Ranchlands Podcast

Janelle Pietrzak is a weaver who lives a colorful life in the Mojave desert of California. Along with her partner Robert, who is a welder, she cofounded and runs a shop named All Roads, where they sell an assortment of their handmade textiles, metalwork, and more. Janelle and Robert focus on their respective crafts, while often collaborating on special projects. They also partner with skilled artisans across the globe and strive to use the best materials to make functional items that will last. Learn more about Janelle and All Roads Studio here! 

In today’s episode of the Ranchlands Podcast, Jonathan sits down with Duke Phillips to discuss what Ranchlands really is.  While it might seem like an obvious question, there are actually so many layers to what we do. On the surface we are a land management company that uses cattle as a tool for ecological goals. But underneath, we are land managers that understand the need to diversify the ranch’s income and connection to the community through art shows, concerts, education programs, guests, hunting, fishing, and more. They talk about how all of these programs help make the ranch more resilient, as well as how much fun we’ve had over the years building them. Find any resources we mentioned in the episode here

Bruce McGlenn has nearly 40 years of bird and big game hunting experience in the Pacific Northwest. He is the owner and founder of Human Nature Hunting, a business that offers courses on hunting and foraging with an emphasis on the experiences and personal growth that accompany sourcing healthy food and connection to nature. Learn more about Human Nature Hunting 

Kirk Gadzia is a longtime friend of Ranchlands’ CEO Duke Phillips, as well as an educator to countless Ranchlands employees. He is the founder of Resource Management Services, a New Mexico based consulting, training and monitoring organization committed to helping private and professional resource managers achieve their goals. Kirk is a certified educator with Holistic Management International and has over 25 years’ experience teaching worldwide. Learn more about Kirk's consulting and monitoring organization here.

Dr. Caitlin Younquist is Director of Science and Education for Snaplands, an environmental consulting company that helps land managers maximize long term profit and healthy ecosystems by providing and interpreting rangeland data. We first met Caitlin in 2021 while she was serving as our local Extension Educator for the University of Wyoming, up in the Big Horn Basin near the Paint Rock Canyon Ranch. In addition to being on the Snaplands team, Caitlin manages a small farm with her husband, is a local volunteer firefighter, and is the Regional Director for the Wyoming Hunger Initiative.  

Madi Phillips is the leather shop manager for Ranchlands. She was born and raised in the Midwest, was a wrangler at Zapata Ranch, and moved to the Chico Basin Ranch in 2013. Madi has been involved in Ranchlands’ leather shop since its infancy and has helped it grow over the past 10 years to where it is today. Madi is also married to Duke Phillips IV and together they are raising their two children across the landscapes that Ranchlands manages. In this conversation, Jonathan and Madi discuss how she got her start at Ranchlands and what led her to the leather shop. They also talk about how she turned down vet school, moved to the Chico, eventually married Duke IV, and now is raising the next generation of their ranching family. Learn more about Ranchlands Mercantile.  

Jonathan Tullar first joined Ranchlands back in 2009, and he has played an integral role in almost every aspect of Ranchlands’ businesses. He is currently the Foreman of the Wyoming Paint Rock Ranch, and he has extensive experience with Ranchlands’ New Mexico and Colorado operations. In addition to on-the-ground ranching, he’s worked in the direct-to-consumer beef industry and is one of the driving forces behind Ranchlands Meat. Shop Ranchlands Ground Beef Learn more about The Ranchlands Collective

Lynae Risinger is a ranch management apprentice and currently manages the MP Ranch in New Mexico. She started as a ranch intern three years ago on the MP and spent eight months on the Paintrock Canyon Ranch before moving back to the MP, where she has been ever since. She is proud to call New Mexico home and loves to share it with the many faces of Ranchlands, her two dogs and her cat, Boo. Learn more about Ranchlands' Apprentice Program

Oliver Tautkus is a ranch apprentice on Ranchlands’ Paintrock Ranch, our 80,000-acre ranch located on the western flank of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. Prior to working at the Paintrock, he was an intern down in Texas on our Frying Pan Ranch. Oliver made his way to Ranchlands all the way from his home country of Australia– he moved to the United States in search of adventure, new experiences, and personal growth, and he has definitely found all of that– and more– through his work with Ranchlands. Learn more about The Ranchlands Collective

This is a special podcast episode that features a conversation between the Executive Director of Western Landowners Alliance, Lesli Allison, and Ranchlands’ founder and CEO, Duke Phillips III. Western Landowners Alliance– also known as WLA– is an organization of landowners, natural resource managers, and partners dedicated to keeping working lands whole and healthy for the benefit of people and wildlife. Lesli and her team at WLA support working lands through political advocacy, education, storytelling, events, and more, and they have established themselves as one of the most effective champions for large-scale, private lands conservation. Ranchlands and WLA have been longtime friends and collaborators, and there is a significant amount of overlap between our missions, goals, and philosophies. So it was a great pleasure to connect with both Duke and Lesli to hear their thoughts on the current state of working lands conservation and the outlook for the future. Learn more about The Ranchlands Collective Learn more about The Western Landowners Alliance

Parker Fitzgerald is a photographer and director. He co-founded a Portland-based creative studio with his brother, and they’ve combined their expertise in design, strategy, and visual media to work with an impressive range of clients–from behemoths like Nike and Honda to more niche brands like Leatherman and Pendleton. Learn more about Ranchlands Learn more about Parker's work

Helen Richardson is a photojournalist who has been working at the Denver Post for more than thirty years. Over the course of her long and successful career, she’s covered everything from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the Southeast Asia Christmas Tsunami to all of the major Colorado wildfires since the 2002 Hayman Fire. Helen has also had a front-row seat to the massive changes in the journalism and media landscapes over the past three decades, and, as you’ll hear in this conversation, she’s been able to successfully evolve and navigate these shifts to continue telling important stories. Learn more about Ranchlands

Mike Giordano is a Ranch Apprentice at the Frying Pan Ranch, a Ranchlands operation located outside of Amarillo, Texas. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Mike grew up with horses and spent much of his teens and all of his college years playing competitive polo. Upon graduation from college, Mike joined the US Army, where he served as a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 2nd Battalion.  While overseas on deployment, Mike stumbled across a YouTube video that featured Ranchlands, and he decided then and there that he wanted to work with Duke and the rest of the Ranchlands team. He successfully interviewed for the job virtually, while still in Syria, and just a few weeks after leaving the Army, he was on the ground in New Mexico, working as an intern at Ranchlands’ MP Ranch. Learn more about the Ranchlands Collective

Dan Flores is an environmental writer whose work helps us better understand the complex and fascinating history of people, animals, and wild places in North America and beyond. He’s the author of eleven books, including Coyote America and American Serengeti, and he has appeared everywhere from the Joe Rogan Experience to the upcoming Ken Burns documentary on the American Buffalo. His newest book is titled Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America, and, as you’d expect, it is excellent. It’s a sweeping “Big History” of humans’ impact on the North American landscape– a sobering yet optimistic examination of the ups and downs of people’s ever-evolving relationship with the natural world. If you’re a member of the Ranchlands Collective, then this podcast episode will be a timely addition to the insightful Q&A write-up that Dan so graciously provided for Collective members. In it, he provides some context around an exclusive game-camera video that shows coyotes and ravens scavenging the carcass of a cow on our Frying Pan Ranch in Texas. Given Dan’s expertise on coyotes and his wide-ranging knowledge about the interactions between North American wildlife, this Q&A is a must-read.  Read Dan Flores' Work Learn more about the Ranchlands Collective  

Tammy VerCauteren is the Executive Director of The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, a highly effective conservation organization whose mission is to “conserve birds and their habitats through science, education and land stewardship.” Tammy joined the Bird Conservancy in 1999 as an ecologist, performing research on burrowing owls along the Colorado-Wyoming border. She fell in love with the work and the mission, and eventually assumed the role of Executive Director in 2008. Since then, she has driven the Bird Conservancy’s growth and evolution, making it one the the West’s most effective and collaborative landscape-scale conservation organizations. Birds and healthy bird habitat are of the utmost importance here at Ranchlands. We’ve worked with the Bird Conservancy on our Chico Basin Ranch to establish bird banding stations several times per year. And just a few weeks ago, Audubon certified both the Chico Basin and Paint Rock Ranches as bird friendly habitats. So we were thrilled to have Tammy join us to discuss the importance of bird habitat, challenges facing the grasslands of the West, and how everyone from ranchers to consumers can plan a role in protecting these vital ecosystems. Learn more about Bird Conservancy of the Rockies here. Learn more about Ranchlands bird-friendly beef here.

Teal Blake is a renowned Western artist whose paintings reflect his deep love and appreciation for the tradition of ranching and cowboying. Teal was born and raised in Montana, and he’s spent most of his life entrenched in the worlds of horses, cattle, and ranch life. He’s worked as a professional bull rider, ranch hand, and ranch manager, but at his core, he’s always been an artist. In 2014, Teal was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America, a legendary organization with a membership that includes many of the West’s most well-known and highly respected painters and sculptors. Teal and his art also have a long history with Ranchlands– he’s attended Ranchlands artist gatherings, and he recently created the artwork for the Ranchlands Collective logo.  Teal is a wonderful storyteller, so we know you’ll enjoy this episode. Ed and Teal discussed his upbringing in Montana and the unique mix of art and cowboy culture that shaped his life. They talk about his time as a pro bull rider, his work on many ranches throughout the West, and why he feels that humility is one of the most important characteristics. They also chat about Teal’s need to get out of the studio and onto the land, the importance of friendships with other artists, the need for full commitment to art, and how putting creative work into the world attracts like-minded creative people. See Teal Blake’s work and connect with him on Instagram Learn more about the Ranchlands Collective

For this week's episode, Ranchlands’ leather shop manager Madi Phillips and Ed headed to Sterling, Colorado, where they sat down with Freddy Z and Duncan Clarke to discuss leatherwork, craftsmanship, and the art of creating useful and beautiful leather goods by hand.   Learn more about CCI here.   Learn more about the National Children of the Incarcerated (CIPs) Scholarship Program here.   Learn more about Ranchlands Mercantile here.

Lauren O’Toole joined the team at Ranchlands back in 2021 when she was hired to work as a Wrangler at the Zapata Ranch. Over the past three years, her role at Ranchlands has continued to evolve, and she’s currently the Events Coordinator for some of our newest ranch vacation offerings, including stays at the MP Ranch in New Mexico and horse-packing trips at the Paint Rock Ranch in Wyoming. Lauren combines her deep connection to horses with her love of travel and outdoor adventure, making her an indispensable member of the Ranchlands team. In this conversion, Lauren discusses how she transitioned from a life and career centered around the ocean and marine biology to her current work in the arid mountains and high deserts of the American West. We discuss her love of travel and her experiences everywhere from Southeast Asia to Hawaii, and she also talks about her recent eight-week horse adventure through Patagonia, Argentina. Connect with Lauren on Instagram and learn more about her Argentina expeditions. Learn more about pack trips at Ranchlands’ Paintrock Canyon Ranch. Learn more about working at Ranchlands.

Nancy Fishbein is the Director Resilient Lands for the Colorado Program of The Nature Conservancy. Nancy’s team is responsible for protecting and stewarding critical lands across the state, as well as ensuring the Chapter’s alignment with the land protection goals of TNC’s Shared Conservation Agenda, including building a network of resilient and connected landscapes. Nancy has served on the Colorado Conservation Easement Oversight Commission and on the board of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts. Learn more at https://ranchlands.com/ Learn more about The Nature Conservancy at https://www.nature.org/

Dylan Taylor is a ranch apprentice at the Chico Basin Ranch, where he plays an integral role in the success of the 89,000-acre cattle operation. Born and raised outside of Fort Worth, Texas, Dylan had no ranching experience before coming to Ranchlands. In fact, much of his early career was spent in the Texas barbeque scene, where he worked for many years in some of Austin’s most renowned barbeque restaurants and even started his own with some of his best friends. And as you’ll hear in this conversation, he eventually transitioned out of the restaurant business and was hired on as a cook at the Zapata Ranch, which began his tenure at Ranchlands. Learn more about Ranchlands and our Internship Program at https://ranchlands.com/