- NARRATOR: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.

Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - Okay, PTT ID... - My feeling is I think that this project has long been needed.

- I do have one.

I like it out here.

Real nice and peaceful and been coming here since I was a little boy.

- Everybody has a part to play in the recovery of the monarch.

- Oh look, a monarch, right here!

Planting flowers in a garden is a great start.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks & Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

[wind blowing] - NARRATOR: Here at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in the shallow bays of the Texas coast, you can find one of the rarest birds in North America.

The endangered Whooping Crane.

- FELIPE CHAVEZ-RAMIREZ: This is a species that almost went extinct; it was almost gone forever from the face of the earth.

Depending on what estimates we can count on 14 to 16 individuals were alive in 1941, and that, almost disappeared.

We still have a very small population, 300, a species that was almost gone is slowly coming back.

Yah, there seems to be a gap.

- NARRATOR: Meet biologist Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, Veterinarian Barry Hartup, - DAVE BRANDT: Just something we made out of necessity I guess.

- NARRATOR: And biologist Dave Brandt.

[Whooping Cranes call] - DAVE: They were here!

- NARRATOR: They hope to do something that's never been done before.

- DAVE: See how he's got one foot in don't he.

- NARRATOR: To trap adult whooping cranes.

The plan is to put transmitters on the cranes and track them with satellite GPS technology.

The team is working with Wade Harrell from the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service.

- WADE HARRELL: We're going to learn a lot, in terms of new places that they use that we didn't know about before.

So I think there will be a real paradigm shift in how we manage and conserve whooping cranes going forward.

- DAVE: They may have not come till later in the morning.

- NARRATOR: The first step is to get the birds to come close to the trap.

- DAVE: Looks like there they are approaching and there they say, "Hey, there's a good pile of corn here.

Let's have breakfast!"

We've been baiting these birds for three weeks now or more getting them to the spot.

Right in the middle so they have to reach!

The whole key to this is the fact that they are not quite comfortable.

- FELIPE: The trap that we are using right now is basically a leg snare.

- DAVE: I put wet sand along the sides.

- FELIPE: It basically consists of a loop made of monofilament that we put in a hole that we've previously made on the ground.

[Whooping Crane call] - DAVE: Then we start baiting that depression and hopefully they get into it and start behaving the way we need them to behave for actual capture.

- FELIPE: All right!

See you in a few!

- NARRATOR: While Felipe climbs into this blind.

[radio chatter] - So there are a lot of birds in the area all of a sudden.

- NARRATOR: Barry and the rest of the team stage in a nearby truck.

- BARRY: So now it's a waiting game.

- NARRATOR: The hope is this study will help answer some questions.

- Something about how they're growing up, are they growing up with a lot of problems, and that's why there are so few of the cranes?

Or is there something that we can do beyond working to conserve they're winter and summering habitat?

Are there some additional steps that we can take?

- NARRATOR: On this evening, the whoopers didn't fall for the trap.

- WADE: Give it another 10 or 15 I guess and then we'll call... - Yah, and then we'll call it.

Ah.

They never went for the corn.

[cranes call] - NARRATOR: Trapping may have hit a snag.

- SARAH KAHLICH: There is a family pair out there, you seem em?

- MATTHEW: Yep!

- NARRATOR: But some science on surroundings is underway.

- What we're doing right now is doing a habitat assessment of the area.

Go!

[tape measure peels off] We're going in to look at the different vegetation types to see what kind of areas the whooping cranes like to stay in.

- MATTHEW: All right stake's in.

- How many segments have vegetation covering em?

- Four.

- SARAH: Okay.

- This is just an easy way to get a general idea of the thickness of the vegetation and the height of the vegetation.

- SARAH: Even though they are an endangered species and they have been worked on for a long time, there is not a lot known about what they prefer to do on their day to day activities.

So this kinda helps us get a little better data on where they are actually spending their time.

It's a five.

- MATTHEW: K. Got it!

- NARRATOR: And one thing the habitat study shows, the cranes' health goes hand in hand with the health of this salt marsh.

- WADE: Salt marshes are extremely productive ecosystems.

So there is just an enormous amount of crustaceans, crab, shrimp, and small fish.

So there is a tremendous food resource that they rely on here.

- DIANE JOHNSON: Right out there is our marsh!

If you'll look, they're feeding on blue crabs.

- NARRATOR: Bordering the salt marsh of the refuge... is the Johnson Ranch.

Diane Johnson and her family have put the land into a conservation easement.

[wind on prairie] The easement insures that this land will never be developed.

- We have conservation easement because we want to preserve the habitat for the whooping cranes and for all the other animals and keep this bit of land natural.

It will never change.

Our land is on St. Charles Bay, which is 240 acres of wetlands for the whooping cranes.

[birds chirp] - NARRATOR: This prime coastal habitat will always be protected.

- We are surrounded by nature.

And I think it's our duty to keep that going, I mean to keep that wild.

I think it's important.

¡Importante!

- NARRATOR: Across the bay at the refuge, it's early morning and Dave is in the blind.

- WADE: Okay boys, get ready!

[cranes call] - DAVE: Got a bird, got a bird!

[truck spins tires] - BARRY: Look for the flagging on your right.

That's right here.

[crane squawks] I think you have the dominant male in your hand.

Okay, good.

- DAVE: Okay, PTT ID, 134349.

We attach these with two types of adhesion first one is glue secondary will be pop rivets.

So it's pretty much a permanent transmitter.

My feeling is I think that this project has long been needed.

There has been you know, very little information, scientifically concrete information that's been gathered on these birds.

This is enabling us to really concretely say or specifically say, "Yes here where these birds are stopping, here's how long they are spending here."

So it's some groundbreaking stuff!

- BARRY: Taking a look here to see what kind of condition his feathers are in, his flight feathers, his outer primaries.

What we are doing with capturing adult birds on the Aransas Refuge has never been done before.

- DAVE: Seven point two four.

- BARRY: So we are learning a lot about these birds in terms of their movements, their survival, their overall health.

What we can do to further their protection and conservation into the future.

Okay, we are good!

- FELIPE: You can go now!

[crane calls] Ah!

Oh yeah, he's good!

[waves] - We've got a pair of whooping cranes here, one adult in the pair is green over black color band, and blue radio band, I think they are doing well.

- NARRATOR: In all, the team banded 37 adult whooping cranes.

[computer clicks] - MATTHEW GONNERMAN: Twenty eleven o seven.

- WADE: This project gives us very fine scaled detail habitat information.

So we can actually go and look at locations where the birds have been, find out what type of vegetation is there, what type of food source is there.

So we really begin to better understand what the birds need day in and day out.

From their nesting area in Canada all the way down here to Texas.

- FELIPE: This is the last stronghold of the wild whooping crane flock.

So it's very important from that perspective.

This is the core.

I really feel a connection to it and would like to do as much as I can to help the species and I think this is one good way to get there!

[dramatic music and cranes call] ♪ ♪ Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[gentle piano music] ♪ ♪ - COLLIS PARK: It's the Fall.

It's a nice lazy lake to be on.

It's cool, a nice little campfire to keep you warm when it does get a little chilly at night.

Nice peaceful park.

- NARRATOR: Hidden away in a rolling valley southwest of Fort Worth is Cleburne State Park.

- We're 30 minutes, 40 minutes away from the Metroplex.

It's a super place to come to come and relax and enjoy a weekend.

[water flowing] - NARRATOR: The clear creeks and dense woods made the area an ideal spot for Native Americans and Chisholm Trail cowboys to camp and rest.

- Some of these trees have the little blue berries.

They're actually cones.

- NARRATOR: Ranger led hikes introduce visitors to the park's history and habitat.

- YOUNG SCOUT: The Indians ate the flowers off, they burned the thorns up... [bike tires on trail] - NARRATOR: Not everyone who visits the park today is here to relax.

- Those fit ok?

- Yeah, I got little hands.

- Yeah, me too.

- NARRATOR: Jim Hickman and his father own the Totally Spoked bike shop in nearby Cleburne.

They lead regular rides on the park's six-plus miles of trails.

- Cleburne, yeah, that's where we all ride.

You don't feel that you're so close to the city or so close to Fort Worth.

It has the feeling of a much more secluded, more wilderness type area once you are on the trails.

You're winding through the trees and you can kind of escape a little bit from the fact that you're only 10 minutes from work.

It's a nice escape.

- He's just down there laying on the bottom nibbling that liver off around the hook.

- NARRATOR: The centerpiece of Cleburne State Park is 116-acre Cedar Lake.

- STONEY: Been coming here since I was a little boy.

I like it out here, real nice and peaceful.

Pretty out here.

Yeah, really good one.

Lot of fish.

On a good day, a lot of fish.

- NARRATOR: The park was largely built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

- COLLIS: You can see names and dates in the mortar work and the rock work and the cement work that they've done here at the park.

Eighty years and it's still standing.

It's really cool.

[gentle piano music] - NARRATOR: Cleburne State Park is a little off the beaten path, but once you find it, chances are, you'll come back.

- This park is hidden, it's nice, it's quiet.

You can canoe, fish, mountain bike, hike, enjoy camping.

Just kick back and relax and not do a thing.

[gentle piano music] [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - Can y'all see it?

The branch kind of comes over.

He's just moving.

- Oh, I gotcha.

- NARRATOR: It's October in the Rio Grande Valley.

- MAN: Let's check this one.

- NARRATOR: These folks have come from near and far to the Edinburg Wetlands World Birding Center... - MAN: Let's go!

- NARRATOR: ...to appreciate a wealth of flying colors.

[camera shutter] - TOUR LEADER: Right there.

He's teensy.

[bird chirps] They just spotted a second U.S. record!

- NARRATOR: But these nature tourists aren't here for the birds.

- TOUR LEADER: Never seen it in the U.S. - NARRATOR: The flying things they're after are butterflies, and this is just one stop on the annual Texas Butterfly Festival.

[playful music] - South Texas is like heaven to birders.

Uh, it's also pretty spectacular for butterflies.

- Here we have a skipper.

- DAVID DAUPHIN: You can see more species of butterflies... - LEADER: White peacock.

- DAVID: ...than anywhere else in the United States.

- Oh yeah!

- It's just another aspect of the wildlife watching that's so fantastic here in the Valley.

- MAN: This is the malachite that we saw earlier.

- It brings attention to nature and is also a great economic support for our community.

[birds chirp] - NARRATOR: The popularity of chasing butterflies is a fairly new phenomenon.

- DAVID: Butterfly field guides didn't really start coming out until the mid-90s, I guess, and like birding, you eventually start checking them off a list and that sort of thing.

- MAN: These tropical ones have been seen at the park.

- DAVID: Butterfliers are really birders that have gone over to the dark side.

It's just a progression.

- Today I've found four or five lifers, butterflies I'd never seen before, and it's a great thrill.

- NARRATOR: Butterfly watching also draws those who just want to relax and enjoy some of nature's small wonders.

- WOMAN: You just can't help but be interested in it.

- MAN: I think they're beautiful.

I just like the colors.

- MAN 2: They're so pretty and they're so fragile and short-lived.

- NARRATOR: Though fragile indeed, one particular butterfly is known for its epic annual migration... - Right up on top.

- TOUR GUIDE: Monarch!

- NARRATOR: ...the monarch.

Each fall, millions of monarchs funnel through Texas from as far north as Canada, en route to their wintering sites in Central Mexico.

Along this Central Flyway, monarchs can be seen in flight or taking rest stops along their way.

- That was a bunch of them!

- NARRATOR: Catching sight of a monarch roost is something that landowners, like Dob and Kay Cunningham, look forward to.

- It's always a big thrill when they start coming in.

This part of Texas is kind of plain.

But there is a beauty in this country that you have to be patient and wait for, and the monarchs are one of those.

- I didn't know they were so unique and complicated.

And it is quite a phenomenon.

- NARRATOR: That these delicate insects can fly up to 3,000 miles, and somehow converge on the same patch of mountains in Mexico, is one of the miracles of nature.... - DOB: One of the most unique migrations that I've ever heard of.

- NARRATOR: ...But the miraculous monarch migration is in trouble.

- We still have masses of them, they're still coming, but not near the numbers.

- KAY: It brings joy to me to see them coming and great distress when I think the numbers have fallen.

- NARRATOR: What Texas ranchers have noticed has been confirmed by surveys.

- The numbers that are returning back to Mexico have declined considerably.

- NARRATOR: Monarch numbers have dropped to a fraction of those recorded when monitoring began in the early 1990s.

While there are concerns about illegal logging and cold snaps impacting wintering monarchs, their biggest challenges may be those they face on their return in the spring and their dependence on a single plant for reproduction.

- During the spring migration, we're not too aware of it, we don't see them in masses the way we see them in the fall, but that's when it's critical, because they're returning from Mexico, they're trying to lay eggs and the only host plant is milkweed or Asclepias.

- MAN: Because it's an international animal, you know Canada, the United States and Mexico, there are so many variables.

- We can help Texas lead the efforts in the recovery of the monarch butterfly.

- NARRATOR: As part of a tri-national restoration effort, Texas Parks and Wildlife has launched a native pollinator conservation plan.

- Everybody has a part to play in the recovery of the monarch and that's the beauty of it.

It doesn't matter whether you live in the city or the country, you can help restore habitat.

- It's decisions we make.

Planting flowers in a garden is a great start.

The best we can do is to be thoughtful about how we manage land.

You know, do we need to mow all the milkweed?

Do we cut down all the flowers in the fall in the roadside ditches, or do we leave some things for those butterflies that are coming back through?

And I think the more we understand that, the more we'll be able to do our part.

Look, there's a couple of milkweed bugs on the back side of this.

- NARRATOR: Park Interpreter, Craig Hensley, is certainly doing his part.

Craig oversees volunteers who monitor milkweed, monarchs and other butterflies each spring at Guadalupe River State Park.

- CRAIG: Isn't that a gorgeous butterfly?

Oh look a monarch right here!

Right there!

- Today is one of our butterfly surveys.

- CRAIG: Have you seen any eggs or larvae?

- MAN: No!

- CRAIG: We also monitor a patch of milkweed in the park for the Monarch Larval Monitoring Project.

- Why don't you get that one and I'll get this one.

We count milkweeds, look for monarch eggs.

We're just coming out of a drought and our milkweed has been low so we're really excited because we're seeing more and more stopping here and they are laying eggs.

Here it is.

- PAM: Oh cool!

- A lot of people feel if they follow the monarch, that they get an idea about the health of the whole ecosystem.

- CRAIG: These are arrivals from Mexico.

Yeah.

You know you start looking at the natural world and you see declines in bumblebee populations and other native pollinator populations, you see what's happening with the honey bee and... Alright, let's go out to the patch.

...you realize that you know there's a delicate balance of the natural world...

Here's the monarch egg.

...and it's amazing how much of that balance focuses on very very tiny little insects that we are highly dependent upon.

Without them we have potentially a lot less food in our grocery stores and it probably costs a lot more.

So the picture of the monarch is a bigger picture of pollinators in general.

A lot to learn about monarchs in Texas as they pass through, north and south.

Let's keep going!

- NARRATOR: Though focused on the big picture, for Craig, this is also personal.

- CRAIG: I have two grandchildren and I don't want them to grow up without the chance to see a monarch butterfly, and my fear is that possibility exists.

I think the world becomes a lesser place if we watch things like the monarch disappear or become rare.

Golly, look at that.

Right there!

They're gorgeous little animals... Now if we could just see another hundred of them.

...and a great gateway animal, especially for kids getting into nature.

- WOMAN: How many?

- A lot!

- NARRATOR: Back on the border, Carol Cullar also uses monarchs to introduce kids to nature.

- So if you'll put your finger up in the air.

You don't want to?

At first they're a little afraid of having it touch their finger, and by the end of the presentation they all want you to put the butterfly on their finger and they all want to say bye to the monarch and let it go.

- KIDS: Whoa!

- NARRATOR: Carol participates in a citizen science project, tagging monarchs during fall migration.

- CAROL: This little tag then traces where that butterfly came from... what day it was tagged... how many miles that it has flown down to Mexico.

- BOY: There he goes.

Happy trails!

- CAROL: We don't have all the answers.

We don't know every detail of this process.

We do get a lot of data just from that one tag.

- There's a soldier right in front of you there.

- NARRATOR: Meanwhile, just down river, the Texas Butterfly Festival wraps up with a splash of color at Falcon State Park.

- CHARLIE: Oh awesome.

- ANNA MARIE BEST: I've never seen anything like this.

- We've seen well over a hundred species here in this garden over a three day period.

- I've seen more butterflies in one day than I've seen in my whole life put together.

- MAN: A lot of butterflies.

- NARRATOR: Among the bounty of butterflies, and one fancy moth, are also many monarchs, gassing up at the butterfly garden before heading to Mexico.

- When he opens out, looks like a little jet plane.

Our manager wanted to do some landscaping in the park.

I said, why not let's make a butterfly garden.

It grew and grew and grew, 'til now we have about an acre of plants, all native right here to this area.

It's been successful beyond our wildest imaginations.

- NARRATOR: Whether by planting milkweed, or other native flowering plants... - CRAIG: See the white bar on the wings?

- NARRATOR: ...whether by studying butterflies, or just appreciating them... - MAN: Better angle from over here.

- NARRATOR: ...watching out for these colorful insects is something anyone can do.

- CRAIG: Building that awareness will hopefully make a difference.

- NARRATOR: In return, butterflies just might remind us, life is fragile and amazing, with much to admire in the smallest details.

- CRAIG: They're really awesome animals.

[upbeat music] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] - NARRATOR: This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.