It's in Our Nature – Details, episodes & analysis

Sara Parker Pauley’s path to becoming the first woman to lead the Missouri Department of Conservation didn’t start where you might expect. She earned degrees in journalism and law from the University of Missouri, but an early choice to explore her love for nature made her “come alive.”   

As she prepares to retire, she joins The Nature Conservancy’s Missouri State Director Adam McLane to talk about the rewards of a career in conservation, offer practical tips for getting started and bust some myths. 

Curiosity about people and nature has taken Kansas City-based photographer Randy Hudson around the world.

He offers practical tips for getting started and describes the methods and philosophy behind his images, including his award-winning entry in The Nature Conservancy’s 2023 Global Photo Contest. 

Roo Yawitz, owner of Big Muddy Adventures, talks Missouri rivers, paddling and … sandwiches.

In this episode, hear the story of the canoe trip that opened Roo’s eyes to the wonders of the Mississippi River and ultimately helped the owner of a live-music club find his way into the river-outfitting industry. Plus, can St. Louis become an outdoors city? Roo argues it already is—it just doesn’t know it yet.

Meet Wes Hauser, The Nature Conservancy’s new mitigation specialist. The Missouri native joins Missouri State Director Adam McLane on It’s in Our Nature to explain how TNC uses the tools of mitigation to offset the impact on the environment from development. 

*Bonus: Wes reveals the scariest thing he’s ever seen.

From his Missouri farm, Ted Jones built Edward Jones Investments into a business empire, but he and his wife Pat were also crusading conservationists whose legacy includes willing the country’s longest recreational trail into existence. Now, the remarkable couple are the subject of a new biography, Trail Blazers: The Free-Spirited Extraordinary Lives of Ted and Pat Jones. Dan Burkhardt, co-founder of Magnificent Missouri and Ted’s longtime friend and employee, joins Missouri State Director Adam McLane on It’s in Our Nature to give us the backstory of the book as well as personal memories. Listen to learn the secret of Ted’s soup cocktail.

Two female trailblazers in the fire world recently crossed paths at a diversity, equity and inclusion prescribed fire workshop that The Nature Conservancy recently hosted in the Ozarks. 

In this episode, Kelly Martin, a burn boss with TNC's North America Fire program and retired Yosemite National Park fire chief, and Kylie Paul, a fearless wildland firefighter from South Africa, paused to join Missouri State Director Adam McLane for a new episode of It’s in Our Nature.

Joel Pugh is a self-described continuous learner with an obsession for Wikipedia. He recently joined the board of The Nature Conservancy in Missouri and has already made lasting impacts and lots of new friends. 

In this episode, Adam McLane catches up with Joel to learn about his life growing up in rural Pennsylvania and what drew him to The Nature Conservancy. 

Episode 5: Caves are some of the last great places on the globe left to explore. That, coupled with the desire to ensure these rare places are protected for future generations, motivates Mike Slay to continue squeezing his way into amazing Ozark caves.

In this episode, we'll explore the subterranean world with our colleague Mike from the Conservancy's Arkansas Chapter. Mike is the Ozark Karst Manager and has recently helped with cave assessment work in Missouri.

Mike will talk about his favorite cave experiences, his least favorite cave experiences, why he chose this as a career and all the little critters he's found along the way. Spoiler alert...he even has a cave fly named after him!

Episode 4: Missouri has some of the most beautiful rivers, streams and creeks running throughout the state. In places like the Ozarks, those streams are home to species that exist nowhere else on earth. Protecting out water resources is critical for people and nature.

In this episode, you’ll hear from Mike Kromrey, the executive director for The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, and Rachel Hopkins, a farmer and county engagement specialist in agriculture and environment for MU Extension.

We’ll discuss the projects, practices and people who are dedicated to improving our water resources through practices they are implementing on their own land and what they are doing to help others who want to sustain and improve our rivers and streams.

To learn more about The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, visit https://watershedcommittee.org.; for more about MU Extension visit https://extension.missouri.edu/and to learn more about what The Nature Conservancy is doing in Missouri visit nature.org/missouri.

Episode 3: The flood of 2019 devastated many communities along the Missouri River, including the farming town of Rock Port, MO. The local levee district knew they had to do something different to stop the impacts of repetitive flooding and protect their community. The solution: setting back the levee to give the river more room.

In this episode, you’ll hear from Regan Griffin, a member of the Atchison County Levee District; Corina Zhang, an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District; and Barbara Charry, TNC’s floodplains and nature-based solutions strategy manager.

Host and Missouri state director, Adam McLane walks us through the complex process of moving a levee and all the pieces and people who came together to make it a reality - and how the new levee is benefiting people and nature.

For more details about this project visit nature.org/moriverlevee and to learn more about The Nature Conservancy visit nature.org/missouri.