Last month, I got the chance to interview Dr. Jane Goodall ahead of her sold-out speaking engagement at the Fisher Theatre.

The ethologist and conservationist died at the age of 91 on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Jane Goodall Institute.

She opened up her two-night stand with a warm embrace of the city: “I think Detroit is happy I’m here,” she joked, to applause and laughter.

Dr. Goodall’s life has a lot to unpack. Throughout her nearly 90-minute time on the stage, her insatiable curiosity for the world was on full display. 

From her time forging a reputation as the world’s foremost expert and advocate for chimpanzees after spending decades studying them in the wild in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park to her global conservation efforts today, she approached each topic with detail and grace; like someone who was clearly not done doing the work she had dedicated her life to.

It’s a story of inspiration, which Dr. Goodall used to help reassure the next generation that there’s still work to be done.

“Go to your community and what you care about,” Dr. Goodall told me during our interview pre-show. “Get involved. If you want to make a difference, you can in your community. It’ll make you feel good. It’ll inspire other people.”

You can read my full interview with the late Dr. Goodall below, and listen to it above—including Dr. Goodall’s attempt to teach me how to “pant-hoot,” a noise that chimpanzees use to identify themselves to other chimps in the wild.

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The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: You’re holding a stuffed animal. Tell me about this.

Jane Goodall: This is Mr. H. He’s 35 years old, given to me by a man called Gary Horn, who went blind when he was 21 in the US Marines decided to become a magician. Children don’t realize he’s blind, and then he’ll say, “Something may happen in your life. Never give up. There’s always a way forward.”

So he thought he was giving me a stuffed chimpanzee for my birthday, and I made him hold a tail. Gary, chimps don’t have tails. So he said, “never mind, take him where you go. You know my spirit’s with you.” So he’s an example of the indomitable human spirit.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: And I know these have been part of you talking to the next generation, the youth about conservation and the work that still needs to be done still.

Jane Goodall: It needs to be done more than ever before. We are continually destroying the natural world—and not only are we part of it, we depend on it. The food, water, fresh air, clothes, everything. But we depend on healthy ecosystems and one by one by one, we are destroying them.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: People right now, I think feel a little hopeless. I talk to people a lot, “what can I do, what can still be done?” I’m sure you’ve had moments in your career where you’ve felt that way, but you didn’t stop. So what would you wanna say to people that are feeling lost, confused, not so hopeful?

Jane Goodall: I speak to hundreds of them because they all come and say that to me and I say, you know, we have an expression. “Think globally, act locally.” It’s the wrong way around because if you think globally, you become depressed, you can’t help it. Now it’s grim time we’re living in, so, but go to your, in your community, what do you care about there? Maybe you don’t like the letter, maybe you don’t want the the city council to build yet another supermarket.

See what you can do about it. Get people to help you. You find you make a difference that makes you feel good, so then you want to make a bigger difference. Then you inspire more people and then you realize around the world there are people just like me, and then you dare think globally.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: How have you and your relationship changed with these efforts? Because I’m sure you felt very strong and ready to go when you were younger, how has that evolved as you’ve gotten older—with your relationship, really with the natural world and the work you’re doing?

Jane Goodall: Well, you know, when I was little, I wanted to do nothing except live in Africa and study animals. And I did that for many years.

And then when I realized the plight of chimps across Africa, numbers dropping forests being destroyed, um. I realized that I needed to leave Gombe, a place I love and see what I could do. And so that led to the Jane Goodall Institute starting a program to alleviate poverty and the people who were cutting down the trees just to make some money from charcoal or timber or something like that.

And that program is working. It’s now in six African countries where different chapters of JGI work to conserve and study chimpanzees.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: What would be that one message you would want to give to people to keep that hope up as they deal with climate change and a lot of regulation, especially here in the United States, being rolled back beyond.

Just think locally what? What is a piece of advice that can maybe give us some fuel to keep fighting like you are?

Jane Goodall: Well, we have a program for young people from kindergarten through university called Roots and Shoots. Which began with 12 high school students in Tanzania. It’s now in 76 countries with members from kindergarten through university.

And the main message every single day you live, you make some kind of impact. You get to choose what sort of impact you make, and that’s a message for all of us. We all make a difference every day, and by making the right choices. What do you buy? How was it made? Did it harm the environment? Was it cruel to animals like factory farm?

Is it cheap ’cause of unfair wages? Then look for a more ethical alternative, and it might cost a bit more, but you will value it more and waste less.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: Tell me a little bit about what goes into these talks and what people can expect.

Jane Goodall: Well, what people can expect is a sort of look back over 91 years, what’s changed?

We are living through dark times. People are losing hope. Why should we have hope? How can we have hope? And also, in between all of that, it’s, you know, we, we need a new attitude to the environment. We need to understand where part of it and depend on it. We need to understand that animals like us have personalities, minds, and emotions.

We need to start thinking about how we treat them in the wild and domestic animals. We need to think how eating a lot of meat is destroying the environment all over the world. Because these billions of animals in factory farms have to be fed. Huge areas of land are cleared to grow food for them. More food is grown for animal than for starving people, which is shocking.

And water. It takes a lot of water to change plant-animal protein. And they all produce methane gas in their digestion. And that’s a very virulent greenhouse gas. So, you know, I think the main thing is for people to start thinking. About their own environmental footprint, what they can do, the choices they make each day.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: So much of the work has been holding a mirror up to ourselves and our relationship with the natural world as well as chimps and other animals. Yes. Relationship. What can we take away today from chumps? Is there a lesson we need to be thinking about?

Jane Goodall: Well, there’s a lesson in the way that the mothers treat their young. The mothers, the good mothers have the same quality my mother had. They’re supportive of their young ones, and because we’ve now been studying them for 65 years, we know that the chimps who had supportive mothers never mind whether they were high ranking or low ranking. If they supported their child, then the child will grow up to be a better mother.

And if a male, a higher position in the male hierarchy. We can also learn that they’re pretty good at resolving conflict. And we can also realize, which is a bit of a shock, but they have a dark side, can be brutal, aggressive, and kill, but they can also be compassionate and and altruistic.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: That’s in all of us. Hopefully

Jane Goodall: That’s the point. We, they’re just like us. We have a dark side. We have a lighter side, we have a different kind of intellect. We should be able to suppress that dark, aggressive side. We are not doing a very good job right now.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: I love that… And I was tipped off that you can perform something called a pant-hoot?

Jane Goodall: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: What, what is this? Explain this and, show it to me if you can.

Jane Goodall: You mean listen to it? I can’t show you.

Ryan Patrick Hooper: You can show me, but we can hear it on the radio.

Jane Goodall: Yeah. Well, chimps don’t live in a group. They live in scattered units, which sometimes come together. And so they need to maintain contact with each other.

And so each chimp has an individual pant-hoot. So if you hear it on the other side of the valley, you know, oh, there’s mom. So [performs pant-hoot]

Ryan Patrick Hooper: Dr. Jane Goodall, thank you so much. Thank you.

In June, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that they wanted to rescind the Roadless Rule, arguing that it created needless obstacles to land management. However, many conservationists say reversing this decision puts millions of forest acreage at risk.

The Roadless Rule, established in 2001, protects about 60 million acres of National Forest land all across the U.S., including Michigan. These areas have no roads, logging, or mining. Outdoors lovers, conservationists, and others value these lands for their natural wilderness. 

When the rule was first proposed, it received over 1.5 million public comments in support, showing strong public backing.

Effects in Michigan

If the Roadless Rule is repealed, 16,000 acres in Michigan could be harmed. Most of Michigan’s roadless areas are in the Upper Peninsula including the Hiawatha National Forest, as well as parts of the Lower Peninsula, in the Manistee National Forest and Ottawa National Forest.

Anna Medema is the Sierra Club’s Associate Director of Legislative and Administrative Advocacy for forests and public land. She says keeping the Roadless Rule in effect is vitally important. “Once you build a road into a forest area it could take decades or centuries if you were to decommission these roads and try to let it regrow wildly,” Medema says. “Those wild characteristics are really rare.”

Trump administration officials say that removing the protections could help reduce wildfires by facilitating forest management. However, research shows that wildfires tend to happen more often in areas with roads because of human activity, negating potential benefits of road access.

In Michigan, wildfires are generally less common and less serious. Additionally, building roads and logging could actually raise the risk of fires.

The public can comment on the Roadless Rule here until September 19. 

This story is part of WDET’s ongoing series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project.

Palmer Park provides a peaceful escape from the noisy, hot summer streets of Detroit. 

Spanning roughly 70 acres of forest, the park is home to over one hundred native plant species including treasured, towering oaks — some of which are centuries old. It serves as a sanctuary for wildlife such as pollinator bees, butterflies, birds, deer, and coyotes. 

There are many reasons that Palmer Park is one of the most popular urban parks in Detroit, but taking a closer look at the conditions of the tree canopy has one forestry educator concerned for the future.  

Southeast Michigan forestry educator Jackson Gorland founded the Michigan Forestry Club to share his passion for trees with the public.

Jackson Gorland identifying sassafras in Palmer Park

He recently conducted a forest forensics lesson at Palmer Park on a hot, humid Tuesday where he said that fewer tree species are thriving in the park without human intervention, risking reduced biodiversity.  

“Having a diversity of species in there…not just relying on a couple of species that are shade tolerant,” Gorland says. “Absolutely have beech in there, absolutely have sugar maple in… it’s [about] creating a mosaic of different conditions that promotes biodiversity.”

Gorland stresses that hands-on actions are needed to ensure the survival of Palmer Park’s oaks, which require full sunlight. According to

Gorland, shade-tolerant species are crowding them out. There are also more mature oaks than young saplings, a sign that future survival is in jeopardy.

The park recently did a prescribed burn to help young oaks, but further consistent interventions are needed, says Gorland. 

The Michigan Forestry Club plans to host additional forest forensics classes across parks in Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor.

This story is part of WDET’s ongoing series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project.

WDET’s Natalie Albrecht contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: Edited on 9/2/25 to correct a misattribution in photo caption. Gorland is identifying sassafras, not saffron. We apologize for the error. 

Michigan’s conservation districts are raising concerns as they face increasing financial challenges and potential cuts in federal funding. 

Officials from the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts are asking lawmakers in Lansing to boost state funding to help support the many environmental programs managed by these local groups. 

“The main goal of conservation districts is to provide locally led efforts to protect and manage natural resources in each community,” said Rivka Hodgkinson, director of the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts. “One of the strengths of these districts is that they can respond to the specific needs of their local areas.”

Michigan has 75 conservation districts that work to connect private landowners with state and federal resources. Their work covers urban areas, farmland, forests, and shoreline environments. Since more than half of Michigan’s forests are privately owned, educating and supporting landowners is very important.

For example, in the Herman Vogler Conservation Area along Lake Huron, forester Jacob Grochowski helps landowners manage their land responsibly. Grochowski says most of his time is spent talking with landowners.

“My main job involves visiting their land, discussing their goals, and exploring management options,” he said. “I then put together reports to help guide their decisions.” 

He also assists landowners in qualifying for programs like Michigan’s Qualified Forest Program, which offers tax benefits to landowners who manage their privately-owned forests in sustainable ways.

“This program gives a tax break and exemption from certain school taxes to encourage active management of their forests,” Grochowski said. “The idea is to make it more affordable for people to keep their land as forests rather than developing it.”

However, conservation districts often don’t have enough staff to do all the work they need. 

“I have my full-time job helping landowners with forest management, but I also try to handle other district tasks to keep services running,” Grochowski said.

Currently, districts get about $40,000 a year from the state to operate, but Hodgkinson says that’s not enough.

“Our biggest challenge is that we have a lot of work to do across the state, but not enough funding to do it,” she said. “We’re required to do this work, but there’s no guarantee we’ll get the money to cover it.”

There is also concern about funding cuts at the federal level, specifically from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). 

“Reducing staff at NRCS and USDA offices doesn’t reduce the need for conservation efforts in those communities,” Hodgkinson said. “Unless they receive more money to support their work, they’ll be asked to do more with less.”

In Lansing, Hodgkinson is pushing for an additional $10 million in state funding. 

“Having stable staffing in key positions would make conservation efforts more consistent and effective throughout the state,” she said. 

She warns that if support isn’t increased, there could be long-term problems. 

“If we don’t take early steps now to conserve resources voluntarily, we’ll face bigger costs in the future,” she said. “It’s cheaper to prevent problems now than to fix them later.”

This story is part of WDET’s ongoing series, The Detroit Tree Canopy Project.