Wisconsin Public Television

Transcript: In Wisconsin

Original Air Date: October 26, 2006

Patty Loew:

Hello and welcome to "In Wisconsin." I'm Patty Loew. Would you welcome bats into your home with open arms? Find out why one large company is wild for the winged creatures. Cut through the negative ads and learn what is really at stake in Wisconsin's most closely watched congressional race. And discover how Bessie may be the best thing to happen to your home this winter.

Man:

It's just a matter of time and technology that you're going to see the American farmer as the producer of the energy, as well as the food for the American public.

Loew:

We'll also bring you what may be a last gasp look at some of the brilliant fall colors in Wisconsin. Loew: Halloween is a time of year when many of us have bats on the brain. But one bat fan has our fellow mammals and their preservation in mind full-time. Producer JoAnne Garrett brings us an update on bat ecologist Dave Redell and his odd new partner.

Dave Redell:

You can see he's grabbing on with the thumb. If you imagine our hand, short enough for the bones here and extend these bones here and put a membrane between them and you have what they've got here.

JoAnne Garrett:

When first we met bat researcher Dave Redell of Madison, it was back in 2003. He was outfitted with relatively simple tools, but he had access to a spectacular research lab. The lab? An old abandoned iron mine accessed through a highway culvert. A bat hibernaculum, a wintering site for bats, one of the largest in the Midwest, home to some 143,000 study subjects, 143,000 bats. Two years later redell had a crew. Here, they logged data as around them swirled some of those 143,000 bats returning to their hibernaculum. They call it the fall swarm.

Redell:

There will be enough bats flying around where you can feel the wind from their wing beats and hear them real close to you. Sometimes, rarely, you get a little graze and a wing as they cut around you.

Garrett:

The research tools had kicked up a notch, a big notch. This is a mobile radar unit that was used.

Redell:

We have to make sure everything is tight.

Garrett:

And researcher redell was now working for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Supported by grants he garnered. We profiled his efforts to study the effect of wind turbines on bat mortality to answer the question, why can't an animal as agile as this avoid these massive blades?

Redell:

There have been 12 studies with 1,000 bats, but they've been after the pipes have been built.

Garrett:

Redell had secured the cooperation of wind farm owners to gather important data both before and after construction. A research coup. The results of which should be published soon. Now, a year later, another collaboration with another business. Even better. Redell is working with Tim Staufer, plant manager of a mine near Maiden Rock.

Tim Staufer:

Most of the time the air is going in here and not out.

Garrett:

A mine with various entrances.

Staufer:

This is the old entrance.

Garrett:

The old entrance, and just one of several bat entrances to this underground mine.

It is the only underground mine in Wisconsin and there are only two other mines like it in the country. It's called the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Company. That's right.

Staufer:

It's a rock at this point and then it turns into sand when it gets blasted.

Garrett:

They mine sand. But not just any sort of sand.

Staufer:

This is our product, frac sand.

Garrett:

This is frac sand. After it's been mined, cleaned and screened. It is a sand with special properties that make it particularly valuable in drilling for oil and natural gas. And given the push for petroleum these days, this mine is on duty 24/7.

Staufer:

We have over 20 miles of mine tunnels in this area.

Garrett:

Twenty miles in the subterranean business. It's a big mine but with little impact up top.

Staufer:

We aren't like an open pit that takes trees and everything away. We're underground and everything above us can still be natural. The only thing we're doing down here is drilling and enhancing a bat habitat that keeps getting larger as time goes on.

Garrett:

That's right. They're actually enhancing bat habitat, but it gets better, this intersection between bats and business. Wisconsin Industrial Sand is a subsidiary of an international company, Fairmont Minerals, which often pairs with an international nonprofit called the Wildlife Habitat Council. They encourage businesses to provide ways to provide for habitat for wildlife on their properties, on top or underground. That's where Dave Redell enters the picture.

Redell:

I was contacted by the Wildlife Habitat Council. They were working with Tim and working on certification for wildlife habitat. I had known about the place as a large hibernation site but never actually got up and visited. We came up for a site visit and decided it would be a great place to get some sensors in and start monitoring it.

Garrett:

How great? Get this.

Redell:

As far as I know, this is probably maybe the second largest hibernation site in Wisconsin. Tim and I walked through here last winter and scratch your head maybe 100,000 bats but the part we can't tell you is the plus or minus and that's the part where the detectors come in and what they'll hopefully allow us to do is figure out exactly how many bats there are.

It really gets busy in the morning. You can see. Right now they're going out to feed and then they're coming back in. This is 4:30, 5:00 a.m. They're going out fattening up for the winter.

Staufer:

He'll be able to uplink to his computer data collector here in the mine and see bat movements on a daily basis if he wants.

Redell:

5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. was the last.

Staufer:

They're using the full extent of night, no doubt about that.

Garrett:

The company has installed these monitors and the computer hookup. They've altered entrances to the mine to make them more bat friendly.

Staufer:

We believe we can mine a product and be conscious of doing the right thing to save for the future as well. He's learning something for first time in this area and it's neat to be part of that.

You expect to see more highs into the fall?

Redell:

The fall is the fall return so they're coming back from their summer colonies and August is typically the peak for that.

Thankfully, Tim is willing to work for us and we can monitor and protect them during the mining operation. Once that's done, it's created this super hibernation site with lots of tunnels and a quite diversity of temperature and humidity locations for the bats to choose.

Garrett:

It is a refuge and a research lab with a great future. It's safe haven for this little mammal. Safe haven provided by a large, international company. Safety in a sand mine.

Loew:

We turn now to the election which takes place in less than two weeks. Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District is the only one with an open seat. It has no incumbent in the race. The district includes Appleton, Green Bay and the northeast corner of the state. Like many, this campaign has been run on a lot of negative ads. But reporter Art Hackett cuts through that and examines the real issues at stake.

Art Hackett:

The eighth congressional district contest pits John Gard who as served in the state Assembly for 19 years, including three years as speaker, against Steve Kagen. Kagen, a physician, is making his first run for office. He runs allergy clinics in Green Bay and Appleton. Because it's an open seat, it's a key to which party controls the house. Both parties' national campaign funds are pumping money into the district.

Monday's debate on the united reservation allowed no opening or closing statements. Just questions collected from the audience, such as what to do about improving the new medicare prescription drug plan known as Part D?

John Gard:

On the issue of medicare.

Hackett:

Gard said he worked in the Assembly to offer a state run alternative called SeniorCare. Some people find SeniorCare's drug benefits better, others go with Part D.

Gard:

I think it was a step in the right direction. I think it can certainly be improved but I do not believe we should abolish it like my opponent suggested that it should. .

Steve Kagen:

I'm not against Medicare. I'm not against Medicare Part D.

Hackett:

Kagen says he only objects to the medicare drug program's price tag.

Kagen:

Our federal government negotiated a steep discount for all veterans from drug companies. Well, the Medicare enrollee and Medicare Part D is paying 46% more on average per prescription than our veterans are paying. This is wrong. There are things we must do to fix Medicare Part D.

Hackett:

The candidates were also asked about fixing Social Security.

Kagen:

I will never, ever vote to privatize Social Security. The folks in Washington that support John are very much in favor of privatizing not just Social Security, they want to privatize Medicare and eliminate Medicaid.

Gard:

Ask Dr. Kagen to show you the facts at any time I've ever said to privatize Social Security. I will not do it.

Hackett:

Asked in a follow-up interview of President Bush's proposal put some Social Security money into private accounts, Gard says he didn't support that either.

Gard:

I don't think we should privatize.

Kagen:

I don't consider it a crisis at this point in tie. It's a problem on the horizon. It was solved in the past by bringing both parties together and working collaboratively to find a solution to do that.

Hackett:

When the subject of immigration came up, both talked tough. Kagen accused Gard of falsely claiming he supported amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Kagen:

There are three things we must do. Number one, we must secure our borders for real. Something this administration has neglected to do for the past six years it's been in office. Secondly, we must obey and enforce all of our laws with no cutting in line. Finally, we must empower employers here and throughout the country with a means necessary to determine if a worker is here legally.

Gard:

I support expanding the laws that currently exist in high density, high traffic areas where people are racing across the border and adding to the chaos that exists at the southern border right now. The republicans in the House at least passed a tough immigration bill. They didn't in the Senate. And a lot of democrats in the Congress said the immigration bill was too tough.

Hackett:

The real battle was over what to do in Iraq.

Gard:

I believe you have two choices. Winning or cutting and running. America has always stood by its word. I want to bring the troops home as soon as possible. But cutting and running and losing will devastate this country long term.

Kagen:

We must stabilize the region and not let it devolve into another lawless area in Afghanistan.

Hackett:

In a later interview, Kagen seemed skeptical whether stabilization is possible.

Kagen:

I would suggest to you that Iraq is gone and it's not coming back. It's going to go the way of Yugoslavia. It will break up. In the north, we'll have Kurdistan, and in the southern region we'll have the Sunni and Shiite peoples. And how that will work out is yet to be determined.

Hackett:

Do we pull the troops out and let what happens happen?

Kagen:

We should deploy our forces elsewhere, so our forces are standing out of the middle of this civil conflict.

Gard:

It is not a good situation to be in. The choice is winning or cutting and running. When you go on at one part of the day and say you're not a general, so leave it up to the generals. That is what the President is being accused of saying. And then, a couple hours later, you change your position.

Hackett:

The campaign reform group Common Cause calls this year's eighth district race the most negative congressional campaign ever waged in Wisconsin. It is also the most expensive. Common Cause estimates total spending will run between $2 and $3 million.

Loew:

We began the show with a report about a large company that provides a home for some tiny creatures. Our final report features a somewhat larger animal that could soon affect your home. "In Wisconsin" student intern Laura Kalinowski has the story.

Laura Kalinowski:

Meet Daisy, she could be heating your home, all thanks to a technology new to Wisconsin. It takes manure and converts it into renewable energy. Anaerobic digesters are one way for dairy farmers to turn the problem of waste material into an energy source. Digesters have been a major source of renewable energy in Europe for more than 20 years. Now they're making their way to Wisconsin farms.

Rod Nilsestuen:

As we've often done in this state, turn a problem into an opportunity.

Kalinowski:

An opportunity that Vir-Clar farm owner Gary Boyke thought was a perfect fit for his 1,300 cow dairy farm. Digesters originally piqued his interest because they could reduce manure odor by up to 70%.

Gary Boyke:

Not only did it help with our odor and being neighborly friendly, it also helped do a lot of other things. One of those things is producing renewable electricity. As a farmer, we try to be very environmentally friendly so producing renewable energy was certainly a thought in our minds.

Kalinowski:

Here is how it works. These are the digesters. They're sealed airtight and heated to 100 degrees. The manure enters the digesters and sits for 30 days. As it sits, the bacteria in the manure digests organic materials, and each other, until biogas or methane is formed. The methane glass flows to the airtight roof, down a pipe and into an engine especially built to run off gas methane. That turns the generator that produces electricity. A lot of electricity.

Boyke:

It takes a house about 1kw per hour to have enough electricity for the lights and your appliances. So, for every 1kw per hour we produce, we can furnish that many houses' electricity. Right at this time we're between 310 and 320 houses on a constant basis.

Kalinowski:

State legislation was passed in spring of 2006 to increase funding for renewable energy research and development of technologies like anaerobic digesters.

Nilsestuen:

We're moving into an bioeconomy in the US and away from heavy dependence on foreign oil.

Everything from encouraging the production of renewables and ethanol to using forest waste, and manure, and high fiber products for energy production are all part of the bigger strategy.

Kalinowski:

Digesters are a promising option, but they don't come cheap. Boyke said his digester cost $1.3 million. Some of the cost was covered by grants from the USDA and federal and state organizations. Despite the high cost, Boyke is confident the digesters will turn into a huge asset for his farm.

Boyke:

As we did more investigation we came to the idea that this could be actually a profit center for the dairy. At least we had a consistent source of income in those real bad years on milk prices.

Kalinowski:

Boyke buys back the energy he needs for his farm and sells the rest to Alliant Energy. Since he installed his digesters in the fall of 2004 he has been pleased with his investment.

Boyke:

We feel the digesters over performing from our initial thoughts.

Kalinowski:

Over performing in more than just energy production and reduced odors. Remember, methane is removed from the manure in the digester and converted into energy in the digester. That leaves behind a solid manure that goes into a separator. The separator removes the liquid from that solid waste. The liquid can be injected into farm fields as fertilizer. The remaining solids also have added benefits.

Boyke:

Solids is what now we're using as a source of our bedding for the cows. It has a feathery-like texture, which makes it very comfortable for the cows to lay and sleep on, and the solids that we have left we either sell to other farms or we're looking at using those solids for things like maybe potting soil or lawn fertilizer or organic fertilizers.

Kalinowski:

All around a win-win situation in Boyke's mind.

Boyke:

It is just a matter of time and technology that you're going to see the American farmer as the producer of the energy, as well as the food, for the American public.

Kalinowski:

The Vir-Clar farm and its digesters are a big part of Wisconsin's dairy farming future.

Nilsestuen:

Each cow produces something like up to 85 pounds of waste a day. That same cow, in a 50 cow heard can produce $3,400 worth of electricity from that manure for the farmer. So the key there is finding good technologies that are affordable and dependable so that we can turn that challenge of, what do I do with all that manure, into a plus and an opportunity to produce energy and we can produce good things for the environment.

Loew:

Environmental groups including Clean Wisconsin and Renew Wisconsin also support anaerobic digester development. The groups say initiatives that promote renewable energy and turn a profit are a win-win situation for Wisconsin. We asked the candidates running for governor what is the plan, as they see it, for renewable energy? Republican candidate Mark Green says he sees renewable energy as Wisconsin's future.

Mark Green:

My vision is to encourage renewables and to really unleash innovation and conservation and production of energy.

Loew:

Green says he's proud that many Wisconsin companies are leading the way nationally in renewable energy development. He also says he wants to use the rate fee on energy bills for conservation funds and encourage families to economize their energy use. Democratic incumbent candidate Jim Doyle says he wants Wisconsin residents to be in control of the energy they consume.

Jim Doyle:

I want farm families of Wisconsin to be the ones making the money from energy production and not Middle East countries.

Loew:

Doyle says he wants 25% of the state's energy to come from renewable sources by 2025. He also says Wisconsin should commit to biofuels such as ethanol, and the federal government should revoke tax cuts for oil companies. Green party candidate Nelson Eisman says forms of mass transportation may be one solution to energy problems.

Nelson Eisman:

We have to bring back models that we had in the 19th century. I think we had it more right in the 19th century than the 21st century. We might go back to the future in some respects.

Loew:

Eisman says wisconsin should use resources already in the state such as wood, wind and solar power to harvest energy. He also says we should access hydroelectric power that's environmentally friendly for rivers, and develop more localized models of transportation. You can get more details on where the candidates stand on energy issues and other topics by logging onto wisconsinvote.org our online election resource.

Loew:

That's our program for this week. Tune in next time when we'll examine an issue in the gubernatorial race that is key to many voters, stem cell research.

Man:

We have probably the largest program of any place in the world and nobody knows about that. But over 100 scientists working with stem cells. That's a big program.

Loew:

If you're trying to play a quick catch-up game to get primed on the issues before election day reporter Andy Soth will tell you where to turn. In the meantime, we leave you with a walk through the striking fall colors found near Big Smokey Falls in Menominee County. For "In Wisconsin" I'm Patty Loew. Have a great week.