Juanita Vero - A Deep Love of Place

Juanita Vero is a partner at the E Bar L Ranch, a family-owned dude ranch located on the Blackfoot River, about an hour east of Missoula, Montana. The ranch was purchased and founded by Juanita’s great-grandfather and has served as a Rocky Mountain retreat for families from around the world for almost 100 years. If you’ve never visited but would like to learn more about the ranch, this conversation with Juanita is one of your only options—they don’t have a website, nor do they advertise. They serve the same clients year after year, clients who value an authentic, rustic, and tight-knit dude-ranching experience that is closely connected to the land. • But the term “dude ranch” doesn’t really do the E Bar L justice. Juanita’s family has participated in some cutting-edge conservation projects, protecting their ranch with a unique conservation easement that also allows for responsible timber management. Becoming a member of the ranch’s summer staff is also an amazing experience, and it's not uncommon for staff members to develop such a deep love of the land that they go on to careers in ranching or conservation. Juanita and her family lead by example with their business management and land stewardship practices, which seem to rub off on everyone who visits or works at the ranch. • Juanita and I connected just as she was wrapping up another successful summer season on the ranch. We had a fun conversation that covered everything from her great-grandfather’s purchase of the ranch in the early 1900s all the way up to its present day operations. We talk in detail about Juanita’s commitment to community service, and we dig into some of her work with groups such as Trout Unlimited, Montana Conservation Voters, and the Blackfoot Challenge. We also discuss her youth on the ranch, and what she learned from leaving Montana in her teens to attend an east coast boarding school. We talk about toughness, the interesting story of how her parents met, and her blind date with her now husband, which happened to be a three-day elk hunt. And as usual, we cover favorite books, films, places in the West, and more. • This was a great conversation, so I know you’ll enjoy it. Thanks again for listening. ••• More info: http://mountainandprairie.com/juanita-vero/ Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/mountainandprairie ••• TOPICS DISCUSSED: 4:10 - How Juanita describes her work 5:20 - Family history of the ranch 8:00 - Motivations for her great-grandfather to move West 12:15 -Who are the ranch guests? 15:30 - Funny guest stories from the ranch 18:10 - Growing up on the ranch 21:00 - Description of the ranch 22:10 - Conservation projects with the Nature Conservancy 31:10 - Juanita’s parents 35:15 - Importance of toughness 41:50 - Boarding school on the east coast 46:20 - Passion for community service and conservation 55:10 - Need for conservation to counterbalance development 1:00:15 - Importance of rural land use 1:02:30 - Favorite books 1:05:00 - 3-day blind date with her now-husband 1:06:50 - Most powerful outdoor experience 1:09:50 - Favorite locations in the West 1:11:40 - Best advice ever received 1:13:30 - Requests of the listeners