So.
Well, you're part of the
action last night.
At the door
D'oh!
I love it.
Yeah, this is great.
Well, I was going to wear one.
What am I?
You can throw it back and forth.
Yeah, there you go.
You still got hair?
Yeah.
You have hair.
Okay. That's right.
We've got to cut two weeks ago so
it's almost fresh.
You can say that to me, but you
can't say it to Malcolm.
He's like.
You know, I haven't seen him in,
like, four months.
Really? Yeah.
I guess I haven't either.
Yeah. I hope he's gotten a haircut.
Yeah.
I'm James.
I'm Lily.
Hi Lily, have we met before?
I think we've met, I've done camera.
I swear you did.
I don't know if that's nice, but
they just got it all
the time.
Alright, just under one minute.
Hi, I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS
Wisconsin.
We're just taking a minute, well, a
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You know, we all know, that
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After more than 50 years
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We will be here because you're
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And the other way, Sesame Street
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And. Here and now, our show, of
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He has a hat. I want a hat, hat.
So the other day, I
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And I though, you know, parents,
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When we watch the news hour, that's
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And I know, because you watch
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To pay attention to these things,
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That's why we're gonna be here.
It's not just for today, it's not
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Heart PBS logo and the wonderful
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A gift of $12 a month,
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This book is chock full of
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And again, this is such a great
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A gift of $15 a
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Again, cannot express how
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I'm in San Francisco,
I'm 20 years old.
I think they're telling you to do
your daily activities.
What's your favorite thing about
your grandmother?
My favorite thing,
he always stayed
there for me.
Francisco's father is
in Men's Central Jail
in LA.
He's been there almost three years.
Francisco basically lived in a
little town in Mexico by
Guadalajara.
I brought him here back in July
because he
wanted to be with his dad.
He misses his dad a lot.
So I put him in school.
The language barrier has been
hard on him, but he's trying to
get into the Men's Central Jail.
You have to be on the phone
12 o'clock midnight Thursday.
You have two minutes to
try to get an appointment.
And if you don't get the
appointment, that's it.
I wish he could see him more often,
but he only sees him like every two,
three weeks.
We get there by 1030 or
so, and we
go put money in his books.
And then they tell you to sit down
and wait.
When I walked in there one day,
I saw this little library,
beautiful. And I was like, wow, that
is really nice.
But I didn't know that the
kids were allowed to take books.
Do you have to wait a lot in the
jail?
Yeah like two or three
hours every time we go
we take some new books
Find your favorite dinosaur in there
as fast as you can.
Okay, you've got it pretty fast.
We take advantage because of the
fact that he's still having a hard
time reading.
I read with him and I translate it
to him.
That's the hardest part about the
visit.
Seeing your son there,
my grandson and my son just
hold the
glass with their hands.
My son tries to put a face,
you know, like it doesn't bother
him, but I know it does.
What's something that
makes you feel proud
about Francisco?
The way he is, the
smile that he has when he comes out
of school saying, you know,
I did this, I did that,
and I love you.
He always tells me, I love you.
I'm proud of you, papa.
I love
My name is Linda.
My name is Francisco.
This is our brief but spectacular
take.
Are reading with
my grandma.
And you can watch more Brief But
Spectacular videos online at pbs.org
slash news hour slash brief.
Also online, we explore who will
qualify to get those so-called Trump
accounts after the Dell family
pledged more than $6 billion for
the investment accounts for children
that were authorized in a Republican
spending bill passed earlier this
year. That's at pps.org, slash
newshour.
And that is the news hour for
tonight. I'm Jeff Bennett for all of
us here at the PBS NewsHour.
Thanks for spending part of your
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Major funding for the PBS NewsHour
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Supported by the John D.
And Catherine T.
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There's still time to contribute.
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This land is ancient.
Next, only on PBS
Wisconsin.
Hi, this is Terry calling you about
the hummingbird.
I'm sorry for 530.
No, no worries.
I'm without children.
Well, I guess I should say that I
have hummingbirds.
In Hollywood, one woman
helps injured hummingbirds back
to the wild.
When you see how vulnerable and
helpless they are, you wonder how
any of them make it.
It's okay, you're safe.
They're allowed to depend on me.
Only on PBS Wisconsin.
The loss of federal funding is real,
but so is the response.
Thousands across Wisconsin have
stepped up to support PBS Wisconsin
and WPR.
You can help keep trusted
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and programs that celebrate
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Join your neighbors building the
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Thank you.
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Join us next spring for a trip to
England.
Visit iconic landmarks featured in
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Visit pbswisconsin.org
slash travel.
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of Corporate Sponsorship at PBS
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Corporate support for public media
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Stepping to a world of
awe.
Emerald trees, crystal
clear waters.
Sunlight dances and sparkles
on colors and wonders.
Treasures of light,
movement, sound.
Join us as we uncover the jewels
of the North Woods.
Wisconsin Scenic Treasures,
North Woods
next Wednesday night on
PBS Wisconsin.
Watch more of your favorite shows
online at PBSWisconsin.org.
You know when you get to a new place
and right away you feel that there's
something special about it but you
can't quite put your finger on what
it is.
That's exactly how I felt first time
I visited the Driftless region.
This land, it's
ancient.
Going on to the.
All right, there's the camera,
and here's your safety.
This is me.
My name is Jonas Stenstrom and I'm
from Sweden, but right now I'm
hanging on the edge of a cliff by
the Mississippi River in southern
Minnesota.
Why? Well, we'll get to that in a
little bit.
This here is my best friend and
business partner, Rob Nelson.
Got to figure out which way deeper
water is.
We're both biologists and
filmmakers, and together we travel
all over to find and document
interesting wildlife stories.
It started as a passion to document
nature, and now we feel it's
our mission to show our children
that interesting nature stories can
be found even in places you don't
expect it.
Where we are right now is one of
those.
You're getting close to the rest.
We are in the Driftless region,
an area located by the upper
Mississippi River from southern
Minnesota and Wisconsin to northern
Iowa and a small section of
northwestern Illinois.
The reason this region is special is
in its name, Drift-less.
Drifts, or more specifically glacial
drift, is a geological term for
material transported and left behind
by glaciers.
At different times in history, much
of the land has been covered by
glacial ice.
Times we often refer to as
glacial periods.
Or more commonly the ice ages.
During the last glacial period,
which is believed to have ended
about 11,000 years ago,
the mild thick pack of ice moved
south from Canada and covered much
of the northern part of the US.
Its destructive force crushed
everything in its way and when the
ice eventually disappeared the
land underneath was forever changed,
literally level to the ground.
Except here.
Of all the known glacial periods,
The area we today call the Driftless
region never got covered by the
ice.
Somehow this region got spared and
what was left behind was an
environment filled with interesting
stories, with great environmental
and cultural importance.
But why did all these glacial
advances miss the Drifless region?
This is unique on Earth.
We're here to find some answers.
Rob is really the one who told me I
had to come and see this.
He was here filming a few years ago,
and the more the team started
digging into it, the more they
realized that this was a truly
unique part of the world,
and that most people had no idea
about it.
The driveless sound?
I'm not exactly sure what you're
talking about.
The team left with too many
unanswered questions, stories
that seemed too interesting to stay
undocumented.
Rob called me up and said, hey
Jonas, get the cameras ready, we
have some places to visit.
So here we are, but none of this
would have been possible without our
two local guides, George Howe
and Tim Jacobson.
As a biologist born and raised in
the Driftless, George is like a
walking book of stories about the
region.
Countless fragments of marine
organisms. Life cycle of freshwater
mussels.
And Tim equally as filled with
knowledge about the ins and outs of
the driftless and always armed with
the camera and ready if there's
something to document.
Their passion for the driftless is
really the reason this story started
in the first place.
So let's head up the block.
Right now we're itching to start
looking for some of the answers to
the many questions we have and what
better place to start than from the
sky.
Lucky for us, Tim is also
a pilot.
Testing one, two, three, can you
guys hear me? I can hear you.
Over. I can here you.
More. Great.
Great gulf at 3-1, ready for
takeoff.
Wow that's awesome
basically got the entire
mississippi river down here
It's pretty amazing to see the
Mississippi River from this
perspective.
The huge amount of water moving
downstream and constantly reshaping
the river valley in its way.
Wow, this is cool.
Massive one-plane force to
our right.
With the water pushing sediment
around, cutting through large
floodplain forests and creating a
network of little islands and
winding canals everywhere in
between.
One exception is Lake Pepin, the
largest lake and the widest natural
section of the entire Mississippi
River.
Another interesting observation we
made were small dots on the
landscape, sinkholes that seem
to pepper the fields.
But the most striking features of
the area are without a doubt the
steep bluffs lining the mighty
Mississippi River.
From the ground, they look like
impressive hills with sections of
vertical, exposed rock that is
layered in bands with different
colors.
But from the air, there's also
something else about the bluffs that
stands out.
The bluffs look totally different
from here.
They're all about the same height.
Yeah, that's interesting.
All the bluffs lining the river as
well as further inland are the exact
same height, like the peaks have
all been shaved down to the same
level. But instead of just a flat
plateau, the land is dissected
by valleys between the bluffs
creating this striking topography
that is characterizing the
Driftless.
It's interesting to see it from up
here because you can't see any...
And all the streams and rivers
seem to also eventually link up with
the Mississippi.
What we are seeing are the results
of the unique geomorphology that
has shaped the driftless region.
How is the different question?
But everything is linked.
The streams, the bluffs, the
Mississippi River.
And to understand this, we must
first look at how this land was
formed in the first place.
And the clues are in the bluffs.
One of the things I talk about with
my students is what did this
landscape look like at these various
points in time?
And one of the thing I think is
really neat about studying rocks,
for instance, is that's how we know,
right? That's where that information
comes from, about the natural
history of the world that we live
in.
Colin explains that the bluffs are
made up of sedimentary rock that
dates back to a time when all of
this and in fact the whole planet
looked a lot different.
When we look at the rocks that make
up the bluffs, those rocks
have clues within them that tell
us that this would have been a
tropical sea that we would have had
here 500 to 450 million years
ago, right, which is crazy to think
about when you look at this
landscape that we see today and
we're in the mid latitudes in the
Northern Hemisphere.
Let's stop here for a minute and
take this in.
We are now about a thousand miles
from the Atlantic coast to the east
and more than 1700 miles
from the Pacific coast to the west.
And all of this was once part of
a subtropical ocean.
North America would have been tilted
about 90 degrees on its side,
and we would have been located about
20 or so degrees south latitude
in the southern hemisphere, right?
And so over time, North America
spun and worked its way up to
its modern-day location.
And new sediment layers were
continuously being deposited on
the bottom, sealing in another
chapter in geological history.
The resulting sediment layer cake
we see in places like here in the
Driflis is like a geological
calendar, locking in many of
the marine creatures that were
present in these waters at different
times.
Oh yeah, Gastropod.
Got it.
Jordan Chomey from Decora, Iowa.
And this is my father, John Chome.
We met when he was born
Well, I grew up picking arrowheads
which became fossil picking
when we started canoeing and
so I talked to Jordan about fossil
picking and It
didn't take much to get him hooked
The flat spirals like these
are called macularites.
Any of the ones with this spiral
are gastropods.
Having started at a young age, I
think it's just a part of who I am.
I feel like that's my main passion,
is being out there in nature and
exploring and being in caves and
looking for fossils and arrowheads.
And I think as I started at young
age it hooked me.
This is amazing, like look at this
particular rock.
I mean, I guess these are bivalves,
little seashell type things.
And the cool thing is, this is 400
million years ago and you
can still find things that look just
like this today.
The other cool thing is that we are
nowhere near the ocean and these
are ocean animals.
And that's pretty amazing.
Holy moly. Thank you very much.
Aside from a chance to find fossils,
there are other things that intrigue
us about this sedimentary rock layer
cake.
When different layers of rock are
stacked on top of each other like
this, interesting things can start
to happen underground as we noticed
on our initial flight over the area.
Fossils are found in a limestone
rock, a rock type that may slowly
start to dissolve away as water
passes through it over time.
As water filters through this, it'll
actually dissolve part of the rock.
And over time,
those cracks start to get
bigger and bigger because we're
dissolving more and more of that
rock. And so what happens is we
create these caverns
within the rock
That is a sinkhole right there.
Don't have trees. That's a sink hole.
All those, those are sinkholes.
This is a sinking hole?
That's sinkhole. Anytime you see
little patches of trees, that's
pretty much a sink.
Probably, yeah.
Like this right here, right next to
the road. That's the sinkhole Next
to the cemetery.
Oh wow, this whole
landscape is just dotted with these
little patches of trees and
when you get up to the little
patches you realize that
they go straight down.
A sinkhole would be
sort of a big room or
a big cavern that would form.
And as it dissolves, as that rock
dissolves and we
start to get a thinner and thinner
layer up above it, that
layer, that top layer can then
collapse, right?
And so then we have the surface
layer collapse into the sub layer,
creating one of these sinkholes.
Right over the top of this sinkhole.
Look how deep it is.
See how that's the top?
That's the top of the trees in that
hole. Who would have thought that
there is a sinkhole capital?
And we're in it right now.
Fountain Minnesota, sinkhole capitol
of the USA.
Why are the sinkholes here and not
other places?
Well, they're much more prominent in
this fountain area here because that
limestone that slowly dissolves is
very close here.
Until you're segmented with him, and
I can come.
And I'm hiding this now, right?
Yeah, on the ground is probably
better. Does that work?
Down on the floor is better.
Where you can reach it too if you
want it. Okay.
Thank you.
No, we're doing that in a
later segment, I think.
It's always good to get the energy
back.
Why not? I mean, you got it.
That's right.
Is this okay
where this is hanging?
It might be yeah if you can just
kind of tuck it back that'll be good
and then can we get you plugged in
There it was, everything was fine.
Ahem.
So is that,
we talked about that one question.
Is there another question for this
first segment that you wanted to
cover?
Yeah, I thought here you can see
what they gave me for a note.
They're pretty basic.
So how did it happen?
Okay, and that may take us
in a different direction. That's
fine.
Oh You can feel free to look
at me or the camera whichever is
more comfortable Okay, it'll be the
one with the light on well We both
have light sometimes sometimes
that's on sometimes not but it'll
the one you can say that's staring
right at us
It's open.
Are you guys going to be doing two
cameras on us, so one on him
and one on me, or is it going to
just be us, two shot?
Okay, so they'll have us both
together. And you can look at me,
or the camera, or back and forth,
whatever feels comfortable to you.
And it's just a matter of
what works for you.
So, in the second one,
the response to the film.
Are we talking about the second?
I'm sorry.
The second element
of this break,
depending on where we get through on
this one, we'll talk about how
people respond.
What kind of things do you hear from
people?
Because it's in four states,
right? And I looked at the...
And Tim, you're the expert, so
just lean on your
expertise.
And James is a wonderful
conversationalist, so.
So you've been run all
over this area,
but Lexington, Kentucky,
Tallahassee, Florida.
Well, that's very outdated.
We've actually had it broadcast in
at least 42 states.
Okay, that is important.
And those statistics are
three years old.
42 states is great.
Minimum of 42 states.
Almost 50, we're almost there, so
that's great.
It's been in Alaska, it's been a New
York state, it has been in Arizona,
it is pretty much
all over the country.
Well, and depending on the markets
here, and that reaches 99% of the
people anyhow. So that's great.
Good, good.
So you can say that.
Because I'll ask about things like
that. It's been broadcast a
lot. So it will be a
conversation. You don't have to
worry about talking for a minute and
a half. Stop wherever you feel
comfortable. Or keep on going.
They will put up a
floor director.
She's going to have a thing that's
counting us down.
And then she's going get down.
Do you do it at 15 or?
OK. 15 seconds.
When we get to that.
If you keep on talking, I'll sort of
cut you off the appropriate time.
I'm more likely to be
looking at you than
watching those.
That's fine, that's fine.
I'm gonna be going both directions,
but that's fine, yeah.
Hi, I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS
Wisconsin.
And we're just taking a quick break
from decoding the
wilderness. It is kind of the
wilderness, be driftless.
This is a beautiful film.
I love this film for a lot of
reasons. And we'll get a chance to
talk about that as we go along.
But what I want to say now is that
in order to have programs like this,
we have to have this partnership
between you and us.
And I'm part of the partnership,
too. I'm sustainer.
I've been a sustainer for a long
time. TOGETHER!
We are gonna make sure that public
broadcasting in Wisconsin stays on
the air. Oh, and in fact, I have to
remember to thank my friend Mike,
who I just met at Habitat,
where I volunteer.
Mike, you said you were gonna,
so come on, expect a call,
come on right on up.
This program, I think,
is a real gem.
It's the kind of program you expect
to see from public broadcasting,
from PBS Wisconsin.
And you are not gonna find it
any place else.
And that's because our commitment
is to make programs that matter to
you. They make a difference to your
programs that you value.
Programs are gonna wanna watch again
and again. Programs are going to
talk to people about, so call us at
1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Natalie.
I'm a staff member here at
PBS Wisconsin.
And what a treat it is
to gain new perspective into
the marvels of the driftless
area. I have to admit, I am a little
obsessed with the drift less area.
Once I discovered it existed way
back in 1986, and it's been around
way longer than that, obviously.
But because of your support, we are
able to bring you programs like
this, and we have some wonderful
ways to thank you tonight.
With a gift of $12 a month,
you can receive either a
Decoding the Driftless DVD
or Blu-ray, or
with a gift $12 dollars a month you
can recieve this beautiful
book to accompany the documentary,
Decoding The Drift, The Drif-less,
it's a reader book, and I
definitely am going to pick one of
these up myself because like I said,
I am obsessed with the driftless
area.
And if you have a
gift of $25 a
month, you will get the
book, the DVD,
also this beautiful PBS Wisconsin
hat that is the right color for the
drift list area along with this
wonderful print that shows you the
map. So please call.
1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Eric Reiling.
I'm the director of Friends of PBS
Wisconsin.
When was the last time you were
truly surprised or awed
by something?
When's the last you made an
unexpected discovery?
Well, here at PBS Wisconsin,
we want to take you there.
We want to you there with programs
like Decoding the Driftless.
We want take you to special places
in Wisconsin to discover for
the first time.
Or more deeply, we wanna take you
all around the world.
We wanna take around the cosmos, I
think.
But let us take you there.
Let us help you find unexpected
places.
That journey starts with you.
Please consider becoming a
sustainer, giving us that regular
monthly support that allows
us to plan ahead to find
programs like this and to take
you on that journey, that unexpected
journey, whether it's here in
Wisconsin, which are stories we
really want to bring you every
day. And all around the world.
Please give us a call at
1-800-236-3636.
Get to introduce?
This is important.
Tim Jacobson, who is
the one of the producers and
president of the Sustainable
Drift List. Did I get that right?
You did. Yes.
Good. I don't always.
One of the Producers of the film.
Now, you know, I know, and you
especially know, these things don't
just happen.
They take a tremendous amount of
work. So how did this happen?
Yeah, well, the film, Decoding
the Driftless, was my second
film about the Drifless region.
So we had my co-producer,
George Howe, the late George How and
I had a relationship for
a long time with
Untamed Science, which was an
organization that made science
learning fun.
And so we had worked with them,
collaborated on an earlier film,
Mysteries of the Driffless.
And which was released and broadcast
on PBS in 2013.
And then in 2018,
we came together, well, actually
starting about 2016, we
started making, decoding
the Driftless. It was a multi-year.
Process as it is we'll get a chance
to talk about this more in the
meantime call us at 1-800-236-3636
Your gift allows filmmakers like
Tim here to bring these natural
wonders right into your home, week
after week, year after year.
So we have wonderful gifts to
thank you tonight.
A gift of $12 a month, you will
receive either this beautiful
DVD, Blu-ray
edition, or this wonderful
book, which is the Decoding
Driftless Reader's Guide.
It's of great accompany to the
documentary.
And with a gift of 25
dollars a month.
You will receive
the DVD Blu-ray.
You will see the wonderful,
excuse me,
Decoding the Driftless Reader's
edition. And you will also receive
this wonderful PBS.
Wisconsin hat, which is green
in color, the right color to be
traveling when you're traveling
around the driftless region, and
also this wonderful print that
shows the map of the drift,
driftless area so you don't get
lost. Thank you so much and please
call us at 1-800-236-3636.
This film, Decoding the Driftless,
is really special to me because I
come from the Drifless.
I'm a Richland Center boy.
And I learned things from this
film that I didn't know that
I wanted to go discover firsthand.
Even having spent so much time there
in my youth, I didn't know they were
there. And that's one of the rich
things about the Driffless areas.
There's always something to
discover, whether it's over
the hill or in the next valley or
just around that big oak
tree.
If you're a Driftless native,
a Drifless person, or just a fan of
the Driflass, please give us a call.
Go online, use that QR code.
If you use that QR code, it'll take
you right to the gifts and you can
make your selection for the way we
can say thank you when you
support programming like this.
Program that takes you into the
heart of Wisconsin and shows you
just a little bit more.
We can't do it without you, and
we love doing it for you.
So please give a call at
1-800-236-3636.
I love what Eric was saying about
discovery, which is something that's
really important to us here at PBS.
This film is all about discovery.
And people around the country have
discovered this film.
So talk about that a bit.
What's been the reaction?
Yeah, well, we were really amazed
when we, you know, made our first
film. It was broadcast just around
the upper Midwest.
And so when we came out with
decoding the driftless, we kind of
assumed the same thing.
You know, maybe Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, that, you know,
Illinois, perhaps.
And it ended up getting broadcast
in more than 42 states around
the country. So we're just
thrilled. So good to hear.
So many people have learned about
the drift less region through this
film.
Do you get to speak with
folks about this, too?
I mean, this is your life,
to put it broadly.
Well, I have a day job, but, yeah,
we definitely get to speak.
Well, and I met the Driftless as
your wife.
Oh, yes, the Driftless is definitely
my life.
Filmmaking is something I squeeze in
every now and again, but yeah,
it's been great to hear the reaction
from so many people who just
love and marvel at the Drifless
region.
This film, beautiful,
something not just the content,
which is wonderful, what you see,
but the way it's been put together.
We'll be able to talk about that a
bit more in the next break, I think.
So stay tuned, stay tuned and call
us 1-800-236-3636.
And let's take a final look at the
gifts before we return to the
program.
For a gift of $12 a
month, you will receive this DVD
or Blu-ray of Decoding the
Driftless.
Or for $12, a month you receive this
beautiful reader's edition.
For a gifts of $25 a
month you will recieve the book,
the DVD, this wonderful PBS
Wisconsin hat, which is the right
color, and also this print.
So please call us at 1-800-236-3636.
To this date, no natural surface
entrance to this cave has been
found, and the spring resurgence has
been gated off for safety reasons.
The only way to get to the cave
system today is here.
See you down below, guys.
So at some point,
they drilled this hole
down.
Somehow they had figured out that
down here is the best place
to actually get to the cave system.
The sinkhole cave gave us an idea of
what was going on, but this is just
incredible.
We're standing in an underground
river running through a tunnel large
enough to fit a train.
And we're lucky, there hasn't been a
whole lot of rain lately, so the
water is waist-deep at most.
Basically we're trying to traverse
back into this cave,
but it's tricky because every step
is different.
The biggest hazard is tripping, so
just go really slow.
Well, try not to
dunk the cameras, Jonas.
Woo!
Ho, ho, ho!
You can go back and forth on this
one and try it again.
That's gonna be cool
Okay, hold it.
Three, two, one.
The tunnel almost looks dug out.
But no human has had anything
to do with making this.
Only water.
Slowly, over time, eroding away
the limestone sedimentary rock and
creating a network of tunnels and
passageways.
In several places, we can see how
water is literally coming out of the
rock and feeding more water to the
underground river.
And just a short walk upstream, we
come across a whole rock covered in
fossils.
These are crinoids, ancient sea
lilies, relatives of today's sea
stars.
These were common in the subtropical
sea that covered this part of the
planet around 300 to
500 million years ago.
Nice.
You're breathing hard, like you're
working or something.
Yep, clear.
Good job.
That was fun.
And even if it feels like we've seen
a lot on this visit, it's only a
small part of the more than 17 miles
of tunnels that have been explored
so far.
Just want to remind everyone what
we're actually standing on here.
Check this out.
17 miles of tunnels under
this.
Having seen this spring resurgence
and knowing what it is like inside
this cave, how vast, how beautiful
the formations, whenever
I see another spring I
have the same thoughts and visual
emotions that come and just
flood me with what is that cave
system like.
There are a lot of caves spring
resurgences in the area,
some of them with higher flow rates
of water that are exiting out.
That only leads you to believe
that the cave system is even larger
than this cave system and
this one is already at 17.2
miles so far.
The interactions between the unique
geology and water have undoubtedly
given rise to many hidden mysteries
in the driftless region, and there
are likely many more that are yet to
be discovered.
What is even more interesting is how
this subterranean network of cracks
and tunnels continues to shape the
region also on the outside.
As it takes several years for the
water to filter through the
sedimentary rock, the temperature of
the springs that eventually exit the
bluffs stay cool all year round.
And has given rise to a rich and
diverse abundance of wildlife.
One example is the native brook
trout, which is a species that
depends on cold and clean water
to survive, and this is
an area where they thrive.
The driftless is today one of the
best trout fishing destinations in
the country, and it has the highest
density of cold water streams in
the world.
The springs and rainwater grows into
streams and eventually large rivers.
And just like underground, as the
water moves over the landscape, it
slowly eats its way into the loose
sedimentary rock layers.
It is this process that over a few
million years has created the
driftless and the as we see them
today.
When you're looking at a mountain,
it's usually an uplift event that
forced the landscape upwards.
Here, we had several erosion
events that carved the river
channel within the surrounding
landscape. So we have what we call
inverse topography.
This is the explanation to why all
the bluffs are the exact same
height.
The bluffs look totally different
from here, and they're all about the
same height.
The top of the bluffs is simply the
baseline where everything was at
some point.
And anything below is what has been
carved out and removed through
erosion.
By that process of chemically
dissolving materials and physically
eroding, picking up materials and
transporting that you ultimately go
from having this relatively
flat sedimentary rock to
having a landscape that has been
carved up and has this dendritic
pattern of streams that are found
all across it.
This so-called stream-dissected
landscape is what stands out from
surrounding areas where glaciers
wipe the slate clean.
But in some rare places, it is not
the water that comes out of the
bluffs that creates a unique
ecosystem.
Instead, it's the air.
George and Tim are taking us to a
spot in the forest that quite
honestly is a beast to
Now on the way to hike into
the woods.
I was going to go this way today,
but this is a jungle, so
let's head up the bluff.
We're looking for a strange and rare
habitat called an Algific Teloslope.
Pretty dense vegetation.
Ah!
Did you find it?
He said he found it!
Up here!
He found it. Tim found it!!
Finally found it.
This is the Algific Talos slopes
We want to be careful not to walk
over here because this is a very
fragile geology.
There's all this fractured
rock under here that the
cold air moves through.
The bluff is actually breathing
here.
There's air being taken in
a vent, probably 200 feet
uphill.
But there are places in this bluff
where there's ice from last winter.
Let's try and explain this.
Algyphic means cold producing,
and talus is a word for the broken
rock fragments that make up the
upper layer of the soil.
Inside of these bluffs, it can get
very cold.
Water that flows through the
limestone in the winter freezes and
can form ice caves that may stay
frozen all year round.
Air gets cooled down by this frozen
underground world and gets diverted
out of the bluff through vents in
the limestones.
This in turn generates a pressure
gradient that starts with air being
sucked in through the vents on top
of the bluff, down to the ice caves
where it gets cooled down, and then
pushed out through the talus slope
vents.
Yeah, this is kind of what it feels
like if I was to sit down here,
right here.
It's like I'm getting hit
with an air conditioner.
It is such an incredibly
distinct
temperature difference.
Standing up to sitting down.
So I have a
thermometer I
put in the slope here a
little while ago and let's check it.
Oh my God, it's
below freezing.
This thermometer is at 25 degrees.
Come and look, Jonas.
I don't believe you.
Verify it.
32 degrees and
it's down at like 24.
Okay and it is rising fast
as I bring it out.
Now it's going back up to freezing
but it was it was almost
down to 20 when I
had it down here in the vent.
20 Fahrenheit,
negative five centigrade for
us Europeans.
It's impressive.
Algific taloslopes only exist
here in the Driftless region and one
other place in West Virginia.
It is hard to think that any plants
would thrive under these conditions,
but there are some exceptions.
Like the beautiful Northern
Monkshood.
This rare flower has adapted
to live in the cold and fragile
soils of these Algific Taloslops.
In addition to the rare plants,
there are also a whole collection of
rare snails found only
here.
Pleistocene relics, so to speak.
Both the Pleistocene snails and
Northern Monkshood are listed as
federally endangered.
The casual observer though might not
realize how rare they are,
but we're basically seeing Ice
Age holdovers.
You come here you can see the
plants, the northern monk's hood and
other plants actually quivering
because this cold air is
is pouring out of the side of the
hill through these vents and so
the leaves are just quivering
away. It's really wild.
I think if I was to just walk
through this forest not
knowing anything about this I
probably wouldn't have
paid too much attention to it
except for these beautiful
purple flowers.
I would not have realized how rare
they are.
I would have not realized how
sensitive this whole
area is.
But it is knowing a little bit
about.
Makes it
really special to get here.
So this Algific Talus slope is
yet another example of how
the unique geology here in the
Driftless region creates
these natural communities that
are incredibly rare.
If we didn't have the sedimentary
rock layers in the
sequence they are,
and if we didn't have two
million years of streams cutting
down through this rock to create a
valley, and then the glacier's
missing all this to leave it here.
We wouldn't have algific towel
slopes with the bluffs actually
breathing air in the middle of
summer, just a little over 20
degrees clearance.
As much as these habitats are unique
because they're cold, the opposite
also exists.
We remembered a strange observation
we made from the airplane.
On several of the steep bluff
slopes, there were exposed patches
of what looked like clear-cut
forest.
But contrary to the hidden, algyphic
tallow slopes, these areas seem to
bake in sunlight.
So we took to the ground with local
experts Scott Letty and Caitlin
O'Connor.
It turns out these cleared patches
are actually not cleared at all.
Instead, they're another natural,
yet somewhat odd habitat.
The Bluff Prairies, and known by
many locals as Goat Prairies.
Similar to the Algyphic Talos
slopes, they are also home to some
very interesting wildlife.
There's some columbine blooming,
but this is the wild type.
This is the black-eyed Susan.
Oh, wild asparagus.
Oftentimes, when you're just
driving through the driftless and
you look at the Blufflin regions,
goat prairies kind of look like bald
spots in an otherwise forested
habitat.
But these bald spots are
very ecologically unique.
There's a couple of characteristics
that define the goat prairies.
The most important one being the
aspect or the direction
that these prairies face.
So you're only gonna find goat
prairies on southern and
western slopes on the
bluffs.
The second characteristic is
really shallow rocky
soils.
In the summertime, the sun
beats down and it makes it very
hot and very dry.
Similarly, in the winter time,
the sun is gonna beat down and it
melts the snow off of these
steep slopes.
And it makes this area
exposed to the very
harsh winter conditions that we
have up in the Driftless region.
So anything that thrives here
is a really tough
cookie. They're adapted to very
harsh conditions.
Not only are the bluff prairies home
to hundreds of species of plants,
this hot and dry habitat is also
perfect for some other rare species.
Most people would not associate
rattlesnakes with Minnesota, but
even if they are hard to find, the
steep bluffs are in fact home to a
population of timber rattlesnakes.
But as they
are very well camouflaged, finding
one requires some work.
And as the sun started to heat
up the rocks, we got lucky.
Rob, do you want to come here?
There's one in that bush.
There was a second one that
rattled at me.
And it's right now.
Timber rattlesnakes are generally
found much further south, but
because of the unique habitat,
this somewhat isolated population
still remains up here.
Timber rattle snakes are actually
quite docile and not aggressive at
all. Unfortunately, their numbers
have declined a lot, mostly due to
habitat loss and the general public
fearing these actually gentle
snakes.
In the early 1900s, this led to
a bounty on timber rattles snakes in
Minnesota and a bounty
that has now fortunately been
repealed.
Now work is focused on restoring the
prairies, such as through the
removal of invasive species and
restoring fires to this habitat.
This provides ideal places for birds
like the meadowlarks, bobolinks
and henslowe sparrow, in
addition to the amazing flowers and
rare reptiles.
Another interesting reptile that
lives up here is the six-lined
prairie race runner.
After getting heated up, they're
extremely fast and very shy.
The slide is movement and
they're gone.
Luckily.
We'll do caves if we don't get to it
in this first.
They locate rock crevices or burrows
below the frost line and go into
a state of hibernation.
To conserve heat even more, several
snakes, even different species,
often share winter dens like
this molting bull snake.
As the weather warms up in spring
and provides enough heat, the
reptiles emerge from their long
winter sleep.
Because of the long winters up here
and the abundance of natural dens
beneath the sound.
The habitat that is favored before
all others by these records south
facing of the bluff prairies.
You know, it's all about habitat,
don't have it, and you've
got nothing, it is all about places
like this.
For us, it is another example
of how these bluffs provide unique
opportunities for life this far
north that otherwise would not have
been possible.
With the cycles of glaciers that
came and went, we're actually seeing
features that have withstood
those ice ages.
We're seeing examples of places
where there's what we call refugia,
where there are species that lived
here during the colder climates and
they've actually hung on here in
little pockets because it
is an old landscape and because it
wasn't overrun by ice.
But to claim that we are just now
figuring this out and how special
this area is, couldn't be more
wrong.
The truth is that these bluffs with
the caves and the caverns, green
valleys and cool freshwater streams
have been sacred places for humans
and wildlife alike for a very
long time.
Rock paintings have been found in
caves deep underground.
And rock shelters by the soft
sediment bluffs display rock
carvings thousands of years old.
If you look at the underside of
a hawk or an eagle or
other birds of prey, if you've ever
seen the way that they fan out,
perhaps that's what you have here.
As for the rock art, it's
spectacular rock art.
We have both rock art that's
been done with pigments as well as
rock art that's incised into
the rock itself, so we
have different ways we have these.
Hi, hi, I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS
Wisconsin and Tim is here with
me.
You remember from the last time
around. And we also have this,
we have this.
Yeah. We have this!
You have this? I don't.
About this.
Well, we were thrilled that.
What is it?
Well, it's a regional Emmy award.
OK, there we go.
And we were thrilled that Decoding
the Driftless won a regional Emmie
award. So, you know, people must
have liked the film.
So that's it's very gratifying
as a filmmaker when people like the
film and you get awards.
So we've had the film in a lot of
different film festivals.
It's been on PBS and
we've and you said.
And you said in the last conversation,
over 40 stations?
Over 40 states.
Over 40 States.
That's a lot of stations.
It's been broadcast literally
hundreds of times around the
country,
and not just in Wisconsin do they
use it to raise money.
Even I think I heard in New York
State they were using Decoding the
Driftless as part of a PBS pledge
drive.
Speaking of raising money, this
is a challenge break,
where donors to PBS
Wisconsin have set aside a pot of
money to match your contribution
dollar for dollar.
So if you felt like contributing
$100, that becomes $200 to
PBS, Wisconsin.
This is the time to make your
pledge by calling 1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Natalie, a staff member
here at PBS Wisconsin.
Not all of us can venture into
these caves or go out
on the ledge, like what we see
in this documentary.
So for me, I am very glad
that this can be brought into my
home and I don't have to do it
myself. I can just sit back and
watch it all.
And this is what we're doing.
We're bringing it into your home
tonight.
And as a special thank
you, we have some gifts.
That we would like to send to you.
So if you would be willing
to give a gift of $12 a month,
we will be sending you either a
DVD, a Blu-ray of
Decoding the Driftless, or we
have this wonderful Driftlist
Regions reader book, which
is chock full of
experts from Mark Twain,
from Patty Lowe,
just a bunch of really amazing
authors.
And also with your generous gift
of $25 a month, you will
receive the book, the DVD, Blu-ray,
this wonderful green PBS Wisconsin
hat that you can wear while you're
hiking the Driftless region and also
a map of the Drifless region to
guide you on your way.
Thank you so much.
Please call 1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Eric Greiling.
I'm director of Friends of PBS
Wisconsin. And one of the best
ways you can become a member today,
right now, during this challenge
break, take advantage of this
challenge, we challenge
you. We wanna get to 25 calls during
this break.
And it's a great time to call
because your dollars will go even
further. And one the best way to
become that new member here is
to be a sustainer.
Being a sustainers easier for you.
It's easy on your budget.
It's simply a monthly.
Ongoing gift that's easily deducted
from your checking account or
from your credit card It's great for
us because it allows us to plan
ahead if you're already a sustainer
This is a great time for you to
increase that gift $2 a
month $5 a month $10 a
month whatever you can give now
Take advantage of the challenge
break by giving us a call going
online using that QR code do
call 1-800-236-3636
So I neglected to say that
Tim, Tim Jacobson, is
one of the producers of this film,
which is, to me, producers
are underrated.
I was a producer for a long time, so
I can say that. It's really
important. It's a really critical
job. They're the folks who are
responsible for making sure the
idea, the concept really comes
together.
They don't do all the work.
They have people who do the work,
but it's very important what they
do.
Well, we didn't really have people.
Well, you had a couple of folks.
Thank you folks.
One of the things that's fascinating
about this film is, and
I would never do this, being
underground.
That's something I'm gonna do.
When you start talking about, no,
I'm not doing that. But how was
that?
Well, I got to go into a
number of caves for making Decoding
the Driftless and each one was
very different.
And there were some times when it
was rather scary.
There was one of the caves had a
very narrow passage they called the
birth canal for good reason.
It was, you had to wiggle your body
through it. And I had
a little bit of claustrophobia.
That I remember that I would
have had more than a little bit.
I would not have even gone into that
cave I know enough, and I'm not
doing that but you did call us
there. He had a challenge call us
during this challenge break
1-800-236
excuse me three six three six
At PBS Wisconsin, we explore
and celebrate our state.
And this documentary tells one of
the oldest stories our state has
to tell.
And we are so thrilled to bring it
into your homes tonight.
And as a special gift, we have some
gifts for you.
A $12 a month donation
will give you either a,
we will give either a DVD or
a wonderful reader book.
And I have to say this driftless
reader book is chock full of experts
from famous authors that we
all know and love like Mark Twain,
Patty Lowe, and many others.
And a gift of $25
a month.
Which is very generous.
You will not only receive the
DVD, you will receive the book,
you will also receive this
wonderful PBS Wisconsin hat
that is one of my favorite colors in
the whole world.
I think it looks really good.
And also you will received this
print of the driftless region.
So if you are out there, you can
refer to it anytime you want to or
hang it on your wall and
go, this is such a beautiful part
of our state. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much and please call
1-800-236-3636.
It's great to hear the phones
ringing during this challenge break
when you can make your gift go even
further. We've got all the great
ways to say thank you when you do
that Natalie described.
We also have at all of
those levels a subscription to our
Airwaves magazine so you
can see the schedule.
And one of the other benefits of
being a member of PBS Wisconsin is
Passport, an even
deeper catalog of additional
programs, local programs like
this one.
National programs, international
programs.
Let's take a look at Passport.
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This film, one of the other things,
I love a lot about this film, but
one of things I love about it is
that you take us literally from
underground to what we can see to
above in the air.
And you're a pilot, and we show that
in the film.
So what's the difference for you?
What's the discovery when you're,
from that perspective, to what you
see when you just me walking
around? Because I'm not gonna be in
the cave.
Well, flying over the driftless
region is really spectacular.
I mean, it's just such a beautiful
landscape. It's so rugged.
And that aerial view
is just, you just can't beat that.
But it's more than just the beauty
that you get from the airplane.
You really do get a
different sense of the ecology
of the region.
It, it...
Kind of shrinks distances.
You know, when you can look out your
one side of the plane and see a
place like Richland Center and
look out the other side of plane
and maybe see over toward
Prairie du Chien and you
see that these places aren't so far
apart and you can see the different
habitats, the different terrains,
and you understand the connectedness
of the landscape, it's
really helpful and valuable.
And you know, that love
of this comes through in the film.
Sometimes people make films that
are, I don't wanna say cold and
distant, but this film is not.
You are right in it with people.
And you can tell that you guys
really care about the subject, about
the place, in addition to this film.
It's a beautiful film.
And it's a challenge break.
So call us at 1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I know you're really excited to
get back to the documentary, but
before we do, let's review the
gifts just one more time.
A gift of $12 a month,
you will receive this DVD,
Decoding the Driftless.
It's also available on Blu-ray.
You will also, for a gift of 12
dollars a month you will also
receive a book of a driftless
reader.
And this reader, I've been looking
through it on the breaks, and it is
just chock full of amazing experts
from many, many well
known authors.
That is just an enjoyable read
to have.
A gift of $25 a month,
you will receive the book,
the DVD Blu-ray.
You will also be able to enjoy
a nice PBS cap
as you're hiking through the
driftless area and enjoying
yourself.
Keep the sun under your eyes for
sure.
And also with the
gift of 25 dollars a month you
will received the print that is the
drift-less area.
It shows all the areas and all the
counties like Grand County and all
the counties that we know and love.
So please consider a gift
to PBS Wisconsin at
1-800-236-3636.
It is a challenge break.
We're just about halfway toward our
goal. Please give us call now
because when you join now,
your dollars will go twice as far.
Why?
Because of the generosity of
fellow members, members like
Meg and Richard
Labrie, who made a very special
gift. They made a gift to
challenge you, to invite you,
to join them as members of PBS
Wisconsin because they know this
service is valuable.
And they know that it depends upon
support from viewers like
you, viewers like us.
So please make that gift now, join
us as a member, join at one of the
levels that Natalie described, and
we'd love to say thank you.
This book is on my shelf, it's a
fantastic book.
Like this film, whether
or not you're very familiar with the
Driftless or just discovering it
for the first time, you'll find
things in here that are rich,
rewarding, and it's page-turner.
So please, do take advantage of this
challenge break, give us a call.
1-800-236-3636.
The DVD, you were just
saying, has more than is in
the, you cheated us in the program,
right? Because you had to get to
time. I know, I know.
It had more stuff, more good stuff.
So in the DVD, there's additional
material.
We have bonus videos on the
DVD. Bonus, that's what I meant to
say. Bonus material.
So we have a beautiful video
about tundra swans.
So we had this amazing Mississippi
Flyway and we
feature that, showcase that in that
video. We have a Places of
the Driftless video.
So if you watch the movie and you're
like, where is that?
I wanna go there.
We have video that tells you what
to do, where to go.
And so there's this wonderful
bonus content.
We've got this great music video, an
original song that that ends
the movie. We have a full music
video on the DVD.
So if people donate,
they get a DVD.
They get to see a lot more than what
they're seeing on television
tonight.
So all these reasons, the
most important reason is to make
sure that programs like this, of
course nothing's like this but
programs of this quality keep
coming to you at home.
That's what PBS Wisconsin does.
This challenge break is still going
and if you call even when we're
not speaking, it'll apply to the
challenge. So call us at
1-800-236-3636.
Make your pledge of support for this
beautiful program and all
the programs that we have on PBS
Wisconsin. You can count on us
because we count on you.
So, thank you.
Thousand years ago, if
you were on this site, there would
have been many fewer trees and
there would have literally been
hundreds of mounds visible.
You would have probably seen a large
central village site, perhaps some
satellite village site smoke rising
from campfires and the
human activities going on that would
have be part of daily life and
it would have been quite an
incredible sight to see.
We know the earliest people
in this area came to this
resource-rich part of
the world.
So this was a
habitation site for the earliest
Americans.
Think about how you would move about
the landscape without vehicles
or horses or any other way to
get around.
You'd be using the corridors
of the water.
Being nomadic, they're looking for
ways that they can get to places
where there's rich game.
And rich land in the
fall and protected areas in
the winter.
So a lot of these rugged
blufflands and driftless area
provided both of those things in
close proximity.
The mound building cultures lived
around a thousand years ago.
The purpose and shape of the mounds
varied.
Some were built as burial mounds and
others were made for different
ceremonial and spiritual purposes.
Using LIDAR technology, a technique
of scanning the ground with laser,
we now know that there are many more
effigy mounds than anyone ever knew.
In fact there are more of them here
than anywhere else in the world,
and because of that, the Effigy
Mounds National Monument was
established here in 1949.
But you have to recognize that
building mounds is not an easy
task. You have buffalo scapula
hose and reed baskets.
And it takes a lot of calories
and energy to build a
mound.
So you have have to have a
charismatic enough leader that
says, we're going to build a mound
today.
And then you have the buy-in from
the public that says or your people,
hey, okay, we'll build a mound.
Were they taking the dirt from
here and just putting it there, or
were they bringing it from down in
the river valley?
In some cases, they would actually
dig subsurface into the shape
they were seeking to identify.
And they would layer special soils,
in some cases brought from some
distances, in some case,
perhaps clean sandy
soils from springs, you know, where
you get that very sugar-sand look.
And in some, cases they would scrape
soil up from around the mounds,
and in other cases, they may indeed
tote them with baskets from
the nearby wetland or wherever.
And then the engineering acumen to
say 1,000 years after they've been
built, they're still here on the
landscape telling us a story that we
want to know more about, but they're
here as part of their cultural
landscape.
And then of course, the knowledge of
the skies, the sun, the stars, and
the moon, to have alignments where
those alignments do occur.
It's really incredible.
That's incredible.
Thanks for showing this all to me.
The effigy mounds are often made in
shapes of symbolized animals.
Why there's such a high
concentration of them here is still
not fully understood, but maybe
not so surprising.
The complex topography and
vegetation contain a range of
habitats that in turn support a rich
diversity of life.
But the big question is still how it
is possible that this area got left
untouched by the glaciers, allowing
this complex topographic to remain
when everything around it got level.
Yeah,
this is the place.
This is a nice spot.
This is Devil's Lake, one of
only two lakes in the Driftless and
a body of water created because
of the advancing glaciers.
It also marks the eastern edge of
the Drifless region.
And so right here, this is just
a really quirky, fortuitous
place that the ice came far
enough that if you look off here,
we can see the edge of
the driftless area there.
We can see edge of driftless there,
and then it extends behind us to the
west, all the way down to the
Mississippi River and beyond.
I thought about this so many times
that the glaciers
missed this part of
North America.
It is unique, and there's different
explanations for why
the ice stopped in different areas.
Off to the west, the ice was flowing
down out of the Canadian Rockies,
and it flowed to different distances
over different ice ages, and
it's partly a function of how far
the ice was able to flow with the
supply of ice, and partly it was
probably steered by the way
the bedrock outcrops in Iowa
and Minnesota.
If you go to the north of us,
The ice was trying to flow across
the Lake Superior lowland, which is
a tremendously deep hole in the
ground. And so that was in itself
just a natural impediment to ice
coming down towards the driftless
area from the north.
And then off to the east of us,
there's the Green Bay lowland and
the Lake Michigan lowland which are
troughs that are oriented
north-south and kind of steer the
ice straight to the south off
to east of the us.
And in addition, the bedrock
in central Wisconsin is bowed up
into an arch that deflected the ice
around the drift less area.
And farther north, the hard, rough
crystalline rock was a further
impediment to stopping the ice from
flowing any farther south.
Cores show that there were
fluctuations that indicate
there were as much as a couple dozen
ice ages over the last two and a
half million years.
So, yeah, when we talk about the
ice age, we're thinking of the last
one, but there were a couple dozens
that preceded it, and all of them
missed the area.
There are a couple of important
results from this.
We've already said that the
Driftless exists because it wasn't
covered by glacial ice.
But it's not exactly right
to say glaciers left the area
untouched.
Simply put, the Drifless region
is not what it is only because it
got spared by the glaciers, but also
because there were glaciers nearby.
At the center of the whole
Driftlass, like a mighty artery
through the region, connecting the
veins of water that carves through
the bluff landscape, is the mighty
Mississippi River.
Just like the rest of the land, this
was once flat ground composed of
layers of ancient marine sediment.
The huge amount of meltwater coming
from nearby glaciers is what started
the formation of this impressive
river valley.
Rob and I have had a chance to see
it from above several times and
every time it's just as amazing.
Just the thought that water alone
has carved all this out is somewhat
mind-blowing.
The Mississippi River was important
already to early settlers using the
waters to get around.
And it's just as important to the
people of the Driftless today, and
the rest of the country too for that
matter, as it is one of the largest
river systems in the world
connecting the north of the U.S.
With the Gulf of Mexico.
250 miles of the Upper Mississippi
runs through the Drifless area.
But there's also been times in
history when the river was a lot
deeper.
Geologists have measured that the
actual bottom of the river lies
another 300 feet deeper
than the bottom of river today.
When the glaciers were melting and
carrying sediment, that sediment
ended up in this river valley.
And it actually filled it up to a
level much higher than it is right
now with glacial outwash
sediment.
The same glacial water that carved
it out also refilled it with
massive amounts of sediment that
came with the water.
The huge amount of glacial sediment
also resulted in making the upper
Mississippi unique in some
other rather odd ways.
So we're at Lake Pepin right
now. It's actually a really unique
feature because it's the
widest part of the Mississippi River
and it's all natural.
The lakes are very rare in this
area. Well here we have a
natural riverine lake.
It's been in existence since the
glaciers were close by here
a little over 10,000 years ago.
And we have this natural system
where the Chippewa River is damming
the Mississippi River, creating Lake
Pepan. It's a pretty rare
and interesting phenomenon.
We can see huge amounts of glacial
sediments and sand that are still
partially damming up the Mississippi
today.
And fun fact, if none of this had
happened, there's a risk we wouldn't
have water skiing today.
It says lake city
the birthplace of
water skiing well we
couldn't really pass that up so we
got to get out on the river
Can you imagine?
Who would have guessed we would have
the last Ice Age thanks for all
this?
Now there's a fun fact to share at
dinner tonight.
Okay, so now let's get back to the
main story.
Okay, everybody in.
But hopefully we can see some cool
things while we're out here.
You can point out your favorite
bits.
I'm excited to just be out here and
see some of the diversity habitats.
Look at these beautiful little
beauties.
People are already setting up for
the weekend, starting to use the
beaches.
The Mississippi is a wetland of
international importance.
We call Rams our wetland.
So that means globally it's
been recognized as being that
important.
Really? Yep.
So we're in a National Wildlife
Refuge right now.
OK.
So what does that mean for
the river?
Yeah, what that means is
protection for conservation.
So refuges are managed for wildlife
first.
We also do have recreation.
People can come and fish and hunt.
But predominantly, most of what
we're doing out here is managing it
for wildlife.
That also involves informing the
public about the sensitive animals
in the reserve, like the many
species of turtles that come and
nest on the sandy beaches.
Come on up here, quick.
Oh, it's hot.
It's hot, hot, it.
Oh, oh, oh.
Ow, that's hot!
Oh!
You can see all of the eggs,
though, right here.
They've been predated, eaten by
something.
What do you think ate these things?
Snakes or raccoons?
One thing you can actually
see right at the moment, though, is
you can see the dugout
nest.
And then, and occasionally.
You can see the slide marks of the
turtles coming back down.
Wow.
But the main attraction when it
comes to viewing wildlife here must
be the birds.
Indigo bunting is the lowest.
Oh my goodness.
Look at that, we're so close.
I've never been that close to
a falcon before.
This is, for example, the summer
destination for over a hundred
species of migratory neotropical
songbirds like the chestnut-sided
warbler, northern paula and
American goldfinches.
Winters are spent further south, but
in the summer they come up here to
nest and breed.
In addition, the Mississippi River
is also a major flyway for migratary
birds.
That means the river functions as a
guidance for the aerial highway used
by millions of birds on their way
between summer nesting grounds in
northern Canada.
And the southern parts of the flyway
where they spend winter.
In fact, more than 320
bird species have been recorded
using the Mississippi Flyway each
year.
It is now mid-June, which means
right in between migration times.
Now let's fast forward 6 months.
It is said that over 40% of
the total population of waterfowl in
the US passed through this migratory
flyway.
During peak migration, hundreds
of thousands of tundra swans
and other waterfoul can be seen
feeding and resting in the pools of
the reserve.
And the abundance of food here makes
it a given stopover.
As a photographer and videographer,
this is something you kind of dream
about. You're surrounded by
this environment, the colors
of the bluffs, the white swans,
the contrast, the water.
This is why I became a wildlife
filmmaker and photographer.
The Driftless area is an extremely
unique area and birdwatchers
have taken note from all over the
country and even the world.
Birdwatchers love to keep a life
list where they keep track of how
many different species they've seen,
kind of checking off each species.
And the Driftlass area is a great
place for birdwatcher to come to
see a variety of species in
winter, spring, summer and
fall.
I realize it may look like we're
painting a picture of a wildlife
refugee freed from problems,
but the reality is not that easy and
it's not without help.
For example, programs like the
Driftless Area Trout Unlimited
Restoration Effort are working to
restore cold-water springs damaged
by erosion.
Where we can do restoration,
we can really restore
them to something that is really
rare in the world.
Bluff prairies have been
disappearing due to lack of
wildfires and the introduction of
invasive species.
Through prescribed burns and the
removal of non-native vegetation,
groups like the prairie enthusiasts
have managed to restore and protect
a lot of this rare habitat,
allowing some of the unique
biodiversity to remain.
And even private landowners are
signing up to protect their land
from further development.
We feel strongly that we want to be
good stewards of the land and
there's features on this land
ranging from rock art that's
up to 2,000 years old to
virgin you know red oak forest
and we wouldn't ever want to see
that developed so we want protect
it.
Unique habitats are often also
sensitive to change, whether it be
changing climates, new developments,
or things we do that affect the
environment, even if our initial
intentions were good.
The story of the peregrine falcon is
one example.
These top of the food chain
predators are the fastest animals on
the planet.
Nesting on the steep left sides,
peregranate falcons have had a great
symbolic importance to the driftless
for thousands of years, but recently
almost disappeared completely.
The greatest potentiality of DDT
lies in dispersal from planes.
The use of the pesticide DDT
that was developed in the 1940s
to help fight the spread of diseases
like malaria and typhus
almost caused them and other
raptors like the bald eagle to
go extinct from the American
continent, and the driftless was
no exception.
The organization Raptor Resource
Project was founded in 1988
by Bob Anderson who successfully
managed to breed falcons and return
them to the wild by releasing them
on the clips.
Artificial nest boxes were also put
up along the upper Mississippi
bluffs, and today the peregrine
falcons are back in numbers where
they are no longer considered
critically endangered.
But the continued work to protect
and monitor them and their habitat
is still crucial, which brings
us back to where this story started,
to the steep cliffs of the driftless
bluffs.
Alright, so we're on a big soybean
field up on the top of this bluff,
but over there is
a big cliff.
It overlooks the Mississippi River,
and we think that over there may
be the nest of a peregrine falcon.
Now whether or not this one actually
has chicks in it is yet to be
discovered.
We have all of our climbing gear,
and you'll find out.
I'm going down.
Now, here we go.
Climber to topside, over.
Four live babies.
I couldn't believe it when she flew
into that pothole.
I was like, oh my god, I think I'm
seeing things but you know, she went
in
That's music to my ears!
There are peregrine falcons
right in that nest.
How cool is that?
Today is an absolute success.
On the three bluffs we visited, a
total of seven healthy falcon isis
were found and tagged.
The next male band is K over
37.
With the color marker the way it is
and the big letters, like K over 42
for example, that's
more readily visible in a telescope.
The thing that got us extra excited
was that the IS's we found were in
natural nest sites on the rock.
So this is what's really cool.
There is actually a
nest box mounted on the
Rock Face, just maybe 40 yards
down that way.
But this is, what they've chosen is
natural crevice right on the rocks.
They've never used this hole before,
and it's a beautiful ivory.
It's dry, it's
out of the elements, it's
predator-free, coons can't get
here.
It's just one of the best iries I've
seen in a long time.
You know, this is a great story to
let people know.
I think it's really needed because
we see that they're
off the endangered species list.
You know people are monitoring them.
They appear to be healthy.
We've got them in urban areas.
We've them on natural cavities and
things like that.
So this really was the ultimate goal
was to get back to falcons
on the bluffs.
And we are so.
It's such a great feeling today to
have our second site that we're
out here today that we've actually
found for young falcons.
They're in a really nice little
pothole.
It's really what we're looking for.
Oh, man.
He's so calm.
He is very calm.
That was friggin'
awesome.
This is a success story that really
touched us, but maybe more
importantly, it is a reminder that
we shouldn't take what we have for
granted.
The falcons, as well as other birds
of prey, were almost gone,
and seeing falcons up close in their
natural habitat is something I was
dreaming of as a kid.
Now Rob and I have brought our kids
here to the Driftless.
We want our growing families to see
what it means to love a land as
special as this.
I want my kids to get to experience
the things I dreamt up when I was
growing up.
In small places like this,
ecosystems are very sensitive to
change. The Driftless region may
have survived many challenges in the
past, but that is no
promise it can do it every time.
It is up to us to make sure these
stories live on for future
generations.
For our kids.
It shouldn't only be something they
just learn about from a book or from
watching a movie, but to set feet on
the land and float the waters.
See the birds migrate.
Travel back in time and walk in the
footsteps of early explorers,
or find secret worlds that no one
knew existed, and to continue
to pass on the dreams to their
children.
But making sure that can happen is
up to us.
Hi, I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS
Wisconsin. And we're going to be
right back to the show.
We're going right back the show,
aren't we? Is the show over?
It's not over.
No, the show goes on.
It always goes on, but I'm here with
Tim Jacobson, who is one
of the producers of the show and
one of things we were talking about
was that, you know, if you go to a
state park, you can see
a lot of it.
If you go the Driftless, you
cannot see it all.
It's too big.
And you need to see in so many
perspectives, we talked about from
the air and from underneath.
So how do you take it in?
I mean, that's what's great about
this film.
You can watch this film!
Yes, you can watch the film.
And that's a great point.
I mean, the Driftless area is about
24,000 square miles.
So it's a huge, huge
area in that sense.
And so you can't see it all, not
easily, or certainly over a
lifetime.
But this film gives you a chance in
one hour to get a perspective
on a lot of the area.
Which is such an important thing
about PBS.
It gives you a chance to see things
you wouldn't otherwise be able to
do.
I love that.
So call us at 1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Natalie, a staff
member here at PBS Wisconsin.
And there is so much in
this film to take in
the beautiful views, the
information, the amazing
shots. I know I wanna watch
it again and you'll probably wanna
watch again too.
And tonight we have some wonderful
gifts that we'd love to share with
you with your donation.
A donation of $12 a month,
you'll receive a DVD or Blu-ray.
Or you'll receive this wonderful
driftless reader.
This reader is chock full
of amazing experts
from authors that you know
like Mark Twain and
Patti Lowe.
It's something that is just a
wonderful addition to anyone's
collection, anyone's library
collection in their house.
And a gift of $25 a
month, you will receive the DVD
or Blu-ray, the book.
This wonderful hat that says PBS
Wisconsin to wear while you're
hiking in the driftless area, and
also this wonderful print that
shows the drift list area map.
This map is a great resource for
you to have.
So thank you so much.
And if you could please call
1-800-236-3636.
Thanks.
Hi, I'm Eric Reiling, I am Director
of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
You probably know that
public media is facing some serious
challenges.
There are more challenges ahead and
some difficult decisions to make.
But I want you to know that we're
here to stay and that's
because of viewers like you.
You are the source of
support for us.
We're all in this together.
Let's keep PBS Wisconsin strong
together.
And it's because you value the
service. To value programs like
this. That you can't really
find anywhere else on your dial
or on your internets.
We bring you programs about
Wisconsin.
It's our specialty.
We bring it so much and there's so
much beyond the broadcast, our
education work, the work we do for
the emergency alerts system.
Please contribute to that.
Please keep PBS Wisconsin strong.
It starts with your call,
1-800-236-3636.
Another, I think, fascinating thing,
you talk about this in the film,
is people have lived in the
Driftless area for a long time.
It's true all over Wisconsin.
People have been here a long,
time. And how does that come
out? How do you see that in the
driftless area?
Well, one of the most remarkable
things about the Driftless is all
of the archeological evidence
that's been left behind by people
who lived here a very long time
ago. We had the mound building
people who built
effigy mounds, hundreds and hundreds
of mounds across the landscape,
maybe thousands of mouns, all
sorts of shapes and sizes.
I mean, bird effigies and
bears.
And there's even a man mound
or two in the Drifless.
There's this wonderful man mound
You know, it's just incredible to
see these things that have been
there for maybe a thousand years.
There's rock art in deep caves.
There's paintings.
There's carvings in the rock from so
long ago.
And most people would never get a
chance to see most of that.
It's just another example of
one after another of
discoveries that you
all reveal to us in this
great program.
Call us at 1-800-236-3636.
Thank you so much for joining us
tonight and watching.
With your gift, we do have wonderful
ways to say thank you.
A gift of $12 a
month, you will receive a DVD or
Blu-ray, or this
wonderful reader book that
is a great addition to
anyone's library in their home.
You can enjoy experts
from famous authors like Mark
Twain, Patti Lo, and just
a plethora of others.
So that is a gift of $12
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And you will also receive this
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print, and this print
is amazing because it shows
all of the counties that Tim talks
about in Decoding the Driftless,
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looks like in a visual that you can
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Thank you so much for joining us
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1-800-236-3636.
You know, I loved in the
last bit we were looking at how
actually you had fun,
you went water skiing.
It was great. I thought...
Well, not me personally.
Okay, but you did go.
I never got to do that.
When I was out on shoes, nobody ever
let me go water skiing, so what
are you going to do?
But another thing about this is you
found some strange,
there were strange things.
There was always, so, what were some
of the strange things?
Yeah, you know, so when I was a
kid, I was born up in northern
Wisconsin, in the Northwoods.
And when I 12, we moved into the
Driftless area.
And I was just taken aback by
how different the terrain was,
the animals, the plants.
It's so different.
And one of the things that was most
striking to me is there's prickly
pear cactus growing on the bluff
prairies and the sand prairies in
the Drifless area, and I'm like,
you know, to go from northern
Wisconsin to southwest Wisconsin,
to suddenly discover cactus and
rattlesnakes.
And you're not in Arizona, you're
still in Wisconsin.
Exactly, it felt like the desert
southwest and not nearly
as much snow was up north either.
So those were some really striking
things to me as a 12 year old.
But then in addition to that,
there's these cool habitats like the
Algific Talus slope that people get
to explore through the film,
things that most people would never
see in their entire lifetime.
So this is my last chance to talk
to you. It's been a pleasure.
And it's been such a pleasure, thank
you. It's such a to see this
beautiful film. Thank you for making
it and thank you for bringing it to
PBS Wisconsin and to people all
around the country, thank-you.
And thank you, for pledging
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