What happens when outdoor skill meets scientific purpose.

In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with Greg Treinish, founder of Adventure Scientists, and Lara Birkes, the organization’s newly appointed executive director, for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens when outdoor skill meets scientific purpose. Greg launched Adventure Scientists 15 years ago after growing restless on expeditions across the Andes and Appalachian Trail, feeling that the time and effort spent exploring wild places could be put to better use. What began as a scrappy nonprofit driven by personal relationships and viral outdoor media has grown into a global network of more than 10,000 trained volunteers collecting data across projects spanning microplastics, antibiotic resistance, endangered species, coral reef restoration, illegal timbering, and high-altitude fungi.

A central theme of the conversation is data quality: how Adventure Scientists has built protocols rigorous enough to hold up in court, and how that credibility has forced a broader reckoning in the scientific community about what community-gathered data can actually achieve. Greg and Lara also discuss the frontier of new tools, from eDNA sampling to LIDAR drones flown by indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, and how these technologies extend the reach of field science without replacing the irreplaceable value of boots on the ground. An unexpected finding has shaped the organization’s identity: nearly a third of volunteers report that the experience of contributing meaningful data was enough to prompt career changes toward conservation.

The episode closes with a candid conversation about organizational transition. Greg reflects on five years of mental preparation to hand over day-to-day leadership, the reality of founder’s syndrome, and how a tool called Notion became the vehicle for transferring 15 years of institutional knowledge. Lara describes stepping into a role that combines her background in trade policy, climate work, and nonprofit leadership with a genuine personal passion for the outdoors. Both speak with clarity and warmth about what it takes to build something durable, share it, and keep going.

In this episode:

• The origin of Adventure Scientists: Greg describes feeling selfish on solo expeditions and realizing his outdoor skills could generate real conservation data; the organization grew out of that restlessness and a Google search for how to start a nonprofit.
• Building a volunteer network of over 10,000: Early partnerships with outdoor athletes and celebrities including Conrad Anker and Celine Cousteau helped the organization go viral, drawing tens of thousands of would-be volunteers before the infrastructure was ready for them.
• How citizen science connects to policy: Adventure Scientists designs every project with an end user, whether a land manager, lawyer, or legislator, who needs the data to make a specific intervention; data collection for its own sake is explicitly not the model.
• Data quality and scientific credibility: Protocols are designed to hold up in court, app-based checklists reinforce field technique in real time, and staff review incoming data for anomalies; body cameras have been deployed to document collection methods.
• Technology on the frontier: Greg walks through eDNA sampling, LIDAR drone flights by indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, smartphone LIDAR scanning, and satellite remote sensing, while emphasizing that ground validation still requires people.
• The unexpected career pipeline: Nearly a third of Adventure Scientists volunteers report that the experience of contributing meaningful data was enough to send them back to school or switch careers into conservation, a finding the organization did not anticipate.
• Reef restoration fieldwork in Colombia: Lara describes witnessing her first Adventure Scientists project in action during her first week on the job: PADI-certified divers learning rigorous coral health monitoring protocols alongside local community members.
• Ground Truth for Nature: A new initiative pairing locally employed and indigenous workers in the Peruvian Amazon with equipment and training to measure soil carbon and above-ground biomass for carbon credit markets, adding scientific credibility and higher credit values while generating revenue for the organization.
• The founder transition: Greg reflects on five years of emotional preparation, the concept of founder’s syndrome, an executive coach named Leslie, and a months-long search that ended with Lara; he describes his new lane as program development, donor relationships, and field time.
• Transferring institutional knowledge: The organization used Notion to document every system, decision, and process during the two years before transition; Bill and Greg agree that the real work starts long before anyone announces a handoff.
• How to get involved: Volunteers, donors, and those interested in upcoming projects can visit adventurescientists.org or follow the organization on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Links & Resources

Organizations & Initiatives:

• Adventure Scientists: A Bozeman, Montana-based nonprofit founded in 2011 that trains outdoor volunteers to collect scientific field data for conservation research and policy applications across more than 150 projects worldwide.
• Connect with Adventure Scientists on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• Ground Truth for Nature: A new Adventure Scientists initiative deploying locally employed and indigenous community members in the Peruvian Amazon to gather ground-level measurements for carbon credit market validation, adding scientific rigor and generating revenue for conservation projects.
• Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS): The conservation organization Bill previously led and transitioned from, referenced as a parallel example of founder-led nonprofit succession; upcoming guest Kaitlin de Varona is the current executive director.

Places & Landscapes:

• Bozeman, Montana: Headquarters of Adventure Scientists, where Greg and Lara are both based and where the episode conversation takes place.
• Peruvian Amazon: Site of Adventure Scientists’ Ground Truth for Nature initiative, where local and indigenous community members are being trained to fly LIDAR drones and collect soil carbon data for carbon market validation.
• Colombia (reef restoration site): Location of an Adventure Scientists coral reef restoration project that Lara visited during her first week as executive director, observing volunteer divers learning coral health monitoring protocols.
• Appalachian Trail and Andes Mountains: Landscapes Greg explored before founding Adventure Scientists; the experiences there prompted his desire to make outdoor expeditions scientifically useful.
• Oregon Coast: Site of an Adventure Scientists orca study Greg plans to participate in, collecting data by sea kayak.
• Pacific Northwest: Location of an Adventure Scientists whitebark pine study conducted via backcountry skiing.

People Mentioned:

• Conrad Anker: Renowned mountaineer and one of Greg’s first board members at Adventure Scientists, whose involvement helped establish the organization’s credibility in the outdoor community. (Listen to our conversation with Conrad Anker in Episode 27: Mountains of Perspective.)
• Celine Cousteau: Explorer and ocean advocate mentioned as an early supporter of Adventure Scientists who helped expand the organization’s reach.
• Jeremy Jones: Professional snowboarder featured in a Clif Bar-sponsored Adventure Scientists film around 2015 or 2016; the video drew over 360,000 views in its first day and 26,000 snowboarders to the organization’s website.
• Scott Creel: Wildlife ecologist at the University of Montana whom Greg contacted before founding Adventure Scientists, originally hoping to study lions; the connection led to tracking work with lynx, wolverines, and grizzly bears.
• Senator Max Baucus: Former senior senator from Montana for whom Lara worked early in her career, providing her foundation in tax and trade policy.
• Kaitlin de Varona: Current executive director of Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS), mentioned as an upcoming guest on The Wild Idea podcast.

Lara Birkes joined Adventure Scientists as Executive Director in 2026, drawn to the organization’s mission of mobilizing outdoor enthusiasts to gather hard-to-reach field data critical to conservation solutions.

Lara is a climate and nature leader with 20 years of experience managing partnerships, initiatives, and policy engagement with companies, international organizations, governments, and NGOs. Prior to Adventure Scientists, her career spanned the U.S. Senate, Fulbright Program, World Trade Organization (WTO), World Economic Forum, Virgin Unite, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and BSR.

Lara holds a B.S. in International Business & Management from the University of Montana, an M.A. in International Trade Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and is a World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow. An outdoor enthusiast at heart, Lara feels fortunate to call the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem home, living just miles from where her great-grandparents homestead near the Yellowstone River. Away from work, you’ll find her in the back-of-beyond or exploring the mountains with her dog and family!

Gregg Treinish founded Adventure Scientists in 2011 based on his passion for exploration, scientific discovery and galvanizing “the choir” to more directly participate in conservation.

National Geographic named Gregg Treinish “Adventurer of the Year” in 2008 when he and a friend completed a 7,800-mile trek along the spine of the Andes mountain range, and he has participated in multiple ecologically focused expeditions around the world. His field work has included projects focused on wolverine, lynx, bears, owls, sturgeon, and more. Gregg holds a biology degree from Montana State University and a sociology degree from CU-Boulder.

In 2015 he was named a DRK Foundation social entrepreneur and one of Men’s Journal’s “Most Adventurous Men.” In 2017, Gregg was named an Ashoka Fellow, and in 2020, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. He was named to the Explorer’s Club 50 and the Hatch 100 in 2023.

Learn more about opportunities to sponsor The Wild Idea.

Follow along for updates, upcoming conversations, and live events, and share this episode with someone who cares about wild places, working lands, and the future of our food system. You can also support the show through our Buy Me a Coffee page. 

Subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast player, and be sure to follow us on social media, too: we’re on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

We also send out a weekly newsletter with updates on our show: sign up for that list right here.