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net A r r oe dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Stephanie,
congratulations on forty five years with the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.
I have always followed this because you teach so many
people that you can do this in your own community.
Speaker 2: That's we try to.
Speaker 3: Yes, we really do. That's very kind. I'm very happy
that you followed us. You know, we were established after
Bill's death as a living memorial to him for his
work as a conservationists, but as a visionary, because his
work as a conservationist in East Africa began in nineteen
fifty nine, long before people had the word conservation in
their vocabularies or the notion of extinction in their minds,
and as we approach the Earth Day, it's never more
appropriate than to speak of the work that he did
and the work that is carried on by the William
Holden Wildlife Foundation.
Speaker 1: And that's the reason why I'm so inspired by the
William Holden Wildlife Foundation, is the fact that as you
travel the world and you open up your eyes and
other people's eyes into the journey of accepting all things nature.
We're in need of that as well in this country
as we go through these weather changes. Is that we're
drying up and we've got to sit here and figure
out how we're going to take care of each other,
including the animals. And I think that is because you've
lived at first through the William Holden. Now it's like, Okay,
what can we learn from you that we can incorporate today.
Speaker 3: Well, I've been learning it from others all my life.
And you know it's we've been speaking about extinction and
about the fragile nation of the nature of the planet
for a long long time, and yet so little is done.
You know, our governments. We can't depend on our governments
to do it. We have to depend on individuals and
the inspiration of those individuals is what I'm all about,
and hope that some of the work that we do
that people might see on our website inspires them and
inspires them to participate with us. We are our five
oh one C three public charity. Anything no donation is
too small and it's tax deductible. So our mission statement
is wildlife conservation through education and alternatives to habitat destruction.
Bill was the inspiration of this. It's a living memorial
to him that I formed after he passed, and hopefully
we are inspiring people, not just locally in Kenya, but
around the world. We serve about fourteen thousand students a
year at our education center, and we have an outreach
program into rather impoverished rural areas that really helps them
understand and make the transition from their tribal ways into
a world that is crushing in on them and that
they have to they're looking for answers to be able
to adapt to and it's all disappearing very quickly. I
think about the first time I went out to Kenya,
which was in nineteen seventy three. The difference is astonishing.
The rate of extinction of species is mind boggling, and
that's going on all over the world.
Speaker 2: So we are the source of the problem. So we
are the source of the solution.
Speaker 3: And we must inspire ourselves, our children, and our society
to be able to do.
Speaker 2: Something about it.
Speaker 3: And the little, the smallest thing we can do is
to look at ourselves in the mirror and see what
is it we consume, because whatever it is we're consuming,
we're killing ourselves.
Speaker 1: With One of the things that I've always been inspired
by you, Stephanie, is the fact that I just feel
that when you walk into some place like Kenya, or
you walk around in other areas of the country, that
you don't mind just sitting down in the soil and saying,
all right, I'm listening, let's figure this out. Because every
animal has a story, every tree has a story. And
you know what, if you listen close, so do those rocks.
And that's what I love about you is that you
are not afraid to step into the story.
Speaker 3: Well my nails are short is and dug into the ground, yes.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And what you have done to protect
the horses. See, that's where I first came in contact
with you, is what you're doing up there, like in
the prior mountain areas and other areas of this nation
and around the world, because that those prior horses we
are to this day huge to those of us in Montana.
Speaker 3: I know, and I know it's it's highly sensitive and
highly controversial, but we we we have underestimated the importance
of those horses and their role in biodiversity and the
biodiversity that created our planet. We are the end results,
but we are also the problem because we're the one
destroying it. So there is never enough, there's never enough
emphasis placed on them. Now we yesterday in Los Angeles,
I'm in Los Angeles. Yesterday in Los Angeles it was one.
Speaker 2: Hundred degrees yep. Yeah, that's insane for this time of
the year.
Speaker 1: See, That's what I'm saying, is that that as you
go to Kenya and what you're learning in Kenya, we're
gonna have to learn here because when you've got a
one hundred degree day in Los Angeles this early in
the game, what is it doing for you the rest
of the nation. Oh, I know what's happening here in
the Carolinas. We're being beaten up by these torrential rainstorms. Well,
we're gonna have to learn how to do what they
did before us in order to survive. And that's why
I need people like you, Stephanie.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
Speaker 3: I need people like you too to get the message out.
Speaker 2: We all need each each other, but we need each other.
Speaker 3: To work together to help resolve this because obviously our
governments are not going to do it. They haven't done
it so far, and there is certainly enough, there's enough
information out there, and there's enough enough examples of why
we need this.
Speaker 2: Why it should be number one.
Speaker 3: On our list of crucial issues to deal with.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. We'll be right back with Stephanie Powers.
The William Holden Wildlife Foundation is celebrating forty five years.
Let's get back to our conversation with Stephanie Powers. Do
you think that one of the things that we need
to work on is that being human we think that
we can take care of everything. And what I mean
by that is a lot of people will adopt an
animal and bring it into their life. And I'm going
I think we need more people than just that little
gut feeling that I can save this I can save
this horse. We need to get more people involved in
this to make sure we're doing it right correct.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, but also let's not diminish the importance of
the individual. Yes, because it is individuals that make things happen.
It is individuals that, when they join together, become movements.
Speaker 2: And so there is no act that is.
Speaker 3: Too small in the preservation of this planet.
Speaker 2: It's just it's just inspiring people.
Speaker 3: To make that act, to do something, to find some
way of contributing, not just money, but actually doing it.
Speaker 1: Like you said, wearing your nails short which you look
at my nails. You say, dude, you got soil in
those nails because you've been out there in that darn
forest all weekend.
Speaker 3: It's yes, that's great, that's the best kind of dirty nail.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, don't you love the way that collection of
trees and loving the land will bring the animals to
you so that you can learn their journey as well
as where they're growing as well. Even a box turtle,
to me, has a story that we can learn from.
Speaker 3: Oh. Absolutely, I'm preaching to the congregation, you know. The
all we have to do is look at what happened
to our environments all over the world when COVID forced.
Speaker 2: Us to get off the street.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's incredible how wildlife adapted. It's incredible how
the air cleared up. It's incredible how we once again
heard birds. For those people who took the pods out
of their ears or the music off their headsets and
listen to the real music, the music of nature. Because
it came back so fast, absolutely extraordinary. That's how brilliant
this planet is. But give it half a chance. Instead,
we just go back and the same way that we
were behaving before, as like destruction Derby. You know, we're
the great offender one of.
Speaker 1: The things that you've been a major part of, because
we all just naturally think that if we see the
photographs or we see the documentaries on TV, the jaguar
is the perfectly protected animal. No no, no, no. The
conservation that you've created and the trust that you've created,
it opens up our hearts to say, look, we need
to work together and continue to save the jaguar.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, but unfortunately Jaguar as a company, Jaguar North
America was the whole company. I mean, when I created
the Jaguar Conservation Trust, it was predicated on the fact
that the.
Speaker 2: Company itself valued the.
Speaker 3: Relationship that it had with its logo with the animal
used as its logo and showed the integrity of the
automobile makers to produce a beautiful car to also preserve
the animal from which they derived its name.
Speaker 2: That company was.
Speaker 3: Sold from Ford Motor Company, who were very conservation minded,
to a company in India, and they're not so conservation minded,
so they discontinued their support of our little effort.
Speaker 2: We were for five years.
Speaker 3: We sponsored an effort in a grassroots effort in Guatemalae
in Costa Rica and Belize, and it was very well
received locally and it did some wonderful good. Now it's
run by a company that isn't even in America, so
they and they didn't want to they didn't even want
to let us use their name. So it was it
was a really sad eventuality.
Speaker 2: So I come to not trust the corporate world very well.
Some of them talk from both sides of their.
Speaker 1: Mouths, you saw, like my dad, I love that kind
of talk. But you know, but you know what, one
of the things that that I cherish about you is
the fact that you'll go out there and you'll be
with everything that has to do with the planet. You'll
experience life in places that we won't ever get there
and then I swear to you, when I listen to
your music, I can feel your emotion in those lyrics.
Is that something that you created with Loren's heart in
the way of going, Look, there are words to me
until I put my heart involved in the in these songs,
because I feel something when I hear you sing.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's very kind.
Speaker 3: Loren's heart would the greater hero of line as far
as his poetry was. He certainly was a poet, and
he lived a tragic life, but his poetry lives on
and is in the lyrics of his music.
Speaker 1: And you're putting it through that music, which allows so
many people to explore it because you know, people are
just as lost with music today as they are with
the planet. And you're bringing these together because once we start,
you know, doing the research on you and seeing your connection,
it's like, oh my god, all of that dirt you've
got in your fingernails is paying off for those of
us that didn't know until now.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3: I'll tell the dirt when I'm washing it out of
my nails.
Speaker 2: Some of it comes out, some of it doesn't.
Speaker 1: But is that part of the training of for h
and the reason why I bring that up is because
I grew up in the state of Montana, on those
farms in Wyoming as well as Montana, and four H
was a major part of what we do. I would
say my forest is alive today in South Charlotte, North
Carolina because of what I learned at four H.
Speaker 2: Oh. Well, for H was a great organization.
Speaker 3: You know, I had a I had a calf a
heifer called deb Yes, that was the that was the
animal I showed and uh, and I think it taught
some wonderful values and certainly taught the appreciation of our
fellow species.
Speaker 2: Uh. It was. It was altruism at its best.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Where can people go to find out more about you?
And the forty fifth annual William Holden Wildlife Foundation Celebration,
because this is a moment that we all need to
be talking about and getting involved with.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. It's uh.
Speaker 3: We have a very very involved website. It's w h
w F dot org. That's the acronym of the of
the foundation. And please to your listeners, please go and
look us up and see if there's anything that interests you.
Speaker 2: There's a lot on there.
Speaker 3: It's rather it's rather massively filled with a lot of information.
But if you can get through the information, get to
the core of the matter, hopefully you'll find something that
moves you.
Speaker 1: Please come back to the show anytime in the future.
The door is always going to be open for you. Stephanie.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, my dear. I'll walk right through it.
Speaker 1: Excellent, you'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, you too.