THIS AMERICAN LAND  is the leading conservation news magazine program on public television stations nationwide – reporting on America’s landscapes, waters, and wildlife with stories that inform and entertain. Watch the trailer

Testing The Antiquities Act

In Utah, the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is threatened by federal cutbacks, becoming an iconic symbol of a law dating back to President Theodore Roosevelt who started the trad..

Freeing the Escalante River

Volunteers in Utah chop their way through choking invasive trees to unblock the remote Escalante River and keep it wild and free...

Data-driven farming

On the leading edge of agricultural technology, young farmers are using data to minimize costs and improve yields while protecting their soil and water...

Delta revival: just add water!

A new agreement with Mexico shares the Colorado River by dedicating water to the environment, restoring flows and habitat along the river and at the Delta...

Dawn of a new Delta

Where the Colorado River approaches the Sea of Cortez, conservationists re-plant forests and promote wildlife habitat to revive the Delta after decades of neglect and desertification...

Sharing the Gulf

In Louisiana, a diverse coalition including fishermen, chefs, environmentalists and retailers calls for fair, sustainable sharing of the Gulf of Mexico’s natural resources. ..

Saving a desert river

To protect one of Arizona’s last perennially flowing rivers, smart stewardship minimizes irrigation and clears invasive plants...

Urban farms

Taking advantage of open areas in crowded cities like Dallas, urban farmers are growing healthy foods and making profits...

Restoring Louisiana’s coast

With Louisiana’s coastline sinking and washing away, projects aim to reverse mismanagement that has blocked depositing of sediment at the Mississippi’s mouth...

Fishing quotas in the Gulf

Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico use individual fishing quotas to manage red snapper catches sustainably and with far less risk. ..

Forest habitat for birds

Landowners in Pennsylvania are managing their forests to provide better habitat for declining species of songbirds like the golden-winged warbler...

Saving the Land and Water Conservation Fund

The nation’s most important conservation and recreational access program has protected areas in almost every state and county, but it could soon expire without action by Congress...

The value of fire

Forest plantations in Florida are managed with prescribed fires that benefit wildlife and the owner’s bottom line...

Better bat habitat

Landowners in Pennsylvania work with government support to provide critical forest habitat for threatened bat species. ..

Sustaining the red snapper

In a “catch share experience” on the Gulf Coast, a charter boat captain with an individual fishing quota shows recreational anglers how sustainable practices promise more income and safety. ..

Restoring monarch habitat

With helpful government support, an Oklahoma couple manages their ranchland landscape to provide an essential stopover for migrating monarch butterflies...

Revising forest plans

In the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests in western North Carolina, the public is playing a major role in shaping their complex future with a new management plan...

Maintaining America’s national parks

From recent episodes of THIS AMERICAN LAND, these brief summaries of stories highlight major repair and maintenance issues affecting America’s national parks...

Balance in the Gunnison basin

In the upper basin of the Colorado River, water managers in western Colorado collaborate with landowners to develop innovative, more efficient systems to conserve water and restore flows to rivers..

Monumental beauty

Rafting and fishing in the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, curious journalists learn the truth about monuments that protect national treasures and a wide range of public uses. ..

Restoring a river

With new water rights and a major irrigation project under construction, Arizona’s Gila River Indian Community is reviving an agricultural heritage that sustained them for centuries before wh..

Healthy farms, cleaner water

To avoid contributing to the “Dead Zone” far downstream in the Gulf, this Iowa farmer manages his land to keep nutrients in the soil and prevent polluting runoff...

Bobwhites on the brink: Kansas croplands

Farmers are learning how changes to cropland management can make a big difference for the survival of bobwhite quail, pollinators and other wild species. ..

Bears Ears

Under the power of the Antiquities Act, President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, protecting tens of thousands of cultural sites amid breathtaking landscapes. Watch our..

Gunnison grandeur

Residents in this Colorado county know it’s a unique region because of its wild and scenic lands that deserve more federal protection as wilderness and recreation areas...

Scenic Scotchman Peaks

A wide coalition of local groups in Idaho support wilderness protection for this remote and stunning roadless landscape covering 88,000 acres...

Bobwhites on the brink: Kentucky grasslands

With native grasses replaced by exotics for cattle pastures, quail and other wildlife have lost vital habitat that conservationists are trying to restore...

The call of Kalmiopsis

Wild and clear rivers, a rugged landscape, and one of the rarest plants on earth drive conservationists in Oregon to call for protection against looming mining threats. ..

Protecting Shenandoah Mountain

Virginians have a plan to create protected wilderness and scenic areas that allow for abundant recreation on their beloved Shenandoah Mountain...

Sustainable forestry

Taking the long view, private landowners in Arkansas manage their forests to supply a growing market for sustainable wood products...

Bobwhites on the brink: Texas rangelands

In the largest remaining expanses of quail habitat in North America, ranchers and conservationists work together to manage cattle pastures to provide essential wildlife habitat, especially for dec..

Land of legends

Mountain ranges in southern Arizona offer natural wonders for rock climbers and cave explorers, and an unimpeded landscape essential for the Army’s Fort Huachuca...

Bobwhites on the brink: forest lands in South Carolina

With bobwhite quail declining across its range, conservationists restore and manage critical pine savanna habitat for quail and other wildlife...

Protecting the Chenier Plain

On the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, a wildlife-rich wetland and vital industries are threatened by creeping erosion and tidewater flooding...

California’s Coastal Wilderness

Local residents support a bill in Congress to designate new wilderness areas and wild & scenic rivers to ensure permanent protection of treasured public lands in the vast Los Padres National F..

Protecting the Pecos watershed

Communities in northern New Mexico press their case for expanding the Pecos Wilderness to protect a watershed vital to a broad landscape reaching into southern Texas..

Managing public lands

No longer an agency focused mainly on livestock and mining, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has evolved and assumed a greater responsibility for conservation and protection of public lands..

A billion oysters

In New York Harbor, high school students run a long-term project to restore the historically rich oyster reefs that were destroyed long ago by over-fishing and pollution...

Whitefish Range

In northern Montana, former adversaries join together in a diverse coalition to support a new management plan and more wilderness for a spectacular stretch of mountains...

Sage advice for sage lands

Development, invasive species and fire are degrading Western sagebrush habitat that is critical for the greater sage-grouse and other wildlife...

Little Blue: A Broken Promise

On the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border, homeowners’ lives are changed by toxic coal ash pollution from a power plant (produced with Earthjustice)...

Protecting Bristol Bay

By presidential order, oil and gas drilling no longer threatens this incredibly rich fishery in Southwest Alaska...

Dryden, NY - a town that stopped fracking

Against all odds, residents took their case to the highest state court, and they won (produced with Earthjustice)...

America's wildest secret

Join a rafting expedition down the Etivluk River into the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska – a misleading name for the vast, unspoiled Western Arctic wilderness that provides critical habitat for..

Hogs on the Buffalo

After an industrial-scale hog farm is built close to the Buffalo National River in Arkansas, local residents are alarmed by the serious threat of pollution...

Wilderness anniversary

During half a century, the Wilderness Act has achieved remarkable results, and is still a critical law for conservation...

Pollution on the Altamaha River

A pulp mill in Georgia has discharged effluent into a mighty river for decades, and critics accuse both the company and state authorities of neglect...

Fabulous filtering fungi

On a small island off Washington's coast, high school students create barriers with oil-absorbing mushrooms to filter stormwater runoff that drains into the ocean...

Arctic traffic

As climate change melts sea ice and opens the Arctic Ocean to more shipping and oil exploration, marine mammals and native people in small boats are at risk...

Sustainable village

Young Native Alaskans in a remote settlement are determined to use solar and wind power to reduce their reliance on expensive fossil fuels...

Herring lift

With river herring numbers declining due to trawler bycatch, volunteers in Rhode Island use buckets to lift thousands of spawning herring beyond dams on the Saugatucket River...

Seamount of life

A richly diverse spawning aggregation site, Puerto Rico's Bajo de Sico deserves increased protection for endangered fish and fragile coral reefs...

Wild Olympics

Local citizens support a bill in Congress to protect spectacular wilderness and rivers on Washington's Olympic Peninsula...

Biofuel startups

New ventures blaze the trail to energy independence and clean, renewable fuel sources...

Algae power

New technology could lead to an advanced biofuel from algae with a boost from corn ethanol...

Owyhee Canyonlands

Carved by the Owyhee River and spreading across millions of acres, these rugged canyons now face growing threats to their wild treasures...

Tiny fish are a big deal

At the mouth of the Columbia River, researchers study sardines, anchovies and other small forage fish that sustain a healthy ocean, providing essential food for seabirds, marine mammals and predator f..

Biofuel from cornfield residue

Farmers in Iowa are harvesting corn stover - stalks, leaves, husks and cobs - as biomass for production of cellulosic ethanol...

Uniting to protect a rich watershed in Colorado

A grass-roots collaboration of water officials, hikers, mountain bikers, hunters, fishermen and others initiated the drafting of a bill in Congress to establish protection for the 108,000-acre Hermosa..

New appreciation for central Nevada wilderness

In the dry, harsh landscape between Las Vegas and Reno, most people have seen only wasteland with a few gold and silver mines. More Nevadans now see the sustainable value of these lands as protected w..

Saving precious Sierra water

Melting snow from the Sierras in California generates $400 billion in economic activities, supports four million acres of farmland, and supplies drinking water for more than 23 million people. NRCS ad..

Backyard wilderness in Los Angeles

Unlike most wilderness areas that are remote and hard to access, the San Gabriel Mountains are within easy reach of the L.A. urban sprawl, forming the centerpiece of an imaginative plan for a 600,000-..

Restoring native plants in Utah

High school students in Kanab learn the importance of protecting vanishing native plants and tackling invasive species. Harvesting native seeds, sprouting them in a greenhouse and transplanting them i..

Grass for gas: new frontiers in growing biofuels

In Iowa and Tennessee, researchers and farmers are on the front lines of the biofuel revolution where switchgrass, sourgum and miscanthus are grown specifically as renewable fuel sources..

More wilderness protection proposed for remote mountains in New Mexico

In the southeastern corner of the state, the Brokeoff Mountains are a little-known stretch of rugged canyons and peaks that are still relatively untouched by development..

A new way to save sport fishermen’s bycatch

Off the coast of San Diego, marine biologists test an experimental device for increasing the survival rate of bottom-dwelling fish that are released at the surface as bycatch but are traumatized by ch..

Navajos in Utah want protection for lost ancestral lands

The proposal for a national conservation area would preserve Cedar Mesa and adjacent areas that are filled with some of America’s oldest archaeological treasures that need urgent protection..

"Bioswales" for filtering water runoff

In an Oregon high school, students design and develop strips of land with plants that filter silt, oil and grime out of the runoff from the school\'s parking lot; it\'s hands-on learning about polluti..

Private landowners protect prairie chickens and bog turtles

In Kansas and Delaware, NRCS advisers assist farmers with measures to improve their productivity and protect habitats for threatened wildlife..

National monument would be first for West Virginia

Supporters say the monument would be a job-creating natural asset, protecting the headwaters of six regional waterways – including thousands of acres of wild terrain with some of the best huntin..

Backpacking with llamas in Oregon

Older hikers have an alternative to carrying heavy backpacks: an outfitter providing sturdy, affable llamas loaded with chairs, tables, wine and other luxuries that allow full enjoyment of wilderness ..

Colorado farmers and ranchers win fight against drilling

The federal government shelved plans to auction leases for oil and gas drilling in the North Fork Valley after local residents came out overwhelmingly against it as a threat to their new economy roote..

Rocky Mountain fracking riles Colorado residents

Rich deposits of oil shale in Garfield County yield huge amounts of natural gas and oil for energy companies, but local residents are pushing back against intrusive air and water pollution, noise and ..

Artificial cave fights deadly bat disease

White nose fungus is likely to be the worst wildlife disaster of our time, and researchers in Tennessee hope that a human-built cave can attract enough hibernating bats to slow the spread of the infec..

Yellowstone grizzlies achieve dramatic recovery

While the need for continued listing under the Endangered Species Act is still debated, grizzly bears have multiplied under federal protection since 1975, re-occupying areas where they had been absent..

Trout in the classroom

Students in the Sierras in California help to restore threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout by raising the fish from eggs and releasing them in an approved stream..

Critical aquifer underneath the Great Plains

Farmers and ranchers work with NRCS advisers to find ways to conserve the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast expanse of prehistoric water now threatened by overuse...