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00:00 Hey, thanks a lot for having me on the show.
00:04 It's a pleasure to talk to your audience and give you guys a little insight into The Last
00:09 Keeper and why did we produce this film.
00:12 Back 2017, 2018, that time period, I was working on a film called Killing the Shepherd.
00:17 It was about a rural community in Africa and their relationship with the land and the wildlife.
00:21 The fact is, folks, with 8 billion humans on the planet, if wildlife doesn't provide
00:26 a value to humans and the humans that live with them.
00:29 This is rural areas because wildlife doesn't live in cities.
00:32 We've got all kinds of history over thousands of years where humans have pretty well mucked
00:36 things up when it comes to wildlife.
00:38 In this day and age, we're strong believers that we need to make sure that the people
00:43 that live with wildlife see a benefit so that they will ensure and take care of those habitats
00:47 and the wildlife in them.
00:49 I had heard some crazy stories about gamekeepers, people working for the sporting estates in
00:57 Scotland and specifically the Highlands, kind of being targeted by rural folks.
01:02 I had heard stories about children being ostracized in school, keepers being ostracized in their
01:08 own communities, children's having potentially acid, threatened with acid thrown in their
01:11 face.
01:12 Back 5, 10, 15 years ago, I've dealt a lot with and seen the hatred on the internet that
01:21 goes towards especially women who hunt and been a part of a lot of some of the campaigns
01:27 that are going on where people are literally utilizing the internet to say some pretty
01:34 strong, powerfully hate-filled comments towards people they don't even know.
01:41 That perked my interest and after doing some incredible research, months of research, talking
01:46 to a lot of different people, we started to see that there was a story here just about
01:52 people that are living on the land.
01:55 This is the people that are working in the sporting estates that are trying to make an
01:59 honest living.
02:01 It's a passion that they have to be close to the land and the wildlife.
02:05 We saw where there was this urban versus rural war occurring in Scotland.
02:11 We also were able to discern that a lot of this war really doesn't have anything to do
02:15 with science, wildlife and habitat conservation.
02:18 Now, here in the United States, the reason why we have birds on our bird feeder, deer
02:22 and turkey in our backyards, for that matter, our national forest is because of hunters
02:26 that went hunting.
02:27 We have a little bit different history than you guys.
02:30 We've been rewilding since probably about the late 1880s.
02:33 Matter of fact, 1887, the Boone and Crockett Club was established which is the basis of
02:38 our North American conservation model or what I call modern conservation where wildlife
02:42 provides a value to rural people and they take care of it.
02:45 And I'll tell you what, folks, we've got some incredible wildlife viewing opportunities
02:50 and also opportunities to harvest wildlife and put it on the table to be able to feed
02:54 us.
02:55 That's something humans have been doing since the beginning of time.
02:58 Now, in this day and age, seeing what's going on in Scotland, you know, really, what do
03:02 I think the future is?
03:04 Well, first of all, science has to come first when these folks are making decisions, whether
03:09 it be the politicians or the folks in the rural landscape or the folks living in that
03:14 urban interface, they need to look at science, peer-reviewed science, in order to make decisions.
03:21 I mean, if you take ten people and ask them what color the sky is today on a sunny day,
03:25 they're going to give you ten different answers.
03:27 Certainly it's possible.
03:28 And that's the same thing when it comes to dealing with these ecosystem management questions.
03:33 And I'm seeing some things that are occurring when it comes to land management in Scotland.
03:37 I just literally shake my head.
03:39 I mean, there's certain things that is going on there like carbon sequestration schemes
03:43 on grouse moors.
03:45 You've got an ecosystem of concern, according to the UN, that was named back in the '70s.
03:50 The vast majority of the world's heather ecosystems exist in the UK, mostly in Scotland, and there
03:57 are millions of pounds of taxpayer money being spent, especially with multinational corporations
04:03 and individuals that are being subsidized to plant non-native trees on land that literally
04:11 is the destruction not only of the plant life that's on the land, but it's also destruction
04:16 of thousands of years of soil history, because a lot of those areas have evolved over time,
04:21 many thousands of years, to not have trees on them, to have an iron hardpan underneath
04:25 it.
04:27 If you try to do that here in the United States, I mean, every environmental organization would
04:30 sue you within the hour.
04:32 But really the big thing, what does the future look like?
04:36 I really think that these different groups of competing forces that literally have different
04:41 opinions on how they'd like to see the land managed, and it's really kind of about the
04:46 fact that there is a strong dissent by urban folks against landowners.
04:57 I understand some of that angst, but unfortunately the end result when it comes to our water,
05:04 our land, our habitat, isn't always going to be ... You have to be careful for what
05:11 you wish for.
05:12 And in the case of Scotland, and especially the Highlands, I think the conservation, which
05:17 most people don't understand what it is, it is the wise use of a natural resource.
05:22 So the groups that we had an opportunity to speak with on the rewilding side, the John
05:27 Muir Trust, Scotland the Big Picture, Trees for Life, even had an opportunity to spend
05:31 some time, a fascinating conversation with Andy Whiteman, a past Green politician on
05:37 the Scottish National Parliament.
05:39 Really fascinating outcomes in those discussions that we had, but we still have to put science
05:46 first.
05:47 Peer reviewed science, if it doesn't work scientifically, then we have to be really
05:52 careful because the outcomes are going to be a little different than what we expect.
05:56 And when it comes to the people on the land that are taking care of things, those keepers,
06:01 their families and so forth, they are doing conservation work.
06:06 Now the rewilding side of things, I mean they specifically tell me they want hands off from
06:12 man, they want nature to do whatever nature is going to do, because they seem to think
06:18 that the land was much better before you and I or any humans showed up on the landscape.
06:23 Well I'm not too sure when it was that we didn't have humans on the landscape in Scotland,
06:27 going back to at least 9,000 years ago when you had ice covering, glacial ice covering
06:31 most of the land.
06:33 In fact, 8,800 years ago they think, well they found archaeological evidence that humans
06:38 were out on the Isle of Rum.
06:40 So 9,000 years ice, 8,800, we've got a guy on Rum.
06:45 I'm not too sure that when those red deer came across from the continent looking for
06:49 a place to live that they didn't have a guy walking behind them with a spear and a bow
06:53 and arrow.
06:55 But again, it's a very complex story, there's a lot going on here, and I think people need
07:01 to just understand and keep their minds open and figure out ways where you can find consensus.
07:09 Do we want healthy environments?
07:10 Yes.
07:11 Do we want clean drinking water?
07:13 Obviously.
07:14 Do we also want to have wildlife habitat that does exist, do we want to enhance it so it's
07:20 better for the wildlife that's there, not only the game species but the non-game species
07:24 that benefit?
07:25 Here in America, that's a huge deal for us.
07:29 Even though we may be managing for game species here in America, the coattail effect to non-game
07:36 species is incredible, it's exponential.
07:39 And it's also our endangered species.
07:40 I mean, the American eagle and so many other endangered species benefit from the management
07:46 of the land that we've got going on here.
07:50 So anyways, I really think if you're interested in watching the film, we are going to be having
07:55 a premiere in Edinburgh at the end of April, and we're going to be doing a multi-city tour
08:02 around the UK.
08:04 But the film and information about the film is available at shepherdsofwildlife.org/keeper,
08:09 K-E-E-P-E-R, again that's shepherdsofwildlife.org/keeper.
08:16 You can sign up for updates on film festivals, premieres, private screenings, and then we're
08:22 going to be doing quite a bit of work here in the United States promoting the film on
08:26 public broadcast television, and then it'll go off onto the various streaming platforms
08:30 from Apple TV to Amazon to a whole variety of different online streaming platforms.
08:35 So first of all, I'd like to say thanks a whole lot for you guys having me on here.
08:39 I think there's an incredible story there about wildlife and habitat conservation in
08:44 Scotland, and I think everyone should watch this film with a very open mind, and hopefully
08:49 come out of it educated and inspired to leave our planet better than we found it.
08:54 Thanks again.