Episodes

If you think technology won't influence the parks and conservation world, this episode will make you think otherwise. And if you think today's young people aren't planning to change to world, you haven't talked to this guy......

This is the first of five (or more) mini-episodes I will post focused on leadership and organizational culture. Through these episodes, I will discuss my framework, the 5-P's of a Thriving Culture, that I present through my l...

With the holiday season upon us, it's a perfect time to assess whether we are really getting JOY out of our lives. It's real easy to bogged down in the daily grind, the hustle of life, and the chasing of the things that socie...

For the last four weeks, I've had the benefit of having a 7-person Americorps NCCC team serving with my team at Des Moines County Conservation. Today, after the last-day lunch I treated them to, I sat down with a couple of th...

In Harrison County, Iowa, less than an hour northeast of Omaha is the brand new Willow Lake Nature Center, now the headquarters of Harrison County Conservation and the showpiece for Willow Lake Recreation Area. In this episod...

Emily Naylor has been deeply involved with County Conservation for the better part of a decade. Now that she's with Bolton & Menk, her job is specifically to help us as parks and conservation leaders serve our communities and...

Many of us in the parks and conservation world either have written, or will write grants at some point. I've been on both sides of the grant process - I've written many grants (some successfully, even!) and have served on gra...

Jody Maberry started the first podcast focused on developing park leaders way back in 2014. Now, nine years and almost 300 episodes of The Park Leaders Show later, he chats with me about how it all began and what he's learned...

At my department, a 33-year veteran employee just retired. Not only does it suck to lose a long-tenured employee, it really sucks because he played a big role in the culture of our department. As the leader of the organizatio...

This brand new nonprofit wild turkey conservation organization is investing heavily in research, collaboration, and ways of getting turkey science out to the hunting public. Turkeys for Tomorrow (TFT) officially began in Febr...

Michelle Wilson wants to change the way REAP Assemblies are held, but she needs our help doing it. Iowa's Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) program has been around for over three decades and for as long as most of us...

We've all seen the impact our parks and public lands have on the people in our communities. But how many people do those parks bring to the community from somewhere else? How many new residents chose to move to your community...

How do you take big ideas and turn them into community-impacting reality? These guys know. Confluence is the consulting firm that worked with the City of Burlington on a master planning process and then the ultra-inclusive de...

The Outdoor Executive Dad podcast is now called Parks and Restoration. The content is largely going to stay the same, but I wanted to rebrand the show to make it more reflective of the content, and less about me as the host. ...

The term "inclusive" gets thrown around a lot in the outdoor recreation industry but what does "inclusive" play really mean? In the city of Burlington, Iowa, park leaders are showing us exactly what it means as they construct...

Dr. Jim Pease is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Natural Resources, Ecology, and Management (NREM) department at Iowa State University. He's been teaching people about the natural world for over 40 years in both formal...

As we head into the busy park season, many of us will be leading or working with seasonal staff and interns. Do you view them simply as “grunt workers” or are you actively investing in their professional development? In this ...

"I'm not against farming. I'm against pollution." ~Chris Jones Chris Jones is a research engineer at the University of Iowa where he manages the state's water quality monitoring system. But he is probably best known for his b...

Let's call this another installment of the County Conservation Legacy Society. Richard Erke retired last year after 39 years in Decatur County. I love having conversations with long-serving conservation leaders because the pe...

Wild turkey populations have declined in many places across their range and many parts of Iowa are no exception. Research is going on across the country studying various aspects of turkey population dynamics. In this episode,...

Why do we cut cedars out of prairies? Why do we thin trees in forests and oak savannas? Why do we burn? For many of us, the answers to those questions are fairly straightforward. But some people think about land management on...

What are effective ways to recruit new people to hunting when the "It's our heritage" statement doesn't resonate? How can we diversify our education programs to reach broader demographics? How can the DNR more effectively com...

It's Leopold Week where we celebrate the life and work of Aldo Leopold, the "Father of Wildlife Ecology" and no doubt a big influence on many of us in the conservation field. But how many of us stop to appreciate the fact tha...

Kody Wohlers has built a career around fire. Now he is ensuring that future generations of land managers have the skills and experience to properly apply this critical management tool to landscapes in their own communities. T...