We're always honored when we can have a special speaker come into studio with us, especially when they're part of the Blank Park Zoo Conservation Series. So thank you to Wally Van Sickle for joining us this morning, who is part of the conservation series over at the Blank Park Zoo, because you have a lot of great things going on when it comes to helping out animals across the world. It's definitely a pleasure to be here, and yes, we do. We've been at this for 25 years now. I am a wildlife biologist, and that's where I started my career and kind of turned that into a conservation organization, and very thankful to be part of the speaker series tonight at the Blank Park Zoo. So kind of gave us a little bit of your background. You hinted at it there a little bit, but you've been doing some great things for quite some time. Yeah, originally before I started the conservation organization, I was a wildlife researcher, and I worked with mountain lions, and I worked with another type of carnivore in Wyoming. And we did research on those animals, and learn more about them, and what they ate, and how big their home range sizes of them, and what we needed, what the threats were, and what we needed to do to conserve those species. And we've actually done such a great job with the mountain lion that's expanding its range and coming back across the United States. And so that research made a big deal in the conservation of those carnivores. And we're trying to empower a lot of other people working in all different other countries with the same sort of things that we had to work with, so that they can conserve species in their countries. Ideal wild. That's what we've heard, and tell us a little about that. Ideal wild is the nonprofit organization we founded in 1991, and what we do is we want to equip, empower, and activate the environmental leaders of the developing world so they can create a movement to conserve the biological diversity of this planet. The biodiversity of this planet is very, very important because it provides us with food, fiber, pharmaceuticals, health ecosystems, peace of mind. It's the very foundation of our existence. None of us would even be sitting here in this room right now if it wasn't for the other life forms on this planet. So it's important that we conserve that natural resource, and there's a lot of wonderful people all spread around the world that are working to conserve those species. Now what we found, based on my previous work with Mountain Lions, was I had helicopters and airplanes and everything a biologist could dream of, and then I'm in the developing world where biodiversity is very, very high, and they didn't even have the most basic tools. No laptops, no GPS, no tracking gear, none of the basic tools you need to collect data on species and ecosystems and conserve them. So that's what we do. We provide the tools for those projects. Obviously, some amazing people working to do great conservation work all across the world, but what are some setbacks besides just not having the equipment? What are you finding when you travel around the world? There's a lot of setbacks. I mean, there's all different things. There's all different niches that you can fill in the conservation world. We filled the niche of providing the equipment, all right? So there's policy, there's expanding human populations, there's overconsumption, there's all sorts of things going on. You know, you can't even imagine. Plymatic change, all sorts of things. But we've really focused on sort of providing the equipment for those that are on the front lines of consciousness. So, people can have tools in hand to make a difference. So, they have the tools in hand, yeah, so they can collect the data and so they can use that data to, as I said, conserve species and ecosystems. So, what specifically are you talking about with the conservation series? Are there things that we can do here in Central Iowa to help out in this course? There will be all, I'll recommend some ways of helping. We just went through two days of consulting with some consultants and so I got all kinds of ideas running around in my head and things we need to change about the organization. We need to get a new website. We need to fill the gap right now. We provide equipment for 40 projects a month, all right? 40 projects a month. And we need to be doing 50 because I'm rejecting 10 a month, okay? So we need to raise another $6,000, $7,000 a month to cover that gap, right? And then we're also looking for people that could distribute some laptops, some GPS systems or some binoculars or digital cameras. We're looking for those sources. So those might be companies. Those might be a hospital that's upgrading and they're getting rid of all their old laptops or something. So when looking, because that's some of our primary gear is GPS laptops and digital cameras. And if we could get those pieces of equipment, I thought I'm going to buy them with donor funds, it would be a lot easier. You talked about your success with mountain lions as you go to the underdeveloped countries, what's maybe another success that you've seen that you get excited about. Great success story is a guy named Michael Garcia in Costa Rica. He was working on his master's degree, Costa Rican. We've basically helped nationals, so they're all from those countries. And so he's working on his master's degree with a beautiful bird called the resplendent could sell. It's considered to be one of the most beautiful birds in the planet. We knew nothing about it. We provided him with a binocular, a GPS and some plant-taking equipment. He studied the bird for two years and ended up conserving an entire watershed that that bird's found in. And it became the newest national park in Costa Rica, Los Gonzalez National Park. So if you go to Costa Rica, you can go to that national park. And now hopefully it's conserved for future generations. Just because he had the tools to make sure to have the information to make that happen. We spent $450 on that project. A lot of $450. That's it, and it made that big difference. The average cost of one of our projects is $650 to $750 a project. We provided a gear now to 4,800 projects in 115 countries. Wow. So some incredible things can happen just by making a big difference. I mean, there's little splashes and there's big splashes. So part of it's about capacity building as well. So we're creating the future environmental leaders of those countries because they get master's degrees, they get PhDs, they go on in their agencies and in their nonprofits and they continue this work. And so by helping them in their careers, we help them to create this movement to conserve biodiversity in there. It seems like when we've had, and you have all been all the speakers we've had from the zoo on this show have been wonderful and you're no exception. But it seems like a lot of the times when we talk to them, they talk about habitat destruction and things like that. But one of the things they always mention is working with locals and educating the locals about what's happening and what's going on. Is that part of what you do as well? For sure. I mean, we're a catalyst. So we help the individual that's working and then they design how they're going to work with those, with the local people there or the other stakeholders that are there. So we just provide the gear and they go out and do the job. If you can imagine being, let's say, Jane Goodall. We all are familiar with Jane Goodall who do conservation work. Let's pretend we're Jane and we're on the middle of a forest, right? And we have no binoculars. We have no GPS system. We have no laptop computer. We have no tools we need, right? And so by empowering Jane Goodall or somebody like Jane Goodall, then now they can make that create that movement change the way that that community works with their forest and hopefully replant those forests. Like there's a lot of the work they do. And I can say, Keto species on our planet. What are the cool things that I think, and it's a pleasure having you in town because our blank park zoo, which I think is the only accredited zoo in the state of Iowa, over the last four or five years started a whole conservation series doing all these different projects. And as you said, you help keep the enthusiasm and the light and the fire going for what the local zookeepers and the professionals down there doing. For sure, it's been an enormous community of supporters that have helped idea while in our 25 years, our first 25 years. And we've had a lot of support from zoos. And I hope that we do inspire those that work at those zoos to continue with their conservation efforts. Well, continue to be inspired tonight, folks, because Wally is speaking tonight at the blank park zoo tickets are still available. Just check out the entire conservation speaker series. It is absolutely fantastic. And don't forget to check out the wonderful thing we have right here in Central Iowa. And that is the blank park zoo. BlankparkZoo.org for more details. And Wally, people want more information on everything you're up to. Where's the best place for them to go? They can go to our website. It's ideawild.org. They can join us on Facebook. Just ideawild on Facebook. And that way you can keep track of it. We have a lot of follow-up material, beautiful follow-up material that comes in from the field that we constantly post on the Facebook site. So I definitely appreciate you jumping on our Facebook site as well. Here's where you do it. Do the zoo. The blank park zoo that is Iowa's wildest adventure. There you go. Very nice. Thank you Wally for everything you do and looking forward to hearing you tonight. Thank you so much. It's a great thing happening, folks. Go check out the blank park zoo.