♪ The biggest difference between the prairies today and the prairies, let's say, 150 or 200 years ago is the absence of big herds of large mammals, predators and migratory birds.

Large indigenous grazers, things like bison, have been replaced by domestic species, cattle for the most part.

♪ (CHEEPING UMA THURMAN: For wild animals to return, they need substantial areas of land.

The best available science says that a fully functioning prairie ecosystem needs to be about 3.2 million acres.

That's 5,000 square miles.

UMA: And that's just how much land a project called American Prairie intends to rewild.

DANIEL: That's Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, and then eventually we hope to create this kind of comparable large protected area for wildlife right in the middle of the state here.

UMA: Much of the land has been owned by ranching families for generations, and many have made their feelings clear about rewilding.

There is a fear that native animals, especially predators, will have an impact on their livelihoods.

DANIEL: We know our neighbors are always going to be ranchers no matter what this looks like.

So how do you extend the effects of a wildlife refuge by increasing wildlife tolerance on the other side of the fence?

UMA: Success is only guaranteed if everyone works together.

Brother and sister Grant and Glenna Finkbeiner help run the family's livestock operation in central Montana.

GLENNA: Well... We ranch.

We got a lot of different enterprises, though.

GRANT: We're fifth-generation ranchers now.

Pretty much in this area since the late 1800s.

We still have large herds of elk.

You know, it's not crazy to see a thousand head of elk coming out of the trees.

GLENNA: Predators as well.

Had a lion come through, and it killed 20 ewes.

Considering that year the ewes were averaging in the market $230 apiece... ..it adds up pretty quick, the economic loss.

GRANT: Many ranchers around here still kill a lot of predators.

If they saw a wolf, they'd shoot it immediately.

I feel as though getting rid of all the predators kind of upsets the ecological balance.

UMA: To improve carnivore numbers, American Prairie has a plan to incentivize ranchers to see them in a different way.

GRANT: These cameras are owned by the American Prairie, and they use them to see and manage how much wildlife is in an area.

UMA: Camera traps are set... ..and every picture taken of a contentious species earns the landowner money.

It helps compensate for any financial impact the wildlife might cause.

Over 60 sites have been photographed so far... ..capturing over 30,000 images... ..including the rarest predators.

Ventures like this improve relations with nature... ..which is doing better as the project grows.

But persecution has driven some species to extinction in Montana.

With a little help, even those lost can be returned.

DANIEL: The reason we're working where we are is because the habitat is intact enough that what you can do is just add animals back into it.

UMA: The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is home to the Aaniiih and Nakoda people.

Over 650,000 acres of intact prairie and the site of an incredible reintroduction program.

DANIEL: Why Fort Belknap?

Because it's an Indian reservation, it is a sovereign nation, so they are able to make essentially unilateral decisions about how much or how little wildlife will be in their lands without the need to get approval from the state wildlife agency or the federal wildlife agency.

UMA: Scientists are joining students from the reservation's college to reintroduce a small but vital predator back into the ecosystem.

Thank you guys for being here.

Tonight we are going to release two foxes that have been brought up from Colorado.

UMA: Student Ethan Werk is part of the swift fox reintroduction team.

ETHAN: The work is tough, it's hard, but being able to see the foxes on the landscape is rewarding in itself.

They eat small rodents and prairie dogs and insects, so they're kind of like a pest control.

DANA: Swift foxes are so fascinating.

They're very, very small, about the size of a house cat.

And what's so special about them is that you can only find them in these large tracts of intact shortgrass prairie ecosystems.

So the foxes that we have in the pen here with us today, they've been fitted with a GPS collar and were placed into an acclimation pen for five days.

And now we will release them to find a new home on Fort Belknap.

♪ DANIEL: There it is.

ETHAN: There he goes.

(LAUGHS) (THEY LAUGH) Oh!

Godspeed, little buddy.

ETHAN: Look the other way.

You're free now.

I'm gonna call this fox North cos he has no sense of direction.

His first steps into his new home.

He's hunting.

We're gonna watch him catch one.

He got it!

He missed.

That was BLEEP cool.

I hope that guy caught that on camera.

These animals, they have a place here, too, just like anybody else.

Their land was taken, most of their habitat was taken, so having a place to go is crucial for them.

And being able on the reservation here to provide that is pretty great.

UMA: And it's not only the native animals that benefit from this project.

Thriving prairies can help us to draw down and store staggering amounts of carbon.

DANIEL: I think we're so close.

It seems so very doable to be able to rewild this place and bring it back so all of us can enjoy that wild North America that came so close to being lost forever.

I think I will see this place in a wild state before I retire, let alone before I die.

This is not something that takes 100 years.

You could do this in 40 years and have this place be wild again.

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