American Prairie Reserve Announces the 'Ken Burns American Heritage' Prize

The documentary filmmaker is teaming up with the privately funded conservation group.

Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is joining forces with the American Prairie Reserve, a group with a plan to build the largest nature reserve in the continental United States through private funding. The Ken Burns American Heritage Prize will honor "artists, authors, conservationists, educators, filmmakers, historians and scientists whose body of work has advanced our collective understanding of the indomitable American spirit." The news comes just as PBS is set to re-air Burns' documentary series The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

Reason TV producer Zach Weissmueller recently travelled to Montana to talk with those behind the American Prairie Reserve and find out how their economic model is changing the normally tense relationship between ranchers and conservationists. You can watch the video, which was originally released on March 24 of this year, above.

For more on Ken Burns, watch Reason TV's in-depth interview with American's best-known documentarian below.