Drew Altland is a Senior Manager of Water Resources at RK&K. I saw him talk a few years ago on stream restoration and was fascinated by his historical perspective on streams and wetlands in Eastern North America. We talk about stream conditions prior to European arrival, about the impacts of the colonial area, about reading streams in the present day, and various restoration methods. I never thought about streams the same way after hearing Drew talk and I hope this podcast is just as...

My guest today is Shane LaBrake, talking about our relationship with the tools we use and how that relates to sustainability and earth care. With the winter dormant season coming on, many of us have time to sharpen shovels, fix roofs, change fluids and do other maintenance and repair tasks that we felt too busy for in the summer. So in this episode we're playing hooky from plants and talking about tractors, small engines, and the philosophy of maintenance and loving care. You can reach Shane...

Today we have a dispatch from the front lines of habitat destruction and deer overpopulation -- New Jersey. But don't despair! We're talking with Dr. Jay Kelly about some remarkable rare plant recoveries and prospects for restoration. This podcast is brought to you by Wild Ridge Plants, growers and stewards of native plants. The music at the beginning and end is "The Ship" by my once (and maybe future) band Horse Graveyard. If you like raw, dark, heavy music with a bit of blazing sunshine...

We explore the underworld with Liz Koziol of MycoBloom! Join me as we delve into the soil to uncover relationships between mycorrhizal fungi and native plants. Liz is a researcher and entrepreneur supporting ecological restoration by making available native prairie fungi, which dramatically aid specialist plant species growth, increasingly floristic quality and diversity.

My conversation is with Dr. Susan Leopold, Ethnobotanist and Executive Director of United Plant Savers. Here are some of the topics we discuss: • Medicinal parasitic plants • Sandalwood • United Plant Savers • Protections for rare plants, lack of in US • Not aligning with other parts of the conservation movement • Underworld smuggling • Trade in white sage • Migrant labor and herb harvests • Gypsy co-ops and ramps • Forest Grown Program • Supporting herbal companies doing right by plants and...

This episode is with Dr. Gerould Wilhelm. Few people can provide such a deep long-term perspective on wild plants, ecological restoration, and human culture. Jerry created the Floristic Quality Assessment method back in the 1970s. He’s written several floras of the Chicago area including the Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis.

This episode of the Wild Plant Culture Podcast features woodworker and landscape architect David Hughes. We talk about his use of wild plant materials in crafting rustic furniture, as well as his experience designing functional native plant landscapes.

Thanks for tuning in to the Wild Plant Culture Podcast! This episode features a conversation with ethnobotanist Kelly Kindscher. Kelly is an unusual combination, a skilled field ecologist deeply interested in the cultural uses of plants, historically and in contemporary application, spanning ethnobotany to chemical analysis. Kelly is a professor at University of Kansas, and Plant Ecologist for the Kansas Biological survey. He's a passionate advocate for native plants and wild places, and the...

Hi Everyone, thanks for joining me for another episode of the Wild Plant Culture podcast. This conversation is with Karl Anderson. Karl's an elder in the best sense -- someone who's lived a full life, delved deep, and come up smiling (and sometimes cursing, too). He's always been generous about sharing his wide interests and experience in natural history. Here, I ask Karl about his life story from a city kid to a draftsman to the director of a nature center. We talk about changes in botany...

This conversation is with Dale Hendricks of Green Light Plants in southeastern Pennsylvania. We delve deep into Dale's experience with rewilding the landscape, discussing permaculture approaches, biochar and soil carbon, the connection between health and food systems, and a bit about the legendary Hershey Nursery growing tree crops. We also discuss pawpaws, persimmons, honey locust, ramps and other native permaculture food crops. Dale's a character, a very generous human being, and very...

Today's conversation is with Julie Martin, primitive skills practitioner. Julie teaches ancestral skills ranging from fire-starting to herbal medicine at Practical Primitive, a school in Great Meadows, NJ run by Julie and her husband Eddie Starnater. It's a fantastic place to go for workshops in a vast array of different skills. I hope you enjoy today's conversation immersing in the forgotten fundamentals of human survival. Julie and I start the conversation by talking about processing...

This episode is with Dr. Daniela Shebitz, an awesomely engaged and inspiring young professor at Kean University in New Jersey. Daniela is a plant ecologist who researches the effects of land management on culturally significant plant species and ecosystems. She is inspired by traditions that have lasted for millennia based on traditional management through anthropogenic fire and selective harvesting. I love the way Daniela braids together ethnobotany, ecology, anthropology, and restoration....

A fun and inspiring conversation with ecologist Roger Latham, PhD. We talk about the geological and cultural factors that sustained Eastern grasslands and barrens historically, and techniques for their restoration today. Our conversation ranges widely, from Pleistocene megafauna to fire to Native American plant dispersal to serpentine rock and other unique geologies. I first ran across Roger Latham on a tour of grassland restorations he led about ten years ago. Towards the end of the field...

In the interview, we discuss Native American foodways, burning regimens, and land management, including dispersal of species like bur oak and American plum. Kerry talks about many Native words, describing words as "among the most durable fossils there are". Kerry gives a fresh read on European economy compared to Native economy, including a moving insight into seventh generational thinking and "non-thinking". Kerry gives us a preview of his present project exploring the lost history of the...

My guest today is Leslie Sauer. Her book The Once and Future Forest inspired me to become an ecological restoration practitioner and continues to inform so much of my work propagating native plants, monitoring natural communities, and repairing degraded habitats. I'm so happy to welcome her as the very first guest on the Wild Plant Culture podcast. Leslie Sauer, a founder emeritus of Andropogon Associates, is a pioneer in the field of restoring and managing native landscapes. Through...