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.

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
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. ..
With helpful government support, an Oklahoma couple manages their ranchland landscape to provide an essential stopover for migrating monarch butterflies...
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...
From recent episodes of THIS AMERICAN LAND, these brief summaries of stories highlight major repair and maintenance issues affecting America’s national parks...
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..
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. ..
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..
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...
Farmers are learning how changes to cropland management can make a big difference for the survival of bobwhite quail, pollinators and other wild species. ..
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..
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...
A wide coalition of local groups in Idaho support wilderness protection for this remote and stunning roadless landscape covering 88,000 acres...
With native grasses replaced by exotics for cattle pastures, quail and other wildlife have lost vital habitat that conservationists are trying to restore...
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. ..
Virginians have a plan to create protected wilderness and scenic areas that allow for abundant recreation on their beloved Shenandoah Mountain...
Taking the long view, private landowners in Arkansas manage their forests to supply a growing market for sustainable wood products...
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..
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...
With bobwhite quail declining across its range, conservationists restore and manage critical pine savanna habitat for quail and other wildlife...
On the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, a wildlife-rich wetland and vital industries are threatened by creeping erosion and tidewater flooding...
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..
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..
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..
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...
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...
Development, invasive species and fire are degrading Western sagebrush habitat that is critical for the greater sage-grouse and other wildlife...
On the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border, homeowners’ lives are changed by toxic coal ash pollution from a power plant (produced with Earthjustice)...
By presidential order, oil and gas drilling no longer threatens this incredibly rich fishery in Southwest Alaska...
Against all odds, residents took their case to the highest state court, and they won (produced with Earthjustice)...
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..
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...
During half a century, the Wilderness Act has achieved remarkable results, and is still a critical law for conservation...
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...
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...
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...
Young Native Alaskans in a remote settlement are determined to use solar and wind power to reduce their reliance on expensive fossil fuels...
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...
A richly diverse spawning aggregation site, Puerto Rico's Bajo de Sico deserves increased protection for endangered fish and fragile coral reefs...
Local citizens support a bill in Congress to protect spectacular wilderness and rivers on Washington's Olympic Peninsula...
New ventures blaze the trail to energy independence and clean, renewable fuel sources...
New technology could lead to an advanced biofuel from algae with a boost from corn ethanol...
Carved by the Owyhee River and spreading across millions of acres, these rugged canyons now face growing threats to their wild treasures...
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..
Farmers in Iowa are harvesting corn stover - stalks, leaves, husks and cobs - as biomass for production of cellulosic ethanol...
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..
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..
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..
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-..
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..
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..
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..
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..
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..
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..
In Kansas and Delaware, NRCS advisers assist farmers with measures to improve their productivity and protect habitats for threatened wildlife..
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..
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 ..
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..
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 ..
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..
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..
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..
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...