The Uncertainty Inherent in Wilderness

What do frozen frogs, machine learning, roadkill, and wilderness ethics have in common? According to evolutionary ecologist Dr. Andis Arietta…everything.

In this wide-ranging and mind-expanding conversation, Andis joins us to explore the deep connections between ecology, evolution, climate change, and how (and whether) we manage wild places. We dig into everything from rapid species adaptation and the unintended consequences of roads, to the philosophical case for humility in conservation, and why he believes more wilderness might be our best defense against an unpredictable future.

We also talk about frogs that freeze solid, why road crossings aren’t enough to protect real biodiversity, and how AI could help us make better decisions (if we let it). Oh, and there’s a Chernobyl-to-Alaska moment that will leave you rethinking everything.

Today, we explore:

• What frozen frogs reveal about adaptation in a changing world
• Why most Americans are never more than 22 miles from a road, and what that means for wildlife
• Road ecology, mitigation limits, and the economics of wildlife crossings
• Wilderness character narratives, climate change, and long-term management dilemmas
• The intersection of land use, evolution, and climate, and how they shape extinction risk
• Machine learning, causal analytics, and the promise (and pitfalls) of predictive conservation
• Why the wilderness idea may be more necessary, and more radical, than ever

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or at thewildidea.com.

Resources and mentions from today’s episode: 

• National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance
• Crossings by Ben Goldfarb
• The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (and what we’ve learned from it)
  
• Glacier Bay National Park
  
• Yale School of the Environment
  
• Flathead Indian Reservation Wildlife Crossings
  

Dr. Andis Arietta holds a Ph.D. from the Yale School of the Environment, where his research focused on evolutionary genomics, eco-physiology, and environmental ethics — exploring how organisms rapidly evolve in response to climate change and how land management practices influence that process. Currently a professional data scientist, Dr. Arietta leads initiatives in predictive machine learning, causal analytics, and AIOps. He is a founding board member of the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance and previously spent many years in Southeast Alaska as a backcountry expedition guide and director of the Wilderness Research Program for the Sitka Conservation Society. Under his leadership, the program earned the Region 10 Partner of the Year award and the Bob Marshall Champions of Wilderness award.

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