SeedPod

Do you enjoy being completely confused by meaningless paperwork? Do live for learning new acronyms and initialisms? Do you like free* money from the government? Then boy do we have the agency for you! Join us to learn about the Natural Resources Conservation Service! That's right, we're going to talk about arguably the most effective and most hated federal agency enabling conservation work on private land in the United States! I bet you can't wait to learn about 9 step planning processes** and 6 part folders***!

*nothing is free and this will cost you part of your will to live. also taxes!

** no one has ever followed the 9 step planning process in the history of NRCS and nobody outside of some real nerds in DC could even tell you all 9 steps

*** its a folder with 6 parts in it but NRCS thinks its real special for some reason

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Apologies for the long hiatus, life got in everyone's way!

In this episode we are joined by wildlife biologist and entomologist Dr. Erika Machtinger to talk about the New World Screwworm! We cover what it is (and isn't!), implications for eradicating a native species, how we got rid of it the first time, how it came back, and the challenges ahead.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Historian and friend of the show Marissa joins us once again to talk beavers! In part two we talk about the history of beavers in North America, covering how and why they were nearly extirpated as well as their subsequent recovery. John also explains how we go about using beavers to do the heavy lifting of watershed restoration!

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the episode we are joined by Michigander, theatre director, writer, podcast host and just all-around excellent dude Josh Boerman to talk about the ecology, life, and death of the finest lakes on the planet. That's right! We're talking about the Great Lakes, why they're super cool, and how we're ruining them. Also, Calvin gets mad at Josh for seeing into the future and getting to Calvin's notes before he can! And because it gets brought up anytime anyone mentions the Great Lakes, we talk a little about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Josh is co-host of The Worst of All Possible Worlds and Ill Conceived. If you are somehow not yet listening to them, you should.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Apologies for the hiatus; John has been slow to edit due to his new son who is not very good at audio editing. We will do our best to keep on some sort of schedule but episodes may be erratic. I mean the episodes have always been erratic but now also the release schedule.In this awesome episode we are excited to have animal historian, friend and possibly future cohost of the show, Marissa, on to discuss one of the most interesting creatures in North America. The beaver! Learn thrilling facts such as what a cart beaver is , why medieval europeans obsessed over beaver testicles, beaver tale recopies and more!

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode Calvin and John (and John's son) discuss the recent plan to open up the boundary waters wilderness to mining interests. AJ is taking some time off from podcasting and work in order to work more.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On this belated holiday (hogiday?) episode we have a good friend of the podcast and environmental historian Marissa on to discuss hogs and their various crimes against medieval villages and the ecology of North America.

Calvin is still beset by audio gremlins and John's audio also decides to take a nap 2/3 of the way through. Apologies all around.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode we have a guest! A professional knower of facts about bugs! We are joined by Michael Skvarla, one of the co-hosts of Arthro-Pod to learn about vector-borne diseases!

Buckle in to learn how these diseases shaped history during the Napoleonic era and also finally get an answer to the age-old question "Is shrimp bugs?"

Apologies for Calvin's audio, he continues to be attacked by technical difficulty gremlins.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This episode is a little different from our usual ones. We do a "quick" read-through and critique of a pending piece of legislation known as the "Fix Our Forests" act. As of the release of this episode, the House version has been passed, inked up (mostly in good ways), and is on the Senate calendar for consideration.

Link to the Senate version: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1462

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In our third part, we talk about the nuts and bolts of how we conduct prescribed fires, and a bit on how we fight wildfires.

Apologies for Calvin's audio, he continues to be attacked by technical difficulty gremlins.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In our second part, we get into the specifics of fire ecology as it relates to one of my favorite trees, that's right. It's the tree with an awkward teenager phase, the longleaf pine. We also talk about prescribed fire, and why we do it.

Apologies for Calvin's audio, he continues to be attacked by technical difficulty gremlins.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Starting off our three-parter on fire and fire ecology, we talk about how fire and ecology interact to give us the super interesting field of fire ecology, and how plants and animals are (and are not!) adapted to fire.

Apologies for Calvin's audio, he was attacked by technical difficulty gremlins.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode we talk about redwoods and why they're a really cool fire-adapted tree that are also extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On this episode we have a very special guest, podcaster and producer Thomas O'Mahony to talk about an underappreciated global menace. No, it's not Subway, fentanyl, or the resurgence of fascism. It's the Argentine ant!

Tom is co-host of Lions Led By Donkeys, Beneath the Skin and his newest podcast is Blood Work.

Episode thumbnail taken from this 2009 BBC article about squirrels. Thanks BBC!

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the next episode of the "founding fathers of forestry" semi-sorta-series, we talk about the most enthusiastic Nazi forester you've never heard of: Walter Bitterlich. He sucks.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In our first episode on the founding fathers of American forestry we cover Carl Schenck. A forgotten German forester who proposed an alternative vision of American forestry focused on private ownership rather than the state. Which vision wins out? Do the boys get called out by a German from 200 years in the past? Is Gifford Pinchot a petty bitch? Tune in to find out!

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this episode we talk about everyone's favorite cervid prion disease, CWD! We cover what prions and prion diseases are, a bit of the history of CWD, various strategies that have been employed in combating it, and why we're all doomed! Yay!

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In our first accidentally-a-series, we explore the North American model of wildlife management: what it is, the history of how it came to be, and how it works (and sometimes doesn't work)! Part 3 of 3.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In our first accidentally-a-series, we explore the North American model of wildlife management: what it is, the history of how it came to be, and how it works (and sometimes doesn't work)! Part 2 of 3.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In our first accidentally-a-series, we explore the North American model of wildlife management: what it is, the history of how it came to be, and how it works (and sometimes doesn't work)! Part 1 of 3.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Send us a message at seedpod.pod@gmail.com

Theme song:

Matt's Blue's - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/