About ‘On the Land’

At it’s heart, ‘On the Land’ is a show that deals with our relationship with the Earth, for better or worse. Can we make a living from a place without destroying it? Is there hope for sustainable land use, or is money all that matters, no matter the environmental consequences? Does our society value wilderness beyond the resources we can extract from it? These are all questions that the show examines in detail, using four different areas in various stages of development.

On the Land features photographs by National Geographic Magazine contributing photographer Joel Sartore, as well as a commentary by Lincoln author Dan Semrad, available as a .pdf by clicking here.

 

The North Slope: On the Brink of Development
Alaska’s North Slope is America’s largest wilderness, and the one that’s currently most at risk. While Congress has endlessly debated whether or not to drill in the Arctic Refuge, much of the rest of the Slope has been quietly leased to oil and gas interests. Will it all be dissected by roads, then drilled and destroyed? Or will our country see that wild places are not worth sacrificing in exchange for lower prices at the pump? Only time will tell.

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A polar bear feeds on the jaws of a bowhead whale harvested by Natives along the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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A bowhead whale is butchered on the beach in Kaktovik, Alaska. The village is
allowed by law to take three whales each fall for the meat and baleen. Offshore oil drilling threatens to disrupt the whales’ migratory routes and the Natives’ traditional hunt.
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White-fronted geese undergo capture and leg banding by biologists on the western part of the Slope. The ongoing study has surveyed the population, age and health of several goose species for decades in hope of better managing the flocks.
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The way west; the Alpine oil field spreads out into the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. This huge expanse of critical wetland has just been opened to drilling by the Bush Administration even though most of the waterfowl in North America use the area as critical nesting grounds.
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Prudhoe Bay shown from the air. In operation since the 1970s, the aging field is nearing the end of its life with no funding or plans in place to clean up the mess when the oil plays out. This area is thought to be one of the largest industrial zones on Earth.
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Spread out across the uplands of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Porcupine caribou herd grazes in the midnight sun. The coastal plain of ANWR has become a battleground in the war for drilling on the Slope.
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Caribou warily cross a road in the Kuparek oil field, part of greater Prudhoe Bay. Those in favor point out that remnants of wildlife can still be seen in heavily developed oil fields. Environmentalists point out that the area is now an extremely polluted industrial zone.
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Two peregrine falcon chicks huddle in their cliff nest along the Colville River, the Slope's largest. The bluffs along this river support one of the highest densities of nesting raptors in North America.
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Vast and extremely remote, the Utukok Uplands are the summer calving grounds for the western Arctic caribou herd. The area is thought to be underlain with deposits of coal, which could eventually make the area vulnerable to strip mining.
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Polygon-shaped water formations line the Colville River delta, making it one of the best places in North America for breeding birds.

 

Drilling in the American West: The Aftermath
For decades, vast sections of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico have been the focal points for natural gas drilling. These drilling operations are often very poorly regulated. The result is an unsightly and ruined landscape that benefits few beyond energy interests.

Besides the obvious surface disturbances caused by miles of roads and well pads, the drilling industry also has an impact on ground water. Much of the gas is held in place by water, trapped inside shallow coal seams. To free the gas, drilling companies remove the water from the coal beds and pump it into area rivers or simply spray it into the air. Because the water is often laden with salts and heavy metals, it can kill fish in nearby streams and pollute well fields.
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The aftermath of drilling in the West is obvious over the Jonah Field, one of the highest density areas for natural gas roads and well pads in Wyoming. Drilling throughout the Rocky Mountain West has been going on for many years, often with serious consequences to the environment.
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Minnows become flying fish in this aquarium, photographed near the Powder River in Wyoming. The ecosystem is threatened by coal bed methane development. These fish were collected by biologists eager to document the biodiversity of the river before parts of it are ruined with polluted water from nearby gas wells.
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A homeowner in the powder river basin holds up a glass of water from a now unusable well. The well's contents turned into a methane slurry after coal bed methane development began nearby.
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A methane fire burns under rancher Leo Ankeny’s land near Decker, Montana. The water table here has been lowered dramatically by gas drillers, allowing the ancient coal seam fire to now burn out of control.
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The BLM office in Buffalo, Wyoming approved 3,000 natural gas drilling permits in 2004, generating a small mountain of paperwork and a personal thank you from the Secretary of the Interior.
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The crew of a coal bed methane drilling rig in Wyoming. While often harmful to the
environment, gas drilling provides jobs to the locals — for as long as the gas lasts.
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Misters send the water drained off during coal bed methane drilling airborne on a development near Gillette, Wyoming.
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A school bus-sized flare signals the completion phase of a coal bed methane well near Pinedale, Wyoming.

 

The Pantanal: A Region in Balance
The Pantanal of southwest Brazil has been preserved by generations of cattle ranchers who have respected the land. They’ve managed it thoughtfully and carefully for future generations. Unspoiled grasslands equate to abundant wildlife and great viewing opportunities, leading many ranchers to discover the money that can be made from both cattle and ecotourism. Visitors come from all over the world to see flocks of macaws, giant anteaters, and maned wolves. These tourists boost the bottom lines of these ranches, employing many and helping to maintain and improve the quality of life there. It’s a perfect fit.
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A caiman waits for the right moment to snap its jaws and catch a fish in a swollen river in Brazil's Pantanal.
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All’s wet in the Brazilian Pantanal, an array of seasonally flooded lowlands located primarily in the southwest corner of Brazil. At more than 60,000 square miles, it’s not only the world’s largest freshwater marsh but a shining example of how ranching and ecotourism have created a model for sustainable land use.
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As birds chase after fish in once-flooded cattle pastures, the predators of birds move in as well. Here a yellow anaconda captures a great egret.
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In the heart of the dry season, a horse’s hooves sink into sand at Barra Mansa Ranch near the Rio Negro.
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Six months later, a freshwater stingray parks himself along the same road during the wet season.
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Brazilian cowboys, called pantanieros, put up their horses after a cattle drive at Caiman Ranch. This ranch is one of the region’s leaders in ecotourism, long ago realizing that the bottom line can be helped tremendously by accommodating tourists willing to pay to see the wildlife that the ranch has preserved.
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Massive cotton and soybean farm operations in the highlands surrounding the Pantanal threaten the marsh with silt and chemical run-off.
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Landing at dawn, a jabiru stork returns with a load of grasses to line its nest.


The Rocky Mountain Front & Great Plains: The Road to Recovery
The Rocky Mountain Front in Montana is an ecological treasure. The ecosystem here, where the prairie meets the mountains, is largely intact and unspoiled. Folks like it just as it is.

But natural gas reserves underneath threaten to spoil it. Energy extraction is a messy business, but with more than ninety-seven percent of area residents opposed to drilling, the future looks bright—for now.

It’s a different story in the Great Plains. Most of the tallgrass prairie was lost to the plow more than a hundred years ago. Industrial agriculture has forced producers to get big or get out. Government subsidies have pushed and pulled land uses, sometimes with little regard for the environmental consequences.

But a rebirth is taking place in many areas. People are discovering new ways to make a living to supplement their farm and ranch operations. A well-cared-for landscape, or even one that’s been restored, can provide hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing, and other recreational opportunities. Wide-open spaces are at a premium these days, and people are willing to pay for it.
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Louis LaRose and youth from the Winnebago Tribe with a tribal bison herd near Winnebago, Nebraska. Reconnecting with the spiritual heritage of the bison as well as using it as a source of nutrition is a growing movement among several tribes on the Great Plains who hope to bring the animal back to tribal lands.
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Members of the Blackfeet tribe celebrate their claim on the Badger-Two Medicine Area in Montana, land sacred to them that has been threatened by natural gas development.
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Wildlife photographer Michael Forsberg stands among reflections in Audubon’s new visitor center near Gibbon, Nebraska. Crane viewing each March generates millions of dollars
annually into the Kearney and Grand Island economies.
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Paul Tebbel, former director of Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary, holds an injured Sandhill crane. Tebbel worked for ten years along the river, teaching visitors from across the nation about the importance of the Platte River as critical habitat for migrating cranes,
waterfowl, and shorebirds.
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Nearly a half million Sandhill cranes stop along the Platte River each spring, feeding and resting on their way to nesting areas farther north. The income derived from crane viewing each year is now a critical part of local economies.
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Sharp-tail grouse walk onto a display ground on the Switzer Ranch near Burwell, Nebraska.
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A young bird-watcher waits for prairie-chickens at dawn in a heated blind on the Switzer Ranch.
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The Switzer family now makes a living not only raising cattle but also through ecotourism as Calamus Outfitters. Here, Adam Switzer stands next to a blind used for viewing prairie-chickens. Early spring grouse viewing is a new and welcome income source for the Switzer’s
during an otherwise slow time of the year.
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As habitat improves, so does game bird hunting. Most of the land in Nebraska is privately owned. Good land stewardship is critical to maintaining habitat for both game and non-game species.
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Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front still has an intact ecosystem and is home to bighorn sheep, elk, wolves, and grizzlies. The area is currently threatened by oil and gas development even though more than 90 percent of local residents oppose drilling.
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Bighorn sheep in the Rocky Mountain Front near Augusta, Montana, one of the best winter ranges remaining for this species in North America.
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Hunters pause with their day’s take near Choteau, Montana. Outdoorsmen have joined forces with environmentalists on the Front to protect the region from coal bed methane drilling.
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Symbol of renewal, a bison bull, cow, and calf walk across a pasture near Malta, Montana. A joint effort by the World Wildlife Fund and the American Prairie Foundation hopes to build a sizeable herd of genetically pure bison that will eventually be released into larger tracts of rangeland near the Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The goal is to have truly free-ranging and wild bison in the Upper Missouri River Breaks within the next twenty years.