ANNOUNCER: This program is made by MPT to enrich the diverse communities throughout our state and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you!

NARRATOR: Coming up... Finding courage in the great outdoors... A journey from seed to soil... And teen archers compete for the state title... Next.

Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

(upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A symphony of shrieks, punctuates the early summer soundtrack at North Bay Adventure Camp in Cecil County.

Here, tucked away at the edge of Elk Neck State Park, nearly two decades of middle schoolers have found fresh air and fresh experiences through outdoor education.

And on a balmy May morning, a brand new cohort of preteens steps off the bus to cheers from educators like, DeAngelo Goode and Olivia Quincy.

OLIVIA QUINCY: We make it as hype of an experience as possible.

We go on each side, we clap for the kids as they're coming in.

Everybody's got the energy like they want to have the best week ever.

NARRATOR: Though, not every kid is receptive right away.

DEANGELO GOODE: The inner city kids, given the culture, they're like, oh, this is kind of corny.

They're getting clapped in.

They're like real nervous.

NARRATOR: For Christian and Daz'iyah.

It's a step outside their comfort zone.

CHRISTIAN: When I first got off the bus, I felt like...nervous because I was like finally here on my own.

DAZ'IYAH: Where I live, there's not really a lot of nature.

We don't get to see like a whole lot of land, trees like this.

NARRATOR: But with the promise of adventure, nerves make way for excitement.

ZION: I was like, okay, yes, I'm so ready.

(children screaming) I'm really excited that at North Bay I'm able to connect with more people and do a whole bunch of stuff that wouldn't necessarily just be available, just you could just, oh, lemme just run down the street and go zip lining.

Can't really do that in Baltimore.

NARRATOR: And that's precisely the point.

According to North Bay's Director of Education, Rick Garber.

RICK GARBER: North Bay was founded to really provide kids this kind of experience that wouldn't have access to it.

The kids we serve are considered underserved, and that means, they're disconnected from the environment.

NARRATOR: But for these kids over the next few days, that's about to change.

(background chatter) ♪ ♪ OLIVIA: Especially, for a lot of the kids that come from cities that don't really get to experience a lot of nature.

It's like a fish out of water experience for them.

- They try and play games... NARRATOR: And they're not alone.

Along the sandy banks of the Chesapeake Bay, a hands-on science lesson offers an exercise in teamwork.

COUNSELOR: The really important thing is you just want to be able to communicate with each other that teamwork is going to make you catch fish.

Okay, thank you.

So just keep apart from each other.

Perfect.

Perfect.

MALE TEACHER: We are using a seine net to go fishing, and this is the green team from Harlem Park School.

They've been studying nature for years and now they're in it.

STUDENT: Slimy and weird.

NARRATOR: Gaining insight into local ecology... STUDENT 2: It's a snakehead.

It's a fish and...

TEACHER: You remember?

NARRATOR: And learning how every species has a role and an impact.

TEACHER: So it's an invasive species, right?

So what does invasive species mean?

Kids: It's something, but it's not from here.

TEACHER: It's not from here, right?

And then, what does it do?

KIDS: It invades, it kills all of the-- TEACHER: It eats all the native species, right?

What's going to happen to our fish population?

KIDS: They're gonna die out.

TEACHER: Yeah, they're all going to die out, and then what's going to be left?

KIDS: Nothing.

TEACHER: Nothing but the snakeheads, right?

DEANGELO: What North Bay has made me realize over the years is that the closer you get to nature, the closer you get to identity, the closer you get to role.

We get to bring them here and we get to show them that everything around you...

MALE TEACHER: Do you notice any plant life, animal life?

Do you hear anything?

DEANGELO: Even on a microscopic level, everything has a purpose and it has a niche.

Niche is an organism's role in its ecosystem.

For you, it's your role in your community.

You have a purpose and you need to figure out what that is.

(sounds of footsteps and chatter) NARRATOR: On a visit to the vulture enclosure...

TEACHER 2: All right, so these are my friends.

Bonnie and Clyde.

NARRATOR: They explore the idea of misconceptions.

TEACHER 2: Vultures are what are called scavengers, NARRATOR: And in journals passed out at the beginning of the week, they consider their own niche in their own communities.

But it's not all metaphors.

After gearing up, Zion from Mount Royal Elementary Middle School in Baltimore faces some very real fears.

MALE TEACHER 2: Welcome to the high ropes course.

OLIVIA: The high ropes course.

It's a huge challenge for a lot of kids, if they're scared of heights, but we at least encourage them to try and even if they go out like five feet, they still feel proud of what they do.

ZION: When I went up there, I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I was so scared and so I could not jump off at all, and the guy was like, I'm going to give you a five second countdown.

I was like, okay, whatever.

I just jumped off.

I had my eye closed the whole time, so I don't know what anything was, but it was fun.

It was just scary.

I would do it again for sure, because I'm not as scared anymore, and if I didn't do it, I know, I would be so sad.

I would've been thinking in my head like, oh my God Zion.

What if you just did it?

What if you just did it?

But I did it.

So, I was actually really proud of myself.

I was like, Zion you just a bungee jumped.

NARRATOR: It's a common thread for many North Bay attendees.

DAZ'IYAH: She's excited.

I'm nervous.

I'm nervous when I do stuff like this, but I still get through it, you know.

I did the giant swing.

Oh, my gosh!

I was so scared.

(screams) STUDENT: How do you... (screams) DAZ'IYAH: But my best friend, she's an encouraging person, so like she helped me a lot, overcome my fears.

RICK: To see the restorative power of being outside of developing community with their peers always affects me emotionally.

To see kids grow emotionally while they're here to find tools in the outdoors that they didn't know exist that could help them to cope with some of the challenges that they're facing in their lives is powerful.

NARRATOR: For now, their stay is winding down and the bus ride home beckons.

But for these newly minted North Bay alumni, this time outside offered the chance to look inside of themselves.

ZION: The Zion of today would probably tell the Zion of yesterday, you're going to get to do a whole bunch of crazy exciting things, and even though you're scared, just do it.

DAZ'IYAH: Don't be nervous give new things a chance.

CHRISTIAN: Every time you're scared, remembering what like I did here.

I'm proud that I did something that I thought...I couldn't.

(music fades out) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Once covered in putting greens, this Carroll County property is being planted in evergreens, a transformation overseen by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay's, Craig Highfield.

CRAIG: We're finishing up planting 22 acres of this golf course with 22 varieties of trees and shrubs.

NARRATOR: By the end of the morning.

6,600 young trees will cover the former Wakefield Valley golf course in Westminster, now a city park.

It's an undertaking that will benefit wildlife, water quality, and for park visitors, quality of life.

This new beginning marks the end of another journey, one that started with a seed.

FRANCIS SMITH: Does anybody else want gloves or anything?

NARRATOR: On a warm September Sunday, Francis Smith, a natural resource planner with a Maryland forest service, is leading a team of volunteer seed collectors.

Their efforts are focused on a mature grove of wild American plum trees tucked behind New Market Elementary in Frederick County.

The fruit is bound for the Maryland State Forest tree nursery on the Eastern Shore, an operation that produces about three million trees a year, all with wild seed collected by hand.

FRANCIS: A lot of it is really just community and volunteer driven.

Otherwise, the nursery's forced to go buy seed.

So I just try to collect as much seed as I can every fall and support the nursery that way.

NARRATOR: Branches here hang heavy with ripe plums.

Ideal, because the nursery needs a lot of them.

FRANCIS: Depending on the species, there's different sort of weight requirements that the nursery may need in order to plant a bed.

This is the only site in the state that produces like this, so I just get as much as I can here.

I try to hit a hundred plus pounds when it's all said and done.

NARRATOR: Francis wants the fruit intact, but the real prize is the seed inside.

FRANCIS: It's protected.

It's insulated by the fruit in a sense with moisture, and it's being kept cool.

It's not exposed to the heat, so these are viable fresh seeds that I can just bag up and get to the nursery, and then they can clean and plant.

NARRATOR: One of the dozen or so volunteers working toward that goal is Alexis Dickerson.

She knows how crucial this work is.

Her day job is director of Tree and Seed programs for Potomac Conservancy, a nonprofit that advocates for clean water.

ALEXIS: Trees are actually the most efficient and effective ways of cleaning the environment.

In order to plant enough trees, we actually have to have the seed stock to do it.

Most people don't realize that the foresters are out collecting seed stock themselves.

NARRATOR: And the demand for trees is increasing in Maryland, a new initiative calls for five million additional native tree plantings by 2031, all grown by the state nursery.

It'll take a lot of seed to achieve that goal.

Today's collection is a start.

FRANCIS: I'm saying, 125 pounds of plum fruit.

Tomorrow morning, I'll drive them over to Preston to the state nursery.

They'll get 'em in cold storage, clean them, and they'll plant the seed and grow a whole new batch.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: The state nursery was founded in College Park in 1914 to grow trees for roadside planting.

In 1996, it moved here, 300 acres in Caroline County where it grows low cost bulk planting stock for customers in Maryland and beyond.

Occupying a tiny corner of that property is this cooler.

Here, nursery manager Richard Garrett houses the future of Maryland's forests, organized neatly in boxes and burlap bags.

RICHARD: We have to keep 'em cold and dry to maintain viability, so they're good over the years, I mean, there's seed in here from the late '80s that's still good.

NARRATOR: Dozens of species and millions of seeds.

Sourcing them, Richard says, is one of the nursery's biggest challenges.

RICHARD: You can't get a reliable seed supply from everything every year.

So, seed that can be stored you stockpile it, so you have some every given year.

A lot of seeds are becoming hard to get, now.

Some of the things we're not going to be able to grow in a couple of years, if we don't either find a collection or are able to purchase it.

Every one of those seeds has been touched multiple times by a person either in the collecting, cleaning, or processing.

NARRATOR: Take the cooler's latest addition, the plum seed gathered by Francis and his volunteers.

RICHARD: Every little plum had to be de-pulped, macerated, and the pulp cleaned off to generate one of these for each fruit he collected and he brought bags, and bags of fruit here.

NARRATOR: At the first stretch of dry spring weather, planting season gets underway.

It takes two weeks to plant about 60 different species, each one at a different density.

RICHARD: If we're changing species, we have to clean out this hopper so we don't have any mixing going on.

And then, we have to recalibrate the seeder and set the new rate.

We have to determine how many seed per pound, what the germination rate is, and then set the seeder, so we're planting for our targeted amount of trees per bed that we want to grow.

A little bit of work involved, a little bit of math.

NARRATOR: And a little bit of luck.

Since this is wild seed, there's often guesswork involved in calculating the germination rate, or how likely it is that a seed will develop properly.

RICHARD: You just go by past history of what that species has done.

Everything we planted today will be ready next spring.

It'll germinate hopefully within 10 to 14 days.

We'll grow them all summer long.

They'll probably stop growing about mid-September, early October, and they'll be ready to harvest next February.

NARRATOR: When February arrives, Richard and his crew exude a frenetic energy.

RICHARD: We have five or six weeks to get most of this done.

So yeah, we have to go.

NARRATOR: As soon as the ground thaws, they start digging and they have until early March at best to finish.

RICHARD: Whenever the trees are dormant, we can actually go out and dig them.

If they were in full leaf right now, as soon as you tried to bring them out of the ground or dig them out of the ground, they would start to wilt and they won't recover from that very easily.

We can dig with the crew before they wear out about 18 to 20 beds a day, and that could be 30,000 pine trees in a bed or 10,000 oak trees in a bed.

NARRATOR: That's as many as 600,000 seedlings in a single day, lifted from the sandy Eastern Shore soil.

Ideal for digging up delicate young roots.

RICHARD: You can't have a clay soil because the soil doesn't break up loose enough and become friable enough to break away from the roots without tearing up the root system.

NARRATOR: Once, the day's digging is complete, the crew gets to work, hand sorting and packaging saplings.

RICHARD: Ten good trees go down on the belt.

Bad trees, dirt goes on the bottom belt.

NARRATOR: This part of the process is all about speed and precision.

RICHARD: This crew can easily do 100,000 or more a day.

All these root collars should be lined up, so the roots should be here, the top should be here.

And what that does when he goes to prune the roots, he'll be pruning them at a uniform length.

There won't be some that are hanging down and get cut too short, and others that are up too high up that are left too long.

Uniform length is important.

One, you don't want 'em too short because then there's not enough root system for the tree.

You don't want 'em too long because then it's hard for the tree planter to plant them.

NARRATOR: Before shipping, the trees are packaged and stored in a massive cooler.

Sometimes, more than a million at a time are kept here.

The chilly temperature mimics winter, keeping them dormant until the time comes to put them in the ground.

RICHARD: They end up all over.

They end up on strip mines.

They end up in people's yards.

People plant 'em for aesthetics.

They plant 'em for wildlife.

They plant 'em for windbreak.

They plant 'em just because they like to plant trees.

NARRATOR: Wherever they end up, they'll make the world a little greener.

RICHARD: Best time to plant a tree was yesterday or today.

Twenty years ago was the best time to plant a tree, but you know, it is never too late to start.

(music fades out) ♪ ♪ Josh: Mrr.

NARRATOR: Josh Gilroy prowls the woods of Southern Maryland.

Just weeks before the start of bow hunting season... JOSH: Mark.

LOU: Good job.

NARRATOR: The high school sophomore is getting some tips from Lou Compton, a man who may know more than any other about bow hunting in Maryland.

LOU: Great food source for deer in early September when they first start dropping his beech nuts.

NARRATOR: A retired correctional officer and longtime leader of the Maryland Bowhunters Society, Lou has helped to transform the sport of archery in Maryland.

for ten years, he's been a traveling evangelist, planting archery programs in more than 200 schools.

LOU: I believe it was your dad who contacted me on the phone and came down for a visit here at the school and they were on fire for it.

JOSH: I was actually, the first one in the program and then the next year it got bigger and bigger.

NARRATOR: And that's where Josh's love of archery began: elementary school.

JOSH: It's really helped me here because I already know what to do, and that foundation really set me up.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: In Berkeley Springs, West Virginia competitors gather from far and wide for the International Bowhunting Organization's world championship.

Professionals and amateurs compete.

KIDS: Relax you have fun.

Including Josh's team.

MARK CRAWFORD: Go get your scorecard.

Did you bubble in?

NARRATOR: From Southern Maryland Christian Academy.

Lou helped create this team in 2015 as part of the National Archery in Schools program or NASP.

HANNAH: I'll shoot the deer.

NARRATOR: Now they compete in more than 30 tournaments a year.

Josh is an anchor on the team, but Hannah Crawford is the star.

HANNAH: I was one of the girls that read Hunger Games and thought archery was cool.

NARRATOR: Hannah may not have ambitions to hunt, but don't let her easy smile deceive you.

HANNAH: Sorry y'all.

NARRATOR: She's deadly with a bow.

HANNAH: We have gone from a very small team to a larger team that has taken us all the way here.

NARRATOR: Hannah's father, Mark Crawford, coaches and back at their home gym in Waldorf, her older sister's image hangs on the wall, the reigning state archery champion.

HANNAH: It's definitely, a lot of pressure because people are expecting the next Crawford sister.

MARK: Don't think about that last arrow.

NARRATOR: But Hannah's not the only one here feeling the pressure.

The state tournament is just two weeks away and this team is among the favorites.

MARK: The top finger has most of your pressure.

We keep saying that, right?

NARRATOR: NASP began in Kentucky in 2002.

A plan to standardize the rules and equipment...bows, arrows, targets, for school archery programs to create a level playing field that would grow the sport and the idea spread.

MARK: Nice smooth release.

Paint your face.

NARRATOR: Bringing in all sorts of kids that might never have picked up a bow.

CLAIRE ROBERTS: I didn't really start actually shooting until the beginning of seventh grade.

NARRATOR: Claire Roberts heads to archery practice at Franklin Middle School, just outside Baltimore.

JACKIE: Alright, so let's have some fun and let's get it done.

NARRATOR: Athletic director Jackie Gordon has always welcomed non-traditional sports at Franklin.

Dance, Yoga.

She across NASP at a development conference.

JACKIE: Lou was there with you know, some archery equipment and I was like, let's see who comes out.

I started teaching it in class.

That was scary.

I have 40 kids and what do they do?

But it really has become something that I love.

NARRATOR: Coaches couldn't convince ninth grader Sania to join the softball team... JACKIE: Right.

NARRATOR: ...but she's found a home here.

JACKIE: She's just got a calm and a focus that I wish all the rest of my kids would have.

Claire here is an eighth grader.

She loves doing individual things.

This is perfect for her.

We're the dragons.

Remember we got to fire it.

Archery is really just about one kid at a time, I feel like as a coach.

Good follow through, Avery.

It's really cool to find what makes that kid tick.

If you're going to states, Joel.

NARRATOR: Franklin is heading for the state tournament too, and Jackie's hoping that her young team can impress some of the traditional favorites.

JACKIE: Woo-hoo.

STUDENT: Killed it.

JACKIE: Killed it.

STUDENT: Gottem!

JACKIE: Good job.

NARRATOR: On a cool morning in Carroll County, the Shipley Arena comes to life.

Hundreds of kids arrive for the state archery tournament.

It's Lou's last year as the head of NASP in Maryland.

He's turning control of the program back to the State's Department of Natural Resources.

LOU: We started our first Maryland tournament back in 2013.

We had 115 students participate in that particular tournament.

Today, we're at 622 registered archers for the bullseye event and another 300 or so over on the 3D side.

MARK: What you see here is an extension of Lou Compton's like family.

JACKIE: He's the man.

He's the man.

NARRATOR: Every kid here will shoot 30 arrows over six turns on the main range.

Yellow bullseyes count for 10, making 300 a perfect score.

MARK: Before you get up there today, I want you to calm yourself.

NARRATOR: You'll need at least 280 points to reach the top 10 JACKIE: A little over.

That's it.

NARRATOR: And therein lies the magic.

JACKIE: That was a good shot.

NARRATOR: Any kid here could shoot the round of their lives and walk out a hero.

JACKIE: We need a camera crew on Avery all the time because he's never shot this good.

(laughs) Everyone say Franklin.

TEAM: Franklin.

NARRATOR: The youngsters from Franklin finished their rounds in the early afternoon.

Solid performances from Sania and Claire, plus, a personal best from Avery have coach Jackie bullish about the future.

JACKIE: And you better be showing up to practices and continue working because you're just going to get better and more focused.

LOU: Am I happy that we're making other archers and possibly bow hunters?

Of course, I'm happy about that, but I'm even happier that these same kids are less likely to drop out of school.

We've got youngsters that compete here with all manner of disabilities.

They're part of that school family.

They're embraced.

What do you think that does for their feelings?

So yeah, I get a little choked up when I talk about those kids.

NARRATOR: And in the final round of the day, SMCA squares off against rival Holly Manor.

A state title on the line.

♪ ♪ MARK: Give me a fist bump.

Good job.

KID: Alright.

MARK: Alright, go.

(applause) HANNAH: I actually, told my coaches and my family to not tell me what the highest score was, so that I wouldn't freak myself out.

And I just try to shoot my best.

SPEAKER: With a score of 292 Hannah Crawford.

(cheers and applause) NARRATOR: With the best score of the day, male or female... SPEAKER: Let's have a big round of applause for Hannah.

NARRATOR: Hannah Crawford punches her ticket to the national tournament.

SPEAKER: With a score of 3,255.

NARRATOR: Josh helped lift team SMCA to a third place finish.

SPEAKER: Let's get a big round of applause for Mr. Lou Compton.

NARRATOR: And a community says an emotional goodbye... LOU: What a ride.

NARRATOR: To the man who brought most of them here.

LOU: God bless each and every one of you.

I love you to death, you're my extended family.

Like that.

NARRATOR: In Lou's final year, more than 15,000 Maryland kids have participated in the program and it's tough to say goodbye.

LOU: Used to do a lot of squirrel hunting in them days.

Squirrel hunting was a lot of fun.

NARRATOR: But hunting season starts soon and the woods still call.

SPEAKER 17: I got to go scout out that soybean field I was telling you about.

Whoo!

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: To stream episodes of Outdoors Maryland , visit mpt.org and don't forget to follow us on social media.

(owl hoots) Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural resources @dnr.maryland.gov, or download the official mobile app.

♪ ♪