Climate Change: Grassland Conservation with Maddison Easley

Artemis is doing a deep-dive into climate science. In our opening episode we talk with Maddison Easley, a California biologist who straddles the divide between the conservation world and agency life. Much of Maddison's work is aimed at rangeland conservation. We talk about how birds, vegetation and soils are all indicators of ecosystem health - and what's changing with grasslands as the climate changes. 4:00 Point Blue Conservation Science 5:00 Growing up a rancher, becoming a biologist, returning to the ranch 7:00 Alaska caribou hunt & helping a nephew harvest his first turkey for Thanksgiving dinner 10:00 Caribou... the move FAST + a first-timer's take on a new species 14:00 #gohunterhippies 15:00 Rangeland Monitoring Network -  "The primary goal is to preserve the ecological value of rangelands"  17:00 Birds, soil, vegetation... all indicators of ecosystem health 20:00 Soil carbon monitoring 22:00 About half of California is rangeland, and about half of those lands are privately owned 23:00 Grazing management tactics to put more carbon in the soil 25:00 Carbon sequestration 101 29:00 Not all soils are created equal for sequestration + ecological site descriptions 31:00 Drought affects carbon sequestration in soil 35:00 Co-operating with private landowners 36:00 EQIP program - Environmental Quality Incentive Program; California Department of Ag Healthy Soils program 41:00 Birds as an indicator species 43:00 White-breasted nuthatch 44:00 Changes in the last decade; wetland and grassland birds in decline 50:00 Tips to minimize the spread of invasive species... "Humans are the primary vector of invasive species" 56:00 Eradication isn't a reality for many invasive species... "but we can reduce the frequency and abundance in places, and increase diversity" 57:00 North American Grasslands Act - modeled after the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to conserve grasslands  1:02 Citizen science through apps like iNaturalist and eBird contributes to the massive data sets increasingly useful to scientists  1:08 Join the Artemis community -- we have a Facebook group, a killer book club, and programs/events for female hunters. If Artemis has meant something to you, please consider sharing it with a friend or making a donation.   1:09 The Hunter and Angler's Guide to Climate Change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices