(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
Each week we bring you stories about the issues
and people in our state.
This week we explore one of Wisconsin's
most valuable assets, our natural resources.
Join this man on Lake Superior as he searches for clues
to an ecological mystery.
Imagine Wisconsin without its expansive forests.
They may have been lost forever if not for the work of
a few visionary people.
And is it possible to balance competing recreational,
environmental and commercial demands on our state forests?
It's a tricky and sometimes controversial job.
Stay with us for these stories plus a wintery walk through
a state natural area in Wisconsin.
- Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the
people of a lion's energy who bring safe, reliable and
environmentally friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods,
and life in Wisconsin running smoothly,
a lion's energy, offering energy saving ideas on the web.
- We begin this week with a quick quiz.
Can you guess how old are most of the mature trees
you see in Wisconsin?
Less than 125 years old?
Less than 150 years old?
Less than 200 years old?
Or less than 500 years old?
The answer, less than 125 years old?
Many Southern Wisconsin forests were cleared for agriculture
in the late 1800s, and forests in the north
were cleared for timber by the early 1900s.
The state forestry program was born out of a desire
to restore timber stands on that clear cut land.
And this year the program celebrates its
centennial birthday.
The producer Art Hackett reports from the birthplace
of Wisconsin's first forestry efforts,
the results of which still stand today.
- The view from Paul Brenner's kitchen window
outside Boulder Junction is of the Northern Highland
American Legion state forest, but Brenner has a
different word for it.
- It's a garden, it's a garden that takes 60 years or more
to get anything out of.
Brenner is an unofficial historian of Wisconsin's
state forests and its timber industry.
His living room shelves are filled with hundreds
of metal stamps logging companies used
to brand their timber.
Brenner started work with the state conservation commission
shortly after World War II.
At a time when forestry workers lived
in what was called the state house near Trout Lake.
- So I lived down there for 10 years in the bunkhouse
and eaten there and stuff like that.
And then, but the nice thing was that even though
I wasn't that interested in history at that time,
a lot of them old timers, they'd before the meal,
they had a big room just off of the mess hall
and they'd be talking about old times and stuff.
- Scattered pieces of Northern Timberland
were deeded to the state by logging companies
and other units of government beginning in 1907,
but it was hard to think of it as a forest.
- That's why a lot of the country looked like
after the logging was over and stuff
and especially it almost looks like it was after a fire
went through there because there isn't much rush
on the ground, there's treetops, but the branches are all gone.
- The state hoped to promote the area for farming.
That didn't pan out.
- But it just didn't work out up here
with the light soils and the short growing season.
It wasn't worth anything, there wasn't no timber left,
why not put it into forestry?
- Around 1910, the state made a deal to obtain
this property on trout lake from the Yawkebistle Lumber Company.
Today it's home to a DNR local forestry office
and some equipment to monitor air quality.
- They arranged with the Akebistle
to not cut the timber between the railroad grade
and the lake on lower trout.
The state paid for the timber, but it,
but it got the land, but they didn't do the cutting.
- On clear cut land near the trees, the state spared,
EM Griffith, the state's first forestry,
created a nursery to grow seedlings.
- They raised Norway pine and Jack Pine and White Pine
and some spruces and in this case you can see them
where they're actually spreading the seed
in each one of these fine rows.
And then later on, it would smooth the dirt over,
so the seeds were covered with dirt.
- Brenner says it takes four years for seedlings
to grow to six inches in height and be ready to harvest.
- But you had to shake off a lot of the dirt
when you picked them and what the crew was doing,
generally they just put them, they get bunches,
but they wouldn't bunch them up and tie them or nothing.
They just put bunches in these big wooden boxes
and then they were taken down to the packing shed.
Some of the young trees were sold to private individuals
to promote reforestation, the state planted
others on its own land.
And Griffith and his associates began an experiment
on a peninsula jutting into star lake.
They wanted to see if you could produce timber
on a continuous basis instead of cutting all of the trees
at one time.
- This was mostly Fred Wilson because he had gone to school,
I believe in Germany and saw that it had worked over there
and so it has worked, I mean as you can see,
I mean it's a beautiful country now.
- This is what Fred Wilson's experiment at star lake
looks like today.
Wilson wanted to demonstrate the benefits
of so-called sustainable yield forestry.
It's the technique used for timber management
in Wisconsin's state forests today.
Diny Leith is supervisor of the Northern Highland
American Legion state forest.
- This is, at least to me, this is like walking into church
because this is where forestry started
in the state of Wisconsin.
I'm told that some of the old lagers, et cetera,
used to talk about how you could stand on a high hill here
and you could see all the way from star lake to Woodrow
because so many of the big pine trees,
et cetera, were taken down at that time.
- When you walk through the forest at star lake,
you realize the trees have numbers.
We have an acre of thin trees here versus an acre
of unpin trees and we kept the records
and showed the value of pruning trees.
- Over time, the records have shown that by cutting
certain trees to increase the amount of sunlight
reaching the forest floor, you can spur the growth
of new trees.
Some of the trees planted in 1913 by Griffith and Wilson
were cut in 1943, more have been cut periodically since then.
In October, a forester had just marked some of the trees
for another thinning.
- He would walk around in here and determine
if you take out like this one with the sunlight
and get to these other ones better
and are these other ones a little bit straighter
would they have more room to put on some good growth,
et cetera.
The old trees which remain grow bigger and taller.
Over time, the volume of wood produced is the same
as if you clear cut the area and some trees are always standing.
- The volume of lumber that they may get in unpin plot here
is probably about the same as the thin plot,
but the trees over here are a lot more healthy and vigorous,
put on a lot more diameter.
Esthetically, I think, look nicer to them.
- Esthetics are important because Leet says
many value of the forests for camping and recreation
more than they do as a source of two by fours.
Paul Brunner says that's the way it always was.
Camping and recreation existed even before the timber companies
cut down all the trees.
- Even before they had built a lot of campgrounds,
people were coming up here camping.
It was the best place in the state to get away from crowds
and good fishing and still is good fishing.
In fact, it's getting better even yet.
(upbeat music)
- As we mentioned, the forestry program has been around
for 100 years in Wisconsin, and for almost all of that time,
there have been competing opinions on
how our forest should be used.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
Forestry Division, is responsible for ensuring
that the forest's economic, ecological,
and social benefits are balanced.
But as producer Liz Kurner reports,
at the end of the day, that doesn't mean
the DNR can satisfy everyone.
(water splashing)
The practice of forestry in Wisconsin began with an
all-out battle between foresters and fire.
100 years later, the Department of Natural Resources
is celebrating a centennial of forestry.
Paul DeLong is the state's chief forester.
- We've learned an incredible amount over the last 100 years,
over the last 50 years, even over the last 20 years
about forests and how they function.
And I'm sure we're gonna learn a whole lot more
in the next 50 to 100 years.
- One lesson learned over time is that forests provide
a broad range of benefits.
In 1996, the legislature turned this lesson into law
for all 10 state-owned forests.
The new law shifted the focus away from primarily timber
production toward a wide diversity of forest benefits.
- Then went on to define that as managing for the economic,
ecological and social benefits for present
and future generations.
- The benefits listed in the state forest management law
include biological diversity and aesthetics,
wood products and jobs, a place for recreation and hunting,
habitat for plants and animals, and a resource that helps
preserve air, soil, and water quality.
The challenge for the DNR is providing for these
sometimes competing forest benefits.
- There are a lot of motorized recreation lists,
snowmobiles, ATVs, the ladder of which is growing
dramatically in this state.
And so where do we allow for that type of recreation
to occur and do so in a way that doesn't create conflicts
with all of the siloed sports?
- To help answer that in other questions,
the DNR is developing a master plan for each
state-owned forest.
The Bruell River plan is the first to be completed,
along with creating an environmental impact statement
that planning process includes opportunities
for public input.
But in the Bruell River area, some residents felt
their input was ignored.
- We attended public meetings, we've attended hearings,
we wrote letters, we developed a plan of our own,
a plan for restoration, the historic Bruell.
We felt that there was very little consideration
given to our input.
- Input from Solens Group focused on the benefits
of forest restoration.
- And we feel that the forest was far too heavily logged
to protect this fragile watershed.
- One of the challenges we have, and we make a clear statement,
in fact, statute references, not all benefits
are provided in every location.
The DNR's master plan for the Bruell
included a mix of uses, including more logging
than the friends of the Bruell wanted.
After the Bruell master plan was published,
the friends of the Bruell filed a petition
for a judicial review.
The petition claimed, among other things,
that the DNR plan failed to comply
with the 1996 state law.
The law requires that the master plan
reflect the forest's unique character
and position in the landscape.
Unique characteristics like the headwaters
up both the Bruell and the St.
Croix rivers, home to a number of rare
and threatened species.
The negotiated settlement reached in February 2004,
did not reduce the amount of logging
in the Bruell River State Forest.
It did, among other things, mandate a highly detailed
process for timber sales and opportunities
for public comment.
The DNR is currently working on the master plan
for the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest.
Over two million people visit this forest every year.
It also provides more jobs in wood products
than any other state-owned forest.
Public input during the planning process
is sure to involve vigorous debate.
According to DeLong, even though it's
impossible for everyone to get everything they want,
public input is still important.
We all have a stake in this, and we all have something
to bring to the table to help address these issues.
It can't be the Department of Natural Resources alone.
It may seem like an obstacle course of competing goals
for state forest managers, economic,
ecological, and social.
But the Department of Natural Resources must map the way
both for forest users today and for those in the future.
And that's part of the centennial is to look back
and realize where we've come and express some
appreciation for those who did all that
hard work and toil, but also now to
look ahead and say, "So, how do we have
those folks 100 years "and now look back and
say, "Boy, second century, "a forestry in Wisconsin
has been great."
(applause)
According to Paul DeLong, the master plan
for the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest,
will be published sometime in the first half of 2005
for a public comment period.
You can find a link to the DNR Statewide Forest Plan,
as well as a link to the Friends of the Brueil
on our website at www.wrg-in-wisconsin.
We'll also bring you more forestry
related reports throughout this season of In Wisconsin.
(upbeat music)
? ?
Our next story takes us from the wooded expanses
of our state forest to a stretch of Wisconsin shoreline,
along Lake Superior.
Producer Joanne Garrett discovered that
environmental detectives descend every five
years upon the western coast of Lake Superior.
They're searching for clues, clues to help solve a
challenging ecological mystery.
(bell ringing)
I think, you know, it's only big probably a
couple hours, I think.
Two guys in a parking lot, just outside of Superior.
You can get fairly close to what we found at Task District.
What are they doing?
We'll just do what we did the last time, five years ago.
What did they do last time?
Five years ago.
(laughing)
Nothing on your side, eh?
So far, three.
What they did was come.
Another three.
Firths, put it this way.
Each number is a clue.
- A carrying goal, like.
- 325 mile long detective story.
Soft by surveillance, stakeouts, and good
old-fashioned legwork.
There's 34 ring-bill goals just barely over the ridge.
The team, the National Park Service,
the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,
the Bad River Indian Reservation,
and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service,
a powerful posse that cowboys up in May every five years.
There's one, two, three, four, then a slash, five,
and that's the way we counted.
Every five years, they convene to count,
to shadow a select group of birds,
unlike Superior.
It's a third winter carrying goal.
Summner Madison, avianicologist for
the Wisconsin DNR, and lead detective
describes the job.
This is a survey of water birds along the entire Wisconsin
shore of Lake Superior, from the Montreal River up to
the Duluth Superior Harbor.
325 miles of shoreline, including 169 miles
in the islands.
They dog these birds across the entire lake shore,
a dragnet that takes in the Apostle Islands,
all 22, a dizzying task, and the timeline.
Here's a two.
Two weeks.
We started in 1974, so this is the 30th anniversary,
and the reason we do it is that we're trying to track changes
in water bird populations.
By water birds, I mean gals, turns, and
herons, and quamerates.
Six different species, all colonial water birds,
called colonial, because natch, they nest in colonies.
Colonies that they wing back to.
If you know their haunts, they're easy to find.
The fact that they come back, you're after
you're the same site, that there's high site fidelity.
It's very easy to monitor their populations as it was all,
because they are coming back year after year,
the same area.
And so there are a wonderful research tool because of that.
An easy to find research tool that dines high
on the food chain, and can live up to 25 years.
For an environmental detective, these birds sing.
Kind of like the canarygan and coal mine, so to speak,
because they're very sensitive to contaminants,
such as DDT, D-D-E, PCBs.
So we know if there are changes in herringole
numbers, for example.
And if this is something that occurs throughout the survey,
then we know that's a cause for concern.
Numbers are the clue.
You can't know the word on an individual species,
ultimately how the environment is doing,
unless you've done the detective work,
unless you know the numbers.
Gross. What an excrement.
But getting those numbers?
Well, it's down these mean streets.
A man must go.
That's bird-wide bird.
Yes it is.
Bird by bird.
Yes, the locations may look ideal.
Madison is on the outer edge of outer island,
the northernmost point in Wisconsin.
But the soundtracks tells a different story.
If you pay them by the mile, some new Madison
be a millionaire.
It's wet feet and long hours.
Still a little bit of agility left in those old legs.
These gum shoes must go with a bird's eye.
Like Gull Island, barren wasteland to some,
nesting wonderland to water birds.
Julie von Steppen is the parkingologist
for the Apostle Islands and Lake Shore National Park.
If you look at Gull and Eagle Islands,
they have 80% of the nesting gulls on Lake
Superior Shoreline.
You've got this little three acre island.
And generally you have at least about a thousand nests.
That's it.
Off a lot of birds.
And it's little tiny islands.
Boku birds.
Boku trouble to get there.
Rocky Shoals ring the island.
And cold water survival suits are required
in case of an early exit.
And he was just wigglein' around in there.
And you could just see inside the ago.
It was very cool.
The Apostle Islands are a terrific resource,
a refuge for birds.
But there is an even larger block
of critical land unlike Superior,
the Bad River Indian Reservation.
Tom Doe Little is the tribe's natural resources manager.
The Bad River Reservation Manages almost
twice the land area of the Apostle Islands.
And so there's a lot of remote lands.
In fact, some of the most remote Wisconsin lands
are here in northern Wisconsin and on the
Bad River Reservation.
So remote that Doe Little must fly in
to count these heron nests.
That's right, those are heron nests in those dead trees.
It's called Lost Lake Rookery.
Doe Little and the tribe have been a part of the bird count
for decades.
His perspective on Madison.
Sumner is driven and also he has this sense of adventure
that's always entertaining, you know.
Yeah, he just goes.
I'm kind of the turtle.
He leaves them in his wake.
It's a different kind of wilds this time.
The harbor of the city of Superior.
Yeah, it's urban.
Yeah, it's full of birds.
This is an interstate island in the Duluth Superior Harbor.
Full of ring-beard gals.
10,581 ring-beard gals nests this year.
Another corner of the Superior Harbor
and things are not so well.
On the trail, scoping out an old or duck.
Five years ago, this was home for great blue herons.
Pushed out of their home in the woods.
This is the site of a great blue heron colony,
a Rookery, in 1999.
Unfortunately, their love affair where the ordox is ended
and they're not here now will hopefully find them
up the St.
Louis River estuary someplace
or maybe not, maybe they're gone from the area.
Finder up the Superior Harbor into the St.
Louis estuary.
It's not good news.
So this is where the great blue heron Rookery used to be.
It's now a 10,000 square foot home.
No, I don't know how big it is, but there it is.
Oh, we had 50 to 60, resting pairs.
He has to know the numbers.
He has to count to know the changes.
In this story that's unfolded over 30 years.
It speaks to the importance of having large blocks
of unfragmented forests and wetland habitats.
Very important to the preservation of these colonial
modern bird species.
It means a lot to me to be able to get out here
and to do this survey.
That's a very special, very special environment.
I enjoy working with the different partners involved.
Especially as I age, it gives me a different sense of time
and what time means.
We think of geologic time, that's one sense of time
and our lifespan is so short.
To be able to come up here every five years is a really
remarkable opportunity.
An opportunity to do some detective work,
to shed some light on a fascinating and
important natural mystery.
Here's a tube of...
If you'd like to see the exact bird counts gathered by
Summner Madison's research team, the final numbers are
posted on our website.
The address is www.org/inwisconsin.
The data provides a snapshot of the changes
in the breeding populations of the six water bird species,
Madison's been tracking every five years since 1974.
That's our program for this week.
Thanks for joining us.
We leave you now to enjoy a little more of our
state's natural resources with a walk near the
icy waters of Pewitt's Nest state natural area
in Sock County.
For In Wisconsin, I'm Patty Lo.
See you next time.
[music]