LightHawk: Destination Conservation airs 10/18 at 9pm on New Hampshire PBS

(Durham, N.H., October 16, 2018) Volunteers make conservation possible. In this latest New Hampshire PBS production, LIGHTHAWK: DESTINATION CONSERVATION, host Willem Lange meets a group of pilots who volunteer their planes, fuel and time on conservation projects across North America.

 Flights are often made to search for wildlife in remote areas that volunteers cannot reach on the ground. The NHPBS production team follows LightHawk pilots on missions in northern New Hampshire, California and Mexico.

 In northern New Hampshire, Audubon biologists bushwhack through boreal forests to try and solve the mystery of why rusty blackbirds are dying.  LightHawk pilots take to the skies to locate birds that have flown off the radar.

 In California's Pinnacles National Park, LightHawk volunteer pilot Bill Rush helps monitor the health of the endangered California condor population. "Being a volunteer pilot for LightHawk gives me a an opportunity to learn a lot about conservation from some of the world's leading expert scientists," says Bill Rush.

 And in northern Mexico, our cameras fly along with LightHawk pilots to get a birds-eye view of a river delta that's gone dry. We tell the story of how volunteers work to restore water to the Colorado River Delta where once a thriving ecosystem is now a desert.

 "One thing that's great about working in conservation is seeing people coming together around a common cause with their own skill set and take on something that seems insurmountable for one individual to achieve," says Esther Duke the Western program director for LightHawk.

 LightHawk, a national non-profit with more than 250 volunteer pilots works hand-in-hand with other volunteers and scientists in a team approach to conservation.

 LIGHTHAWK: DESTINATION CONSERVATION premieres Thursday, October 18 at 9pm on nhpbs.org/lighthawk.

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