YouSaid · the spoken record

Mike Phillips

lines on the record: 101
first: 2019-08-21
most recent: 2019-08-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Tim Pal, let me say again, thank you so very much. It's been my high honor, and I would say in closing, there's just no doubt that the great public wildlands of western Colorado need to have their wilderness soul restored in the form of the gray wolf. The lands need us. The gray wolf needs us. Tim has sketched out a way forward that everyone can contribute. And I'll leave the listeners with one final thought. IO Wilson, we spoke about Ed earlier as a great man and a kind man and a poet and one of my heroes. And Ed wrote many years ago, and maybe this will inspire your listeners, Tim, to rise up to your challenge. And Dr. Wilson simply wrote, there can be no purpose more in spiriting than to begin the age of restoration. Weaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us. I hope folks will help us do that, Tim. Thank you, pal.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By Aldo Leopold is a fantastic book that everyone should read. It speaks to the need for a land ethic. It speaks to the need for us to recognize we're just as much a part of this planet as the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us. That's what I would recommend folks read. A Sand County Almanac.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Immediately one, especially Tim, is so very important. And it's not about wolves specifically. Although there is an essay in the book that speaks about wolves, I spoke about the essay earlier. It's entitled Thinking Like a Mountain. But the book is a Sand County almanac.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, for your Colorado listeners, certainly there are ways that you could volunteer as a Coloradan to become a signature gatherer yourself. I understand the website has instructions on how to become a petitioner. What a great way to engage in direct democracy. I know as an elected official that what we need in this country is a more engaged electorate. Signature gathering is a great way to engage. And if you can't volunteer to gather signatures, then of course you can make doggone shore to sign the petition so that you're saying to your Secretary of State, I want this on the 2020 ballot. I want to be able to cast a vote for the future of the gray wolf and the great public wildlands of Western Colorado.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tim, thank you, brother. Anyway, WolfactionFund.com is a powerful way to get involved. There's links there. You can talk to the people that run the program. I'm honored to be a member of the science team for the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. That's just Rocky MountainWolfProject.org. And those are good ways to engage. And if folks want to really dive into the deep end of the pool, they will find willing partners standing on shoulder to shoulder to keep that bridge to make sure that we stop the degradation of the planet and use restoration as a great inspiration to remind folks that we can choose to live better with the world. This is the only world we're going to get, Tim.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Horatius was a Roman soldier who was trying to protect Rome from an advancing army. This was a poem written in 1842 by Thomas Babbington Macaulay. It's a long poem. I'm not going to read much of it. I actually am not reading. I've memorized these lines. Say simply haul down the bridge or council with all the speed ye may, I with two beside me, will hold the foe in play In yon straight path a thousand may well be held by three Now who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, first, Tim, I got to go back, folks. I had really no idea. I'm almost speechless. I didn't expect this. And as people think, as I listened to Tim's very generous offering and challenge, I was reminded, and I'm an old field biologist. I don't want folks to think otherwise, but I have always been enamored by poetry. And I was reminded of an important stretch of a poem that if you don't mind, Tim, it feels appropriate to me. And before I answer what could folks do otherwise, WolfactionFund.com is a good place to go. But I want to share these lines because you've so. Inspired me. It says lines from Horatius at the bridge”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know what to say, buddy. I had never imagined that, but thank you. I can promise you this, the money will be put to very good use and you're standing on high ground.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wolf Project or the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund. It's a really clear opportunity to illustrate the power of direct democracy, the power of the people to rise up and say, we think this is an appropriate future for our great public lands in Western Colorado.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“End of September. Well, Tim, we have until September 30 to collect 200,000 signatures supporting the World War. Restoration Initiative, while the official deadline for signature gathering is December 12th, the self-imposed deadline of September 30 was a requisite for ensuring cost effectiveness and building essential momentum for the eventual statewide campaign to pass the initiative. 200,000 signatures would be more than enough for the Secretary of State for Colorado to say, all right, all right, well, the Coloradans clearly want this to be on the 2020 ballot. These signatures more than exceed the minimum threshold, and therefore this Wolf Restoration Initiative will be on the 2020 ballot. And then Coloradans will have a chance to vote. Now, folks all over the country, followers of yours in Texas might say, with Mike, I don't get to vote. And I said, well, that's true, but you can still influence the future of your national forests by choosing to support the Rocky Mountain.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, as I understand it, Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund will use that money to offset the remaining cost to ensure that 200,000 signatures are collected by the end of the month.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What I have seen, the action fund put forward recently is that there's a $600,000 need by the 15th of September to ensure that a sufficient number of signatures are gathered to properly firm the wolf restoration initiative so that it appears on the 2020 ballot. Now, that is admittedly a lot of money, but there are people all over this country that might want to rise up and say, I want to do my part to restore the ecological integrity of my national forests. So as your listeners think about this, the landscape of relevance to this idea is a landscape that we all own. There are national forests and restoring the balance of our national forests is an exciting, inspiring endeavor. And I believe that if enough people rose up $5 here and $25 there, pretty soon you're talking real money.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, Pulitzer Prize winner. He has received, I think it's the Ecological Award equivalency of the Nobel Peace Prize. Ed is a rock star and a great hero of mine. And Ed's on the science team, but there's other really good scientists too. So here's the point of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. It just set out with a simple aim to say, if we can tell the truth about gray wolves, the truth as defined by decades of reliable research, we believe Coloradans will conclude that coexisting with the”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, as I said, EO Wilson is also on the science team. I would have you believe Ed is one of the greatest biologists who's ever lived. His work is Darwinesque in scope. He was a professor emeritus at Harvard and is the world's arguably the greatest naturalist. He's written several powerful books.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, Tim, thank you. It is remarkable that you could put the archstone in place and connect gray wolves from the hierarchic to the Mexican border by restoring a viable population to western Colorado. So the listeners understand just a little bit of history. A few years ago, an educational effort rose up. It's known as the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. I'm honored to serve on the science advisory team with other sciences of repute. E.O. Wilson's a member of the science team, for example. And the project sits there and it says.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very controversial for a lot of unjustified reasons. It's hard to achieve recovery. I've even published in good journals the simple good science journals, peer-reviewed papers, the simple observation. Maybe the way the law is written, maybe the way the endangered species act is written, maybe the way it defines recovery, it's too much. Maybe it's too much for this country. Maybe we have to dial it back a bit. Okay, that's a fair consideration. But until the law changes, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has to apply a common sense interpretation of the words of the law as it goes forward. That's what you do in a law-abiding country. It doesn't always mean you get to follow the path of least resistance.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's exhausting. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room. It commands a big budget. They've got other issues to address. Their job is a big job, and they find themselves spending a lot of time with gray wolves and not so much time with other species that are equally deserving. I would have the service believe the solution is not to delist prematurely. The solution is for the United States Congress to properly fund the endangered species act, which it's never done. But interestingly enough, and I've pointed this out to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and I hold that agency, Tim, in high regard. I was proud when I worked for the Department of Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I was proud to wear that brown uniform. But the fact is the Endangered Species Act doesn't say do this recovery work until it gets hard, then you can quit. That's not in the law. What the law says is go do this hard work. And for a species like the gray wolf that was very common,”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Some species are simply exhausting. I think with the gray wolf, for example, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is just exhausted by it. They've had enough of it. They want to be done with it. They're tired. They're tired”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the continental United States, Tim, despite decades of hard work, and I've been honored to be a big part of that, as I mentioned earlier, my work started in 1980. Decades of hard work by deeply determined scientists and conservationists, the Grey Wolf now Only claims occupation of about 15% of its historical range. The flip side, it continues to be extirpated, extinct from 85% of its range.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Judicial scrutiny. I think the gray wolf will continue to be protected under federal law in places like Colorado. As I said earlier, the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund both aim to move the notion forward of recovering the gray wolf to this great big patch of opportunity that is in Western Colorado.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The ESA, in the context of our discussion today, would stand. Bedrock Foundation for the recovery of imperiled species like the gray wolf absent the endangered species act, there would be no gray wolves in this country. There'd be no grizzly bears in this country. They also need those big tracks of federal public lands so that the national voice matters in terms of deciding their future, not just a local or a private voice, but we've talked about that. What the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has recently done is move an idea forward, a proposal. I think it's misguided. a proposal that would say, because of the good work that we've done with gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, the work that we've done in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, principally we don't need to do anything else anywhere else. Well, I think that's an odd, misguided interpretation of their mandated duties under the Endangered Species Act. I don't think the proposal will be finalized. If it is, I don't think the final version will stand up to...”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm all in on finding a way forward with the ranchers. I find their concerns to be valid, even though, and I can share data, make clear that it's the atypical wolf that kills livestock, something like 99.95% of cattle in the Northern Rockies are never bothered by gray wolves. It's a very, very small 0.01.05% number of cattle. But if you're the one that just lost two calves last night, you got a problem. And we've got good tools for resolving that conflict. And sometimes I think we can let people follow the path of least resistance on private land. That makes sense to me. But I'm not sure that makes sense on public land.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. Yes. It's not any one person's land. It's the public's land. I could make a case that there's nothing a gray wolf can do on public land that's wrong except threaten human life. Okay. But if you're there subsidized by the American public to be there, you choose to be there. It's a willing choice. Nobody put a gun to your head and said your business model has to rely on using the public's grass in the National Forest. Okay, okay, we're already helping by charging a fraction of what it's worth. The cost of that money, you know, Tim, there's no free lunch, buddy. I've never found a free lunch in my life. The cost of that money, the cost of that subsidy is recognizing that you have less opportunity to follow that path of least resistance.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He's very conservative management on public land. Now, this is land that's owned by you and me and everyone else, those 17 plus million acres that I made reference to earlier in Western Colorado, the White River National Forest, for example. We own that land. That land is not owned by any one rancher, and we have subsidized that rancher extensively to use that resource. We're sharing it with that rancher by charging that rancher a fraction of what that grass is actually worth.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would argue that we just abandon laws and begin to ignore them willy-nilly. But nonetheless, I appreciate the path of least resistance. I know I tend to follow that path when I can. I have made the point over and over again that I would be more than willing to incentivize coexistence with greywolves by abdicating for very liberal management on private land. It's your ranch, it's your problem. You take care of it. We want to make sure that your response to taking care of us backed by law so you're not a lawbreaker, but we can do that. Shoot the wolf on private land if the laws would allow for that. That's liberal management. I promise you, a dead wolf's not going to get in your chicken coop anymore. They wouldn't do that much anyway, but you get the point. But in contrast, Tim, if you can embrace the notion of liberal management on private land, the flip side, the flip side of that...”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a great question, Tim. Thank you. And first, I would point out, and I admit my bias as a state senator, I hold laws in high regard. I recognize that we're a law-abiding country. We're a country founded on laws. Laws don't always allow for the path of least resistance to be followed. So, for example, you just can't go shoot stuff. You can't just go shoot wildlife. We have laws in this country that say wildlife are a public trust asset managed by state and federal agencies for the public's benefit. You don't own the elk. You just can't go shoot an elk anytime you want. You can't shoot a gray wolf necessarily anytime you want. That might be the path of least resistance. It happens to be illegal. Oh, if you don't like that, okay, okay. You could try to change the law, but I don't think anybody...”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hanging strips of flagging from a fence. It's called fladry FLADRY Fladry. Lo and behold, Fladry, these strips of flagging hanging from a fence, flappin' in the wind, creates confusion for a gray wolf, and they tend not to go through the fladry. So you can encompass a calving areas with fladry to buy yourself some security as well, because the gray wolves are bothered by that flapping flagging. There's lots of techniques that can be employed to find a way forward. I'll say this, and maybe I oversimplify. We can put an astronaut on the moon and bring her home back again. We can take your heart out of your chest and put it back better than before. I promise you we can figure out how to coexist.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Young cattle to great wolves. It's certainly a compensation program can take the bite out of a problem, so to speak. If you suffer a loss of a valuable calf because of a gray wolf, you could fairly claim the right to be paid. You had your private property taken from you by a public asset. In this case, it was a gray wolf. And so we know that compensation programs help too. You know, you can even modify Grey Wolf's movement patterns and their behavior a bit by hanging strips of flagging. You might find this hard.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And nobody will be surprised by this, but we know the shepherds matter. They were called shepherds back in the day. Now they're called range riders. But having a presence in and amongst your livestock makes a world of difference. You can affect changes in wolf movement patterns across short periods of time by just being there. You can get the wolf to leave your mob of cattle, your mob of sheep. Just ride your horse at him. They're going to run away. So range riders make a world of difference. You can employ different husbandry practices. You can specifically begin to manage your cattle, for example, in a fashion that promotes a greater degree of herding amongst the livestock. So they stay in bigger groups. That creates defensive opportunities that wouldn't exist otherwise. You can modify where you're having calving take place. That would help to minimize the exposure.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Liberal elk hunting season is in wolf country. There are simply no data that would support the claim that gray wolves are going to kill enough elk or deer to cause the big game apple cart to fall over. It's just not true. And I'd finally say to hunters, I can't just celebrate the opportunity to hunt big game in a country where you have a kindred spirit doing the same thing. Don't you find some kindred connection with another great predator that being the gray wolf that in contrast to your prospects if you fail to kill that deer, that elk, you're probably not going to go home and go hungry. In contrast, that gray wolf comes up empty pod. She's going home and going hungry.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the ground in the Great Lakes states and thousands of wolves on the ground in the Northern Rocky Mountains, there's been no interruption of big game hunting in those states. For years, Tim, I served as the ranking minority member of the Montana House Fishing Game Committee. And then I was the ranking minority member of the Senate Fishing Game Committee. I saw this not only as a biologist, this issue of wolves and big game. I saw it as a biologist, but also I saw the issue as a state representative and a state senator. And most of the time, people were coming to our committees to express concern about too many elk. Most of the elk management units in the state of Montana are either at management objective as decided by Montana Fishwife and Parks or over objective. For heaven's sakes, Tim, you know there's areas in Montana where you can hunt elk six months out of the year because the state is trying to affect a population reduction. And some of those areas with that very”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Example, in Montana with 800 or 900 gray wolves on the ground in Montana. There's about 50 head of cattle killed a year. 50 head of cattle out of over 2 million is not a threat to the industry. Now, if you're 50 head of cattle, you got a problem. I acknowledge that. Fortunately, I know that we have very good tools at the ready for resolving conflicts when they arise and very good tools at the ready forever preventing conflicts from occurring in the first place. And then as it relates to wolves in big game and wolves in big game hunting, I've been a big game hunter. I understand that that recreational pursuit, I get that. But here's what we know. In Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, lots of big game hunters there. And Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, lots of big game hunters there. There's been no interruption with thousands of wolves.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so we can, I never dismiss anybody's fear. If they truly are concerned about their safety because of gray wolves, their fear is their fear and they're entitled to it. I simply say, well, I appreciate your fear. It's unfounded. There's nothing that we know that tells us that that's a justified concern. And then I can tell them countless stories, and I can tell you stories too today that make clear, at least in my life, gray wolves have never, ever been a threat. So that's the human safety issue. Wolves and livestock, it is true. It is just true. Again, framed by decades of reliable research. It's the atypical wolf that kills livestock. Most gray wolves don't. Wolf depredations and livestock do not represent a threat to the livestock industry. The depredation events are just too uncommon for”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here's what I say, and I've been saying this for a long time, and these statements are backed up by decades of reliable research, including many papers published in very good journals. So this is really very reliable science. First and foremost, we know Grey Wolves are not a threat to human safety. They just aren't.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To think that wolves exercise their predatory will on a whim, they don't. But because people embrace that mythical wolf, it's that embrace that gets in the way of wolf recovery. That's why it's so controversial. They're not willing to acknowledge the real wolf, which the best available science, much of which I've helped collect, says that coexisting with the gray wolf is a rather straightforward affair that requires only a modicum of accommodation.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To coast, east to west, north to south. Despite all their liabilities, they have two assets that put them in the green. Here are the two assets. They are doggedly determined. They wake up every day and they go to work. And for a gray wolf going to work, that means she's got to put seven to ten pounds of food in her belly a day. Now they'll go many, many, many days with no food at all. This is a feast or famine existence. But on average, they got to put the equivalent of seven to ten pounds of food in their belly every day. They go to work. They're doggedly determined. The second asset, they are supremely social. There's that Rudyard Kipling poem, Law of the Jungle, and there's two lines in that poem that read the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. They are doggedly determined. They are supremely social. They are successful because of those two assets despite all their liabilities. But it's crazy for people.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Punting is dangerous. I did a study at Wolf Skulls in Alaska looked at 225 skulls from animals that have been shot by Alaska Department of Fishing Game to minimize predation pressure on a local caribou population or a local moose herd. So these were animals that had been shot. I was looking at their skulls for evidence of blunt forced trauma. How often had they been kicked in the head by a moose, for example? Tim Fully, a quarter of the skull showed a broken nose, broken jaw, broken skull. A good friend of mine, Rolf Peterson, they studied wolves and moose on Ile Royal since 1972. Rolf has never done a knee cropsy, which is just an autopsy of an animal. Never done a necropsy in a wolf that hasn't shown evidence of blunt forced trauma, broken rib, broken leg, broken nose. Here's the point. Their life is tough. It's difficult to make a living in the woods with your teeth. They got two things going for them, two things going for them that make them wonderfully adapted and successful. I said moments ago, they were everywhere back in the day.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's great data on all these aspects about wolf ecology. The Grave was one of the most studied large mammals in the world. We know a great deal about gray wolves, and we know they fail. Every time they go hunting Tim, they come up empty pawed about seven or eight times out of ten.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Its feet. Well, that's a good gray wolves can travel great distances, but after that, when you look at their legs, their forelimbs are not heavily muscled in contrast to a cougar or a blackbird or a grizzly bear. And the reason being is that gray wolves' front legs don't supinate. They can't reach around and grab you in contrast to a cougar or grizzly bear can reach around and grab you. That's why their forelimbs are so heavily muscled. When you look at a wolf's feet, their claws are decidedly uninteresting they're always exposed. They wear down. Oh gee whiz, a grizzly bear black bear. They've got great big claws. A cuckar, he's taking the notion of claws to an extreme by keeping his retracted. So then anytime they're needed, boy, they're ready to go. They're ready to go.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, for the job at hand. Tim, they're not well suited to their predatory lifestyle. Their body's not well built for the job. They always kill things. They live on things bigger than themselves, even a small whitetail deer tends to be bigger than a gray wolf. Even if gray wolves weigh on average 100 pounds or 90 pounds, a small white-tailed deer weighs more than that. Their nose, their nose is not well built for the task at hand. That long nose ensures that the biting power at the tips of the canines is much reduced compared to, say, a shorter nose of a cougar. Their teeth. Ah, gee, we know their teeth wear down and break a beaver's teeth. You may not know this, but listeners may not know it. A beaver's teeth are ever growing. If you're an gnawing rodent having teeth that grow the entire life, that's a good thing. That's not the case for a gray wolf. Their legs are great for traveling. There's an old Russian proverb that says a wolf is kept fed by.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, you know it's a problem. Wolf frustration is a problem. Wool frustration is controversial. It's divisive because people embrace the mythical wolf. People believe that the wolf, far too many. People believe that the wolf has an almost supernatural ability to exercise its predatory will on a whim. And consequently, wolves create this wake of death and desolation and destruction wherever they go. And yet, Tim, the real wolf is not even a shadow of its mythical self. Unfortunately, the myth is as strong and is as wrong for the real wolf. Oh my Lord, life is a daily struggle to survive. For the real wolf, starvation is a common cause of death. For the real wolf, they're not even built.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Disconnected from our evolutionary past and divorce from a relationship with the natural world that promises peace, prosperity, and justice for not only human life, but non-human life. And I want to emphasize so, your listeners, there's no equivocation here. They should make no doubt that the stakes are high and growing ever more so. We spoke about the sixth great extinction crisis. It's tightening its grip on the planet, compromising all that is really important. Restoration reminds us that we can choose to be something other than misguided gods. It illustrates how we can change. It makes clear that restoration is an alternative to extinction.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tim, thank you because ultimately that's why I wake up, as I said, every day excited, determined to try to do a little more than my fair share. I believe that restoring gray wolves to Western Colorado has tremendous power. As an accomplishment, it would make clear that wolf restoration provides a new way of relating to nature, a new way for us to go forward to help end the senseless destruction of the natural world through thoughtful, purposeful, well-designed reintroduction projects as a conservation scientist, Tim, who is keenly aware of the growing magnitude of the extinction crisis. And we just spoke to that moments ago. I know that restoration efforts that inspire people are essential to humanity's well-being lest we continue to grow increased.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What we did in the Northern Rocky Mountains, we know how to do this cost effectively, we know how to do it certainly, and most importantly, we know how to do it humanely.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, not many. Tim. You're absolutely right, buddy. It would be over the course of maybe two years, maybe three. If you were to translocate, oh, gee, it was 15, 20 wolves a year over the course of a couple of years from, say, Montana to Colorado, you let him go. They'd take care of the rest in rather short order, let's say within a decade, those 20, 30, 40 wolves that you move from translocated from Montana released in Colorado, they'd give rise to a population that would be approaching 100 strong. We could assume for this discussion that a viable population would be something like 250 wolves. You would see that probably within the first 15 years or so, maybe 20 years after release. And it would get there with a great deal of certainty. We've done this work before.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would have you believe from an ecological and symbolic standpoint restoring the gray wolf to the great state of Colorado does a good job of helping to restore that state's natural balance. And it would serve as the archstone. The final piece, Tim. The final piece of the restoration puzzle that connects Greywolves from the high Arctic all the way to the Mexican border. There's no other place in the world when you could imagine restoration of a much maligned, misunderstood, persecuted large carnivore over such a continental and sweeping scale. That is restoration magic of the finest kind. Both the Wolf ActionFund.com and the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project.org are trying to move that idea forward to ensure that the gray wolf finds its way back to its ancestral homelands in western Colorado.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Acres of federal public lands and across those federal public lands they support 700,000, an estimated 700,000 deer and elk after the recreational hunter has removed about 80,000 deer and elk. There remain on the ground about 700,000. When you look at what makes wolf recovery successful, you need a big patch of federal public lands. That's the 17 plus million acres. And you need a big prey population. That's the 700,000 Dir and Elk. It is a biological motherload on top of that. Coloradans have a sensibility that's different than many states. Coloradans celebrate their wildness. Coloradans have indicated over decades that they would willingly welcome the wolf home. And then finally,”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I certainly can. And one reason that you didn't know about it is this story that is the motherload of opportunity for wolves in Western Colorado has not been told, well, Western Colorado possesses certain characteristics that are just superbly suited for the gray wolf principally among those attributes. There's over 17 million acres of federal public lands in western Colorado. So Tim, it doesn't matter that you live in Texas. It doesn't matter that your listeners live all across the country. Listeners all across the world, at least for folks in this country. What matters is those are your national forests. The White River National Forest is just as much your national forest, whether you live in Denver or Austin. It doesn't matter. That's the whole point of federal public lands.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I agree with that. I have some hope too because I recognize that if you believe in a God, if you believe in a God, and I know a lot of your listeners are probably people of faith, I think that if there is a God, what she gave us was this great right to choose. We can choose to be different. We can choose to celebrate the importance of wild and self-willed nature. We don't have to continue the way we've been. We can choose to be different. And that's what motivates me. That's what gives me hope. I know that choice is a reality.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Good Lord gave me was the capacity to practice. I could practice the shit out of that game. I'd be out there early and I'd stay late. And I just learn through my own youth that manufacturing runs, just working with great determination is a way forward that I found deeply satisfying. You combine that with my awareness that restoration is an alternative to extinction. And my deep belief that the world is run by those who show up, I wake up every morning and ready to go.”
2019-08-21 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #383: Mike Phillips — How to Save a Species · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT