JULIE BAIN: When I first came to Nebraska, my colleagues in the Forest Service just looked at me and said, "There's a forest in Nebraska?"

(calm music) JUSTIN EVERTSON: We have a lot of trees here, millions and millions of trees.

There's more forest resource here than people realize.

(calm music) BAIN: To my knowledge there's no other Sandhills in the world like this.

DOAK NICKERSON: A unique ecosystem in this part of the world.

(calm music) BAIN: The misconceptions and stereotypes about Nebraska's landscape is that it's flat, flat and boring.

EVERTSON: You just get off the beaten path, and Nebraska is really quite beautiful, and much more diverse than people would ever realize.

(calm music) NARRATOR: Nebraska's trees and native plants connect us to our past.

LAURA STEINMAN: Nebraska was a treeless plain.

It was considered a great American desert, actually.

It's neat to be able to walk around and see that, those living testaments, those living monuments, of the Morton family.

NARRATOR: They keep us present.

DAN LAMBE: I think a lot of Nebraskans know Arbor Day was started here in Nebraska.

They probably don't know that we're helping to plant millions and millions of trees every single year all around the world.

KAY KOTTAS: I realize just how precious it is, how little of it we have left.

LAMBE: If ever there was a time to be planting trees, now is that time.

SUE DAWSON: There are more reasons to have flowers besides looking pretty.

NARRATOR: And they provide a legacy for our future.

JON ERIXSON: The trees we plant today are for the next generation.

KOTTAS: And everybody has that responsibility.

FRED McCARTNEY: The forester is comfortable planting a tree that he knows that he'll never set in it's shade.

RICH GILBERT: Nebraska has a lot to offer.

And this is just one little piece of it.

This is everybody's land right here.

(calm music) VOICEOVER: Funding for this program provided in part by.

(calm music) Trees shade and shelter homes, reduce soil erosion, protect crops and livestock, provide food and cover for wildlife, buffer noise, and add beauty to our landscape.

Your local natural resources district is available to help you find and plant the right trees and shrubs for your land.

More information about our conservation trees program is available at NRDTrees.org.

(calm music) NARRATOR: A treeless prairie.

The Great American desert.

A vast open sea of grass.

Even Nebraska's name comes from the Otoe word for flat water.

But from its very beginning, our state has had a close connection to trees and native plants.

Native Nebraskans and homesteaders alike depended on them and our state has grown up alongside them.

This "desert" is home to a diverse range of species.

JUSTIN EVERTSON: Nebraska sits at an ecological crossroads right here in the center of the country, part of the Great Plains.

JULIE BAIN: We are situated where East meets West.

What that means is that species that live in the East and the West can both survive in this area.

Which makes for a high diversity of plants and animals.

EVERTSON: You could start your day in the southeast part of the state where there's oak hickory forest, pawpaw trees growing, and then you go through the Sandhills and the sea of grass of the Sandhills.

You might end up in the Pine Ridge of the northwest part of the panhandle, in the Chadron area, all that rough broken pine country.

You would swear you were in three different states on that drive, and it's really kind of a neat thing to have within a day's drive here.

NARRATOR: Prior to westward expansion, what is now Nebraska, was once blanketed in grass.

EVERTSON: We're primarily a prairie state, so when you think about it Nebraska was 98% prairie at the time of settlement, two to 3% trees.

NARRATOR: After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, expeditions like that of Lewis and Clark were conducted to find out what people, animals, and plants lived here.

Eventually new Americans began to settle.

But the unfamiliar landscape, wind, and lack of trees made many of them uncomfortable.

As author, Ole Rolvaag, put it, "There was nothing to hide behind."

EMILY LEVINE: When white people came out to the prairie, they kind of couldn't handle it.

They felt unnerved by not having trees around.

They were exposed out in the open.

And they wanted to plant trees.

They wanted to recreate what they knew out here.

NARRATOR: The plains, while unfamiliar to newly arrived immigrants, had been home to many tribes for hundreds of years.

LEVINE: There were a number of different tribes here in the state at the time of contact.

We had a number of horticultural sedentary tribes, Otoe, Ponca, Omaha.

In the middle of the state were the Pawnee.

And then in the west, the nomadic tribes like Lakota.

NARRATOR: Tribes that didn't move around farmed fields of beans, squash, sunflowers, and their most important crop, corn.

Nomadic tribes relied on wild plants for food, and much much more.

LEVINE: Because the indigenous people of the state were intimately connected with every plant, they knew where to find it, they knew what it could do for them.

Every plant had a use.

Animals and plants, tools, what they built with, where they lived, what they ate, what they used for medicine, what they use for spiritual purposes, all of those things used plants.

The indigenous people saw plants as sentient living beings.

They saw them as relatives.

And when you see the plant world as a relative, you harvest it with respect, you treat it with respect, you use it with respect.

NARRATOR: When tribes were removed from their lands, many species of plants were lost.

LEVINE: Most of the varieties that indigenous people grew here, and throughout the plains had been lost.

Recently, in the last 10 or 20 years maybe, people have tried to resurrect those crops.

But for the most part, a lot of those crops are gone.

White people thought the land was empty, although it's full of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of plants, rich and full of life.

The animals that depend on the plants, the plants depend on the animals.

It was full and burgeoning with life.

White people came out here and called it empty, and still call it empty.

I say you go to Manhattan and look at a square block of Manhattan, and that's empty.

NARRATOR: In the late 1800's, pioneers traveled more than 1000 miles to reach the middle of the Great American Desert.

They arrived in the Nebraska territory, built sod houses, and planted crops in hopes that they'd succeed.

JON ERIXSON: Well if you think about the Great Plains, and what the Nebraska looked like 150 years ago, trees were mostly absent from the landscape.

Back 147 years ago, Nebraska started to recognize the value of trees, and the value those trees bring to our lives.

NARRATOR: The Timber Culture Act was passed in 1873.

It allowed homesteaders to acquire land by planting and tending to trees.

The goal was to increase timber and fuel for homesteaders.

Unfortunately, many people lied about what had actually been planted, and the failed act was repealed.

Nevertheless, the Tree Planters' State became Nebraska's official state name.

As they first settled in Nebraska, many immigrants already realized the benefits.

They missed living among trees as they had on the East Coast and immediately began planting.

In fact, one of those settlers would become synonymous with tree planting.

Julius Sterling Morton grew up near Detroit, Michigan.

He was a bright young man with an adventurous spirit who wanted to venture west and make a name for himself.

After attending college in Michigan, Sterling and his bride, Caroline Joy French set out for the Nebraska Territory on their wedding day.

Morton's political aspirations took him from Bellevue to Nebraska City.

He and Caroline built a four room frame house which would one day become Arbor Lodge, and started planting trees.

LAURA STEINMAN: They ordered fruit trees, shrubs, flowers, and planted those to beautify their home.

And J.

Sterling always felt that taking care of your home and investing in your home, was primary patriotism.

He felt like if you invested into your home, beautified your surroundings, that tied you to your community, that tied you to your state, and that tied you to your nation.

NARRATOR: In 1858, Morton was appointed Secretary of the Nebraska Territory.

And for much of his term he was Acting Governor.

That same year the Mortons planted 400 apple trees in their orchard.

At a time when many people didn't believe that you could grow apples or pears in the tough sod of the western prairies, this was more than just a personal landscaping or beautification project.

This was part of an effort to grow his community.

STEINMAN: Well Sterling recognized that people weren't going to move to Nebraska territory if it remained treeless and without shade.

So he promoted the idea of planting trees, recognizing that we needed trees for lumber, we needed trees for shelter, for shade, for food, for animal habitat, and for the future.

NARRATOR: Nebraska had many agriculture proponents, but it was Morton who had a knack for publicity, and proved to be the most influential.

He used his railroad connections to ship Nebraska grown produce to be showcased on the East Coast and overseas.

And used his influence as editor of the Nebraska City News to tout the territories rich soil and climate.

STEINMAN: He would send articles all the way to the East Coast.

And those were picked up various publishers and printed.

He was paid for some of those articles, but it was also done just for the interest of promoting Nebraska, promoting agriculture, and promoting tree planting.

NARRATOR: In addition to singing Nebraska's praises outside the territory, Morton was influential in getting his fellow Nebraskans to take up the cause.

WORDS OF JULIUS MORTON: "If every farmer in Nebraska will plant out "and cultivate an orchard, and a flower garden, "together with a few forest trees, this will become "mentally and morally, the best agricultural state, "the grandest community of producers in the American Union."

STEINMAN: When he was serving as President of the State Board of Agriculture, in January of 1872, he suggested that a day be set aside specifically for tree planting.

WORDS OF JULIUS MORTON: "The cultivation of flowers and trees "is the cultivation of the good, "the beautiful, and the ennobling in man.

"And for one, I wish to see this culture "become universal in the state."

STEINMAN: And on April 10th of 1872, the first Arbor Day was held.

A million trees were planted in Nebraska that first Arbor Day.

And to think that in a territory where we only have several thousand settlers, a million trees being planted in basically one day is just phenomenal.

NARRATOR: J.

Sterling Morton would go on to become United States Secretary of Agriculture.

But his most important title was always that of a farmer.

STEINMAN: He was proud to be a farmer.

He was proud to work with his hands.

He felt that was a noble profession.

And I think that says a lot about the man that he was.

(calm music) NARRATOR: Today Arbor Day is celebrated in all 50 states, and in countries around the world, including right here in Nebraska, with festivities in Nebraska City, (drums playing) annual tree plantings at the State Capitol.

♪ Trees ♪ NARRATOR: And at schools across the state.

COLT KERCHAL: We are doing a tree planting for Arbor Day.

BAILEY JACKSON: They make a house for animals, and without animals we couldn't live because they're part of the food chain.

And they give us oxygen to breathe.

BROOKS RUHTER: Just an experience that they'll remember forever.

Getting their hands dirty, being out here doing something that is good for their community, good for the planet as a whole.

Just understanding, well this is something that I can do at my house, this is something that I can teach my kids one day.

Just a kind of a lifelong learning experience for them.

EVERTSON: One thing that is always in the back of my head is that trees have come and gone across the state for eons.

Even the early settlers and researchers at the University could see that trees were here.

And we all knew that trees were gonna make our lives better in a lot of ways.

So how do we start figuring that out for a state that didn't have many trees, and they started early.

And they've been working at it ever since to try and figure that out.

NARRATOR: One of those early pioneers was Dr. Charles Bessey, whose legacy lives on today.

His experimental plantings became part of what is now Nebraska's National Forest, and his namesake nursery.

RICHARD GILBERT: My name is Richard Gilbert, I'm the Nursery Manager here Charles E. Bessey Nursery in Halsey, Nebraska.

We are the oldest federal tree nursery in the United States, started in 1902.

Charles Lee Bessey, a Professor of Botany at the University of Nebraska thought that there could be a forest out here.

And with the testing of some plants in Holt County, decided that this would be a very good location for the nursery.

And really the reason this location was chosen was the sandy soil, and the plentiful water supply here in Nebraska.

So Nebraska as a whole, was given the name as the Tree Planters' State in the 1800's.

NARRATOR: Once instrumental in forestry research and experimentation, the nursery is now an important player in disaster recovery and conservation.

GILBERT: Today the purpose of the nursery is to produce seedlings for windbreaks, habitat planting, riparian areas, conservation purposes with the states.

And then with the US Forest Service it's planting after those natural disasters such as wildfire.

JOSEPH DUGAS: This is the beginning of our containerized growing operation.

This is our growing medium that's gonna go up the conveyor belt, into the hopper here, which is our flat filler that fills our Styrofoam containers.

This is our dibble station.

As the containers come out of there we want to make sure we take any air pockets out of the container that might be inside of that.

So we use our dibble bar and we go ahead and we squash these down, make sure that we get a nice good solid plug inside of there.

The containers come on to the conveyor belt through our precision needle seeder.

They are going down the belt and lined out by this piece of equipment here.

It makes a small dibble inside of each cell so that the seed has a place to go.

And it sucks the seed up using air to plant them inside of every cell.

Depending on our germination rates there may be anywhere from one to six seeds per cell.

And then from there they go into our graveling machine.

The gravel holds the seed down during watering so that do not float away, and also helps control with disease issues.

GILBERT: There used to be upwards of 24 federal nurseries throughout the United States, we are now down to six.

NARRATOR: That means this one nursery serves a huge five state region.

And, just as it did in 1902, the Bessey Nursery still does bare root production, growing seedlings until they're a few years old, then harvesting and shipping them.

About half of the trees produced at the nursery go to organizations like Nebraska's Natural Resource Districts to be used as wind breaks, shade trees, or other conservation plantings.

The other half of their efforts are focused on recovery from natural disasters like insects and wild fire.

(calm music) GILBERT: A lot of folks know we continue to have larger and larger wildfires, more of them.

And when folks in Region Two, the Rocky Mountain Region, which is Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, when they have a fire and it scorches the Earth, there's no seed left in the ground, those districts can contact me, and put in a sowing request, and within one year we will produce those seedlings.

We have right at about 80,000 Engelmann Spruce inside this greenhouse right here.

Some of them are going to San Juan National Forest.

Some of them are going to Gunnison, Colorado for the GMUG National Forest, Gunnison Ranger District.

And we started all of the plants.

We put the seed in the flats at the end of February.

And they will all be taken out of here the first week of November.

(table of trees moving) NARRATOR: Last year the Bessey Nursery grew and shipped nearly two million trees.

Amazingly, for most of the year, it's with a staff of only five employees.

Bare root production is a large part of what they do.

But in the case of certain disasters, and sometimes special requests, (stapling boxes closed) seed is necessary.

GILBERT: We've got Chokecherry, American Plum, Viburnum, Hawthorn, Rose, Elderberry, and even Maple seed.

NARRATOR: Bessey Nursery stores about 800 seed lots, or about 12,000 pounds of seed for the US Forest Service.

That seed is all locally sourced from trees across the five state region.

So when forests are replanted, it's with species native to each area that have evolved with other local species over thousands of years.

GILBERT: So that way we have the proper genetics going back to those locations.

So they will go out, and they will collect cones, whether it's pine cones, spruce cones, Douglas fir cones.

And they'll put them in bushel bags, and they'll ship them to us.

(raking cones into bin) DUGAS: We take the cones before they open up and have released their seed, and run them through a kiln process.

(kiln spinning) Which will get those cones to open up, so that we can collect the seed, and store it for future uses in our seed bank.

NARRATOR: They're planning, and planting, for the future while drawing on the past.

GILBERT: It's an honor to be able to be part of that legacy, Bessey's legacy, and to be able to go out to, whether it's a ranger district and see the trees on the forest, or out to a windbreak that was planted.

It's quite an honor, it really is.

Myself, and all of my employees, it's an honor to work here and be part of it, and be part of that history.

NARRATOR: The nursery sits amid its most famous experiment, the largest hand planted forest in the Western Hemisphere, 90,000 acres of trees, about the size of Omaha.

JULIE BAIN: Most of the planting happened in the 20's and the 30's.

But it went through the early 60's.

It was meant to be timber producing forest, to provide wood for settlers.

(calm music) GILBERT: You had all these people coming across the United States.

They hit the plains, there were no wood products whatsoever.

The small amount of native trees that we had here had been wiped out, or cleaned up for the most part.

So the folks, one, they were scared of the prairies.

And two, they needed timber for homes, and firewood, the railroad.

NARRATOR: Halsey never became a major timber provider.

But the forest, now protected land, has become an important part of Nebraska's ecosystem.

BAIN: This unit in the Sandhills acts as a recharge for the Ogallala Aquifer.

When it rains, the water can easily percolate through sand instead of running off.

It just hits the ground and soaks in, and recharges the aquifer that farmers then use for irrigation.

NARRATOR: Nearly 60 years after starting the Bessey District, the US government bought back hundreds of acres from homesteaders in the Nebraska Panhandle to create another Nebraska National Forest District near Chadron, Pine Ridge.

(calm music) TIM BUSKIRK: This is a naturally occurring ponderosa pine forest, kind of an offshoot of the Black Hills, South Dakota.

So what I'm managing here is something that's natural, whereas in Halsey, or in Bessey, they're managing something that's really still a 100 year old experiment.

So it's kind of a really unique contrast of how we manage our different pieces of ground.

We're one of the few districts that gets to manage a National Recreation Area like you see behind me.

We also manage a wilderness area west of Crawford, the Soldier Creek Wilderness, a National Grassland north of Crawford, some really cool special places like Toadstool Geologic Park, and Hudson-Meng Bison Bone Bed.

Just some really cool unique places and resources that we get to manage.

So it's a very cool job, cool place to work.

NARRATOR: Today, Nebraska's National Forests and grasslands include approximately 1.2 million acres, spread across several districts, and extending into South Dakota.

(calm music) JULIE BAIN: This forest is really well loved.

We have people that come in whose grandparents helped plant the forest, and they talk about that.

People come here year after year.

I think when people come to the National Forest, even to just have fun, I think that they're still gaining some level of appreciation.

It's important to keep all parts of an ecosystem, because we never know which parts are helping humanity thrive.

BUSKIRK: Our natural resources, our public lands, are something that sets America apart from many other countries.

These are here for anybody to use.

So it's so important for us to protect that, to keep nature available to the American public, places for parents to bring their kids out for hikes, for teachers to bring kids out to learn about butterflies and birds, that's what's important, to me, for us to protect these resources.

NARRATOR: A century after Arbor Day began in Nebraska, trees were now a well established part of the landscape.

A hardy, fast growing tree, the American Elm was one of the most planted.

But Dutch Elm disease now threatened to wipe out the entire species.

JUSTIN EVERTSON: Nebraska's communities were losing a lot of their trees.

Millions of American Elms died across the state.

And they were the most prominent trees in our communities, left gaping holes.

And a group of horticulturally related people at the University kicked around this idea of we need to have a better diversity of trees out and about, so that our communities won't lose all their trees one at a time.

Nebraska is so widely diverse, just in size, but also geographically diverse, elevational change from east to west.

How do you represent those trees in a single arboretum?

You couldn't.

NARRATOR: That's why in 1978, the country's first and only state arboretum to function as a statewide network was created.

The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum was founded around the same time the interstate was being built, with a vision of roadside plantings spanning the state.

But that vision soon changed to include arboretums, parks, and public landscapes.

And rather than limiting their focus to trees, the founders used the word flora in their Articles of Incorporation to include all sorts of plants.

EVERTSON: Most states do have a single state arboretum, or two or three scattered around the state.

And people come to the main capitol or something to see that arboretum, or at a university.

But in Nebraska that concept was literally to take that arboretum to the people.

And now there are over 100 of these sites scattered across the state.

NARRATOR: One of those sites is the Gilman Park Arboretum in Pierce.

(calm music) GARY ZIMMER: When I was growing up, every kid just lived in the park out here.

I grew up clear at the west end of town.

So we'd hop on our bikes, ride down here, and we played underneath the big cottonwood trees, which seemed to me they were big then.

And they're all still here.

It sure looks different now than it did then.

I got out of college, and I never dreamt that I'd end up back in Pierce because my dreams were to run some big park somewhere else but, had a lot of good memories out here.

NARRATOR: Gary spent 40 years as the Park Superintendent, and considers the arboretum one of his biggest accomplishments.

(dead branch broken off) ZIMMER: You'll see some big cottonwoods up here.

But other than that, I planted everything down here.

NARRATOR: It started from a very simple idea.

ZIMMER: People were walking out here, just for exercise.

And they just had a trail, just a dirt trail that they were walking around and I got to thinking, why not give them something to look at while you're there?

NARRATOR: But that simple project soon became a huge undertaking, and eventually a tourist destination and point of pride for the area.

(calm music) ZIMMER: I've been told that we are the most diverse arboretum in the state, that we have more different kinds of plants than any other arboretum in the state.

This isn't a really what you'd call a landscape arboretum where everything is designed in the perfect landscape.

It's more of a specimen arboretum, where people can look at one particular tree, and say, "Whoa, I really like that."

And they could go home and Google it, and find out more about that tree.

The Lace Bark Elm should not be growing here.

And I give it a try, and it's just plumb happy.

I mean it, ah, obviously likes where it's at, it's pretty protected here and I'm always watching for something new.

I love trying new things.

You notice this garden is just full of butterflies.

When people think about arboretums, I think most of them are thinking about trees.

That's pretty much what you figure an arboretum's gonna be but an arboretum is so much more than just trees.

NARRATOR: Of the $140,000 spent on the arboretum, only 32% was paid for by the city budget.

Grants, donations, and memorials have paid for the rest, a testament to Pierce's community spirit.

(dead branch being broke off) Gary has been planting this area since 1993.

Now most of his days are spent caring for the trees that have grown up here, just as he did.

ZIMMER: I could probably spend a couple hours just on this one tree.

Makes me feel old because you look at a tree like that.

Wow, I planted that.

Well it's definitely a source of pride for the community.

There's people out here walking every day and every night.

And it brings people into town.

I think it means a lot to the community for that, and it definitely means a lot for the community just for a place to come after a day's work and just quietly walk, and enjoy the nice weather, and flowers blooming, and things like that.

All the work was definitely worth it.

There's no question, no question about it.

NARRATOR: Trees have undeniably added benefit to our lives.

They provide protection from the elements.

They clean our air, provide us with wood, food, and oxygen, and provide homes for wildlife.

But human changes to the landscape, including the advent of agriculture, have come with a cost.

Our natural prairies are disappearing.

(calm music) KAY KOTTAS: When I was a little girl I remember coming out to this farm, and there used to be a ravine where people from town would dump their trash.

But one of the other things that we did, my sister and I, was we ran up and down the hills and we collected wildflowers.

(calm music) NARRATOR: Kay Kottas' love for wildflowers blossomed into a love for native plants, a career in botany, and a mission to restore Nebraska's prairies.

She's the founder of Prairie Legacy, one of the only organizations in the state to collect and clean seed to restore Nebraska's native grasslands.

Today only about 2% of Nebraska's original tall grass prairie remains, and most of it is scattered among small acreages.

Kay is working to save them.

KOTTAS: Okay, you can just park it right there.

So we're gonna check the milkweed, and the purple prairie clover.

What we provide here is local eco-type seed.

And so what that means is we go out to the virgin prairies, which is a prairie that has never been plowed, never been disturbed.

And we collect seed from the wild.

NARRATOR: They also help land that has been disturbed to return to its natural state.

KOTTAS: This field is a CRP field, which means Conservation Reserve Program.

And a field like this would have been plowed at one time, and cultivated for crops.

NARRATOR: With a little help from Kay, and some wildflowers, the native plants on this land have begun to show themselves again.

Kay's business is run from her great great grandparents homestead in Saline County.

KOTTAS: This has been in my family for over 160 years.

And this is a little piece of prairie we call Surprise Prairie because at one time, before we were able to collect out here it was so full of trees that I didn't even know it was a piece of the property.

And so we started cutting trees and surprise we had prairie out here.

Right now what we're doing is we're collecting dahlia purpurea, which is the scientific name for purple prairie clover.

So we're hand collecting all of this.

And it takes quite a bit of time to do it by hand.

So we'll be at this for a while.

(blower running) NARRATOR: The seed is then dried, (shaker table running) milled, tested in their lab, and stored in the temperature and humidity controlled seed bank.

The different seeds are then made into custom mixes for her clients.

KOTTAS: The dahlia purpurea that we were collecting on the prairie, this is our finished product here.

Those are the tiny seeds.

So each of our seeds, when we collect it, we keep track of where we collected it.

We only plant wild collected seed in our seed plots so that we always have first generation seed that we are selling to folks.

(file drawer closing) We always push for local eco type, it's gonna be much better.

Not only is it going to survive better in this area, but it's going to be much better for the pollinators to have something that blooms at the correct time, and has the correct genetics for their life stages.

NARRATOR: But collecting seed locally has become more difficult as native prairie has become scarcer.

(calm music) KOTTAS: Originally in North America, we had about 140 million acres of tall grass prairie.

Currently, we have somewhere under four million acres.

And some say even less than 1% of the original tall grass prairie left.

I realize just how precious it is, how little of it we have left, and how necessary it is to keep it going.

NARRATOR: To the untrained eye, the plains might seem well, plain.

But Kay sees these grasslands as an ever changing colorful landscape.

KOTTAS: You can go to the same prairie every two weeks and it'll look different to you.

So early spring species, you might see a lot of purples, the low growing astragalus.

Or you might see some pinks, or some of the tiny yellow, really dainty flowers in the springtime.

In the summertime you might see more whites and yellows.

And then in the fall you see this big flush of solidago, which is the goldenrod, and sunflowers of all types.

And we're at that stage right now where those goldenrods are just starting to really show.

NARRATOR: With years of patience and hard work, Kay has restored hundreds of acres of native Nebraska prairie.

And as she watches the land return to its natural beauty, Kay is reminded of how her story began.

KOTTAS: Coming back to this place as an adult, we've cleaned up the old dump that was here.

But now I can walk through and see the wildflowers I used to collect as a child.

Now I know the names of those wildflowers.

I really understand what they do for our ecosystem.

And I want to see them perpetuated, and no more dumps.

You own a piece of the Earth.

It's what's gonna be here for generations.

You don't want your kids running the hills and ravines looking for trash, you want them looking for wildflowers.

SUE DAWSON: Oh, here we go.

One thing that I do is, I love getting in the space of different kinds of insects.

It was so fun the other night.

I saw a bee on a liatris stem and it was upside down.

And it was doing some things like maybe grooming.

And I just stood there and watched it for a few minutes and felt so blessed.

NARRATOR: Sue Dawson is one of many Nebraskans who have fallen in love with wildflowers.

She's turned her Lincoln yard into a haven for pollinators.

DAWSON: I talked my husband into turning it into flowers rather than him putting lawn in.

And so over the years he's come to accept that.

(sprayer hose turning on) Guess it gives me peace, just being out there.

And I enjoy it, it's entertainment for me to see the different insects.

I think that sometimes people want to have a pretty flower garden, and they don't understand that there are more reasons to have flowers besides looking pretty.

And many non-native plants don't really provide much in the way of the needs of different insects.

And when you have native plants, you have a nice diversity of insects around.

And some kinds of insects depend on certain native plants for their host plants, or for their nectar.

Each native plant is good for a host plant for a specific kind of insect.

And so the different kinds of insects, some of them actually need those plants, certain plants in order to produce and live their lives.

NARRATOR: Sue's garden is a University of Nebraska Certified Pollinator Habitat.

The program hopes to increase food resources, nesting habitat, and pesticide free areas for bees, flies, moths, butterflies, and beetles.

- I think the public is learning more and more about native plants and how good they are for the environment.

Some people are still unsure about what they are.

And when they see them in the yard, I think it helps to have the signs here, because then they know but there's a reason for these plantings.

And people do appreciate seeing them, and having some shared with them from time to time.

(bees buzzing) JUDY WU-SMART: That is all pollen that they've collected.

And they convert it into bee bread, so that that is what the nurse bees consume so that that they can produce food for their babies.

I'm Judy Wu-Smart, I am an Assistant Professor, and Extension Specialist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and I run the UNL Bee Lab.

We have about 20,000 species worldwide, 4000 in North America, and several hundred species of bees in Nebraska.

Bees, butterflies, beetles, and flies are critical pollinators for our ecosystem.

They are transporting pollen from one plant to another so that that plant can then produce a seed or a fruit.

One third of our diet is dependent on insect pollination, and of that 80% is done by our commercial honeybees.

Pollinators, particularly the bees, are struggling because of multiple different things going on.

In our research we look to see how we can promote honeybee health and management to protect them from diseases, pesticides, and pests.

On the wild bee side we look to better understand which species we have, and which landscapes they are most supported by.

(calm music) ASSISTANT: He just went up my sleeve!

(calm music) WU-SMART: You don't have to keep bees to help bees.

Anybody can plant pollinator friendly gardens and habitat so that bees have the proper nutrition, and the resources to provide for their nesting habitats.

(calm music) DAWSON: I think that when you understand that it's more than just having that pretty flower garden, it makes you feel good to know that you are providing for these other creatures that are in our world.

NARRATOR: On the 100th anniversary of Arbor Day, the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to tree planting was started right here in Nebraska.

DAN LAMBE: The mission of the Arbor Day Foundation is very simple.

We inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees.

I know that others will be interesting in hearing that.

NARRATOR: The foundation is largely funded by individual contributions, and works with cities, universities, and corporate partners to encourage planting and stewardship of trees.

The impact is now global.

In 2018 the foundation's reforestation efforts spanned 25 States and 14 countries, including a rainforest rescue project in Madagascar.

To date, the project has planted more than two million trees in the rainforest, all with the help of another well known Nebraska organization, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

DR. EDWARD LOUIS: Well the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership is an NGO that's based in Madagascar.

I am the Director, the General Director.

And I'm also the founder.

NARRATOR: The project didn't start as a tree planting initiative.

It grew out of a lemur conservation project.

When Dr. Lewis saw their habitat disappearing, he knew something had to be done.

DR. LOUIS: Well the only way we can actually get change in lemur populations, is actually to get involved in community at large because they're the reason that the population is going down due to habitat loss, hunting, poaching.

So one of the first things we did, is we started engaging the local population.

We started creating jobs so they would monitor these lemurs.

NARRATOR: They've established 20 tree nurseries, which will help to re-plant, but also prevent future deforestation by providing employment for Madagascar residents, reducing the need for mining and slash and burn agriculture.

The work has paid off.

Thanks to re-planting, the greater bamboo lemur population has grown from around 30 adults to more than 100.

They've re-habilitated both the rainforest and the economy, all from nearly 10,000 miles away, in Nebraska.

Here at home, a very different villain poses the latest threat to our trees.

The emerald ash borer is an invasive species of beetle which lays its eggs in the bark of an ash tree.

Its young hatch and bore into the tree, starving it of water and nutrients.

The first infestation was discovered in the US in 2002.

It arrived in Nebraska in 2016, (chain saws buzzing) leaving tens of millions of dead ash trees in its wake.

(chain saws buzzing and tree falling) The loss isn't just aesthetic.

Fewer trees mean less protection from the elements.

Since the days of homesteaders, trees have helped Nebraskans to control erosion, and block wind and dust.

That was never more important than when the dust bowl swept over the American plains in the 1930's.

(dramatic music) STEVE RASMUSSEN: There were stories of storms, of dust, that would end up on the East Coast that would be carried by the wind.

There was one Sunday that was called the Black Sunday because the dust blotted out the sun, middle of the day.

And so trees were seen as an answer to stop the wind from blowing the dust and creating these dust storms.

And it had good success.

Hundreds of miles of shelter belts were planted during that time to stop the hot winds blowing across and causing soil erosion.

NARRATOR: Nebraska's farmers and ranchers still use shelter belts today.

You may know them as wind breaks or conservation plantings.

They reduce erosion, conserve water, and protect fields and livestock, and they're disappearing.

According to the USDA, the decline in shelter belts may be due to modern farming practices, crop price fluctuations, or simply because many of the trees planted years ago have grown old.

Whatever the reason, it's a trend that foresters would like to see reversed.

RASMUSSEN: We have less shelter belts, we have smaller shelter belts, and we don't have the same amount of protection on our landscape like my parents had, or I had growing up, even 20 to 30 years ago.

And then the diversity that we talked about is over-- NARRATOR: District Forester, Steve Rasmussen is working to change that trend.

He works with farmers like Gary Arens to teach them the long term benefits of conservation planting.

RASMUSSEN: The more diversity you have the more wildlife species you can benefit, either from pollinators, or food source, or shelter in the winter.

When I look at tree plantings in an area, I like to think of it as a rural landscape and neighborhood.

And each neighbor is responsible for their own property, but in a larger sense, they're responsible for the neighborhood.

NARRATOR: Here on the Arens farm near Crofton, they've heeded that advice by planting windbreaks to protect livestock.

These tree lines keep his cattle shaded and cool in the summer, and protect them from harsh winds in Nebraska winters.

But beyond keeping them comfortable, these trees can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

GARY ARENS: We've had situations where, in these late storms, we've got a lot of baby calves, we don't have enough facilities to bring them all in.

And there was a situation, even last spring, where the weather turned bad, we got 10 inches of snow.

And we ended up just grabbing small square bales, tucking them underneath the trees, and laying the baby calf on top the straw, and saving calves that way.

That's their protection in a snowstorm, where they don't have any place to go.

It's the only thing that's gonna save them.

NARRATOR: Crops also benefit from this protection.

Just take a look at this photo taken shortly after the dust bowl.

The crops in the foreground, protected by the shelter belt.

The ones in the back aren't.

Despite the benefits, many people still have doubts about giving up valuable areas of farmland.

ARENS: When I first planted these trees, I was tucking the trees in after planting.

And I did have a neighbor stop, and he was concerned about the tree planting on this good soil, to the point that why would you plant trees on such good crop ground?

NARRATOR: For farmers facing rising costs, it can be tempting to tear out a shelter belt to fit a few more acres into production.

RASMUSSEN: We realize that trees don't go in every acre, and land prices are expensive, and trees do take up space.

But one acre of trees can provide protection for many acres of crops, or for a farmstead, or to provide wildlife habitat for a lot more acres than just what that footprint of the tree planting takes.

ARENS: Not everybody's willing to do it, because you can't see it right up front.

But the long term benefits of it are just, after I watched over the years, are just phenomenal to be honest with you.

NARRATOR: And that's why Gary's passing these practices down to his own kids.

ARENS: They are carrying on basically what was passed on to me by my grandparents and my parents.

And it's kind of a big deal to teach them.

It's kind of a self discipline thing to the land, to take care of it, and to give back a little bit, not just take from it.

RASMUSSEN: I would suggest... Our rural landowners are good stewards of the ground.

And you can tell the difference, from one neighbor to the other.

(cattle mooing) Gary and his family have planted trees on that property that not only will benefit his generation, but now his children's benefit is coming through too.

NARRATOR: Gary's been pleased with the benefits, and encourages others to do the same.

ARENS: I would tell other farmers to look at their situation of their, their farm, and implement conservation trees in the way that it benefits them.

I'd tell anybody to do it in a heartbeat.

NARRATOR: Despite landowners best efforts, mother nature sometimes takes matters into her own hands.

(calm music) SANDY MONTAGUE ROES: 2012 was a fire that basically destroyed the entire grazing area of this property.

And it was significant, not only for us but our neighbors.

(somber music) ROES: It was so intense, and so quick that we were very fortunate to have not lost our home.

NARRATOR: Sandy Montague Roes still gets emotional when she thinks back to the wild fire that swept through her Chadron ranch, and the devastation it left behind.

ROES: For whatever reason, I felt the need, I was compelled to look at every single part of this area because, woo.

(emotionally) It was devastating.

And as you would, go up hills and look over at neighbors.

There was a cabin that had been destroyed.

There was animals dead.

(fire crackling) I mean just everything, it was like a war zone.

(fire crackling) NARRATOR: 2012 wasn't the first time the Chadron area was hit by catastrophic fire, and it won't be the last.

The land tells the story.

Once pine covered hillsides are bare.

A few clusters of surviving trees dot the land beneath.

BUSKIRK: So we're standing in the middle of the 2006 Spotted Tail fire south of Chadron, on the Pine Ridge Ranger district of the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands.

The area was, as you can see as you look out, very hot fire, burned in late July, really did a number on our forests here south of Chadron.

JACK RHEMBRANDT: Of course, the fires out there, when we do have them it's hot, usually dry, so it takes a big toll on the volunteers.

As you work on that fire, in the back of some people's heads out there is when's the next one, or where's the next one?

NARRATOR: While tall grass and thick forests may look beautiful, through the eyes of a forester they're fuel for a disaster.

(washing fire truck) Foresters give a lot of credit to hard working volunteer firefighters, but say a lot is owed to an unlikely first responder.

(cow mooing) These cows and their calves feed on grass that could potentially fuel another devastating forest fire.

District Forester Doak Nickerson has been protecting this area for many years.

(axe hitting dirt) And he's a big believer in grazing as a fire management tool.

DOAK NICKERSON: The beef cow and her calf right now, in this part of the world, are what I call the first responders.

And they're ahead of the volunteers.

The more they eat grass, the shorter that grass fuel becomes.

If you don't have the cow calf, then all the other exciting stuff we do with this forest, in terms of logging, thinning, sawmills, chip mills, the wood energy plant at Chadron State College, all of that is a moot point, if we don't graze this ecosystem.

Because we will lose this forest if we're not managing the grass fuel model underneath it.

McCARTNEY: So, which ones did you plant last year?

NARRATOR: Sandy used to think of grass as a tool to feed cattle, but now thinks of cattle as a way to control the grass.

ROES: When I was young, and as I grew up, my understanding was that the grass and the land was just an ancillary piece of raising the cow herd, or the animal herd.

I have that all changed around.

So it's really being conscious and mindful of how you tend the grasslands that are here.

NARRATOR: Grazing is just one of the ways used to mitigate fire.

(grass burning) Prescribed burns are another.

BUSKIRK: If we can safely get fire back on the ground, that's gonna be the most cost effective way for us not only to treat the burned areas, but to protect our green areas as well.

So I'm really excited about that, and where we can go with prescribed fire on the Pine Ridge landscape.

NARRATOR: But burns can't be done safely in an overgrown forest.

Foresters support thinning the forest, but it's a practice that's often misunderstood.

FRED McCARTNEY: You can't fix this problem by just reintroducing fire.

Because we have forests here, a lot of these haven't had any management since this area was homesteaded.

To come back in and say well, we're gonna just reintroduce fire, we don't need to go in and thin these forests first, would be totally irresponsible.

(logging saw whirring) NICKERSON: We've come in with chainsaws, and we've thinned those forests out.

We've given the trees some elbow room.

We now have happy trees.

And happy trees are healthy trees, versus a forest that's really heavily stocked with trees.

Those trees aren't happy, those trees are doomed to fail because they're gonna burn out.

McCARTNEY: We haven't managed them for many years, and we're paying for our sins, in these holocaust wildfires that we've been experiencing here in Western Nebraska, and all over the western part in this country.

We're paying for our lack of management.

We've loved these forests to death.

To go in and proactively manage these, yeah sometimes you got to make some stumps.

(tree saw cutting stump) BUSKIRK: We talk a lot about restoration, when we're talking about fires.

How do we bring the forest back?

Really that's not our goal, believe it or not.

Our goal is to create a forest that's resilient next time the fire comes through, a forest that can handle a fire the next time it comes through, an ecosystem that can handle it.

The key word that we're using now is resiliency, the ability to bounce back.

NARRATOR: And, albeit slowly, the area is bouncing back.

The land at Spotted Tail, take another look.

Below the barren hills, new ponderosa pines are slowly taking root.

(calm music) BUSKIRK: You can see some of the work that we have been doing since that fire.

These trees that you'll see here in the, here near us, they were planted probably in 2008.

And they're already nearly 10 feet tall.

So the forest is coming back.

NARRATOR: And the Montague Ranch is bouncing back too.

ROES: Fred, this is a perfect example of what we've been seeing survive from the planting.

Throughout this the devastation was severe and significant, yes, but as a person that's being responsible to agriculture, I have learned a significant amount, because I've been forced to.

And when you have some life changing event like that, you have to be the best you can be to make things better.

There's something good that has come out of this whole event.

Sunsets are now gorgeous again, you can see a tree line.

It looks like it's re-birthing, and we're re-growing.

And it's gonna be good.

I can see the light now.

(calm music) NARRATOR: More than a century ago, pioneers forever changed Nebraska's landscape.

And today pioneers are still at work, in research, and conservation, drawing on the knowledge of the past.

VOLUNTEER: Would you like a tree too?

NARRATOR: And hopeful for the future.

(calm music) Captioning by FINKE/NET (calm music) Copyright 2020 NET Foundation for Television