Montana Wilderness, Bald Eagle Recovery, Lionfish Derby | This American Land

JEREMY BUCK: You can
hear the eagles wanting

to get back into
their nest, which

we'll let them do in a minute.

PRESENTER: Today, on
This American Land,

some extreme
biology is sometimes

required to study bald eagles.

We'll have a soaring
success story.

ZACK PORTER: Folks
in my generation

are ready to get past the
bickering back and forth.

We're ready to come to the table
and find common ground on issues

like this.

PRESENTER: Wilderness--
nobody's making any more of it.

Time to figure out how to
take care of what we've got.

[SWOOSH]

SCOTT DONAHUE: The
Indo-Pacific lionfish

is a perfect invader
in the Atlantic.

PRESENTER: No perfect answers
yet to this powerful predator.

[SWOOSH]

Those stories and more
now on This American Land.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Funding for This American Land
provided by The Wyss Foundation

and the Turner Foundation.

BRUCE BURKHARDT: Hello, and
welcome to This American Land.

I'm Bruce Burkhardt.

CAROLINE RAVILLE: And
I'm Caroline Raville.

We've got a great show
ahead about protecting

our natural resources,
from forests

to fish and other wildlife.

BRUCE BURKHARDT: Successful
conservation usually

involves local teamwork.

In southwestern Montana, an
effort to improve forest health,

reduce fire risk, and preserve
backcountry traditions

involves a lot of give and take.

[SWOOSH]

Gary Strieker has our story.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SMOKE ELSER: I started working
for the Whitetail Ranch in 1957.

I've been working in the Bob
Marshall ever since, every year.

And hopefully, this
will make 55 years

if I can get in there today.

[CHUCKLES] And it looks like
we're going to make her.

GARY STRIEKER: If you're looking
for an adventure in Montana,

the Bob Marshall
Wilderness tops the list.

And nobody knows the Bob
better than Smoke Elser.

SMOKE ELSER: My
grandkids worked out

to see how many nights
I've slept in a sleeping

bag in the backcountry.

And it ended up
being over 22 years.

GARY STRIEKER: Smoke has
been horse-packing clients

into the Bob Marshall since
before it was officially

declared wilderness in 1964.

SMOKE ELSER: One of my
mentors, Tom Edwards,

he always said it was
a hush of the land.

It's a place where you
have to rely on yourself.

And nature has all
the upper hand.

And yet, you have
to fit into it.

GARY STRIEKER: A
journey into wilderness

must be taken at nature's pace.

And there's no better way
to travel than with the help

of a four-footed friend.

There hasn't been any
new wilderness designated

in Montana for nearly 30 years.

But the contentious battle
over land-use issues

started cooling down recently
when loggers and wilderness

advocates began to
talk with each other.

SMOKE ELSER: The realization
that we aren't making any more

wilderness resource and
we aren't making any more

timberland and we aren't making
any more habitat for wildlife,

all of a sudden,
people said, gee, we're

running out of this stuff.

Maybe we better start
taking care of it.

And we got to figure out
a way to take care of it.

GARY STRIEKER: The result is
a bill working its way through

Washington that would add
700,000 acres of new wilderness

in Montana, designate areas
for off-road vehicle use,

and guarantee 100,000 acres of
timber for local lumber mills.

SMOKE ELSER: And what we're
trying to do right now

is set aside a little
of this wilderness so

that future generations
will have the opportunity

to make good, solid,
land-management decisions

for the future generations.

GARY STRIEKER: The
future generation

includes Zack Porter,
a Wilderness Advocate

and Program Director with the
Montana Wilderness Association.

ZACK PORTER: People were at
loggerheads over these issues.

And nothing was getting done.

Nothing was getting
done for wilderness.

We weren't doing timber
projects where they could have

and should have been done.

And fortunately, people realized
that we have more in common

than not and decided to
come to the table together.

GARY STRIEKER: One of the
businesses at the table

was Pyramid Mountain
Lumber in the small town

of Seeley Lake on the edge of
the Bob Marshall wilderness

and Lolo National Forest.

The family-owned mill produces
high-end lumber products

but doesn't own its own land.

It depends on access to the
timber in the national forest

to keep its 250
employees working.

GORDY SANDERS: I've long
told the timber industry

that we can't get what
we want by ourselves.

There has to be something
in it for everybody.

And there's an
interest in wilderness,

as well as an interest
in forest management

and where there are critical
streams that need work.

And I think the
ultimate realization

is we can have
all of it together

that we can't have separately.

GARY STRIEKER: That
bill in congress,

the Forest Jobs
and Recreation Act,

would give local mills access to
100,000 acres over the next 10

to 15 years.

Most of the logging would be
forest management projects

that would restore
watersheds and take out

trees killed by the recent
pine beetle outbreak.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Business owners in the
town of Seeley Lake

need the lumber mill and
summer visitors to survive.

ADDRIEN MARX: Everything that
you would ever need to survive

is in my shop.

GARY STRIEKER:
Addrien Marx owns one

of the most popular
businesses in town.

She supports more
access to timber

for the loggers and
trails for snowmobiles

but also supports the need
to create more wilderness.

ADDRIEN MARX:
Everything is contingent

on the natural resources in
all of its different places--

in recreation, in timber,
in, in wilderness areas,

in outfitting-- all of it.

So we need all of
those segments healthy.

And to me, I've seen
nothing finer than this act.

GARY STRIEKER: Just
north of Seeley,

Zack Porter looks
out across Rainy Lake

at a mountainside that would
be added to the Bob Marshall

wilderness.

ZACK PORTER: Folks
in my generation

are ready to get past the
bickering back and forth.

And we're ready to
come to the table

and find common ground
on issues like this.

This is a landscape that would
be protected and enhanced

through the Forest Jobs
and Recreation Act.

We have the chance to bring the
apron of the wilderness down

to these lower
elevations where wildlife

can thrive in ways that
they can't necessarily up

in the rock and ice that
we've protected before.

GARY STRIEKER: Porter has
trekked hundreds of miles,

exploring many of the 25 new
national forest areas that

would be designated wilderness.

ZACK PORTER: What we've
got behind us here is

the 10,000-foot crest of
the East Pioneers proposed

wilderness.

GARY STRIEKER: The Pioneers are
the main watershed for the Big

Hole River, one of Montana's
famous blue-ribbon trout

streams.

With warmer winters,
pine beetles

have survived and killed
most of the lodgepole

and whitebark pine
trees that once

protected the winter snowpack.

Adding more
wilderness to the area

might help protect the
health of the river

by keeping areas roadless.

CHARLIE O'LEARY: Yeah,
it's not folding great.

GARY STRIEKER: Charlie O'Leary,
a former county commissioner,

has been hiking the
Pioneers since he was a kid.

CHARLIE O'LEARY: And
the wildlife up there,

we've seen sheep,
goats, moose, elk,

mule deer, and lots of bears.

It's a tradition in our family
to go into the wilderness.

It gives you that place
for peace and quiet,

to reflect, to have fun, to
fish, to hike, ride horses,

to view wildlife, and to
just be in a place that

has been that way for
thousands of years.

GARY STRIEKER: One
of those places

is Grayling Lake, where
the ice is melting

as the wildflowers bloom.

It would be designated
wilderness under the act.

Back on the edge of
the Bob Marshall,

Smoke Elser and his crew are
finishing packing their mules

and saddling their horses.

Connie Long is considered
the most important person

on the crew.

She's the cook, which isn't
an easy job in grizzly bear

country.

CONNIE LONG: We do
everything we possibly can.

We don't burn food
in the campfire.

We do special things like
I strain my dishwater

to get out all the food
particles through cheesecloth.

And then we incinerate
it in a tin can.

Outfitting brings a lot of money
to the area because people come.

And because we start so
early in the morning,

they have to have
a place to stay.

So the motels and
hotels in the area

really benefit and
restaurants because they

need to eat breakfast and
dinner and souvenir shops

because everybody wants to
take something home with them.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SMOKE ELSER: When you get
as old as I am, by golly,

you get some respect here.

GARY STRIEKER: With 23 miles to
ride to their wilderness camp,

Smoke is going to make his mark,
55 years riding into the Bob.

SMOKE ELSER: Maybe
there's something in here

that's more valuable--

more valuable than trees
and gold and silver

and more valuable than
photographs and all

that other kind of thing.

Maybe it's clean air.

Maybe it's clean water.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's a sanity of man.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

CAROLINE RAVILLE: The
bald eagle recovery

over the past few
decades is a story

that's an inspiration for
all of wildlife protection.

It took passion and perseverance
for our national bird

to bounce back.

But there are still
some mysteries

to solve, as we'll learn from
Vince Patton of Oregon Field

Guide.

VINCE PATTON: At
6:00 in the morning,

the thermometer reads 0.

RALPH OPP: I spent
a long time looking

at them, a lot of cold
mornings out counting birds

and looking at their habitat.

VINCE PATTON: We've been told
this is the best time in one

of the best places
in the US to witness

one of the great triumphs
in modern wildlife recovery.

RALPH OPP: Yeah, they're
kind of coming out pretty

high this morning.

And there's about a dozen
of them or more in there.

VINCE PATTON: Bald
eagles leave the forest

where they've spent the night.

But this morning, they play coy.

We and the other bird watchers
only see a couple of dozen.

RALPH OPP: [CHUCKLES] Yeah, if I
don't see 50 or more at a time,

well, I'm not impressed so--

[CHUCKLES]

VINCE PATTON: Ralph Opp
lives in the one region

that attracts more bald eagles
than any place else in the US

except Alaska.

The Klamath Basin
of southern Oregon

lures 700 to 800
eagles every winter.

[EAGLE CHIRPING]

Back in 1976, he
was the biologist

who discovered the
shelter in the forest

where all the eagles
go every night.

He was instrumental in having
that night roost set aside

as the Bear Valley
National Wildlife Refuge.

RALPH OPP: We weren't
aware here, anyway,

that night roosts
were that important.

And fortunately, we discovered
that in the '70s and was able

to protect it.

So it is a federal
bald eagle refuge,

one of the few in the country.

VINCE PATTON: Eagles rarely
allow people to come very close.

Yet here in southern
Oregon, bird watchers

can approach less
than 50 yards away.

Their presence barely
ruffles a feather.

[EAGLE CHIRPING]

RALPH OPP: A
gathering of eagles--

the bald eagles-- is
called a convocation.

And I think that's
pretty appropriate.

I like that for, you
know, it's a regal bird.

Yeah, they don't
just have a meeting.

They have a convocation.

VINCE PATTON: Many of these
regal symbols of America

are actually Canadians.

A large number fly 1,200 miles
from the Northern Territories

to winter in Oregon,
lured here by food.

Hundreds of thousands of
geese, swans, cranes, and ducks

stop at the Klamath marshes.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

RALPH OPP: Something like
80% of all of the waterfowl

that migrate north and
south in the Pacific flyway

funnel through this area.

The eagles have
learned to come here

and winter in consort with them.

VINCE PATTON: The
eagles eat well.

Dinner is served
on the frozen lake,

often within view
of lucky survivors.

To see so many bald eagles in
one spot may seem spectacular.

But it's downright astonishing,
considering how few eagles there

were 50 years ago.

RALPH OPP: We were down to about
20 nesting pairs in the state

of Oregon in the '50s and '60s.

And then on into the '70s is
when we started our recovery

activities for the bald eagle.

And we're back to probably 700,
800 nesting pairs in Oregon

now, a much safer, stable
population for these birds.

[EAGLE CHIRPING]

VINCE PATTON: The
rebound in eagle numbers

can be seen across the state,
including the Willamette Valley.

In one day south of Albany,
we see nearly four dozen.

JEFF FLEISCHER: In
2010 in January,

we counted 171 bald eagles
just in this Linn County area.

VINCE PATTON: Just Linn County.

JEFF FLEISCHER:
Just Linn County.

This is probably the second
largest concentration

of bald eagles in the state
during the winter time.

VINCE PATTON: For
seven winters in a row,

Jeff Fleischer has led a survey
effort for the Audubon Society.

He and an army of
volunteer researchers

drive 146 routes around the
state, counting birds of prey.

JEFF FLEISCHER: Oh, hello.

We've got a major
dining center over here.

VINCE PATTON: The eagles
have found a dead sheep.

JEFF FLEISCHER: We've got one,
two, right close to the carcass.

VINCE PATTON: When they
stalk smaller prey,

winter's bare cottonwoods make
for the ideal hunting perch.

JEFF FLEISCHER: For example,
the eagles back here,

they know we're here.

I mean, they can
see us as well as we

can see them through the
binoculars that we're using.

VINCE PATTON: Just
as in Klamath,

the numbers of eagles
in the Willamette Valley

are on the rise.

JEFF FLEISCHER: In the last five
years, we've gone from 40 or 50

to 170 two years ago.

VINCE PATTON: There's
one spot in Oregon

where eagles have some trouble.

On the lower Columbia,
numbers are up.

Yet, many of the nests
fail to hatch chicks.

JEREMY BUCK: They're producing
about half the number of eagles

that they should produce.

And we've been trying to
track down since the 1980s why

that's the case.

[INAUDIBLE]

VINCE PATTON: To solve the
mystery of the failed nests,

Jeremy Buck must go
where the eagles live.

JEREMY BUCK: What we do
is we come in very fast.

We try to get a line
up into the tree,

so we can ascend up to that
nest, pull one of the eggs out.

We need to get that slack out.

VINCE PATTON: Jeremy
is a biologist

with US Fish and Wildlife.

JEREMY BUCK: This
is the fun part.

VINCE PATTON: Over
15 years of research,

Jeremy has climbed
into 30 eagle nests.

JEREMY BUCK: Gotta get through
a little bit of brush here.

The Sitka spruce have a
lot of branches up there.

They're actually
kind of fun to climb.

You just got to make
sure you do it safely.

[SIGHS]

Beautiful view over the river.

[EAGLE CHIRPING]

You can hear the eagles
wanting to get back

into their nest, which we'll
let them do in a minute.

VINCE PATTON: More than 100 feet
up, Jeremy reaches the nest.

They are large,
strong, and heavy.

They can weigh up to a ton,
sturdy enough for Jeremy

to climb in if necessary.

JEREMY BUCK: Looks like a
lot of feathers up here.

Looks like the eagles have
covered up eggs with moss.

These eggs are cold,
which means they've been

probably cold for some time.

VINCE PATTON: Jeremy
will take one egg.

It could contain clues about
why it failed to hatch.

[EAGLE CHIRPING]

JEREMY BUCK: As long as
we can move out quickly,

they'll come back.

And they'll sit on
that remaining egg.

VINCE PATTON: Two
days later in the lab,

Jeremy is ready
to begin analyzing

why this egg produced no chick.

JEREMY BUCK: 124.13.

The egg should look
like a chicken egg.

When you break open a chicken
egg and a bright yellow yolk

comes out, that's a healthy egg.

That's what it should look like.

Ours was kind of degraded,
very milky, like a rotten egg.

VINCE PATTON: After several
years of testing eggs,

they found a pattern.

The shells are too thin.

And when they test
the shell itself,

they find elevated levels
of a toxic chemical no one

thinks about anymore--

DDT and its byproduct DDE.

JEREMY BUCK: I was
shocked at the results.

The DDE was still in the
eggs at high concentrations.

VINCE PATTON: Every egg tested
since 1985 has DDT residues.

JEREMY BUCK: They
generally come out white.

This one's quite a bit dirty.

VINCE PATTON: The
levels are higher along

the Columbia than any other
river system in Oregon.

Jeremy suspects the pesticide
has collected in the sediments

here where the river
grows slow and wide.

DDT lingers despite being
banned in the US 40 years ago.

JEREMY BUCK: It's
very persistent.

It takes a long time to break
down in the environment.

VINCE PATTON: Despite
low birth rates

here, even along the Columbia,
eagle numbers are healthier.

Bald eagles spent 40 years
under special protection.

In 2007, federal
biologists officially

removed them from the
Endangered Species List.

Ralph Opp was one
of those biologists

who ensured Oregon
played an important role

in their recovery.

RALPH OPP: Eagles are my life.

Yeah, I was lucky.

I feel real good about it, yeah.

We did a lot here
to help get them off

of the Endangered Species List.

VINCE PATTON: From the
banks of the Columbia

River to the marshes of Klamath
Falls, success is in the air.

[EAGLE CHIRPING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRUCE BURKHARDT:
Like their namesake,

lionfish are tough customers.

In the Caribbean
and Gulf of Mexico,

these invasive predators
are muscling out native fish

like snapper and grouper.

To deal with this,
conservationist and sports

fishermen have come up with
a sporty way to control them.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Just off the south
coast of Florida,

the ocean floor is home to a
complex and diverse ecosystem.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In this underwater
jungle of dense coral,

a delicate web of
life flourishes.

This is the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary,

a protected stretch of ocean
covering 2,000 square miles.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In recent years, however, a
small but voracious predator

arrived here, the invasive
Indo-Pacific lionfish, a fish

that, though popular
in home aquariums,

threatens the natural balance
of life in these waters.

SCOTT DONAHUE: The
Indo-Pacific lionfish

is a perfect invader
in the Atlantic.

It has no natural predators.

It reproduces very
quickly, pretty much

eats anything indiscriminately.

MAN: With an invasive
fish, they are

competing with our native
fish for critical resources,

such as food, space,
those sorts of things.

ANNE BARSE: They've established
a breeding population that

started off of North Carolina.

And they've spread south all
throughout the Caribbean.

And now they're working their
way into the Gulf of Mexico.

BRUCE BURKHARDT: As a step to
control the lionfish invasion

here in south Florida, the
US Fish and Wildlife Service

is taking an unusual step--

issuing permits for
divers to collect

large numbers of lionfish.

SCOTT DONAHUE: The first
lionfish in the Florida Keys

National Marine Sanctuary was
spotted in January of 2009.

And slowly but surely, we've
seen increasing numbers.

They are starting to appear
more frequently and at higher

densities.

WOMAN: See all these
spikes up here?

No, no.

[INAUDIBLE]

BRUCE BURKHARDT:
Today, these divers

are out to do their
part, participating

in a lionfish derby, a one-day
competition where participants

are allowed to collect
as many lionfish

as they can during
daylight hours.

MAN: You guys ever
dive down here?

MAN: Yup.

SCOTT DONAHUE: We
started in 2010

with lionfish derbies
in the Florida Keys.

And we have three each year.

And the purpose of
the derbies is mostly

to have all of our constituents
go out into the resource

and help us control the
lionfish population.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Everyone who likes
to use the reef,

they go to their numbers
for lobster season

and for just pleasure dives and
snorkeling and everything else.

And over the last two years,
they've all come to us

and said, hey, we're
seeing a lot of lionfish

out at our favorite spots.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We're trying to get them to
go back out to those locations

where they've seen those
lionfish before and then

collect them, whether
that's with a net

or in certain areas
of the sanctuary,

you're allowed to spear fish.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BOB HICKERSON: This is
number eight derby for us.

Yeah, we started seeing this
happening a couple of years

back, traveling
throughout the Caribbean.

And it's a very real problem.

And we're doing our best to try
to control it on local levels.

We're leading the
charge, I think.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRUCE BURKHARDT: Prizes
are given for most lionfish

caught, largest and smallest.

MAN: All right, this is 265.

BRUCE BURKHARDT: Some specimens
are dissected for research.

And others will be
served for dinner.

Lionfish are quite tasty
if prepared correctly.

WOMAN: It's not a fishy taste.

MAN: Not at all.

WOMAN: I think it's really good.

BRUCE BURKHARDT:
They must, however,

be handled with special care.

SCOTT DONAHUE: Lionfish
are not poisonous.

They are venomous.

Their dorsal fins
and their anal fins

have skin around them that
is toxic, more or less.

It's venomous, so
that's why you really

want to be careful when
you're handling these guys.

[CHUCKLING]

BRUCE BURKHARDT: Researchers
from around the country

attend these derbies to
gather data on the population

to better predict the overall
impact of growing lionfish

numbers throughout the Keys.

DANE HUHE: I'm
interested in knowing

what the lionfish are eating.

So what we're doing is
pulling the stomachs

out of the lionfish.

We'll take them back to
Gainesville at our laboratory.

And then I'll go through
them under a microscope

and be able to identify what
they're eating out on the reef.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRUCE BURKHARDT: Because
lionfish reproduce year round

and produce thousands
of eggs at a time,

the species is
extremely prolific.

And since 2009,
thousands of lionfish

have been removed
from the ecosystem

thanks to these derbies.

This is not, however, the
solution to the problem.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SCOTT DONAHUE: The purpose
of these types of derbies

is to control numbers and get
an idea of where and how many

are out there.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

BRUCE BURKHARDT:
Here's a quick look

at a story we're working
on for a future show.

Loggerhead turtles make an epic
journey to deliver their eggs.

But now, the turtles are
facing enormous challenges

to their habitat.

CAROLINE RAVILLE: For all of
us here at This American Land,

thanks for watching.

You can always check us out
at thisamericanland.org.

We'll see you next time.

PRESENTER: For more
information about this program,

visit thisamericanland.org.

Funding for This American Land
provided by The Wyss Foundation

and The Turner Foundation.

[MUSIC PLAYING]