Holly Bamford & Marshall Johnson - A 30-Year Vision for North America's Grasslands
Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson
Mountain & Prairie Media
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is a live episode recorded at the 2026 Great Plains Stakeholder Workshop, hosted by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The workshop brought together many of the country's leading grasslands conservationists, scientists, funders, and policy experts to tackle a huge question: what would it look like to create a bold, practical, long-term plan for conserving North America's grasslands over the next 30 years?
My guests are two people helping to lead that effort: Dr. Holly Bamford, Chief Conservation Officer at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (known as NFWF for short), and Marshall Johnson, Chief Conservation Officer for the National Audubon Society. Both have spent years working at the intersection of science, conservation, agriculture, and partnership-building, and both bring a realistic but hopeful perspective to the future of the Great Plains.
In this conversation, we dig into the current state of the Great Plains and grasslands conservation more broadly– from grassland loss and declining bird populations to the creative partnerships helping ranchers, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies work together toward solutions. We discuss the importance of voluntary conservation, the complicated economics facing ranching communities, the role of programs like the Farm Bill, and why grass-based agriculture and healthy wildlife habitat are far more interconnected than many people realize. Holly and Marshall also share stories from their own lives that explain how they each became so deeply connected to these landscapes– from prairie chicken blinds in Minnesota to the wide-open grasslands of the American West.
More than anything, this conversation is about long-term thinking. What does it look like to create a 30-year vision for one of the most ecologically important and underappreciated landscapes in North America? What gives these conservation leaders hope? And what keeps them up at night? There's a lot of realism in this discussion, but there's also a surprising amount of optimism, practicality, and momentum. I learned a ton from this conversation, and I think you will too. Be sure to check out the episode notes for links to the organizations, initiatives, and resources we discuss throughout the episode.
Thank you again to the amazing team at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for inviting me to moderate this discussion.
---
- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
- National Audubon Society
- Dr. Holly Bamford
- Marshall Johnson
- Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/great-plains
---
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
Mountain & Prairie is listener supported via Patreon, and brought to you with support from the Freeflow Institute, The Nature Conservancy in Colorado, and the Well Done Foundation for their generous sponsorship.
---
TOPICS DISCUSSED:
- 0:00 - Introducing a live convo
- 3:25 - Looking behind instead of ahead
- 5:40 - Why grasslands
- 6:57 - The state of grasslands today
- 10:22 - The meadowlark
- 12:47 - Rancher relationships
- 22:41 - Money is the key
- 25:20 - Farm Bill feelings
- 29:15 - Prairie potholes
- 36:20 - Voluntary conservation easements
- 39:24 - Accounting for change
- 43:41 - Data collection
- 48:40 - The next 30 years
---
ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | If it doesn't work for the rancher, it's not going to work for conservation. |
| 0:04.0 | I mean, that's bottom line. |
| 0:06.0 | You know, I think the way we try to approach it is a lot of bottom up. |
| 0:10.0 | And listening what is needed and not coming in saying, this is what I think you need. |
| 0:15.0 | Like, who am I to come in from, you know, Maryland in DC? |
| 0:19.0 | Yeah, this is what I think you... |
| 0:20.0 | No, that's not going to work. |
| 0:27.1 | This is the Mountain and Prairie podcast. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm Ed Robertson. |
| 0:31.3 | This is a special live episode recorded at the 26 Great Plains Stakeholder Workshop, |
| 0:40.7 | hosted by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. |
| 0:46.3 | The workshop brought together many of the country's leading grasslands conservationists, scientists, |
| 0:52.9 | funders, and policy experts to tackle a huge question, what would it look like to create a bold, |
| 0:56.1 | practical, long-term plan for conserving North America's grasslands over the next 30 years? My guests are two people helping to lead that |
| 1:02.0 | effort. Dr. Holly Bamford, chief conservation officer at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, |
| 1:08.3 | also known as NIFWF, and Marshall Johnson, Chief Conservation Officer |
| 1:13.2 | for the National Audubon Society. Both have spent years working at the intersection of science, |
| 1:18.9 | conservation, agriculture, and partnership building, and both bring a realistic but hopeful |
| 1:24.3 | perspective to the future of the Great Plains. In this conversation, we dig into the current state of the Great Plains in grasslands |
| 1:31.2 | conservation more broadly, from grasslands loss and declining bird populations, to the creative |
| 1:37.5 | partnerships helping ranchers, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies work together |
| 1:43.3 | towards solutions. We discuss the importance |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 4 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mountain & Prairie Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mountain & Prairie Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.