Ok, I admit that I'm being a bit more flamboyant with the name of this week's episode, but that's because my guest for this week and next really stirred in me a desire to wax poetic. Curt Meine and I have known each other for a long time but I don't think we've ever had an opportunity to have a conversation that was this long. Listen closely and you too will get to know him better in this second part of a two episode conversation with him. Hopefully you will see (or at least hear) how his deep love for humanity and our home drives him more and more to bend the ear of anyone that will listen to his warnings and pleas for more responsible behavior with regards to conservation and preservation. Don't write him off as a "tree hugger". He is a true scientist with the heart of a poet, and he "knows his stuff". He never demands that people agree with him, he only asks that you consider the data that is being collected all around the world. There is no agenda, just a desire to understand and make better decisions based upon our current understanding.
Curt Meine is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer. He serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and with the Chicago-based Center for Humans and Nature. He is also a Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo and Associate Adjunct Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.
Over the years Meine has worked with a wide array of non-profit organizations, agencies, universities, and businesses, including the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Wildlife Fund, and the American Museum of Natural History. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Society of Conservation Biology and on the editorial boards of the journals Conservation Biology and Environmental Ethics. He also served as Director of Conservation Programs for the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. In this capacity Meine oversaw the Academy’s “Waters of Wisconsin” initiative, a comprehensive, state-wide review of the status and needs of Wisconsin’s aquatic ecosystems and resources.
In addition to his Leopold biography, Meine has written and edited a number of books on conservation and environmental history, including Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision (1998), The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries (1999), Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation (2004); the Library of America collection Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology (2013); and the bioregional anthology The Driftless Reader (2017). Meine also served as narrator and on-screen guide for the Emmy Award-winning documentary film Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time (2011), which continues to be screened in venues around the country and has appeared more than 1,000 times on PBS stations.
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.