『Mike Schaedel - Restoring Balance to Fire-Adapted Landscapes』のカバーアート

Mike Schaedel - Restoring Balance to Fire-Adapted Landscapes

Mike Schaedel - Restoring Balance to Fire-Adapted Landscapes

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 Mike Schaedel is the Western Montana Forest Restoration Director for The Nature Conservancy, where he leads some of the most ambitious and collaborative forest restoration work happening anywhere in the West. Based in Missoula, Mike works at the intersection of science, community partnerships, and land stewardship—helping restore fire-adapted forests, reduce wildfire risk, and improve the health and resilience of landscapes across the region. Mike's career path is super interesting and anything but traditional. He grew up in Portland, fell in love with the mountains through rock climbing, and eventually landed in Missoula, where the combination of wild landscapes and a rich literary community drew him in. After earning an undergraduate degree in creative writing, he found his way into forestry and fire ecology through conservation corps work, hands-on restoration experience, and a graduate program focused on forest dynamics and fire. In this conversation, Mike offers a clear overview of how Western Montana's forests came to look the way they do today—shaped by millennia of tribal burning, transformed by railroad-era land grants and industrial logging, and altered further by a century of fire suppression. He explains why effective restoration now depends on combining mechanical thinning with prescribed fire and on working across ownership boundaries with partners ranging from local communities to tribes and federal agencies. We also discuss some of the innovative collaborative efforts underway in the region, as well as a memorable story of a prescribed burn that came together through quick problem-solving and deep trust. This is a rich, informative, and hopeful conversation about what it takes to restore forests at scale—and why the future of these landscapes depends on both ecological understanding and strong community partnerships. Enjoy! --- Michael Schaedel, Western Montana Forest Restoration DirectorReserved Treaty Rights Lands Program: The Power of PartnershipComplete episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/mike-schaedel --- This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Colorado chapter of The Nature Conservancy and TNC chapters throughout the Western United States. Guided by science and grounded by decades of collaborative partnerships, The Nature Conservancy has a long-standing legacy of achieving lasting results to create a world where nature and people thrive. During the last week of every month throughout 2025, Mountain & Prairie will be delving into conversations with a wide range of The Nature Conservancy's leaders, partners, collaborators, and stakeholders, highlighting the myriad of conservation challenges, opportunities, and solutions here in the American West and beyond. To learn more about The Nature Conservancy's impactful work in the West and around the world, visit www.nature.org --- TOPICS DISCUSSED: 3:02 – Intro, Mike's love for Missoula6:04 – Getting a creative writing degree8:21 – And fighting back into forestry12:26 – Early writing influences13:39 – Switching sides of the brain15:32 – First job out of grad school20:08 – And that work now23:38 – Checkerboard landownership33:04 – Conservation accomplishment34:56 – Fitting in forest health39:33 – Fire scars45:52 – The Big Burn52:59 – Fire playing a beneficial role58:51 – And the role mill workers play1:02:03 – Projects down the pipeline1:12:00 – Book recs1:13:49 – Parting words --- ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE: Mountain & Prairie - All EpisodesMountain & Prairie ShopMountain & Prairie on InstagramUpcoming EventsAbout Ed RobersonSupport Mountain & Prairie Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts
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