(serene music) - [Narrator] Just below the St. Stephens Mission in Arapahoe, Wyoming, an experimental operation is underway to rescue a unique population of sauger, a native fish species and top-level predator in the waters of the Wind, Little Wind and Popo Agie Rivers.

- Not a lot of people know that sauger exist and are a native species to Wyoming because they live in these big, muddy rivers, and unless you're a fisherman you don't really know they exist.

They're fairly easy to catch.

They're very good to eat.

They're a very cool-looking fish.

They have big teeth.

They're closely related to a walleye.

- [Narrator] The project is a cooperative effort between the Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service.

The spawning grounds for the sauger are on the Wind River Reservation, land owned by the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes.

- We do a lot work with the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife, out of Lander, and the state Game and Fish, we do a lot of studies with wildlife and the fishing on the reservations.

They come our and help us out quite a bit.

It's nice to work together to know exactly what kind of numbers we have in the Wind River.

- [Narrator] The sauger of the Wind Rivers are genetically distinct.

They grow larger and slower than the rest of their species.

- 25.

25.1 - [Narrator] And living up to three years longer and at higher elevations than any other sauger known to science.

- Any species, including sauger when they're at the fringe of their range, you have low numbers to begin with.

And over about a 10 to 12 year period we saw a drastic decline in sauger numbers in the Wind River drainage population.

About a 98% decline in catch rates in our reservoir, which is Boysen Reservoir, and about a 75% decline in adult numbers in the river system, which is the Wind and Little Wind Rivers and the Popo Agie and Little Popo Agie Rivers.

Through a lot of research and monitoring we found that the population declined because of a lack of natural reproduction.

We're pretty confident it was caused by multiple low-water and drought years throughout the early 2000s that de-watered their nursery habitat in the Lower Wind River and the upper reaches of Boysen.

The population got so low we kinda hit panic mode.

We didn't want to lose the population, and we think we needed to give them a little bit of help.

(bright music) - [Narrator] To provide that help, adult wild sauger are gathered through a process called electrofishing.

Electrofishing uses direct current at high voltages that stun and immobilize the fish as they get close to the electrode.

Then they're simply scooped out of the water.

The fish are uninjured and generally recover full mobility in about two minutes.

- Beaver Creek, which is about five miles upstream, puts a lot of sediment in the river.

It makes the water a lot muddier, which sauger prefer, and it's good cover.

It also puts a lot of sand in the river, and sauger really seem to key in on this stretch of river.

- 59.

- 20.5 inches.

Yup, but 58 on this one.

Nope, 59, you're right.

2.09.

- [Narrator] Each fish is given an individual identification tag.

And fin clips are taken to establish a genetic database.

The fish are held in a large aquarium for about a week until they're ripe for spawning.

- I mighta got just over six.

- [Biologist] 2208.

- [Narrator] Eggs are stripped from the females, and milk from the males, for stream-side spawning.

- [Biologist] What's my tag number on that one?

- [Biologist] 4917.

- [Narrator] Tag numbers are recorded so each parent cross can be tracked genetically.

Water activates the sperm for fertilization.

And a mud slurry is added to prevent the eggs from sticking together, allowing each individual egg to be oxygenated.

Fertilized eggs are then rinsed with each tube containing a different genetic cross.

Once the eggs are free of mud they're shipped to incubators for hatching.

In two to three months, when juvenile sauger reach the fingerling stage at three to six inches long, they'll be restocked into the river system and Boysen Reservoir.

- So, the sauger numbers are increasing, and we are collecting juveniles in the wild, and we're working with geneticists to match the parents to the offspring.

So, in a few years we'll know whether or not our stocking operation was needed or not and is helping.

I'm an avid outdoors woman, and I would go hiking and hear things.

And I'm curious, and so I'd always wanna know what I heard.

And that's what started me.

It's just a curiosity of what was around me.

- When I moved to Wyoming and got a horse and went out and started hiking and skiing, all of a sudden, I started noticing birds, mohawks, eagles, big birds, and little songbirds as well.

So that kind of piqued my curiosity.

So that kind of piqued my curiosity.

- Of course, you know, all of us are always interested in birds ever since we're little kids, all of us.

We have a natural curiosity for birds.

- [Narrator] Our Wyoming joined the Bighorn Audubon Society on one of their regular birding at the Brinton bird walks.

It serves as an opportunity for birders to get together at a uniquely rich location in terms of bird habitat and observe.

- Today we went out and we looked at resident birds.

We looked at short distance migrants and long distance migrants.

And the resident birds are mainly the woodpeckers, the chickadees, those birds, the dipper here, the chickadees, those birds, the dipper here, and even the great blue heron stays here year round.

Short distance migrants, the yellow-rumped warbler are classic one.

They migrate short distance and that means to the Southern United States.

And then we have the long distance migrants which you saw today, the osprey is one, and a smaller one is swainson's thrush.

They're both long distance migrants and so what they do is they migrate outside of the United States, often to Mexico, Central and South America.

- [Narrator] Regular birding walks like birding at the Brinton are great ways for people to test their interest in the hobby.

Carol joined the group for the first time.

- It's neat to be around people that enjoy being outside, seeing the birds and being able to tell their calls and what they looked like.

And I'm hoping that if I continue to do this, I'll be able to learn a lot and be one of the persons that can help others later on.

- I like going with all the people.

It's a social thing as well as birding.

You learn the birds but it's a social get together too.

- The social aspect of birding is like nothing I've ever experienced in my life.

Birds, they are so beautiful, they migrate, they sing, and collectively, they just offer such incredible opportunities.

And one of them is being together in a common theme.

- Most beginning birders start out with visuals.

And a friend of mine a few years ago, gave me a three CD set of Western bird songs.

And my husband I will actually drive around and listen to Western bird song CDs.

And in doing that, I started learning the songs.

Because if you had to come out here and you heard birds, but you didn't know what they were, it would probably drove you crazy.

And it does as a new birder.

- The first thing that you need is a pair of binoculars, and you can get them at a pawn shop.

You don't need to go out and get an expensive pair of binoculars.

The other thing you need is a bird book.

And a bird book will allow you to see in color, which is what most people prefer, what you are seeing, and it'll also give you a range map of where this bird is seen.

That's very important.

- [Narrator] Much of the bird watching community has also embraced technology to aid their identification and recording of the birds they observe.

- So there's an app and it's called Merlin.

And it's one of my favorites apps on the phone.

And it actually has what the bird looks like in color, and it has sound and it has a range map.

And those are really all the three things that you really need to identify it.

And that app is free and it's called Merlin.

- There's a Merlin Bird ID app.

The eBird app is amazing because it also feeds into other apps such as Birds Near Me that tell you where hotspots are and what birds are being seen in them.

So if you're a new birder, those are three things.

I'd look at our Merlin Bird ID, the eBird website and app and the Birds Near Me app.

- [Narrator] In these odd times, many have found birding to be a great way to get out and enjoy the outdoors whether by themselves or by social distance with other birders.

For many, it is served as a meditative, soothing, centering activity.

- Birding at the Brinton started out with two people, three people and now it's about 25.

And people really look forward especially now in these times.

You notice today people wore a mask.

They're very careful, but they were so excited to see one another because this is a difficult and lonely time.

And so birding adds a dimension of togetherness and love.

- Because people have been sequestered in their homes, they're spending more time in their homes and in their yards, and they're able to notice birds more.

I think it's been one of the good things that we can look at with COVID.

People can get out in the outdoors and get fresh air, exercise, see birds, it brings joy to your heart when you see something that's beautiful and just untouched.

- I've heard a lot of people who have PTSD, and things like they were in Afghanistan or whatever, they come back and they are searching for something that helps them get over that PTSD or that medical issue, and birding is one of those things that has been helpful in that regard.

- Audubon has many chapters throughout the state of Wyoming and throughout the United States, and I would suggest getting in contact with your local Audubon group.

And if you don't have an Audubon group, start one or start a group with friends.

Just go out and say, "Would you like to go birding tonight?"

- I personally joined the National Audubon Society a couple years ago.

And when you do join the National Audubon Society, you are just put right into your local chapter.

- And the purpose of Audubon in general, is to protect birds in their habitats for the betterment of birds, habitats, and our community.

And so habitat is one of the keys.

So when birds get forced into a small area, how big of an area does it take to create a situation where a bird can't breed?

And that's kind of what's happening.

If wetland isn't large enough, if a grassland isn't large enough, if a stand of all growth is not all growth, and if it's not large enough, those dynamics really change.

And so that's why habitat protection it's the key.

- [Narrator] One way that local Audubon chapters help to protect birds and their habitats is by doing coordinated bird counts.

These help chart the movement and quantity of birds at specific times.

- There are several different counts that we do around here.

We do the spring migratory count, we also do the Christmas bird count, which is big.

And then there's a breeding bird survey.

And then there's also the big backyard count too.

We need to see the ebbs and flows of the bird count, what's coming, what's going, how the species is changing, what the climate change is, whether it's man made or natural, it does affect the birds, and that's what we're monitoring.

All this information is handed over to Wyoming Game and Fish and then from there, they disperse it with the federal government agencies.

And each one of them is the main purpose of science.

And the bonus is we have a lot of fun doing it.

- [Narrator] People's interest in birds take many forms.

Rosie uses her passion for observing birds to create beautiful works of art.

- Since I have the opportunity to take pictures of birds and I'm an artist, those photographs I take become beautiful paintings in my studio.

I like painting with oil.

I like using my own photographs.

Just last week, there was a meadowlark out singing so I was able to photograph him and yesterday in my studio, I've already started painting that picture of the meadowlark.

And the most fun part is when I'm painting, when I start painting the eye, the whole bird comes alive.

So I try to do that early in the painting.

And once you catch the sparkle in the eye, then the bird comes alive.

I just feel like it's important when you are an artist to paint what you love.

It comes from your heart, and since I love birds, I think it comes through with the color and the feeling and the sweetness.

My advice for people that would like to get into birding is just get out, go for a hike, get some fresh air and sunshine and exercise and keep your eyes and your ears open.

You can look for birds, you can listen for birds, you can go out by yourself, you can go out with friends, just anytime is a good time to go birding.

- In the front of the New York Times recently, Sibley, wrote about how birding can heal you.

Birding can heal you because you focus on something that's beautiful.

You listen and you pay attention to what's in front of you.

And so it's almost you know, I don't meditate, but when I bird, I just totally get in a zone of concentration.

And it really helps focus your mind and focus your attention.

And oftentimes, people that I bird with, we talk about how lucky we are to have found something that we love so much and have a passion for because it does center you in place with the natural environment, with something that's beautiful and touches you and it just can't be replaced.

- When we first looked at it on an x-ray, it was something that we thought, "we can pin that."

It was a very big, very clean break.

Both the humerus and the ulna, just boom, just off the side, completely broke in half.

We knew going into the surgery that if the bone was too far gone, that the bird met the criteria as an ed bird, and so we would continue on with an amputation and hopefully have that bird become an educational bird for somebody in the country.

- So I do think we are gonna amputate here, because my worry is-- - [Assistant] The necrosis on that?

- [Dr. Cook] With all the necrosis and whatnot that we'd just be fighting infection the entire time if we tried to pin it.

- We then started to prep the bird for surgery, we had to start pulling feathers around the surgical site, which is super intense, I mean, they are huge birds with really tough feathers, that pulling on that just felt really strange.

- [Dr. Cook] Give it some lift.

- [Nathan] But once we got into the surgery, everything went pretty smooth.

The biggest question mark we had was running anesthesia on a golden eagle.

There's not a lot of data out there.

It was stressful, it was a lot of a guessing game.

And a lot of just working by feel, watching breaths, and listening to heart rate.

You know, I was holding feet, we had another technician running anesthesia, monitoring respirations and heart rates, surgeon was working, and we thought we had it in the bag.

I mean, the surgery went really well.

- We amputated right at what would be the elbow joint in humans, closed that up with some sutures that'll fall out here in a few months.

But everything went well so far, so we'll see if he recovers good here, and we'll go from there.

- When we brought the bird out, got everything all wrapped up, buttoned up, and I was actually putting the bird back into the crate for transport, and I felt the bird shudder.

And I knew that was a bad, bad sign.

Dr. Cook got down there with me, and we started monitoring, and all of a sudden we realized his respiration started dropping drastically.

Then it was emergency crisis.

Then it was crashing.

- Yeah, grab some Atropine.

(sad, suspenseful music) Just the faintest of heartbeat.

- It is just-- you know.

And there's was just a moment there, we went, "This is lost."

Often times we deal with long-shot cases.

It still sucks, it still really is painful.

Part of what we do in rescue and rehabilitation is we deal with a lot of hard cases, and we deal with a lot of tragedy.

We also get to do some really cool stuff.

(upbeat folksy music) Tolsa, Bentonite, up out of Casper, Wyoming, fired up their equipment and realized that they had eggs on a conveyor belt.

They shut everything down, shut down their entire Bentonite plant, and started making phone calls to try to figure out what to do.

I spent 30 hours trying to do an off-site relocation.

Eventually it became apparent that parents weren't gonna come back to the nest, so we scooped up three eggs, and transported them back to the center.

Hatching baby owlets is nothing like a chicken.

We have incubators that are designed to do raptors.

Then we have warming units that we have on the end, and we can put them in different temperatures.

Everything's humidity controlled, temperature controlled, oxygen controlled, and they grow like crazy.

I mean, they double in size in 10 days.

The whole intention is for us to rehabilitate these birds to get the ready to re-release back to the wild.

So what we do is we don camouflage and face masks.

Babies are always pointed out away from us, we use pipe natural owl sounds, hooting owls we get from Cornell University to play so they're being around the sounds.

We also have the Wyoming Game and Fish loaned us their education owl, Jupiter, so Jupiter actually gets to spend time in front of the incubation unit.

And so as they are starting to open their eyes, which happens around between days seven and 10, they're seeing another owl, so they are imprinting, going, "Oh, I must be another owl.

"I sound like an owl, it looks like an owl, I am an owl."

(bluesy country music) I came into rehabilitation through the pursuit of the sport and art of falconry, which is kind of like extreme bird watching where you get to watch these birds do what they naturally do in the wild, and you just got to be in close proximity to it is just a really cool thing.

It really drove me to further study of raptors.

And within that, I started realizing that there's such a high mortality rate, and that the mortality rate was increasing from previous studies done to now, we're seeing that go up, and I said, "Somebody's gotta do something."

And there wasn't anyone locally to do anything.

In fact, with only two locations in the entire state that even could take in a bird, I said, "Well, I guess I'll do something then."

(contemplative music) - Sagebrush is one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world now, right up there with the Amazon forest.

At one point in time there used to be 234,000 square miles.

Now there's only half of that remaining.

This habitat, this sagebrush steppe habitat is being destroyed at rates that we can't necessarily comprehend.

(contemplative music) (soft ambient music) Sagebrush is important because it supports so many species and species diversity.

So we have over 350 sagebrush obligate species in Wyoming that scientists have identified.

And what sagebrush obligate means is that that species depends on sagebrush steppe habitat for their food source, for their mating grounds, for their home.

Crucial winter range is part of that.

The more we fragment this habitat the harder of a time these animals have surviving.

- If I have to name some of the bigger scientific crises in the world, the one that is least talked about is biodiversity conservation.

There's been a significant decline in animal species, plant species, insect species across the board, particularly in the last 50 years.

There's just been huge declines in just about every class of organism.

And so being able to reclaim a habitat like this is not only benefiting sagebrush itself, it's also benefiting all of those other organisms that depend on it.

And so that's really important to reclaim entire habitats.

And the only real choice that we have is to do it at a landscape scale.

(soft ambient music) - [Gina] This area was the Andrea Hunter Mine.

It was mined in the 1950s for uranium.

This was once a big open pit where we're standing.

And so Wyoming DEQ with BLM have come in and reclaimed this and they did a great job revegetating it.

But what you can see is that there's not very much sagebrush here.

And so that's why we're planting here today.

- The goal is to restore the landscape to the way it was before it was mined.

And we do a lot of work with the soils and drainage areas, but the revegetation is the last component that is probably one of the most important components.

(ambient music) This is our Sagebrush In Prisons project where we have inmates grow sagebrush for us, and then they even get to plan 'em on some of our old mine sites around the state.

- Research on ecological programs in prison settings have shown that recidivism rates reduce drastically when inmates are learning about ecology and are participating in ecological programs.

Trying to expose them to this idea that we are part of the ecosystem, we are part of ecology.

They're dedicated to the education component.

That's how you get people to invest in themselves.

- The unsung hero in this really is the prisons themselves, the departments of corrections in all of the different states that we work with.

Without their buy-in to the program, we wouldn't be able to do that.

(indistinct chatter) - [Gina] We saw The Honor Farm as a perfect place to have the Sagebrush in Prisons project.

And since its conception there we've been able to put in a greenhouse.

We've been able to put in a shade house and a more permanent structure so that we can keep the program going year after year.

- Personally, I'm really into growing and raising plants.

I plan to do it when I am released in some capacity or another.

I enjoy the fact that I get to plant the seeds, come out here and replant 'em and give back to our community and to our world.

(ambient music) - Sagebrush are really hard to get started.

About 5% of sagebrush seeds will automatically germinate on their own in the wild.

And so what we do with the Sagebrush in Prisons project is we germinate thousands of these seeds in one spring season.

We grow them up to seedlings and the growth that they get in our greenhouse, it would be somewhere between three and five years out in the wild.

After we harden them off and get them ready to be out in the wild, we plant them out here so that we can get the sagebrush component back into this landscape, because at one point in time this whole landscape was covered with sagebrush.

So we'll collect seed from any seed bearing plant within a five mile radius of this project area.

And seed picking is just the most wonderful thing.

(ambient music) It is so meditative.

You're out there, you're with the plants, you're in this detailed flow state.

- Being around plants my whole life it's like from seed to finish it's always, it's like you almost look at 'em as your own kids.

You kind of have to, and being able to go all the way through the season and overcoming any obstacles or just all the work that has to be done and then actually getting to see it through into the ground, it's a real nice feeling.

(ambient music) - Since 2013 when we established the program we've grown over 3 million sagebrush plants.

So I think those are pretty strong measures of success.

But the softer side of it is that we really see our success, too, in being able to connect humans with nature.

That is absolutely the most important goal that we have.

It's the hardest one to measure, but I see the success every time that I'm out working with a crew, whether inside a prison or out like today.

- For me, maybe the project will never be done.

The ultimate goal is I would love to see there be sagebrush all over this.

I would love to see this restored back to a viable functioning landscape.

I do think it is possible.

We just work at it one plant at a time, one person at a time.

(soft ambient music)