Intelligent Courage

A new book for natural resource professionals wishing to create careers

of meaning, purpose, and conservation accomplishment.

Feedback (so far)

Contact the author for keynote addresses, workshops, or a student colloquium on the preliminary results from Intelligent Courage.

What Students

Are Saying About

Intelligent Courage

When 165 students were asked about the preliminary results appearing in Intelligent Courage nearly 80% say there is a place for the book in their studies. Approximately 60% believe it will work best in a seminar that features discussion and about 30% believe it will make a good personal reader. They say it is relevant and want it to use ‘real-people’ and ‘real-world’ examples, focus on practical aspects of career management, and be written in an informal (non-textbook) style.

Student quotes about the usefulness of Intelligent Courage:

This is a great idea and has been long awaited by students.
I think it is a good idea– learning from those who’ve gone before does not happen enough.
Definitely something most college grads don’t think about until they’re put in the hot seat.
Could be very useful to people just starting out to know that others have been in their shoes.
Will be a great “bedside” book– one to go back to over and over when you need a fresh perspective.
This would be a good text in an environmental ethics or human dimensions course.
I appreciate your efforts in writing this book– this is truly a subject of great importance to us [students].
I think the way that it was presented [in the workshop] makes it relevant.

How students want it written:

Use many scenarios, as you did in the seminar today, to make the main themes real to life.
Provide direct examples to the natural resource field (e.g., fisheries, forestry).
Show plenty of examples.
Cite actual case studies to make it more relevant.
Have plenty of real-world examples.
Establish a focus on practical career/job situations.
Make sure it relates to possible situations that a resource manager may encounter.
Make sure the perspectives in the book come from a variety of personalities and careers.
Present us with what to expect in our careers.
Adopt an informal [writing] style.
Make it a narrative rather than a textbook.
Put advice in the form of stories or examples.
Do not use jargon.
Include personal attributes about successful people.

What Professionals

Are Saying About

Intelligent Courage

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Intelligent Courage is a fascinating, highly readable book devoted to Mike Fraidenburg’s important theme; successful careers in natural resources, now more than ever, require conviction and strength to “do the right thing” ecologically for the American landscape and the American culture. Through fascinating interviews of successful leaders in resource management, Fraidenburg describes how their strength and use of people skills paid off, and how especially their use of “street smarts” helped them achieve their goals. I am highly recommending this great book to my friends and students!

Estella B. Leopold

Professor Emeritus, Department of Biology

University of Washington

Most of our nation's natural resource managers are retiring in this decade taking with them the lessons they learned by working in their careers. A new generation of professionals must now step up to the plate and Fraidenburg's book is a user's guide for passing this accumulated wisdom on to the new leaders. Anyone wishing to improve as a natural resource professional will learn wise but practical ideas from the distinguished people interviewed in Intelligent Courage.

Theodore Roosevelt IV

The Governing Council, The Wilderness Society

Public resource managers are experiencing increased conflict as America hits its resource limits. Little has been done to prepare environmental students to deal with issues of conflict. By comparison, students of law or business management receive a broad foundation, through the use of the case study method, to effectively resolve conflicts in their work environment. Intelligent Courage provides a needed breakthrough with a selection of case studies of interesting and experienced resource professionals that will help solve this training problem and, in so doing, benefit natural resource stewardship in our nation.

Huey Johnson

Founder and President, Resource Renewal Institute,

Former Secretary for Natural Resources, State of California Founder

and former President, The Trust for Public Land

This book provides an insight to the reality of natural resource management. Through the stories of eight professionals in the field we learn of the joys and trials of actually working in natural resource management. This book will serve to inspire a new generation of biologists and provide them with a realistic appraisal of what life after University will be like.

Ray Hilborn

Professor, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

University of Washington

A fascinating, inspiring, and entertaining book for anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in natural resources management, who is already in that field, or who simply cares about the environment.

Andrew W. Savitz

Author of The Triple Bottom Line: How the Best-Run Companies are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success - and How You Can Too

An astonishingly straightforward and profound book. Mike Fraidenburg’s interviews with eight conservation heroes are inspirational, instructional, and, ultimately, life changing. Composing a life of integrity is challenging enough; composing a life of integrity as a natural resource professional who honors their responsibilities not only to their employer but to the biosphere and future generations can seem overwhelming. Mike elicits insights from these people that show that it can be done with grace. These interviews reveal the common sense “street smarts” that will help smooth the way for anyone who chooses to follow in these footsteps. This book should be read by every student in ecology, conservation, and natural resource management and every teacher should find a way to make sure that it happens, even if it means giving the book as a gift to every student.

Steve Trombulak

Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies

Middlebury College

In Intelligent Courage, Michael Fraidenburg has provided us wonderful career advice from some of America’s top natural resource professionals. This book is filled with great anecdotes, important lessons, and a sense of what it takes to make a positive difference in natural resources conservation.

Scott A. Bonar, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Leader,

USGS Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

Author of: The Conservation Professional’s Guide to Working With People

We believe that this will be a very important book that will help young professionals prepare for and effectively navigate through their careers.

Western Division, American Fisheries Society

If you want to dedicate your life to making a difference in the world, read this book. While the environmental problems we face come into greater clarity, the challenge of solving them falls to those among us who choose to roll up their sleeves and get to work. This can be lonely, difficult and often unrecognized work; but it is critically important and can be deeply rewarding. As we embark on this path, we must learn from those who have come before us, not only to succeed, but also to simply survive. Fraidenburg’s book helps us do that. He has compiled the collective wisdom of eight change agents who have chosen to challenge the status quo, defy the conventional wisdom, and upset the historic political interests. They have much to teach those who follow and this book can serve as a training manual for the next generation of change agents upon whom the future of our planet rests.

Andrew J. Hoffman

Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise

University of Michigan

Young people are passionate about the natural world and the environment but they don’t know where to begin. This book helps in this critical area through information, stories, and valuable insights from the pros. This is an important starting place for those interested in a natural resource career.

Jeff Cook

President and Founder, The Environmental Careers Organization

There are topics in this book that I wish I had the opportunity to discuss and debate while I was a student--topics involving natural resource professionals in real-life situations managing both people and natural resources in complex, real-life situations. This book would serve as an excellent supplement to an undergraduate course, a thought-provoking resource for a graduate student doing one-on-one work with his/her professor, or an interesting "lessons learned" read for a seasoned professional.

Lisa DeBruyckere

Oregon State Forests Program Director

The author blends compelling personal stories with insights that suggest both what it's like to be on the frontline of conservation today and how resource professionals, young and experienced alike, might navigate through the thicket of an ever widening array of controversies over how we use and abuse nature's bounty.

Gordon Binder

Senior Fellow, World Wildlife Fund

These are career stories that every undergraduate, natural resource student needs to read. These are people that every undergraduate natural resource student needs to emulate. These are people who stand in stark contrast to everyone who asserts that good conservation work cannot be done from within the system. What is truly amazing and inspiring about the people featured in this book is that they are intellectually honest, they have vibrant minds, they are wise, they know how to set and solve problems, their moral compasses are pointed in the right direction, and they possess the humble tenacity to act on their moral commitments. Two things seem to bind all of these people together. First, they all acquired an ethical orientation that runs contrary to the dominant Western moral mindset; that is, they are all very ethically inclusive. And second, they are all people who chose to enact their moral commitments; that is, none of them suffers from what Aristotle called “Akrasia” or “weakness of

the will.

Michael P. Nelson

Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Ethics, University of Idaho

Co-author of American Indian Environmental Ethics: an Ojibwa Case Study

Co-editor of The Great New Wilderness Debate

This book would seem appropriate for an upper-division seminar, in which the students would read portions of the book each week and then discuss the contents of their weekly readings.

Dr. Michael Hansen

University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

Every natural resource professional spends his or her career searching for a compass to guide them—ideally so they can make a difference and blaze a trail for others to follow. Whether you're newly embarking on this journey or have been on this path-finding mission for 30 years like me, definitely read this book. It will help you find your personal compass and, thereby, recognize your ethical coordinates.

Richard Lincoln

Marine Stewardship Council, London

In 21st Century America, public management of our scarce natural resource has come to be a career calling fraught with peril—from political ambushes to professional black holes. The pressures, choices, and crises facing conscientious land managers, scientists, and rangers are not taught in school. Intelligent Courage is an invaluable field guide to the potholes that may await those who dare to make our planet a better place.

Jeff Ruch
Executive Director
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Washington, D.C.

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