Today we explore an epic nature conservation project that encompasses the great North American Rockies, and we examine the infinite delicate relationships between the species that inhabit them.

Mary Ellen Hannibal is a Bay Area writer and editor focusing on science and culture. Hannibal’s book The Spine of the Continent is about a social, geographical, and scientific effort to save nature along the Rocky Mountains. A “thoroughly satisfying gem,” The Spine of the Continent chronicles landscapes, people, critters, and issues along the Spine. A former book review and travel editor, Hannibal is Chair of the California Book Awards. She was a 2011 Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow.  She is a recipient of the National Society of Science Writer’s Science and Society Award 2012 and Stanford University’s Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism.

♫ Music featured in this episode is "Stick Game Song" by Bad Canyon Well Pinit Singers, "Colorado Song" by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and "The River's Daughter" by Sharron Kraus