Episode 120: Carnivore Conservation in the Pacific Northwest With Paula MacKay and Robert Long
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Paula MacKay and Dr. Robert Long
About
Paula MacKay has studied wild carnivores for the past two decades and is currently a carnivore conservation specialist with Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Also dedicated to communications on behalf of her wild kin, Paula earned an MFA in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University in 2015.
She was managing editor for Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores (Island Press, 2008), and her work has been published in numerous journals, magazines, books, and anthologies. Paula lives on an island near Seattle with her husband (Robert Long) and more-than-human dogs, in the company of elder trees. Visit her website to read Paula’s writings about rewilding and to subscribe to her blog, Wild Prose.
Dr. Robert Long is a Senior Conservation Scientist at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, and director of the zoo’s Living Northwest program.
His primary responsibilities include coordinating carnivore research and conservation projects in the Pacific Northwest. Robert has twenty-plus years of experience studying a variety of species, most recently wolverines, lynx, martens, and urban carnivores such as coyotes, and also bears, fishers, bobcats, foxes, deer, snowshoe hares, and owls. He holds degrees from Humboldt State University, the University of Maine, and the University of Vermont. In 2008, he co-edited the book, Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores. He currently lives with his wife (Paula MacKay) and their dogs on Bainbridge Island.
Topics
- Working with carnivores: carnivore conservation & research in the Pacific Northwest
- Non-invasive methods of studying carnivores like camera traps
- Animal autonomy
- How pervasive are camera traps now that anyone can use them?
- How to ensure communities feel safe with cameras in urban monitoring environments
- Scat in the freezer and books on poop!
Extra Credit
- NORTHWEST CARNIVORE SCIENCE & CONSERVATION PROGRAM
- Paula MacKay’s website
- Learn more about non-invasive survey methods for carnivore research
Books Mentioned:
Ben Goldfarb, Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.