund, sits down with host Jack Humphrey to talk […] Read full article: Episode 183: The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing – Beth Pratt on Reaching the Finish Line

Summary Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited and an original architect of the 2001 Roadless Rule, speaks with Rewilding Earth Podcast host Jack Humphrey about the origins of the Roadless Rule and why rescinding it is a problem for trout and salmon. With the imminent threat of deregulation for nearly 45 million acres […] Read full article: Episode 182: Millions Upon Millions of Acres on the Chopping Block – How to Save the Roadless Rule

Legendary naturalist, author, and veteran grizzly bear defender Doug Peacock joins the podcast from his home in Montana’s Paradise Valley. In this frank, wide-ranging conversation with host Jack Humphrey, Doug cuts through modern anthropocentric environmentalism to refocus on what apex predators and wild country truly require: vast, unbroken, self-willed wilderness. We dig into the persistent […] Read full article: Episode 181: Doug Peacock on the Survival of Grizzlies and Unbroken Wildlands

Summary To make way for double 30-foot, steel border walls in Lochiel, Arizona, federal contractors have clearcut a grove of three 200-year-old Fremont cottonwood trees that reached their boughs across the U.S.-Mexico border in a sign of connectivity, friendship, and anchoring the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River. On the heels of this destruction, grassroots […] Read full article: Episode 180: Activists Take to the Canopy to Defend Centuries-old Cottonwood, Cats, and Connectivity

About Ben Levitan is a senior attorney at Earthjustice, the nation’s largest and most active public interest environmental law organization — know for its motto “Because the Earth needs a good lawyer.” As part of Earthjustice’s Biodiversity Defense Program, Ben advocates for the protection of imperiled species and ecosystems and opposes attempts to weaken environmental laws. […] Read full article: Episode 179. The ESA Harm Rescission: Ecologically Disastrous and a Trap for Companies Attempting to Destroy the Wild — with Earthjustice’s Ben Levitan

About Michelle Lute is a wildlife scientist and conservation leader with two decades of experience in wildlife conservation, nonprofit leadership, and public policy. As executive director of Wildlife for All, she’s leading the charge to transform state wildlife governance and center justice, compassion, and democracy in conservation. Michelle holds a PhD in wildlife management and […] Read full article: Episode 178: The High Stakes of State Wildlife Governance and the Fight for Direct Democracy with Michelle Lute

Episode Summary In this poignant and historic episode of the Rewilding Earth podcast, legendary Southwest author, activist, and audio naturalist Jack Loeffler connects with host Jack Humphrey, just ahead of Loeffler’s 90th birthday. A living thread to the bedrock of the modern conservation movement, Loeffler shares deeply personal stories of running wild rivers and backpacking […] Read full article: Episode 177: Jack Loeffler’s Lifelong Quest to Rewild the Colorado River Watershed and Human Consciousness

Episode Summary Louise Misztal, executive director of Sky Island Alliance (SIA), sits down with Rewilding Earth podcast host Jack Humphrey to explore the unique, biodiverse, and threatened Sky Island Region of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. They discuss how these isolated mountain ranges rise out of the surrounding valleys to create a biological […] Read full article: Episode 176: Protecting and Restoring the Wild Heart of the Sky Islands with Louise Misztal

Episode Summary Cooper Freeman, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, returns to the Rewilding Earth podcast and joins host Jack Humphrey for a transparent, gritty, and surprisingly hopeful update from the frontlines of Alaskan conservation. Navigating a relentless onslaught of fast-tracked industrial projects and regulatory procedures gutted under the current administration, Cooper outlines […] Read full article: Episode 175: How Bedrock Environmental Laws Are Holding the Line in Alaska (For Now) with Cooper Freeman

About the Author Julie Carrick Dalton is a novelist, former journalist, and farmer whose work explores the deep, often complicated relationship between humanity and the natural world. With decades of experience telling stories rooted in fact and reality as a reporter, Julie later turned to working the land, a pivot that ultimately unlocked her passion […] Read full article: Episode 174: How Fiction Moves the Needle on Real-World Conservation