DoGoodery: Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what made you so passionate about the wildlife crossing project?

Beth: My name is Beth Pratt and I am a conservation leader. I lead the conservation work as the regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation and the #SaveLACougars campaign to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing. And just have had a lifelong love of animals. goals in wildlife and have always worked towards giving them a voice.

DoGoodery: How did you start your career? Is this what you thought you would be doing?

Beth: So yeah, you know, I didn’t have it all figured out. I still don’t, exactly. I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. What I tell young people is just make sure you have a moral center.

For me and all my career, I have worked for one of the largest corporations in the country and I’ve worked for small nonprofits. I didn’t know quite what I wanted to do for wildlife in the environment, but I knew that was my moral center. So my first job would probably surprise people. I was the environmental manager for a printing company for fast food packaging. California had just put in more stricter air pollution laws, and the printing companies had to shift from these high emitting inks to the sustainable ones. And so I got to make a real difference there. I helped with that shift.

Remember the Big Mac pack used to be styrofoam? I was there when we developed the recycled cardboard Big Mac. So, you know, for me that was making an enormous difference for wildlife. And I think folks like Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia) show business can be just as impactful.

I think businesses need to act more like nonprofits and nonprofits need to act more like businesses. I mean, I think, you know, for me, the model’s broken that the two are separate. Every business should have a nonprofit model or goal embedded in it. But yeah, there’s no linear. So I think when folks, especially younger folks call me, I’m say just make sure you have a moral center, but don’t get caught up in the ideal position because I didn’t have that lined out early on.

DoGoodery: What does a typical day look like?

Beth: Behind the scenes, I mean, if we were all being honest, if we’re all showing the every hour, the day-to-day reality, there’s the fun, you know- on the stage with Rainn Wilson or walking around with Gov. Newsom. That’s a percentage of my time. If we were showing the day-to-day reality, it would be, 16-hour days at the computer, no sleep, trying to figure out the next challenge. Imean, when you have a hundred million dollar project that is across multiple agencies. It is not easy. I don’t remember my last day off. My last vacation, I think, was 2018. And even that vacation, I think, I was working. I think we have to be realistic about what it takes because there’s this whole notion of work life balance. And I applaud it. But if you are going to take on big things, you can’t do it all. Sometimes I wish I had a nine to five job where I could just clock out. But doing big things, doing challenging things, which I think we should all embrace, we need more of that, does require sacrifice. It is hard. It is not easy.

DoGoodery: What accomplishment are you most proud of? Why? Were there obstacles you had to overcome? How did you get through them?

Beth: My short answer would be the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing. It is truly the project of a lifetime and no one thought it was possible. People told me I was crazy to even try and here we are with construction well underway. Of course, it’s been a collaborative effort and we have an incredible group of partners moving the work forward, but in my thirty years of advocating for wildlife, nothing has inspired me more than building this landmark crossing in the most densely populated urban area in the US. I’m also proud that we’ve garnered enough support to make sure our efforts to reconnect ecosystems don’t stop with the Wallis Annenberg Crossing. Leading the #SaveLACougars campaign has made this crossing possible, but it’s also sparked a new conversation about why it’s so important for humans and wildlife to coexist and how reconnecting ecosystems through wildlife crossings and corridors can help all of us thrive in our shared home for generations to come.

As far as obstacles – there have been plenty. Beyond all the skepticism that this could never happen, doing big things is always messy and it takes sacrifice. For me, I had to really understand and accept the tradeoffs of wanting to turn this visionary dream of building the world’s largest wildlife crossing into a reality. I don’t see friends. I miss weddings. I have to cancel vacations. And do I like that part of it? No. But it is what it is. It’s a choice I’ve made and it’s a little bit crazy but it suits my personality and the moral compass I’ve chosen to lead my life with – which is full dedication to wildlife conservation. There are other pathways and choices and one isn’t better than the other. But I’ve hurdled the obstacles by knowing exactly where I stand in what I’m doing and sticking to it. You can still do amazing things if you want more balance. You can be part of incredible teams like the one we’ve got for the Crossing. You don’t have to be at the helm to drive the work forward. But with a little trial and error, I took the time to find the path that works for me and stuck the course.

And of course along the way working on construction projects and other male-dominated spaces, misogyny can rear its ugly head. Even with people who I know are progressive. It’s often baked in without any of us even realizing it and it still sometimes catches me by surprise. I’ve certainly faced hostile discrimination at work as many women have. People underestimate me all the time because I’m blonde, because I’m a woman.

But I love to defy expectations. And the rewards. Sometimes I sit at the construction site while I eat my lunch and I’m just in tears. We’re going to do this. We’re going to save this mountain lion population and reconnect an entire ecosystem. I made the choice to trudge through the challenges to make it happen. That to me is all the reward I need for the years of sacrifice. We did it. It’s been worth it to know we’ve made a difference on this planet, especially in a time when hope is definitely in short supply.

DoGoodery: What advice would you give other woman starting out on their own history-making journeys?

Beth: This is maybe because I’m a biologist, but I like to remember that we are part of the natural world. We are animals too, you know! One of the animals I study is butterflies. And these butterflies in the Alpine area in Yosemite will fly over 12,000 foot passes with tattered wings, and they don’t say “Nope, too hard!” They fight on and get it done. I take a lot of inspiration from the animal world, but I think we also have to recognize the limits of humanity, and that it is never going to be challenge-free, right? We do our best to learn to take the punches and move forward with a little more wisdom and a little more resilience each time.

That’s been my philosophy because, you know, I don’t think we will eradicate misogyny in my lifetime. We’ll continue to work for it, but we often can’t control how people show up and we all have to make sure we are grounded in our own moral center. And as women who want to do big things, we can use that moral center as the unwavering reminder that what we are doing is not a power play. High achieving women can be misinterpreted as being ego-driven and it’s maddening. I think any woman who has tried to change the world knows that they are not in it for ego or riches because it can be a brutal ride. This is not the path you take if you want your ego to be stroked or to have things handed to you. It is tough being a woman doing big, challenging things.

But as women we can do what we can to mitigate these challenges that we share and we can also hold each other accountable. It can be easy to feel competitive when you’re one of the few women in the room. You feel like you have to prove yourself twice as much or more as anyone else and that can feel really cut-throat. But I think people miss that a big part of leadership is bringing people together. Women can be disarming and welcoming but also be courageous and hold people accountable. It can be both. One of my favorites, Patrick Swayze’s character in Roadhouse, once said, “I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice,” right? And I think that’s the key. It’s going to be hard and it doesn’t always have to be kumbaya, but lead first with heart and then pull out the punches when you need to.

Making history requires sacrifice and navigating challenges, but the rewards make every drop of blood, sweat, and tears worth it. I feel very lucky to work with people who have a heart but are also grounded in reality. It really does take both.