© 2024 Aspen Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Aspen Public Radio is proud to present select lectures, discussions, and conversations from area events and festivals, thanks to a remarkable collection of community partners. Click here to view the full archive. Events are recorded at no cost to the partner and archived here online; select recordings are broadcast on Aspen Public Radio Sunday nights at 7 p.m.

Naturalist Nights: Using Goats for Habitat Restoration with Hilary Boyd

This event was recorded on February 23, 2022 as part of the 2022 Winter Naturalist Nights Series, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.

Humans have been working with goats for thousands of years. Now land managers and others are learning how to use goats to help restore and protect wildlife habitats. Learn from local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wildlife biologist, Hilary Boyd, how the agency is using goats to increase plant diversity at Sutey Ranch, reduce noxious weeds after the Lake Christine Fire, and improve a variety of conditions for wildlife and livestock in other parts of the Roaring Fork Valley.

Each winter, Wilderness Workshop, the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), and Roaring Fork Audubon partner to co-host the popular Naturalist Nights speaker series; nature specialists from around the country were invited to talk about their studies for a special opportunity to inform the public on the nature around us, and give insight into the science that can potentially affect the way that we interact with our environment.

Hilary Boyd is a Wildlife Biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado River Valley Field Office. Hilary Boyd has been a wildlife biologist at the BLM Colorado River Valley Field Office for over seven years and a resident of the area for over 15 years. She enjoys planning habitat projects that benefit greater sage-grouse, mule deer and elk, and other wildlife species. She has worked as a BLM fire ecologist, habitat specialist for the Arizona Game & Fish Dept., and seasonal for the NPS, USFS, and USFWS. Some of her best adventures are from her time managing grizzlies and humans in Katmai and Denali national parks and working in more remote parts of Alaska. She earned a B.S. and M.S. in wildlife biology from CSU and the Univ. of Arizona, respectively.