Kelly Moody Interviews Nikki Hill on Human-Landscape Relationships
How can we create a sustainable relationship with the land?
Nikki Hill and Kelly Moody are both teachers for Groundwork’s field courses studying ecology, botany, and human-landscape relationships in Colorado. Kelly is also the force behind the Ground Shots Podcast, interviewing all kinds of people who work with plants and ecosystems.
The core question this conversation orbits around is this: how can we build a sustainable relationship with the Earth, rather than substituting one kind of over-consumptive culture for another?
This interview with Nikki comes from before she designed Groundwork’s Lithium Lands Fellowship in 2023. It focuses on her ongoing work with plants in the “sagebrush sea” that benefit from or rely on human disturbance in order to thrive. The interview follows up with an article Nikki wrote in CounterPunch titled Botany as Archeology To Stop A Lithium Mine.
If you’re interested in the topics discussed, Groundwork is offering 6 different Human & Natural Ecologies of Colorado courses this spring and summer—a great opportunity to learn from Nikki and Kelly!
In the podcast, Kelly begins with a lot of updates about her work. The interview starts at 30:00.