(majestic music) - I love the beginning of these treks.

You go from the frenzy of packing and preparations to slowing down and going one step at a time.

Right now the Florida wildlife quarter is being pushed to the breaking point.

This backbone here on the Lake Wales Ridge that's holding the corridor together.

- Our challenge is to keep that backbone of the state connected and whole.

It's kind of a race against time.

- They've never had a cause to fight for that was this big.

(mellow music) (birds chirping) The Lake Wales Ridge is this relics sand dune system that runs down the spine of Florida.

- And if you think of that as a small Florida peninsula, all of the biodiversity that evolved on that peninsula is still there.

- It's a snapshot of what this place was like millions of years ago.

These are the naturally highest occurring points in our state.

It's like Florida's continental divide.

If it gets broken, the entire statewide corridor could be lost.

- We're gonna start from Highlands Hammock State Park, work our way north through ranch country.

And from there, we're gonna hike west to east across the Lake Wales Ridge.

And then we'll transition, take a final trek into Tiger Creek Preserve.

- Starting out today on horseback which is the right way to kick off this expedition because we're starting on ranch country.

It's a chance to get more in tune to the land.

It's a chance to listen to and meet the people who call this place home.

- This land that y'all are riding through is just absolutely scrumptious.

God made it and nobody can recreate it like He did, you know.

- Of the thousand people a day are moving here.

How many of them know that this world even exists?

And that then it's important for them and for their water and for their future too.

- Every time a road gets paved, we've lost something.

I know that the state has to grow and I don't blame everybody for wanting to come here, but somehow there should be efforts to preserve this because you cannot put this back.

- People around the world might not think of ranching in conservation, but here in Florida we've had cattle for five centuries.

They also happen to be quite compatible with these prairies and woodland systems.

And so ranching at it's practiced here is one of the best ways to protect the wildlife habitat and the watershed.

And so saving the ranch is the same thing we need to do to save the wildlife habitat.

(silence) - I got my start as a wildlife biologist working right here in Highlands County.

This place is like Mecca for a conservation biologist.

This high rolling scrub with all this fascinating life.

- Scrub is one of the harsher habitat types from the state of Florida.

It has a whole community of plant and animal life that has evolved just for it.

And a lot of species here are found nowhere else in the world.

That's why scientists are so enthralled with it.

- Those are the traps we use.

So they're all set up.

The traps are open right now.

So we'll just back off a little bit.

(man makes hissing sound) Bingo, got one.

I'm gonna go around 'cause doors are on the far side.

I'll just hand one.

I'll take this guy out and then hand him to you.

- So we're banding them.

This particular color is going to be specific to this property.

So if this bird ends up moving, showing up in a different property we'll now know that there's connectivity between this property and that property.

And that's part of what we want to know.

- I know you've been studying these your whole career.

What's going on in this area where we are right here?

- Jays have probably declined over 90%.

They're like the canary in the coal mine.

If the scrubs not healthy, jays are often some of the first things to disappear.

- See that line?

Each of those can be measured to see the nutritional history of this bird at the time it was growing its feather.

So that means on the day that the feather was being grown that bird had a deficit of food.

So he's banded.

Every bird is uniquely banded so we can always identify this individual no matter where he goes.

We've got all the measurements we need.

So let's just go release him.

(mellow music) - On one hand, Florida is such a new and ever-changing place.

Most people living here today were born somewhere else, but it's also an ancient place.

And these ecosystems are a window back into time for millions of years.

They're actually the best hope of holding this statewide wildlife corridor together.

- What's she doing, buddy?

Hey, my horse is rebelling.

He just wants to go right back home.

Hey buddy, you're gonna cooperate, right?

Here's a nice, pretty obvious track.

And these are fairly fresh.

I mean probably a male bear that's up here.

You've got these islands of scrub on this high, dry ridge, just perfect for denning bears.

- That's the end of the trail for us a little bit.

- What's up Max?

My great uncle told me how he would ride a horse for three days and three nights, camping out under the stars without ever seeing a fence.

We saw plenty of fences, but I can say I been on horseback for three days camping under the stars now.

And you know, I want that to still be possible in this state for my kids.

- Thank you Mo.

- Now we're gonna hike and that's going to allow us to get closer to the ground, walking and tracking to get a more intimate connection to the land.

- If you think about the Lake Wales Ridge and its function north and south running down the length of the state, there's a road that runs north and south as well, the whole way called US 27.

It's mostly built up on top of the ridge and it is the thread for a lot of transportation, but also development.

If it develops out fully, or if this east-west connection were to be broken, then there's a whole area that is not connected to the rest of the Florida wildlife corridor and US 27 has a lot of mortality.

A lot of animals get hit on the road.

- Looking back through the photos of this camera trap, the whole gang is here.

You've got a coyote, you see a bobcat.

There's a spotted skunk.

Always wanted to see one on a camera trap and I just never have.

They got this tail that looks like a little tuft of feathers.

They actually do a handstand straight up in the air and their back legs go straight up in the air.

God, it's so cute.

This one at least seems to figured out how to use this little box culvert to get back and forth across the road and avoid getting hit.

So this is effective for some stuff but for the big animals, it's not gonna be enough.

Bears get hit on 27 all the time.

- Yeah.

If you're a bear and you pick the wrong time to cross, it's not a good thing.

- Lights out.

- This green swath here is actually more impressive from air than I thought it was gonna be.

Yeah.

With some cross fencing and some property acquisitions and easements, there's green for two miles on this side of the road.

- There is, but it could be gone tomorrow.

A road double this width and on an order of magnitude more vehicles.

It's kind of hard to imagine.

- A road is like fuel on the fire.

It just speeds things up and intensifies the process.

- With habitat analyses and tracking data we're finding that the effects of the road seems to radiate out into the landscape around the road.

And so it excludes animals from otherwise really good habitat.

- Well, you can lose individual pieces and the more puzzle pieces that are missed you start to lose to just the integrity of the whole.

It's kind of hard to watch it happening in front of your eyes.

(mellow music) (music continues) - We're more than halfway now.

- Yesterday we woke up, first thing we saw was quail.

Oh, we, that was our first wood stork.

- And we also had a, we had a kingfisher.

- Kingfisher, American egret, night herons.

- Some of these areas that are critically important to a bear or to a panther, you know, flash by in a few seconds when you're cruising down the road.

But to get out here and slow down and look around and see the tracks in the sand, to hear the birds calling, to see these remnants of the original wild is irreplaceable.

(mellow music) - Like this is my Florida.

What does it take for the rest of the world to get that?

(dramatic music) - The backbone is highly fragmented, but it's still working as a system.

And we have to do the things to strengthen all the muscles around it.

I have so much hope for this landscape because there is a dedicated effort.

You can see it all coming together.

It really contrasts to me to the places where the sprawl is happening so fast that the, the chance to save it just feels like it was too late.

Like we already missed that.

(mellow music) - This last bit of our expedition route is most acutely challenging and confusing.

- This is a particularly slow and particularly long bit - Here comes our next rain I think.

Anyone else wanna break trail?

- Down in that tangle you're just kind of fighting and scratching your way through this impenetrable tangle.

There's no sunlight hitting the ground.

There isn't a whole lot of diversity of the plants 'cause there's no light.

- Now we're in this palmetto fringe where it's super, super thick.

Hasn't seen fire in a real long time.

- Scrub is super fire dependent ecology.

So as you emerge on the sandhill it emphasizes for us the importance of being able to use fire in this landscape.

- One thing I've noticed is how well managed this state forest has been.

I mean, absolutely breathtaking pine, cutthroat, flatwood, beautiful sandhill, evidence of fire management and real focus on restoration.

- The longtime manager of Tiger Creek, Sticky Steve as he is known, has his house just a little east of the preserve.

- Steve Morrison is a legend in this conservation world at the Lake Wales Ridge.

- How long have you had this place?

- My dad bought it about 1965.

So this was an old hunting cabin.

It was leaking like a sieve.

When I moved in, I was living with all kinds of animals in here.

There is a story behind just about everything.

Trouble is, I can't remember some of the stories.

Yeah, that's, that's probably a gopher.

It's not a good idea to stick your bow down there either, really.

After I got outta college, I didn't have a clue on what to do.

And so I came out here and started making the place livable ended up spending the next 45 years here.

A lot of habitat in Florida is subtle.

It requires you to slow down and really be present.

My life has just been overrun by nature.

You know, I can't be anything but thankful for that.

Well, I'm really excited to show you one of the jewels of the ridge, Tiger Creek Preserve.

- The Florida wildlife corridor can't exist without the people who stitch it together.

Ranch hands, landowners, the land managers, the scientists.

- This corridor is still here and it's still functioning but we can't take it for granted because there's gonna be a lot of pressure on these lands in the years to come.

- It's gonna take following the science, letting the science tell us what to do, and then letting that inspire public will.

And then it takes daring, it takes courage.

- Tommy, nice to meet you.

The larger public really wants conservation.

People are looking for solutions and they're looking for positive stories.

There's enough interest here that we know that we can make this work.

♪ I'm an old gopher tortoise ♪ ♪ I'm tired of all these critters using my hole ♪ ♪ 'Cause it just gets too darn crowded ♪ ♪ Things just get outta my control ♪ ♪ I'm an old gopher tortoise ♪ ♪ Tired of all these critters using my hole ♪ - How we doing now.

Make sure we're in the right spot.

- Gopher Tortoise Blues.

(laughter) - Yeah, that was awesome.

- I don't know what you look music for but.

- Did you write that one too?

- Yeah.

- Oh nice.

- Oh yeah, that's.

- Who else would've written that?

- I don't know.

(laughter)