(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
Each week we bring you stories about the people and issues
in our state.
This week join this Stevens Point woman
and her dog as they make a run for the gold.
Find out what might happen if the candidates
for state school superintendent had to undergo a
traditional job interview and trek into the woods to
see how these bears are doing one year after our first visit.
We'll have all that plus a walk along a beautiful
but desolate shoreline 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.
- This coming Tuesday voters of Wisconsin
will either rehire the state's superintendent
of public instruction, Elizabeth Burr-Master,
or in essence fire her and elect Greg Underheim in her place.
Both candidates have been stumping through Wisconsin
promoting themselves for the job.
But reporter Art Hackett wondered what would happen
if rather than going through an election,
the candidates had to submit their resumes
and undergo a traditional job interview.
- If the state school superintendent were hired
the way your local district's superintendent is hired.
- And I'm one of those kids who really did play school
when I was growing up.
- Candidates wouldn't just run around making speeches.
- But in K through 12 education, the only question
we're allowed to ask is how do we increase funding?
- They'd be marching into Bob's coffee shop,
printing up resumes and mailing them into the personnel office.
Elizabeth Burr-Master's resume would note
that she's held the job since 2001.
Before that, she was a high school principal
for nearly 10 years.
Before that, she was an assistant principal.
And before that, she was a music and drama teacher.
She's got bachelors and masters degrees from UW-Madison.
Greg Underheim's resume would say he's been
a state representative from Ashkosh for 18 years.
He worked for a congressman and taught English
for a few years before that.
He once booked trade shows in Ashkosh.
He's got a bachelor's degree from UW lacrosse.
But if you've ever applied for a job,
you know it's not the resume that gets you hired.
It's the interview where you'll be asked to explain
why you're qualified.
You'll be asked to address all of the points mentioned
in the Help One-Ded ad.
- This is what the Help One-Ded ad would look like,
based loosely on the 51 different things
state statutes say the superintendent of
public instruction shall do.
The last one is to encourage school boards
to give students excused absences
so they can play taps at military funerals.
- I have to admit I didn't know that.
- I did not know that.
- Fortunately, that was only one of the questions
we asked during the job interview.
- Thanks for coming in for the interview.
I just have a few questions.
I assume you've read through the ad
and the job description that we sent you.
Can you tell me how you'd spread as widely as possible
a knowledge of the means and methods
which may be employed to improve the schools?
- This is a position that must be filled,
I believe, by an educator.
Because to fulfill that duty, you really do have to
have that working knowledge of what's going on in our schools.
- There are low spending, high performing districts
in the state of Wisconsin.
One of the things I'm proposing to do is disseminate widely
to superintendents, to school boards,
and to the public.
What works in those high performing, low
spending districts?
- The second item in the job description
surprises some people.
It says you shall exclude all sectarian
that means pertaining to a religion,
books and instruction from the public schools.
- We're a state that doesn't do statewide textbook adoption
and curriculum really is based on state established standards
of what students should be able to do,
no one be able to do.
But most of the decisions related to curriculum
or textbook adoption is done and determined
by locally elected school boards.
- I think what they're talking about there
is advocating for a particular religious viewpoint.
But I think everybody accepts that
if you wanted to study the Bible as literature,
there's nothing wrong with that.
Nor should there be anything wrong with that.
- This job also calls for giving the public information
on different methods of school organization in management.
- Nine different regional dialogues
throughout our state just in the past year,
where we brought together in each of these regions,
community-based organization leaders
to really facilitate collaboration
between community-based organizations and our schools.
- Right now I'm a strong proponent
of what are called virtual schools,
which is the use of the computer to learn in students' homes.
- You're also supposed to develop a testing program.
Now the job description says you're supposed to do it,
but the federal government's been taking over some of this.
- Well, I believe that there is a question.
About state sovereignty right now
with the recent federal legislation,
state sovereignty related to public education.
We are experiencing the most prescriptive federal legislation
related to public education that our country has ever seen.
- The premise behind, no child left behind,
was that we need accountability and we must assess how
children are doing.
That is the correct approach to education.
Now if it turns out that there are funding issues
that develop because of that, as superintendent I
would certainly argue to the federal government,
they need to provide sufficient funding.
- And last, we're going to ask you to report back
to the governor and the legislature
on how things are going with the department
and on your vision of the future.
- Through what is called the school performance report,
every school district does have to provide
the demographic data, the assessment,
there's a whole report that each district provides
and we have under my administration
made that information very accessible by
providing it online.
- I think that can be done, frankly, better.
I occasionally go to the website.
It's called the test we administer
the knowledge and concepts test which I was born and lacrosse,
a look at lacrosse school district.
But it's very difficult to make comparisons on that webpage
so that you can compare your school districts
to other school districts in your geography
so you can make assessments about how much
spending is being done.
- There's one thing candidates for state superintendent
wouldn't get asked in a job interview, tax policy.
- All right, we're in a property tax war right now
in our state.
- Setting tax policy isn't on the statutory list of duties.
- Right now in the state of Wisconsin,
public support for public education is fading
because of the cost.
So we've got to address the cost issue to begin with.
- But the superintendent isn't hired through an interview.
She or he is hired through an election
and sometimes voters ask questions
that don't come from the help one day add.
- You have another chance to hear the candidates address
the issues before Tuesday's election.
They're debating right here on Wisconsin Public Television
this Friday, April 1st at 7 p.m.
(upbeat music)
- Our next story takes us back to the dog days of summer.
Last July, Cindy Brick of Stevens Point
and her dog, Ariba, tried to nose out competitors
from throughout the country in the great outdoor games.
In Wisconsin producer assistant Lindsay Weiss found
that in addition to needing finely tuned running
and jumping skills, Ariba and Cindy
had to forge a special connection.
- Madison, July 2004, ESPN's fifth annual
great outdoor games.
Many of the events focused on individual strength and skill.
One was all about teamwork, speed and communication.
- Jump, jump, jump.
- Higher.
- In the agility dog competition,
handlers guide their dogs through jumps,
turns and obstacles.
16 teams nationwide were invited to compete
in the large dog agility category.
Cindy Brick of Stevens Point and her dog, Ariba,
were the only competitors from Wisconsin.
- Good girl.
- Hey!
- Good job!
- Guess I'm being built as a hometown favorite.
So I'm hoping that we can hold up our end of the bargain here.
- So far, Ariba has held up her end of the bargain,
winning several national awards and certifications
by the American Kennel Club.
- You're all very good.
- Ah, head down.
- I knew when I got her that she would make a great agility dog.
- By Dave, Brick works as a nurse.
In her free time, she trains dogs and holds clinics
at Camp Bandy and Amherst.
- Border Collies are her favorite teammates.
- You said?
- Actually, Ariba is my third Border Collie.
They have such a zest for working with their people.
They have a lot of desire to please, they're ambitious,
they're fast.
- One of Ariba's greatest competitors is Misha.
Brick's second Border Collie.
- Is that pretty good?
- The standard is for Misha and Ariba to come
in first or second.
And it's always a toss up of who's going to be in first.
- Go, go, go, go, go, good girl, yay!
- Actually, what you're looking at is a 10-year-old dog
who does not know she's old.
And I refuse to believe it either because
we've been a partner for those 10 years and I'm
not ready to have her retire.
- Ariba is different from Brick's other Border Collies.
- She's the princess.
She is very photogenic.
She loves to be photographed.
She's very self-confident.
(dog barking)
- Peter.
- She's very self-confident and able to handle moves
that don't come naturally to dogs.
- In agility, probably the hardest thing to teach the dog
is the weave poles, simply because it's
such a complex task.
But the teeter is probably the scariest for the dog
because they don't have any real life experience with that.
When something moves underneath their feet,
their first inclination is to ditch out and jump.
- There's still one more thing that's different about Ariba.
- These dogs run quiet.
- Okay, let's go, go.
- Ariba runs out.
- And she's really excited.
She's just like, "Hey, let's go!"
- Ariba?
Ariba? - It's standard for handlers
to walk through a course prior to competition.
The dogs do not.
Communication between dog and handler is critical.
- Come, get your pole.
Go tunnel, go tunnel.
Communication by sight and sound.
- Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
- Woohoo, let's go.
- It's by body language.
So when she was coming out of the shoot,
I was already raising up my hand and making my turn,
giving her the indication that that's where we're gonna go.
- Welcome from Steven's Born Pursace.
(audience cheering)
- July 2004 was Brick's first appearance
at the great outdoor games.
- I guess I don't think I'll be nervous.
Usually when you get out on course,
it's you and the dog and I don't see the judge.
I don't hear the crowd.
In fact, you might think this is really hard to believe,
but a lot of times I don't hear ariba barking.
(audience cheering)
The full entire focus is on your dog, your path,
where the equipment is.
You're like in the zone, so to speak.
In agility competition, the winner is determined
by combining the faults and times of each dog
during two rounds.
In round one, ariba loses critical time
when she almost goes off course at the weave poles
and hesitates before jumping up to the table.
- We could have done a whole lot better.
She's pretty wild.
And her first thing that she loves is the weave poles.
And I didn't catch her soon enough to tell her
it was a tunnel first.
- The crowd gets a cool summer shower
as the final round gets underway.
This is the great outdoor games.
Ariba gets confused and goes off course,
entering a jump instead of the weave poles.
At the end of the competition, brick and ariba's
combined times leave them in 14th place overall.
- I think ariba was really hyped up with the crowd noise
and it was a little tough in a few spots.
We've got something more to go home and train with
and hopefully they'll invite us back next year.
- Brick will continue competing with Ariba.
Dog training and competition has become more than just a hobby.
It's changed her life.
- I was very, very much stick at home person.
I knew how to get from work to home, barely out of town.
And in order to enter in these dog shows,
I had to learn how to travel and found a multitude
of people who were in the same kind of sort of
community, the dog people.
And met friends across the nation
and it opened up my life.
(audience cheering)
- This year's ESPN Great Outdoor Games
will be held in Orlando.
Cindy Brick tells us that she and Ariba
do not plan at this time to compete
but that Ariba is now working toward her advanced obedience
or utility dog degree.
(upbeat music)
- Last year we brought you to one of the world's
most rarely visited sites, the den of a hibernating bear.
That mama bear and her four cubs became part of a five
year study of black bears in northern Wisconsin.
Researchers helped to gain a better understanding
of the way humans and bears interact.
Earlier this year, producer Joanne Garrett
returned with the research team to the Woods of Forest County.
Their goal to track down and re-examine the mother bear
and to discover how she and her cubs are faring.
(upbeat music)
- I keep that light right there.
Okay, we gotta go injection.
Wash, who the?
- Wait.
(upbeat music)
(crying)
- I don't know.
- Ooh, that big one, big boy at all.
A year ago.
- How you doing?
- Yeah.
- Last February.
(crying)
- I'm loving a four-cup den.
- The first year of a five year study of bears
in northern Wisconsin.
- If not all of them survived next year,
we'll know who didn't survive.
- Co researchers, Chris Katz, a veterinarian
from two rivers and Dr.
Bob Howe, a professor of biology
from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay.
Spent their winter weekends.
- All right.
- Do I take the pressure off of me?
- No, you keep it there.
- I'll teach you where you got it in.
Okay, good shot.
- Leading, a dedicated crew of biology students.
- Quarter seven is four and a quarter of pounds.
(crying)
- Ten for respiratory.
- And future veterinarians, all part of this exhaustive study.
On this day, the crew placed a GPS collar
and gathered data on bear 18 and her four cubs.
One year later, - You're gonna be in
charge of the dark for mom.
- They return.
- Those are gonna hold the darts for me
while we fill the darts for the yearlings.
- With a very large crew.
- I feel like even a pork you add 'em, but.
- A crew sufficient to contain and sedate
a hundred and eighty pound bear, number 18,
and her four yearlings, each weighing in
at around 50 pounds.
- Some of the cubs, if they bolt, we may have to grab 'em.
You're gonna grab 'em just behind the shoulders up here.
Okay, don't get too far up or they'll come up with their
back legs and they'll get ya.
And don't get too far back or they'll turn around
and bite you.
- A good piece of advice.
In a day, fill with advice.
- Just slip your finger into the mouth,
just behind their big teeth.
You can slip in there, there's a little space
and just hold the head that way.
And you'll bring the whole head up that way
without the nose getting in the dirt.
- How to control the airway if you need to.
Hold the bite this, you pull their tongue out.
That way the other thing usually opens their mouth.
- Tests.
- What's the relationship between flow
through the airway and it's ready?
- It's the baby's to the point of power.
- That's right.
- And lessons.
- What was it, pulsing?
- 90.
- Pulsaks is 90.
That means that 90% of her hemoglobin is carrying oxygen.
That's very good for field anesthesia.
- Lessons that start on the walk to the den.
The short tailed weasel would be a mastella urmana.
- And end.
- I'm curious to see what your side looks like.
- Counting a bear's white blood cells.
- He's an eye out for those other guys.
- Lessons from the school of hard knocks and tight quarters.
Stacey Nye, those are her feet, is nose to nose with bear 18.
Trying to place a shackle on the sedated bear's foot.
One of today's lessons.
- Yeah, well you don't check a ship's timber on calm seas,
like that.
- Maybe that's something you can really hold on
to to move that big head of the ship.
- And the seas are not always calm
when confronting a confined bear.
Scott Anderson has done this hundreds of times.
The son of a steamed bear researcher, Ray Anderson,
Scott works for the US Forest Service
and is the third co-researcher on the bear project.
- You see the collar at all?
- No, I don't know what you're talking about.
- She's hot.
- Okay, that was her.
- Hey mom.
- That's mom, she's awake.
- She's up and looking at us.
- Okay?
- So that was her head.
(laughs)
- Don't know what it, know what it, make no, bear up.
- Just before being sedated, bear 18, bluff charged him.
- Change of underwear now, clotted.
- She just lunge forward and then went back.
- Luff charge is just like a deer stomping its foot.
It's kind of giving a warning, saying,
"Hey, you're in my territory."
- They bluff charge and they're big.
Bears are not always easy to handle.
- Good for people.
- But they have a quality that makes them
an ideal study animal.
- Somebody read?
- How do we do that?
- Somebody 200?
- Okay.
- They're omnivores.
- Think, canary in the coal mine, a 230 pound canary.
- You can use bears as sort of an ecological vacuum cleaner.
They can go out and be exposed to the diseases
in your ecosystem because they eat both meat and grasses
and berries and things like that.
So they're gonna be sampling all the things
in this whole ecosystem.
- And so, to learn more about the environment
and the diseases in it, - Can you see the bears?
- Sample, the bears.
- In particular, the bears blood.
- Plasma that's gonna go to Michigan State for quarters
all levels.
- Blood from these study bears is tested
for some 21 different diseases.
- Cornell does the, can I disemper in
the canary parabolic?
- Diseases that can intersect between species.
- It's gonna go to Tennessee.
They're gonna check for toxoplasmosis.
- Between bears and wildlife, domestic livestock and humans.
Diseases that tell a story.
- We are finding a lot of disease called toxoplasmosis,
which is transmissible to people.
And we're finding a lot of bears have been exposed to that.
So this means this whole ecosystem has
toxoplasmosis in it.
Toxoplasmosis is only transmitted by cats.
Could be stray cats, it could be bob cats.
- Researchers can start to read the environment
through the bears blood.
- So now we know only we got toxop here.
We can look into this and find out who's carrying it.
Is we have stray cats or people that make cats out?
And they're causing a problem in the environment?
Or is it just because of bob cats
and that's gonna be a natural interaction
between the bob cats and the bears?
- We were not just studying the bear.
We're studying how the bear interacts with its environment.
Especially now, as people are gonna be encroaching
on the bear's environment, we have to learn the
interactions between bears and people and where they go.
(cars clattering)
- Color.
- To follow their trail, they'll count on
these GPS colors to provide an electronic map
of the bear's wanderings.
It's cats's fervent hope that people keep their yards clean
so that bears like number 18 don't visit for lunch.
- They come in the birth feeder and they queue
and they come in the cub.
And also, you get up one day and you find that your
garage door is ripped off or that your car
door is ripped off.
Oh, now we've got a problem bear.
It's not a problem bear.
It's a problem person.
And you just can't, you should never get into a situation
where wildlife has to depend on people for food.
The ecosystem has to support the population.
Oh, my God.
- The population of densite bear 18 was sadly small.
- Oh.
- The mother was pulled out.
- I'm three again, one, two, three, four.
I gotta get that ball covered up.
- And in the end.
- I'm gonna get the bear back there.
I can't see an entrance.
All of the advice, dark guns and extra crew
proved unnecessary.
Bear 18 was all alone.
- I don't have one bear today.
- No, no cub survived.
- None of her four cubs survived.
- Somebody said they saw a saw with four cubs south of piles.
- Who's in July?
- They saw their poor single with cubs.
- I think they got killed by a male.
And she just got into an area where a big male
probably came in and whacked the kids.
- Why, why would that happen?
- Bear, no bears would do that.
Especially if you have high concentration of bears
and there's competition for resources for food.
- We're gonna roll her.
She might rouse a bit here.
- I'm sure she made a stand, but eventually she just couldn't
and then once she got them, then he probably
killed an animal.
- Yeah, I'm off and I know.
I like to put this on me.
- Losses are part of the lessons.
Lessons about researching and respecting bears.
Lessons that Anderson and Katz are determined to pass on.
- That's why I got into this.
When you get to the top of the ladder,
you look back down and see if somebody needs help
to the next run.
- Tapper for 30 and get another respiration.
- Scott and I could do bears very easily.
And we said one day, we've got to teach the
next generation of people when we're gone.
There's gonna be people behind it.
- Would you get 11?
- Yeah.
- The people behind them.
The next generation.
At every bear extraction, at every den site,
the research team performs a small ritual
based on Native American tobacco ceremonies.
It's a way to give thanks to the bear
and to those who've gone before.
And then we just toss a little in there and say thanks
and also to remember the old boy,
Ray Anderson and my dad who taught us
just about everything we know about bears.
Aren't they beautiful?
- One final note about why researchers believe
the bear cubs did not survive.
Mother bears always hibernate with their cubs
through the second winter before sending
the two year old cubs off on their own in the spring.
You can get more information about the Bear Research Project
and all of this week's stories by logging on to
www.org/inwisconsin. Before we leave
you, a note on where one of your Wisconsin
senators was this week.
Senator Russ Feingold spent three days in Alabama,
a little south of his constituency, you say?
Well, a few months ago, Senator Feingold vacationed
in Alabama and afterwards wrote an article
describing the city of Greenville as
hurting economically.
That article wasn't so well received down south,
so Feingold accepted a return invitation
from Greenville's mayor.
The Senator toured a high school and auto plant
among other places and said it was a chance
to look and listen to the people in another part of the country.
That trip raised a few eyebrows because Feingold
has not discounted running for US president in 2008.
He's even formed a political action committee
to pay for his presidential exploratory expenses.
We'll keep you posted as that exploration continues.
We leave you with a walk along the rugged
and desolate winter shoreline of Lake Superior.
When our crew was there earlier this year,
they found a magnificent ice display created
by Mother Nature.
Enjoy and we'll see you again next week.
For In Wisconsin, I'm Patti Lowe.
(gentle music)
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