Meryl Harrell, former Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA and a leader at Friends of the Forest Service, and Lisa Ronald, Western Montana Associate Conservation Director at American Rivers and co-founder of the Wild and Scenic Rivers...
Dillon Osleger is a geologist, conservationist, and trail builder whose debut book, Trail Work: Restoring the Paths and Stories of America's Public Lands (Heyday, 2026), argues that trails are not neutral infrastructure but agreements between people and places, and...
A close look at what protecting 219 miles of wild river actually requires. The Three Forks of the Flathead River in northwest Montana didn't just earn Wild and Scenic designation — they inspired the law that made it possible. In the 1950s, a proposed dam at Spruce...
What it takes to keep wild places healthy and accessible for generations to come Kaitlin de Varona is the executive director of Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS), the nonprofit that has spent more than a decade building a community of skilled, committed...
Jaime Loucky, CEO of Washington Trails Association since 2022, traces the organization's six-decade history from Louise Marshall's 1966 kitchen-table newsletter, Signpost, to a nonprofit generating 160,000 volunteer trail hours a year. He explains WTA's "flywheel...
What makes this Georgia barrier island so extraordinary and what forces are working to reshape it. Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the most ecologically rich and historically layered landscapes on the American East Coast, and it faces a pivotal moment....
In a moment when outrage dominates public discourse, Terry Tempest Williams invites us back to attention, reciprocity, and the discipline of presence. Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, conservationist, and longtime voice for wild lands whose work bridges story,...
January is Roadless Month on The Wild Idea. Throughout the month, we’re exploring the landscapes, communities, and ideas shaped by America’s roadless public lands — and what’s at stake as these protections face renewed threats. Why? Because decisions being discussed...
A thoughtful meditation on why the stories we tell matter. As the year comes to a close, Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds are joined by Michelle Fullner, host of the Golden State Naturalist podcast, for a reflective and wide-ranging conversation about growth, attention,...
The layered human stories embedded in places many of us think of as “wild.” Anne Robinson returns to The Wild Idea after completing her seven-month through hike of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to the summit of Katahdin. Picking up where we left off at the...