(Birds chirping) (Music) [Narrator] Just east of Dallas,
[Narrator] Just east of Dallas, you'll find a wetland that's a one-of-a-kind outdoor classroom.
[John DeFillipo] Today, in the East Fork wetland, the John Bunker Stands Wetland Center. We're welcoming
Black Elementary from Mesquite Independent School District.
When they arrive, they'll unload off the busses and they just step out onto the
boardwalk. (Cattails blowing in the wind) [John] We call it an immersive boardwalk hike.
They go out for 20 to 30 minutes and make general observations. [Londyn Golightly]
Oh, there's ducks back there. [John] So, the East Fork wetland is about 2000
acres, mostly open emergent wetlands. But we also have some hillside and some stream side
and riverside riparian areas. (Student) I want it! [Londyn] Wait where! I can't see ya lls view.
Oh, I see it. OK, so there's two frogs, on one of the stems right here and another one right
here. [Nicole Ujita] Do you see them? Yeah! (Laughter) [Nicole] I love watching them interact
with nature, however they interact with nature. [Londyn] Oh, look a dragonfly! [Nicole] I
think it's important because they're making those connections. [Londyn]
Oh, my God, there's a family of fish. I like to go outside and enjoy the outside world, and
I like to, like, see a lot of animals running around and look at them up close. All right,
come on, guys. Let's keep walking. See if we find other stuff. (Music fades) [Narrator]
This isn't just a wetland outdoor classroom. Taking water out of the Trinity, this is a water
treatment wetland that cleans up to 90 million gallons of water a day. [Jenna Covington] This
natural treatment system, our wetlands, is the largest manmade wetland system in the United
States, and it provides a number of different ways of treating the water. There its coming up!
We use gravity, we use sunlight. We use plants in order to polish the water and
remove constituents such as suspended solids, phosphorus and nitrogen. [Narrator] This
natural water reuse concept was crafted by John Bunker Sands,
turning his family's cattle operation into a one-of-a-kind wetland. [Loretta Mokry] We got
quite a bit of the sedge. [Narrator] Loretta Mokry helped come up with the
idea. [Loretta] Before the wetland was built, this was an operating ranch. It had been leveled
and ditched and drained where everything was in big square pastures. Early spring until we get
the first really hard freeze. You'll have Delta Arrowhead blooming. (Water splashes) [Loretta]
So, at this time, we're looking at planting all of these gaps with Giant Bullrush. {Biologist}
You ready? And I'll pull it out now. [Loretta] So that we can fill in and have a
fully vegetated marsh area that the water has to percolate through. [Jenna] This project
is a tremendous opportunity to make good use of those water resources which are in our area. We
are really proud to be able to implement a project to use local resources to meet the needs of our
local communities. [Loretta] Ya know, there's been a change in time, but it's been a change for
the good, so that we have this sustainable water supply at the same time that we're protecting the
aquatic environment of the river as well as the aquatic environment that's here in the wetland.
I have a son and daughter in-law and five grandchildren that live in Plano, Texas,
and developing this wetland as it comes through. I know that it helps provide water supply
that they receive at their tap This is water supply to my grandchildren. It just
makes you feel good. {Music fades) (Laughter) [Nicole] Yes, what do you have. (Student) I
saw a shell! [Nicole] You saw a shell? That's really good! I tell them, like this water that
is a habitat for other ecosystems. This is your drinking water. Like this is you use it, you're
going to cook your ramen noodles with it, you're going to flush the toilet with it, you're going
to shower with it. And that really gets their attention because after they start noticing that
this affects me, that gets that buy in. [Londyn] She said that also how they clean the water is
with the little cattails that was in the water. (Bird chirps) [Dayana Simental] It is really cool
how you get to see all the plants and all the animals that make the water like clean,
and that's the water that you use. It was pretty cool, actually. [John] So, if you
just glance right into the water, what do you see floating around on top? Yeah, a lot of minnows.
When I think about the work that we do here. You kind of pull off some of the big stuff. Oh,
there's a beetle in the bottom. See him right there. {Student} Yeah. [John] And the work
that we do here isn't just about students coming through and learning about what water is and how
we recycle it. It's about creating that next best solution that is more powerful than we can
imagine today. Oh, I did just get a fish! We're not just hugging trees, were hugging cattails,
literally. (Cattails in wind) [John] We're immersing them into the water. We're giving
them an opportunity to see what it might be like to either be a scientist or a biologist in this
or just someone that engages with nature differently than they did before.
So, if we can reach one student on that level or many students and then as they grow older and go
off to college and say, this is what I want to do. I was at John Booker Sands for 4 hours one day,
and it's amazing what they did there. (Music) [John] That's the difference
that we want to make in the world. That's the next best solution. (Music fades)