In this interview, Jay talks with Bryan Bird, Southwest Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife, who directs Defenders’ efforts to protect imperiled wildlife and their habitats across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. He talks with Bryan about the Border Wall partially built by the Trump Administration and now brought to an abrupt halt by President Biden.

Bryan has over 20 years of experience protecting and restoring public lands while preserving wilderness and biodiversity across the Southwest and northern Mexico. Bryan has expertise in conservation of forests, riparian ecosystems and rare species habitats. He was appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to serve on the Collaborative Forest Restoration Program Technical Advisory Panel, advising the Secretary on funding priorities and restoration of fire-dependent ecosystems. He’s also an officer of the New Mexico Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Bryan has worked for over a decade to restore Mexican gray wolves in the Greater Gila Bioregion of New Mexico and Arizona. He has published reports on western wildfire policy and beaver restoration as a tool for climate adaptation. Bryan holds a M.S. in Biology from New Mexico State University and a B.S. in Biology, from the University of Colorado, Boulder.