Exploring North Carolina Returns!
UNC-TV Airs New Season of Series Highlighting NC's Natural Resources

Last year the Museum of Natural Sciences and conservationists Tom Earnhardt and Joe Albea conceived a way to afford the entire state the educational resources offered at the museum-they produced a television series that highlighted the state's natural treasures. The seven episodes of the first season, produced and financed by Earnhardt and Albea through their company, Natural World Productions, LLC, were so popular and so demanded among science teachers that the General Assembly granted state funding to help continue the series. At 8 PM on Thursday, January 5, 2006, UNC-TV's Exploring North Carolina returns for its second season.

The season begins with a profile of T. Gilbert Pearson, father of the modern Audubon Society, and Herbert and Clement Brimley, authors of the first major bird guide in the southern states. Entitled "For the Birds," the first episode explores how these three naturalists introduced conservation laws and created new ways of drawing the public in to the concept of wildlife preservation. The show is richly illustrated with footage of many of North Carolina's most colorful and unique birds.

The eight-episode season airs on Thursdays in January at 8 and 8:30 PM. In February the series airs each Thursday at 8 PM, repeating on Fridays at 9:30 PM. Topics this year include the factors influencing North Carolina's climate and ecological diversity, giant fauna that shared the land with the state's earliest humans, natural resources utilized by Native Americans before the arrival of the first European settlers, North Carolina's natural symbols and gorges, the ecological diversity of the Pamlico Sound and North Carolina's well-documented clay soil.

Following is this season's schedule:

Thursday, January 5:

• Episode 201 - For the Birds (8 PM)
• Episode 202 - Natural Boundary (8:30 PM)

Thursday, January 12:

• Episode 203 - Man and Mammoth in the Carolinas (8 PM)
• Episode 204 - 10,000 Years Before Contact (8:30 PM)

Thursday, January 19:

• Episode 205 - Natural Symbols of the State (8 PM)
• Episode 206 - Works in Progress (8:30 PM)

Thursday, January 26:

• Episode 207 - North Carolina's Other Ocean (8 PM)
• Episode 208 - Stuck in Clay (8:30 PM)

Earnhardt, who writes and narrates each episode, co-produces the series with Carolina Outdoor Journal's Joe Albea (cinematographer). Each episode is filmed and broadcast in high definition.

UNC-TV is North Carolina's only statewide broadcasting system, made possible through a unique partnership of public investment and private support. UNC-TV's commitment to producing and broadcasting local and national programs about our state resources make it one of the state's most important sources of information. For more information about UNC-TV and its programs, please visit www.unctv.org.

-UNC-TV-