Joe Ricketts’s foray into large-landscape conservation started modestly with his personal interest in snow-white trumpeter swans. A century ago, the species was rescued from near extinction with the creation of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the Centennial Valley of Greater Yellowstone. Important nesting and winter habitat is also found in Yellowstone National Park. However, in recent years, a number of factors have caused population declines in the park.

Learning of this, Ricketts reached out to Dr. Douglas Smith at Yellowstone National Park. Not only was trumpeter conservation a priority for Smith, but so was the well-being of loons, which have a small summering population on many of the same lakes and ponds as trumpeters.

Ricketts provided funding to monitor both. Data gathered on trumpeters led to the release of eight young trumpeters into Yellowstone National Park. It was carried out through a collaboration between the park, the Ricketts Conservation Foundation, Yellowstone Forever, and the Wyoming Wetlands Society. Ricketts and Smith were joined by Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly at the trumpeters’ release.

Ricketts enjoyed receiving updates from Sholly and Smith. He became aware of the magnitude of research needs and the importance of having reliable, science-based data.

To help broaden the reach of the science, Ricketts underwrote the first season of Saving Yellowstone, a wildlife series narrated by actor Dennis Quaid. During our interview, he noted how, as a young father and businessman, he had been moved by the National Geographic TV specials in the 1960s featuring the pathbreaking work of Jane Goodall with chimpanzees, Dian Fossey with gorillas, Jacques Cousteau with marine ecosystems, and Frank and John Craighead with grizzly bears in Yellowstone.

All became heroes to generations, but each has passed on. Ricketts hopes that Saving Yellowstone, which originally appeared on the Animal Planet and Discovery channels, will ignite a new generation.