- Coming up on "This American Land"... new technology could help critically endangered right whales avoid deadly entanglements in fishing gear.

- We're goin' the extra mile to try and sustain the fisheries and the wildlife.

- First, I love helping out.

And second, I just love being outside in the nature, walking, and love being around, you know, beautiful people.

- Immigrants and refugees are thrilled that their new home in the U.S. comes with a welcome from the great outdoors.

They are eager to protect it and celebrate it.

- Whoo!

- Some other folks we'll meet have ties to the land going back generations.

- We have it pretty easy now.

[chuckles] I go out and stand in Ada's shed in the winter when the wind's blowin', there's no insulation out there, and the wind's just rippin' through there, and they were some tough people.

I'm proud to come from that stock.

- Modern-day homesteaders want to preserve the family dwellings of their tough-as-nails ancestors.

So keep in step, we'll dive into the future of fishing to make our oceans safer.

- It's going great so far.

- And wherever your home sweet home is, "This American Land" starts now.

[dynamic music] ♪ ♪ - Hello, and welcome to "This American Land."

I'm your host, Ed Arnett.

And we've got some great stories for you today about America's landscapes, waters, and wildlife.

From coast to coast, you'll meet some of the dedicated people protecting our natural resources, whether it's safeguarding endangered species or helping to introduce a community to the great outdoors.

There's a determined effort underway to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

Their two enemies are ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear.

Now, some scientists and fishing crews are testing new ropeless equipment and their research is a crucial first step to try and protect the majestic animals that remain.

We went to the waters off the coast of Georgia to see the progress being made by these innovators.

- Our state marine mammal in Georgia is the North Atlantic right whale.

[whale spouts] We discovered that its calving grounds are off the coast of Georgia in the late '70s and early 1980s.

- Whoo!

- There's a lot of identity with the right whales down here.

While they're down here, they're not eating.

It's just the moms having the babies and nursing the babies and teaching 'em how to swim.

And, uh, for the length of my professional career, we've been working on conservation of the species.

However, the last few years, we've hit some road blocks.

- North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered.

There's 336 of them left here in North America.

[indistinct chatter] Rope entanglements, hmm.

They're a problem.

We know that whales can pick up rope from the bottom, we know they can pick it up vertically, and they can get tangled up in buoys on the surface.

- I got him.

He's in.

He's in.

He's in.

Back up, back up.

- Entanglement in thick, heavy rope or rope that has trailing gear, right, so big, heavy traps or a string of traps, can cause horrible abrasions, um, starvation, amputation...

I mean, it's-it's horrendous.

[dramatic music] And entanglement is a global problem, especially with some really healthy populations of whales that are rebounding in areas because of conservation.

The more whales there are in an area where there's commercial fishing, the greater the chances of an entanglement.

Who hasn't gotten rugburn in their life, right?

And that's what's happening to pretty much the whole surface of the animal where the rope is touching.

And they're trying to thrash and-and-and sort of roll around to get this line off, and it's pinching and cutting into them.

The worst possible outcome is death.

[surf crashing] [engine rumbling] - Well, there's a lot of people worrying about the whales right now.

[latches rattle] There's not a lot of people worrying about the fisherman.

[chuckles] Why don't you walk them over-- I'm Kim Sawicki.

I'm a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

And I'm also the founder of Sustainable Seas Technology.

This trailer goes around North America with me.

And we use the different tools and fishing gear in here to tweak fishing traps or pots.

- There we go.

- Through there, boss.

- I seen the whales out there.

And we should give them some kind of respect, you know?

- We're here with a bunch of black sea bass fishermen.

We're testing ropeless gear, "whale-safe" gear that's hopefully gonna be able to get these guys back open in their fishery.

We gotta weigh those first.

- So you in charge of this operation, or what?

Who's in charge here?

- Whoever's captaining the boat is in charge.

- We're goin' the extra mile to try and sustain the fisheries and the wildlife.

♪ ♪ - This is a unique gathering of fishermen, ropeless engineers, and gear researchers.

- We've all conceptualized creating a system that solves the same problem.

And we've all come about it in very different ways.

- The Pacman prototype right here.

- So now it, uh, blocked him off the ocean there, and we gotta put all the other gear down.

- This is a gear-marking system.

Those are the four that we just deployed.

- Still?

It's right over there.

- We're working on this project to be able to find some creative solutions that will hopefully get these guys back fishing in the winter where the whales are.

- We know that they're getting entangled in these lines, so the issue is getting rid of the lines in the water column.

[suspenseful music] - So our system uses an acoustic signal.

So either you have an on-demand rope... And then the other option is to actually create enough buoyancy to lift the trap up to the surface.

[indistinct chatter] - The Guardian system uses a galvanic timer to keep the buoy and rope with the pot on the bottom.

- So when the galvanic timer releases, it allows the buoy to come to the surface and then the fisherman is there to retrieve it.

- The key to success with the timers is just being there when they pop up so that there's the least chance for entanglement.

- The idea is that we need to let the guys handle the gear and really feel proficient with it... - I'll give you the phone here.

- And know they can do it on their own.

And then we need to let the decision be theirs.

"What is it you want it to do?"

"How should it be used?"

[sonar pings] - [chuckles] - I think part of the purpose of us being here is that these vendors and rule-makers or gear specialists are looking for the fisherman's input on how they need to build this equipment to suit us.

So, you know, right now, we have a special permit to use this gear.

And, hopefully, the data that we're collecting is gonna allow the fishery to be opened.

[soft upbeat music] But, um, truth is that we still have to be patient.

I been fishin' in the sea bass fishery my entire career.

Uh, it was probably between 60% and 80% of my income for this--you know, annually.

And, uh, we basically couldn't work 'bout six months out of the year, uh, after the closures.

♪ ♪ My name is Michael Cowdrey.

I'm a full-time commercial fisherman.

I been fishin' my entire life.

When my dad got out of the Marines, he had fell in love with fishin' and bought the "Lady Kay" which is the boat I have now.

In our fishin' business, our work is seasonal, okay?

So to be successful, you either find a fishery that makes you loads of money in that one season and you're set for the rest of the year, or you're like me and you have to fish multiple fisheries.

So what we're really lookin' to do here is fill in a void in our wintertime where we used to be very productive.

I'm at my house here in North Carolina in Sneads Ferry.

- This is the same distance on both of these.

- My son Landon is 14 and my daughter Gracelynn is 12.

And they're both homeschooled.

- That one's right.

Substitution.

- My wife was a teacher from Dixon, from our local school here.

- Okay.

[suspenseful music] - The fishery was jerked out from underneath us at a time it had been thriving.

Uh, we had no money.

We couldn't even afford rent.

And I wound up living as a homeless person on the Outer Banks.

There's been some years, especially through those closures, it was a very painful time.

I had to be separate from my family an awful lot.

It's, uh, sometimes more than one can bear.

My son, he enjoys fishing, but he has verbalized, "I don't wanna have to work the way Dad works."

♪ ♪ The fleet is declining, and young people are not getting into this fishing business at all.

♪ ♪ So when you see a video of a whale entanglement, you need to understand that the repercussions of the solutions to that, they impact a man and his wife and their children and a whole community of people.

There is a human aspect here that is very important.

- They're really good guys.

And they've gotten kicked around a lot.

- [indistinct] Cut a piece of wire with those.

- Okay.

- And I just think it's time that someone takes an interest in them and helps them with a problem instead of just shutting things down on them.

I mean, it's-it's a struggle.

So, you know, it's not just about saving the whales.

Kind of about saving the fishermen too.

[acoustic guitar music] - Remember your last hike?

Fresh air, beautiful scenery, and no stress?

Well, that's a brand-new experience for some people who've escaped dangers in troubled parts of the world.

The Refugee Women's Network in Atlanta is helping newcomers conquer all sorts of challenges.

And time spent in the outdoors is helping them build the strength and courage to do it.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - So he is the one who just-- ♪ ♪ - [speaking language] ♪ ♪ - Welcome to Panola Mountain.

I'm Temple.

I know most of y'all.

We have done seven hikes in beautiful places in Georgia.

And this is something we talk about a lot, which is stewardship and conservation, giving back.

- [speaking language] - So it means that, uh, you are taker and you are giver.

When you take something, you're supposed to give it back something better.

- Service, um, to me, it's giving back, obviously, uh, but it's also taking care of someone or something that you care about.

♪ ♪ - Here is another place, it's, like, a lot-- - Refugee Women's Network is a 25-year-old organization located in Clarkston and Decatur, Georgia.

We help empower refugee and immigrant women in areas of leadership, health, um, education, and self-sufficiencies.

We're really excited for these courageous women who have come to give back.

- My name is Katherine Moore.

I'm honored to serve as president of Georgia Conservancy.

♪ ♪ Panola Mountain is a place where we often stage service projects.

That ensures that these places are as well-maintained as possible.

I think deepens the connections that individuals have with our public lands.

For us to find a relationship like the one we have with the Refugee Women's Network, to welcome the newest Georgians to Georgia's special places, feels incredibly rewarding.

♪ ♪ - This is a children's play area that's been overgrown by grass, so we are taking the grass out and putting the mulch in to make it play-friendly again.

- First, I love helping out.

And second, I just love being outside in the nature, walking, and love being around, you know, beautiful people.

My name is Kimona Malembou.

I am from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This place here, uh, you can speak up your mind.

It doesn't matter where you came from, if you can speak English well or not, you got a group of people who are there to support you.

- Y'all ready?

- Yeah.

- Cool.

Let's go this way then.

- We're also very experienced hikers.

This is our-- this is our eighth hike.

[indistinct chatter] - So "sips of gratitude" was a way of saying, "Let's take a pause.

"Let's put down our phones.

Let's look at each other.

"Let's take a sip and think about something we're grateful for."

- Everything that God has provided us with, life, eating, water, everything.

- I am also grateful for the community.

And, the last time I had gone hiking with y'all, I was very stressed about work.

And it's so nice to be on the other end to just-- able to just, like, enjoy.

- [speaking language] - So I'm a housewife.

I don't work outside.

I have kids.

So when it's weekend, I try to give one day to myself and just go out and have the time for myself.

Also, this is my second year in hiking group and I'm also trying to encourage other women to come and join us.

- I never, never, ever went hiking before.

So I was confused what I should wear.

But, Temple, she give us the whole details about the clothes, about the shoes, about the--um, even sunblock.

We have different clients from different communities, like, from Arab communities, Africa, from Afghanistan.

So it's a good chance to meet with another people, uh, to talk with another woman.

So it's really important to support these women.

♪ ♪ - We work with women who are newly arrived here all the way to maybe they've been here 20 years.

'Course people are coming from conflict zones, from poverty.

They may be highly educated in their home country but may not be able to be employed here.

I did volunteer and did some research at a place in London for asylum-seekers that were survivors of torture and trauma.

So I was able to, for eight months, go on monthly hikes.

And as they got stronger, we were able to climb the three highest peaks of the UK.

That was such an inspiration that when I started to work at Refugee Women's Network and asked Sushma, our director, about starting a hiking group, she quickly agreed.

- Hi.

Oh, my gosh.

I've never seen the three of you together.

- Yeah.

- Really?

[chuckles] - No.

This is so cute.

Aww.

- My name's Mary.

This will be my second time kayaking.

I did it once in Nigeria.

And I think I loved the experience enough to want to continue it.

- My name is Gulbahar.

I'm originally from Tajikistan.

I'm here in the States for the last one month, so I'm kind of new.

[chuckles] It's the first experience for me kayaking.

- You wanna put your hands on both sides, try and stay centered.

And when you put your feet in there, there's two pedals.

And the big part at the top.

So you wanna put it over your head like that and then go like this... That's good.

You're good.

No, you're good.

- Oh, I feel happy.

So happy.

You know, for a long time, I wanted to do this.

I'm a hiker, but I've never been on the water in a kayak.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

It--this was in my bucket list.

[chuckles] [laughter] - This?

[indistinct chatter] ♪ ♪ - Yeah.

♪ ♪ [giggling] ♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] - [laughing] - It's going great so far.

A little trouble turning, but--[giggles] I think--wait, wait.

It's the other way around.

- Nahid, how's it going?

- Whoo!

- Just paddle on your right.

Keep paddling on your right.

- I know.

- Yeah.

There you go.

♪ ♪ [chuckling] ♪ ♪ - Hey.

- Ooh, I think I'm getting it.

- How's it going for you?

- Wonderful.

[chuckles] - My sisters are having so much fun, oh, my God.

You can hear them just... squealing back there.

- You know, everything takes time.

Was, like, 30 minutes they figured it out.

That was good.

Everybody's happy.

- It was great.

Thank you.

- That really gets us out of, like, our comfort zone.

That's basically what growth is.

Like--I don't know.

Maybe wanna make me try more things that are, like, something that I wouldn't do but, like, it turns out to be, like, super fun.

♪ ♪ - Well, I would say half of the women today probably didn't know how to swim.

That's a leap.

That's so scary.

They trusted that people from Refugee Women's Network were gonna put their safety first.

I feel like I'm so honored to be in the presence of people that overcome obstacles, um, and bond together and help each other.

♪ ♪ [acoustic guitar music] - Early settlers in the West battled isolation and dangerous terrain to build their homes and new lives.

Some of the descendants of these homesteaders are finding ways to preserve the undeveloped, raw beauty of these lands.

Kris Millgate has more on the protections designed that'll last generations to come.

- There's an influx of people moving to Western states, but this isn't the West's first mass migration.

That happened more than a century ago with the Homestead Act.

Some of those homesteads are still standing today, representing the last chunks of land that are not subdivisions.

And if the owners have their way, those original homesteads will still be standing, undeveloped, in the next century.

- Ada and Dudley Armstrong... they're my grandparents, and they moved from Virginia in 1897.

They homesteaded this and it's still in the family.

♪ ♪ I'm the one that inherited this.

[latch rattles] It's really home to me on a lot of levels.

Yeah.

These partitions were in here because we used it as a granary.

But it was open when she was living in it.

This was the kitchen area.

That was her little shelf for flour and things.

You can see here where the potbelly stove went up through there.

You can see the old wallpaper remnants on the wall.

We have it pretty easy now.

[chuckles] I go out and stand in Ada's shed in the winter when the wind's blowin, there's no insulation out there, and the wind's just rippin' through there, and they were some tough people.

I'm proud to come from that stock.

[gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Well, I'm not gonna live forever, and I feel like I'm just a steward here, a placeholder for this property, and when I'm not here anymore, whoever owns this, they're not gonna be able to develop it.

♪ ♪ - This property is located in what's considered to be the sagebrush steppe ecosystem.

♪ ♪ There's a lek on this property.

A lek is an area where the sharp-tailed grouse gather every spring to perform their mating ritual, which is a really elaborate and really unique ritual.

- And you can see 'em just doing their dance and it's really impressive.

- If there's a subdivision here, you're not gonna see the grouse.

You're not gonna see the wildlife.

- We have put it in conservation easement so that it can never be developed.

When I was growin' up, there was, like, maybe 100 people here, 150.

And now everybody's breakin' off pieces and people are comin' from town and buildin' houses, and so we're gonna protect our property from that.

- Conservation easements are a way that gives a landowner peace of mind.

And no matter who owns the property in the future, the rights and the restrictions that are included in that conservation easement agreement are going to continue to the next generation and beyond.

- Grandma worked really hard with all the hard sweat and tears to make it possible for me to live here.

And just to divide it up and sell it for money, I think is just really wrong.

Uh, disrespectful to her and disrespectful to the Native Americans who this land originally belonged to.

- There's a lot of rich history here, and they're paying tribute to their heritage and tribute to the people that came-- that were here before us.

- We need to remember where we came from, and we need to remember who paved the way and how hard that was.

And we need to not forget that.

♪ ♪ [acoustic guitar music] - Viewers often ask us how they can get involved with activities that strengthen our connections to the great outdoors.

Temple Moore from the Refugee Women's Network says start out simple, be consistent, and make everyone welcome.

- I think the first is getting involved with an organization and building trust and knowing what that community or organization needs.

As far as getting outside, you know, once you take that first step in the woods, um, that's gonna be something that connects you to your local environment.

And you might meet other people that are interested in doing the same thing.

And so a lot of it starts with trust.

It starts with taking that brave first step.

And then if you're wanting to start a group, it is about, you know, becoming trusted by a community, and being consistent, and, um, keeping it simple so everyone has a good time and feels successful at the end.

♪ ♪ - Now, here's a look at some stories from our next show.

- These desert tortoises live in a tough neighborhood.

[gunshots] - How do we conserve the species while also allowing the Marines to train.

- In the Mojave Desert, scientists and U.S. Marines go the extra mile to protect this threatened reptile, and it's working.

- The other side of it is stewardship, what Marines do.

We protect America.

We protect America's resources for future posterity.

- [yells] all: Oorah!

- The care and feeding of North Carolina's beaches.

They're the lifeblood of the state's tourism, but threatened by storms and sea level rise.

- We really enjoy being waterfront and seein' how it changes-- how we lose sand, how we gain sand.

The bad part is, you know, when the hurricanes come, we're gonna be the ones that get the first hit.

- Next time on "This American Land."

- Thanks for joining us.

And be sure to check us out on social media.

We'll see you next time on "This American Land."

- For more information about "This American Land," check out our YouTube channel and watch us on PBS Passport.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - Coming up on "This American Land"... new technology could help critically endangered right whales avoid deadly entanglements in fishing gear.

- We're goin' the extra mile to try and sustain the fisheries and the wildlife.

- First, I love helping out.

And second, I just love being outside in the nature, walking, and love being around, you know, beautiful people.

- Immigrants and refugees are thrilled that their new home in the U.S. comes with a welcome from the great outdoors.

They are eager to protect it and celebrate it.

- Whoo!

- Some other folks we'll meet have ties to the land going back generations.

- We have it pretty easy now.

[chuckles] I go out and stand in Ada's shed in the winter when the wind's blowin', there's no insulation out there, and the wind's just rippin' through there, and they were some tough people.

I'm proud to come from that stock.

- Modern-day homesteaders want to preserve the family dwellings of their tough-as-nails ancestors.

So keep in step, we'll dive into the future of fishing to make our oceans safer.

- It's going great so far.

- And wherever your home sweet home is, "This American Land" starts now.

[dynamic music] ♪ ♪ - Hello, and welcome to "This American Land."

I'm your host, Ed Arnett.

And we've got some great stories for you today about America's landscapes, waters, and wildlife.

From coast to coast, you'll meet some of the dedicated people protecting our natural resources, whether it's safeguarding endangered species or helping to introduce a community to the great outdoors.

There's a determined effort underway to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

Their two enemies are ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear.

Now, some scientists and fishing crews are testing new ropeless equipment and their research is a crucial first step to try and protect the majestic animals that remain.

We went to the waters off the coast of Georgia to see the progress being made by these innovators.

- Our state marine mammal in Georgia is the North Atlantic right whale.

[whale spouts] We discovered that its calving grounds are off the coast of Georgia in the late '70s and early 1980s.

- Whoo!

- There's a lot of identity with the right whales down here.

While they're down here, they're not eating.

It's just the moms having the babies and nursing the babies and teaching 'em how to swim.

And, uh, for the length of my professional career, we've been working on conservation of the species.

However, the last few years, we've hit some road blocks.

- North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered.

There's 336 of them left here in North America.

[indistinct chatter] Rope entanglements, hmm.

They're a problem.

We know that whales can pick up rope from the bottom, we know they can pick it up vertically, and they can get tangled up in buoys on the surface.

- I got him.

He's in.

He's in.

He's in.

Back up, back up.

- Entanglement in thick, heavy rope or rope that has trailing gear, right, so big, heavy traps or a string of traps, can cause horrible abrasions, um, starvation, amputation...

I mean, it's-it's horrendous.

[dramatic music] And entanglement is a global problem, especially with some really healthy populations of whales that are rebounding in areas because of conservation.

The more whales there are in an area where there's commercial fishing, the greater the chances of an entanglement.

Who hasn't gotten rugburn in their life, right?

And that's what's happening to pretty much the whole surface of the animal where the rope is touching.

And they're trying to thrash and-and-and sort of roll around to get this line off, and it's pinching and cutting into them.

The worst possible outcome is death.

[surf crashing] [engine rumbling] - Well, there's a lot of people worrying about the whales right now.

[latches rattle] There's not a lot of people worrying about the fisherman.

[chuckles] Why don't you walk them over-- I'm Kim Sawicki.

I'm a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

And I'm also the founder of Sustainable Seas Technology.

This trailer goes around North America with me.

And we use the different tools and fishing gear in here to tweak fishing traps or pots.

- There we go.

- Through there, boss.

- I seen the whales out there.

And we should give them some kind of respect, you know?

- We're here with a bunch of black sea bass fishermen.

We're testing ropeless gear, "whale-safe" gear that's hopefully gonna be able to get these guys back open in their fishery.

We gotta weigh those first.

- So you in charge of this operation, or what?

Who's in charge here?

- Whoever's captaining the boat is in charge.

- We're goin' the extra mile to try and sustain the fisheries and the wildlife.

♪ ♪ - This is a unique gathering of fishermen, ropeless engineers, and gear researchers.

- We've all conceptualized creating a system that solves the same problem.

And we've all come about it in very different ways.

- The Pacman prototype right here.

- So now it, uh, blocked him off the ocean there, and we gotta put all the other gear down.

- This is a gear-marking system.

Those are the four that we just deployed.

- Still?

It's right over there.

- We're working on this project to be able to find some creative solutions that will hopefully get these guys back fishing in the winter where the whales are.

- We know that they're getting entangled in these lines, so the issue is getting rid of the lines in the water column.

[suspenseful music] - So our system uses an acoustic signal.

So either you have an on-demand rope... And then the other option is to actually create enough buoyancy to lift the trap up to the surface.

[indistinct chatter] - The Guardian system uses a galvanic timer to keep the buoy and rope with the pot on the bottom.

- So when the galvanic timer releases, it allows the buoy to come to the surface and then the fisherman is there to retrieve it.

- The key to success with the timers is just being there when they pop up so that there's the least chance for entanglement.

- The idea is that we need to let the guys handle the gear and really feel proficient with it... - I'll give you the phone here.

- And know they can do it on their own.

And then we need to let the decision be theirs.

"What is it you want it to do?"

"How should it be used?"

[sonar pings] - [chuckles] - I think part of the purpose of us being here is that these vendors and rule-makers or gear specialists are looking for the fisherman's input on how they need to build this equipment to suit us.

So, you know, right now, we have a special permit to use this gear.

And, hopefully, the data that we're collecting is gonna allow the fishery to be opened.

[soft upbeat music] But, um, truth is that we still have to be patient.

I been fishin' in the sea bass fishery my entire career.

Uh, it was probably between 60% and 80% of my income for this--you know, annually.

And, uh, we basically couldn't work 'bout six months out of the year, uh, after the closures.

♪ ♪ My name is Michael Cowdrey.

I'm a full-time commercial fisherman.

I been fishin' my entire life.

When my dad got out of the Marines, he had fell in love with fishin' and bought the "Lady Kay" which is the boat I have now.

In our fishin' business, our work is seasonal, okay?

So to be successful, you either find a fishery that makes you loads of money in that one season and you're set for the rest of the year, or you're like me and you have to fish multiple fisheries.

So what we're really lookin' to do here is fill in a void in our wintertime where we used to be very productive.

I'm at my house here in North Carolina in Sneads Ferry.

- This is the same distance on both of these.

- My son Landon is 14 and my daughter Gracelynn is 12.

And they're both homeschooled.

- That one's right.

Substitution.

- My wife was a teacher from Dixon, from our local school here.

- Okay.

[suspenseful music] - The fishery was jerked out from underneath us at a time it had been thriving.

Uh, we had no money.

We couldn't even afford rent.

And I wound up living as a homeless person on the Outer Banks.

There's been some years, especially through those closures, it was a very painful time.

I had to be separate from my family an awful lot.

It's, uh, sometimes more than one can bear.

My son, he enjoys fishing, but he has verbalized, "I don't wanna have to work the way Dad works."

♪ ♪ The fleet is declining, and young people are not getting into this fishing business at all.

♪ ♪ So when you see a video of a whale entanglement, you need to understand that the repercussions of the solutions to that, they impact a man and his wife and their children and a whole community of people.

There is a human aspect here that is very important.

- They're really good guys.

And they've gotten kicked around a lot.

- [indistinct] Cut a piece of wire with those.

- Okay.

- And I just think it's time that someone takes an interest in them and helps them with a problem instead of just shutting things down on them.

I mean, it's-it's a struggle.

So, you know, it's not just about saving the whales.

Kind of about saving the fishermen too.

[acoustic guitar music] - Remember your last hike?

Fresh air, beautiful scenery, and no stress?

Well, that's a brand-new experience for some people who've escaped dangers in troubled parts of the world.

The Refugee Women's Network in Atlanta is helping newcomers conquer all sorts of challenges.

And time spent in the outdoors is helping them build the strength and courage to do it.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - So he is the one who just-- ♪ ♪ - [speaking language] ♪ ♪ - Welcome to Panola Mountain.

I'm Temple.

I know most of y'all.

We have done seven hikes in beautiful places in Georgia.

And this is something we talk about a lot, which is stewardship and conservation, giving back.

- [speaking language] - So it means that, uh, you are taker and you are giver.

When you take something, you're supposed to give it back something better.

- Service, um, to me, it's giving back, obviously, uh, but it's also taking care of someone or something that you care about.

♪ ♪ - Here is another place, it's, like, a lot-- - Refugee Women's Network is a 25-year-old organization located in Clarkston and Decatur, Georgia.

We help empower refugee and immigrant women in areas of leadership, health, um, education, and self-sufficiencies.

We're really excited for these courageous women who have come to give back.

- My name is Katherine Moore.

I'm honored to serve as president of Georgia Conservancy.

♪ ♪ Panola Mountain is a place where we often stage service projects.

That ensures that these places are as well-maintained as possible.

I think deepens the connections that individuals have with our public lands.

For us to find a relationship like the one we have with the Refugee Women's Network, to welcome the newest Georgians to Georgia's special places, feels incredibly rewarding.

♪ ♪ - This is a children's play area that's been overgrown by grass, so we are taking the grass out and putting the mulch in to make it play-friendly again.

- First, I love helping out.

And second, I just love being outside in the nature, walking, and love being around, you know, beautiful people.

My name is Kimona Malembou.

I am from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This place here, uh, you can speak up your mind.

It doesn't matter where you came from, if you can speak English well or not, you got a group of people who are there to support you.

- Y'all ready?

- Yeah.

- Cool.

Let's go this way then.

- We're also very experienced hikers.

This is our-- this is our eighth hike.

[indistinct chatter] - So "sips of gratitude" was a way of saying, "Let's take a pause.

"Let's put down our phones.

Let's look at each other.

"Let's take a sip and think about something we're grateful for."

- Everything that God has provided us with, life, eating, water, everything.

- I am also grateful for the community.

And, the last time I had gone hiking with y'all, I was very stressed about work.

And it's so nice to be on the other end to just-- able to just, like, enjoy.

- [speaking language] - So I'm a housewife.

I don't work outside.

I have kids.

So when it's weekend, I try to give one day to myself and just go out and have the time for myself.

Also, this is my second year in hiking group and I'm also trying to encourage other women to come and join us.

- I never, never, ever went hiking before.

So I was confused what I should wear.

But, Temple, she give us the whole details about the clothes, about the shoes, about the--um, even sunblock.

We have different clients from different communities, like, from Arab communities, Africa, from Afghanistan.

So it's a good chance to meet with another people, uh, to talk with another woman.

So it's really important to support these women.

♪ ♪ - We work with women who are newly arrived here all the way to maybe they've been here 20 years.

'Course people are coming from conflict zones, from poverty.

They may be highly educated in their home country but may not be able to be employed here.

I did volunteer and did some research at a place in London for asylum-seekers that were survivors of torture and trauma.

So I was able to, for eight months, go on monthly hikes.

And as they got stronger, we were able to climb the three highest peaks of the UK.

That was such an inspiration that when I started to work at Refugee Women's Network and asked Sushma, our director, about starting a hiking group, she quickly agreed.

- Hi.

Oh, my gosh.

I've never seen the three of you together.

- Yeah.

- Really?

[chuckles] - No.

This is so cute.

Aww.

- My name's Mary.

This will be my second time kayaking.

I did it once in Nigeria.

And I think I loved the experience enough to want to continue it.

- My name is Gulbahar.

I'm originally from Tajikistan.

I'm here in the States for the last one month, so I'm kind of new.

[chuckles] It's the first experience for me kayaking.

- You wanna put your hands on both sides, try and stay centered.

And when you put your feet in there, there's two pedals.

And the big part at the top.

So you wanna put it over your head like that and then go like this... That's good.

You're good.

No, you're good.

- Oh, I feel happy.

So happy.

You know, for a long time, I wanted to do this.

I'm a hiker, but I've never been on the water in a kayak.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

It--this was in my bucket list.

[chuckles] [laughter] - This?

[indistinct chatter] ♪ ♪ - Yeah.

♪ ♪ [giggling] ♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] - [laughing] - It's going great so far.

A little trouble turning, but--[giggles] I think--wait, wait.

It's the other way around.

- Nahid, how's it going?

- Whoo!

- Just paddle on your right.

Keep paddling on your right.

- I know.

- Yeah.

There you go.

♪ ♪ [chuckling] ♪ ♪ - Hey.

- Ooh, I think I'm getting it.

- How's it going for you?

- Wonderful.

[chuckles] - My sisters are having so much fun, oh, my God.

You can hear them just... squealing back there.

- You know, everything takes time.

Was, like, 30 minutes they figured it out.

That was good.

Everybody's happy.

- It was great.

Thank you.

- That really gets us out of, like, our comfort zone.

That's basically what growth is.

Like--I don't know.

Maybe wanna make me try more things that are, like, something that I wouldn't do but, like, it turns out to be, like, super fun.

♪ ♪ - Well, I would say half of the women today probably didn't know how to swim.

That's a leap.

That's so scary.

They trusted that people from Refugee Women's Network were gonna put their safety first.

I feel like I'm so honored to be in the presence of people that overcome obstacles, um, and bond together and help each other.

♪ ♪ [acoustic guitar music] - Early settlers in the West battled isolation and dangerous terrain to build their homes and new lives.

Some of the descendants of these homesteaders are finding ways to preserve the undeveloped, raw beauty of these lands.

Kris Millgate has more on the protections designed that'll last generations to come.

- There's an influx of people moving to Western states, but this isn't the West's first mass migration.

That happened more than a century ago with the Homestead Act.

Some of those homesteads are still standing today, representing the last chunks of land that are not subdivisions.

And if the owners have their way, those original homesteads will still be standing, undeveloped, in the next century.

- Ada and Dudley Armstrong... they're my grandparents, and they moved from Virginia in 1897.

They homesteaded this and it's still in the family.

♪ ♪ I'm the one that inherited this.

[latch rattles] It's really home to me on a lot of levels.

Yeah.

These partitions were in here because we used it as a granary.

But it was open when she was living in it.

This was the kitchen area.

That was her little shelf for flour and things.

You can see here where the potbelly stove went up through there.

You can see the old wallpaper remnants on the wall.

We have it pretty easy now.

[chuckles] I go out and stand in Ada's shed in the winter when the wind's blowin, there's no insulation out there, and the wind's just rippin' through there, and they were some tough people.

I'm proud to come from that stock.

[gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Well, I'm not gonna live forever, and I feel like I'm just a steward here, a placeholder for this property, and when I'm not here anymore, whoever owns this, they're not gonna be able to develop it.

♪ ♪ - This property is located in what's considered to be the sagebrush steppe ecosystem.

♪ ♪ There's a lek on this property.

A lek is an area where the sharp-tailed grouse gather every spring to perform their mating ritual, which is a really elaborate and really unique ritual.

- And you can see 'em just doing their dance and it's really impressive.

- If there's a subdivision here, you're not gonna see the grouse.

You're not gonna see the wildlife.

- We have put it in conservation easement so that it can never be developed.

When I was growin' up, there was, like, maybe 100 people here, 150.

And now everybody's breakin' off pieces and people are comin' from town and buildin' houses, and so we're gonna protect our property from that.

- Conservation easements are a way that gives a landowner peace of mind.

And no matter who owns the property in the future, the rights and the restrictions that are included in that conservation easement agreement are going to continue to the next generation and beyond.

- Grandma worked really hard with all the hard sweat and tears to make it possible for me to live here.

And just to divide it up and sell it for money, I think is just really wrong.

Uh, disrespectful to her and disrespectful to the Native Americans who this land originally belonged to.

- There's a lot of rich history here, and they're paying tribute to their heritage and tribute to the people that came-- that were here before us.

- We need to remember where we came from, and we need to remember who paved the way and how hard that was.

And we need to not forget that.

♪ ♪ [acoustic guitar music] - Viewers often ask us how they can get involved with activities that strengthen our connections to the great outdoors.

Temple Moore from the Refugee Women's Network says start out simple, be consistent, and make everyone welcome.

- I think the first is getting involved with an organization and building trust and knowing what that community or organization needs.

As far as getting outside, you know, once you take that first step in the woods, um, that's gonna be something that connects you to your local environment.

And you might meet other people that are interested in doing the same thing.

And so a lot of it starts with trust.

It starts with taking that brave first step.

And then if you're wanting to start a group, it is about, you know, becoming trusted by a community, and being consistent, and, um, keeping it simple so everyone has a good time and feels successful at the end.

♪ ♪ - Now, here's a look at some stories from our next show.

- These desert tortoises live in a tough neighborhood.

[gunshots] - How do we conserve the species while also allowing the Marines to train.

- In the Mojave Desert, scientists and U.S. Marines go the extra mile to protect this threatened reptile, and it's working.

- The other side of it is stewardship, what Marines do.

We protect America.

We protect America's resources for future posterity.

- [yells] all: Oorah!

- The care and feeding of North Carolina's beaches.

They're the lifeblood of the state's tourism, but threatened by storms and sea level rise.

- We really enjoy being waterfront and seein' how it changes-- how we lose sand, how we gain sand.

The bad part is, you know, when the hurricanes come, we're gonna be the ones that get the first hit.

- Next time on "This American Land."

- Thanks for joining us.

And be sure to check us out on social media.

We'll see you next time on "This American Land."

- For more information about "This American Land," check out our YouTube channel and watch us on PBS Passport.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪