Kristine Tompkins – Nothing to Lose

Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson

Kristine Tompkins is an iconic conservationist, the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, and the former CEO of Patagonia. For three decades, she has committed to protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality through conservation.

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Kristine and her late husband Douglas Tompkins have protected approximately 14.8 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, making them among the most successful national park-oriented philanthropists in history. To give you a frame of reference for exactly how much land 14.8 million acres is, Yellowstone National Park is just over 2.2 million acres– so the scale and scope of Tompkins Conservation’s impact is truly mind-blowing.

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Kristine’s amazing life story was beautifully told in the 2023 feature-length documentary Wild Life, which I highly recommend and can be streamed on Disney+. She was also awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and she recently gave her second TED talk, which will be released in the coming weeks. She’s been featured by pretty much every media outlet you could imagine, so I was honored that she took time out of her very full schedule to chat with me.

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Tompkins Conservation has published multiple books about its groundbreaking conservation work in South America. The most recent book is titled Patagonia National Park Chile, which tells the story of the park’s transformation from a former sheep ranch into one of the crown jewels of Chile’s National Park system. Featuring stunning photography by Linde Waidhofer and essays by Kristine, the former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, Yvon Chouinard, and many others, the coffee-table style book is equal parts inspiring and educational. It’s the kind of book that you’d proudly display on your shelf and find yourself revisiting for years to come.

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I met up with Kristine at her California home, and we had a fun and fascinating conversation about everything from the book to leadership to the growth and evolution of Tompkins Conservation. We discussed optimism and pessimism, the difference between contentment and happiness, the importance of having a relentless work ethic, living an extreme life, and operating as if you have nothing to lose. We also talked in detail about the challenges of creating Patagonia National Park, balancing rewilding efforts with the need for economic vitality, and how the conservation lessons learned in South America can be applied to conservation efforts here in the American West. There are even a few brief appearances by her two very sweet pups who sat with us during our conversation, so all of you dog lovers will surely enjoy hearing from them.

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Patagonia National Park Chile is available right now at Patagonia.com and available for pre-order wherever you get your books. Follow the links in the episode notes to learn more.

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• Tompkins Conservation
• NEW BOOK: Patagonia National Park Chile
• Rewilding Chile
• Rewilding Argentina
• Wild Life
• Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/kristine-tompkins/

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

3:40 - Why Kris keeps coming back to books

7:30 - Who is Arnie Næss

13:45 - Discussing leadership, giving credit, and other behaviors key to Kris’s success

18:40 - Happiness vs contentment

21:30 - Discussing Valle Chacabuco

25:45 - Establishing local buy-in as a conservation entity not local to Chile

30:30 - How the Tompkins managed livestock on the Valle Chacabuco

32:15 - The speed at which settlers spread to Chile

34:15 - Whether Kris is an optimist or pessimist

36:00 - Who in the new generation gives Kris hope, and what Kris thinks about “hope”

40:45 - Kris’s view on taking action

44:30 - How Kris prioritizes her efforts

49:45 - What Kris has learned in South America that is applicable to the North American West

52:15 - Business’s impact on Kris and Doug’s conservation work ethic

53:45 - Kris’s favorite failure and lessons learned

59:45 - Kris’s life of extremes and passion for service

1:05:45 - Kris’s book recommendations

1:15:45 - The land trust movement in the US, and the American grasslands

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