Episodes

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 and informal settings and his list of credentials is impressive, to say the least. He is certainly leaving a legacy here in Iowa. Today he continues to paddle Iowa rivers (he's logged over 2200 miles of them so far!), consulting with the DNR and water trails programs; he ho...

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 mini-episode, I share my thoughts on how today’s seasonal staff are tomorrow’s coworkers and what we as leaders should be doing to cultivate a future workforce.

"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 blog, through which he describes the state's water quality crisis and its sources: mainly the industrial agricultural system. Over the years, Chris Jones has become one of the most outspoken champions for clean water in the state. He unabashedly calls out the ag industry, p...

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 perspective looking back on a 4-decade career is much different than what it is for us in the still deep in the trenches. This particular conversation reinforced for me, yet again, the power of unrelenting and long-standing pursuit of something bigger. It's easy to get lost in...

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, Dan Kaminski, Wildlife Research Biologist with the Iowa DNR walks us through the research happening in Iowa, who's involved, and what questions researchers are trying to answer along the way. This episode is for anyone who loves turkeys and/or turkey hunting and wants to i...

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 a deeper level. They see thinning operations as managing the flow of energy in a system. Or they seek to understand the microclimate impacts from prescribed fire. Some people focus on the "why" before the "what" and the "how" when it comes to working in conservation. My g...

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 communicate with county conservation professionals across the state as we collectively work to bring outdoor recreation to a new generation? I tackle these questions and much more in this conversation with Jamie Cook, Iowa DNR Hunter Education Coordinator.

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 that Leopold is from here in Iowa, born and raised in Burlington (my hometown, incidentally). So much of what he wrote and what has been written about his focuses on his professional life and his travels and accomplishments outside of Iowa. But the "Land Ethic" that he's so wel...

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. The Loess Hills Alliance's Cooperative Burn week has become the gold standard for agencies working together to not only impact a globally significant landscape, but to teach and mentor up-and-coming conservationists along the way. In this episode Kody tells us how it all came...

There's a lot going on in the statehouse lately, notably a bill in the Senate that would fund the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund (aka IWiLL) while making some significant changes to various other tax codes. In this episode, I chat with ICCS CEO Adam Shirley about some of the bill's details, what some of the response has been to it, and what we can do as parks and conservation professionals to keep the Trust funding momentum going. As with all legislative updates, this infor...

What if we gave every student in an entire 4th or 5th grade class a fully immersive, week long, multidisciplinary outdoor learning experience? That’s exactly what School of the Wild is doing in school districts across Iowa. In this episode I talk with Jay Gorsh, the program’s director, and Kenny Slocum, a Naturalist from Clayton County, about the program and how we can bring it to our communities. To learn more or to find Jay’s contact info, just Google “Iowa school of the wild” or go to www.ou...

This is the first of what will likely be many legislative updates shared through this show. This is a snapshot of the status of the Iowa Legislature as it applies to the world of county conservation as of this day in time (January 30, 2023). There are a lot of moving parts in the legislature so if you listen to this much past the original posting date, there's a good chance some of this will be outdated already. So it goes... I do plan to post these updates with some regularity, especially as e...

Here on day two of the Winterfest conference I chat with The Armless Archer, Matt Stutsman and try not to go too fan-boy on him. I also chat with some of the event’s presenting sponsors and Adam Shirley, the new CEO of Iowa’s County Conservation System.

Coming to you live (sorta) from the annual Winterfest Conference in Coralville. Here we dig into what goes into putting on the premier county conservation employee conference and get some insight into the event itself. This is the first in a series of episodes recorded live at the event.

It's the beginning of a new era for Iowa's County Conservation System. Adam Shirley just officially took the reins as CEO, carrying forward the work and legacy left by 47-year County Conservation veteran Tom Hazelton. But no doubt Adam will put his on spin on things and bring his own ideas and initiatives in the coming years, as all leaders do. Curious to hear what he has in mind for the future of the nation's best county conservation system, I had what I suspect will be the first of several cha...

For the first post of 2023, I’m asking for your help. Over the break I determined that the scope of this podcast is, and will most likely continue to be, focused on county conservation. That’s the world I know and love and therefore is the world for which I want to create content. So I need feedback from you, the county conservation employee, regarding what topics to cover and who to talk to on this show. And also, what should I call it? I don’t know that the "Outdoor Executive Dad" moniker is...

In this episode, the tables are turned when the host becomes the guest. I recently joined Steven Brody, Director of the Chamber of Commerce here in my hometown of Burlington, IA for an episode of their podcast, All Things Greater Burlington. We talked about issues facing parks and conservation, the various programs and facilities my department manages, and plans for the future. And I shared some of my parks and conservation philosophy along the way. Enjoy!

Some business deals get done in bars. Others, as today's guest, Jeremy Hess, has discovered, get done in boats. On the river. While catching catfish. As the Director of Economic Development for the Greater Burlington Partnership, Jeremy knows a thing or two about bringing businesses to town. He also knows how important parks and recreation amenities are to business leaders and today's workforce. This conversation explores the intersection of parks and economic development. Along the way, we dis...

How do you build a strong, cohesive team? Drink beer and catch fish together! Okay, maybe that's not exactly the way today's leaders should operate, but early in Brian Moore's career nearly 40 years ago, it worked pretty well. Brian recently retired after more than 32 years leading the conservation department in Chickasaw County. In this episode, we talk about why it's important to get people out of their normal routines sometimes, how he went about strategic planning, and how 30+ years went by...

I wanted to know how important parks and outdoor recreation amenities are from a workforce recruitment perspective so I reached out to the recruiter for my county's largest employer - the local health system. KC Fleming is tasked with finding and recruiting physicians for Great River Health, convincing professionals at the top of their fields to relocate to southeast Iowa. And while our conversation does focus mostly on this part of the state, the take-home message is the same: Parks and outdoo...

43 years is a long time to do anything, and Dennis Lewiston spent that long working in county conservation, spending 37 of those years in Jefferson County alone. The wealth of knowledge that these long-serving leaders bring really is astounding and that's why I do this podcast. I've said repeatedly that we're playing the long game in our professions. Yet for those of us in the trenches, those of us with half a career ahead of us, it's easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind. But as guests like...

Shortly after Ray Delmege started his career at Polk County Conservation, he was assigned to Jester Park which was described to him as "a glorified cow pasture where motorcycle gangs and college kids came to drink beer and party." If you've been to Jester Park lately, you know it's a long way from a "glorified cow pasture" today. In fact it's a poster child for what county parks can become when tenacious park and conservation leaders relentlessly pursue a vision for a better future. I original...

If you build it, but nobody knows about it, will anybody come? What's the "personality" of your organization? How do you build so much trust among your community that 81% of it votes to give you $65 million to further your parks and conservation efforts? That's what I discuss with Kami Rankin and Shae Rossetti from Polk County Conservation in this episode. They were responsible for the department's community outreach efforts for years, recently culminating in the successful $65 million bond iss...

When one county department sues another over a hog confinement issue, that's a story worth telling. But then again, over a 40-year career, you end up with plenty of stories to tell. Bob Etzel retired from Tama County Conservation after a four-decade stint as the department's director. In this episode, recorded back in mid-2020, he shares some of his insight from a long career in county conservation. We discuss working with boards, favorite books, hiring good employees, the likelihood that Tom Ha...