Ep. 48 (Part 2) Tom Opre | Filmmaker, Conservationist & Wildlife Advocate

What happens when conservation funding disappears and criminal poaching gangs move into 1.2 million acres of African wilderness? In Episode 48 of the Y'all Street podcast, filmmaker and conservationist Tom Opre returns to sit down with Tarek Saab, this time armed with focus group data, an active Zambian wildlife restoration project, and a warning about Oregon ballot initiative IP 28 that he calls the single greatest threat to North America's modern conservation model.

In this episode...

  • Tom explains why conservation is a physical act and draws a hard line separating it from preservation.
  • Oregon's IP 28 ballot initiative would criminalize hunting, fishing, and livestock operations statewide.
  • How Operation: Return of the Wild is reintroducing wildlife to 1.2 million acres in Zambia's Lower Luano Valley.
  • Focus group data: One screening of Killing the Shepherd moved public support for hunting as conservation from 3% to 33%.

Tom Opre returns to Y’all Street for a second conversation with Tarek Saab, arriving fresh from a March 2025 trip to Zambia’s Lower Luano Valley and carrying focus group data that challenges nearly everything most Americans think they know about hunting, conservation, and the economics of wildlife survival. The night before taping, his oldest daughter gave birth to his first grandchild. He arrived home in Montana with a new German Wirehaired Pointer puppy and two active film projects in motion. The conversation covers the full sweep: the hard line between conservation and preservation, Oregon’s ballot initiative IP 28, the mechanics of wildlife restoration in Africa, and why a single documentary screening has moved public opinion further than 30 years of coalition-building ever did.

Key Takeaways

Conservation Is a Physical Act, Not a Feeling:

Opre draws an unambiguous line between conservation and preservation. Conservation requires active human engagement: removing snares, funding game scouts, paying community wages, managing habitat, and sustaining the economic conditions that give local people a reason to protect wildlife. Preservation, by contrast, asks humans to step back and let nature manage itself. With 8.1 billion people on the planet, that model fails, and the history of every ecosystem where it has been tested proves it.

The Greatest Threat to North American Conservation Is on the Ballot:

Oregon’s IP 28, called the Peace Act by supporters, would criminalize hunting, fishing, livestock slaughter, and most animal husbandry. If passed, it would eliminate Pittman Robertson Act funding (an 11.4 percent federal excise tax on firearms and archery tackle that funds all 50 state wildlife agencies), defund all lethal wildlife management, and establish a legal template for Massachusetts, Illinois, and California to follow. Hunters represent 4 percent of the U.S. population. Fifty percent plus one wins on a ballot initiative. Opre calls IP 28 the single greatest threat to the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

The Rat Is Worth $50,000:

Legal hunting of iconic species in Africa generates revenue that flows directly to local operators, community game scouts, school fees, healthcare, and government concession payments. A lion hunt at $100,000 to $300,000 does not send money to offshore accounts: it pays the operator’s staff, services the Land Cruiser, covers school fees, and funds the game scouts who protect 1.2 million acres from poachers. When that economic chain is broken, in the Lower Luano, six species went locally extinct in 15 years of unhindered access by criminal bushmeat gangs.

Storytelling Is the Only Tool That Moves the Middle:

Focus group research on Killing the Shepherd by Responsive Management showed that before viewing, 3 percent of non-aligned respondents strongly agreed that hunting is a form of conservation. After one viewing, that number reached 33 percent. Combined with agree: 77 percent. On the question of whether well-regulated legal hunting helps rural stewards realize basic human rights: 10 percent strongly agreed before the film. After one viewing: 47 percent. Combined with agree: 90 percent.

Operation: Return of the Wild Is the Proof of Concept in Reverse:

The Lower Luano is now the site of an active wildlife reintroduction after 15 years of local extinction. Cape Buffalo and Puku antelope are being returned via helicopter and six-wheel-drive transport from other national parks. The school program attached to the concession has grown from 80 uniform grants to 800, across eight classroom blocks in three schools. The children receive a conservation curriculum. They understand that the value of the wildlife paid for their education.

Notable Quotes

“Wildlife doesn’t exist because people love it. Wildlife exists because someone saw a benefit to conserve it.” — Tom Opre

“Conservation is not a mindset. It’s not an emotion. It’s a physical act. To be a conservationist, you must conserve.” — Tom Opre

“Mother nature does not practice conservation, the wise use of a financial resource. People do. That’s the one thing people really need to understand.” — Tom Opre

Mentioned Resources

  • Organizations: Shepherds of Wildlife Society, Responsive Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Boone and Crockett Club, Macasa Safaris (Norton family), National Parks and Wildlife Zambia
  • Legislation: Pittman Robertson Act (1937), Dingell-Johnson Act, IP 28 (Oregon Peace Act)
  • Films: Killing the Shepherd, The Real Yellowstone, Operation: Return of the Wild (in production)
  • People: Valerius Geis (late wildlife scientist, founding father of the North American conservation model), Paul Munsey (composer, Isle of Skye), John Harrison Clark (Changa Changa, historical Zambian chief)
  • Website: shepherdsofwildlife.org