Parks and Restoration

What if protecting the parks and natural areas we still have simply isn't enough? Dr. Doug Tallamy has spent decades studying the relationships between plants, insects, birds, and the ecosystems that sustain them. His conclusion is both sobering and empowering: our remaining parks and preserves are too small and too isolated to carry the entire burden of conserving biodiversity. We have to put nature back everywhere else, too. Doug is an entomologist, professor at the University of Delawar

What can 100 conversations teach us about leadership, conservation, and the people who make meaningful work possible? For the 100th episode of Parks and Restoration, Chris Lee is joined by past co-host Jeremy Yost, with Teli Van Rycke turning the tables and facilitating the conversation. They look back at how the podcast started as a simple effort to capture the institutional knowledge of retiring conservation leaders, how it nearly ended, and how it eventually evolved into something much

What if one of the best ways to prevent burnout is not reducing the work—but changing how people experience it together? Nonprofit leaders and volunteers often enter the work because they want to make a difference. But when every solved problem is replaced by another, even deeply committed people can lose sight of the progress they are making. Jordan DeGree, executive director of the Iowa Nonprofit Alliance, joins Chris for a wide-ranging conversation about nonprofit leadership, volunteer eng

What changes when you treat leadership as a privilege instead of a position? Matt Doty has spent decades studying leadership in places where trust, accountability, and performance matter. After a 20-year career in the Iowa National Guard—including service as a first sergeant and command sergeant major—he carried those lessons into senior operational roles in the corporate world. In this episode, Matt joins Chris and Teli to explore what values-driven leadership looks like in practice. They di

How do we protect the places we love without forgetting the people who make that protection possible? Most people enter parks and conservation because they care deeply about the land. But as Rachel Franchina explains in this episode, the longer you stay in this profession, the more you realize that conservation is ultimately about people. Great leaders don't just manage resources—they build relationships, develop others, and create communities that care enough to protect those resources for gen

Why would an award-winning filmmaker move to Iowa planning to retire... only to end up making one of the state's most ambitious conservation documentaries? That's exactly what happened to Charlie Morris. After years producing conservation films around the world—from South Africa's disappearing great white sharks to threatened forests on the East Coast—Charlie arrived in Iowa intending to leave filmmaking behind. Then he started asking a simple question: "Why is everyone telling me not to swim