You
No
What am i?
You can throw it back and forth.
Yeah, there you go.
You still got hair?
Yeah, you got hair.
That's right.
You gotta 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 the haircut.
Yeah.
Oh, wait.
I'm James.
I'm Lily.
Hi, Lily.
I think we've met.
I've done camera.
You
Hi, I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS Wisconsin.
We're just taking a minute, well, a couple of minutes,
on this break from the news hour.
You know, we all know that this year has been
a pretty dramatic year for public broadcasting, radio and TV.
For more than 50 years of funding,
bipartisan funding support from the government is defunded.
Now, we're not going away.
I want to emphasize that.
It's going to hurt because it's going to make us change
a number of things.
There are some stations, not us, that are in real deep trouble.
We're going to be okay because of your support.
We will be here because you're here.
The only reason we do these programs is for you,
and the reason you're watching is because they make a difference.
The news hour, I think to me, is in particular one of the programs
that really defines public broadcast.
In other words, Sesame Street defines it for kids' programs
and Ken Burns defines it for documentaries.
The news hour, and here and now, our show, of course,
define it for public television here.
So call us at 1-800-236-3636 and pledge your support.
Hi, I'm Natalie Glom, and I'm a staff member here at PBS Wisconsin.
When you make your gift, you provide the financial resources
for the coverage you can count on for this year.
And we tonight have some wonderful ways to thank you for your support.
With a $10 a month donation, you will receive this beautiful PBS Wisconsin
winter hat, perfect timing as we head into these winter months.
The pattern includes the iHeart, PBS Wisconsin logo,
and it has a fun pom-pom on top.
A gift of $12 a month, you will receive this beautiful leather-bound book.
It is the U.S. Constitution and other writings.
Like I said, it is leather-bound.
It is beautiful.
It has the collection of crucial documents that helped shape our
United States of America, and this is a great collection,
or addition to your collection if you are interested in learning more
about how we were founded, and also going into our 250-year anniversary.
A gift of $15 a month, you will receive this beautiful yellow bee
insulated mug.
I cannot tell you how beautiful this design is.
Wisconsin wildflowers are incorporated into a Bumblebee design.
The Bumblebee is called the Rusty Pattern Bumblebee,
which is native to Wisconsin, and it is just beautiful.
It is, however, safer to just hand wash and not dishwasher wash.
And with a generous gift of $20 a month, you will receive not one,
not two, but all three of these wonderful items,
and what a great way to go into the winter season.
Please call 1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Eric Reiling.
I'm the Director of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
We are excited to hear the phones ringing already,
because, just like James said, together we can keep PBS Wisconsin strong.
I want to thank all of you who are already Sustainers,
who are already supporting PBS Wisconsin programs like this,
programs like here and now, with that monthly ongoing gift.
It is so important for us to have that continued, sustained support
in these difficult times as we're facing budget challenges.
I'm a Sustainer.
I have the hat.
I'd love for you to call, and let us say thank you to you
with one of our wonderful thank you gifts.
Do give us a call right now at 1-800-236-3636.
So, he has a hat.
I want a hat, hat, hat.
Thank you.
Okay.
So, the other day, I read a report that said that kids in this country,
teenagers in this country, not only don't watch or listen to news,
they don't believe that there is a news source they can trust.
And I thought, how did that happen?
And I thought, you know, parents, we're the ones who show our kids what's important.
When we redo our kids, they read.
When we watch the news hour, that's something they pick up on.
And I know, because you watch it, that your kids and grandkids,
when they get old enough to pay attention to these things,
probably not when they're 15, are going to pick up on this again.
That's why we're going to be here.
It's not just for today.
It's not just for tomorrow.
It's for 10 years from now.
It's for the kids who are going to be watching this down the road
because they will need this kind of fair, accurate information just as much as you do now.
So, call us at 1-800-236-3636.
The quality of PBS Wisconsin's service was built with member support,
one gift at a time.
That's how we move forward and that's how we move forward together.
So, if you choose, we can thank you with a gift back to you.
A $10 monthly gift, you will get this PBS Wisconsin winter hat.
It comes with a wonderful iHeart PBS logo and the wonderful pom-pom on top,
perfect addition to your winter attire going into this winter season.
A gift of $12 a month, you will receive this U.S. Constitution
and other writings leather bound book.
This book is chock full of crucial documents, speeches and other writings
of the people who shaped the United States.
And again, this is such a great collection that to add to your collection
going into this year as we are celebrating 250 years.
A gift of $15 a month, you will receive this beautiful yellow bee insulated mug.
Again, cannot express how beautiful this design is.
The wildflowers integrated, incorporated into the design of the bumble bee.
The bumble bee that is native to Wisconsin and also it is just a beautiful cup.
A gift of $20 a month gets you all three.
So please call us at 1-800-236-3636. Thank you.
When you're a member of PBS Wisconsin, there are so many ways to feel good
about making that gift.
You're really joining a community of members, stakeholders in this work.
That feeling of community is really important and it's something you can carry around
and say, you know what?
I'm making this gift not only because I value this service, I value the news,
I value the information, but I'm also making a gift to my community, my neighbors.
Not everyone is able to make that gift.
But if you are, it's a great time to give us a call to become a sustainer.
Let us say thank you to you with that gift of yours with a gift of ours,
all the gifts that Natalie mentioned, as well as at all of these levels,
we'll send you Airways Monthly Magazine and you are eligible for Passport,
a great catalog of additional viewing and content.
Give us that call at 1-800-236-3636.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
My grandmother.
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 and 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 10-30 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's 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.
Here.
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.
What'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.
I love you.
My name is Linda.
My name is Ranzisko.
This is our brief, but spectacular take.
I read him with my grandma.
And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org slash NewsHour 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 PBS.org slash NewsHour.
And that is the NewsHour for tonight.
I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the PBS NewsHour.
Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.
Friends of the NewsHour, including Jim and Nancy Bildner and the Robert and Virginia
Schiller Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, working for solutions to protect
water during climate change so people and nature can thrive together.
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, committed to building a more
important and peaceful world, more information at macfound.org.
And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.
This program was made possible by the contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
Thank you.
We're watching PBS.
Program support for PBS Wisconsin is provided by
The Mead-Witter Foundation Incorporated in Wisconsin Rapids.
Proud to support PBS Wisconsin.
Thank you to all those who contributed during PBS Wisconsin's membership drive.
Your support inspires, educates, and shares Wisconsin's stories, keeping our community
informed, engaged, and entertained.
There's still time to contribute, call or click today to make your gift.
This land is ancient.
Next, only on PBS Wisconsin.
This is Terry calling you about the hummingbird?
Sorry for father.
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 bloody dependent on me.
Oh, yes.
Tonight, 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 journalism, educational resources, and programs that celebrate Wisconsin strong.
Join your neighbors building the future of public media in Wisconsin.
Thank you.
PBS Wisconsin is hosting a sponsored tour with holiday vacations.
Join us next spring for a trip to England.
Visit iconic landmarks featured in many of your favorite PBS programs.
Visit pbswisconsin.org slash travel.
Hi, I'm Adrienne Palm, Director of Corporate Sponsorship at PBS Wisconsin.
Corporate support for public media transcends mere sponsorship.
It's a vital community investment.
By backing PBS Wisconsin, you're promoting access to education and helping foster civic discourse.
At PBS Wisconsin, we're not just broadcasting.
We're building bridges.
Let's lead by example together.
Please call us or visit pbswisconsin.org slash corporate.
Join us as we uncover the jewels of the North Woods, Wisconsin's scenic treasures.
North Woods.
Next Wednesday night on PBS Wisconsin.
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 is ancient.
It's ancient.
This is me.
My name is Jonah Stenstrom and I'm from Sweden.
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.
We've got to figure out which way deeper water is.
We're both biologists and filmmakers.
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.
We are in the Driftless region, an area located by the Upper Mississippi River from southern Minnesota,
Wisconsin to northern Iowa and a small section of northwestern Illinois.
The reason this region is special is in its name.
Driftless.
Drift, 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 mile thick pack of ice moved south from Canada and covered much of the northern part of the U.S.
Its destructive force crushed everything in its way and when the ice eventually disappeared,
the land underneath was forever changed, literally leveled 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 Driftless 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 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.
Hey.
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.
And Tim equally has 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.
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.
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.
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,
sink holes 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.
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 the striking topography that is characterizing the driftless.
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.
So 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 things 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 have had here 500 to 450 million years ago.
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 1,700 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 at 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 driftless is like a geological calendar
locking in many of the marine creatures that were present in these waters at different times.
Oh yeah, gasps the pond. Got it.
Jordan, show me from Dacora, Iowa. And it's my father, John, show me.
And also from Dacora. 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.
True story.
The flat spirals like these are called macularites.
The other ones with this spiral are gastropods.
Having started 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 it started a young age.
You hooked me.
This is amazing. Look at this particular rock.
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.
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 on the ground 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 a sinkhole.
All those? Those are sinkholes.
This is a sinkhole.
Anytime you see little patches of trees, that's pretty much a sinkhole.
Like this right here, right next to the road. That's right 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 of trees, you realize that it goes 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.
And so then we have the surface layer collapsing to the sub layer creating one of these sinkholes.
I'm right over the top of this sinkhole. Look how deep it is.
See how 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 capital 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 to the search.
Okay.
Until you're segmented with him.
Okay.
And I can come.
And I'm hiding this scenario.
Yes, by that too.
Any place, come on this road.
Does that work?
I don't know.
Or you can reach it too if you want it.
Okay.
Huh?
No, we're doing that in a later segment I think.
Always good to get the answers off.
Why not?
That's right.
Is this okay where this is hanging?
It might be.
Yeah, if you can just kind of tug it back.
So, be good.
And then can we get you plugged in?
Oh, you know you guys.
So good man.
There it was, everything was fine.
Why not make my shoes bare?
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 notes, they're pretty basic.
So how did it happen?
Okay.
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.
It'll be the one with the light on, well, we both have light sometimes.
Sometimes that's on, sometimes not, but it'll be the one you can see that's staring right
at us.
Okay.
Are you guys going to be doing two cameras on us, so one on him and one on me, or is it
going to be just us, two shot?
I believe it's just a two shot.
Okay.
So they'll have us both together.
Okay.
And you can look at me, or the camera, or back and forth, whatever feels comfortable to
you.
It's just a matter of what works for you.
So in the second one, the response to the film, sorry, second, second, second question,
the second element of this break, depending on where we get to, and we'll talk about
how people respond, what kind of things do you hear from people, because it's in four
states.
Yeah.
Right?
And I looked at the...
And Jim, you're the expert.
So, you know, just being on your expertise.
That's sure.
And James is a wonderful conversationalist, so...
So you've been run all over this area, but Lexington, Kentucky, Tallahassee, Florida.
Yeah, well, that's very outdated.
We've actually had it broadcast in at least 42 states.
Okay, that's important.
And those statistics are three years old.
42 states is great.
The minimum of 42 states.
Almost 50.
We're almost there.
So that's great.
It's been in Alaska.
It's been in New York state.
It's been in Arizona.
It's...
Good.
Pretty much all over the country.
Yeah.
Well, and depending on the markets here, and that reaches 99% of the people anyhow.
Right.
So that's great.
Good.
So you can say that, because I'll ask a lot of things like that, you know, it's been broadcast
a lot of...
So it'll be a conversation.
Sure.
You don't have to worry about talking for a minute and a half.
Okay.
Or keep on going.
Okay.
They will put up a...
She, the floor director, she's going to have a thing that's counting us down.
Okay.
And then she's going to get down.
Do you do it at 15 or...
15.
Okay.
15 seconds.
When we get to that, if you keep on talking, I'll sort of cut you off.
Okay.
The appropriate time.
I'm more likely to be looking at you than watching those cars.
That's fine.
I'm going to be going both directions.
But that's fine.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Hi.
I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS Wisconsin.
And we're just taking a quick break from decoding the wellness.
It is kind of the wellness, the 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 a sustainer, I've been a sustainer for a long time.
Together, we are going to 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 going to, 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 going to find it anyplace else.
And that's because our commitment
is to make programs that matter to you,
and make a difference to your programs that you value.
Programs are going to want to 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'm a little obsessed with the driftless 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 of $12 a month.
You can receive this beautiful book,
to accompany the documentary, decoding the driftless.
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 driftless 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 time you made an unexpected discovery?
Well, here at PBS Wisconsin, we want to take you there.
We want to take you there with programs
like decoding the driftless.
We want to take you to special places in Wisconsin
to discover for the first time or more deeply.
We want to take you all around the world.
We want to take you 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.
So get to introduce.
This is important.
Tim Jacobson, who is the one of the producers
and president of the Sustainable Driftless.
Did I get that right?
You did.
OK, 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.
How did this happen?
Yeah, well, the film, Decoding the Driftless,
was my second film about the Driftless region.
So we had my co-producer, George Howe, the late George Howe,
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 Driftless,
and which was released and broadcast on PBS in 2013.
Remember that?
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 a great company to the documentary.
And with a gift of $25 a month, you will receive
the DVD, Blu-ray.
You will receive 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 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 Driftless.
I'm originally a 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 driftless 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 driftless person,
or just a fan of the driftless, 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 us a call at 1-800-236-3636.
So 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 had discovered this film.
So talk about that a bit.
What's been the reaction?
Yeah, well, we were really amazed.
When we 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 driftless region
through this film.
And 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, I met the driftless as your life.
Oh, yeah, 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 driftless region.
This film, beautiful, something not just the content,
which is wonderful or 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 will receive
this beautiful readers edition.
For a gift of $25 a month, you will receive 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.
Yes.
You
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.
So at some point they drilled this hole down. Somehow they had figured out that down here was 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 waters waste 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 it's still really small.
Well, trying not to dunk the cameras done.
We'll go back and forth on this one and try it again.
Oh, that's going to be cool.
Yeah, hold it. Three, two, one.
The tunnel almost looks dug out.
Yeah, that's right.
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.
Yep, clear!
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.
I just want to remind everyone 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 and spring resurgence in the area.
Some of them with higher flow rates of water that are exiting out and 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 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 bluffs as we see them today.
When you're looking at a mountain, it is usually an uplift event that force 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. 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 and 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 find.
Now, on the way to hike into the woods.
I wasn't 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.
Whew!
Put it down, it's vegetation.
Ah!
Did you find it?
Hello?
He said he found it!
Up here!
He found it!
Tim found it!
Well, he finally found it.
This is the algific teloslopes.
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 an event, probably 200 feet uphill.
But there are places in this bluff where there's ice from last winter.
Let's try and explain this.
Algific means cold producing, and talus is a word for the broken rock fragments that make up the upper layer of this 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 limestone.
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 taluslope 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, just from 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.
Yes.
Come and look, Jonas.
I don't believe you understand it.
32 degrees, and it's down at like 24.
Okay, and it's rising fast as I bring it out.
Now it's going back up to freezing, but it was almost down to 20 when I had it down here in the vent.
Twenty Fahrenheit, negative five centigrade for us Europeans.
It's impressive.
Algific taluslopes 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 monk's hood.
This rare flower has adapted to live in the cold and fragile soils of these algific taluslopes.
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 monk's hood are listed as federally endangered.
The casual observer, though, might not realize how rare they are, but we're basically seeing ice age holdovers.
As you come here, you can see the plants, the northern monk's hood and other plants actually quivering, because this cold air 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, you know, paid too much attention to it, except for these beautiful purple flowers.
I would not have realized how rare they are. I would not have realized how sensitive this whole area is.
But just knowing a little bit about this makes it really special to get here.
So this algific taluslope 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 2 million years of streams cutting down through this rock to create a valley, and then the glaciers missing all this to leave it here, we wouldn't have algific taluslopes.
The bluffs actually breathing air in the middle of summer, just a little over 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
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 bluffslopes, they were exposed patches of what looked like clear cut forest.
But contrary to the hidden algific taluslopes, these areas seemed to bake in sunlight.
So we took to the ground with local expert Scott Leddy 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 algific taluslopes, they're also home to some very interesting wildlife.
There's some Columbine blooming, but this is the wild type.
This is the black-eyed season. Oh, wild asparagus.
Oftentimes, when you're just driving through the driftless and you look at the bluffland 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, and the most important one being the aspect or the direction that these prairies.
So you're only going to 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 wintertime, the sun is going to 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.
This is obviously a great sign that they are here, so let's see if we can actually find a live one.
I'm going to put this one back where I found it.
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.
Do you want to come here?
It's one in that bush.
It was the second one that rattled at me.
And it's right now out there.
Timber rattlesnakes are generally found much further south.
But because of the unique habitat, this somewhat isolated population still remains up here.
Timber rattlesnakes 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 rattlesnakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin, 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 metal arks, bobblings, and henslow 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 slightest movement and they're gone.
Luckily, we will 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 state of hibernation.
To conserve heat even more, several snakes, even different species, often share winter dens, like this malting 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 ground, the habitat that is favored before all others by these reptiles.
That is south-facing bull sites of the bluff prairies.
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's species that live 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 harvings 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 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.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm James Steinbach. I'm a volunteer here at PBS Wisconsin, and Tam 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 have this. Talk about this.
Well, we were thrilled that... What is it? Well, it's a regional Emmy award, and we were thrilled that decoding the Driftless won a regional Emmy award.
So, you know, people must have liked the film, so 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 won.
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? 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'm 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 Blu-ray of decoding the Driftless,
or we have this wonderful Driftless 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 Driftless region to guide you on your way.
Thank you so much. Please call 1-800-236-3636.
Hi, I'm Eric Grilling. 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 break, we challenge you.
We want to get to 25 calls during this break, and it's a great time to call because your dollars will go even further,
and one of the best ways to become that new member here is to be a sustainer.
Being a sustainer is 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 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've had a couple of folks.
We had a few folks.
Now, one of the things that's fascinating about this film is, and I would never do this, being underground.
That's something I'm going to do. When you start talking about, no, I'm not doing it. 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 that had a very narrow passage.
They called the birth canal, for good reason. You had to wiggle your body through it.
And I had a little bit of claustrophobia doing that.
I remember that. I would have had more than a little bit. I would have not even gone into that cave.
I know enough. I'm not doing that. But you did.
He had a challenge. Call us during this challenge break.
1-800-236. Excuse me. 3636.
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 you 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, Pattilo, 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 receive this print of the driftless region.
So if you are out there, you can refer to it any time 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, or national programs.
International programs. Let's take a look at passport.
You're watching PBS Wisconsin because you love what you find here.
From dramas and documentaries to travel and journalism.
What could be better? How about even more shows you love?
When you want to watch them. Wherever you stream TV, look for PBS.
You'll find us anywhere you select your streaming services.
And we have free on-demand shows for you to enjoy anytime.
Plus, when you support PBS Wisconsin, your member benefits can open up even more to explore.
With PBS passport, it includes more than 1200 titles with new favorites from PBS and beyond.
Even dramas from around the world.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
Your investment makes PBS Wisconsin possible for you, your family, and your community.
So join with a gift at any of the levels we're suggesting.
And then join in even more adventures with PBS passport.
This film, one of the other things, I love a lot about this film.
But one of the things I love about it is that you take us literally from underground to what we can see to above in the air.
And your pilot, and we show that in the film.
So what's the difference for you?
What's the discovery from that perspective to what you see when you're just me walking around?
Because I'm not going to 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 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 the plane
and maybe see over toward prairie to sheen.
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 want to 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 a month, you will 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 TVS cap as you're hiking through the Driftless area and enjoying yourself.
Keep the sun out of your eyes, for sure.
And also, with the gift of $25 a month, you will receive the print that is the Driftless 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 LeBrie,
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 a page-turner.
So please, do take advantage of this challenge break.
Give us 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.
You had more stuff, more good stuff.
So in the DVD, there's additional material.
We have bonus videos on the DVD.
That's what I meant to say.
Bonus material.
So we have a beautiful video about Tundra Swan.
So we have, you know, 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?
If you want to go there, we have a 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 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, because nothing's like this,
that 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.
MUSIC
A 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.
He would have probably seen a large central village site, perhaps some satellite village sites, smoke rising from campfires,
and the human activities going on that would have been part of daily life.
And it would have been quite an incredible site 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.
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 to have a charismatic enough leader that says we're going to build a mound today.
And then you have to have the buy-in from the public 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 cases, perhaps clean sandy soils from springs.
You know, you get that very shoot or 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 a thousand 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 still 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.
That's really incredible.
That's incredible. Thanks for showing this all to me.
You bet.
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 topography to remain when everything around it got leveled.
Yeah, this is the place.
Yeah, 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 Driftless 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 the edge of the Driftless area there, and then it extends behind us to the west,
all the way down to the Mississippi River and beyond.
I've 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 the east of us.
And in addition, the bedrock in central Wisconsin is bowed up into an arch that deflected the ice around the Driftless area.
And farther north, the hard-rough, crystalline rock was a further impediment to stopping the ice from flowing any farther south.
Chores 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 dozen 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 glacious left the area untouched.
Simply put, the Driftless region is not what it is only because it got spared by the Glacious, but also because there were glaciers nearby.
At the center of the whole Driftless, 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.
It runs on 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 Driftless 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 the 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 Pepin.
And it's a pretty rare and interesting phenomenon.
We can see huge amounts of glacial sediment and sand, but are still partially damming up the Mississippi today.
And fun fact, if none of this had happened, this at 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 dinner tonight.
Okay, so now let's get back to the main story.
Yeah, everybody in!
Well, hopefully we can see some cool things where we're out here.
You point out your favorite bit.
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.
So we're in a National Wildlife Refuge right now.
So what does that mean for the river?
Yeah, what that means is protection for conservation.
So, refugees 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.
These species of turtles that come and nest on the sandy beaches.
Come on up here.
Oh, Tom!
Oh, that's hot!
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 dug out nest.
And then, occasionally, you can see the slide marks of the turtles coming back down.
Wow, fortunately.
But the main attraction when it comes to viewing wildlife here must be the birds.
It's immigrant bungeeing as well as...
Oh, my goodness!
Yeah.
Look, that was so close.
I've never been that close to a fountain before.
This is, for example, the summer destination for over 100 species of migratory neotropical songbirds,
like the chestnut-sided warbler, northern Paola, 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 migratory 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 six months.
It is said that over 40% of the total population of waterfowl in the U.S.
pass through this migratory flyway.
During peak migration, hundreds of thousands of tundra swans
and other waterfowl 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 of water.
This is why I became a wildlife filmmaker and photographer.
The driftless area is an extremely unique area and bird watchers have taken note
from all over the country and even the world.
Bird watchers 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 driftless area is a great place for bird watchers 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 refugia freed from problems,
but the reality is not that easy and is 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 red oak forest.
And we wouldn't ever want to see that developed, so we want to 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 bluffsides, Peregrine falcons have had a great symbolic importance to the driftless for thousands of years,
but recently almost disappeared completely.
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 cliffs.
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.
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, it has to be discovered.
We have all of our climbing gear, and you'll find out.
I'm going down.
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've seen things.
But, you know, she went in.
Perfect competition.
That's music to my ears.
There are Peregrine falcons right in that nest.
That was cool.
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.
That's right.
With the color marker, the way it is, and the big letters, you know, like K over 42, for example.
That's more readily visible in a telescope.
The thing that got us extra excited was that the ISS we found were in natural nest sites on the rock.
So this is what's really cool.
There's actually a nest box mounted on the rock face, just maybe 40 yards down that way.
But this is what they've chosen.
There's natural crevice right on the rock.
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 areas I've seen in a long time.
You know, this is a great story to a lot of people now.
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 got them on natural cavities and things like that.
And 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 sight that we're out here today, that we've actually phoned for young falcons.
They're in a really nice little pot hole.
It's really what we were looking for.
Oh man.
He's so calm.
He is very calm.
That was freaking 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 of 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.
Thank you.
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 to the show, aren't we?
Here's 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 the 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 to 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, well, that's what's great about this film.
You can watch this film.
Yes, we've solved it for you.
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 areas.
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 want to watch it again, and you'll probably want to watch it 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 a blue ray, or you'll receive this wonderful driftless reader.
That reader is chock full of amazing experts from authors that you know like Mark Twain
and Patty Lowe.
It's something that is just a wonderful addition to anyone's library collection in their house.
And a gift of $25 a month.
You will receive the DVD or blue ray, the book, this wonderful hat that says PBS Wisconsin
too, where while you're hiking in the driftless area.
And also this wonderful print that shows the driftless 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.
Hi, I'm Eric Reiling.
I'm 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.
You value programs like this that you can't really find anywhere else on your dial or on your Internet.
We bring you programs about Wisconsin.
It's our specialty.
We bring you 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.
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 archaeological 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 mounds, all sorts of shapes and sizes.
I mean, bird effigies and bears.
There's even a man mound or two in the driftless.
There's this wonderful man mound that, 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 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 Lowe, and just a plethora of others.
So that is a gift of $12 a month.
A gift of $25 a month.
You will receive four items.
So you'll receive this beautiful green PBS hat.
And you will also receive the DVD or Blu-ray, the reader book.
Again, great addition to anyone's home library.
And you will also receive this wonderful driftless area print.
And this print is amazing because it shows all of the counties that Tim talks about in decoding the driftless.
And it spells out like what this looks like in a visual that you can look and see and enjoy all for yourself.
So please, think about a gift with us. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
And please call 1-800-236-3636.
Yeah, I loved it in the last bit we were looking at how...
Actually, you had found 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 north woods.
And when I was 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 driftless 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 filling Wisconsin.
Exactly.
It felt like the desert southwest.
And not nearly as much snow as 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.
You know, 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 been such a pleasure 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 1-800-236-3636.
Public media was invented here in Wisconsin.
And from those beginnings, over 100 years ago,
we've been committed to finding the positive influences of media,
using media in new ways, in inventive ways to further the good of the people of Wisconsin
and as far as we can reach.
That started with education, that started with science, exploration.
We want to continue to give you those places where you can explore,
discover, learn, even find comfort.
And it all starts with you.
It's because of your support.
Let's keep PBS Wisconsin strong together.
As we move through these challenging times,
we've seen a tremendous surge of support from friends, neighbors,
people in the community, people in your community,
people all across the state giving at every level that they're able to give at
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We're proud of Wisconsin.
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And again, it's thanks to you.
So thank you so much for your support.
If you can, show your support now.
Give us a call at 1-800-236-3636.
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