Documenting the front lines of environmentalism in the PNW

A new season of the short-form series Human Elements takes viewers from a 1,000-degree glass kiln on the San Juan Islands to a range with wild wolves.

A video crew shoots in a meadow overlooking the ocean

Videographer Bryce Adolphson shoots on the Oregon coast for an upcoming episode on how four-legged friends are helping efforts to protect the endangered Silverspot butterfly. (Sarah Hoffman)

Human Elements is back, and this time we want to bring you even closer to the wild. It’s the third season of our short-form video series featuring scientists and their obsessions with their subject of study.

We figured it was time to level-up the series. This year we’re covering more distance than ever by bringing our viewers from the mountains of British Columbia to the Oregon coast to share portraits of creative conservation – the people putting it all on the line to protect the PNW’s endangered and threatened species. Rather than narrated stories, this season you’ll hear  fully from the scientists, farmers and other unexpected stewards of conservation.  

Three episodes of the new season have already aired and are available to stream. You can hear from Marmot Recovery Foundation’s Malcolm McAdie, who has dedicated his life to the breeding and release of the endangered Vancouver Island marmot.

In episode two, artist and activist Raven Skyriver hopes his lifelike glass creations of endangered marine species will spur action to save them.

And in the latest episode, we spoke to (and galloped alongside) Daniel Curry, a Range Rider who traverses rural Washington to act as a buffer between wolves and cattle.

We promise to bring more adventure as the season continues, from First Nations groundbreaking habitat restoration to conservation dogs using their noses to detect what the human eye can’t see. You can find Human Elements on KCTS 9 each Thursday at 8:50 p.m., and streaming on Crosscut each following morning. 

We hope the everyday people, artists and scientists in this series will inspire you to look around at our planet and see how even one small act can have an impact.

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