- Welcome to "In Wisconsin." I'm Patty Loew.
This week...
- Conservation warden. You're under arrest.
- Robo deer in action.
Illegal hunters beware,
Bambi's hi-tech brother has company.
Plus, a new kind of train could soon be
on the move in our state.
- Milwaukee has an opportunity to bring
streetcars back after an absence since 1958
when the last streetcars operated.
- And this German city may hold the answer
to Wisconsin's future.
Also, Frank Lloyd Wright's vision for America.
- This is the only Model B-1 of the American
System-built homes that was ever built.
- See how one Milwaukee neighborhood
is being transformed, next on "In Wisconsin."
- 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 Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working with pet owners
and family veterinarians providing care for oral disease
and dental problems of small companion animals.
- There has been a lot of political talk about
a controversial high-speed train
between Milwaukee and Madison.
Well, another form of rail service is flying
under the radar, Wisconsin's largest city
is on track to get low-speed rail.
Contributing producer Fred Wessel found there's support,
but not everyone is on board in Milwaukee.
- High speed rail?
For a while it was headed for Wisconsin.
But that plan has been derailed.
Yet, another kind of rail is coming.
Kenosha got it first,
and Milwaukee is on track to get it next.
Here's a clue: It is something that Kenosha has in common
with many great cities in Europe, great cities,
like Florence, Italy.
It's not high-speed rail, it is low-speed rail.
A few years ago, Kenosha brought back streetcars,
long after they had disappeared from every city
in Wisconsin that once had them.
- I really think it's amazing.
A town, city of this size, to pull this off and make
it work and our ridership has gone nothing but up.
- We're celebrating the 10th anniversary
of the return of streetcars to Kenosha.
- These are 1951 cars.
They were as they were built in 1951.
- And you look at these cars today
you wouldn't think it was 1951.
They look like brand-new.
- During the post-World War II years,
when these vintage cars were built,
streetcar lines were actually disappearing
in one U.S. city after another.
- I think we were in a different time.
I think we were in a time when sprawl was good,
spreading out urban areas was good
when we felt we had unlimited resources.
There was no limit to oil consumption.
- Many Americans began driving to work
in their brand-new cars.
Transit systems like buses and streetcars had to compete
for the remaining commuters and, in the end,
the bus lines won out.
- General Motors, Firestone, highway builders
basically ganged up and bought up transit systems
across the country, abandoned the streetcar lines
in favor of rubber-tired buses.
- So now, all these years later,
why the attention on streetcars?
In 1991, Milwaukee was granted nearly $290 million
to improve public transit.
Special bus lanes were going to be built on the expressways.
But this plan fizzled out and $48 million
of the federal funds had to be given back.
After more years of haggling,
most of the remainder was diverted
to other transportation projects.
But now, after all that, enough money is still left over
to build a starter streetcar line.
- What you see on this map, is you have a solid line
that depicts the route that we believe we can build
with the $64 million
that has been designated for the streetcar.
- So, Milwaukee has an opportunity to bring streetcars
back after an absence since 1958
when the last streetcars operated.
Our initial line is really a starter system.
It is intended to provide circulation
within the central business district,
connecting centers of employment, residential areas.
- There is the intermodal station
that Amtrak operates out of,
regional bus operates out of,
so we wanted the make that as a definite focal point
or end point for the streetcar route.
- In terms of modern streetcar systems,
we're going to have modern low-floor cars,
fully accessible for the disabled.
- Modern streetcars.
Let's hop on board and take a little trip
to find out what's so special about them.
How do they function in other cities
that have had them for many years?
What advantages do they offer for efficient mass transit?
Our stop is just ahead, and it's got something
that looks pretty familiar: Madison.
But it's not Madison, Wisconsin,
it's Madison's sister city, Freiburg in Germany.
Freiburg, like Madison, has a population
of around a quarter-million.
And, in addition to bicycles,
depends heavily on mass transit.
- Freiburg was heavily bombed in World War II
by the Royal Air Force,
and 80% of the medieval city center was rubbled.
The decision in Freiburg has been to rebuild it
with the medieval ground plan.
And you can imagine in a medieval ground plan
there is not much space for modern mass mobility.
And so, you have to make a choice
for need of transport with a high capacity.
In our city center, the rail system
is always very good and efficient.
- Milwaukee's city center is not as compact as Freiburg's,
but in Milwaukee most people travel by car.
So, the new streetcar line might reduce congestion
through better mass transit.
But why not simply get more people to ride the bus?
- We have found through empirical experience
that people who have choices in their transportation modes,
people who have cars in the garage,
who have access to a motor vehicle,
will generally not ride an urban bus.
- I would ride a streetcar before I rode a bus.
- People don't come to Kenosha to go for a bus ride,
but they sure come to Kenosha to ride a streetcar.
- I think streetcars have a certain cachet.
- If it's about subsidizing something
that no one is going to ride, it's not a good idea.
If they can prove ridership, it is a wonderful idea.
- Back in Freiburg, Germany,
the VAG, or Verkehrs AG, manages both streetcar and bus lines,
totaling 150 miles in length.
- We transport every roundabout
about 73 million persons.
When we replace former bus lines
with a new streetcar line,
the number of customers raises between 20% and 35%.
And I think this is another good argument for the railway system.
- As opposed to a bus system,
an urban rail system presents a self-identifying right of way.
Fixed guideway, the rails in the ground,
you follow the rail, you know the route.
- You have to make public transport
easy, understandable and convenient.
On our stops, we have an electronic customer information system,
where the customers can read
when the next streetcar of which line will arrive.
We have a streetcar on every line
every 7 1/2 minutes, and in rush hour, more.
- But in Milwaukee, not everyone is eager
to see streetcars reappear.
Milwaukee County operates the bus transit system
for the entire area, and the county has voiced
its opposition on several counts.
- It could be a very big impact to our system.
We're concerned about the possibility
of competition for funding,
if not now, maybe in the future,
and the competition for our ridership base.
The downtown area, in which the city has focused
the streetcar on, is a heavy ridership corridor
for our bus-based mass transit system.
- So once again, there may be competition both for
dollars and passengers between these two types
of mass transit in Milwaukee,
just as there was over a half century ago.
Unless, of course, people can figure out
how the two systems can best work together,
as they do in other places to offer attractive and efficient
mass mobility for the benefit of everyone.
- Once someone accepts the premise
that public transit is a public service,
then the debate becomes
"Well, what's the most efficient mode."
Ultimately, transportation is about wealth creation.
We move people, we move goods in a society,
in a modern civilization.
- The engineering for this low-speed rail project
should be wrapped up by this summer.
The next step, final approval to start construction.
If all goes according to plan, the rail line could
be on the move in Milwaukee as early as 2013.
Another neighborhood is getting an economic boost
by turning back the hands of time.
Many consider Frank Lloyd Wright's designs a work of art.
Now, his vision for America is getting a face-lift.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Liz Koerner shows you
one street being transformed back to the way
Wright had originally intended in Milwaukee.
- Frank Lloyd Wright has been a lifelong passion
going all the way back to high school.
We're going to redo the foundation wall.
- Mike Lilek is a member of a group called
the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Program.
The group bought this house built in 1916,
because it's one-of-a-kind.
- This is the only Model B-1
of the American System Built homes that was ever built.
- The American System Built home was Wright's way
of designing houses that were affordable
for the working class.
His designs were less costly to build,
but they didn't scrimp on features
that made the houses seem luxurious.
- The fireplaces give you a sense of luxury and coziness
that you don't otherwise find in most compact spaces.
- Before starting the restoration,
Lilek and the group did a great deal of research.
- We can tell in this particular room,
there are eight finishes applied
over the 90 or so years of the house,
starting with this color and then progressing on.
You can kind of see in the '50s,
we went to a green and a yellow, and so on and so forth.
This little hole is different.
In this case, we actually dug out
some of the plaster itself,
and we sent this to a lab for analysis.
So, when it comes time to fix all of the cracks
and things that you see, we know exactly what materials to use.
- The hands-on work started on the exterior,
turning back the clock in a number of ways,
like removing a porch that wasn't in the original design.
They're also planning to recreate
the original look of this exterior.
It is called a pebble dash finish.
- So, into the stucco that was adhering to the wood lath,
you have these pebbles that were pushed in.
The pebbles are actually made out of quartzite and white quartz.
- As you might imagine, the to-do list for the restoration
is quite long, and the cost of the project reflects it.
- Well, the original home cost $3,500 to build.
And today, the restoration project is pegged at
$411,000 for the exterior alone.
It is pretty pricey.
- Since that report first aired a year ago,
the front entry, without the porch,
now looks the way Wright intended.
And the exterior has been returned
to its historic pebble dash finish.
- This is something that was practiced
very commonly in northern Europe,
and in particular Poland, in 1916.
And a lot of the craftsmen
that were here in this neighborhood
or in this city at the time, were from Poland,
and so it's quite natural, that they knew how to do this.
It is a lost art.
- Restoration of the interior of the house is done.
You'll find the warm tones of the red gum woodwork
to the Wright-designed light fixtures
with authentic Edison light bulbs.
Tours are available and you can rent the house for special occasions.
- We're very proud to have been able to do the work we have,
and now introduce it and bring it to the rest of the world.
- Lilek knows of only 13 system-built homes
in the entire country.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Tourism program
now owns three of the six Wright buildings
on this one block in south Milwaukee.
One is a former duplex the owner has lovingly restored.
She agreed to take us on her personal tour.
- Hello, I'm Jill. Welcome to my home.
- You can get the full tour by going to our website
at wpt.org and then click on "In Wisconsin."
You can also watch this report again.
Our next report puts medical research
under the microscope as we take a closer look
at a unique University of Wisconsin camp.
It invites high school kids from rural areas
to compete for a chance to learn in UW's hi-tech labs.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Art Hackett introduces you
to a student who penned the winning essay
and is on a personal quest for answers in New Richmond.
- In Cody Gensen's room there are, not one, but two microscopes.
He recently hooked them up
to a video camera to a laptop computer.
- Pretty good resolution.
- He uses them to look at plants and minerals.
- I was given it by my grandmother.
She collects stones and gems.
- And the occasional human specimen.
- I accidentally stabbed myself recently
and looked at my own blood.
- Cody Gensen can't get enough hands-on science.
- There is not very much science up here
that is involved, that you can be a part of.
- Up here is New Richmond.
- New Richmond, we're kind of a small town.
And it was a great opportunity to get
students into those large research facilities
and see what researchers are working on.
- The opportunity Brad Malpert is talking about
was the annual stem cell camp
at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
When Cody's teacher talked about the camp,
Gensen knew he wanted to go.
- I knew basic things that I learned on the Internet:
their regenerative properties,
how they can regenerate constantly,
how they can only become certain tissues.
- Malpert says some students were hesitant.
- Some of them didn't know where stem cell research
had started from and how far it's gone.
And that opportunity to see where
the opportunities are and how much benefit there is,
I think some of them came back really excited about
the future of stem cell research.
- There was one experiment where we were actually
like in one of those controlled environments
and we were transferring the stem cells.
That I really enjoyed. It was just like wow;
you're working with actual equipment.
- Gensen, his teacher and several other students we interviewed,
were all stunned by the same thing.
- The most I remember is the beating heart cell.
That is just really -- That was awesome.
- Stem cells can be differentiated into heart cells,
cells which begin beating on their own.
But in spite of the potential of stem cells
to create tissue which springs to life,
the research has been controversial
because of where it began.
- The early years of embryonic stem cell research
when everything was about the embryo, the embryo, the embryo.
Now we are thinking of more about getting to the clinic.
- UW medical ethicist Linda Hagel
told Gensen and the other campers about the origins
of the first lines of stem cells.
- ...stem cells that have been in there for six days...
- Human embryos left over from artificially induced pregnancies.
Were you aware of the controversy over stem cells?
- I was very aware of the controversy.
I don't think that it's right to kill a human life.
But I just think that if they are donated cells
and they aren't-- It's not killing a fetus.
It isn't-- I just don't see it as that.
I think that, I don't know, I don't like it, but.
- During stem cell camp lectures, students learned
there are new methods for producing the cells
which don't rely on donated embryos.
It's sort of behind us?
- Not quite, because they are still considered
the gold standard.
But I think eventually we'll find another,
better route to derive stem cells.
- In your essay, you talked some about
how this is really personal to you.
- I was just diagnosed recently with Multiple Sclerosis.
And the current treatments are just not to the level that,
they're not definite and I just, I am looking
for something that was a better opportunity.
- Push those in the right direction
and put them back into the patient.
We can use those to replace cells in the body.
- Is there anything that you heard
at the camp in particular that gave you hope?
- I heard something that no one ever had told me before.
- Remember, there are three main types of cells you're interested in.
- He talked about there being three different types of brain cells, actually.
And one of them is actually re-myelinating,
and I was just really impressed by that.
Another one was the helper cells,
specifically, that just helps the neurons.
- M.S. is the result of nerve cells using a layer of myelin
which acts as an insulator.
- And so, If it would be possible to get a lot
of those cells that could help and re-myelinate,
then M.S. could be curable.
- So that's the kind of thing we're looking at,
the small changes in people's lives.
And I think you get absorbed with trying to cure ALS,
so they can go play tennis again.
We're talking about small steps.
If we can prove that we get a little bit to work,
and how long does a neuron last?
Maybe another four or five years.
That's as long as we get.
Maybe it will fix it, who knows?
That's the glass half full.
- Stem cells, on the other hand,
I think could do wonders.
The hard thing is to get the stem cells into the person
and to have them actually affect the brain and spinal cord.
- Cody Gensen is interested in a career of medical research.
Perhaps he'll have the chance to figure that out.
- And figuring it out is just what Cody Gensen is doing.
Cody tells us he now attends
the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
His major, biotechnology with a minor in physics.
Getting young people involved in science
is one way Wisconsin hopes to maintain its leading edge
in stem cell research.
If you'd like to find out more,
just go to our website: wpt.org
and then click on "In Wisconsin"
and check out our related reports on stem cells.
A lot of research went into the wildlife
featured in our next report.
Each year, Wisconsin's economy bags
millions of dollars from hunters, so the DNR is doing
everything it can to protect the rights
of hunters and take aim at those who break the law.
"In Wisconsin" reporter Andy Soth shows us how
they crack down on illegal poachers
as Bambi's big brother goes hi-tech in Mosinee.
- It happens all the time,
seeing a deer along the roadside.
But it can also be a tempting target for illegal hunting,
as this DNR surveillance video shows.
- Conservation warden. You're under arrest.
- That's not hunting.
That's a drive-by shooting.
This buck had better watch out.
But this isn't a real deer, it's actually a robot,
a decoy made by custom robotic wildlife.
*
This Mosinee business looks like a mix
of Frankenstein's lab and Red Green's Possum Lodge.
Brian Wolslegel makes and sells robotic decoys
to game wardens across the U.S. and Canada.
- The one officer would be across the road
with the remote control, probably a radio.
And the officers would be on the end of the road,
so that when the poacher does come by,
they don't have to have a chase occur.
- Game wardens have used decoys
for many years to catch poachers.
- Some guys are still up in Canada; some guys still use a deer head,
a sawhorse and a burlap bag, and people are shooting at it.
There're still plenty of places that haven't gotten our technology.
- But for wardens who have switched to his robotic decoys,
Wolslegel says it has paid off.
- Because they make a lot of money on these things.
The average deer that goes out is $1200 to $1500.
They'll generate $20,000 to $30,000 off that deer, most of them.
- Although in Wisconsin, the fines are not as high,
because shooting a decoy is not the same as shooting an animal.
- Wisconsin doesn't recognize this as an animal.
Other states have changed their law to say,
"attempted to take a wild animal or facsimile of,"
so then they'll stick them with a $2,000 fine.
- Wisconsin game wardens can assess fines for shooting
from the road or trespassing and hunting at night.
So, the decoy has become an important tool
for wildlife managers.
- And every time somebody drives down a road at night
and pulls the trigger on a really nice deer,
with good genetics, he doesn't just take that deer.
He's also robbed that deer from breeding does
and providing good genetics to raise more trophy deer.
- And Wolslegel is diversifying his business,
selling robotic animals to ski lodges,
sporting goods stores and nature centers.
- Got a bear that stood there with a robotic head,
and as people walked in, it welcomed them to the museum.
- This Wiley Coyote is the latest product.
- It's a coyote; mount a coyote on a track system
to keep geese off of people's yards.
- Just as in any business, it's about providing
customers with what they want.
- I had a warden in Oklahoma that had our standard deer.
He was after one specific guy who was trophy hunting,
basically shooting deer and cutting their antlers off.
Years in the making. One guy.
And finally, he sent me a big rack, and I said,
"Well, let's do a laying one." So we did a laying one with a huge rack on it.
He had them in three days. He got the guy.
- And hunters who follow the rules got more trophy bucks.
*
- Brian Wolslegel tells us he just shipped a robotic elk
to help wildlife officers catch poachers
at Glacier National Park in Montana.
Wolslegel is also looking forward to a unique opportunity.
He may get a chance to create a robotic tiger
for a preserve in India.
Continuing coverage now on an ecological disaster
taking shape across the Midwest.
New research from the U.S.
Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center
shows white nose syndrome may actually digest, erode,
and invade the skin on the wings of hibernating bats.
Since white nose syndrome was first detected
five years ago in New York, the fungus has spread
through 11 states and two Canadian provinces,
killing more than a million bats.
As "In Wisconsin" as reported in the past,
researchers predict the disease could reach bats
in our state this winter.
Bats are key to pest control associated with agriculture
and they help reduce the mosquito population.
Now here is a preview of several new reports
we're working on for the next edition of "In Wisconsin."
- Hi, I'm reporter Jo Garrett.
Time for a shot and a beer.
- I think Wisconsin by far is the tavern state for sure.
- We profile a Wisconsin photographer Carl Corey's
current photography exhibit, The Wisconsin Tavern League.
- From taverns to breweries.
There were over 240 communities in Wisconsin
that had breweries.
This is "In Wisconsin" reporter Andy Soth.
We'll learn more when we visit
the National Brewery Museum in Potosi.
- And Michael Perry returns with his unusual insight.
- Hello, there!
Ha-ha! The punch-through.
I love the punch-through.
- Join us for "In Wisconsin" each Thursday night at 7:30
right here on Wisconsin Public Television.
We want to invite you to check out our interactive blog
called the Producer's Journal.
You can find it at wpt.org, click on "In Wisconsin."
Then, look for this picture.
The blog gives you advance insight into reports,
the people we've met, and the places we've been.
Finally, this week, an escape from
our Wisconsin winter, but you don't have to travel far.
Instead, on your next trip to Madison check out
the Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich Botanical Gardens.
There are more than 500 species of plants.
And the temperature is kept between 65 and 80 degrees.
Now that's what I call winter weather.
Enjoy and have a great week "In Wisconsin."
*
- 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 Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working with pet owners
and family veterinarians providing care for oral disease
and dental problems of small companion animals.