Dillon Osleger - Trails, Maps, and the Hidden Stories of Our Public Lands

**Dillon Osleger** (0:01)
How else do you approach anything? I can't fathom it other than trying to be a good human. I approach, it doesn't matter if it's another person or trail or mountain biking with respect and appreciation for the other person, or being even being there in the first place. And I don't really come wanting to talk about me. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. I want to understand whatever's across from my vision at that given moment.
And I think the naming thing is exactly that same thing of respect.

**Ed Roberson** (0:33)
This is the Mountain and Prairie Podcast. I'm Ed Roberson.
My guest today is Dillon Osleger.
Dillon wears a lot of hats. He's a scientist, professional mountain biker, trail builder, public lands policy analyst and advocate. And now he's a first time author. His debut book called Trail Work, Restoring the Paths and Stories of America's Public Lands, blends science, history and personal reflection into a look at our relationship with the places we love. It's already earned praise from the likes of Bill McKibben, Robert Moor and past Mountain and Prairie guest Rick Ridgeway.
And for whatever it's worth, I loved it as well. I've read a ton of books on public lands and this one filled in many gaps in my knowledge on this super important and timely issue. Raised by two geologists who moved the family from Riverside to Austin to Northern California, Dillon grew up idolizing mountain legends like Rick Ridgeway and Jeremy Jones, and he wanted nothing more than to spend his life outside. He was, by his own account, a poor student. Right up until a Knowles course at age 15 showed him he could learn through the things he was passionate about. That realization helped transform him from a 2.9 GPA high school student all the way up to a scientist who holds a master's degree in earth science, with a lot of biking, skiing, surfing, and fishing along the way.
We recorded this episode at Mountainfilm and Telluride. On the same day, Dillon had shared a stage with one of his literary heroes, Kevin Fedarko.
We cover his mountain upbringing, how mountain biking became his way of finding clarity, why he thinks the traditional classroom can be challenging for many curious and energetic kids, and the deep connection between public lands and the rural communities around them. We also get into the writers who shaped him, John McPhee, Wendell Berry, James Rebanks, and his belief that the world is far more purple than the red and blue map suggests. We also talk about the process of writing his book and some of the biggest lessons learned from tackling such an ambitious project. But more than anything, this is a conversation about loving a place enough to do the work to protect it. But before we get into this conversation with Dillon, I want to take a minute to thank the partners and people who make Mountain and Prairie possible. This show is listener supported through Patreon. Folks like you chipping in a couple bucks a month to keep these long-form conversations alive and available to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the people and ideas shaping the American West.
If you like to support the show through Patreon, you can do that at mountainandprairie.com/patreon.
It really does make a difference. I also want to thank the small group of values-aligned organizations who support the podcast on a quarterly or annual basis. Groups doing serious, impactful work, often without much fanfare. Thank you to the Freeflow Institute, the Nature Conservancy in Colorado, and the Well Done Foundation. And today, I want to highlight the Nature Conservancy in Colorado because its work overlaps directly with everything Dillon and I get into in this episode.
If today's conversation resonates with you, this is exactly the kind of work you want to know about. Most of you have probably crossed paths with TNC at some point. They're one of the largest and most effective conservation organizations in the world. But what I've always respected about their work here in Colorado is how grounded and practical it is.
They're not protecting land in isolation, often some corner. They're working across entire landscapes, much of it on public lands, in partnership with the Forest Service, agencies, tribes, local communities, and private landowners to build solutions that actually hold up over time. And nowhere is that more relevant to this episode than their forest and firework. Like a lot of the West, Colorado's forests are facing the consequences of a century of fire suppression, overgrown, unhealthy stands that are primed for the kind of catastrophic stand replacing wildfires we've all watched tear across the region.
TNC is right in the thick of the response, increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration, reintroducing good fire to the landscapes, reducing hazardous fuels, and helping these forests become more resilient to both wildfire and a changing climate. This is slow, complicated, and often invisible work, but it's absolutely essential to the future of these landscapes and the communities and watersheds that depend on them. If today's conversation with Dillon gets you fired up about forest health and the future of our public lands, and I suspected will, I'd point you to my past episode with Rob Addington, who directs TNC Colorado's Forest and Fire Program. Rob does a fantastic job walking through how they actually approach restoration on the ground, and is a perfect companion to a lot of what Dillon and I dig into here. And it's worth saying, this kind of work requires patience, trust, and a willingness to operate at a scale that can feel almost overwhelming. TNC isn't chasing quick wins. They're building durable, long-term solutions. That's exactly why they're so effective, and exactly why I'm glad to have them as a partner. So a big thanks to The Nature Conservancy in Colorado for supporting Mountain and Prairie, and for the work they're doing to keep these landscapes healthy and intact. And with that, let's get into this great conversation with Dillon Osleger.