PODCAST EP. 128: Creating Habitat in the Margins

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Mike Retterer, the organization’s National Rights of Way & Energy Coordinator, for a thought-provoking conversation about the organization’s efforts to create wildlife habitat along roads, railroads, solar fields, pipelines, and powerlines. While obviously not the pinnacle of opportunities to create habitat for upland game birds or hunters, these marginal acres serve multiple purposes in creating connectivity between habitat “hubs,” while also introducing the organization’s habitat tools to new audiences and in generating new partnerships for the organization to develop larger habitat opportunities. Episode Highlights: • Retterer starts with a fascinating story of his career journey from an aspiring Navy diver to a Texas hunting guide to a biologist for the Ohio DNR to his multiple roles with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. • In the purest business sense, Retterer is in a “new business development” role with the non-profit conservation organization. Not only is that position a surprise for some folks, but his success stories about where habitat is being created will certainly turn heads.