[dramatic music]
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[gentle music]
- As a kid my dad bought me a new shotgun
and maybe it goes back to that,
this story I'm going to tell you.
I remember walking out across my dad's ranch
and a bird, a large bird flew over me
and I shot it and it fell,
and I went and picked that bird up and it was,
people are gonna hate me for hearing this,
but it was a large read-headed woodpecker.
I looked at that bird and I said,
"You know, one day I'm going to make up for this."
I was an agriculturalist
trying to get all I could from the land,
but since that time, I've realized that
this land is not just a resource to be used and abused,
it's something that we have to take care of, you know,
and look at all of it.
We have to go back to the way it was
if we're going to save these precious natural resources
we've been given to enjoy.
The messages that Mother Nature sends us --
yes, I do believe that happens
more often than man wants to admit.
[gentle music]
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My objective in buying this place
was largely a selfish one, having more quail I could hunt.
I was going to have more quail on my land
than anybody had ever seen,
show the world it could be done.
Needless to say, it's not an easy chore
to try to bring back this bird.
The numbers have gone down since 1970, like 90%.
Perhaps it goes back to my childhood,
but something kept telling me it was bigger than that.
Bigger than just having quail.
I've realized that what you're trying to save
is not above it always, but below the surface.
- My name is Jim Giocomo.
I'm the coordinator of the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture,
and we manage the Grassland Restoration Incentive Program.
Over the past 60 years, we've seen over a 90% decline
in grassland habitat.
With massive loss of grasslands,
we've lost wildlife populations,
including many bird species.
The recent calculations, three billion birds since 1970,
a quarter of those birds were grassland birds,
720 million birds.
At the scale that the bird populations are changing,
it also indicates that the health of our land is changing
and may eventually affect us as people.
[birds chirping softly]
- Going back to my childhood,
when water would hit the native grasses on my dad's place
and surrounding area where I grew up,
it would go in the ground.
These native grasses were tall stature,
and when a drop of rain would hit those,
it would shatter and run down into the roots.
Today, because we planted all these exotic grasses,
water would hit the ground and run off the top,
over the top,
and carry with it all the toxic chemicals,
as well as the commercial fertilizers,
and all the stuff that we have on land now into the streams.
So maybe that's what caused me to realize that
it's bigger than just having more bobwhite quail out here.
It was having better land,
better natural resources.
Restoration is not an easy process.
Just because I wanted to do it,
just because I understood the need for doing it
didn't mean that I knew how to do it.
[gentle music]
- The Grassland Restoration Incentive Program or GRIP
gives our partners and landowners
a tool to address grassland loss.
Right now, we're out here counting birds,
looking at the habitats that they're in.
Most of what we do is listen for calls,
and sometimes we see them, sometimes we don't,
but we can identify most of the birds by calls.
Bottom line is the birds are telling us
about the land condition
and whether it's good enough for them.
If they're there and if their populations are growing,
then the habitat is in pretty good condition.
- I'm a person of action, I suppose,
and GRIP allowed me to be that person I wanted to be
with respect to conservation.
By being a part of GRIP.
one of the things we do is try to remove invasive grasses.
We have to go in and not overgraze.
So we have to take cattle off for awhile,
and so we let that land rest and grow up
so that we have fuel to do a prescribed burn,
then we burn it.
Following that, we put in cover crops,
following that, we sometimes use herbicides as necessary
and plant native grasses in that same winter cover crop.
- We can tell right now by the birds that we're hearing,
that GRIP is working for Mr. Willis' property.
When we get out here and hear the morning calls
of all these birds, that's the magic hour,
the exciting part of the morning,
and to know that the quail are here
because of the type of management
that we're doing through GRIP,
that gives us a great feeling of satisfaction
in a job well done.
[gentle music]
- When I look out over this land we own here,
before, I saw a wildlife desert.
I saw grass grazed down to the ground.
I saw a lot of dirt.
Today, I see a land that's covered
with something beneficial.
The land that's not baked by the sun,
not washed off by the rains,
a land that's healthy again.
GRIP is not just about cost sharing.
It's the expertise you get with it.
We've gotta be wise, we've gotta work smart,
we gotta save and conserve
as well as produce the food and fiber this nation needs.
[gentle music]
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