[Bell]
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Coming up in Wisconsin, the dance of the Whirping
Crane returns to our state.
A Milwaukee gardener uses live fish to help
grow a bumper crop and...
[Bell]
...sounding a call for help to properly honor veterans.
It's all ahead in Wisconsin.
Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
Each week we bring you stories from around the
state, the people, places, and issues that make life
in Wisconsin so interesting.
Earlier this week we celebrated Veterans Day, a time to
remember those who served our country in the military.
Our first story deals with an increasingly common
problem, families of veterans face when trying
to honor their loved ones.
And he's so through reports.
Ready, and...
He was actually surreal.
"See? Part."
Because you see it so much in movies, it's really different
when it's someone that you love.
When Dan Joe's father, Shuck Joe, died this fall, his
family knew he would want military honors at his funeral.
No, we were surprised that he had said that he did not want
to be buried in his uniform.
He said there had been long enough time and that he
didn't want it.
But the thing about having the honors of
honor guard and everything, that he still wanted that.
All Wisconsin veterans are entitled to a burial with
military funeral honors through a program run by the State
Department of Veterans Affairs.
The department coordinates honor teams made up of their
employees, volunteers from veterans organizations,
and military personnel.
The teams can fire rifle volleys, play
taps, and present flags.
This flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation as a token
of our appreciation for the honorable and faithful service
rendered by your loved one.
He gave so much for his country and his career
that he deserved this.
The fact that he was finally getting it, it
was really powerful.
He was probably looking down and saying, "Yeah,
this is a good way to go."
"Poder, come."
He was very crisp.
"Way, detail.
Post." For them to come and show that
much respect and precision.
"Powered, march."
For somebody that they didn't even know,
that was really moving.
We do hundreds and thousands of services, but for each
veteran's family that's their first service.
That's the first time that veterans getting military
honors. And from our perspective, the next service
that we're going to do is going to be our best service.
Wisconsin's veterans are dying at an estimated rate of
250 a week, so the need to perform this service is great.
One particular challenge is a shortage of buglers.
Most often, taps is played as a recording,
as it was for Chuck Joe.
At first I thought, "Oh, jeez."
But then, you know, I realized that with all the other
things that the military did, if they could have had a
live bugler they would have.
Dan Erickson wants to see more live buglers play at
veteran's services.
He's the state coordinator for a
volunteer recruitment effort called Bugles across America.
We don't have three vies recorded.
We've got guys out there with,
you know, firing rifles.
And we don't give them a picture of a flag or a poster.
We give them a flag.
You know, let's get a live bugler out there.
One response by the military has been to help create a
digital bugle.
It fits in the bell of a bugle and
plays an electronic version.
It just doesn't replace a live player.
And as if their challenge isn't great enough, it doesn't help
that bugles haven't been made in this country since the 1950s.
I thought, you know, how neat would it be to get an
American-made horn by an, you know, to honor Americans with?
That idea sent Erickson to the Getson Company in Elkorn.
Well, my dad had passed away in February and he was a World
War II vet.
And we were lucky enough to have one of my friends
who happens to work here as a trumpet player and was able
to play taps at his funeral.
So it meant a lot to me that my dad had taps.
I know other families who would
be important to them too.
It might be good business to add bugles to the Getson
line of trumpets, trombones, and fluegal horns, given
the growing numbers of buglers across America and
the need for military honors.
But it's also clear that what motivates those who truly want
to honor deceased veterans is a deep sense of duty.
My dad grew up in the industry in Soderlei.
It's very touching to know that, you
know, those horns have my name on it and we build them here.
It's the trumpeter's solemn musical duty.
There's just no other instrument that
can perform these services.
When I heard taps, I knew it was going to be really
emotional for me because I think it's like the military's
version of the band addiction.
You know, it's very final and it's very solemn
and very respectful.
Out of everything that the military did for us that
day, the playing of taps was the most moving for
me and the most important.
[Bell]
Still to come in Wisconsin.
A stouten woman uses her hobby to
face the elements and her fears.
That story's ahead in Wisconsin.
The chill of winter is in the air and for most of us, the
gardening season is over.
But for one Milwaukee man, growing
crops is a year round endeavor.
Will Allen runs a hydroponic operation, a very different
lifestyle than the days when he played professional
basketball in the NBA.
But there is life after professional sports and in
Allen's case, it's not just the plants, but a group
of young people who are thriving under his care.
From the outside, this North Milwaukee business looks like
just a roadside produce stand.
But dig a little deeper and you'll see there's a lot more
going on beneath the surface.
[Music]
Depending on the time of day, you might find the
owner, Will Allen, in one of the greenhouses out back.
He gets up early to tend his field crops.
Then comes into the greenhouse to
tend his almost invisible livestock.
They're worms.
That's kind of my thing, the worms, you know, because
they're so important.
Allen is passionate about raising worms because
they turn food scraps into high quality organic
fertilizer for his plants.
Every month, Allen's worms produce 14,000
pounds of fertilizer.
But those are real healthy, looking as eyes are some of us.
The greenhouses behind the produce stand hold another
one of Allen's passions, an aquaponics demonstration
system that Allen designed.
Aquaponics is basically a way to grow plants in water.
Plants grow faster in water, because the nutrients
are available.
Whereas in soil, the roots have to
search for the nutrients.
So you cut growing time way down.
The way the aquaponics system works is surprisingly
simple. At the head end is a large tank of tilapia fish.
The fish excrete ammonia, which flows through
a bed of water plants.
The water plants convert the ammonia into nitrogen,
which flows through a bed of potted food plants.
The food plants use this nitrogen for nutrition.
The water is cleansed by the plants and cycles around back to
the fish tank at the head end.
"It is a great taste of strawberries, but
these are really good."
Allen is excited about aquaponics because he
says it's a good way to grow food in urban areas.
The soil in city plots may be contaminated, so growing
plants in water may produce food that's safer to eat.
Another plus to Allen's design is the use of
vertical growing space.
An efficiency that pays off in the city where land values
are often through the roof.
We're using vertical growing space.
Whereas in you go into most greenhouses everything
is grown on one plane.
Whereas we're using the vertical space so you can
take 3000 square feet and theoretically turn into
9000 square feet of growing.
And that's very important inside cities where
you have limited space.
So this is a demonstration.
This is actually the simplest system
that you could possibly have because you've got one pump.
You've got one tank and all these materials can be bought
at your local hardware store.
In addition to his own agricultural interest, Allen
is co-director of a national nonprofit called Growing Power.
Allen and the Growing Power staff design programs and
activities to help people grow and purchase fresh produce.
One of these programs at Growing Power is open to kids only.
It's a summer internship where urban youth can really dig in.
We learn a lot about animals.
We learn a lot about plants, especially plants.
We learn how to use worms to compost soil.
We learn how plant things even better.
I kind of look at the food system as this big puzzle with
all these different pieces which involve working with
youth and getting young people to understand where the food
comes from, how it's produced.
The kinds of food that is healthy for them to eat.
All the benefits around growing food, which a lot
of young people, even adults don't understand today.
Make sure it's standing straight up.
Pick that pepper off.
You guys can eat that pepper.
Allen's first career was in Pro Basketball.
Now he uses sports psychology on his kids.
You guys know I come from a sports background so teamwork
is really important.
And I'm starting to see you
guys start to gel and work together and that's a really
wonderful thing to see.
And today we're going to work as a team.
We're going to plant a lot of those plants
that we have out back for the aquaponic system.
So it's going to be kind of fun.
Make sure you put it in the center.
If you got some lower leaves, they're a little
shabby. Take those off.
Kids are the voices of the community.
They're the ones that are going to make the change
in the community.
And if you can get kids to become stronger
leaders in the community, they're going to do it.
And a little bit more soil.
Bring it up.
A little bit more.
There you go.
Now you got it.
Great job.
We need to make more things.
Here as you finish, put them in the greenhouse.
Good job.
You guys are doing a good job.
A lot of times we look at these kids and say, "Oh, there are
problems. I don't want to deal with kids or whatever."
If you give them responsibility, and that's one of the
things that we do here is that our kids run our store.
If you come in here and they run our market, that's part
of their responsibility.
That's very important.
To give them that kind of
responsibility of taking care of the cash, or taking care
of the customers, giving the good customer service,
greeting people properly, saying thank you to the
customers, you know, that old.
In a lot of ways, what we're doing here is we're kind
of turning back to clock the way things used to be.
Ellen's idea is about responsibility, seemed
to be paying off.
He helped me a lot, and he'd take time out and help me
do stuff that I need to do.
God, why don't you take a couple people and start
bringing some plants up?
They want to come back.
That's the big thing.
Some of these kids, this is the third year.
They don't have to come back.
They could go out and get a...
They could go to McDonald's.
But this is about a long term piece.
We're giving you something that you can
use the rest of your life.
All these experiences, all these contacts, all the
variety of different people that come into this place,
that they can rub elbows with, develop relationships,
and last a lifetime.
That is the value of what we're giving them.
I sent you to the man I was trying to tell you
to be.
Because I come from the land of liberty.
Ellen's energy seems endless.
His passions fuel a long list of activities, all designed
to grow fresh food and ultimately to benefit others.
But of all his projects, it's likely that his work
with kids will produce the most valuable crop of all.
I enjoy doing this.
This is my life.
What can I say?
Many people have passions in life.
Will Allen's is reflected in his garden.
The Stoten Woman in our next story has a
passion for dog sledding.
Candy Bradley took up dog sledding almost a decade
ago. And her pack of Alaskan Huskies has led her
through much more than snow.
The dogs have also helped guide Bradley through
a very personal pain.
It's fun.
And it's fun to watch more.
You watch to see that everyone has a tight
tug line so you know that they're not goofing off.
Good girls.
Slend dogs are neat because they're so happy.
Candy Bradley loves to take her dog sledding.
It's a passion that her husband Mike shares.
When they brought my dogs, I asked them to bring
a few more dogs so Mike could get a hook too.
Because it's always nice to have health and it's nothing better
than having your sweetheart.
Go dog sledding with you.
The Bradley's have 19 Alaskan Huskies.
They're a mixed breed so they don't all look the same.
They have different personalities too, but
they all enjoy attention.
"Gentress good puppies."
"Yeah, too.
Yeah, it's very good puppies."
"These are hooked to each other and then you attach
it to the tug line."
Snowfall comes too late in the season to get the dogs in
shape for racing.
So they take to the trails in the fall
with an ATV instead of a sled.
"Alright."
A few years ago was great snow and we had 10 miles of trails.
Last year there wasn't hardly any snow anywhere in Wisconsin.
The success of a team in a race depends on the
performance of the lead dogs.
"Gee." A good leader is essential.
But you also have to have a relationship with that leader
where they'll listen to you.
And Lepard does when she comes to an intersection.
You can visibly see her kind of perk up and you don't tell her
ahead of time which way to turn.
You wait until she's right at the turn and then you
just say "Gee, her hawk" and she knows which way to go.
Each pair of dogs in the line has a job to do, starting
with the leaders who not only have to know which way to
turn, but have to run fast enough to keep the line tight.
"Next dogs are called Point.
After the Point Dogs are called Team Dogs and
they help carry the sled.
And wheel dogs have the dogs in the back and they
have to get the sled around trees and other obstacles."
Candy bought her first dog team almost 10 years ago.
She enjoyed them for only a few months before receiving
devastating health news.
In October of 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"Bress cancer is not something that is cured.
It's something that can come back in 16 years, 20 years.
So it's kind of one of those things where you
could be waiting for the other shoe to drop."
The other shoe dropped only two years later.
The cancer came back in her lungs.
At that point, Dr.
said she had only two to three months to live.
"They did tell me that if it ever went to my lungs, I should
consider taking those trips I've always wanted to take."
There was a trip she had always wanted to take
but could never afford.
The I did erode dogs letting race in Alaska.
"I wasn't thinking that I'd ever be able to go so when
my friend called and said would you like to go to the
I did erode and like, yeah."
Her friends collected donations at the Java Junction in Stotin.
They raised enough money to send the Bradley's to Alaska
and they got her a ride with one of the professional
muskers before the race.
And the ride was awesome.
Just to see how a real I did erode team ran was great.
It was great.
Since her trip to the I did erode, Candy has continued to
pursue her love of dogs letting.
Her two to three month prognosis has stretched
to almost nine years.
And even though a few years ago the cancer recurred
in her bones and in her brain, she remains positive.
She says her attitude comes from spending time with her dogs.
"It's a great motivator to get up and get out of bed.
I never think about if I'm hurting or
anything when I'm playing with the dogs I'm just having fun."
"They're never in a bad mood.
They're just sweet, lovable dogs that want to play."
"And I think she's pretty."
"Yeah, I think I'm pretty."
"And when you're around someone or something that's so happy,
can't help but rub off on you."
Since we taped that report last winter, Candy Bradley
continues to cope with the side effects of weekly chemotherapy,
but still keeps active caring for her dogs.
[Music]
November is often dreary and rainy and the last couple
of weeks have proven that this year has no exception.
The inclement weather is having an impact on whooping cranes
that are trying to migrate from Wisconsin to their winter
nesting grounds in Florida.
The cranes left Wisconsin last month and are
following an ultralight plane flown by volunteers,
but rain has delayed the cranes in Indiana, where they're
waiting out the poor weather.
We'll keep you updated on their journey, but for now, here's a
look back at the cranes enjoying warmer days near Excelsior.
[Music]
In a farmer's field, in southern Wisconsin on a day in June,
witness something remarkable.
[Music]
A return, the return of the whooping crane to Wisconsin.
The whooping crane is one of the rarest birds in
the world at one time, the numbered only 21
birds in the wilds.
[Music]
Today in this field, that's six birds out of the only
36 or so that migrate in and out of the state,
but call Wisconsin home.
Worldwide, the bird's numbers are small.
There are only 400, including those in zoos,
free-flying whooping cranes, number less than 200.
[Music]
The birds themselves are massive.
They are definitely not sparrow-sized.
The whooping crane stands up to about five feet tall.
It has snow-white feathers and black primary wingtips,
and it has a black triangular mask across its space and a
red patch on top of its head.
They are distinctive, hard to miss, trucking
across the landscape, but not so easy to find.
It's a typical migration day.
They can fly up to about 200 miles a day,
but it can depend on what kind of tailwind they have,
what kind of thermal activity they have to soar on.
This is Alfando, Spencer Days, tracking the whoopers as
they fly through the skies, and noting their social
behavior on the ground.
Take the subject of the bird's dancing, the meaning of which
may be much more than social.
They dance when they're nervous, too.
Dance can mean several different things.
It can dance to be aggressive or dance to relieve stress
and things like that, so it's just dependent
on the context.
The context here may be one of territory.
The whoopers cite arrival, a pair of sandhill cranes, and
then react to the intrusion.
[Music]
And dance at the conclusion.
[Music]
Fundos Fieldwork is part of a reintroduction project that
has been years in the making and will last many more.
The project includes a flock of state and federal
agencies, one of Fundos collaborators, Miley Mel, of
the Nisita Wildlife Refuge.
Our long-term goal is to have 125 birds migrating between
Nisita National Wildlife Refuge and Chazawitzka
National Wildlife Refuge.
A flock of about 125 again, with 25 breeding pairs.
Of course, we'd be happier with more than that.
We'll be monitoring this for at least another 10 years.
In danger to nogged, the cranes may be forced to confront
civilization during the long migration from here to Florida,
or in this day's pursuit of bugs in a farmer's cloud fields.
But the researchers ask, "If you see them, stay a
distance away.
Keep them wide."
[Music]
And enjoy their remarkable return.
I'm Gibson Birds.
I hope you're not be excited to see this creature
that we thought we were going to lose altogether.
And now it's back and so far so good, we hope it will thrive.
We're watching history and the making, and we're part
of something that's going to have a planetary impact.
I mean, it's reintroducing and trying to save the
species for the world.
[Music]
Before we leave you tonight, a correction on
a story we ran last week.
The name of the Marquette University archaeologist we
told you about is actually Dr.
David Overstreet.
We regret the error.
And an update on another story we brought you a few weeks ago.
The shoreline residents of Shell Lake are trying
to keep rising waters from flooding their homes.
The city of Shell Lake has constructed a pipeline
to divert the lake water to the Yellow River.
This morning at 8 a.m., Mayor Larry Fletcher
opened a valve and sent water through the new pipe.
The lake level is on its way down.
Unlike the first attempt we told you about, this new pipe,
so far at least, doesn't leak.
Thanks for joining us.
Here's one more look at the whooping cranes as they
practiced following the ultra-light plane last month.
For In Wisconsin, I'm Patty Low.
Good night.
[Music]