2026 Conserve Sauk Film Festival

Wildlife protection starts with movement and habitat

In The Detectorists, wildlife ecologist Lee Jenkins searches for otters in rural Wales with two German Pointers: Neo and Cariad, a dog still in training. Their scent-detection work helps guide camera-trap placement, a practical way to gather evidence about animals the film listing describes as endangered. Sarah-Jane Walsh produced the film.

Risky Routes shifts from monitoring wildlife to the hazards it encounters. It follows toads in Switzerland as they migrate each spring toward the waters where they reproduce, crossing roads and other obstacles. In A Home in the Grass, bird conservationist Carly Davenport has kept her land as habitat for grassland birds, including the Bobolink. The film sets her decision against a reported loss of three billion birds in North America since 1970. Roman Willi and Ryan Ward produced these films, respectively.

Together, the three titles offer different ways to think about species protection: gathering information, reducing dangers along migration routes and preserving places where wildlife can live. Those distinctions make this a useful part of the lineup for viewers interested in the practical work behind conservation.

Further reading: 2026 Films | Mysite ↗

Farming is part of the watershed story

White River: Farming With Nature looks at The Nature Conservancy’s work with farmers in Indiana’s White River watershed. The practices shown are intended to improve water quality and biodiversity while supporting the sustainability and resilience of farms. The film also gives the river system a specific scale: it is Indiana’s second largest and the only watershed entirely within the state.

Seeds of Change takes food-growing into a very different setting. Filmed over two years, it follows lifelong farmer Mark McBrine and incarcerated men working in a five-acre prison garden. The film considers organic agriculture as a way to rethink food systems and connects growing food with wellness and dignity; Maximilian Armstrong is its producer.

Roots of Conservation widens the focus from one watershed and one garden to the Mississippi River Basin. Its stories concern efforts to protect water quality and soil health with solutions that can make economic sense for communities. The Walton Family Foundation produced the film. Seen together, these titles connect decisions about how food is grown with the condition of the land and water around it.

Further reading: 2026 Films | Mysite ↗

Environmental pressures—and people responding

Wood Pellet Wasteland examines environmental and human-health effects associated with industrial wood-pellet production. Its focus includes facilities established by Drax and Enviva in the southern United States and efforts to expand into California. The Rachel Carson Council is credited as producer, giving this group of films a distinct focus on the consequences of industrial activity.

Two other titles follow people responding to threats to rivers. The Conservation Kid tells the story of Chattanooga activist Cash Daniels, who began collecting fishing line and trash from the Tennessee River at age seven. The film connects his cleanup work with the Tennessee River Gorge Trust and wider community action; Zachary Green produced it.

In The Onny’s Story: A Fight for the Future, Finley Middleton follows opposition to a proposed pipeline diversion from a water-treatment center in Bishops Castle to the River Onny. The film includes people with different relationships to the river and their concerns about the plan. These river stories are not interchangeable: one centers on cleanup and organizing, the other on a proposed development and the people contesting it.

Further reading: 2026 Films | Mysite ↗

A local gathering around a wider set of stories

Most of the films look beyond Sauk County, but the organizers frame the festival as a way to consider the area’s own natural resources, conservation record and environmental challenges. Their description draws on Aldo Leopold, one of the conservation figures associated with Sauk County, and his idea of land as part of a community to which people belong. That local frame gives the varied films a shared point of discussion without suggesting that every story takes place nearby.

Further reading: 2026 Conserve Sauk Film Festival | Mysite ↗