(upbeat music) >>Funding for "Untamed" is made possible by: (birds chirping) (water stream babbling) >>Over the last four decades, my work at the Wildlife Center of Virginia has enabled me to visit nearly two dozen countries on five continents, yet, no matter where I go, no matter how beautiful it is, one thing is certain; I'm always glad to get home.

I live in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the ancient river course that lies between the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Allegheny Mountains.

The valley still maintain a predominantly rural character and it has open fields, rolling hills, vast forest, and a true natural splendor.

This land has supported wildlife and human life for thousands of years, but even here the land has been dramatically changed by the presence of society.

Since settlement first began in earnest in the very early 18th century, parts of the once natural landscape have been transformed into urban and suburban communities, agricultural enterprises, industrial parks, residential developments, ski areas, golf courses, and more.

But the good news is, in spite of the loss of natural habitat, a wide range of wildlife and a rich biodiversity still exists on the greatly altered landscape.

In fact, there's a deliberate effort on the part of land managers from large scale agriculturalists to backyard gardeners to adopt and adapt new more sustainable land use practices to protect the land and to better serve all members of this community.

(upbeat music) >>Hi, I'm Kathryn Everett.

>>I'm Tony Everett, Kathryn's husband.

>>And we're the owners of Chancellors Rock Farm.

We bought the farm in 2018 and our mission is really to have a farm that is focused on sustainability, that works to promote biodiversity and support the local ecology and wildlife of the Virginia Piedmont.

We raise grass fed beef that are raised sustainably with a pilot project that we're working with American Farmland Trust.

We raise pigs that are able to forage in the woods for nuts, free range chickens that we collect eggs from, and we've got a substantial kitchen garden that raises all sorts of types of vegetables, fruits, citrus, berries and edible and decorative flowers.

We're also interested in supporting really local flora and fauna.

And behind us is one of our meadows.

That was an existing meadow that we've been supplementing by planting native plants that make it ecologically productive.

And what I mean by that is plants that support the...

It feeds, birds, bees, moss, caterpillars, et cetera.

And so we're planting thousands of plants in this existing meadow to change that biodiversity.

>>Kathryn had mentioned the American Farmland Trust, we work with them in a sustainable grazing project.

And the objective of that is basically to demonstrate that there is a much better way for the farmer as well as for the environment to graze cattle.

If you change the way of grazing to make the cattle graze in a much tighter environment, we move our cattle on a daily basis in order to get the cattle to eat the grass more effectively and spread their manure, which is of course, a valuable fertilizer.

And the result of that is that you create better nutrients going into the soil.

And I guess at the end of the day, when you are farming, you are really farming soil.

And so, good soil equals good grasses, good grasses equal good cattle.

And there's a huge benefit for the environment.

(upbeat music) >>I'm Devin Floyd.

I'm the Executive Director for Center for Urban Habitats.

We advance biodiversity education and conservation in the Piedmont region.

The Center for Urban Habitats is an action-oriented organization focused on really understanding local patterns and ecology.

So plants, animals, and ecosystems, and then trying to teach the general public about those patterns because they're really relevant for a conservation.

Pre-colonial Virginia, I think is something that we can only imagine, visually it would've looked I think structurally similar to what you see behind me, where you've got some open space grassland, you've got widely space trees in a savanna setting, you have some areas where the trees close in a little more for a woodland, and then you also have tremendously old growth developed forest, a mosaic, a variety and our region supports that variety, and the variety translated into grand biodiversity.

So I think a pre-colonial landscape kind of embodies the peak and the maximum potential of biodiversity.

So we know that settlers moving into open spaces probably savannas and prairies first.

When they moved into those spaces and tilled them, unfortunately we lost the savannas and prairies, but there were areas between the plow edge and a colonial road say 15 to 20 feet wide, there were gentle hilltops like the one that's behind me, the one in the distance in the view that are very rocky and shallow soiled, naturally, they weren't hospitable for growing anything, super acidic soils.

So those were left alone.

So we do find remnants of pre-colonial landscapes today.

And they tend to be in areas where soils weren't plowed, and if it's a prairie or a savanna remnant, it's also a spot that wasn't allowed to revert to a forest.

So one of the benefits of restoring natural ecosystems, whether it's a grassland type or forest type is that you're giving attention to the longstanding ecological systems that are part of that land.

In doing that, what you're really doing is empowering future generations.

Because the ecosystems that are normal for each area are an integral part of the character of that place.

So the benefits are ecological and cultural, but the animals, boy, the prairie warbler, the grasshopper Sparrow, the meadowlark, these grassland species miss these thousand acre prairies and savannas.

And they have declined in direct proportion to the decline of grassland systems.

Another benefit is that these things are sponges.

So when it rains, this thick vegetative cover that's in the prairie behind me, it acts as a sponge, it absorbs water.

The plants take that up.

Evapotranspiration sends it back into the atmosphere.

Any water that flows through this sponge, through the fungal map that this thing is growing in and through the roots reaches the water table as completely clean water.

And it moves very slowly in the water table and replenishes local water systems.

And I think land owners and land managers need to consider the natural trajectory of their landscape, there's an ecological assemblage that the land will tend to host, it's an auto ecology.

Once they have an understanding of where the landscape wants to go, meaning how much of it is gonna be forest, how much is gonna be prairie and what types of systems are in between those spectrums.

I think the most important thing they can do, particularly with farming and agricultural production is to figure out in which areas should be set aside for ecological restoration, and which areas are going to host cattle, and corn, and beans, grapes, whatever else it might be.

And to keep those areas separate because they aren't complimentary.

In the home landscape where you're not producing agriculture you're producing a yard, we're finding some of these old growth grassland remnants that are as big as the living room, a little patch of ground that wasn't plowed and that's all that's left.

But the whole thing is there, no exotic species can get in.

So they're resilient.

They're real.

What this means is that we can retry to recreate that setting within the lawn within the small urban yard.

So same thing here, you partition, you decide I want this part to be grass, but I'm gonna set aside some part of my yard, no matter how small it is for the reception and the restoration of the the indigenous plants and the animals.

Restoring ecosystem in that little spot, and in doing so, you're gonna learn a lot, you're gonna inspire your neighbors, you're gonna create a learning situation for your kids and your family.

It's kind of like an ecological classroom at home.

(upbeat music) >>My name is Jordan Herring.

I'm a Senior Forester for the Virginia Department of Forestry.

The mission for the Virginia Department of Forestry is to protect and develop healthy sustainable forest resources for Virginians.

So we're a taxpayer funded agency.

So we're a resource for Virginians on anything regarding trees or forest.

The role of a forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry is to be a non-biased source of information for landowners in the Commonwealth that are looking for advice on trees and forest.

So we give advice on one tree in your backyard or a couple hundred acres of forest land, and we can help you with tree harvesting, with enhancing wildlife habitat on your property, as well as finding diseased or dying trees on your property and letting you know how to deal with that.

Some forest might not need to be managed if the landowner is happy with the health of their forest, with the state of the forest, but in other cases where a forest might need to be managed is if say invasive species are threatening the native species on the property.

That can be a problem.

Another reason why forest might need to be managed is because some forests are a secondary income for some landowners.

So if we can incentivize landowners to make money from their forest, we can keep the habitat and not fragment it.

Habitat diversity is essential in a healthy forest and ecosystem.

By providing multiple different forested types or early successional habitat such as grassland and pollinator habitats, we're providing habitat for not just one species, but for many.

And that's the key with habitat diversity.

So for example, bobcats like to basically take cover in mature forest lands, but when they need to feed or hunt they go to the early successional grassland habitats to feed on rabbits and rodents.

A disturbance in the forest is a change in structure of the forest ecosystem.

Whether that be through a natural disturbance such a hurricane, a landslide, through wildfire, disturbance makes a forest ecosystem healthier by providing diversity throughout the forests structure.

So when we get a natural disturbance it can create different habitat for different species of wildlife.

For example, songbirds need mature forest land to take cover when they're adults, but when they're raising their young they need that early successional habitat that disturbance can provide to raise their young and feed.

So fire has been occurring throughout the ecosystem since way before humans were around.

Fire adds biodiversity through changing the structure of a forest.

So when people think that fire is bad, it can be bad because it is a danger to homes and to the lives of people, but if we can do controlled burning in a safe manner it can actually enhance wildlife habitat.

A bigger reason why we do prescribe burning is actually for oak regeneration.

Oaks are adapted to work with wildfires by putting a lot of energy towards their roots, so when a wildfire comes through the ecosystem they can survive unlike other species.

So oaks are great trees for wildlife, they provide a great cover, and they're a main source of food in the fall with their acorns.

We can use timber harvesting to promote healthy functioning forest through thinning the forest.

By thinning the forest, we can promote healthier trees, they can grow quicker, they can produce more mast, more food for our wildlife species, we can also use timber harvest to take out disease or dying trees and keep the forest healthy.

Another way is just to provide that biodiversity by doing patch clear cuts, three to five acres of cuts throughout your forest, you're providing a different kind of habitat for wildlife.

And it's also, again, a good source of income for landowners, a secondary source of income that can basically help them keep the land and keep it from being urbanized.

Managing invasive species is another great management tool that we can use to keep forest healthy.

There's a lot of invasive species nowadays with urbanization and trading with other countries that once they start taking over forest, they can really damage or harm your native trees.

So by working with a forester to learn how to manage your invasive species and to eliminate them from the property is a great tool and keep your forest healthy.

(gentle piano music) >>Sustainable land management practices are not simply a about allowing the land to go unused or restoring the region to a state of pristine wilderness, the truth is, we can manage and utilize the land for our benefit but we can do it in a way that is sustainable and beneficial to wildlife and the entire ecosystem.

(gentle piano music) >>My name's Brent Wills.

And I am a farmer as well as a farm consultant.

My wife and my two children and I own Bramble Hollow Farm where we are now.

I also volunteer as a director on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Association for Biological Farming, which is the statewide nonprofit that really the mission is to promote, educate about and advocate for biological and organic growing.

A lot of people ask the question, well, why is it not the Virginia Association of Organic Farming?

And it's a good question, VABF really the history of it started about 40 years ago and it was really just a loose affiliation of a bunch of farmers that were organic growers, coming out of the sort of the late '70s, early '80s, the organic movement.

And the organization sort of really just came from a true grassroots level.

And when they named it, the Virginia Association for Biological Farming, really the idea was, if you called it the organic or association then that kind of limits it to only folks that would be considered to be certified organic by USDA.

And really in my experience, organic growers are doing a lot of right things, but there are a lot of people that are growing really in a more biologically conscious way that aren't necessarily certified organic.

Really it's thinking about the farming system as an ecosystem and understanding that we've gotta protect the biological component every bit as much as we do the chemistry and the physical nature of the soil.

And it's understanding how that biological component really factors in food production.

There's so many things that are living in the soil that we depend on that we really don't see day-to-day but that can make a real difference in how successful a farm, or a ranch, or an agricultural operation is.

So understanding how that plays in and how that fits in that bigger ecosystem it's a broader view, it's a sort of a big picture perspective.

One of the things that I think is a real problem with a lot of our modern industrial agricultural practices is that we don't consider ourselves part of the system.

And the most successful farmers that I see that are farming ecological models, regenerative, soil health, organic, whatever you wanna call it, sustainable, there are farmers that really, they try to understand that system as best as they can particularly on their farm, but their choice of crops, or livestock, or whatever it is that they're doing.

And the fact that they understand that diversity is huge, and that the biological component is a really important factor, that to me, in my experience, that makes farmers all the more successful because they really do understand a little bit about the nuts and bolts.

Farming's really not just a put and take endeavor.

You don't just put out this much material to get this much yield.

It's much more nuanced than that and there are a lot more systems at play.

It's pretty complicated.

So one of the things that I think farmers really can do to benefit themselves is to learn more about it.

What we know now is that we can produce more food on smaller acreage if we're doing it following biological principles.

Organic growers did for figure that out a long time ago, you don't have to have thousands and thousands of acres for crops.

If you're really paying attention to the system and the health of that system, and specifically the biological component and how that imparts health on your plants, you can really produce a crazy amount of food on a really piece of land.

And a lot of organic growers have been doing that for a long time.

So for us to think from an industrial mindset that we've gotta "feed the world," and that we've gotta plant fence row to fence row as some in the agriculture sector have said, that's not really the case and we're kind of figuring that out now.

By following biological principles and regenerative practices, we really can produce a lot more food than what our current model is producing.

(gentle music) >>My name is Eric Wiseman.

I'm an Associate Professor of Urban and Community Forestry in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech.

And I'm a professor of urban and community forestry.

So what I do is I teach students how to become urban foresters and arborists.

I also do research on urban forest eco physiology and management.

And then I do outreach, which means I work with municipalities, local property owners and state agencies to help them solve their challenges they're having with urban force management.

So land management is making good decisions about the resources that we have available to us and sustainable land management would be ensuring that we have adequate resources for the future to meet our needs without compromising our current needs.

And so when we think about urban areas, land management is all about the land uses where we make decisions about what types of land uses will occur in which spaces.

And so that's where things like zoning and land use planning come about.

And so the reason that we engage in that is so we can have sustainable environments for people and protect natural resources.

So a lot of people think urbanization is bad, but I like to tell people that urbanization is an inevitability, and in fact, in many ways, it's good for the planet.

Because when we urbanize a landscape we increase the density of people and housing and other types of infrastructure which limits sprawl, and sprawl is the movement of urban areas out into natural spaces.

And that can actually be quite damaging to the planet.

So urbanization is not a bad thing, but what is important is to understand how we urbanize as well as how we purposefully incorporate nature into urbanization so that we can create sustainable spaces.

So there are lots of opportunities to harness nature in cities to solve problems for people and the planet.

Probably one of the best examples that relates to urban forests is storm water mitigation.

When rain falls down upon impervious surfaces, asphalt, pavement, building roofs, it runs off either to a stream or to a storm water gutter.

And this can cause problems for natural bodies of water but also in cities problems with flash flooding.

And then that becomes a personal problem.

So having large trees in the city where their canopies overhang all of these impervious surfaces keeps that water from hitting down and running off, and instead it's held by the trees, it's moved slowly down into the soil.

So having nature in the city is not only important for protecting the planet but it's also important to the livability of the city and the happiness of people that live there.

There's been lots of studies that have looked at the emotional, and cognitive, and physical health effects of trees and green infrastructure on people.

And so we have learned through research that having experiences in nature in the city help with stress levels, help people be more physically healthy, so avoiding problems with diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity; because people wanna get out and recreate when they have nice natural settings.

But then also things such as cognitive ability of youth which studies that have shown that it helps with education as well, as well as crime reduction.

So lots of connections between nature and the city and the wellbeing of people.

So people can do a lot of different things to make city more naturally sustainable and earth friendly.

The first thing is on your home property, being thoughtful about how you manage your landscape, thinking about the composition of turf versus native plants, of course, plant a tree, that's gonna be your first opportunity to get shade on your home and contribute to the wildlife habitat within your neighborhood, but then also being an engaged citizen, being involved and providing opinions about things such as land use planning, zoning, and even things like local ordinances that are intended to protect tree canopy cover and nearby nature.

All of those are important to being a contributing citizen.

As an urban forester, I would like for people to stop and think for a moment about all the great things that trees do for us in cities.

They're there day in and day out, cleaning the air, capturing runoff, providing wildlife habitat, doing many, many great things that sometimes we don't take the time to stop and appreciate but I think that people should do that.

And as a result, they'll have more respect for trees and urban forests, as well as nature in the city.

(gentle piano music) >>Sustainable land management benefits all of us.

And there are things that you can do no matter where you live.

If you're a gardener or a homeowner, choose native plants, grasses, and ornamentals, or even seeds for your vegetable garden that are adapted to the specific region in which you live and don't require chemicals or extensive irrigation to survive.

You can consider backing off that vast finally manicured grass lawn.

While you may think it looks nice, most residential lawns provide very little habitat to wildlife and are a major source of the runoff of nutrients that pollutes our streams and waterways.

Support your local farmers and ranchers who are managing their land in a sustainable way, and make sure you know where your food is coming from.

And finally, be mindful of the businesses you support, choose those businesses that promote sustainable land practices in your neighborhoods and communities and in your town or city.

The earth will thank you.

>>Funding for "Untamed" is made possible by... (birds chirping) (water stream babbling) (upbeat music)