About the Program
The Great Plains was once among the greatest grasslands on the planet. But as the United States grew westward, the Plains were plowed up, fenced in, grazed, and almost completely transformed. Today, what remains of the original Great Plains is a fragmented landscape - the most endangered, least protected and perhaps most under-appreciated ecosystem in North America.
Millions of bison, elk, pronghorn and deer, vast prairie dog towns, top predators like plains grizzlies and prairie wolves, and massive migrations of birds and fish were common for this environ. But as America grew, the land was settled and tamed, and in the blink of an eye most of the wildness was gone.
Covering the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming, the Great Plains is a fragile and threatened ecosystem, home to a variety of wildlife and habitats. In Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild , renowned photographer Michael Forsberg brings viewers closer to the wildlife and native landscapes that still remain, exploring the condition of the plains ecosystem today.
This two-part documentary takes viewers on behind-the-scenes adventures with Forsberg in his wildlife blinds and to the far reaches of the Great Plains where the wild still lingers. NET Television follows him to Montana’s Upper Missouri region famed to followers of Lewis and Clark. Viewers also see him at work in South Dakota trying to photograph the wily Black Footed Ferret.