(upbeat music) -[Carlee] Up next the remarkable comeback of the Trumpeter Swan.

Field notes with Mark Vrtiska and John McKinney, and an introduction to your host.

I'm Carlee Moates.

Welcome to Conservation Works.

(silence) (water rippling) (soft music) (soft music) (bright music) -[Carlee] The Trumpeter Swan is a really neat success story.

(bright music) -[Shelly] It went extinct in the Sandhills.

(bright music) -[Mike] Trumpeter Swans are really good indicator species of the habitat quality.

(bright music) -[Mike] They're a big, beautiful white bird that is an icon of the Nebraska Sandhills.

(bright music) -[Shelly] The Sandhills is still one of the last remaining intact grasslands left in the world.

(bright music) -[A.B.]

This is probably one of the few places where private industry, private ranchers have improved the land.

(bright music) -[Shelly] I hope that I always get to make my life here in the Sandhills.

(bright music) (birds chirping) -[Mike] They're huge and they're heavenly white.

(bright music) A Trumpeter Swan actually is the largest waterfowl species in the world.

(bright music) And they're beautiful.

(bright music) They're birds that are indicators of good water quality.

(bright music) They need big open grasslands and wetlands and open bodies of water in order to thrive.

(bright music) -[Heather] We really don't know a lot about them, about their behavior.

(bright music) It's really fun to learn about them.

(bright music) My name is Heather Johnson, and I'm researching Trumpeter Swans in the Nebraska Sandhills at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

I'm also a wildlife biologist with Nebraska Game and Parks studying waterfowl.

(silence) So historically, Trumpeter Swans breeding range, range all the way up in Alaska and the boreal forest.

And then the Sandhills was the very south tip of that breeding range.

And populations were upwards, probably about half a million to 1 million.

(bright music) The fur trade industry played a large role in the depletion of the population of Trumpeter Swans.

Their down feathers on their belly was very desired for women's powder puffs.

The feathers were desired for clothing and hats and quill pens.

In fact, Audubon himself preferred a quill pen for his drawings.

(bright music) The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is what saved these birds in 1918.

(bright music) (birds squawking) Had that treaty been not put into place, we would not have Trumpeter Swans today.

(birds squawking) - Nebraska Sandhills was a core of their range, and they were wiped out of the Sandhills, wiped out in Nebraska, and then through conservation laws and a lot of conservation efforts over the last 100 years, Trumpeter Swans have started to come back.

(boat engine roaring) (boat engine idling) (boat engine roaring) (indistinct chatter) -[Heather] You make that look easy?

(wind rustling) -[Man] I didn't know he had one.

(grass crunching) Oh, yeah.

(grass crunching) -[Heather] We take an airboat out.

(soft boat engine) We run up next to these birds and gently scoop them up with a big old scoop net.

And then we bring them back and then collect what we call body condition data.

(bright music) That's how you can determine how healthy a bird is.

(bright music) And over the last three years, we've been putting on GPS satellite collars.

(bright music) So we've been tracking these swans and we're looking at where they're going in the winter.

(bright music) -[Mark] Let's take her back down there.

(bright music) (boat engine roaring) (bright music) (plane engine roaring) -[Mark] We're trying to get a handle on the population numbers and not necessarily just the numbers, but the trends if they're going up or going down.

(bright music) And what we have been seeing actually over the years is we've seen an increasing population.

(bright music) So the overall number of swans has increased, but the proportion of juveniles is kind of slightly decreasing.

(bright music) -[Heather] There's a lot of opportunity for predators to get a hold of these birds.

Some predators would include northern pike, snapping turtles, birds of prey.

Those are kind of their main predators.

(bright music) And then there's also, you know, weather, many other factors that can affect survival.

(soft music) (silent) (bright music) -[Mark] Well, one of the things that we're anticipating or could anticipate, um, you know, wind energy is one of those things that may be cropping up in the Sandhills and it has in 1 or 2 spots.

(bright music) And with that, you have a lot of transmission lines and so forth.

And some of those things may be cutting across some of the wintering areas that these birds use.

(birds cawing) And so what would that do for those swans?

(bright music) (birds cawing) -[Mike] Where you put those transmission lines are really important because if you put them next to a key wintering ground, you know, these birds didn't evolve with big, long, thick wires spanning across the sky, you know, so, um, that can be a death trap.

(soft music) (silent) (twangy music) -[A.B.]

The first time I saw a Trumpeter Swan was probably in the late 60s at Lacreek up there north of Merriman.

(gentle music) My name is A.B.

Cox and I live on Calf Creek Ranch.

This is Calf Creek (gentle music) north of Mullen, Nebraska, and southern Cherry County.

(gentle music) -[Shelly] I'm Shelly Kelly.

I grew up by Brewster, Nebraska on a ranch family operation and it's just always loved the Sandhills.

(gentle music) The Trumpeter Swan is kind of a iconic species because it sticks out so much.

People pay attention to the swans and even ranchers that have lived here their whole lives, like myself.

When we see a Trumpeter Swan, it's really exciting.

(gentle music) What we do know is if we have a healthy landscape, we know that it's better for the swans.

It's not a competing interest, you know, wildlife and ranching.

They're not on different hands.

They share the same goals.

(gentle music) -[Mike] Most ranchers have been real good stewards of this landscape because they need good grass, too.

In a way, they're grass farmers.

(cows mooing) -[A.B.]

We just see it as we are trying to be good stewards and leave it as best we can.

(gentle music) -[Mike] I care about these birds because they're remarkable.

(gentle music) I think about what would the world look like if they weren't in it.

(gentle music) You know, (gentle music) to me, it'd be a pretty boring place.

(gentle music) It's a real conservation success story.

(gentle music) That's because of an awful lot of people that are dedicated, their lives and their efforts to help bring these birds back.

(gentle music) So it's a pretty cool deal, but there's no finish line and conservation.

In, um, so we have to keep, keep thinking about these birds and what they represent and, um, really celebrate them so we can have them around for a long time.

(gentle music) (silence) Hi, I'm Carlee Moates and welcome to Conservation Works, a series exploring the creative and inspiring ways Nebraskans are helping people, wildlife and the land thrive together.

Joining me in the studio are Mark Vrtiska, wildlife management specialist with the University of Nebraska School of Natural Resources, and John McKinney, Waterfowl program manager with Nebraska Game and Parks.

Together, they spend a lot of time thinking about the birds that call Nebraska home and what it takes to keep their habitats healthy.

Thank you both for being here.

- Glad to be here.

- Yeah.

Thank you.

- Mark, I think you and I may have met for the first time when making the film Return of the Swan in 2018.

- Yes.

Yes we did.

I, you got a free airboat ride with us?

- I did.

I was in the airboat, and it was an exciting time.

- Yes it is.

Yes.

- And since then I was in your waterfowl ecology course.

I learned all those species.

- Yes.

- Now we just hassle each other in the hallways at the School of Natural Resources.

- Yes.

As much as possible.

- Yeah.

I love it.

And, John, you and I just met last June, I believe, at goose banding.

- Yeah.

It can be a little bit of a rodeo and was glad to have you out.

- Um, where did the passion for working with wildlife come from, for both of you?

- For me, it came from, um, my dad taking me hunting and, um, at a pretty early age.

Following dad around and then he kind of instructed me and teaching me how to do it.

And that's where I've got kind of that passion for animals, for wildlife and animals.

But, uh, waterfowl actually came much later when I was an undergraduate here at the University of Nebraska.

Um, got a summer job, um, and was working on ducks and duck nesting.

And it was just like.

- [Carlee] The coolest job.

- Yeah, yeah.

The clouds opened up, lightning hit me and I'm like, okay, I'm going to do ducks.

- Did it start as a young age for you too?

- [John] Yeah, a real similar story to Mark.

My family is big into the outdoors and grew up hunting and fishing.

Um, and then got to know some people who worked for the state agency and realized there was a career in being a biologist and similar to Mark went to undergrad and had a summer job where I was working on the prairies in the Dakotas, capturing mallards and just fell in love with it from there, so.

-[Carlee] Mark, could you give a brief overview of the history of Trumpeter Swans in the state?

-[Mark] They were extirpated at one point as they were across most of North America.

A few populations were found in Alaska and then at Red Rocks Lake in Montana.

Once that populations were kind of rediscovered, what they did is reintroduce birds from Red Rock lakes, Montana, to Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge, just across the border in South Dakota, and tried to get a population established here in the Sandhills.

And just in a few years, we actually had, I think it was in 1964, 65, somewhere in there actually had a first nesting pair since probably around before the turn of the century or so in Nebraska.

And since then they've just kind of kept expanding across the Sandhills.

So we went from, yeah, to, you know, a couple dozen birds to over a thousand and well, my lifetime, 60 some years.

So yeah.

- So they were reintroduced in South Dakota and kind of brought themselves back home into Nebraska.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

That's remarkable.

So this study with the Trumpeter Swans, as far as the telemetry and watching where they're going over the winters, you led that study.

- Yes.

Could you just introduce kind of what the parameters of that was?

-[Mark] We don't know a lot, unfortunately, in terms of the ecology biology of the trumpeters here in the state, there's not been a lot of work done.

And it kind of got to the point where, um, some things were maybe coming about, but we wanted to get some idea of movement of these birds, kind of where they were going in the wintertime.

During the midwinter before John.

You know, you see them in these streams and creeks and you're kind of wondering where they're coming from and all that.

And so we had a knowledge gap and the technology available.

And even even ten years ago, um, it's pretty, was pretty advanced in terms of having these GPS collars.

So it's, it's just like giving you a GPS and you tracking yourself, but it gets very specific locations.

Um, and so we could track these individuals year round, as long as the transmitter kept working and or didn't fall off of the bird.

It was mainly just to get a good idea of kind of their movements, um, mainly through the fall and winter and just kind of see where they were coming from and going back and forth.

We caught some.

I know that we were going up to 25 pounds, and so there's really huge birds.

Just doing that was educational in terms of kind of finding some things out about the birds themselves.

So one thing is, um, and most people ask, they're very docile birds once you get your hands on them.

- And what were some of the findings that you were noticing with trends on the birds?

- One of the questions we got from a lot of the landowners, they see these swans on their lakes.

Now we have the data that says, yeah, they're going to be the same swans coming back to the same lakes every year.

(sharp inhale) Well, what we didn't know is if those birds were still going back to the same wintering locations each year.

And it turns out for the most part, yeah.

Um, so they, they nest in this wetland in the sandhills, and then they go to Birdwood Creek or the North Loup River, and that's pretty much where they're going to come back to each and every year.

The swans you see in the Sandhills are going to pretty much stay in the state.

- So they have their home that they're returning to.

- Yes.

Yeah.

And they're they're pretty philopatric to those sites, both breeding and wintering - And philopatric, meaning they're returning to that same place.

- Yeah.

The the place, um, they keep coming back to the same spots.

- Are you still doing more studies on swans?

Are you looking for them this summer?

- Yeah.

We're going to be going out this summer as well.

The last three years we've been capturing swans across the Sandhills.

Um, and we've been pulling samples to look at the genetic diversity of the birds.

Um so it can be really useful in the future.

-[Carlee] Mhm.

So what, what does that look like differently?

Or maybe the same.

- Yeah.

It's real similar to what Mark was doing.

We're using an airboat, um, and using a dip net to catch the birds and then pulling some feathers.

And so real similar to what Mark did previously.

-[Carlee] Mhm.

So the, I'm sure there's implications of finding out more about the genetic diversity or maybe not diversity.

And then also knowing where the birds are moving as we're developing in agriculture and such.

What are some things to pay attention to that you're finding in this research?

- You're not going to find Trumpeter Swans on some lakes that that have a lot of carp in them that are low quality or doesn't have a lot of aquatic vegetation.

So if you have or see swans on a body of water, typically it's going to be of high quality.

And so one of the things about looking at where these birds are wintering at rivers and creeks here in Nebraska, um, there's a lot of aquatic vegetation that they feed on.

Um, and again, there are 20 some pound birds, so they eat a lot of vegetation.

So they need that.

And so it's good to have this information.

Now if you start seeing changes either in water levels that may affect aquatic vegetation, or you see some change in water quality in those streams or rivers.

The swans will kind of point that out to us, I think, to some extent.

So they're kind of a warning system of something's something's changing on the land.

Um, and so, and again, they're, they're easy to spot and people notice them.

And so it's, I think they're a really good species for that.

- And then genetically, could that be a warning sign of any kind or something to watch out for?

-[John] Yeah.

We, you know, it's suspected they're probably pretty geographically isolated.

The High Plains flock, which Nebraska is a part of.

And so if they don't have a lot of genetic diversity that poses some risk to their future, um, persistence on the landscape and so that's important for something for us to look at.

As Mark'sstudy showed that they don't really migrate out of the state.

They stay here during the winter.

Um, and so there's those key wintering areas that we as an agency can focus on to make sure we try to conserve those going forward, especially if there's no inflow or outflow from other states.

They're kind of contained in that one area.

It helps us be more targeted with conservation efforts for habitat.

- And what amount of your work is happening on private lands?

-[John] Yeah, it's a pretty significant portion happens on private lands.

The ranchers in the Sandhills have really helped us out with what we're doing now.

And with Mark's study as well.

Um, and being able to locate birds and allowing us on to trap those birds.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, they were awesome.

And, and most of the landowners are really interested in their birds, so.

-[Carlee] They're pretty proud of their wildlife, I see.

- Yeah.

Um, and it was, it was great to work with them.

- And what could you say again, how's the population been trending.

- We did do a survey in January.

Um it does have its pros and cons and that we could be counting some birds that are coming from other states depending on weather severity.

But it has been going up.

We've been counting over a thousand birds in the state really over the last ten years.

We've seen that number jump up from around 5 to 600 to over a thousand the last several years.

-[Carlee] Having a more genetically diverse bird makes it more resilient for disease or other hardships coming through.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Well, Mark, thanks for teaching me so many things.

- Yeah.

- It's good to have you here.

-Glad to do it.

- Talk to you again.

And good to see you too, John.

- Good to see you again.

- I hope I can help on geese banding again.

- Yeah, absolutely.

We'd love to have you.

- Awesome.

Up next, a little introduction to who I am.

My conservation journey started long before I ever picked up a camera.

Back when I discovered that frogs fit surprisingly well in my pockets, I'll share how a childhood fascination with the natural world grew into a lifelong passion for conservation.

(silent) - I'm Carlee, I'm a Nebraska girl, and I grew up outside.

I was raised in the southeastern part of the state in a very outdoorsy and creative household.

Dad often played his guitar on the porch, and mom cut her hair in the pasture where the wind blew it away to be used in bird nests.

(gentle music) As girls, my sister and I collected frogs in the pockets of our sundresses and carried kittens around the barn in five gallon buckets.

(gentle music) I'd pull a bale of hay out for the horses before school, and we had many wild neighbors, owls, foxes, raccoons and deer.

(gentle music) My family marked seasons by greeting new calves in the spring with grandpa on the ranch, family camping trips to the Rocky Mountains in the summer, and harvest in the fall.

(gentle music) Respect for nature and the lessons it teaches was instilled in me at a young age.

I figured I'd grow up to be a veterinarian, as many animal lovers do.

I liked science and was good at math, but I also had a creative mind and love for art.

(gentle music) Could I bring them all together?

While on a family trip to town, Probably to celebrate a birthday, We wandered into a photography gallery on the way to dinner.

I remember being drawn to a photo where I came eye to eye with the intense gaze of a burrowing owl.

(gentle music) Dad looked around and said, you could do something like this.

After all, my parents had given me a red Kodak point and shoot camera that I went everywhere with.

Taking pictures of animals?

(gentle music) Years later, I realized that gallery belonged to Michael Forsberg, a respected local conservation photographer.

It's funny how life has a way of opening doors.

(gentle music) When I began thinking about college, like any 18 year old, I looked for schools away from home.

I landed in the big city of Lincoln at the University of Nebraska.

College brought new friends, some tumultuous days in the front of the Husker student section.

Several formative adventures abroad and an internship.

(gentle music) It was with a conservation storytelling team called Platte Basin Timelapse, co-founded by Michael Forsberg.

That same gallery I visited as a little girl.

(gentle music) I began with the team right alongside my first classes as a freshman.

(gentle music) As a student, I couldn't choose between the sciences or the arts, so I didn't decide.

I pursued both majoring in fisheries and wildlife biology and journalism.

I spent my days hopping from ecophysiology to mass media law, reporting 101 to vertebrate zoology.

(gentle music) My job at Platte Basin Timelapse allowed me to connect the two.

As I learned how the Platte Basin watershed begins in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming and threads its way across our state.

I was developing a new way to see.

Studying videography and timelapse while refining my eye behind the lens.

Through my work, I witnessed the great crane migration, explored the remote sandhills, and followed the Platte back into those same Rocky mountains I scouted as a kid.

(gentle music) After graduation, I moved west and worked on private land doing conservation for the University of Wyoming.

An invitation from UNL to return for a master's degree brought me back home.

I earned a Master of Applied Science and returned to Platte Basin Timelapse, this time as a full time story producer.

(gentle music) In this job, you won't often find me in the same spot two days in a row.

My colleagues and I spend deep, intentional time in the field telling in-depth stories about ecology, conservation, and the people that make their lives from the land.

(gentle music) Some days I might be pulling on waders to film fish surveys or record state biologists catching geese.

(gentle music) Other days may be spent at soil labs or capturing scenes of seeding native prairies.

One of my favorite days ever was filming rangelands from horseback on a Wyoming ranch.

I've been shaped by incredible mentors, and as my work continues, I strive to elevate the voices of those who care for the land, those who study it, and the wild creatures that move through it.

From the Platte River Basin and the Great Plains to the Central Flyway and beyond.

(gentle music) I feel so lucky to spend time among them all, making every day rewarding.

And I'm so glad you are joining me on this journey.

(silent) (gentle music) Thank you for joining us on this edition of Conservation Works.

As we close, enjoy an aerial view of Sugar Loaf Butte in Oglala National Grasslands.

This striking landscape is full of surprises, providing habitat for wildlife from both the prairie and the desert in one remarkable corner of Nebraska.

(gentle music) (silent) (gentle music) -[Announcer] Support for Conservation Works provided by the Clare M. Hubbard Foundation.

Ken and Pat Cheloha, the Carol Gendler Estate and Larry and Pat Ruth.

(gentle music)