[upbeat country music] [Narrator] Every river has a story.

The Neches River's little known story is of an enduring community, flowing water, bottomland forests, fish and animals, bugs, birds and humans all woven together.

"The Neches River, Wild Heart of East Texas."

[upbeat country music] [gentle music] The Neches River leaves its last and greatest big thicket, wild hardwood bottomlands behind at the north edge of Beaumont.

[gentle music] It flows under the Rainbow and Veterans Memorial Bridges into Lake Sabine Estuary.

[gentle music] Here, the Neches merges with the Sabine River becoming a commercial and industrial canal-- 40 feet deep at channel and 400 feet wide.

Moving for its last 20 miles past manmade machines, and finally, into the Gulf of Mexico.

But, the eternal dance of water goes on.

Nothing ends for the Neches.

If it could speak, it would say, "In my end is my beginning."

[gentle music] - We are standing where the springs around us start to converge and begin this little creek, which is the Neches River.

[gentle music] Most of the underwater springs that we have, we sit on a major aquifer that we're on.

I, in my lifetime, have never actually seen these creeks dry.

No matter how big of a drought, how dry it's been.

It may just be trickling, but there's always been a water source.

I mean, when you think about the big Neches River and starts from some of these little creeks up here that you can walk through.

To me, it kind of starts to put, as you get older, starts to put things in perspective of how everything forms and how everything starts from.

[water burbling] - I feel very fortunate that my kids grew up loving it, now my grandchildren grow up loving it.

It's a place where they come and wade and play and, and god has blessed us greatly.

[upbeat country music] [gentle music] [birds chirping] - It is a red-headed-- - Yeah, that's a red-headed woodpecker calling.

- I started with The Conservation Fund back in 2004.

And my family and I moved out to East Texas in 2007, where we really began focusing in earnest on protection of the Neches River.

[gentle music] Are you children appreciating this educational moment we're having?

The Conservation Fund's work in East Texas started with one property, it started with the Pineywoods Mitigation Bank, and it really just mushroomed from there, and since that time we have been working on land protection spanning the entire range of the river.

The Neches River is one of the few river systems that's still relatively intact.

It's often called "The Last Wild River."

In my opinion, the biggest challenge facing the Neches River now is land fragmentation and the increased pressures coming in every direction.

- You're trying to get the overall health of your water bodies.

[Julie] The conservation work that's been going on in East Texas for so long is really part of a larger network of organizations, nonprofits, local community, entities, state and federal government.

There are so many people that are committed to protecting the Neches, it's really inspiring to see everybody working toward the same goal of ensuring and increasing protections for the Neches River.

[woman] Nice.

[insects chirping] - Here we are, this is the Canyonlands Unit of the Big Thicket.

It's about 500 acres or so.

The Conservation Fund purchased this property so that we could encompass more of the floodplains, so that the river is allowed to go out of its banks without any negative impacts.

Not be affecting humans, development just kind of lets the river do its thing.

[gentle country music] The Neches River is about 416 miles extending from northeast Texas all the way into the Gulf.

And much of that land, about 200 miles of the river, is protected it's in either federal or state or private protection.

There's so much still there, in terms of the river bottoms, the slopes, the areas that are still in their native habitats.

So, that river is allowed to perform all the functions that it's supposed to be doing, cleaning the water, providing habitat, supplying fresh water into the bay systems.

Because of our efforts in the past, we have a great example of what a natural river is supposed to look like.

When you come out to East Texas, it's like you're taking a big deep breath back in time.

[gentle music] It is just in the humidity and the mist coming off the water.

When you go out there, you're not seeing hordes of people using the river, you're not competing with everybody else.

It is a nuanced depreciation, but it's spectacular, and you just have to be open to something a little bit different.

I mean, the Neches River is not what people imagine Texas to be, but it should be.

[gentle music] [gentle music] - So, we are right now on the Neches river.

And what is the traditional Caddo territory on our homelands.

About a mile and a half outside of the Caddo Mound State Historic Site.

And this would've been a river that would've been one of our central navigation paths.

We would've used waterways as our highway systems.

So, this is returning to a river that has carried my people for millennia.

[gentle music] These are the footprints of my ancestors.

[gentle music] We were the first scientists of the land, right?

So, you talk about the dynamics of rivers coming up and receding rapidly, and that's all factors that we worked into our life ways.

We were such renowned farmers that we used the alluvial farming technique, so, we didn't have to burn crops and we didn't have to rotate as much because nature did that for us by bringing up sediment from the rivers and enriching the nutrients around our crops.

[water sloshing] This is known to be a river crossing, historically.

Settlers and even potentially army use this as crossing, but, that crossing is known because my people, the Caddo, use this area as a crossing for millennia.

We're right off of El Camino.

And El Camino is known globally for the sophistication that was used and how it was constructed.

Spanish conquistadors noted that the quality of the roads were superior to that seen in Europe at that time.

The waters are our main source of travel and communication.

It's a renaissance.

And we are returning back to our homelands to care for it and to be a part of it.

[insects chirping] [gentle music] So, when I talk about a return, the return to our core identity of who we are and how we relate to the world, returning to regenerative land practices and sustainable agriculture.

There are ways that we can have economy without exploiting things.

And so, what we're looking at is how do we find our way back to sustainability and to harmony.

[gentle music] [country music] [Narrator] East Texas is the deep south with a Texas twist.

And the Neches River runs right down the middle, the lands along it are the wild heart of East Texas where the past still lingers, the bottoms are refuge of biodiversity.

Bottom to southerners means a river valley, often covered by a hardwood forest evolved to survive long periods underwater.

It's a kind of riverwoods, part-time land, part-time water, and mostly beyond human control.

[birds chirping] [water sloshing] [gentle music] - Easy does it.

[gentle music] [Narrator] Left to its own ebb and flow wilderness or something like it persists in the Neches' bottoms even today.

Wildlife and wild things had always peaked in the bottoms, which remained a place to hunt, fish, and gather hickory nuts and mayhaws.

From Native American times, the riverwoods had been a cornucopia.

These ancient bottomlands survive in part due to a united public and private effort to preserve this wild river.

The bottomland forests are protected in the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge.

Two national forests with wilderness areas, state parks and wildlife management areas, Boggy Slough Conservation Area, and the famous Big Thicket National Preserve.

And so the Neches River still holds its own ground.

During the dry months, the river runs in its channel, but in the wet months, it breaks out and takes back its entire forested bottom, bluff to bluff.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ - We're up in the brush, on the top of the brush.

We're not below it, but we are in the middle of the channel, right here, with an island right now.

To our left here, this is an island.

So, we'd have to go straight back, straight back is where we gotta go, Curtis, but you can see, there's no way through it.

The river's at 18 feet flood stage and I can't break through it.

[Narrator] The trees and the wildlife are used to these high water levels.

They expect it and are evolved to make the most of it.

The river may hold its flooded bottom for months or the water may pulse back and forth across its riverwoods several times.

And the bottoms are not one big featureless overflow, they are a maze of intersecting channels.

A labyrinth.

[country music] [engine rumbling] Many ancient creatures take shelter along the waters of the Neches.

It's a place of last resorts, of biological last stands.

The largest freshwater fish in North America, the alligator gar, roams the Neches backwaters keeping an easy company with the largest freshwater turtle, the alligator snapper.

- We are setting traps to try and recover the turtles that we have tagged with radio transmitters.

For the past five years now, we've had a series of projects, starting with the survival of trans-located and resident alligator snapping turtles here in East Texas.

[man] Right here, right here.

[Christopher] The Neches is kind of the hot spot in terms of abundance of the alligator snapping turtle.

Lots of down woody debris, slow moving waters, things that are really important to the species.

[engine rumbling] [man] Turtle.

[Christopher] You got a turtle?

[man] Oh, yeah.

[Christopher] Oh, man.

All right.

Sweet.

That's a, that's a big male.

Sweet.

- I'm gonna go back out in the middle and work it up where we got room.

- One of the big things that's not really well known about the species is the nesting ecology, which, for a turtle this size you think would be fairly easy to know.

But, it's really hard to study this because of the, it's really secretive.

[man] 36.1.

[Christopher] Kilogram?

[man] Yeah.

- This is a male.

And so, males, you know, once they hatch, they never leave the water, so, this is probably the first time this guy's ever been out of the water since he was a hatchling.

There we go.

All these turtles, they don't necessarily want to be handled, but you find them endearing after a while.

And, we know that the work that we're doing is gonna contribute towards the conservation of the species.

[country music] [Narrator] A paddler on the Neches must agree with the rider who wrote, "There is nothing, absolutely nothing half so much fun doing as messing around with boats."

This can be done alone in solitude to heart's content on one of the Neches River's designated paddling trails.

Or you can join the crowd for the annual Lufkin Neches River Rendezvous at the Davy Crockett Paddling Trail.

[people cheering] Another yearly event is the Big Thicket Neches River Rally that begins at the Salt Water Barrier near Beaumont.

Groups of boaters travel a modest distance slowly making a lot of noise, messing around, and having a very good time out on the water.

Boaters paddle the Cooks Lake-Scatterman trail up the open water through the Cypress-Tupelo swamp and down the Neches River back to where they started, a loop trail.

You won't see the cattle dugouts, the settlers river cane rafts, or wood plank boats.

Now the boats are made of plastic, fiberglass, Kevlar, and carbon fiber.

But all the boats are equally fine to mess around in, everybody knows that.

[country music] - Hello there.

- Hey.

[Narrator] Big Thicket scholar, Pete Gunter, describes the Neches as "scenic and wild with birds and animal life.

Stretches of the river are so world lost and remote that one can, while canoeing, actually believe that he has lost touch with cities and suburbs, forever."

[country music] - We're on the Neches River.

It's not terribly wide here.

Up above, it's wider in spots.

Right here, it's a little more narrow, I don't know why, but it, same fish are here if you wanna fish, it's a beautiful river.

[water splashing] Oh, I love it.

I love, I love this river.

Especially some of these big hardwood bottom.

There's nothing left like that on a lot of the southeastern United States.

There's something about putting a line out and wondering what's going to, what's gonna be shaking when you go back.

It's pretty cool to see those limbs popping.

[fish clattering] We have crappy fish and bass fish some here too.

Pretty well done it all my life.

My great-great-great grandfather settled some of this land back in 1846.

When I was a little kid, there was an Alcoa plant up above that spilled something one time, and there for several years, they just, it was hard to catch a fish and, but that's all cleaned up now.

It's a pretty nice fish.

It's better than it's ever been.

It's got a lot better.

This big old thing sideways, it doesn't handle like a canoe.

Well, a lot of the kids that my son was friends with, yeah, they like it, but a lot of people would, they'd rather go to a lake now, they don't have to walk through this mud.

[splashing] They can just put in real easy, don't have to worry about mosquitoes on the bank so much, it's just easier fishing.

But, I think, it's better here.

I like this better.

I'm not gonna get run over by a jet ski.

[Curtis] But, you did pretty good today, I would think, wouldn't you?

[Patrick] Yeah, I'm happy with it.

Not a lot of fish, but they were big fish.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ - First thing we got to do is put our crayfish trap together, this kind of hinge together like that, fold it over and then you got a clip.

From here, we'll throw in our bait.

I like to use sardines and oil, crayfish are scavengers, so they kind of like stinky stuff, then hot dogs.

Everybody likes hot dogs.

I just kind of pinch it apart.

- Crayfish are an understudied species.

There's roughly about 20% of crayfish species that we don't even have enough data to be able to evaluate them if they should be listed as endangered or threatened.

- The two species that we were interested in are two different species of crayfish that are only found here in East Texas.

All found right around here in the floodplain of the Neches River.

[Sarah] So, we can monitor populations in an area.

If we see that an area is losing their crayfish populations, that's a good indicator that there's something going on in that ecosystem that's decreasing that habitat quality.

- It's habitat is so dependent upon this stretch of the Neches River and it's tributaries, and it's found nowhere else.

So, if something goes wrong here, you're gonna wipe these guys out.

[water sloshing] [birds chirping] - It looks like we got some crayfish.

- I started volunteering and helping out different graduate students and professors with different field work, and I found that I actually really enjoyed it.

And so, then, I ended up trying to get my master's, and, now I just help on all the projects that I can.

It helps bring awareness to all those small little creatures that I think get ignored a lot of times, like crayfish, mussels.

- So, two females, three, six, seven males.

[Rachel] Okay.

- Bitten or pinched?

[Curtis] Okay, pinched.

- Okay.

So, I've been pinched by crayfish just today at least a dozen times.

It's basically like looking at a 10-foot giant.

You don't wanna be picked up and looked at by a 10-foot giant, so, I'm sure they feel the same way.

[Joshua] This stretch of the Neches river is amazing.

There's biodiversity galore.

[Jared] Oh, yeah, I got crayfish.

[Joshua] There's species that are found here that are found nowhere else.

- They're important as they're a bio indicator species, which are species that are used to, kind of, monitor the quality of a habitat.

[Sarah] Just one.

Perfect.

[Rachel] Okay.

They have a very sensitive chemosensory system, which means that chemicals will directly harm them.

- Some clark eye there, but, see this guy, see how long his chela are?

- Lemme see.

- Real long and skinny.

- Yeah, yeah.

- That's probably something we're after.

- You think it's nigra synthesis?

- No, it's not that guy, but it could be.

It might be Neches, aye?

The roster looks right.

- Well, I'd say enjoy your crayfish.

The species that you're eating is widespread.

We found tons of them today.

They're not threatened, endangered, but, when you do see crayfish, be wary that not all of them are that species.

- I am hopeful about the future.

The more we research, and the more data we get out there to the world, the better off the knowledge of the world will be.

And it's like the two target species that we've looked at today.

We can grow the Texas database on these species and everyone in Texas will be able to access this data and use for their own research.

[crayfish rattling] [water sloshing] [water sloshing] [Joshua] One important thing, it's been, it's been great mud bugging weather.

[Jared] Oh, yeah.

Yeah, the rain really helps.

We got 15 sites, I think, this-- [Joshua] You guys have been busy.

[birds chirping] [Narrator] Who was Hobson and exactly where was his crossing point on the Neches?

Probably nobody knows for certain.

Hobson Crossing has become another of those obscure places on the river, not even marked on maps.

But, crossings were important.

Most lines of travel ran east and west across 19th-century East Texas, while the Neches and other rivers flowed mostly north and south.

So, river crossings were much on traveler's minds, especially because of the boom and bust nature of overflow bottom river systems.

At a given point on the river, the traveler might find a short easy wade or an enormous threatening torrent.

Crossings were the same thing as fords, and worked for human or horse waiting at low water.

Later, a ferry service tended to develop at such places for high water, and still later, a bridge might be built.

Almost every modern highway bridge across the Neches followed this pattern.

Meanwhile, Hobson's Crossing, once a busy thoroughfare, faded into obscurity.

♪ La, la, la, la, le, le le, le ♪ ♪ Give me your hand ♪ ♪ La, la, la, la, le, le le, le ♪ ♪ Give me your hand ♪ ♪ La, la, la, la, le, le le, le ♪ ♪ Give me your hand ♪ ♪ That's many a river that waters this land ♪ [birds chirping] - We are in one of the really special places on the Neches River, in the heart of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge.

[birds chirping] It's a favorite spot of mine because I have had my cameras pointed at nests of great blue herons and yellow-crown night herons.

[birds chirping] The excitement is just ahead.

Do I have images on my camera?

This is a, this is a camera trap, sometimes called game cameras.

And I have it aimed so it will photograph that part of the beaver dam where the beavers and otters will rest.

Ah, good stuff.

Good stuff.

[birds chirping] [water sloshing] I'm an old farm boy.

I grew up on a farm and animals have always been a part of my life.

And then I got into the Air Force and became a researcher in pathology.

And I've always been behind a camera as a pathologist.

And so, I retired some years back now and I decided I like trees, so they're in East Texas, I retired in East Texas and I kept my cameras.

And began the wildlife and landscape photography work for different organizations.

And it drew me clearly to the rivering habitats where my camera, I try to record what's present, what's threatened, and what's beautiful that all so many people love to see.

And I've been successful a little bit in that, I've published a book, and I'm currently working on another one.

[water sloshing] I always aim to blend in with the environment, to feel it.

People say, aren't you afraid of snakes?

I said, you know, I rarely see snakes.

And if I do, I just respect them and live with them.

So, my game is, be part of this habitat.

Get the feel for it.

I always got that on my mind and I'm lucky to be able to do it because someone else worked hard to protect this gorgeous place.

[birds chirping] The future means we remain vigilant, we remain appreciative of what we already have and have to fight to keep it.

I've enjoyed what I've done professionally behind a camera and I get to do that now where my heart is.

It's such a special privilege.

I'm lucky.

[upbeat country music] ♪ ♪ [insects chirping] [Robert] What's my first rule, hunting?

- Be safe.

- That's right.

[squirrels screeching] [Robert] I can hear a bunch, do you hear them whistling up there?

[Nephew] Yeah, I do.

[Robert] There's a lot of squirrels still moving.

[Nephew] Yeah, definitely.

- I've seen plenty of them.

And just keep your eyes open for movement.

We're gonna walk a little bit and stop.

[Nephew] Yes, sir.

[Robert] Squirrel right here, y'all.

[Nephew] What?

I hear.

- I grew up squirrel hunting here in East Texas along the Neches River.

My dad took myself and my two brothers.

And-- [Nephew] Where is he?

[Robert] Now that I'm a father of two sons.

[Nephew] Yep, I see him.

[Robert] I wanted to bring them into the hunting scene like I was introduced to it.

[Nate] Right there on the side of the tree, Robert.

- He's up in that tree.

Do you see it?

[Robert] Yeah.

[gunshot cracks] Good shot.

Nice.

- Will you put it in my back?

- Man, you're getting them.

We're gonna have some-- [Nephew] Yeah, we have four.

[Robert] Really?

[Nephew] Yeah.

[Robert] We are here at Boggy Slough Conservation Area.

It's about a 20,000 acre property here along the Neches River, with 18 miles of Neches River frontage.

Very unique ecosystem.

Wow.

[Nephew] Yeah.

Wow.

Big snake.

[squirrels screeching] - Hear that right there?

That's a squirrel, listen.

- Yeah.

- It's coming from that- - Yeah, well right there, that sound.

There's some right through there.

- Okay.

- Let's ease that way, okay?

[squirrels screeching] - Oh, oh.

There's one right there, right there.

Right there in that tree.

It's moving.

[gunshot cracks] [Robert] Oh [Nephew] Whoa.

[Robert] Good job.

[Nephew] Beautiful shot.

[Robert] Wow.

[Nephew] Well, how'd you see him?

- I thought it, I didn't even know if it was him, he was just real still up in the, like be a-- [Nephew] Wow.

Yeah, right, right on.

[Robert] That was good.

[Nephew] Yeah.

[Nate] Hunting really helps people be safe with firearms because you have to learn to know where everybody's at, especially in squirrel hunting.

[Nephew] Also, perfect shot.

[Nate] You are walking around, you can't just aim the gun everywhere.

You have to be really safe with it.

[Nephew] Good.

- Enter wound.

[Nephew] Yeah.

- And exit.

[Nephew] Yeah.

[upbeat country music] And the squirrels are kind of winding down now.

[Robert] Now, let's get these squirrels cleaned up.

[Nephew] Yep.

- Grab your squirrel.

Now, put its foot on here just like so.

Good.

- Okay, I'm at the arm on both sides.

I don't know what to, what do I do from here?

[Robert] And squirrel hunting is you're learning how to be quiet in the woods.

- There we go.

Is that?

[Robert] How to move slow, patience.

- I'm just trying to not separate the wrong part there.

[Robert] And I really feel like that was valuable to me.

So, I want to do that for my kids as well.

- By the way, thank you for teaching me how to do this.

[upbeat country music] Can't find a place without bone.

- That's good.

[Nephew] Good.

- It has good flavor.

[upbeat country music] [Paddler] Been over there, got a little bird running around.

[Narrator] With the Angelina National Forest on the north shore, paddlers traveling from Highway 69 to Ranch Road 255 at low water, who haven't read their river guide very well, soon get a surprise.

[water rushing] [water rushing] They hear the roar of water in front of them, obviously, a rapid or a waterfall, something that the Neches simply does not do.

But it does in just this one place.

A three-foot waterfall over sandstone of the Catahoula Formation awaits them, easily portage to the right.

The paddlers who accept the challenge and go for it, may hang up at the top of the falls or scrabble over them and dump, or both.

They can simply stand up in the shallow water and wade to the bank.

[water rushing] [birds chirping] - I am standing here and seeing at least 30 species.

We have green dragon, we have giant cane, we have cross vine covering the ground.

We have black snake roots, supposedly use to treat snake bites.

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna eat it 'cause it makes my breath terrible, but wild onions, real good.

I discovered when I was young that I had an eidetic memory, which basically you see images, when I see a plant, I see the name of the plant.

That is Spach's evening primrose.

S-P-A-C-H.

It's a not very well known species.

I bet 10 people know what that is.

This area just happens to be species-rich because of the variety of soil types and the topography from dry sands to marshes.

It's why this particular property, and this part of the Neches river is so diverse.

Look at this American featherfoil.

I'd looked for this plant for 20 years, but this is only the second time I've seen it.

So, it's a very rare floating aquatic plant.

I'll actually pick it up and just put it back.

It literally just floats on the water.

These are buoyant just like floats.

And then these are the actual flowers that come out in the whirls around the plant.

[water sloshing] This is floating bladderwort.

Similar to the featherfoil, the leaves are inflated, so it floats on top.

And then these down here are the bladders, these catch aquatic insects and nematodes.

[birds chirping] Oh, look at this.

The blue star, new to the list.

My friend at Sam Houston is actually working on this.

If to get the pubescent of the sepals to distinguish these, you see the pubescent on them.

Now, I'll be able to identify just from the picture, so.

Where this water is, is an old channel of the river.

And these higher ridges are the old sandbars.

Bottomlands tend to survive 'cause you don't want to develop in a bottomland 'cause your house will flood.

Here's the baby mayhaw.

So, bottomlands, actually, have been afforded the most protection in East Texas.

Unless you want your house underwater, you don't wanna build on a bottomland.

You can see the water line of where the highest floods get.

And I'm 6'1" so, this is the highest, and then down here you have the sediment from the most recent flood on the tree.

Every large river bottom has its own flooding regime, and the middle Neches has its own set of species.

It's completely dependent on the flooding out of the banks of the river.

When those channels get rerouted and those slews dry, those species that depend on the bottomlands just can't survive.

If you're in a bind, greenbrier is a good snack.

Just standing right here in this diverse place, I can see at least 50 species.

[Curtis] Tell me personally, why, why plants?

- Why I personally like plants?

I just had a general curiosity and I had an excellent professor at SFAL, Ray Nixon.

His enthusiasm gave me enthusiasm.

And then as I started learning, it was just a snowball rolling downhill.

It invigorates me, personally.

And, just knowing that every little thing is interconnected with us.

Every human, even when they think they aren't connected, they are.

[country music] ♪ ♪ [Narrator] The white mayhaw blossoms herald spring in the Neches Bottoms.

The yearly tradition of mayhaw gathering begins when the berries turn red and plump.

[country music] [Robert] Is it cold?

- Yeah, it's cold.

[laughing] [Robert] Here we are in the Neches River watershed.

We're about to go gather some mayhaws for some jelly.

And I've already seen quite a few trees in here that have a lot of them that are ripe.

[water sloshing] - Just the idea of picking mayhaws and having this family excursion out into the bottoms to pick them and and go through the whole process became really a part of our family tradition.

- I love mayhaw jelly.

- I like it how it tastes 'cause it's more of a tart taste at first and then it gets sweet after that.

- They're all over 'em.

So, let's spread all these sheets out all the way underneath it, okay?

Do our best.

[Carolin] I recognize some of these sheets.

[Jenny] It created a way that we could have a little family time outdoors with the grandparents.

[Carolin] That's just amazing.

They're ripe, perfectly ripe right now.

- All right, let's get them, ready?

- There you go.

Shake them.

[Cade] Whoo!

- Oh, yeah.

[Carolin] Okay.

- That's pretty good.

[Carolin] That is a lot.

- I remember going out, when I was younger, with my family.

We started the tradition throughout the years, you know, come springtime, early spring it was, it was time to gather mayhaws.

- I grew up doing that with brothers and and sisters and cousins in the woods all the time.

- And once I was five or six years old, we started picking mayhaws when I was introduced to it.

[Robert] So how long have you been doing this now, Cece?

- Me?

[Robert] Yeah.

- Well, you were probably about Cade's age when we started doing it.

- All right, that looks like that has quite a few.

Let's get this one.

[Carolin] I like to tell people it's not just delicious, but it's fun to gather.

- Oh, yeah.

Look at that.

Some sheets get more than others, just part of it.

[Carolin] It's just kind of a tradition every spring in East Texas.

[Robert] Let's get them in the bucket.

[berries falling into bucket] You know, with all these other sheets.

Guys, we're gonna get two and a half gallons out of this tree, I bet you.

[water sloshing] [engine rambling] - Those are so pretty and red, aren't they?

This batch of jelly is gonna be better than ever.

See if you'll get one of our bowls.

- Do you want me to pull the-- - Yes, you can pull it.

- We'll wash these and we'll actually do it a couple of times even.

[Carolin] Let that the water drip out and we'll just put it in the bowl.

Good.

Very good.

Isn't that pretty?

Oh, it's beautiful.

[berries falling into vat] [Robert] I'm gonna light it up.

- My husband always said if you don't know how much work it is, literally, to gather the mayhaws clean them, wash them, cook them, jar them.

It's quite a job to do.

Smells good, doesn't it, Cade?

[insects chirping] [Cade] I'll introduce my family to it and try to keep the tradition going.

Making jelly and having fun.

- So, this is just about a 10 minute process where you just have to keep it moving and stirring.

And then as that gets to a real heavy, solid boil, we'll skim the foam off the top and it's ready to go in the jars.

[Carolin] Yeah.

[Jenny] My mouth is watering.

[Carolin] Mine too.

- I keep saying it takes a lot of effort, but, gathering mayhaw is fun, but it's a lot of work.

So, if somebody gives you a jar of mayhaw jelly, you probably pretty special to them.

[Carolin] Jenny, good job.

[Nate] Pretty quick.

[dramatic music] [Narrator] Village Creek is the most important tributary to the Neches after the Angelina River.

[dramatic music] The Spanish called the Neches "Snow River" because of the enormous input of beautiful white sand from Village Creek, and its array of tributary creeks into the Neches River.

From the mouth of Village Creek down to Beaumont, the Neches sandbars gleam wide as snow.

[dramatic music] Folklorist, Ab Abernethy wrote, if heaven doesn't look like Village Creek, I'm not going to go there.

[dramatic music] [water gurgling] [Ragan] This is Rush Creek Ravine.

This is a tributary of the Neches River.

It's been set aside as a special area for many, many years.

[Julie] Rush Creek is so unique, so different from other tributaries of the Neches River.

You just don't think you're in Texas when you're looking at this special place.

- The timber has not been harvested in this ravine area since the early 1900s.

It's just pretty much impossible to harvest it mechanically.

Sam Houston State University has come down here looking for fossils in the stream beds.

Come August 2nd, this will be my 41st year that I've worked here.

This is very unique to East Texas.

I've got several other creek bottoms like this, they may be just as steep, but they don't have the geological uniqueness of this area that goes back to dinosaur days.

- The Conservation Fund and other partners have proposed to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department that it be considered for a potential future state park.

There's some interest, it's perhaps in the future still a bit.

We are very hopeful that it would make a terrific state park, it would make terrific long distance hiking.

There are places for camping and all different kinds of recreational use, we're still really hopeful that Texas Parks and Wildlife will take an interest in it.

We have an opportunity now to protect some of these really unique areas while they are still intact.

Because there's no telling what 5, 10 years down the road what those are gonna look like.

It's like, it's Humpty Dumpty, you know, we Humpty Dumpty is together now, but, once he falls off the wall, we're gonna have a hard time getting him back together.

[upbeat country music] [Curtis] Smile for the camera.

[Alan] Just keep your eyes peeled, this is good snake area.

But always make sure you look around the board first.

'Cause sometimes they'll just hang out right outside the board.

And here we go.

[Kenlyn] Oh.

[Alan] Got it.

Grab it.

You wanna grab it?

Yeah.

[Kenlyn] I don't wanna get bitten.

[Alan] Yeah, it's frightening.

If you got a large glove, I would take it and I can grab it for you.

[Kenlyn] Yeah, I got.

Gimme one sec-- [Lezley] You wanna grab it first?

[Kenlyn] Yeah, I'll grab it first.

This one's really pretty.

Look at that.

- It is.

What I do out here in the Neches is, I monitor snake species here for snake fungal disease.

- Think of it as like similar to your everyday foot fungus.

However, for snakes, it can be deadly.

- Because it leads them not being able to eat because it becomes super painful for them to do so.

So, they won't eat and then they'll ultimately end up dying of emaciation.

[Kenlyn] I'll wait until you got the lid.

[Alan] Got it.

[Kenlyn] Okay.

[Lezley] Fine?

- Got it.

Yeah.

Perfect.

- I do love snakes.

I love their role in ecology.

Not only are they a predator, they are prey, so they add to the food web in two different directions.

What I do, is I take that love of snakes and try to tackle their diseases because I'm not just working on snakes, I'm working on a disease.

- Hot snake.

Whenever I was looking for a master's project, I wanted something different than any type of study I'd done before.

Just to make myself more rounded as a biologist.

Put you in here.

One of my favorite things of working with snakes is their behavior.

[Alan] Ready?

[Kenlyn] Ready.

[leaves rustling] [Alan] Nothing.

[Kenlyn] Nothing.

Ready?

[Alan] Yep.

Snake.

Keep going, keep pulling.

Keep pulling it, keep pulling it, keep pulling it.

Pull, pull, pull, pull.

[Kenlyn] Oh, there it is.

Oh!

[Alan] Got it.

Grab it.

Where?

- Did you see what type it was it?

Oh, there it is.

Oh, come here.

[Alan] This is cottonmouth.

[Kenlyn] Cottonmouth.

[Alan] Cottonmouth.

[Kenlyn] Yeah.

[Alan] Pretty.

We'll bucket this one, and we'll check the other boards.

And I'm really thankful for being able to work at our department 'cause they let me go do this kind of stuff.

[Student] Snake.

[Alan] There's a snake.

Grab it.

Hand.

[Student] Oh, you can grab that one?

[Kenlyn] Yeah, ribbon snake.

[Alan] Yeah, I told you it would be weird if we didn't see a ribbon snake.

[Kenlyn] Yeah.

[Student] You can touch this?

[Kenlyn] Yeah.

[Alan] Yeah, yeah.

[Kenlyn] Wanna hold it?

[Student] Wait, will it bite me?

[Kenlyn] It can, but.

[Alan] It's, their teeth are so tiny.

[Student] It's so cute.

[Alan] Fun story, ribbon snakes are technically venomous.

[Student] What?

- They have an anticoagulant in their saliva, which is technically a venom.

But, you're fine.

[Kenlyn] Not medically significant.

[Alan] Not medically significant, yeah.

- Look at that little face.

They're also underappreciated, in my opinion.

They are right in the middle of the food chain, so they're really important to our environments.

[Alan] Got some good ones.

[Curtis] Did we get three today?

[Alan] We got three today.

- Okay, this one is-- [Alan] 47L.

Here.

[Alan humming] [Alan] 53.

[Kenlyn] 53.

[Alan] While you're swabbing, it's a good time to take a look for lesions.

[Kenlyn] Oh, yeah.

[Alan] Yeah.

- Okay.

Alan, you wanna look at this?

There is something fluorescing, but-- [Alan] So, that's a definitely UV positive.

[Kenlyn] Yeah, look at that.

- We've already found some ribbon snakes, so like a good, I think it's like six or seven that's been positive in this area, so-- It's, it's... It's here, so.

- Every time we go out, we're not guaranteed to find a snake or whatever organism we're looking for, however, to me, it's always rewarding since, even if you're not finding your target organism, you'll find something that's interesting, something fun.

And, in the end it's just about getting outside and supporting the ecosystems that we love.

[country music] [Narrator] Once many southern rivers of the Gulf Coast had overflow bottom ecosystems like the Neches, but today, is it the only one?

[country music] The Neches may be our last best example of something very important, an intact and functioning overflow bottom ecosystem.

[country music] [water rushing] [country music] For wildlife, the biodiverse riverwoods form a great refuge.

[Kenlyn] Look at that, they never.

[water splashes] [country music] [Narrator] All life along the Neches, plant and animal, responds to the ebb and flow of the yearly river floods.

Deep in the Neches Bottoms, the wilderness lingers.

Something of that wilderness will remain as long as the river rises to flood the valley in the spring.

[water trickling] ♪ Shall we gather at the river, ♪ ♪ Where bright angel feet have trod; ♪ ♪ With its crystal tide forever ♪ ♪ Flowing by the throne of God?

♪ ♪ Gather with the saints at the river ♪ ♪ That flows by the throne of God ♪