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- Welcome to a brand new season of "In Wisconsin"
and in our new time slot, 7:30.
I'm Patty Loew.
This week, an investigation into an environmental threat.
- I asked, if you get in contact with this,
how long does it take to kill you?
- What secrets are below the surface in Ashland.
Plus, the hunt is on.
An update on the controversy surrounding
Wisconsin's black bear hunt.
And it's homecoming in Madison.
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- So how did this fight song
almost become a Minnesota fan favorite?
Strike up the band.
"In Wisconsin" is next.
- Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by:
the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable
and environmentally friendly energy to keep homes,
neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, we're on for you.
And by the Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee and Oshkosh,
a veterinary team working with pet owners
and family veterinarians throughout Wisconsin,
providing care for oral disease and dental problems
of small companion animals.
With additional funding provided by Bike Wisconsin.
- On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
issued a decision on how to clean up a toxic waste site
in one of the most pristine areas of Wisconsin.
Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay
was declared a Superfund site in 2002,
but the problems in the bay go back decades.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Art Hackett
and Kate Golden with the University of Wisconsin
Center for Investigative Journalism
go in search of answers to a controversy
that's been simmering just below the surface in Ashland.
- Ashland may offer the most idyllic setting ever
for a hazardous waste site.
It's surrounded by a marina,
a neighborhood of tiny houses adorned with flowerbeds
and a beach where children play.
The water has been tested and found safe.
But not so on the other side of this jetty.
Nearby is another beach.
It's kind of unusual in that it's not made out of sand.
It's made out of wood chips.
But what's of more importance is what's under the wood chips,
a gooey, tar-ry substance.
The compounds include benzene,
a cancer-causing component of gasoline,
and agents known as poly aromatic hydrocarbons.
- The same compounds that are in chimney soot.
So, some of the earliest studies on cancer
associated with creosote were studies
of the chimney sweeps in England.
- Kim Bro was a toxicologist with the
Wisconsin Division of Health at the time
the Ashland investigation began.
- The cancers typically are associated with
the skin contact with it and so you'll get the melanomas.
- In 1995 he recommended posting warning signs
for fear swimmers would come in contact with the tar.
- If you were to dig down through this material,
the deeper you get, the more tar you run into.
- DNR project manager Jamie Dunn says the mix
of wood chips and chemical sludge extends through
a park-like area all the way to the base of the bluff
which borders Ashland's downtown.
- In 1989 I was working in Madison
for the Bureau of Wastewater Management.
- Which is why Dunn was sent all the way from Madison
to investigate the problems at the city
of Ashland's sewage treatment plant.
City employees like John Radloff were encountering problems
while digging ditches for a new sewer line.
- Mostly when we would be digging
we would run into this oily slick
that would always be on top of the water, the groundwater.
It would be on your boots and clothing
and stuff like that.
And, yeah, it was-- it was-- it was a pain.
We often wondered if this was anything
that could harm us in the long run.
- Where did the tar come from?
People who live in the neighborhood
say it's been on the site for decades.
- I've seen the black gooey stuff
when I was a kid down here because there was pits.
- Ashland city councilwoman Joyce "Pepe" Kabasa
has lived in the neighborhood
above the treatment plant for her entire life.
Her husband Joe is also familiar with the tar.
- We played on it a lot.
We even-- we even picked up gobs of it and chewed it.
- Many Ashland residents assumed the tar ponds
were used to creosote timbers
by the huge Schroeder Lumber Mill
which was on this site until 1931.
Ed Monroe is the former mayor of Ashland.
- There were open pits of tar
kind of built right into the beach,
and they literally would dump the railroad ties
and the timbers in there to treat them.
- I went into it looking for a creosote operation.
Um--
We even called it the creosote investigation.
- But as testing continued to assess the extent
of the contamination in the fields
next to the treatment plant,
Dunn found another possible source.
- This area here in the documents
is always denoted as the seep area,
and up until not that many years ago,
water would bubble to the surface.
Tar would actually bubble to the surface here.
Everything led us up to the mouth of that ravine,
all of it, just the concentrations kept getting higher.
We noticed-- We could tell the mouth of the ravine
was the source for the contamination down here
and at the top of the ravine was a manufactured gas plant
and it all fit together.
- Manufactured gas was used to light houses
before the advent of electricity.
The Ashland plant heated coal and liquid petroleum products
in an oxygen-free reactor vessel
to generate gas up until 1947.
Coal tar is a waste product of gas manufacturing.
And as recently as 1987,
there was coal tar on the site of the gas plant.
According to this handwritten report from a DNR inspector,
workers installing a sewer line
had struck a 15-foot diameter pit full of tar
under this parking lot across the street
from the Kabasas' house.
This 1994 DNR memo stated
the contaminants along the lakefronts
are coal tar waste from the plant.
- In 1998 the state of Wisconsin DNR
came up with a draft feasibility study
for the city-owned portion and the bay.
Um-- We--
I guess there was a lot of resistance to that plan.
- From whom? - Well, the utility.
- The utility is NSP Wisconsin,
a unit of Xcel Energy.
They feel there was another source for the contamination.
- I think the information
that we've been able to generate and provide
to the EPA has shown that Schroeder Lumber Company
was a major industrial facility on the bay,
right where this contamination is located.
We believe that they did operate a wood treatment facility,
a rather extensive wood treatment facility,
and that they did contribute large quantities
of contaminated material and contamination to the site.
- The State of Wisconsin disagrees.
- The State of Wisconsin's feeling is,
no significant wood treatment happened
at Schroeder Lumber Company.
- The standoff over where the tar came from
and thus who picks up the tab for cleaning it up
has gone on for 15 years.
People who live and work
near Kreher Park have waited and wondered.
- I myself have had skin cancer, but that's with my fair skin.
It would be pretty something that would be hard
to point a finger at and say that it's directly
from the Superfund site.
- I asked the question when they first started this.
I asked, how long if you're-- if you get in contact with this,
how long does it take to kill you?
And, well, "We don't know that it does."
- Just this week, the Environmental Protection Agency
came up with a three-pronged plan of attack.
First, a section of Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay
would be drained and then dried so sediments
and wood waste on the bottom could be dredged.
Two, contaminated soil on the shore will also be removed.
And, third, a system to treat contaminated groundwater
will be required.
Next week, the investigation continues
as Art Hackett explores the blame game.
Why has this case dragged on for decades?
And where is the DNR pointing the finger now?
The answer is next Thursday at our new time, 7:30.
Our partner, the University of Wisconsin
Center for Investigative Journalism, will release
its findings on the Ashland Superfund site later this month.
In the meantime you can go to its website,
WisconsinWatch.org to check out other investigations.
Another legal fight might be the only way
to settle this next dispute.
Wisconsin's black bear hunt is underway right now,
and that's creating a clash in the Northwoods.
The return of the gray wolf
to its natural hunting grounds in our state
has been contentious at best.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Jo Garrett shows you
what's on the line near Clam Lake.
- Deep in the heart of the Chequamegon National Forest,
Rob Stachel of New Richmond is checking his bait station
as a part of the prep for the bear hunting season. - Bear trap right there.
Rob checks the sandy scratch pad for tracks.
- This is his pad. His toes are right there.
- Rob's fellow hunter and friend, Amy, of Minong,
checks another bait station.
- Is there a bear track here. It's a good-size track.
It's about a three-inch pad.
- Other animals will walk through... - That's coon there.
- ...but the one track they don't want to see is this one.
- This is a timber wolf track, right here in the bait.
You can see he's going this way.
This is his pad on this side here.
It's kind of a triangular pad,
two front toes, side toes.
(Dogs howling)
- Rob and Amy hunt bear with hounds.
(Dogs howling)
- We bring the dogs out and run the bear and hopefully tree him.
- Of the surrounding states, Minnesota and Michigan,
that have wolves, Wisconsin is the only one
that allows bear hunting with hounds.
(Dogs barking and howling)
Here's the problem.
When the hunting pack is let loose to track the bear--
- Sounds to me like they got it.
- ...even on a training exercise like this one,
these hounds are on their own in these woods,
woods that may have wolves.
- I lost dogs in August of 2004.
I saw the bear cross the road.
It was a long straight away, about a half-mile.
I saw my two dogs cross. Drove up there.
Didn't hear any barking, which is not normal.
I walked in thinking I was going to find them
struggling to find a bear track along the swamp.
About 200 yards off the road I found them dead.
It was probably a 75-pound hound ten minutes before that
and the only thing left is ten pounds worth of legs and spines.
- Wolves tend to be very shy, timid, but by nature
they are canines and they can be very territorial
when they cross other canines.
- That is a future bear hunter right there.
- Particularly like other canines
when their pups are small.
Wolves will kill a wolf from another pack
that crosses their territory
and they'll kill hunting hounds too.
- There's times when we ran dogs and they've
crossed the road and wolves start howling
and we have to run and get the dogs, 'cause--
I mean they're like our kids to us and we don't want
anything to happen to them.
- Hound hunting is a family tradition for Rod.
His dad put on demonstration hunts
when the DNR was first considering bear hunting
with dogs back in the 1960s.
But back in the 1960s, there were no wolves in these woods.
Wisconsin's wolf recovery plan has met its stated goal.
The target population was 350 wolves.
Wisconsin now has more than 136 wolfpacks,
and estimates place the population at more than 700.
- Now, in a case like this, I'm assuming
this is probably the alpha pair right here
where the male is following the female.
- Adrian Wydeven is the point man
for Wisconsin's wolf recovery program,
a mammalian ecologist for the Wisconsin DNR.
Wydeven has labored for decades
to return this iconic animal to our state.
And he's not unsympathetic
to the concerns of hound hunters.
- I'm a dog owner and I guess I'd hate
for some predator to kill my dog, as well.
- Is bear hunting with hounds on a collision course
with this increase in wolves?
- The dogs and the bears have gone Northeast
into this next section, which is also five or six miles wide,
and three or four miles tall, so that's also a pretty good size section.
- These dogs are alone in big tracts of land.
It's the nature of hound hunting.
- You're not right with that dog. Here, boys. (Adrian calling dogs)
- People that grouse hunt or pheasant hunt with a dog,
they're generally always within contact or eyesight of that dog.
Running hounds is different.
(Dogs barking)
- By law, bear hunters can have
up to six dogs out at one time. - Where are you?
- I'm right by the Iron River bridge.
- You want to do me a favor? when you get to where the dogs crossed the road can you stop?
- Keeping track of those dogs...
(Tracking radio chirping)
...in these deep woods can be a tangle.
They use radio telemetry.
(Tracking radio chirping)
They listen for barking.
(Dogs barking in the distance)
- I can hear them pretty good. They're not far off the road.
- Okay. Let me know if you think they're moving or not.
- They call. - (Adrian whistles for dogs)
- You're always worried about your dogs.
- Here comes a couple of our last dogs.
I think the bear officially just won this race.
- While they're in the woods, really the only deterrent
from wolves is this $2 bell. (Bell jingles)
- It's a nonnatural sound, it's a man- made sound
that they're not used to hearing in nature.
They perceive this dog as just another canine
and no other canines have a metal (Jingle)
when they run, it makes quite a bit of noise.
Probably the first few times they come across a dog with a bell on it,
it probably works. Eventually, that'll wear off.
- And these dogs are often out for a long time.
- He was out, and moving, chasing the bear
for probably over five hours today.
- What are we willing to give up or tolerate
for the return of an endangered species?
- Used to be kind of care-free,
didn't have to worry about such things that--
- Rod is on the board of directors
of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association,
which has pushed for wolf de-listing for years.
That may happen.
The Wisconsin DNR has requested that the gray wolf,
an animal once trapped out of our state,
be de-listed as a federal endangered species.
It's the third time that the wolf has been on and off
the endangered species list as the process of de-listing
has wound through various court challenges.
Will it go through this time?
- That's his toenail mark there.
That's another one there.
- The Northwoods are different now for hound hunters.
There are wolves on these public lands
where they run their dogs.
There are risks that weren't there before.
- I think there's two kinds of risks.
If I come out here and put a dog out
and try to chase a bear and if the bear mauls that dog,
that's kind of an acceptable risk.
But if I'm out here in pursuit of bear
and six timber wolves chase my dog down and kill it,
that's kind-f outside the scope of what I was doing.
- But what if there was a season on wolves
and wolves mauled his dog?
- If there's a wolf hunting season
where you can use hounds to hunt wolves, then obviously not.
That goes back to me putting a dog out after a bear.
And if the bear bites it, that's acceptable risk.
- What's acceptable in bringing back an endangered species?
What numbers are necessary for the animal?
What numbers will the public support?
- Wisconsin is the only state that compensates bear hunters
who lose a hunting dog killed by a wolf.
Last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
said it would investigate petitions from Wisconsin
and Minnesota asking that the gray wolf be removed
from the endangered species list.
A final decision will come within the next year.
Hunting is one fall tradition.
Homecoming is another.
This is homecoming week for those who like to wear red in Madison.
Bucky takes on the Gophers Saturday.
So to honor the Badgers, we take a look at
the "On Wisconsin" fight song.
Videographer Chuck France shows us how it almost
became a Minnesota fan favorite.
Say it isn't so!
- [Leckrone] Exactly 100 years ago today in the Red Gym
just down the street a little bit,
the university glee club performed for the first time
the song that John Philip Souza called
the greatest college marching song ever written
and I think you all agree with that.
I certainly do. (Fan applause)
- "On Wisconsin," it's such a great, little
four-note fragment, that * da-da-da-da
*
- Maybe it's more than a march song and a two-step.
- One of the things we like to do is show the versatility of "On Wisconsin."
We play it in all different kinds of modes.
We played it as if an 18th century chamber music group
might have played it.
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Then we played it as a Russian composer
might have written it.
We played it as if a Latin American composer would have written it
or an Asian composer would have written it.
You'll find "On Wisconsin," if I wrote the arrangement, you're going to find a hint of it.
You may have to look for it, but it's going to be there.
It just-- It works so well anytime.
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- The very first version was written
and arranged by William T. Purdy for a contest,
but not for Wisconsin.
The contest offered a $100 prize
for a new University of Minnesota football song.
Lyricist Carl Beck overheard Purdy's melody,
penned a few verses and "On Wisconsin"
was on its way to 100.
*
- It had an immediate acceptance
and so from that point on every sporting event
you could think of, there's a part of it.
- It's hard to guess how many times
"On Wisconsin" has been performed.
- I don't even know if I want to know the answer
because it's such a staggering amount.
- There's no tragedy tonight, just celebration.
We could play "On Wisconsin" depending on the number of touchdowns,
so we could play anywhere from 50 to 70 times on a given Saturday.
And, then you multiply that times seven or eight games a season, times 40,
and that just takes care of Saturday.
- He's referring to his 40 years at the helm
of the UW marching band.
But there were other band directors
who played "On Wisconsin" going all the way back
to the first regiment band.
- Sort of a loosely knit group of people,
largely under the military since it was a land-grant school.
- It's probably fair to say that Beck and Purdy
had no idea how many times their song would be performed.
Carl Beck lived long enough to be honored
at the 50-year anniversary of "On Wisconsin" in 1959.
- Now let's all hail the champion.
- That was also a good year for Badger football. (Crowd roars)
- Wisconsin wins its first undefeated Big Ten title in 47 years
as they battle to the wire before emerging with the championship.
- Also in 1959,
"On Wisconsin" became the official state song.
- Great songs like that are really timeless.
Today students I think get just as much enjoyment
out of singing it and performing it as they did in 1909.
- As part of the centennial celebration for "On Wisconsin"
the greatest college fight song
shows its flexibility again in the hands of students,
musicians and filmmakers who are entering a video contest.
* On Wisconsin
One YouTube entry came from uwhip-hop.com.
It starts with a scratchy glee club recording of "On Wisconsin."
* Touchdown sure this time
* U-Rah-Rah!
* (Hip-hop version)
- Only time will tell if this entry wins.
Either way, the catchy hip-hop version could become
a fan favorite just like House of Pain's "Jump Around."
* (Hip-hop version)
- It's going to stick around for a long, long time.
Easily another 100 years.
*
- The University of Wisconsin held a video contest last year
to celebrate the song's 100th anniversary.
To watch those "On Wisconsin" videos,
just go to our website, wpt.org
and then click on "In Wisconsin."
Another interesting note, Michael Jackson's estate
owns the international rights to "On Wisconsin."
We have more football, a crisis for Wisconsin bats,
and our continuing investigation
into the environmental threat in Ashland.
Those reports are in the works
for the next edition of "In Wisconsin."
- This is Jo Garrett.
Wisconsin researchers are working at warp speed,
trying to gather research information
ahead of a deadly epidemic
that's decimating bat populations.
They fear it's headed our way.
- I think everybody is just sort of in a hurry.
- What could it mean for Wisconsin's bats?
- I'm Art Hackett in Ashland with the story
of an energy industry which went out of business
over half a century ago, but it still causing
environmental headaches today.
- Football pride runs deep at this perennial powerhouse.
- That's it. Super high knees, super high.
- It's the little church school that could in Cross Plains.
- One, two, three! (Cheers)
Those "In Wisconsin" reports
next Thursday at our new time, 7:30,
right here on Wisconsin Public Television.
Finally, a weekend adventure suggested
by one of our viewers.
"In Wisconsin" videographer Frank Boll
and reporter Jo Garrett found a spot where you can
find a waterfall or take a rugged trek
for a breathtaking fall view
of the Penokee Range near Mellen.
Have a great week in Wisconsin.
(Whooshing water)
- Some claim it's the prettiest waterfall
in all of Wisconsin.
It's called Morgan Falls.
It's nestled deep in Chequamegon Forest.
It tumbles in a delicate trail, 70 feet, pool
by pool.
The falls are hidden sometimes
behind this granite uplift.
It concludes here.
It's an easy walk to Morgan Falls,
just over a half mile, and handicap accessible.
If you continue, the trail divides
and becomes more treacherous.
(Crunching footsteps)
You're on your way up 1,565 feet.
To the top of St. Peter's dome.
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It's the tallest point in the whole Chequamegon Forest.
It's at the west end of the Penokee Range,
formed some 1.8 billion years ago.
And you're surrounded by the St. Peter's Dome
State Natural Area, over 5,000 acres.
Up top this granite dome,
this place the locals call Old Baldy.
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- Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by:
the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable
and environmentally friendly energy to keep homes,
neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, we're on for you.
And by the Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee and Oshkosh,
a veterinary team working with pet owners
and family veterinarians throughout Wisconsin,
providing care for oral disease and dental problems
of small companion animals.
With additional funding provided by Bike Wisconsin.