Long Haul Productions: Heartland Chronicles Series

Oh, Coqui! (2007)

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The coqui is the national symbol of Puerto Rico: a tiny, but vociferous tree frog that's a beloved part of the Puerto Rican soundscape, lulling residents to sleep every night with the male's lusty “croak.” But it’s a different story on the Big Island of Hawaii. Coquis showed up on the island as stowaways a few years back, and because the frog has no natural predator there, they’re proliferating like a "plague of locusts" – competing with native birds and animals for food, and leaving many angry Hawaiians sleepless in paradise. In the face of sharply declining frog populations worldwide, Long Haul talked with residents in the only place in the world that's organizing to kill as many frogs as it possibly can. (Special thanks to Hilo band Dr. Jerky and Mr. Huge for Bad Vacation, their coqui-inspired song.) This story originally aired in the Stories from the Heart of the Land series.

Buffalo Commons (2007)

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Twenty years ago, academics Frank and Deborah Popper wrote what they thought would be a little-noticed, four page article subtitled A Daring Proposal for Dealing with an Inevitable Disaster, which argued that current agricultural use of much of the Great Plains is simply not sustainable. They advocated for a "Buffalo Commons," a return of large tracts of land back to native species, including buffalo, and a revisioned economy that encouraged ecotourism. To the Poppers’ surprise, their conclusions ignited a firestorm among residents, who labelled the Poppers as East Coast heretics. But over the past two decades, the couple's predictions have seemed more and more prophetic. Plains states have suffered dramatic population loss, and families have sold or even abandoned farms and cattle ranches through the region. The situation is particularly difficult in northeastern Montana, where Long Haul spoke with lifelong residents about a current plan very similar in spirit to the one the Poppers proposed in 1987. There, outsiders are purchasing large tracts of land with plans to reintroduce thousands of bison and other native species, restoring a pre-settlement landscape. Most residents don’t welcome the change – and those that embrace it, like South Dakotan Sam Hurst, are being forced to sell before their buffalo dreams can become reality. This story originally aired in the Stories from the Heart of the Land series.

The Sad Decline of the Passenger Pigeon (2007)

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At one time, it was believed there were as many as five billion passenger pigeons in eastern North America. By the mid nineteenth century, their numbers began to decline sharply – killed by sportsman, commercial hunters and by farmers angry as the birds began raiding farm fields as forests disappeared to logging. Jon Wuepper, a naturalist and historian, documented the decline of the pigeon in southwest Michigan by scouring sixty-plus years of newspaper articles, beginning in the late 1830’s. He traced the decline through 1894, when the last bird was killed in the area. Wuepper tells the story.

Walking With My Father (2007)

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Charlie Rizzo’s dad died about twenty-five years ago, but he remains a constant presence in Charlie’s life. As a very young boy, Charlie’s mother and father split up, and Charlie’s mom took him to Los Angeles, leaving his father, Matt Rizzo, who was blind, back in Chicago. For awhile, Charlie wasn’t even sure he had a father. But one day, Matt and his driver showed up in California and took Charlie for a ride ... all the way back to Chicago. Matt's "kidnapping" of Charlie sparked a custody battle, and ultimately the judge allowed Matt to visit his son regularly as long as they stayed in the state of California. This was the beginning of Charlie's lifelong friendship with his father – and of a dream that started with Matt, and is now carried on by Charlie. Extra: read Matt Rizzo's essay Now Is the Time, written at the height of the Cold War.

Canary Song Trials (2007)
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Back in 1934, a group of eight women in Milton, Massachussetts gathered with a goal: to create an uniquely tuneful pet canary for American homes. The result of their breeding experiments was the American Singer Canary, specially-built to produce the sweetest song imaginable. Today, there are 41 chapters of the American Singer club throughout the United States and Canada, many of which hold “song trials” to determine the breed’s best avian soloists. One of the biggest competitions takes place each year in Livonia, Michigan, just outside Detroit. We present a short portrait of the recent song trials, as hundreds of green, yellow and variegated canaries assembled in identical cages in a church gymnasium, waiting for their turn to battle it out.

Waterman (2007)
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Eastern Montana is a land of extremes. The mercury can swing from 50 degrees below zero in the winter to over 100 in the summer. A recent drought has made life even harder on people relying on water for their livelihood – and on people like Roger Muggli, who runs the Tongue and Yellowstone Irrigation District near Miles City, Montana. Muggli's job, in part, is to determine how much water will be diverted out of the Tongue River into a separate canal which farmers, ranchers and homeowners use to irrigate their land. Roger is the third generation Muggli to run the irrigation district. His grandfather took over managing the T & Y district in 1934 – but neither his grandfather nor his father faced the kind of challenges Roger is forced to confront.

Hospice Chronicles (2006)
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It's been forty years since St. Christopher's Hospice – the first modern hospice – opened in a suburb of London. Since then, millions of people around the world have chosen hospice at the end of their lives, with many patients choosing to receive care in their homes.

Over the course of eight months, team Long Haul followed two hospice volunteers through their training and first assignments in patients' homes. Trained to provide "respite care," the volunteers set out to give family members a break from their caretaking responsibilities. And while one has a chance to reflect on her patient's life in a intimate setting, another gets to explore death in a rather unexpected way – a way that training never could have prepared him for.

Birdathon! (2006)

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Every spring since 1989, bird lovers in Berrien County, Michigan (directly across the lake from Chicago), have taken part in a grueling competition to see which team can track down the largest number of species within a nineteen-hour time span. Teams kick off at midnight and go all out until 7 p.m.; they need only stay within the county limits. And because the event is held at the height of spring migration, there are literally hundreds of different birds to tally on the official checklist.

Team Long Haul followed two of the 24 teams who took part in the 2006 event. One team – the Newsworthy Naturalists – was made up veteran birders who won the previous year's Birdathon. The other – Hairy, Two Downies and a Red Head – included younger, less experienced members. The results are definitely not for the birds.

Poet Laureate (2006)

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Read Rick Tuttle's Flag Day poem.

Throughout America, a growing number of communities have selected their own poet laureate. Among the smallest is Three Oaks, Michigan – population 1,800 – located just across the lake from Chicago. Like countless other rural towns, Three Oaks' economy was decimated by farm consolidation and factory shutdowns, but an influx of artists and creative folks has given it new life, and the newcomers are fostering an unlikely, and sometimes cantankerous, rebirth. Long Haul discusses Three Oaks' reinassance with new residents who "came to make something here," and long-time locals who are coming to terms with the changing reality of their hometown.

LaPorte, Indiana (2006)

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For more than 25 years, Frank Pease was the primary portrait photographer in LaPorte, Indiana - a town of about 20,000 just south of Lake Michigan. Starting in the mid-1940's, Pease took tens of thousands of black and white photos at his Muralcraft Studio: engagement photos, baby pictures, family portraits of the people of LaPorte. Pease kept thousands of uncollected proofs in boxes, and when he died in 1970, they were left to collect dust, until the new owner of the restaurant downstairs purchased the building. Jason Bitner, co-founder of Found Magazine, happened across the photos at B & J's American Cafe; he compiled some of his favorites into a book, titled LaPorte, Indiana.