THE GRAND BARGAIN, SCOTT CITY, KANSAS MAGIC | How "250 for 250" Was Born on Hoeme Ranch
This is the episode where 250 for 250 was named. Adam Riggsbee, Wayne Walker, and John Preyer sat down in Kansas — at the Hoeme family's working ranch — and laid out the case for a federal procurement model that could permanently protect 250,000 acres of native prairie habitat by America's 250th birthday. Over an hour, they explain the Grand Bargain: a single conservation deal that gives ranchers market-value compensation for their stewardship, gives U.S. Fish & Wildlife the foundation for a…
"If We Don't Save Ranching, We Won't Save the Prairie" | 30 Year U.S. Fish & Wildlife Vet
Ted Koch spent 30 years inside the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service deciding which species got listed and which didn't. Today he runs the North American Grouse Partnership and helped stand up the Lesser Prairie Chicken Landowner Alliance — a group of ranchers who don't want subsidies, don't want cost-shares, and don't want another well-intentioned federal program. They want fair market value for stewarding the most threatened ecosystem on Earth. Adam Riggsbee and Wayne Walker sit down with Ted to talk…
USA's Bday Gift: $1 Trillion in Energy Investment & 250,000 Acres of Working Prairie
In this episode, Adam and LPC Conservation Partner John "JP" Preyer break down their groundbreaking "250 for 250" initiative — 250,000 acres of permanent lesser prairie chicken habitat conservation on working ranches by America's 250th birthday. They explain how to use already-appropriated USDA dollars through the Sustains Act, NRCS programs (CRP, ACEP, etc.), and corporate matching funds to create recovery credits under their programmatic conservation banking agreement with the U.S. Fish and…
250 For 250 | The Grand Bargain: Recovery Acres, IRA Funds & the Listing Decision
The lesser prairie chicken has fewer than 28,000 individuals left and has been caught in a regulatory loop since 1998 — listed, delisted, listed again, and delisted again. In Episode 2 of Finding Common Ground, Wayne Walker and Adam Riggsbee make the case for why the credit market alone will never get the bird to recovery, and what a different path forward looks like. Wayne opens with the American burying beetle — a species with a nearly identical history of failed in-lieu fee programs, until Fish…