- 2 days ago
Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, one of the last places to hike and paddle into remote wilderness; birders and harvesters of wild rice explain why wilderness means so much....
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00:13The wild.
00:16There's nothing quite like the feeling of stepping outside
00:22and breaking free from the modern world.
00:31I'm in northern Minnesota, on the edge of a lake that resembles an ocean.
00:38In places like this, it's easy to see nature as something so powerful, so vast,
00:45we could never leave a real mark on it.
00:49But our footsteps are almost everywhere these days.
00:54And while knowing that can weigh you down,
00:57it can also lift us up and inspire us to change.
01:11My name is Baratunde Thurston.
01:14I'm a writer, activist, sometimes comedian,
01:17and I'm all about exploring the issues that shape us as Americans.
01:23This country is wild.
01:25And its natural landscapes are as diverse as its people.
01:30There it is, there it is.
01:31How does our relationship with the outdoors define us?
01:35As individuals and as a nation?
01:47When you think of wild spaces in America, where does your mind go?
01:53There's Alaska, of course, and national parks like Yellowstone.
01:58But when I dream of getting away from it all, I often imagine traveling somewhere else,
02:03to the Midwest, and in particular, to northern Minnesota.
02:11Ancient glaciers here left behind a stunningly beautiful natural landscape,
02:16and gave the state its nickname,
02:19The Land of 10,000 Links.
02:21Actually, there are almost 12,000.
02:25But the same glaciers also scrape bare much of the fertile soil up north.
02:31Which means living here requires a certain kind of fortitude,
02:35and a willingness to brave the tough environment.
02:40For me, that raises some questions about the role of truly wild spaces in our lives.
02:47What makes us care about the wild so deeply, and fight so hard to preserve it?
02:53Who are the people waging that fight?
02:56And what keeps them going against some pretty tough odds?
03:01Where I'm headed, I'm hoping to find answers.
03:06First, from a couple who chose to build a life out here,
03:10in a corner of Minnesota that many would consider inhospitable.
03:15Their names are David and Lisa Abbas,
03:20the founders of Round River Farm.
03:28What is the Round River Farm?
03:30It's an experiment in trying to develop a sustainable way of farming and living.
03:35Our kind of motto was live simply so others may simply live.
03:40I like that.
03:41We didn't come up with it.
03:42We didn't come up with it.
03:43It's a Quaker hymnal type thing.
03:47It basically means, you know, how can we live in a way that everyone on the planet can live?
03:53What we've realized, this life isn't simple at all.
03:56It's actually quite complex.
03:58Okay.
03:59But it is elemental.
04:03In the mid-1980s, David and Lisa were a world away from here.
04:08They got married while traveling in Sri Lanka and had dreams of founding a sustainable farm in the state of
04:14Maine.
04:14There was kind of already a really strong farm movement there, a small farm movement.
04:19Yeah.
04:19A lot of horse farming and things.
04:21And so we had worked on some farms and made connections.
04:23Lisa had grown up in Minnesota, though.
04:25And one day, she told David she was feeling a little homesick.
04:30So she says, I don't want to live in Maine.
04:32I want to live in Minnesota.
04:36David read up on places where the couple could build the type of farm they'd envisioned.
04:41And while there is fertile land south of here, he found himself drawn to a place that was a lot
04:46more challenging.
04:48So I'm looking at tree type, snowfall, temperatures.
04:52And I come back to Lisa and I come back and I say, okay, we can move to Minnesota, but
04:59we have to live in Finland, Minnesota.
05:01And she says, what?
05:04And I said, I don't think there's any farms in Finland, Minnesota.
05:07Definitely didn't know of it as a farming place.
05:10And it's not.
05:10There's good reason why it's not.
05:12There's not much soil.
05:13It's a pretty wicked climate.
05:16And when they got here, what they found made them wonder if they'd made a big mistake.
05:22Imagine brush and grasses and roots.
05:25It's a mess.
05:26Just rocks, all sorts of stuff.
05:28And then we've spent a lot of time renewing that.
05:33David and Lisa enlisted the help of volunteers to clear the land.
05:37And while the soil here still isn't particularly fertile, they actually welcomed the challenge.
05:44We wanted to have a lifestyle that really was a part of the seasons, a part of the environment around
05:50us, and acknowledge the limitations of that as well, which we have a lot of limitations here.
05:55If we can figure out how to live a good life with very few resources, then that might create models
06:04or opportunities as things start to change in our country.
06:13I'm not exactly sure what type of change the Abazas are preparing for.
06:19Oh, this is very well organized.
06:22But if their greenhouse is any indication, they're pretty well prepared for it.
06:28They have everything from tomatoes, some red tomatoes down here, to cucumbers.
06:39It's crispy. It's very watery.
06:42It's good.
06:43To carrots.
06:45So how does one pick carrots?
06:47Push down on the top and then pull it back out.
06:49All right, I'm going to try that with this little guy here.
06:52Yeah. Push down and pull up.
06:55There we go.
06:56Hey!
06:58I've never pulled a carrot before.
06:59There we go. It builds caricature.
07:03Dave, don't worry. Dave.
07:08I can already see how living a sustainable life like this takes a lot of expertise.
07:14And also, a lot of time.
07:16How much time are you spending growing vegetables like carrots versus other things?
07:22Well, we used to spend a whole summer with up to seven people working.
07:26But now, we've really cut back on the amount of vegetables, and we're reshifting to seeds and to tree growing.
07:35Tree growing? Yeah.
07:36That's a little bigger than a carrot.
07:37A little bigger, but not much.
07:39At least at the size we grow.
07:41Yeah.
07:43What's the goal of growing these trees?
07:45The goal is to maintain a forest canopy in northeast Minnesota by trying to grow the future forest as the
07:54climate changes.
07:58That's a pretty big ambition for a small family farm.
08:03So these are the trees. Welcome.
08:06These are the tiniest trees I've ever seen.
08:09And while the seedlings may not reach above your knee, the couple has big plans for them.
08:15One of our goals is to be a wild tree nursery.
08:19And that will take the 24 species of trees that are identified to be in this area, either currently or
08:25will be, and plant them and get them to grow here.
08:29Yeah.
08:29So this land will become a seed sanctuary for the climate forward seeds.
08:37Climate forward seeds.
08:39It sounds a bit complex.
08:42But it turns out the concept is fairly simple.
08:46Climate change could soon kill off many trees in these forests, disrupting countless ecosystems as well as the local economy.
08:55Unless folks like Lisa and David can plant new trees that can thrive in the climates of the future.
09:02This is a really fascinating approach to climate change.
09:05Because I'm used to, first, denial.
09:08Right?
09:08But we're getting past that.
09:09We're largely past it in the U.S., honestly.
09:11Yep.
09:12And then we're trying to stop it.
09:14Right.
09:14Right?
09:15And so there are efforts to try to, but we have enough baked in in terms of the atmosphere of
09:18carbon.
09:19More is going to happen.
09:20Correct.
09:21People are moving.
09:22Right.
09:23You see new migration patterns for people.
09:25Plants are going to move too.
09:27Yep.
09:27And what you're doing is accelerating that a little bit because we move on a scale that these plants were
09:33never evolved to do.
09:34Is that about right?
09:35Yeah.
09:35And trees have evolved over hundreds and thousands of years.
09:39Right.
09:39Not 50.
09:5050 years.
09:51In the lifetime of most trees, that's a blink of an eye.
09:56But David and Lisa, and many scientists, too, believe this landscape will look entirely different in just that brief period
10:05of time.
10:06So we've already started cutting trees out.
10:09These are all different trees that have died.
10:13Climate change is already being felt here.
10:16And as a result, the type of tree this region is famous for might not be around for much longer.
10:22If you look around, 80% of these evergreens will be gone.
10:27So it'll be a very different forest.
10:29I feel like I'm in a memorial site or something.
10:32In a way.
10:33Yeah.
10:35It's hard to imagine this landscape without the iconic evergreens that have long defined it.
10:41But the seedlings in our hands aren't about the past.
10:45They're about the future.
10:47I kind of want to raise a toast to trees with these.
10:50Hey, hey.
10:51To trees.
10:52To trees.
10:55Let's plant these.
10:56Let's plant these.
10:57Yeah.
10:57We should do that.
10:58That's the real toast.
10:59Yeah.
11:01The seedlings we're planting today, oak, yellow birch, and river birch, will likely be much better adapted to the warmer
11:08climates ahead.
11:10There we go.
11:12Sweet!
11:13Okay.
11:14Here we go.
11:18Excellent.
11:19I just planted my first tree.
11:21Yes.
11:22I just planted my first tree.
11:23Way to go.
11:31For David and Lisa, what started as the dream of a sustainable farm turned into something much bigger.
11:40Why are you listening to trees and trying to interact with them at this pace?
11:47Because we believe in a future.
11:51We need to make this a better world.
11:54And this is our slice of the pie.
11:57There's lots of other slices of pie for people to work in.
12:00This is just where we find home.
12:07Driving in here this morning, I didn't think a place this wild could also feel so homey.
12:15David and Lisa make it clear, that takes a lot of work.
12:21And it will only require more work given what we're facing in the years ahead.
12:28We're going to lose a lot of life.
12:32We're going to lose forests.
12:34And if I sit with that, it makes me really sad.
12:38And I should be sad.
12:40We should mourn such a loss.
12:43But we can also breathe new life into all this death.
12:47We can plant new trees.
12:50We can build new forests.
12:53We can create something that hopefully gives our descendants a better chance at living with and learning from all of
13:03this.
13:08For folks like Lisa and David, this is a place to incubate ideas that could help wild places around the
13:14planet.
13:16For others, it's just as important to document what's special about nature right here and now.
13:30Minnesota's North Shore is defined by Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world.
13:39On days like this, its vastness can be hard to picture.
13:45But when it comes to nature, some people specialize in seeing what others miss.
13:52Nice to meet you.
13:54Nice to meet you.
13:57This makes me want to set sail for anywhere.
14:00Yeah, it's pretty stunning.
14:01Yeah.
14:04This is Anna Orbovich, an artist whose expertise is in capturing what we see and experience in the outdoors.
14:12What do you see in here?
14:15There's always so much color up here on the North Shore.
14:19So many blues and reds and just a lot of life.
14:25Yeah.
14:25It's always very humbling being up here.
14:28Feel a little small?
14:29A little small sometimes up here, yeah.
14:32Anna might feel humble out here, but to my mind, there's plenty for her to be proud of.
14:39Recently, she completed a project funded by the state of Minnesota in which she documented in her own unique way
14:46over 270 miles of a nearby hiking trail.
14:52I've always been extremely inspired by the outdoors and putting my body through physical challenges.
14:59And I used hiking as kind of a medium of sorts to bring my studio practice as an artist outdoors.
15:08Anna's artworks? Honestly, they're like nothing I've ever seen.
15:14On first glance, they resemble simple maps.
15:19But it turns out they're cyanotypes, sun-sensitive photo sheets colored by the shadows of objects that Anna finds in
15:27the outdoors.
15:28Cyanotypes are kind of a way to, you know, let nature do its thing and kind of facilitate it a
15:36little bit.
15:37It's a natural art.
15:38Yeah.
15:40It's a captivating concept, preserving your experience of an outdoor space through art made with materials found within it.
15:51So I'm curious, why did Anna choose this path, the Superior Hiking Trail, as her muse?
15:59All right, so tell me more about this trail. What makes the Superior Hiking Trail special?
16:05The trail roughly follows the shoreline of Lake Superior. It's a beautiful stretch, probably one of my favorites.
16:11I just learned a lot about hiking, hiking your own hike, and trying to just kind of focus on what
16:20you're hoping to get out of the hike.
16:30Of course, Anna's way more practiced than I am at finding and seeing the wonders in this wild space.
16:38Wow.
16:39Yeah, it's pretty stunning.
16:42And often, she hones in on something small, a detail that tells the bigger story.
16:48So what do you look for here in terms of your art process?
16:53Uh, really anything, but I try to only grab things that are already fallen.
16:58So you don't go ripping leaves off of trees?
17:00No, yeah, just kind of things that will kind of stay in their place for the most part and are
17:06easy to kind of put back.
17:07Yeah.
17:07Shall we go foraging?
17:09Yeah, let's do it.
17:13With that, Anna and I split up, looking for objects that seem to define this place.
17:22Not everything we find makes the cut.
17:25Oh, that's, uh, that's poop.
17:30But ultimately, we come up with a pretty cool collection.
17:35Alright, what'd you find?
17:36Uh, treasure.
17:38Yeah?
17:38Yeah.
17:39Some funky, cool stuff.
17:41Ooh, I love that rock.
17:43Yeah, that one, uh, was a little bit underwater.
17:45Yeah.
17:46Yeah, I've never quite seen a rock.
17:48It's like a sculpture.
17:49Like this.
17:50And it's almost like a fraction of a rock.
17:52Yeah.
17:53So, excited to see what happens.
17:56Nice haul.
17:56Yeah.
17:58The next step is arranging our objects on photo paper.
18:03And then, exposing them to sunlight.
18:06Or so we hope.
18:11Is that thunder?
18:14Yup.
18:15Nature can have a dark sense of humor.
18:17But for Anna, twists of fate like this are exactly what her art is all about.
18:23You kind of have to be ready for the unexpected.
18:26Like the fact that the light right now is really muted.
18:29And rain.
18:31And thunder.
18:33And so, trying as best you can to actually listen to the landscape, I think.
18:38And not push the art on the landscape, but really try to work with it.
18:43Why is that important to you?
18:47I think we live in such a fast-paced world right now.
18:51That finding time to just enjoy and be grateful for the earth under our feet is important.
19:01I love this idea that your collaborator in this art process is earth itself.
19:10Yeah.
19:11And so like these raindrops are literally embedded into the art.
19:15Yeah.
19:15These leaves, these rocks, and as the earth's conditions change, so does the art that you make.
19:21Mm-hmm.
19:22It's really, uh, it's really beautiful.
19:32Capturing and sharing the unique beauty of this place is what keeps drawing Anna back into the outdoors.
19:41But all over northern Minnesota, each person you meet seems to be seeking something different in the wild.
19:48And if you ask them, they've been able to find it.
19:52We are new here to Minnesota, and it's, uh, such a wonderful place that we found here.
19:57You get up here and it's just open and airy and natural and everything's right, you know?
20:03There's really a whole lot going on, um, here in northern Minnesota.
20:07Fishing, hiking.
20:09Hunting, hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking.
20:13Definitely swimming in the very cold lake.
20:16So many activities.
20:17Oh, quiet.
20:21All right.
20:24That's right.
20:27Everybody out here seems to love the idea of disconnecting from our world and reconnecting with the world of nature.
20:36This is more, more my kind of TV to watch right here.
20:40It's horrendously addicting.
20:42You're drinking in everything with your eyesight.
20:46You're hearing the waves.
20:47You will be rewarded over and over and over.
20:52You can take it in. You feel it.
20:55It's all good. I love it.
20:57When it comes to the outdoors, there really is a whole lot to love out here.
21:02Aside from Minnesota's almost 12,000 lakes, there are also nearly 100,000 miles of rivers and streams.
21:11But despite all that abundance, each person you meet seems to have one thing they love the most.
21:16My favorite thing to do outside is look for toads.
21:22What brings me here is him.
21:26And yeah, I think that's it.
21:31All my life, I wanted to go on camping and sleep in the tent.
21:38And my dream come true.
21:40This is my first time sleeping in a tent and outdoor.
21:43It's lovely and I love it.
21:47Oh, congratulations.
21:51I wasn't expecting that.
21:54For sure, there's always something new to try up here.
22:00But the man I've arranged to meet next has pursued the same outdoor passion for about 30 years.
22:08What keeps bringing him back?
22:11Hey.
22:12Hey.
22:13Nice to meet you, man.
22:14Nice to meet you.
22:15Excellent.
22:16Excellent.
22:16Thanks for coming out to northern Minnesota.
22:19Definitely one of my favorite places to hang out.
22:23This is Dudley Edmondson, a renowned photographer, author, and public speaker.
22:29For three decades, Dudley's been capturing the natural beauty of this place.
22:34In particular, it's birds.
22:38We are on the Mississippi Flyway.
22:42There is a central flyway for birds.
22:45Is there like major routes that birds take?
22:47Yeah, major routes that birds take.
22:49Like bird highways.
22:49Correct.
22:50Basically what happens is the birds are coming out of the northwest.
22:53They come to the edge of Lake Superior.
22:57Birds will not fly out over the lake because there's no thermals.
23:01So they make a hard right and fly down the shore.
23:04And that's what happens.
23:06Birds kind of pile up here in their effort to not fly out over the lake and drown.
23:11Yeah.
23:12They have a sense of survival and self-preservation.
23:14Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:22Dudley's love of the outdoors is rooted in his own sense of self-preservation.
23:25Going back many years ago.
23:30Were you an outdoors type person?
23:33Did you enjoy just being in nature like this?
23:37I did.
23:39Part of it comes from my childhood.
23:42Okay.
23:45You know, some issues in the family home with parents that had some issues with alcohol.
23:54Okay.
23:55And I found that getting into nature and getting into the outdoors was really sort of a respite place for
24:05me to sort of escape all of that.
24:07It was your hideout.
24:08Yeah, it was my hideout.
24:09Yeah.
24:12For Dudley, the outdoors was a place of refuge at first.
24:16But it became something more after a high school teacher introduced him to bird watching.
24:22What hooked you about that experience?
24:24Why were you like, I need more of this?
24:27Uh, it was his ability to identify birds that he didn't even see.
24:36Maybe they were a quarter mile away.
24:39That is amazing.
24:41I want those skills.
24:46So, there are birds calling.
24:49We're not seeing a lot.
24:51No.
24:51But we're hearing birds.
24:53There's things like black-happed chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, new bird, rose-breasted, gross beak.
25:04Even I can tell that Dudley has mastered some pretty advanced techniques.
25:08Skills that extend far beyond bird watching into a way of life known simply as birding.
25:15How does one bird?
25:18Well, there's a lot of ways to bird.
25:22You can bird by ear.
25:24Okay.
25:25You can do visuals.
25:26But I've learned that you just simply need to have access to the out of doors wherever you are.
25:40Dudley agrees to give me a tutorial on how to spot the most striking birds.
25:45That's not always possible with the naked eye.
25:50I just, I have not looked through a set of binoculars.
25:53Yeah?
25:54I think since I was a kid.
25:56Okay.
25:56These are very good.
25:58I feel like I'm inside a video game.
26:00Yeah, yeah.
26:01Very 3D.
26:03Very 3D.
26:04It's like the best VR I've ever seen.
26:09I hate that I just said that, but that's how I feel.
26:12Yeah, yeah.
26:16Glimpsing elusive birds?
26:17That's one thing.
26:19Hearing them?
26:21Well, that's another.
26:24When you're birding by ear, you really have to focus and concentrate.
26:27Because you've got to be able to separate.
26:29Sometimes the bird, the cacophony of song is, you know, it's so dense that you have to pull birds out
26:38and isolate them.
26:39Chickadees have a, da-da!
26:43That call from a black-capped chickadee tells every other bird, something about to go down.
26:49You've got to get yourself together.
26:50They're coming!
26:51They're coming!
26:52Exactly.
26:59What I'm picking up on is that you're listening and you're understanding.
27:06Right.
27:07So it's not just a visual thing.
27:09Even hearing the bird isn't merely about identifying the bird.
27:14Right.
27:14It's also about understanding what the bird is trying to communicate.
27:20Listening to nature and learning from it seems to give Dudley the safe space he's always wanted.
27:27A place where he can feel he belongs.
27:30The more you can identify things, then the fear subsides, the uncertainty of what is that?
27:38And, you know, it's like, okay, you know, I can identify that butterfly.
27:43I know that species of plant.
27:45I know what bird that is.
27:48So all of this stuff is super familiar to me, so I'm very comfortable in this space.
27:59Today, Dudley lives right by this reserve.
28:01So he has access to it whenever he feels he needs it.
28:08But sometimes, access can be a complicated thing.
28:13So I'm going to ask you a very direct question, Dudley.
28:15Yes, sir.
28:16Black people, where are they?
28:17Yeah, they're not here.
28:18Yeah.
28:19How did you adjust to that when you came here?
28:22Yeah, you know, for me, I've always been a person who, my connection to nature is so strong that I,
28:31that's priority.
28:35A few years ago, Dudley wrote a book about outdoor enthusiasts titled The Black and Brown Faces in America's Wild
28:43Places.
28:44It featured inspiring people of color who, like Dudley, have found solace and meaning in the outdoors.
28:51I think that as people of color, we have been, I don't know, I'm going to use the word, relegated,
29:01to urban spaces, right?
29:03But I have found that in outdoor spaces, white people, for whatever reason, feel threatened.
29:10I know two African-American males this year who were fishing and were shot at several times in their boat.
29:19Shot at?
29:20Someone shot at them as they were fishing multiple times.
29:24So that's an extreme example.
29:25It's an extreme example.
29:26I mean, myself, in this community, I have not had those kinds of things happen.
29:32I have had them happen on camping trips, where I've had people calling me the N word.
29:38What I get in that green space is so helpful to me.
29:45I'm willing to take ownership for that space.
29:48And I might also be willing to challenge people who challenge me.
29:54Because that space is so important to me, to my mental health.
30:04Do me a favor. Close your eyes.
30:07Okay.
30:09Listen.
30:10Mm-hmm.
30:10Tell me everything you hear.
30:14First thing I hear is insects, some kind of cricket or locusts.
30:18I hear water dropping on leaves and in the creek.
30:23What do you feel?
30:25I feel calm, very relaxed, very much at home, which is typically the way I feel in the outdoors.
30:36I feel more at home standing here than I would even standing in front of my house.
30:43I feel like when I'm in the man-made world, you have to perform, act a certain way, think a
30:51certain way, engage people in a way that, you know, makes them know that you're a safe black person to
31:02be around.
31:03But when I'm in this space, I don't have to do any of that stuff.
31:12Because the birds and the crickets and the minnows in the creek don't care.
31:18They just don't.
31:20What do you feel?
31:21To me, that's the de-stress that you can only experience in the outdoors.
31:27And if you've never put yourself in a position to where you can let that happen, you have no idea
31:34how therapeutic it can be.
31:44I think you just described freedom.
31:47Yes, I agree.
31:49It's very much freedom.
31:55There are so many things people seek in wild spaces,
31:59but I never realized how many of them depend on feeling free.
32:09Free to escape the biases and barriers that so many of us face each day.
32:15Free to make the most of our time in a place like this.
32:20Being here has got me thinking about connections and belonging.
32:26And I spend a decent amount of time in parts of the outdoors,
32:31but I realize I don't know a lot at times.
32:35And when I don't know, I'm afraid.
32:39Or I generalize.
32:41Could that eat me? Could that bite me? Could that hurt me?
32:44Because I don't know.
32:46When I start to know, there's a feeling of comfort and familiarity.
32:52Oh, that's a warbler, for example.
32:55That's that kind of bug.
32:57And that knowledge breeds a level of closeness.
33:02I'm no longer afraid of.
33:05I'm a part of.
33:12I'm starting to think it's that sense of belonging
33:14that makes people feel so strongly about being in wild spaces
33:19and fighting to preserve them.
33:25Of course, some people have called these wild spaces home
33:28for much longer than anyone else.
33:31And for them, caring for the natural world
33:35can't be separated from caring for ourselves.
33:44Meet Michaw Abid and Veronica Skinaway.
33:47They're both Anishinaabe, which means the original people.
33:54What's in the giant black cauldron?
33:57We call it Manuman.
33:59Okay.
34:00It's wild rice.
34:04Manuman is native to northern Minnesota's
34:07glacier-carved lakes and rivers.
34:09And according to oral tradition,
34:12it's actually why the Anishinaabe first decided to settle here.
34:16We've been here a very long time.
34:19Yeah.
34:20This is a tradition that survived for hundreds,
34:23thousands of years.
34:24And so it's real unique.
34:26And there isn't anything like this food in the world.
34:32It's the best food for your body,
34:35the best food for your heart, your soul, everything.
34:41It's said that the Anishinaabe once lived far away
34:44on the Atlantic Ocean,
34:46until one day they received a vision
34:49of a food that grows on water.
34:52They found it along the edges of Lake Superior.
34:55And Manuman's been sacred to them ever since.
34:59This is what saved the Anishinaabe people.
35:02So it is very, very important to us.
35:11I'm curious to see how Manuman is gathered.
35:17Especially since Minnesota is in the midst of a drought.
35:23Water levels are low right now,
35:26which makes Machaj's job as a poller a major challenge.
35:32So what the poller tries to do is,
35:36you know, cut through the bed like that,
35:39you know, creating as minimal of disturbance as we can.
35:43And getting it to where that Manuman hangs
35:46just over the boat, just right for the picker
35:49to be able to not have to work too hard to tip it in.
35:53All right.
35:53So your job as the picker or the knocker,
35:56how does it work?
35:58I kind of take that Manuman,
36:00then I gently tap down on it twice.
36:02Yeah.
36:03Like a heartbeat.
36:04So boom, boom.
36:15Ricing is 90% perspiration and 10% nutrition.
36:21So that's about what you're doing out here
36:23is you're exerting yourself to the max.
36:27But it's for a good cause and it's a labor of love.
36:32Gentle tapping.
36:34And then you see the Rifen Manuman going into your canoe.
36:41Machaj and Veronica invite me to participate in the process
36:45as a picker.
36:50And while it's hard at first to find my rhythm,
36:53it doesn't take long for me to understand
36:56why they love this so much.
36:59I'll have to add your name to the ricing list.
37:01Yeah.
37:02One or two days and you'll have enough food
37:04for your family for the year.
37:13This tradition of gathering Manuman
37:15has gone on for millennia.
37:17Yet Machaj and Veronica worry
37:20it might not be around for much longer.
37:22So what are the threats to Manuman?
37:25Well, you know, the primary threat
37:27that we're always concerned about,
37:30there's a lot of them,
37:31but, you know, is the changing climate.
37:35These are delicate ecosystems here
37:38and even the slightest change,
37:40you know, can alter it.
37:45Machaj and Veronica are also concerned
37:48about a new oil pipeline.
37:49It's supporters say it will bring jobs to the region,
37:52but it would also run right through native lands.
37:56So that's a great concern to us.
37:58It travels right through our seeded territories
38:01where we reserve the wild rice.
38:05Indigenous groups and climate activists
38:08have joined forces,
38:09claiming the pipeline would impinge
38:11on the rights of wild rice itself.
38:15It's a fascinating idea.
38:17And out here,
38:19it does feel like the rice
38:20has a life of its own.
38:25Oh!
38:27Wow.
38:28So how are you doing, Baratunde?
38:30I feel like I'm emerging
38:31from, like, another realm or something.
38:35Pulling the veil up,
38:36it's, like, crisper.
38:37And there were a few moments
38:38where I hit a little rhythm.
38:40So it was kind of like,
38:41grab, tap, tap.
38:42Grab, tap, tap.
38:44Grab, tap, tap.
38:45And there's a little beat in my head running.
38:47And it was just very soothing.
38:49Very soothing.
38:50And I got...
38:52I got some rice, I think.
38:54Oh, wow.
38:55You did good.
38:56You are a natural.
38:58I didn't want to be dead weight out here.
38:59Yeah, you're a natural.
39:01I got to work for it.
39:04It might not be the most impressive haul
39:06that Veronica's ever seen.
39:08But for me, it's a first.
39:11This is the first time in my life
39:13that I have, like, touched rice in the wild.
39:17I've only ever gotten rice
39:19out of a bag or a bin.
39:23Wow.
39:23That's it.
39:25I hold one of these,
39:27and then I look out,
39:28and there's billions.
39:31Easily.
39:32It feels infinite.
39:34It might feel that way in the moment.
39:37But just like Minnesota's other abundant natural resources,
39:42these sprawling rice beds are fragile and limited.
39:46And learning from those who have lived in balance with them for so long,
39:51in my view,
39:51is crucial to our future.
39:54With all the changes that happen in the world,
39:57there is this constant of the rice harvest.
40:01And, you know,
40:02why does that constant,
40:04in the midst of so many other changes,
40:06why does that matter to you?
40:09It matters to me
40:12because this is something generational.
40:14This is something that's been here
40:16for hundreds and thousands of years.
40:18And this is something that you can't learn in a classroom.
40:23This is something real special.
40:26Having some things taken away over time,
40:30it makes us appreciate even more.
40:32You know,
40:32it makes us fight harder for it.
40:34Yeah.
40:34Yeah.
40:38Fighting hard for nature
40:40and for the ways of life it can sustain.
40:44It's something I've seen over and over across northern Minnesota.
40:49From the forest and farms of Finland
40:52to the hiking trails along Lake Superior.
41:03But there's one place in this region
41:05that people have fought to protect,
41:06despite the fact that almost no one lives there at all.
41:11A place where cars must be left behind.
41:16And one of the only ways to get around
41:18is by canoe.
41:23I'm on the edge
41:25of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,
41:27the most visited wilderness area
41:30in all of America.
41:35What's opening up before me now
41:38is over a million acres
41:40of wild lands and fresh water
41:42that extends from northern Minnesota
41:44all the way into Canada.
41:51I've come here in one sense
41:53to experience nature
41:54in its purest state possible.
42:02But I'm not planning to do that alone.
42:07Today I'm meeting up with a couple
42:08who've devoted almost a decade
42:10to exploring this place
42:11and pushing to keep it protected.
42:14Their names are Dave and Amy Freeman.
42:19Hello.
42:20Hey.
42:21Hi.
42:22Welcome.
42:24How was your paddle?
42:25It was nice.
42:27This is a...
42:28It's an epically beautiful spot.
42:31Yeah, well, thanks for joining us.
42:33This is White Iron Lake.
42:34Okay.
42:34It's part of the Kuishui River
42:36and we're right on the edge
42:38of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area,
42:40which is the largest wilderness area
42:43east of the Rockies
42:43and north of the Everglades,
42:44just full of lakes like this.
42:47It's our favorite place in the world.
42:48Really special place.
42:49I can see why.
42:52I honestly can.
42:54The landscape surrounding us
42:56is one of the most stunning wild places
42:58I've ever visited.
42:59And it's been kept that way
43:01thanks to its designation
43:03as an official wilderness area.
43:06How does that differ from
43:07a national park
43:09or a national river?
43:10There's so many different kind of
43:12codes and words to describe
43:14protected outdoor space.
43:15All right, good question.
43:17Well, it's federally designated
43:19as a wilderness area.
43:20That's the highest level of protection.
43:22Ooh, congratulations.
43:22Yeah.
43:24So there are no buildings.
43:27There are no roads.
43:28There are no signs.
43:29There's generally no motorized
43:31or mechanized vehicles.
43:33We have realized that some places
43:36like the Boundary Waters
43:37are just so special
43:39that we need to protect them
43:40in their most natural state.
43:46It's this very idea
43:47that some places
43:49are so special to us
43:50we want to protect
43:51and preserve them as they are
43:52that first drew me
43:53to northern Minnesota.
43:55All right.
43:56Ready to go?
43:58Yes.
43:59Yes, I am.
44:06But as we venture out
44:07into the lake
44:08with no sign
44:10of civilization in sight
44:11I can't help but think
44:13the Boundary Waters
44:14seems pretty well protected
44:17as is.
44:18What are you protecting it from?
44:20Well, the latest threat
44:21to this area
44:22is copper mining.
44:24So a large multinational company
44:27wants to mine for copper
44:28just outside the wilderness area.
44:32You know, there's demand.
44:33We need copper, right?
44:35We need these things.
44:36But there are some places
44:38like this amazing
44:40water-rich wilderness
44:42that are just too precious
44:45to risk.
44:48Some locals do support the mine
44:50because it could bring
44:51year-round jobs to the region.
44:54And copper itself
44:55is used for making everything
44:57from solar panels
44:58to electric cars.
44:59Technology designed
45:01to help the planet.
45:03But mining upstream
45:05even if the mine is built
45:06just outside the protected area
45:08comes with the risk
45:09of polluting this wilderness.
45:11And for some
45:12that possibility
45:13is unthinkable.
45:16So when you're out here
45:18how do you feel?
45:20Incredibly calm
45:21and happy.
45:24Yeah, I mean
45:24all you can hear
45:25is
45:26you know
45:27the wind
45:27and the birds
45:29and
45:29I mean the water
45:30you can just
45:31drink the water
45:32right out of the lake.
45:33Alright, I'm going to
45:34I'm going to test that.
45:35This feels like the spot.
45:40To the boundary waters.
45:42Cheers.
45:43And all this fresh water.
45:50Oh, that's good.
45:56The Freemans have campaigned
45:58to stop copper mining
45:59near the boundary waters area
46:01for years.
46:03Starting with a protest
46:04that took them clear
46:05across America.
46:08Really our goal
46:08of this journey
46:09is to tell people
46:12all across the country
46:13about this amazing place.
46:15The most popular
46:16wilderness area
46:17in the country.
46:18In 2014
46:19to demonstrate
46:21against several
46:21proposed mining projects
46:23they collected signatures
46:24on a canoe
46:25and somehow
46:27paddled that canoe
46:28all the way from here
46:29to Washington D.C.
46:32How does one paddle
46:33from Minnesota
46:34to Washington D.C.?
46:36There's not like
46:37a continuous body
46:38of water
46:38between here and there.
46:40Right.
46:40It's a lot of portaging
46:41too.
46:42So carrying the canoe.
46:45Yeah, we paddled
46:47through Lake Champlain
46:48and down the Hudson River
46:50right through New York City
46:51right past the Statue of Liberty.
46:5380 days!
46:5480 days to get here!
46:56Woo!
46:57From Baltimore
46:58a portage from Baltimore
47:00to D.C.
47:00Yeah.
47:03Just portaging the canoe.
47:05Nine miles
47:05to Washington D.C.
47:11They finally did get there
47:13and to make their case
47:15they delivered the canoe
47:16to the chief
47:17of the U.S. Forest Service.
47:21Today
47:22the debate
47:22over nearby mining development
47:24is still playing out.
47:26But Amy and Dave
47:27continue to advocate
47:28for this wilderness
47:29and find creative ways
47:31to show what makes it special.
47:34Whoa, fridge.
47:35Whoa.
47:36After their D.C. trip
47:38they decided
47:39to live in this wilderness
47:40for 12 months
47:41and documented
47:43their adventure
47:43so others could follow along.
47:46We didn't cross the road
47:48we didn't go into a building
47:50we didn't leave the wilderness
47:52for a whole year.
47:58When you spend
47:59a whole year
48:00in the wilderness
48:00like that
48:01what changes
48:02for you?
48:04One thing
48:05that's kind of amazing
48:06is we're still married
48:07right?
48:09And the other
48:10thing that we noticed
48:12towards the end
48:12of our time
48:13in the wilderness
48:13was that
48:14our senses
48:16were heightened.
48:17All the way through
48:18we were
48:19smelling things
48:20hearing things
48:21seeing things
48:21that we had never
48:23seen before
48:23you know
48:24and we had been able
48:25to slow down
48:26to the point
48:26where we felt
48:28like there was
48:28nothing else
48:29for us to do
48:29except sit there
48:30and observe that
48:32and then
48:33try to help
48:33use that
48:34as a way
48:34we can help
48:35people understand
48:36how special
48:36this place is
48:37you know
48:38and how special
48:38just getting outside
48:40is.
48:46It smells so good.
48:49Since their year
48:50in the wilderness
48:51the Freemans
48:52have focused
48:52on inviting others
48:53into the boundary water.
48:55Can you hear it?
48:56The sound of rushing water
48:58makes me thirsty.
49:00To share that feeling
49:02of having your senses
49:03awakened by the wild.
49:05Oh.
49:09What a breeze.
49:11Yeah.
49:11What a view.
49:12Pretty special.
49:13Yeah.
49:24This is great.
49:25This is kind of
49:27an understatement
49:28but
49:29it just feels
49:30really good.
49:32The air is good.
49:34It smells good.
49:35That water looks good.
49:37I haven't heard
49:38a single car horn
49:39or airplane
49:41or radio.
49:43It's just
49:46everything else.
49:50As I take in
49:52the scenery around me
49:54I start to see
49:55how wilderness
49:56isn't just
49:57a place.
49:58It's a feeling.
50:00A state of mind
50:01and an experience.
50:04And sharing
50:05that experience
50:05can be a powerful
50:07way to build support
50:08for protecting the wild.
50:11Well, we've seen
50:12the impact
50:13of just
50:14bringing people
50:15into the place.
50:17I think that's
50:18that's sort of
50:19the most important thing
50:20is like we get people here
50:21and it kind of speaks
50:22for itself, right?
50:23We only protect
50:25the things
50:26that we love
50:27and we only love
50:27the things
50:28that we know
50:29and so
50:31we all need
50:32to get outside
50:33and connect
50:34with the natural world
50:35and I think
50:36every once in a while
50:37you just got to
50:37come out here
50:38and just immerse yourself.
50:40Yeah.
50:40And unplug.
50:41And unplug.
50:42Yeah.
50:43This is the full
50:45experience.
50:50Places like this
50:51they do feel
50:53like nature
50:53at its most pristine
50:54but this journey
50:56reminds me
50:57most of the time
50:58even the wildest places
50:59aren't really untouched.
51:03The footsteps
51:04we leave on the beach
51:06may be washed away
51:07by the tide
51:08but the impacts
51:09we're having
51:10on the planet
51:10they reach
51:12even here
51:12the places
51:13we're determined
51:14to protect.
51:22All around the country
51:23so many of us
51:25seek out wild spaces
51:26looking for solitude
51:28escape
51:29an experience
51:31or a sustainable
51:32way of life.
51:35but as much
51:36as the wild
51:36can give us
51:37in my mind
51:39it's time
51:40to give back
51:42because protecting
51:43the wild
51:44isn't just
51:45about the planet
51:47it's also
51:48something
51:48much more personal.
51:51The wilderness
51:52can seem
51:53well
51:54wild
51:55and remote
51:56but it's
51:57an intimate
51:57part of us.
51:58I know
51:59because when
52:00I'm feeling
52:00stressed
52:01or overwhelmed
52:01or a little bit
52:02broken
52:03I come here
52:04not exactly here
52:06the north shore
52:07of Lake Superior
52:08in Minnesota
52:08this place
52:10is amazing
52:11but when I come
52:13any place
52:14kind of like here
52:15I feel better
52:16and I feel more whole.
52:19What we call
52:21the outdoors
52:21is actually
52:23part of us.
52:24These lakes
52:25they feed us
52:26body and soul
52:28the trees
52:29they breathe for us
52:31holding carbon
52:32so that we can breathe.
52:34Now we've so
52:35changed the climate
52:36that there's no
52:38fully stopping
52:39the process
52:39that's unfolding
52:40but we can change
52:42we can adapt
52:43and we can help
52:45nature adapt
52:47the same way
52:47nature has helped us.
52:50We owe that
52:51to the earth
52:52which is exactly
52:54the same as saying
52:55we owe that
52:56we owe that
52:57to ourselves.
53:23We owe that
53:41to the people
53:41we owe
53:45another
53:45that's evil
53:45because it's something
53:45to the room
53:46to go.
53:46So
53:46not
53:46house
53:46network
53:46it
53:46Especially
53:46the