The Art of Range Podcast

AoR 183: Rangelands on Display - Using Public Art to Reach Beyond the Choir, with Stephen Bramwell

What if the key to making people care about rangelands wasn't a fact sheet, a policy brief, or even a podcast — but interactive art that people can view, hear, touch, and smell? WSU Extension's Stephen Bramwell joins the show to talk about a first-of-its-kind public art project that's deploying multisensory exhibits across 18 states to reach audiences who've never thought twice about grasslands or the people who steward them. From tactile fiber samples and scent jars to life-size 3D sheep cutouts, this is rangeland outreach like you've never heard of — and you can host an exhibit or submit your own art at grasslandsproject.org. Music by Lewis Roise. Support for The Art of Range comes from RanchBot and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center. The transcript of this episode and links to resources mentioned in the interview are available at artofrange.com.

AoR 182: Allen Miller on Fire, Fence, and Family - 140 Years of Stewardship at Tower Rock Ranch

Allen Miller of Tower Rock Ranch in Mansfield, Washington was the 2023 NCBA Environmental Stewardship Award regional winner. His family has run cattle on the same Douglas County ground since 1883. Allen joins Tip to talk about blending the art and science of range management on a 15,000-acre operation reshaped by five major wildfires in just 14 years. Allen shares hard-earned lessons on rotational grazing, post-fire rest and deferment, the payoff of 125 miles of new fence, and how Sage Grouse Initiative water infrastructure and remote tank monitors have transformed cattle distribution across rocky, water-scarce country. The conversation closes with candid thoughts on riparian fencing, CRP's unintended consequences, the promise of virtual fence and GPS ear tags, and Allen's advice to the next generation of agency professionals: come in humbly, listen first, and learn alongside the ranchers you're trying to help. Music by Lewis Roise. Support for The Art of Range comes from RanchBot and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center. Visit the episode page at artofrange.com for the transcript and links to resources mentioned in this interview.

AoR 181: Jim Strickland, Keeping Florida Ranches Ahead of the Bulldozer

Jim Strickland is managing partner at Blackbeard's Ranch in southwest Florida, co-founder of the Florida Conservation Group, and vice chair of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Environmental Stewardship Award Program. Over a seventy-year career in cattle, Jim watched nearly 100,000 acres of leased pasture disappear to development around Sarasota, and in response he helped build a coalition of ranchers, scientists, and conservation groups that has now facilitated roughly 160,000 acres of easements and pushed the Florida legislature toward a $300 million appropriation for easement funding. In this conversation, Jim and Tip discuss the mechanics and politics of conservation easements, the emerging market for paying ranchers for ecosystem services like Florida Panther habitat and aquifer recharge, prescribed fire on pyrogenic Florida rangelands, and Jim's experience as reportedly the first rancher to deploy virtual fence at scale east of the Mississippi — now covering 7,000 acres. Florida's ranchers are only one-half of one percent of the state's population, but they steward the water, wildlife corridors, and working open space that 22 million Floridians depend on, and Jim makes a compelling case for why telling that story well may be the most important conservation work of all. Music by Lewis Roise. Go to https://artofrange.extension.wsu.edu/ for the transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode.

IYRP March: Maryam Niamir-Fuller on Economic Services of Global Rangelands

Maryam Niamir-Fuller's career spans decades of work with pastoralist communities from all over the world. She is a special advisor to the Secretariat of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists Global Alliance. Maryam shares how her journey began among the Dinka people of Southern Sudan and grew into a lifelong commitment to elevating the voices and improving the livelihoods of pastoral communities worldwide. From the economics of livestock as living wealth, to the global conversation around meat, land conversion, and unbalanced subsidies, this episode provides a good overview on the social and economic services provided by rangelands and people of rangelands. The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center. Music by Lewis Roise. Go to the episode page at artofrange.com for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

AoR 180: Doug Poole on Integrating Grazing into Cropping Systems for Rangeland & Soil Health

In this episode, host Tip Hudson speaks with Doug Poole, a third-generation dryland farmer in Eastern Washington's arid Columbia Basin, about his decade-long effort to reintegrate livestock into a cropping system that had largely abandoned them. Doug farms on just 8–10 inches of annual rainfall, and the conversation digs into how industrial row-crop agriculture — heavy tillage, anhydrous ammonia, and monoculture wheat — degraded soils that were once native rangeland, and why Doug believes biology and cattle are the fastest path to reversing that damage. He explains how he uses cattle to harvest diverse cover crop mixes, reduce input costs, and rebuild soil structure, while tackling the real-world barriers to crop-livestock integration: water infrastructure, cattle supply logistics, and cultural resistance among so-called "dirt farmers". Doug speaks candidly about the economics of the transition, the promise of virtual fence technology, and why he has no plans to stop. The Art of Range Podcast is supported by the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission and the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center. Music by Lewis Roise. Visit the episode page at https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-180-doug-poole-integrating-grazing-cropping-systems-rangeland-soil-health for links to resources mentioned in this episode.