Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Adam Gall - A Reverence for Wildlife & Wild Places

Jun 30, 2021

01:05:51

Adam Gall is a hunting guide and owner of Timber to Table Guide Service, a guiding company focused on helping hunters of all skill levels put wild, healthy, and delicious meat on their tables. Based out of the small town of Hotchkiss on Colorado’s Western Slope, Timber to Table offers multi-day hunts on both public and private lands, offering top-notch instruction on everything from the intricacies of elk hunting to the technical skills needed to properly and efficiently process the meat. Adam is highly regarded by many of my friends and past podcast guests and praised as an outside-the-box thinker, so I’m thrilled to finally have him join me for a conversation.

Adam’s professional background gives him a unique perspective on wildlife, land management, and wild places in the American West-- he worked as a wildland firefighter, a wolf biologist, and a high school science teacher before devoting himself to full-time guiding. He has also been involved in a variety of volunteer initiatives, ranging from leadership positions with groups like Backcountry Hunters and Anglers to advisory roles on issues such as the wolf reintroduction in Colorado. As you’ll hear in our conversation, Adam thinks deeply and independently on a wide range of land and wildlife issues, and he offers his ideas respectfully and thoughtfully-- something we could all use a little more of these days.

I connected with Adam while he was on a family vacation in rural Montana, and we had a wide-ranging conversation that we probably could’ve continued for hours. We started out chatting about his upbringing in Michigan and how he fell in love with hunting despite coming from a family of non-hunters. We talked about Timber to Table-- how the guide service came to be, the challenges of running his own business, and his commitment to ethical hunting practices. We talked a lot about wolves and the wolf reintroduction in Colorado, and Adam offered some new thoughts that differ from some of my past podcast guests. He also describes the skills needed to be a great hunter, recommends some of his favorite books, and offers some wise parting words.

This was a thought-provoking conversation that provided a new perspective for me on several important topics, so I hope you enjoy it.

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Timber to Table Guide Service
Timber to Table on Instagram
Full Episode Notes and Links: https://mountainandprairie.com/adam-gall/

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

3:30 – Adam talks about where he grew up
9:45 – Adam explains how hunting became a part of his life
12:30 – Adam describes his guide service, Timber to Table Guided Service, which provides an educational and holistic hunting and butchering experience
19:30 – Adam talks about balancing his work and home life
23:30 – Adam talks about how he got into wolf biology prior to his guiding work and dives into the controversy that surrounds them
39:15 – Adam discusses his role in the Stakeholder Advisory Group as a part of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s wolf reintroduction work
44:30 – Adam’s resources for learning more about wolves
47:00 – Adam gives advice on how to get started in hunting
52:45 – Adam discusses what makes an excellent hunter
57:15 – Adam’s book recommendations
1:02:30 – Adam’s parting words of wisdom