Save What You Love with Mark Titus

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:26:02
Mark Titus
Welcome to the Save What You Love podcast. I'm your host, Mark Titus. Today I sit down with Alison Fox. Alison is the CEO of American Prairie, a nonprofit working for the restoration of 3.5 million acres of prairie in Montana. She's led the organization as CEO since February 2018, and Miss Fox holds an MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College.

00:00:26:03 - 00:00:54:19
Mark Titus
She's a member of the big Sky chapter of the Young Presidents Organization and the advisory board of William and Mary's Institute for Integrative Conservation. Alison and American Prairie have been featured in many publications and productions, including National Geographic, the BBC, PBS, and on 60 minutes on CBS. Today, we talk about tough conversations with our neighbors, making a place at the long table for folks who see the world differently.

00:00:54:21 - 00:01:15:21
Mark Titus
Buffalo as keystone species of the prairie. Staying in the long game with a big vision and other topics. I had a ball and learned so much in this interview with Alison, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Thanks so much for being a cherished listener of this podcast and we'll see you down the trail.

00:01:15:23 - 00:01:52:04
Music
How do you save what you love?
When the world is burning down?
How do you save what you love?
When pushes come to shove.
How do you say what you love?
When things are upside down.
How do you say what you love?
When times are getting tough.

00:01:52:06 - 00:01:55:13
Mark Titus
Alison Fox. Welcome. Where are you joining us from today?

00:01:55:15 - 00:02:00:08
Alison Fox
I am in our office in Bozeman, Montana today. Snowy. Bozeman, Montana.

00:02:00:10 - 00:02:04:15
Mark Titus
Snowy. Beautiful. Are you ready? Are you ready for that snow?

00:02:04:16 - 00:02:22:01
Alison Fox
I am ready for it. We've had a incredible fall here in Montana. A long extended fall. And it is. It is time. It is time to replenish our our waterways with with some good snowpack. So hopefully it'll start coming a bit heavier than, than, that has been for the last few months.

00:02:22:03 - 00:02:29:18
Mark Titus
Oh, well, good. I'm crossing my fingers for you and that it just paints a beautiful Montana scene, just like Yellowstone.

00:02:29:18 - 00:02:36:09
Alison Fox
I'm sure I haven't seen it. Okay, okay. I've never seen it.

00:02:36:11 - 00:03:05:01
Mark Titus
It's probably for the best. Yes. Well, look, I love doing this show because it's a long format, and it allows us to kind of just meander, like, like a stream or river and go into things. And I'm. I'm just going to start in that vein and let us tell you. Tell us your story. How did you come into this work about protecting the things that you love?

00:03:05:03 - 00:03:10:06
Alison Fox
Yeah, I'll, I'll I'll try a shorter version, but it may be a long version. It might be meandering.

00:03:10:08 - 00:03:11:15
Mark Titus
You can go as long as you want.

00:03:11:18 - 00:03:30:23
Alison Fox
Because I think it might, at this stage in my career, it's something I've reflected on and the story. And I think everyone does this. How to had all these threads tied together. So, at the root of it, I grew up in a rural area. I grew up in a town of about a thousand people, 1200 people in Vermont.

00:03:31:00 - 00:03:58:09
Alison Fox
So, I was outside a lot as a kid. I was out in nature. I was, you know, exploring streams and finding newts and hiking with my family and spending time in the clinic at River. So the nature and outdoor places have always been really important to me. I spent the summer between my junior and senior years of college working in Glacier National Park, and, actually met the man who's now my husband.

00:03:58:09 - 00:04:17:05
Alison Fox
And the talk will be going to the Sun Road and, fell in love with Montana and fell in love with big, open landscapes and public lands. I mean, I grew up between the White Mountains and the Green Mountains in New England, so I certainly was familiar with public lands, but, but but there's nothing like what we have in the West, of course.

00:04:17:05 - 00:04:41:18
Alison Fox
Right. So, that, summer in Glacier, changed my change, my trajectory. And I moved to Montana after I graduated from college. I worked, for a software company for a couple of years and then went to business school and coming out of business school, but I knew I wanted to do was, do work that was meaningful and close to my personal values.

00:04:41:18 - 00:05:11:09
Alison Fox
And it and when I put all these threads together, it's not surprising that that ended up being and conservation. Even though I'm a history major with an MBA. My husband and I spent our honeymoon backpacking through wilderness areas in all 11 western states, with about 20 to 25 wilderness areas over a four month period. So again, big, open, wild, wild, wild landscapes from the East Coast to California to, desert canyons to the North Cascades.

00:05:11:11 - 00:05:34:20
Alison Fox
The portion of North Cascades with wilderness. So, when the opportunity when we moved back to Bozeman and the opportunity to work for American Prairie crossed, came before me. It it it was natural, right? I don't have a I didn't have a background in conservation biology or ecology. I didn't really even know the prairie landscape.

00:05:34:21 - 00:06:08:12
Alison Fox
But this idea of working on a public, private lands project a big, big ecosystem scale conservation project, that, well, that honors that landscape's past and, and, and charts a future that that takes into account that past and, protects this really miss misunderstood and maybe under appreciated landscape that that was a really appealing thing. So, that's that's how I ended up at American Pride 17 years ago.

00:06:08:12 - 00:06:14:09
Alison Fox
Like, maybe today was that late November 2007 when I joined the organization. So.

00:06:14:11 - 00:06:48:19
Mark Titus
Well, congratulations. Yeah. That's wonderful. I love the willingness to step out and go to a place like the glacier and stand there and open yourself up to what the universe may have in store for you. I was recently talking to a friend out at the L.A. River for, my my current documentary, The Turn. And they were they were saying, oh, yeah, I'm, you know, I'm leaving, exploring new things, and I'm leaving my home here and I have some reservations about it.

00:06:48:19 - 00:07:11:19
Mark Titus
And I was thinking, you know, and I said, do that, I mean, that that's the the classic journey, right? Going out, discovering. And little do you know, in my case, it was, going to work in a processor up in Alaska. And exactly that brought me to doing the work that I'm doing around salmon. So you just never know where it's going to open the door.

00:07:11:22 - 00:07:12:22
Mark Titus
I think that's wonderful.

00:07:13:02 - 00:07:40:19
Alison Fox
Yes, absolutely. I think, well, my, my late mother New that I had fallen in love not just with this boy and Glacier, but was with Montana because very early in my time in Montana, she'd say, you've had such a nice place to settle down. And I think I'm not settled yet. I'm 22 and I have a rental apartment, and everything I owned still fits in my car, but, she she knew she knew that the this this place had captured my heart.

00:07:40:21 - 00:08:06:08
Mark Titus
Yeah. At the same all the all the people around me knew the same thing about, Alaska and, and our waters here, but I, I, going down a pathway here that I want to loop back to. What? What are you doing at American prairies? Like, what is this great big, beautiful dream that is unfolding and manifesting?

00:08:06:09 - 00:08:08:18
Mark Titus
And you being a part of it?

00:08:08:20 - 00:08:43:00
Alison Fox
Yeah. It's a part of reality, right? It's, it's nearly half a million acres next to an existing million acre wildlife refuge in terms of the reality. But the vision is to restore and open to the public, open for education, recreation, a kind of Great Grassland park. But to do so using, a different model, that has been used in this country in the past, and that is a model of acquiring private lands in order to link together existing public lands.

00:08:43:00 - 00:09:10:22
Alison Fox
So temperate grasslands are the least protected and most threatened biome worldwide. They tend to be the places we've plowed and settled and we've wiped them out fauna off of them, you know, globally. Right. And among temperate grasslands, there are four places left where, according to IUCN, you could, restore full functionality to the ecosystem in one of those places and northern Great Plains.

00:09:11:00 - 00:09:38:01
Alison Fox
So if you look at our existing public, public lands, public parks, protected areas, whether they be national parks or wildlife refuges there, there really isn't anything big on the grasslands other than the Charlie Russell National Wildlife Refuge, around which we are we are working. So so that's the goal. So we the goal was to assemble eventually 3.2 million acres or 5000mi² of public and private land.

00:09:38:02 - 00:09:59:20
Alison Fox
And to manage it in cooperation with the, public land agencies, various public land agencies, both at the state and federal level that owned land in this region of Montana, and ensured that all the species that that once called the place home or our home again, welcome back. Not just that diversity, but the abundance.

00:09:59:22 - 00:10:28:11
Alison Fox
That was that was once, this, this place that once characterized this place, to do so in a way where local communities see benefit and experience benefit. And, visitors from around the world can come and see a grassland ecosystem. So we're about 23 year old nonprofit organization founded in 2001. And, we've now, as I mentioned, assembled about 500,000 acres of public and private land.

00:10:28:13 - 00:10:42:13
Alison Fox
Next to this, next to the Charlie Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which is along the Missouri River and is a steep Missouri river, breaks country down, down to those river bottoms. So so that's that's the vision. That's the big vision.

00:10:42:15 - 00:11:01:10
Mark Titus
It's it's astonishing work. And as you correctly say it, it's not just the vision. It's the action that is been done and is doing is unfolding right now. And thank you. I'm I'm just astonished, honestly. Like, there is such a tremendous amount of work, a big team.

00:11:01:16 - 00:11:03:17
Alison Fox
It's a really big team, I think.

00:11:03:19 - 00:11:17:15
Mark Titus
I have no doubt. I have no doubt. And and for something this big, what's the what's the importance of the 3.2 million acres number? Why is that an important part of this valid question?

00:11:17:17 - 00:11:45:01
Alison Fox
3.2 million acres is 5000mi². And that's the size the conservation biologist say you would need for a fully functioning ecosystem. So for predator prey relationships, for the migrations to migrations to occur, for natural processes like fire on the landscape, to have that, you know, to, to play that historic role. So is 3 million failure is 3.5 million overachieving.

00:11:45:01 - 00:12:00:05
Alison Fox
No, but somewhere in that 5000 square mile range is is what we're looking for. So that means American Prairie is assembling 2 million acres of public and private lands on either side of the Charlie Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

00:12:00:07 - 00:12:03:17
Mark Titus
And you're close to 500,000 at this point of the.

00:12:03:17 - 00:12:11:02
Alison Fox
Yeah, of that two point, that 2 million acre target is incredible. After about 43 transactions.

00:12:11:04 - 00:12:38:00
Mark Titus
Wow. Wow. I have so many questions. But, ask away. Okay, I, I understand the word save has controversial and loaded interpretations in your work, and I understand why. But it is the title of this podcast, and I think in my own mind, not like as an assignment of blame on any particular group of people, as in, we got to save it from those particular people, but more in my case.

00:12:38:00 - 00:13:07:00
Mark Titus
I'm speaking for, you know, this, this show and the work I do, but more as a call to save or set aside sacred and enduring places, beings and necessary ideas of wildness for future generations. How do you balance the need for sensitivity in the communication of your mission, without losing the intensity of vision necessary to pull off something as audacious as protecting 3.5 million acres of wildlands?

00:13:07:02 - 00:13:36:20
Alison Fox
Timely. We have a brand new communications manager who, started earlier this week, and I had met her as part of the interview process. And so we just sat down together and we were talking about this very topic and, how the word saved got us. In trouble as an organization, honestly, and was, I think, so I'll sort of offer, for my perspective and why and how we use the word and, and the, the nerve that it understandably touched.

00:13:37:02 - 00:14:08:12
Alison Fox
I think in some of the communities in which we work, I think we you save a lot in the conservation community. Save the redwoods, save the rainforest. You know, they're just. We do. And what we mean is exactly what you say. To to protect, to cherish, to recognize the value, to recognize the, Yeah. The uniqueness, the specialness of that place and and maybe, above all else, to sort of profess our affection.

00:14:08:12 - 00:14:33:13
Alison Fox
Right. For, for nice seeds or. Yeah, right. For the species or the, the ecosystem we're talking about. And so we had done, just an annual fund marketing, effort a number of years ago, almost a dozen years, was a decade ago, probably, save the prairie or save an ecosystem. I think it was. And, understandably, the pushback we got was, say, from who?

00:14:33:13 - 00:15:04:11
Alison Fox
Like, say, from what? Like, this isn't threatened. And, and that's, that's a fair that that's a that's fair. And that was not our intention at all. But to offend anyone. But that that's a fair statement, because I would say that one of the reasons that we are working in particular region where we are working is because it's been really well stewarded and it's mostly intact native prairie, it has not been plowed, it's been grazed.

00:15:04:11 - 00:15:35:18
Alison Fox
But, but but Grace responsibly. And so there's a lot of intact grasslands. That's why it's one of these four places where, you can where, ecosystem scale restoration is still possible because, it's a lot of, ground and really, really good sheep. So, the the reaction to, to this campaign was, let's say, a community group called Save the Cowboy Stuff, American Prairie.

00:15:35:18 - 00:16:11:10
Alison Fox
So sort of a formal, opposition to to American Prairie. And, I would say that that that makes things way too black and white, too. Right. Or not. And we have no opposition to the cowboy. No opposition to the cowboy, opposition to agriculture. What we are doing in American prairie is, is creating a place on our private lands that we are acquiring in the private markets, where eventually the the goal is for biodiversity, right, for biodiversity and for, you know, public access and recreation.

00:16:11:10 - 00:16:38:05
Alison Fox
So we have a number of different ways you work with the agricultural community. I'm happy to, to talk about. But, I think the root of what you're you maybe we're getting at is, is just, those challenges in communication communications of, being really thoughtful about the words you use and. Yeah, recognizing that a lot of these conservation challenges and solutions are complicated.

00:16:38:07 - 00:16:44:04
Alison Fox
And you can take shortcuts with words that have unintended consequences.

00:16:44:06 - 00:17:15:02
Mark Titus
Yeah. I at first blush was it seems like an overreaction digging into it and empathizing. I can understand really. And I think this leads beautifully into my my next question here for you. You may have noticed we just had an election. My take on the results, in part, are that many people who feel as though they have not been heard in the discourse of American politics have just been heard, at the polls.

00:17:15:02 - 00:17:37:04
Mark Titus
And many of these folks come from rural areas. The exact demographic of your neighbors in Montana, what are the ways in which you're creating space for folks at the big long table of your work? In other words, how do you address the fears and concerns ranchers have about becoming displaced or obsolete in the American prairie?

00:17:37:06 - 00:18:04:09
Alison Fox
Yeah. Okay. Question. I'll steer well clear of the politics. But for sure that wasn't what you were asking about. No. So, you know, American Prairie for a long time was really a startup, and we were raising money all across the country to, to, to to buy land. And we certainly developed relationships with our across the fence neighbors.

00:18:04:09 - 00:18:42:01
Alison Fox
But, you know, we we have the polling data in Montana. We are not that well known statewide. Right. And even in the counties we work, we're not, we're not well known and we're not, the the sort of complexity of what we stand for and do is not it's not terribly well known. And so, about six years ago, there was a joint resolution that came out of our, our state legislature opposing, grazing, change of use that we had requested from, from council debates and, one of our, our, our parcels and it was kind of a wake up call like, okay.

00:18:42:01 - 00:19:08:12
Alison Fox
Wow. People, are, you know, we knew that that bison are not me, that are controversial animal. That wasn't that wasn't the news, but sort of the the amount of misinformation about American prairie in the state, lack of information and misinformation, in the void that we had created by by not paying attention, honestly, what was larger than I think we don't think we realized.

00:19:08:12 - 00:19:35:06
Alison Fox
And so we've taken a number of steps as an organization in the last, six years to be more present and more transparent, more communicative and to listen, and so I can give you some examples of those. But I guess the overarching message is we see that we contributed to creating, a bit of a vacuum of information.

00:19:35:08 - 00:20:05:12
Alison Fox
So we, a couple of examples. We now have a Montana advisory board, made up primarily of, citizens of the seven counties in which, within which we own land. And we meet with that advisory board a couple of times a year. We get feedback from them. They're made up. It's, made up of, some of our indigenous neighbors, community members, like your business people and communities, ranchers, sportsmen.

00:20:05:14 - 00:20:34:09
Alison Fox
Right. You know, lots of different people in, in the communities and, and really leaders in, in their counties. We, opened a facility in 2021, in Lewistown called our National Discovery Center. It was even though we were owning owned and, and, and leased a couple hundred thousand acres, there was really no place where people could come and meet someone who worked for American Prairie.

00:20:34:11 - 00:21:00:13
Alison Fox
And get a map and learn how they could visit, get their questions answered. And so in 2018, we purchased, a big, historic building on Main Street in Lewistown. Montana, which is our, our main, through main gateway community. And this was a 120 or 100, 120 year old building that it served as a mercantile pool or a department store for its entire history.

00:21:00:13 - 00:21:26:08
Alison Fox
So very like, very public community facing, property. And we turned that into what we call our, our national Discovery Center. And it has a nice, exhibit hall and it has a children's area as a theater has, our offices. It's the headquarters for, all of our staff that, are based in Lewistown, and it has a, community room essentially like a, you know, a an event center.

00:21:26:08 - 00:21:53:02
Alison Fox
And so we host events there. It's open to the public now, three days a week. And it has, it's really created that storefront, that downtown presence where people can come and learn and learn more about our mission, and the programing that we have there is, is not all just related to American Prairie. We we've hosted, tribal buffalo gatherings.

00:21:53:02 - 00:22:20:20
Alison Fox
We've hosted different conservation organizations that are having their statewide, retreat there. We have hosted guest speakers. We have musical events. We have historians who come and speak at this, at this facility. So I think we are creating a real, asset for, for Lewistown, central Montana, with, with this, this place. We've also built a, a some infrastructure out on our lands that is, that is rentable and open to the public.

00:22:20:20 - 00:22:40:14
Alison Fox
So we have a system of three soon to be four huts. Backcountry huts, kind of like for service cabins. But in the cabins that you can rent, we have two campgrounds, and, we're seeing we've got about 6000 overnight visitors per year now, most of those are Montanans, especially with the hikes. Most of them are Montanans.

00:22:40:14 - 00:23:04:19
Alison Fox
But, so and then we are, all of our land is open. Our private lands are open. And you can cross our private lands to get to public lands. And so we're, also one of the top ten participants in the block management program, which is, many of your listeners who I'm sure familiar with that is Montana's, public hunting program that opens up private lands to, to the public.

00:23:04:19 - 00:23:33:04
Alison Fox
And so, wow, about 80,000 acres in this year. We've been held about a thousand acres and in that program. So we've got thousands of hunter days to get birdwatchers. We got families coming out. People are flooding the the Duda from the Missouri rivers, through and by our property. So, really laid out that welcome mat to, to people, to people to come and explore, a landscape that even a lot of Montanans haven't, haven't hadn't been to.

00:23:33:04 - 00:23:37:13
Alison Fox
And during the Covid years. Wow. We saw huge spikes in.

00:23:37:13 - 00:23:38:05
Mark Titus
Oh, I bet.

00:23:38:08 - 00:23:59:04
Alison Fox
Use of those of those facilities. We've also started education programs. So that's the last thing I'll mention. We've got a, American Prairie Field School that, targets, Montana schools. With an overnight program especially targeted at Montana middle schools. So, it's a prairie. It's just all prairie, ecology, education, essentially.

00:23:59:06 - 00:24:26:22
Mark Titus
That that's incredible. And I'd like to come visit and, boy, it would be great to do a screening of, The Turn when it's it's out in 2026. We're going to do a 50 town national tour. And that would be just lovely it because in part because this leads in to where I'm going here. You know, we're going to be talking about the Snake River and reaching the, the lower for Snake River dams, which many folks believe.

00:24:27:00 - 00:24:57:17
Mark Titus
Certainly the science is conclusive that that is the best possible solution to keeping salmon around. And most folks here in the northwest believe salmon should stay around, but that means that there's some really hard and, seemingly, seemingly intractable problems. But, they're not, they can be solved, but, it it's delicate. And it also needs to be robust at the same time.

00:24:57:17 - 00:25:23:01
Mark Titus
And I wonder what in your world when your, you're in relationship with your neighbors and, and the ranchers who are there who are afraid. And frankly, what I hear is that they're suggesting that, you know, if if American Prairie completes its goal, maybe they won't be here anymore and maybe their way of life won't be here anymore.

00:25:23:03 - 00:25:47:21
Mark Titus
What is what's the answer to that? Is there is there it's that's a complex problem. And and I know it's not a simple sound bite, but, what is the thinking on that when folks are nervous about their, their multigenerational way of life and which, though I might temper with, has been here for, you know.

00:25:47:23 - 00:26:05:17
Mark Titus
Up to 150, 200 years total. What is that? What does that look like when when you're trying to deal delicately but also robustly with, the vision here and the work that you're trying to do, which is, is wonderful work.

00:26:05:19 - 00:26:33:14
Alison Fox
Yeah. I guess I try to create a little perspective. I start with, we're buying land from willing sellers. We're buying land from people who have decided to put their properties on the market, whether they list them or they just give us a call. And so, there's no, there's no, nothing other than willing buyer and seller transactions occurring.

00:26:33:16 - 00:27:00:03
Alison Fox
I'd also like to put that, you know, 2 million acres. America is talking about next to an existing million acre wildlife refuge. Montana's 93 million acres. That's the size of the state of Montana. So 3 million acres is enormous. It is the size of Yellowstone and Glacier combined. It is it is a big place. But, you know, when we you think about American prairies, bison herd, we've got about 900 animals.

00:27:00:03 - 00:27:31:06
Alison Fox
Now, we might have something in the the thousands, right? Eventually. There are a half a million head of cattle in the seven county region which we work. So agriculture is not going anywhere in our area. It's it is the dominant, ranching in particular. It's a dominant industry. And, so I, I try to steer the conversation away from this sort of total black and white because it's not black and white.

00:27:31:06 - 00:27:54:21
Alison Fox
I think the other thing is, American prairie right now, our lands are kind of in 12 major units. We based on two of them. So we have bison on 10% of our holdings right now. We'd love to have bison on more. And but we are. We only create new herds when we can, put them on larger landscapes.

00:27:54:21 - 00:28:23:11
Alison Fox
It doesn't make sense for us to have, from a management perspective or from an ecological perspective, like a whole bunch of little herds. So 90% of our lands are leased out to, to ranchers, for cattle production. Sometimes that's, that's through a leaseback arrangement because the person who sold to us is leasing back to us, and that helps their family, make that decision or, you know, make that transition, that intergenerational transfer.

00:28:23:11 - 00:28:50:00
Alison Fox
Sometimes, and others are just community members. And, you know, the our leases have wildlife friendly standards on them, and they're conservation places. And we work with those lessees to ensure that that habitat is, is well taken care of. But, the the idea that it's, you know, all bison, all the time, everywhere is is not it is not is not the reality.

00:28:50:00 - 00:29:12:09
Alison Fox
And I guess I would also say that, you know, our bison have a significant positive impact, on, on the area, they are, of course, the, of course, all the ecological benefits of bison that, you know, well, that, you know, that bison as a keystone species on this landscape, but, but they're they're fun to visit.

00:29:12:09 - 00:29:22:21
Alison Fox
They're fun to see. And we, you know, even have create some harvest opportunities every year for the public that are wild, wildly popular. So.

00:29:22:23 - 00:29:23:22
Mark Titus
Wow.

00:29:24:00 - 00:29:36:11
Alison Fox
I yeah. So I guess, that sort of those are sure that things that, it's, it's not American Prairie or agriculture in central Montana.

00:29:36:13 - 00:30:02:04
Mark Titus
Great. Thank you. I know that's a that's a hard topic, and I appreciate you delving into it. You mentioned 43 transactions to date. Who who makes an ideal partner? And what are you looking for in folks? And, maybe there's organizations involved, but what what does that look like? Who who usually is coming to you?

00:30:02:04 - 00:30:10:21
Mark Titus
And how do those how do those things usually, come about?

00:30:10:23 - 00:30:36:02
Alison Fox
They're all very they're all different, of course. But we are typically, buying land from, from the private individual, a family, or in a couple of cases, like groups of individuals who own the property together. Sometimes those are families that have been on the property for a couple of generations. Sometimes they live somewhere else and bought it.

00:30:36:04 - 00:31:03:04
Alison Fox
Some of them have been, more hunting properties that's on an out-of-state buyer has owned their own for for elk hunting for, some period of time. So, so they're all they're all different. And as long as we can come to agreement on price, which has to be very, very close to appraised value, because as a nonprofit, we, we have to pay, appraised value essentially against independent appraisals.

00:31:03:04 - 00:31:27:20
Alison Fox
And, that's an important part of our, you know, maintaining our Fy23 status. So. Sure. So, yeah, I think as long as we can come to, to terms on the property and it's in it, you know, we've evaluated it and meets the meets the ecological criteria we're looking for and the location that we're looking for. We we, we try to get to we try to get to a deal.

00:31:27:20 - 00:31:35:08
Alison Fox
And as I mentioned, in some cases, that means that the that that owner is leasing back from us for some period of time.

00:31:35:10 - 00:31:46:03
Mark Titus
Sure. Are those folks usually on board with the big mission or is it more of a transactional piece or is it just all the way across the board? Does it just goes transaction by transaction.

00:31:46:03 - 00:32:12:01
Alison Fox
Transaction by transaction? Yeah, yeah. Transaction by transfer. Some are agnostics. Some probably wish that we weren't the buyer. Some you know, we we are working with a family now that has leased back to us for a dozen years and will continue to lease back. And we, you know, we have a great we have a great relationship. And, I think, you know, they're they're supportive of what we're doing.

00:32:12:01 - 00:32:15:00
Alison Fox
So I think it's, it's all over the board.

00:32:15:02 - 00:32:15:19
Mark Titus
That's okay.

00:32:15:21 - 00:32:24:05
Alison Fox
Fair enough. But I think they, you know, above all else, I think they think they're being treated fairly by American prairie and that's, Yeah, that's really important for us.

00:32:24:07 - 00:32:42:14
Mark Titus
That, that that seems to be the case with, with what I've looked at too. In the research behind this,

00:32:42:16 - 00:33:11:08
Mark Titus
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00:33:36:22 - 00:33:53:15
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00:33:53:17 - 00:34:21:04
Mark Titus
I want to you mentioned this earlier, but I want to emphasize and just call it out in the clear light of day here, that, the public has access to these lands. Right? This is not you're locking it up and no one gets to step foot on it anymore. That is novel and excellent. And can you tell me a little bit more about the, folks who might be able to use this land and what what they use it for?

00:34:21:05 - 00:34:43:01
Mark Titus
You mentioned, you know, wildly popular, harvest buffalo harvest event. I suppose there's probably other hunters and maybe just paint us a little picture about, the folks that do are interested in using the land and, and, and being guests on the land and what their attitudes are about that.

00:34:43:03 - 00:35:12:07
Alison Fox
Yeah. So, it is a wild, wild place. And, our promises will be wild each time you visit. So, it is remote and big and open and you are very much at the elements on this landscape, whether it's, you know, 110 degrees in the summer and a rainstorm is going to come through, that's going to that will make the roads impassable because they're gumbo or it's, you know, 40 below in the winter.

00:35:12:07 - 00:35:16:14
Alison Fox
And so I'm really selling it. Come, come visit. It doesn't look like it. Yes.

00:35:16:15 - 00:35:19:20
Mark Titus
I can see I can see the flier. Yeah, yeah.

00:35:19:22 - 00:35:44:09
Alison Fox
So, you know the people there is no there's no entrance gate. There's no, you know, there's no place where, you know, people. Can you it's not a handheld experience. Right. So it's, it's people who have a four wheel drive, high clearance vehicle and are, you know, probably recreating on other big chunks of public lands. And they want a new adventure.

00:35:44:11 - 00:36:05:05
Alison Fox
And so I think that's just important to, to know we do have, you know, we use the events app and we have maps and we have paper maps, and we can get them to give people general, guidance. But, but it is a very it's a very remote experience. And, and that's, that's its charm, right. That's for sure.

00:36:05:09 - 00:36:26:14
Alison Fox
That's what's incredible about it. I think the other thing about the prairie that I, that I love to emphasize is we haven't built any trails, and we have one little interpretive trail at one of our campgrounds. But you don't need trails. You can just set out with Onyx or Rivendell or good GPS and follow a two track road and and explore.

00:36:26:14 - 00:36:47:19
Alison Fox
Right. And I'm just going to go see what's over there, you know, five coolies away. So that sense of kind of just the land snorkeling is what one of our America's board members calls it is, is the cool one of the coolest things about the about the prairie. So to characterize our visitors right now, certainly we do have a lot of hunters.

00:36:47:19 - 00:37:13:23
Alison Fox
And, and I mentioned that before, this area, particularly the Missouri River breaks, is prized by by hunters. And the prairie, too, you know, for, for, bird hunting and, and other and ungulates for sure. Each of our properties, that we enroll in black management, we set, and we have a team within the organization that sets us hunting policies, every year.

00:37:13:23 - 00:37:37:19
Alison Fox
And we're going for quality, quality hunt over quantity and so limited number of, hunter days, you know, parties per day, on those properties. And if there are species that we, when we restrict species if, if that's the recommendation of the, of our team. So we talk mule deer hunting mule deer, but hit really hard.

00:37:37:19 - 00:38:06:14
Alison Fox
We took that out of, out of a number of properties, this year. So lots of lots of people going out and hunting these lands, and some cases hunting lands that they haven't had access access to in generations. And we get a lot of really positive feedback for that. Our backcountry huts are, all you can drive to all of them, but they're all on, kind of dirt and, they're all in pretty rugged roads.

00:38:06:16 - 00:38:32:04
Alison Fox
But those leap 8 to 9 people apiece, one of them is along the banks, the Missouri River. One is on a bench, kind of, up above the Missouri River, and the other, is in right outside of. Right. So, next to a cottonwood grove along the Judith River. So they're just spectacular locations. They have their drive, but they have, kitchens and you.

00:38:32:04 - 00:38:55:07
Alison Fox
So that I think a lot of families, groups of friends use those. They're, they're bringing their bikes. They might be bringing horses. They're hiking or land snorkeling from there. They might be fishing on the Judith River. They, they, you know, they're they might be using those as a base for birdwatching, other wildlife watching. And then we have two campgrounds.

00:38:55:09 - 00:39:21:04
Alison Fox
One is in our buffalo, on the property that has bison on it. That's 50 miles on gravel road from from the highway. So, wow. So very remote. But you can but bison or wandering through you're in by your tent platform. So that's very cool. Spot. And then we have a campground that is along 191, which is the main North-South paved highway through the area that I'm describing.

00:39:21:06 - 00:39:47:09
Alison Fox
And that has, some cabins and a bathhouse, an RV sites and tent sites and an interpretive trail. And that's a bit more, accessible. Definitely more more accessible and all weather. And at that particular risk people, it's about half Montanans have people from other states. And so that that maybe is a little bit more of like the road trippers destination.

00:39:47:11 - 00:40:00:15
Alison Fox
Our director of public access calls and recreation describes our green square. Our green circle, blue square, black diamond, sort of experience. It's got.

00:40:00:17 - 00:40:00:22
Mark Titus
That.

00:40:00:22 - 00:40:27:11
Alison Fox
One in particular that. Yeah, is, is very, accessible to people kind of, you know, with a camper, who might be coming through. So, yeah, lots of different types of, of recreation, but everyone's out there enjoying really, really big skies, really quiet landscapes and, you know, and the sound of the metal works at four in the morning.

00:40:27:13 - 00:40:51:03
Mark Titus
Well, what a picture you're painting. And I love land snorkeling. That makes perfect sense to me. As to the skiing, markers, that makes perfect sense. The thing I love to do almost more than anything these days is get in a river and river, snorkel, take my nephews and nieces, for the same. I think vision that that you're talking about there.

00:40:51:03 - 00:41:23:22
Mark Titus
It's quiet, you're slowing down, you're being present. You're coming into a space as opposed to exerting your will on it and trying to manipulate it. You're you're the visitor. You're in relationship with it, and I that makes perfect sense to me as, a way to experience the land. It's serene and it's quiet, and you're you're you're calming yourself down out of, in transitioning out of this crazy busy world that we have constructed for ourselves.

00:41:24:00 - 00:41:46:03
Mark Titus
Speaking of busy, I'm curious about the day to day operations of American Prairie. You've got dozens of people that work for the organization, and I bet it's a tough job. But I also bet it's, rewarding assignment as being the CEO of this org. Can you tell me a little bit about what you all do?

00:41:46:05 - 00:42:13:08
Alison Fox
Yeah. Yeah, sure. Never boring. It's true. I feel very lucky to come to work every day and feel challenged. And, find our work exhilarating. So you're right. We we have right now, about 57 employees. They're not all full time, but 57 employees. The vast majority are here in Montana, and they wear a lot, a lot of different hats.

00:42:13:10 - 00:42:51:09
Alison Fox
So our conservation division is the biggest division. They oversee all of the field programs, all of the infrastructure, all of those acres, the bison herd, all of the habitat restoration activities, the rewilding activities that are occurring, on the ground, that team this week is, in the middle of our annual, bison roundup and handling. So they're running a couple hundred bison through, through our handling facility, through the squeeze shoots, getting blood samples, checking for for disease, and getting, those blood samples for genetics as well.

00:42:51:11 - 00:43:12:02
Alison Fox
Some of those bison will be distributed to other conservation herds, because we're also worth paying attention to carrying capacity on each of these, properties that have have bison. So a huge today, Thursday, November 21st, a huge portion of our team is is up there, on one of our properties doing this, this multi-day bison handling.

00:43:12:02 - 00:43:36:07
Alison Fox
So, our team is, kind of broken into four divisions. We've got, of course, fundraising, the philanthropy division, operations and and finance, external relations and marketing and the conservation division. And so you could work in American Prairie and be the manager of the bison herd. You could be a, the director of community outreach.

00:43:36:10 - 00:44:02:08
Alison Fox
You could be a, a gift officer wearing a philanthropy hat out, meeting with people all around the country. So, yeah, very, very, you know, a big set of different jobs. We have, I the a team most of our team now is either, living on our properties or living in Lewistown. We do have an office in Bozeman as well.

00:44:02:09 - 00:44:17:18
Alison Fox
Most of us here in Bozeman are traveling quite a bit, around the country. And, kind of those back office functions are here. We have a board, National board of directors of 19, people.

00:44:17:18 - 00:44:20:23
Mark Titus
Who who are.

00:44:21:00 - 00:44:48:19
Alison Fox
From all over, who help govern the organization. And as I mentioned, and an emeritus board as well, and a Montana advisory board. So, it's not, and then thousands and thousands of donors. So it's, yeah, it's a big a big group. We also have a number of collaborators and partners, Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute, the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, their main finance partner.

00:44:48:21 - 00:45:13:16
Alison Fox
And they have, eight full time staff now working here in Montana on their Great Plains science program, helping, working with, working on American prairie lands, but also working with a lot of different collaborators, in the region on, science projects and some species reintroduction efforts to like the Swift Box project that they led with the Army and Nakota community on Fort Belknap.

00:45:13:16 - 00:45:22:19
Alison Fox
So, they're they're kind of everywhere in, in the northern Great Plains and or this particular part of the northern Plains in Montana.

00:45:22:21 - 00:45:26:19
Mark Titus
U. Piqued me. And, I got to ask, sweat box project to.

00:45:26:21 - 00:45:33:06
Alison Fox
Fox to a fox. I don't know what that would be, but let's talk about some of that.

00:45:33:08 - 00:45:35:11
Mark Titus
Sweat.

00:45:35:13 - 00:45:38:13
Alison Fox
Ducking too fast to get some thoughts, you know.

00:45:38:13 - 00:45:42:16
Mark Titus
So thoughts I don't elucidate. Yeah.

00:45:42:18 - 00:45:44:22
Alison Fox
To a fox are a little.

00:45:44:22 - 00:45:49:02
Mark Titus
That's on me. That's like getting old. Yeah. Wow.

00:45:49:04 - 00:46:22:04
Alison Fox
Oh they're a little fox about themselves. My housecat. Okay. Our to the Great Plains they have had were eradicated from our particular area of central Montana. Mostly by poisoning campaigns that were not were targeted at other species. Not at them, but Smithsonian and the tribes at Fort Belknap have led this five year reintroduction effort, where they've taken swift fox from other states, Plains states that have healthy populations.

00:46:22:04 - 00:46:46:03
Alison Fox
Colorado and Wyoming, and and translocated them to, Fort Belknap and put collars on them to, to track their movements and release them from there. So they're denning and reproducing now. And we have these cool maps of the sky Fox going all over the place and all over the reservation, but also off reservation to.

00:46:46:05 - 00:46:47:02
Mark Titus
So.

00:46:47:04 - 00:46:54:14
Alison Fox
One of the few species that was that kind of truly missing from, from our area.

00:46:54:16 - 00:47:16:14
Mark Titus
Wow. Well, look, this is just flowing just like a river. Right into the next thought I had, which was, obviously there's a lot of challenges, and you can talk about those two more if you like, but, what have your greatest moments of joy look like for the work and the mission of American Prairie during your tenure?

00:47:16:15 - 00:47:40:20
Alison Fox
Well, that's a very nice question. I've had, I've had some incredible, incredible experiences on the landscape. Obviously, I've spent a lot of time out there. Both when I'm working and, and personally, I have, to not so little boys anymore who are now in middle school, but we've been we've been a lot of family time.

00:47:40:22 - 00:48:01:21
Alison Fox
Out there. But, you know, one story I will tell, I early in my tenure at American Prairie, I was out with a National Geographic film crew scouting. They ultimately made an hour long, their natural history unit made an hour long film called American Serengeti about American prairies efforts.

00:48:01:23 - 00:48:02:10
Mark Titus
I remember that.

00:48:02:10 - 00:48:34:03
Alison Fox
We were out there in February. This is not in the film. And we were scouting and we were driving south of, the first property, American Prairie, bought into the Charlie Russell. It was a February day, like, bright blue sky, really snowy prairie. It was just me and the, the filmmaker and, our ranch manager at the time and ranch manager was driving, and, along this snowy road were all of these footprints, like, so, so many of Brent's and I, I was still pretty new.

00:48:34:03 - 00:48:56:18
Alison Fox
And so I said, oh, what's that? It's like, this is going to be incredible. This is something all the old timers talk about. And he knew what we were going to see. And so he sped up and we basically got to a high point and we saw sticks. He estimated 6 to 800 migrating pronghorn stretched out over a mile across the snow covered prairie.

00:48:56:20 - 00:49:27:23
Alison Fox
Of course, the filmmaker did not have his camera, but we just all stood there like, you know, just transfixed by this, experience. So that was that was amazing. And that, you know, the next winter actually was a really, really hard winter on that problem or population. But I think I may be unique stone on America pro team and for seeing that kind of a migration, another, a sort of equal side of what we do.

00:49:28:01 - 00:49:51:03
Alison Fox
We I mentioned that we bought this building, this, this beautiful old stone building on Main Street in Lewistown to make it to our Discovery Center. We we ultimately pushed go on the construction of that in the middle of Covid. And it was we you know, it's hard. Like a lot of organizations, we cut our budget significantly.

00:49:51:03 - 00:50:16:11
Alison Fox
We completely reworked everything. But we had spent a couple of years raising the money. We had spent a couple of years, you know, designing at the firm, but designing the exhibits and, and we knew what we were building. We, you know, we had the funds and the go ahead. But we had those moments of, like, is this going to be, you know, well, people come to these kinds of spaces and is this the right time for this project?

00:50:16:11 - 00:50:59:21
Alison Fox
This is the right use of resources at this at this time. And we ended up only opening maybe four months late. And, and we just we just plowed through and we persevered and that, that facility is just such a gem for us, as, as an organization. And it's such a it's such a treasure. So, you know, we didn't really have an opening because the you were the one of the big grand, you know, ticker tape parade, like, we kind of hope you, but but, you know, now, three years later, you just sort of like I reflect a lot, on the value of that, of that space and the programs

00:50:59:21 - 00:51:12:17
Alison Fox
that we've created there and the team that we've built there and the relationships that they have in the community and how the community feels about it. And, and that that makes me really proud to.

00:51:12:19 - 00:51:39:07
Mark Titus
Perseverance and and truly sticking with that compass. We all had those thoughts during Covid, but at some point we as as social beings, we're going to want to be together again. Right. And that good for you. And it's beautiful. How does standing out there in that moment when you saw 6 to 800 pronghorn, how does that make you feel on the prairie?

00:51:39:09 - 00:51:51:09
Mark Titus
You know, what is that? What's going on inside you in your heart when when you're seeing something that is, most people don't get to see and be be a part of.

00:51:51:11 - 00:52:36:07
Alison Fox
Small and inconsequential and the best ways, I mean, I feel, I feel that way anytime I'm out there, especially when I'm alone. I, I'm a runner. And, so I logged a lot of miles solo, miles running up there, and, lots of places, but on the prairie, too. And, you know, whether it's like, you know, coming down and and crossing a stream and flashing a whole bunch of stuff out of the creek bottom, or, there's one property that I particularly like to run on that we didn't have bison on for the first 10 or 12 years I worked for American Prairie.

00:52:36:07 - 00:53:01:08
Alison Fox
So I still sometimes when I run into a bison, when I'm out there on the same, you know, two track where I'm running, it catches the by surprise. And it's really exhilarating to, to to have them. Then back there, you see, you know, a couple of coyotes heading off in the distance. And so I like that, just like the perspective that that gives you that.

00:53:01:10 - 00:53:07:01
Alison Fox
It's not just that disconnection from the day to day. Crazy. Because I have a lot of day to day crazy in my life.

00:53:07:06 - 00:53:08:01
Mark Titus
I'm sure that's.

00:53:08:01 - 00:53:24:01
Alison Fox
True of airplane rides, you know, needs and all of that. But, but it's it's more just that reminder of of what our place as humans is in, in these, on this planet, in these places.

00:53:24:03 - 00:53:51:12
Mark Titus
That's beautiful. We're going to start winding this down here. But, I, we we mentioned earlier about, the buffalo being a keystone species. And I think most of our listeners know what that is, but just to hit it on the head, I didn't know this, growing up, but but buffalo or bison are symbiotic in relationship to the prairie.

00:53:51:14 - 00:54:11:20
Mark Titus
But why? What what? And we don't need to drill into a, you know, PhD dissertation here on the biology behind this, but, why is their presence actually good for the health of the prairie in general terms? A lot of folks that add some new, some new stuff are going to drop on them.

00:54:11:22 - 00:54:38:18
Alison Fox
Yeah. And I'll pick it up even a little bit higher. Great. It just most you'll likely know this, but we went to 30 to 60 million bison in this country over almost the entire interior of the continent. And if you haven't watched Ken Burns The American Buffalo, I highly, highly recommend it. So these prairies were shaped by these animals for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.

00:54:38:18 - 00:55:06:02
Alison Fox
And of course, indigenous communities lived alongside them. And, in terms of what they do for the, for, for the prairie, you know, a couple of examples there. Their grazing patterns, are, are, are distinct. They will graze an area and the graze in a really heterogeneous way. So they'll graze an area really hard, not hit another area, at all.

00:55:06:02 - 00:55:32:12
Alison Fox
It's a progression birds. They have evolved for those different habitat types. And there are some birds that want, you know, that that graze land and, you know, probably Graceland and somewhat that rely on those higher grasses, bison, wallow, on the prairie. And they create these little micro, water habitats with their, with their wallowing behavior.

00:55:32:14 - 00:55:55:11
Alison Fox
Obviously bison in those numbers died on the prairie, and they're you know, their carcasses were eaten by lots and lots of different, animals that were coming through. So, it's just they, they have shaped these these prairies and in a lot of different ways. And you can, you can start to see their, their impact when they come back.

00:55:55:11 - 00:56:26:16
Alison Fox
They're also, easier on waterways than that other forms of livestock, they have evolved to, handle the extremes of temperature that you see, and these and the, and the dryness of the landscape. But they don't have to go to water as frequently and they don't have to stay. They don't stay close to that water. So the, those, you know, healthy or riparian habitats, existed where, where bison graze.

00:56:26:18 - 00:56:30:15
Mark Titus
Their, the shape of their hoofs are also.

00:56:30:17 - 00:56:34:08
Alison Fox
They aerate though, right. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah.

00:56:34:09 - 00:56:57:14
Mark Titus
That's that that I think that was the first thing I learned about them. I was like, really? Yeah. That's just beautiful. You know, we, we we're in a state of change always, you know, whether it's a, an organism or a, a community or a country, or species, and, and we are a part of a bigger thing.

00:56:57:16 - 00:57:18:12
Mark Titus
And I think that the, the nature of the work that a lot of us do to protect the things we love, it ebbs and flows in its complexity, and it's turbulence. And it we may be in for, a turbulent time ahead here. We'll see. I just don't know. It's hard to. It's hard to tell.

00:57:18:14 - 00:57:46:18
Mark Titus
But regardless of what, whatever those ebbs and flows are, there's, a always, I think, an underlying drive, to do something for this thing that's bigger than us. I mean, it's it's kind of encapsulated in that moment when you're overlooking the prairie and seeing those pronghorn. What's that drive for you? How do you get out of bed every day and and keep going and find.

00:57:46:23 - 00:58:01:17
Mark Titus
Find the joy. Find the, the the intensity of of longing that that keeps us moving forward.

00:58:01:19 - 00:58:34:09
Alison Fox
It's not a simple answer, I guess. It's it's a a deep love for the landscape. Deep love and respect for the landscape and all of its creatures. Humans, too. It's the people that I work with. We've got incredible, incredible team staff, team board, team donor community. It's the complexity of of the, of American prairies overall mission.

00:58:34:11 - 00:59:06:09
Alison Fox
The the way that my, you know, day goes from talking to a community member to figuring out the, the right ask of a donor to, to plotting out the next, the next visitor facility. We're going to open up another country. I think that that, and it's the, the tangibility of the progress. Like, there's there's a lot that we get to and we and we, we talk about this a bit internally.

00:59:06:09 - 00:59:36:23
Alison Fox
There's a lot that we can measure in, in our work and beyond acres beyond sort of acres with bison. But, we're, we're always in, in growth mode and we're, and that's, that's really rewarding. There are a lot of moments where we get to step back and say, wow, remember when we were happy, when, you know, ten people a year came up to.

00:59:37:01 - 00:59:54:21
Alison Fox
Our properties and and now and now it's thousand. So, I'm not sure that that's a, a singular poetic answer, but but all of those things are are true. And what fuels my, my persistence and and the determination.

00:59:54:23 - 01:00:24:01
Mark Titus
Well, it's important to celebrate as well as plan and into, continue moving forward. And I I'm guilty of plowing right over celebrations, too. So it's it's wonderful to hear that. Are you hopeful? Are you hopeful for this work and what it's what it can accomplish for. The overall mission and also, for all the people that are involved.

01:00:24:03 - 01:00:39:23
Mark Titus
I mean, it's it's a it's a huge undertaking. And I'm so, awestruck, honestly, by the scope of it, but it feels like, wow, this is so big. Are you hopeful for for this work? And, what it can do?

01:00:40:01 - 01:01:06:21
Alison Fox
Yeah, I am, I am, I'm, And I guess I would say, I'm hopeful for grasslands. Like, I, you know, we are not at all the only game in town in terms of, of conservation organizations, you know, government organizations, tribal nations that care about grasslands and are working in some capacity to, to, you know, to, to protect these grasslands.

01:01:06:23 - 01:01:37:07
Alison Fox
So, I and grasslands globally are I don't know if having their day is quite, but but there's there's more understanding of the importance of grasslands and the carbon is sequestered and grasslands and the, the role they play not just for biodiversity but, in, in the face of the, of the climate crisis. So, so, yeah, I'm, I'm hopeful because, you know, even we never feel alone at American Prairie.

01:01:37:07 - 01:01:46:01
Alison Fox
There's a, it feels like a growing constituency and awareness for this, this, these places that we love.

01:01:46:03 - 01:02:06:14
Mark Titus
Beautiful. I think we'll park it there. But you don't get away without being a part of the bonus round, which everybody has to get subjected to. But, it's just a little thought game. It's, it's not going to happen, but let's just say, you you there. A prairie fire came up, and you obviously got your loved ones and your critters out first.

01:02:06:14 - 01:02:14:09
Mark Titus
But if you could only grab one thing, if you only had time to grab one physical thing, what would that thing be?

01:02:14:11 - 01:02:17:18
Alison Fox
Gosh, I don't know. I mean.

01:02:17:20 - 01:02:18:23
Mark Titus
It's kind of tough,

01:02:19:01 - 01:02:30:08
Alison Fox
It is tough. Yeah, it. Yeah, it is tough. If I had my if I had my people, I'd probably be okay.

01:02:30:10 - 01:02:31:21
Mark Titus
That's that's a.

01:02:31:23 - 01:02:34:00
Alison Fox
Can't really think.

01:02:34:02 - 01:02:58:13
Mark Titus
That's all right. I put you on the spot and for a reason, but, grabbing you, grabbing your people is a totally fair answer. Let's let's just make it a little metaphysical. If you could only grab one trait that makes Allison. Allison, what would that one trait of you be that you could take it with you?

01:02:58:15 - 01:03:00:16
Alison Fox
Persistence.

01:03:00:18 - 01:03:22:16
Mark Titus
As well said from a CEO with a big vision and a lot of action to back it up. Allison Fox, thank you for your time here. I know you're so busy, and what a what a dream and what a manifestation that, you get to be a part of. For folks that want to find out more, where can they get involved with?

01:03:22:16 - 01:03:25:04
Mark Titus
Find out. Contribute to your work.

01:03:25:08 - 01:03:48:07
Alison Fox
Yeah. Our website. It's a good place to start. AmericanPrairie.org. Where you can also find us on a whole number of social channels. But yeah, we'd love, love your support. We have our expanding volunteer program. Certainly. We're always looking for, or for donors. And there's a very, very, good sort of how to guide, to visit as well.

01:03:48:07 - 01:03:55:12
Alison Fox
And I hope you will visit. And we should talk about having your film at the National Discovery Center, because we would be we'd be happy to do so.

01:03:55:16 - 01:04:05:15
Mark Titus
Indeed. Well, we will. Allison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, thank you for your time. Much appreciated, much admired. And we'll see you down the trail.

01:04:05:20 - 01:04:17:19
Alison Fox
Hey, thank you so much.

01:04:17:21 - 01:04:35:14
How do you save what you love?
How do you save what you love?
How do you save what you love?
How do you save what you love?

01:04:41:15 - 01:05:05:14
Mark Titus
Thank you for listening to Save What You Love. If you like what you're hearing, you can help keep these conversations coming your way by giving us a rating on whatever platform you're listening from and leaving a comment on Apple Podcasts. It really helps get the word out. Check out photos on our Instagram feed. We're at Save What You Love podcast, and you can get links from today's featured guest in the show notes of this episode.

01:05:05:16 - 01:05:34:12
Mark Titus
Join our growing community by subscribing to our newsletter at evaswild.com, and then clicking on connect in the upper corner. You'll get exclusive offers on wild salmon shipped to your door, and notifications about upcoming guests and more great content on the way. That said, Evaswild.com the word save spelled backwards, wild.com. This episode was produced by Emilie Firn and edited by Patrick Troll.

01:05:34:14 - 01:05:40:11
Mark Titus
Original music was created by Whiskey Class. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you all down the trail.