Take action on behalf of grizzly bears and their habitat
Available Episodes:
Episode 21
Jim and Heidi Barrett
Episode 20
Lyn Dalebout
Episode 19
Dr Brad Bergstrom
Episode 18
Rick Bass
Episode 17
Dr. Adrien Treves
Episode 16
Dr Marc Bekoff
Episode 15
Jack Oeflke
Episode 14
Sam Jojola
Episode 13
Barbara Ulrich
Episode 12
Stephaney Seay
Episode 11
Bethany Cotton
Episode 10
Dr. Paul Paquet and
Chris Darimont
Episode 9
Michelle Uberuaga
Episode 8
Jesse Logan
Episode 7
Jesse Logan
Episode 6
Charlie Russell part II
Episode 5
Charlie Russell part I
Episode 4
Tim Borzoth
Episode 3
Casey Anderson
Episode 2:
Chuck Neal
Episode 1
Dr Barrie Gilbert
Episode 20:
This show is tailor made for these troubled times! Poet and educator Lyn Dalebout is a woman with many hats and talents: she is also a biologist and a sidereal astrologer, who writes a weekly blog called Earth Sky Oracle. (Check out the recent ones on Obama and other political figures). Lyn has a book of poems called Out of the Flames. Her writing has appeared in a number of anthologies.
This week’s podcast is dedicated to our dear friend Anthony Birkholz, whose bright flame was tragically extinguished last week. Tony’s last project involved a film about grizzly bear delisting. Bon Voyage, Tony!
Recommended reading: http://www.earthwordskyword.com/
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Episode 21:
If you are feeling depressed by the state of our nation, take hope and a few minutes to listen to the stories of two conservation heroes, Jim and Heidi Barrett. Jim and Heidi are long-time residents of Silver Gate MT, near Cooke City on the doorstep of Yellowstone Park. They raised their son in the company of grizzlies, moose, wolves, and other wonders of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. With modesty and courage, they took on – and won -- some of the biggest environmental threats facing their wild corner of the ecosystem. They were leaders in the epic battle to stop a gold mine from being built at the edge of Yellowstone Park; they worked to bring under control the escalating use of off-road vehicles; and they played a major role in improving sanitation systems in an area that had long been a “black hole for bears” because widely available garbage had caused so many bears to be killed.
Jim and Heidi Barrett are proof that a few people with big hearts and determination, can make an immeasurable difference for the wild, and all of us.
For more on Jim and Heidi and the efforts to reduce conflicts with grizzly bears around Cooke City, see my blog: http://www.grizzlytimes.org/single-post/2017/01/08/Trash-Talk-Cooke-City-Cleans-Up-Garbage-Saves-Bears
Recommended reading:
Books by Barbara Kingsolver
Anything by Rick Bass
Sun Magazine
Check out Jim’s art: http://jimbarrettfineart.com/
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Summer Reading:
BOOKS
Walden and Civil Disobedience,
Henry David Thoreau
A Sand Country Almanac,
Aldo Leopold
Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark,
Danial B. Botkin
Crossing The Next Meridian Land: Water and the Future of the West, Charles, F. Wilkinson
The Wisdom of the Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations,
James Surowiecki
The Lorax
Dr. Seuss
Teaching a Stone to Talk
Annie Dillard
Sand County Almanac
Aldo Leopold
Ecology of Conflict: Marine Food Supply Affects Human-Wildlife Interaction on Land
Artelle, K.A, et al,
Sci. Rep. 6, 25936; doi: 10.1038/srep25936 (2016)
Wildlife Conservation and Animal Welfare: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
PC Paquet and CT Darimont
Animal Welfare, 2010, 19: 177-190 ISSN 1962-7286
The Unique Ecology of Human Predators
Chris Darimont et al,
Science, 349, 858 (2015) DOI:10.1126/science.aac 4249
Grizzlies in the Mist, by Chuck Neal
Chuck shares rare insights on grizzly bears with a clarity that can only come from spending decades in grizzly bears’ company. In addition to sharing fascinating natural history on grizzly bears, the book serves another purpose, a daring one, which involves stripping the veil of confusion and doublespeak utilized by managers to hide what they are doing from the public. Chuck provides a clear diagnosis of the real management problems today. He pulls no punches in his discussion or in his commonsense suggestions about how to fix the current problems for bears and the broader public interest.
Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, by Stephen Herrero
Bear Attacks is the classic must-read book on the subject.
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock
Grizzly Heart: Living Without Fear Among the Brown Bears of Kamchatka,2002,
by Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns
Spirit Bear: Encounter with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest, 1994,
by Charlie Russell
The Beardude Story: Data vs Dogma, Apr 9,2015
by Mr. Allen W. Piche
The Grizzly,1914,
by Enos A. Mills
PAPERS
Ecology of Place: Mountain Pine Beetle, Whitebark Pine, and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: WFIWC Founders Award, 2009,
Dr Jesse Logan.
In the Rockies, Pine Dies and Bears Feel It, Charles Petit,
New York Times, 2007
Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers, Michelle Niijhuis,
High Country News. 2004
The Scrambled Natural World of Global Warming,
Washington State Magazine,
Winter 2014
Episode 16:
Dr. Marc Bekoff brings infinite wisdom and compassion to our relationships with animals. He is a former professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and a past Guggenheim fellow. His scientific research includes animal behavior and cognitive ethology, which is the study of animal minds. With over 1000 articles and 30 books thus far, Marc is a leader in behavioral ecology, and pioneered the field of compassionate conservation.. His homepage is marcbekoff.com
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Kids & animals, Marc Bekoff, Foreword by Jane Goodall
Jasper's story: Saving moon bears, by Jill Robinson and Marc Bekoff
Ignoring nature no more: The case for compassionate conservation, edited by Marc Bekoff
Why dogs hump and bees get depressed, by Marc Bekoff
Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence, by Marc Bekoff
The Jane Effect: Celebrating Jane Goodall, edited by Dale Peterson and Marc Bekoff
The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age (with Jessica Pierce, 2017, Beacon Press)
Essays on bears:
Compassionate conservation:
Trumping wildlife/trophy hunting:
Episode 18:
Don’t miss this episode with Rick Bass! A world renowned writer and conservation advocate, Rick shares his long experience fighting for Wilderness, bears and his beloved Yaak Valley. Hearing his words will make you fall in love with Wilderness, grizzly bears, wolves all over again!
Here’s Rick: “Anytime you’re fortunate enough to see a bear, any kind of bear, it changes your day, changes your week, it re-calibrates how you think about yourself. You’re just struck by the sentience and intelligence of the animal. It re-calibrates this myth, this perception we have that because our brains are pretty big, we’ve got everything figured out.”
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Links:
Grizzly Years, Doug Peacock
All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora Welty
Solo Faces, James Salter
Episode 17:
Catch the latest show with Dr. Adrian Treves, an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Madison in Wisconsin! Adrian’s research focuses on finding a balance between human needs and those of large carnivores
In his latest paper, he and his colleagues pointed out the shoddiness of research design being used today to justify killing of carnivores. Drawing from lessons learned from the bio-medical research community, authors applied a “gold standard” for scientific inference, in order to evaluate lethal and nonlethal efforts to reduce human and livestock conflicts. They found that no research done in the last 40 years met this rigorous test, and few met even the more relaxed “silver standard.” The majority of recent studies of lethal methods found no effect, or a counter productive effect of increased livestock loss from carnivore killing. This led to the authors to recommend a moratorium or a suspension of lethal methods until "gold standard" experiments are completed.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Episode 19:
Don’t miss this show featuring Dr. Brad Bergstrom, a mammalian ecologist, conservation biologist, and Professor of Biology at Valdosta State University. For nearly ten years, Brad chaired the Conservation Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists, where he reviewed endangered species policies. Brad has been deeply involved with large carnivore issues, especially grizzly bears and wolves. His views on delisting and grizzly bear recovery are insightful, interesting and wise.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Links:
Listed: dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA.
Roman, J. (2011)
Predatory bureaucracy: the extermination of wolves and the transformation of the West. University of Colorado Press, Boulder, CO. Robinson, M.J. (2005)
The wilderness warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for America. Harper Collins, New York. Brinkley, D. (2009).
Yellowstone: A Journey Through America's Wild Heart. National Geographic Society. Quammen, D. (2016)
Recommended Papers and Letters:
American Society of Mammalogists and Society for Conservation Biology (2016) joint statement on proposed Grizzly Bear delisting : http://www.mammalsociety.org/uploads/committee_files/GYE_grizzly_letter_ASM_SCB_Final.pdf
Bergstrom et al. (2014) License to kill: reforming federal wildlife control to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function. Conservation Letters 7: 131-142. http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~bergstrm/Bergstrom%20et%20al%202014%20(ConsLetters_print).pdf
Endangered Species Coalition and EarthJustice. (2003) A citizens' guide to the ESA.
Episode 15:
Imagine the return of grizzly bear in Washington's vast North Cascades wilderness, where it fulfills its ancient role in the ecosystem! That is what Jack Oeflke of the North Cascades Park Complex discusses in this inspiring show. Ample habitat is available to support a population of several hundred grizzly bears, in an ecosystem that is on a par with Yellowstone and Glacier, but now lacks a reproducing population of bears. Public support is strong for the proposal to reintroduce bears, which could occur in the next few years. A final decision is expected by the end of 2017. Join the conversation!
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Episode 14:
Sam Jojola tells the gripping (and dangerous) story of his career as an undercover agent for the US Fish and Wildlife Service -- and his fascinating later career as an actor, which he says shares a lot with undercover work. For two decades, Sam worked on cases of illegal parrot smuggling, wildlife poisoning, and illegal trophy hunting by Safari Club types. His shares his serious concerns about the legal framework for managing grizzlies if federal protections are removed.
Sam says"state and federal agencies need to work in tandem, both are important. With the limited number of bears in the world, and with six out of eight of the world's bear species imperiled, why take a chance with grizzly bears, that deserve everything we can possibly do for them?"
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
The Lizard King by Bryan Christy - about a fellow USFWS Special Agent Chip Bepler who chased a notorious reptile smuggler in Florida.
Of Parrots and People by Mira Tweti – Chapter 9, entitled "The Invisible Man," is about some of Sam’s covert work on the illegal parrot trade.
Winged Obsession by Jessica Speart - about the world's most notorious and prolific rare butterfly smuggler, caught by a colleague of Sam’s. The author gave Sam an acknowledgement for bringing this case to her attention.
A Hunt for Justice by Lucinda Delaney Schroeder - chronology of friend of Sam’s, a USFWS Special Agent, about an undercover Dall Sheep case she made in Alaska.
Plunder of the Ancients by Lucinda Delaney Schroeder - chronology of the illegal trafficking of Native American artifacts by art dealers in Santa Fe and elsewhere.
Animal Investigators by Laurel A. Neme, PhD - great story about the world's first USFWS Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, OR, with chapters on bear gall bladder investigations.
Episode 13:
Barbara Ulrich shares her experience as an owner of an ecotourism business in Gardiner, MT, the doorstep of Yellowstone Park. Faced with the government’s troubling treatment of wolves, bison and other wildlife when they step outside the boundary of Park, Barbara became a leader of a community-based effort to improve state management. Her intelligent, low-key, but persistent style has paid off, with Montana’s adoption of more benign wolf policies. Feeding her curiosity about how the natural world works, Barbra went on mid-career to pursue graduate work looking for signals of past changes in climate in microbes that flourish in bison poop.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Spillover by David Quamman
A Montana writer attacks medical forensics in these stories of significant relevance to the modern world!
The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars by Michael Mann
Climate change is not a religion, it's science - and sadly, politics. Michael Mann addresses these issues head on.
The Signature of All Things Elizabeth Gilbert's great historical fiction work whose main character is a strong willed, intelligent, woman who is by nature, a scientist.
Episode 12:
Today's episode is with Stephany Seay, media coordinator for the Buffalo Field Campaign. Stephany is on the front lines of protecting Yellowstone’s buffalo, for which there is sadly still great hostility in Montana and among cattlemen. She and other members of Buffalo Field Campaign monitor buffalo year round, and they bear witness to the government's mistreatment of them, such as last winter when about 600 animals were killed.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Dan Brister’s In the Presence of Buffalo
https://org.salsalabs.com/o/2426/t/11564/shop/item.jsp?storefront_KEY=554&t=&store_item_KEY=4664
Everything by Derrick Jensen, especially Endgame, Vols. 1 & 2, & The Myth of Human Supremacy
Episode 11:
Bethany Cotton of Wild Earth Guardians is a leading light in the fight to protect grizzly bears, wolves, lynx, bobcat and the wild nature of the American West. She started early, testifying at a hearing against a proposed mine (still not built) at the age of 12, and made the decision to become an environmental attorney in high school. You can't help but be inspired by her passion and moved by her resilience and tenacity.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Episode 10:
This week, Louisa talks with Dr. Paul Paquet and Chris Darimont. Paul and Chris are both world renowned experts on predators and their wild ecosystems. Both have publications, infact a huge number of publications; a list as long as your arm. They may look conventional on paper, but in reality they’re kind of rebels, and they represent a serious challenge to conventional wildlife management, because in addition to researching the animals and their ecosystems, they have expressed concern about the welfare of wildlife.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
More Reading
The Lorax, Dr. Seuss
Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard
Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
Ecology of Conflict: Marine Food Supply Affects Human-Wildlife Interaction on Land
Artelle, K.A, et al,
Sci. Rep. 6, 25936; doi: 10.1038/srep25936 (2016)
Wildlife Conservation and Animal Welfare: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
PC Paquet and CT Darimont
Animal Welfare, 2010, 19: 177-190 ISSN 1962-7286
The Unique Ecology of Human Predators
Chris Darimont et al,
Science, 349, 858 (2015) DOI:10.1126/science.aac 4249
Episode 9:
Michelle Uberuaga is the Executive Director of the Park County Environmental Council in Livingston, Montana, a grassroots organization working to protect a landscape that is vital to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem – and one that is threatened by two massive gold mines, rural sprawl, and lingering intolerance to grizzly bears and wolves. Armed with a background as an attorney, a winning personality, and the ferocity of momma bear, Michelle is making headway, along with the members of PCEC… Michelle articulates why species like the grizzly bear need active local AND national constituents, explaining why she works at both scales.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Episode 8
In Episode 8, Dr. Jesse Logan shares the second part of the interview, with fascinating insights on how whitebark pine trees, which provide vital seeds to grizzly bears, are sitting ducks when it comes to the predatory pine bark beetle. Dr. Logan talks about what it was like working on climate change issues in the hostile Bush administration, and his overriding passion for wilderness and wildlife.
Episode 7
Louisa Willcox speaks with Dr Jesse Logan who blew the whistle on the threat to whitebark pine, a key grizzly bear food, from mountains pine beetle and global warming long before anyone else had imagined it. He tells the amazing story of predicting and then documenting the tragic loss of a magnificent forest in Greater Yellowstone, and using his knowledge to help in the fight to restore legal protections to the Yellowstone grizzly bear. Jesse is a forest ecologist, climate expert and outdoorsman extraordinaire, who in his 70's can still kick your ass in the woods.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
More reading:
Ecology of Place: Mountain Pine Beetle, Whitebark Pine, and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: WFIWC Founders Award, 2009, Dr Jesse Logan.
In the Rockies, Pine Dies and Bears Feel It, Charles Petit, New York Times, 2007
Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers, Michelle Niijhuis, High Country News. 2004
The Scrambled Natural World of Global Warming, Washington State Magazine, Winter 2014
Glo
Episode 5 & 6:
Charlie Russell is a rancher, bear expert, film-maker and author, who has such a special personal way with bears that some call him a bear whisperer -- a honorific that he poopoo’s. Charlie has spent much of his life pioneering a different kind of compassionate and respectful relationship with bears and other wildlife, one he thinks is possible for all of us. Charlie has accomplished what many thought impossible, including raising tiny orphan cubs and releasing them successfully in the wild to flourish. Charlie’s decade in Russia’s Far East were high adventure, tracking poachers in his ultralight plane, and building a Russian ranger corps to protect bears and other wildlife. Charlie speaks to tragic deaths by bears of friends like Timothy Treadwell, and the threats to grizzly bears in Alberta and Yellowstone by proposed sport hunting.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Grizzly Heart: Living Without Fear Among the Brown Bears of Kamchatka,2002,
-
by Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns
-
Spirit Bear: Encounter with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest, 1994,
-
by Charlie Russell
-
The Beardude Story: Data vs Dogma, Apr 9,2015
-
by Mr. Allen W. Piche
-
The Grizzly,1914,
-
by Enos A. Mills
Episode 4:
Louisa Willcox speaks with Tim Bozorth, retired land manager and member of Yellowstone’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Subcommittee, who candidly shares his opposition to grizzly bear delisting. During his 45 years in public service, Tim stood up for the public and our natural resources, and helped make the world a safer place for grizzly bears in the Gravelly and Centennial Mountains. Here he outlines his vision for what still needs to be done next to achieve long term recovery for the grizzly bear.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
More reading:
Walden and Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau
A Sand Country Almanac, Aldo Leopold
Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark, Danial B. Botkin
Crossing The Next Meridian Land: Water and the Future of the West, Charles, F. Wilkinson
The Wisdom of the Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, James Surowiecki
Episode 3:
Louisa Willcox talks to Casey Anderson, who raised a grizzly cub, Brutus, from a tiny baby to a 900 pound giant. Casey challenges us to think differently about our relationships with bears, who are a lot like us. Casey owns Grizzly Encounter, an educational facility that harbors grizzly bears, many of whom were rescued from dire conditions, or zoos that were closing down.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
More information on Casey and Brutus:
FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/Casey-Anderson-464679620477/
Casey’s TEDx Bozeman Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFgoxmnoDI
Casey’s book - his story about Brutus: http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Brutus-Grizzlies-America/dp/1605982539
Casey's video choices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVMBdi4dgME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGitn1q-E8
Montana Grizzly Encounters http://www.grizzlyencounter.org
Episode 2:
Louisa Willcox talks with a man who pulls no punches when talking about the management problems of the ecosystems and the political dominance of the livestock industry over all other values on public lands. Chuck Neal, ecologist, author, and grizzly bear expert, and old friend and colleague spent 40 years as an ecologist working for the Departments of Interior and Agriculture across the West, from New Mexico to Montana, with a special emphasis on wilderness and habitat. Chuck has a passion for grizzly bears and has spent countless hours in Yellowstone’s backcountry in the company of bears. His book, Grizzlies in the Mist makes for a fascinating read.
Listen on iTunes - coming soon
Suggested reading:
Grizzlies in the Mist, by Chuck Neal
Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, by Stephen Herrero
On connectivity for grizzly bear populations? http://www.grizzlytimes.org/#!blank-6/cymg
How many bears do you need to get to recovery? http://www.grizzlytimes.org/#!blank-6/cymg
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Episode 1:
Louisa Willcox of the Grizzly Times talks with an old friend and colleague Dr. Barrie Gilbert for insights to the mess that is about to unfold in the world of grizzly bears. Barrie is an expert and a retired professor of animal behavior at Utah State University who studied grizzly bears from Yellowstone to Alaska for 40 years.
Now he’s also studying how they’re being managed by the government and his view points offer a stark warning.
Suggested reading:
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock
Agency Spin, By Dr. David Mattson http://www.grizzlytimes.org/#!agency-spin/c19kj
Killing Grizzly Bears, Grizzly Times http://www.grizzlytimes.org/#!killing-grizzly-bears/c80v
Without a Safety Net, Grizzly Times http://www.grizzlytimes.org/#!Without-A-Safety-Net/c1ou2/5684
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