- 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... - This erosion is pretty substantial, we're looking at about fifteen, twenty feet.

It shouldn't be like that.

- When we purchased this land, it had been very overgrazed and not very much grass at all.

- When you're in San Angelo State Park, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but we're just right on the edge of town.

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

[seagulls squawk] [piano music] - NARRATOR: It's an island by many names.

Bird Island by locals.

[waves crashing] Sundown Island by some.

- This is in the top three of biggest, bestest of the rookeries in Texas.

- CHESTER: I always liked birds.

It's fun to come out here and see what's going on.

- NARRATOR: But to those who ever met Chester Smith, who dedicated his life to watching over these birds, this is Chester Island.

- This island used to be 100 acres.

Right now it's sitting at 65 and we're losing, depending on which side of the island, we lose as much as 30 feet during a year because of storms, because of ship wake, and you can actually see a ship coming now.

[whirring] [water lapping] Over the last several years, Sundown Island continues to erode away, and that's bad news for these birds, the birds that use this island every year to nest.

[gentle piano music] - NARRATOR: Sundown came to be in 1962.

While building the Matagorda ship channel, all the extra sand and sediment called dredge spoil was molded into this island.

[birds squawk] It turned into one of the best rookeries, or bird nurseries, along the Texas coast.

- For miles around, miles and miles around, this is the only game in town.

All those birds that feed and live in that area come to this one island, and that's their nursery.

That's their home.

That's where they're making babies and raising families.

[birds squawking] - CHESTER: That's a pelican nest with only two eggs.

- NARRATOR: For 25 years, Chester Smith worked for the National Audubon Society as a watcher of sorts.

A caretaker for the birds.

- CHESTER: I have a lot of birds that are beautiful when they're in their mating colors, so one of my favorite is the reddish egret.

Reddish egret is on the threatened list.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: Chester passed away back in 2011 and left behind a thriving rookery island.

But it's now in need of some attention.

- Yeah, we like to come out and make sure, kind of keep an eye on the erosion throughout the year.

We don't like to be out here during nesting season so we keep that to a minimum.

This erosion is pretty substantial.

We're looking at about 15, 20 feet, a cliff of about 15, 20 feet, and just above that you've got birds nesting.

Next year this area may not be here anymore to provide nesting habitat for those birds.

It shouldn't be like that.

[birds squawking] Sundown Island hosts 18 species of colonial water birds.

That's everything from brown pelicans to laughing gulls.

[water lapping on shoreline] More importantly, species of conservation concern like black skimmer, reddish egret.

It's got white ibis.

[chirping] It's impressive the diversity on this island and that's why it's important for us to also create diverse habitat on this island where we can.

[birds cawing] You can see that in this area there's still some bare ground spots which end up being great habitat for terns.

[birds cawing] Once it starts to get like these sunflowers on the perimeter, it's too vegetated for those birds to use.

They like bare ground ideally.

That only happens when we get dredge spoil.

[waves crashing] - NARRATOR: Who helps make sure Sundown gets that much needed sand?

It's still in the family.

Chester's daughter Peggy and her husband Tim now keep an eye on Sundown.

- Chester's footprints are pretty big.

It's really special to be able to come out and walk the same trails that he walked for 25 years.

- CHESTER: There's some beautiful great egret chick.

You can tell they're great egrets because they have a yellow beak and have green eyeshadow.

- TIM: I tell Peggy that you walk around the corner and you can just imagine still Chester coming around and meeting you there and getting you to work on a project.

[whirring] - NARRATOR: This latest project, a massive dredge is pumping tons and tons of sand out to Sundown.

- DAVID STUDER: It's about 16,000 feet all together, a discharge line from here to Sundown Island.

- NARRATOR: This is a win-win.

The dredge is here to maintain and deepen the ship channel, while Sundown gets the sand.

[loud whirring] - DAVID: The cutter's down on the bottom.

We're digging the material.

We're getting about 20,000 gallons a minute.

We pump water and sand mixed together.

[loud splashing] - ANDREW: This material is looking really, really good.

Even with it being as wet as it is, you can walk right out and stand on it which is an indication of just fantastic dredge material.

- NARRATOR: Andrew Smith from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been helping to replenish Sundown's shores for decades.

- Come on, Chester, let's look at this pipe.

We've been able to use maintenance material to come out and again start to renourish Sundown Island, and this particular job is one where we're going to put more material on Sundown than we have in the last 10 years at least.

- ILIANA: Everything looks great.

It's real easy to imagine here in a month or two a lot of terns and other ground nesting birds looking at all this and thinking that it looks really good.

- ANDREW: It's stacking.

We're building quite a bit of island.

The material is very firm, even all the way to the water line.

I think it looks fantastic.

- NARRATOR: In a way, it seems like Chester's still here.

- CHESTER: That is stacking up like I like it.

- Probably the bigger reason why we're standing out in this part of the bay and on this island is absolutely because of Chester and his dedication to the island.

[acoustic guitar music] There's no doubt that we want to do as much as we can to preserve and protect this and enhance it.

[acoustic guitar music] - CHESTER: Look at the plumes on that great egret.

Isn't that beautiful?

Those two there, look at there.

- NARRATOR: As for the birds that rely on Sundown, it looks like Chester's vision is alive and well.

- TIM: I feel like his spirit is still here in a way.

- CHESTER: See that spoonbill on his nest now?

[honking] - TIM: It is a special place to us beyond just the birds.

It's all that time that Chester invested to make this a special place.

- ILIANA: It warms my heart to see this kind of work because it's very easy to imagine him looking down on us and thinking, "Y'all are doing great.

You're doing a great job."

It's a beautiful thing.

[acoustic guitar music] - NARRATOR: About an hour and a half northeast of Dallas lives a typical American family with a very unique backyard.

[upbeat music] They live on one of the largest remaining tracts of tall grass prairie in Texas.

And they're working together to save what's left.

- When we purchased this land, it had been very overgrazed and not very much grass at all.

We've been on a 20-year journey of patience, persistence and perspiration.

Okay, let's go check on the mamas.

- NARRATOR: Taking care of the ranch is a family affair.

- Without everybody jumping in there and doing their part, we couldn't do it.

Everybody is a great part of this whole operation.

- NARRATOR: Including some hungry goats.

[goats bleating] The family brought in goats to help clear the brush that was crowding out native grasses.

- I help my dad and my mom with the goats.

My name is William and I'm 12 years old.

It's just really fun because the goats are my size so they're not gonna overpower me and it's just fun to be out there with them.

[goat bleating] - NARRATOR: As the grass improved, the family was able to transition the land to a working cattle ranch.

- My name is Christian Ebel and I'm 15 years old.

Today we're moving the cows across the poly fence.

They're gonna be moving into a new pasture which has grass for them to eat.

- KARL: If it gets a break, those grass plants will recover quite well.

That's the way the system came to be with the large herds of buffalo that would come in and graze very intensely, and then they would leave and let the plant rest again.

But we mimic that when we use rotational grazing and let those plants have a rest period.

- Some animal species were pushed out when humans moved in and we're trying to bring them back and give them a habitat that they can live in like it was before.

- Prairies have been known to have over 350 species.

They're incredibly diverse.

They are remarkable at flood mitigation.

They can hold incredible amounts of water.

And they're also incredible at carbon storage because of the deep roots of the prairie system.

- NARRATOR: As they help the prairie recover, the Ebel family has been generous in - KELLI: We're entering the prairie ecosystem... - JEFF: The Ebels have been just so incredible in not only the restoration work that they have done on this property, but the outreach they do in their community.

To educate others about the benefit of protecting native prairies.

- KELLI: The prairie you really can't appreciate from the highway or from a video.

So, are you doing well with your collection?

You really need to be in the prairie.

You need to hear the prairie.

You need to see the tall grasses.

And it's really important to us to share what the prairie ecosystem is so that more people can love and respect the prairie.

[upbeat music] - NARRATOR: The Ebels have put their ranch under a conservation easement to prevent the fragile prairie from ever being developed.

- KARL: As urbanization increases, as land fragmentation increases, this ranch will remain a grassland forever.

- KELLI: The legacy I hope to leave for our boys is that even 1% matters.

They can have an incredible impact on the environment by their individual actions.

And I hope they understand that prairies matter.

[upbeat music] Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[upbeat guitar music] ♪ ♪ - San Angelo State Park is in San Angelo, Texas.

It's about as close to the center of Texas as you can find.

When you're in San Angelo State Park, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but we're just right on the edge of town.

- There's quite a variety of things to do and see at San Angelo State Park.

On the south side, you're gonna be able to see just rolling mesquite flats with a lot of cactus.

And up on the north side, we're covered up in mesquite and oaks, big trees, actual shade.

[wheels clicking] - BUTCH: The trails are awesome.

We have over 50 miles of hiking, biking, equestrian trails.

- JOHN: Rollin' rollin' rollin'.

- BUTCH: Depending on what kind of opportunity you're looking for, we can match you up with the trail that you'll get the most enjoyment.

[upbeat music] [horse neighing] - We like San Angelo State Park because we've got excellent trails.

There's a lot of trails out here.

There's all kinds of terrain.

We have flat, you have rocky, you have sandy.

It's just a diverse piece of property that we can ride on, 8,000 acres of it [laughs].

- RIDER: Hey, the pigeon berries are blooming.

- Oh, yeah.

[upbeat music] Cool.

Oh, all through here, wow.

We live close, so it's easy to come out.

We are just blessed to have all this property to ride on.

Triple trouble [laughs].

- JARRETT: San Angelo State Park came to be back in the '40s.

They had a big flood on the Concho River.

Took out most of the community.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came in and they built the dam.

Within two years, the lake actually filled up.

They basically turned it into a recreational area because the lake was here.

Texas Parks and Wildlife took over and we've been operating it as a state park ever since 1995.

[cows mooing] We have official state of Texas Longhorn herd.

We try to keep about 10 of those running around for the public to see every day.

[buffalo grunting] We have roughly 10 of the official state of Texas bison herd.

- BUTCH: We love our bison and longhorn.

And this time of the year, we've got three new baby bison on the ground and one baby longhorn on the ground.

They're beautiful, big, majestic animals.

[upbeat music] Our lake is an excellent fishing opportunity that's usually pretty decent fishing.

- We go fishing a lot.

We just like to catch them and release.

Sometimes we get some pretty big ones.

[upbeat music] It's just fun.

Fun stuff, right Rudy?

We like to use oatmeal and corn 'cause it doesn't get too stinky.

It kind of feels like you're baking.

[upbeat music] [water splashing] Oh, nice.

It bit hard too.

[upbeat music] What do we got?

We never really fished out here and obviously today we got some luck.

So there is fish.

There is fish Do you wanna touch it?

No?

[Anthony chuckling] - JARRETT: Come on out, check out the longhorn and bison.

Bring your kayak, bring your fishing poles, stop by the lake.

Hop on your mountain bike, just take a hike down any one of our 50-plus miles of trails at San Angelo State Park.

- Oh look, there's Hemant.

- NARRATOR: Andy and Julia Balinsky are landlords in Austin.

- In January, we get these housing units all ready.

We're here!

- NARRATOR: Today they're checking on the welfare of some tenants.

- ANDY: Hey, Hemant.

- NARRATOR: With their friend, Hemant, they manage a housing complex.

- We have to clean them out, we have to purchase new structures from time to time, some maintenance.

- NARRATOR: But all this happens on a small scale.

The three are landlords for a colony of purple martins.

- ANDY: They are the largest North American swallow- a sub-group of that family called the martins, which are a type of swallow.

- NARRATOR: However, unlike some swallows, which raise young in houses they construct themselves, purple martins need existing cavities in order to nest.

So the birds have become increasingly reliant on people to provide housing.

It's a relationship that dates back centuries.

- Native Americans put up gourds, long long ago, and this bird associates safety with humans.

Humans keep the snakes away.

- ANDY: There are fewer snakes, and hawks and owls, so they just more or less refuse to nest away from human activity.

- NARRATOR: Landlords know many ways to deter predators, and they also know how to evict bad neighbors.

- Just take it out.

- NARRATOR: Without some help, the martins would be run out of their homes by non-native birds like house sparrows.

- They're pretty nasty.

They'll go in and peck the purple martin eggs, they'll be mean to the babies - it's bad news.

So we discourage them from being here, and that's part of the responsibility.

- NARRATOR: Sparrow nests are easy to spot, but no one wants to evict babies... - ANDY: No eggs.

- NARRATOR: ...So landlords must remove nests frequently during the spring.

- So we're done here.... - We live 20 minutes away, but we do try to make it every five days if at all possible.

- NARRATOR: Purple martins also do some traveling.

They spend winter in South America, and return to North America each spring to breed, reaching Texas in late January and February and as far north as Canada by May.

Landlords lay out the welcome mat by offering, clean, vacant, semi-furnished units.

- We put a bed of pine needles in each compartment, and when the nesting starts the purple martins themselves will bring leaves.

- NARRATOR: After that, the real work begins.

- How many eggs did we have in F?

- JULIA: We pull their nests down and count eggs.

- ANDY: Seven, still seven.

- NARRATOR: Native birds are protected by federal and state laws, so eggs and nestlings should not be handled without proper training and permits.

But careful nest checks can benefit purple martins.

- Some of it is actually directly helping the martins, like sometimes we have to throw out a rotten egg that could break and bring some disease or change out a nest that's crawling with mites.

- We not only help birds in raising the family, but also we help the scientific community to gather data.

- NARRATOR: The information these and many other landlords collect is passed along to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, to yield a better understanding of species health and management across its range.

- I'm not a scientist myself, but this is a chance to be a citizen scientist.

- JULIA: Alright.

Now we leave them alone.

- HEMANT: And they're coming back.

- JULIA: And they're coming back.

- NARRATOR: Clearly, being a landlord takes some work.

So since the birds pay no rent, what exactly are the dividends?

[birds chirping] - JULIA: Listen to the song!

It's just a magical sound.

- ALLEN NEWMAN: They have so many different sounds.

- NARRATOR: Just up the road in Temple, Allen Newman has been enjoying purple martin song for more than two decades.

- I've been a purple martin landlord for 24 years.

Right now I have 83 young ones and 54 adults.

They're talking to their young.

They're telling them to keep their heads down and behave.

[laughs] They're a good bird to have.

They don't get all the ground mosquitoes, but they get a lot of other insects as they feed.

[purple martins chirp] - ANDY: I just enjoy being around the birds, and it's really nice seeing all that new life generated year after year.

- NARRATOR: Back in Austin, those eggs have yielded newborn martins.

- ANDY: When they unfold out of that egg, even on the day they hatch, they don't seem to fit.

[laugh] - NARRATOR: Within a month, even the tiniest of these hatchlings will be learning to fly.

By summer's end, the birds will head south.

But before they leave, the martins put on an impressive show in Austin.

- JULIA: When the babies have all fledged, the purple martins from further north of here, they congregate at Highland Mall for about a month.

- Amazing!

- They come in on the same trees every day.

- NARRATOR: In July, purple martins converge nightly on a few trees in this North Austin parking lot.

- They're starting to come in, like, right now.

- This is a major pre-migration roost for the purple martins.

After they've raised their babies, they start grouping up into large groups in preparation for flying south, to South America.

- NARRATOR: The community of birds also draws a community of onlookers.

At its peak, the spectacle rivals Austin's famed bat colony.

- SHELIA: We've had numerous people tell us this is cooler than the bats.

It's so big you can see it on Doppler Radar.

- Pretty impressive.

- There's layers upon layers of them.

- NARRATOR: Though Andy, Julia, and Hemant lost some of their martin babies to an extreme June heat wave, their caring management helped dozens more survive.

- ANDY: 172 birds basically are out here, new birds this year, because of that colony we took care of, so we definitely are responsible for some portion of that.

[soothing music] I'm sure our birds are among these.

Those three, uh, that one, the 700th one from the left!

[laughs] - It's like a hurricane of birds!

- NARRATOR: And perhaps here too, are some future caretakers... - Mom, this is really cool.

- NARRATOR: ...to help ensure these birds will always have a place to call home.

- Oh, whoa!

That is a lot of birds.

That's really cool!

[birds chattering] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [gentle breeze, birds chirp] [water lapping] [water lapping] [crickets] [crickets] - 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.