BeProvided Conservation Radio Podcast Marcia Sivek

My guest today is Mark Weston. Mark was sent to live on a remote island in the Tanzanian half of Lake Victoria where he found a community grappling with one of the world's great unknown environmental crises. In his new book, The Saviour Fish: Life and Death on Africa’s Greatest Lake he tells the story of this environmental catastrophe through the experiences of the people on Ukerewe Island. He lived on the island for two years and was able to create long lasting friendships and gain trust of the community. As Mark says, the book is not all doom and gloom about the bad state of the fishing industry. The book is also about people, their religion and beliefs and rural island life. Mark and his wife became part of the community and formed lifelong friendships. Mark states it was a privilege to get to know these people and their way of life.
I am happy to announce that The Saviour Fish was one of the Daily Telegraph's and Wanderlust Magazine's travel books of the year for 2022.
In today’s episode, Mark first describes a bit about his experiences with the people and the island. Then we get into the environmental crisis about the Nile perch also known as the saviour fish of Lake Victoria, how the crisis came to be and what is going on now. Mark was able to go out with a friend who also happens to be an illegal fisherman and tells us a small portion of his experience going fishing. We end the interview on a lighter note discussing of all things, banana beer. So enjoy the show and enjoy the book. The Saviour Fish is available through John Hunt publishing, Amazon, and hopefully your local bookshop. The publishers link to the book is in my show notes along with some island photos and more information about Mark. I hope you enjoy our conversation and the book as much as I did!!
About the Author Mark Weston
Mark Weston has written about and broadcast on Africa for BBC Radio 4, Slate, the Royal African Society, South Africa's Mail & Guardian, and Roads & Kingdoms. He is the author of the West Africa travelogue The Ringtone and the Drum and the satirical novel African Beauty, and his research on global issues including public health, access to justice, education and demography has been published in some of the world's leading academic journals. He lives in London, UK.
About the Publisher
John Hunt Publishing is an independent publisher with sales teams worldwide welcoming new authors and unsolicited manuscript submissions. For our authors, we provide an automated production system, forums, a marketing database with over 40,000 contacts and other online tools to produce and market each book. We partner with our authors on marketing, reaching all the traditional bookstore markets for print books, worldwide, and all online retailers.
BOOK LINK: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/earth-books/our-books/saviour-fish-life-death-africas-greatest-lake
Music downloaded from soundstripe.com and is titled Ngoni Nights by Kora Kollective.

Humans have existed for about 300,000 years. And played a huge role in their environment in a positive sustainable way. They grew and killed what they could eat. Gradually, over most of that time or gradually until less than a century ago, humans somehow became separate from their landscape and began extracting from their landscape more than was needed. Small sustainable farms became overrun by industrial agriculture. 
Now the farms in the middle of the US are mostly monoculture crops or single crops to feed cows and livestock stuffed in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The cereal grains grown to feed these animals are not the foods that they are normally meant to be eating. So the animals are injected with hormones and antibiotics just to keep them alive enough until they get slaughtered. Growing enough cereal grains in abundance to feed the livestock crammed into CAFOs gave birth to chemical farming, genetic modifications and heavy pesticide use. The meat from these unhappy animals and grains are passed onto humans. Most of these meats go to feed the masses a cheaper source of meat like those found in the many fast food chains. 
Nowadays a week doesn’t go by when I don’t hear livestock being blamed for the climate crisis. We are told to not eat meat if we want to save the planet. This is so frustrating to me, because all meat is not the same. When we are told this there should be a disclaimer, don’t eat meat from CAFOs. Meat from sustainably operated farms where humans are playing a role in helping livestock eat what they should, rotating crops to save soil, making use of pollinators and natural bug eaters like bats for pesticide control is completely different than meat from a CAFO. In sustainable farms the cows are happy not sick, the land is happy and not contaminated and the food makes people are healthier. 
So the thought here is, in order to be healthier, have healthier livestock that lives on healthier earth - being more a carbon sink than a carbon source, should humans and livestock be considered keystone species? This is one of the topics in todays episode
I am excited today to be interviewing Miriam Kate McDonald, the author of Emergent: Rewilding Nature, Regenerating Food and Healing the World by Restoring the Connection Between People and the Wild. In her book, McDonald explores how humans extracted from natural landscapes can be reintegrated to restore severed relationships with animals and the land. She discusses how regenerative farmers can help build soil, produce nutrient-dense food, healthy happy animals and foster a renewed sense of kinship with their communities. 
This ends todays episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Miriam’s book Emergent can be found to purchase at www.johnhuntpublishing.com. Miriam’s website is www.holisticrestoration.co.uk
and the website to her farm is www.wovenearth-mrh.com. 
About Miriam Kate McDonald:
Miriam Kate McDonald has over 15 years of experience in ecology, conservation and agriculture. Her fusion of science and practise lead her to the realisation that people are a part of the wild, entangled in interdependent relationships. 
​She co-directs Midlands Restoration Hub, Woven Earth and Heartwood and lives at High Leas Farm, Derbyshire, UK.  ​
I will have more information about Miriam and some pictures of her farm in our show notes at www.beprovided.com.
Music today was downloaded from soundstripe.com and is titled Back on the Farm by Andy Elison.
If you like what hear and want to hear more shows like this visit beprovided.com and drop us line, leave a review and let us know how we are doing. Again this is Marcia Sivek of BeProvided Conservation Radio. Until next time stay safe and stay healthy.
About Marcia Sivek:
Marcia Sivek has over 12 years experience in Environmental Engineering. In 2010, she receicved a MS in Nutrition and has been helping people make better food choices since. She began the podcast in 2017 after retur

Most black bears in the wild will avoid people unless a person gets between a mama bear and her cubs or if the bear feels threatened somehow. It seems over the past couple of decades at least the black bears in South Lake Tahoe, CA are not as afraid of humans as they should. They have learned that humans throw away a lot of food scraps from their homes and businesses. The scraps are placed in easily accessible garbage bins. Some bears have also learned to open windows and doors. This can definitely be a problem for both the bear and the human it may encounter.
 

This episode of BeProvided Conservation Radio discusses the urbanization of black bears in the South Lake Tahoe area. My guests are, Lori Howell Thompson author of the newly published book, Living in Harmony with the Wildlife in Lake Tahoe and Toogee Sielsch, black bear expert in Lake Tahoe.
 
Their new book is a great resource for everyone living in and visiting gLake Tahoe. It is educational as it teaches us why these bears became so urbanized and offers tips o now people and bears can safely coexist with each other without harm to human or bear.

 

You can buy a copy of the book, Living in Harmony with the Wildlife of Lake Tahoe at Lori's website, www.inawritersmind.com. You can learn more about Toogee and follow his work on Instagram and Facebook under the name Tahoe Toogee.

 

As always, thank you again for listening. Enjoy the episode. If you like what you hear and find it informative and useful, please share and/or leave a comment to let us know how we are doing.

This is a replay of my live Facebook interview with Beth Pratt, CA Regional Executive Director of the Wildlife Federation, author, co-creator of Save LA Cougars and the all around cougar lady.  The interview originally aired in 2020 during lockdown from the pandemic and I was experimenting with new audio equipment and FaceBook live. 
As many of you may know, the world lost a great soul on December 17, 2022. The world famous mountain lion, P-22, had to be compassionately euthanized. 
This is a summary in a written Eulogy for P22 by Beth Pratt of what the poor boy was suffering from :
“Before I said goodbye, I sat in a conference room with team members from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the team of doctors at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The showed me a video of P-22’s CT scan, images of the results, and my despair grew as they outlined the list of serious health issues they had uncovered from all their testing: stage two kidney failure, a weight of 90 pounds!!! (he normally weighs about 125), head and eye trauma, a hernia causing abdominal organs to fill his chest cavity, an extensive case of demodex gatoi (a parasitic skin infection likely transmitted from domestic cats), heart disease, and more. The most severe injuries resulted from him being hit by a car last week, and I thought of how terrible it was that this cat, who had managed to evade cars for a decade, in his weakened and desperate condition could not avoid the vehicle strike that sealed his fate.”
I dedicate this replay to Beth and P-22 as well as all of the other people and organizations that have helped with bringing the vision of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing to reality. Here is a link to the wildlife crossing website https://101wildlifecrossing.org/ and to Save LA Cougars https://savelacougars.org/ that has live coverage of the construction.
Here is the link to the moving eulogy for P-22 written by Beth Pratt. (have a tissue ready!) https://www.nwf.org/Latest-News/Press-Releases/2022/12-17-22-Eulogy-P-22

Welcome to BeProvided Conservation Radio with host, Marcia Sivek.
As temperatures rise and ecosystems are threatened, the news tends to make us feel there is no hope for our natural world. It is difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But in his new book, The Rescue Effect: The Key to Saving Life on Earth, Michael Mehta Webster suggests that we can feel more optimistic about the survival life on earth because it is more resilient than we think. Webster shares stories of certain species rescuing themselves from extinction through six processes. He does not suggest that humans can sit idly but suggests that conservationists include the rescue effects of a species in their plans for protection or recovery.
If you haven’t guessed already, my guest today is Michael Mehta Webster, author of The Rescue Effect. He is an expert in ecology, conservation, philanthropy, and non-profit management. His research interests focus on how organisms and ecosystems adapt to environmental change, how this information can be translated into effective conservation strategies, and the practical and ethical dilemmas that arise along the way.
Please go check your local bookstore for Michael’s book, if they don’t have it, ask them to stock it!  It is a great gift to your nature loving friends and family.
His book is also available through your normal outlets like Amazon as well if you don’t have a local bookstore.
Today’s music was provided by soundstripe.com and is titled Treehouse Instrumental by Andy Ellison.
If you liked this podcast, please visit our website www.beprovided.com or where you get your podcasts for more episodes highlighting people who are dedicated to protecting our wild world.
Thank you for listening and stay safe and stay healthy
I am Marcia Sivek of BeProvided Conservation Radio

This is a replay of my interview with Camilla Fox, founder of Project Coyote (www.projectcoyote.org).  We discuss the importance of coyotes and other carnivores to balance ecosystems. We talk about why there is fear around these and animals and most importantly, why there should not be fear around these animals.
We also touch on the horrible act of wildlife killing contests. Something that I was hoping, wishful thinking, would be banned in all 50 states by now. Unfortunately it is still legal in most of our states.  
Listen in and learn how Camilla Fox and Project Coyote are dedicating their time to help the public change their negative thinking about these carnivores. 
Here is their website so you can learn more and find out ways you can help https://projectcoyote.org/take-action/