This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, May 10, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Protecting endangered and threatened species hinges on making private landowners

partners in rather than victims of

federal conservation efforts. Megan Jenkins directs research at the

Center for Growth and Opportunity. We spoke last month in Las Vegas

about potential solutions to turning private landowners

into partners for the benefit of conserving species.

When Joe Biden says that he wants to conserve 30% of the landmass of the United States by 2030?

What does he mean?

So he's looking to engage in a massive conservation project

to conserve more of our nation's beautiful landscape, our natural resources,

but what he really needs to be considering and what the administration should consider is the importance of private lands in that discussion.

Private lands are really crucial to meeting our conservation goals.

All right, so what do people misunderstand about conservation that they should know?

When most people think of conservation, I think they think of beautiful landscapes like

Yellowstone National Park. It's just to the north of where I live in Logan, Utah and

it's an incredible landscape to be sure. There are massive waterfalls and geysers.

But real conservation is also happening in less glamorous places like private ranches,

farmlands across America. These places are home to over 50% of

America's forests, over 30% of our drinking water, and almost all of our endangered

species actually rely on private lands in order to survive.

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