All Land is Beautiful is a series of conversations around the obvious, and not so obvious, natural beauty of California and beyond. The motivation and nexus to start this podcast comes from an ever-evolving personal perspective shift on what contemporary habitat conservation means and looks like. You see, I, like I believe most people come to experience and perceive what’s good and bad for nature (at least the ones that I have interacted with) are of the mindset that the best we can do for nature is to simply remove ourselves from it and the natural of order of things will sort themselves out. You see a dense forest, you should leave it alone; you see a natural grassy field, well there certainly shouldn’t be any cows or sheep in it, and in that case why don’t we remove all of that old barbed-wire fencing; driving through huge swaths of agricultural land, jeez can you imagine what this all looked like before we turned it into row crops? And while those are all completely legitimate ideas and trains of thought, over the last several years of working throughout the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada Foothills, I’ve come to find this whole thing is far more nuanced.
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All Land is Beautiful is a series of conversations around the obvious, and not so obvious, natural beauty of California and beyond. The motivation and nexus to start this podcast comes from an ever-evolving personal perspective shift on what contemporary habitat conservation means and looks like. You see, I, like I believe most people come to experience and perceive what’s good and bad for nature (at least the ones that I have interacted with) are of the mindset that the best we can do for nature is to simply remove ourselves from it and the natural of order of things will sort themselves out. You see a dense forest, you should leave it alone; you see a natural grassy field, well there certainly shouldn’t be any cows or sheep in it, and in that case why don’t we remove all of that old barbed-wire fencing; driving through huge swaths of agricultural land, jeez can you imagine what this all looked like before we turned it into row crops? And while those are all completely legitimate ideas and trains of thought, over the last several years of working throughout the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada Foothills, I’ve come to find this whole thing is far more nuanced.
E9: So You Want to Start a Land Trust?, with Alan Ehrgott (former Executive Director of the American River Conservancy)
All Land is Beautiful
1 hour 20 minutes 13 seconds
1 year ago
E9: So You Want to Start a Land Trust?, with Alan Ehrgott (former Executive Director of the American River Conservancy)
Most land trusts have a similar story. At some point in time there was a threat to a beautiful and natural place and a few people that lived in that place decided they weren’t going to just sit by and not doing something about it. The beauty of this, in the context of land trusts, is that this story grew into a conservation movement that continues today. The early successes of those people that just wouldn’t sit by grew into organizations, now decades later, that have collectively protected millions of acres across California and beyond.
Alan Erhgott, former executive director and founding member of the American River Conservancy is one of those people that did something. On this episode we learn about the good guys, bad guys, and challenges faced with protecting land, habitat, and water in the upper American River and Cosumnes River watersheds. Alan and I chat about his early connection to land and wild places, which includes starting a travel company and becoming a hot air balloon pilot. We talk about what the process looked like in starting the Conservancy, and the challenges and successes that came along with earning his and the Conservancy’s seat at the table. I was particularly appreciative of this conversation because it provides context, insight, motivation, and inspiration into the world of regional land conservation.
All Land is Beautiful
All Land is Beautiful is a series of conversations around the obvious, and not so obvious, natural beauty of California and beyond. The motivation and nexus to start this podcast comes from an ever-evolving personal perspective shift on what contemporary habitat conservation means and looks like. You see, I, like I believe most people come to experience and perceive what’s good and bad for nature (at least the ones that I have interacted with) are of the mindset that the best we can do for nature is to simply remove ourselves from it and the natural of order of things will sort themselves out. You see a dense forest, you should leave it alone; you see a natural grassy field, well there certainly shouldn’t be any cows or sheep in it, and in that case why don’t we remove all of that old barbed-wire fencing; driving through huge swaths of agricultural land, jeez can you imagine what this all looked like before we turned it into row crops? And while those are all completely legitimate ideas and trains of thought, over the last several years of working throughout the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada Foothills, I’ve come to find this whole thing is far more nuanced.
