We are beyond excited to announce our next Songscape! We've partnered again with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, this time at a National Wildlife Refuge in Utah! Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is an 80,000+ acre oasis for birds migrating across the continent. It's a beautiful series of wetlands on the northern shores of the Great Salt Lake. While it does contain lots of wildlife, such as mule deer, the primary stars of the show are the birds. Millions of birds migrate in and out every year.

Luckily, we've found someone who has a history of featuring birds in his music! Conner Youngblood, a Dallas-born, Nashville-based, Yale-educated indie rocker, will be headed out to the refuge on October 14th. We first came across Youngblood through his Badlands music video, featuring him skateboarding alongside Badlands National Park. Clearly, this partnership was a match made in heaven- "I've dreamt of going bird watching for years now and have even written songs about the migration of shovelers [a duck species]. America’s public lands offer endless possibilities of inspiration and Bear River seems to be the perfect place to explore.”

Conner Youngblood is an accomplished musician, able to play over 30 instruments! He's collaborated with legendary bands, like Linkin Park, and in 2016, released his sophmore EP, The Generation of Lift, which now has over 5.5 million streams on Spotify. We're excited to see how this talented musician turns the inspiration of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge into a song.

The music video will be shot by Holler Films, the same company that produced our latest Songscape music video for Great Mountain Forest with Jake Klar.

To add a cherry a top this sundae of music/public land greatness, the story will be featured in an early 2018 issue of Southwest: The Magazine, the in-flight publication of Southwest Airlines. That's 5.5 MILLION readers that will hear about the beauty and value of Bear River, Youngblood's talent, and Sustain's vision for a music industry with greater role in promoting environmental responsibility and awareness.

And, because we're a nonprofit, we haven't quite yet scrapped the money together to make sure the video gets produced. We're working on securing corporate sponsorships and we're also launching a crowdfunder. Please consider donating to Sustain Music and Nature, because we need your support in order to make this exciting project happen! Donation options HERE. Crowdfunder HERE.

Check out our project webpage to learn more about Songscape: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.