Partnerscapes Podcast Steve Jester

In this special episode of the Partnerscapes Podcast, Wisconsin landowner Asenath LaRue joins U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Partners for Fish and Wildlife Biologist Brendan Woodall for a conversation about conservation partnerships and how personal history can shape the partnership building process.

In this episode, we were able to visit with Heather Johnson, Regional Chief of the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, in the Mountain-Prairie Region.  The Partners for Fish and Wildlife program is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) voluntary private lands habitat restoration program and Heather has spent the last 18 of her over 33 year FWS career in the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.  Heather is set to retire later this summer and was kind enough to share her thoughts on what it takes to work effectively with landowners and local communities.

In this episode of the Partnerscape Podcast we hear from Ken Erickson, a landowner in Central Wisconsin, who is relatively new to the practice of land stewardship about his experience getting started with public-private conservation partnerships.

Hear from Kansas Flint Hills rancher Bill Sproul about his journey from commodity-based conservation to community-based conservation and what he learned about partnerships and relationships working with people along the way.

Private Landowners are almost always key partners when it comes to implementing natural resource and wildlife conservation projects in the United States.  Hear from Shelly Kelly, rancher, former government conservation agency employee and current conservation leader on the the importance of landowner perspectives in voluntary conservation efforts.

Hear from Montana rancher and community leader Jim Stone about the work he and his neighbors and partners have been engaged in over the last couple of decades adapting to the return of large predators