- Welcome to In Wisconsin . I'm Patty Loew.
We're back this week with reports on efforts
to reclaim a birding oasis in the heart of Milwaukee.
[children gasping and laughing]
And do you know this man?
- Rob: He's been described as being a universal genius.
He's been described as being a botanist,
a geologist, a meteorologist.
- Increase Lapham is considered to be
Wisconsin's first great scientist.
Plus, where can you go hiking, to church,
and get a tattoo all on the same trail?
- Man: Nice.
- Also, a competition featuring
Wisconsin's best high school musicians.
[classical music playing]
A look at the competitors in the Final Forte
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.
- Spring arrived this week, and with warmer weather,
migratory birds are winging their way north.
There's one birding oasis in our state,
with a long history and a notorious past.
But today, this park is once again a birding haven
for schoolchildren and citizen scientists.
In Wisconsin reporter Jo Garrett
takes you to the Urban Ecology Center
in the heart of Milwaukee.
- Teacher: Straight line.
- Tim Vargo: So, this bird is called a red-eyed vireo.
Why do you think it's called a red-eyed vireo?
- Girl: 'Cause its eyes are red!
- Tim: Its eyes are red, excellent!
- Jo Garrett: Every year, more than 35,000 students
make their way to this place:
the Urban Ecology Center.
It's an environmental organization
located in the middle of Milwaukee.
- Tim: But you know where this bird probably came from?
Where it was maybe a couple months ago?
- Boy: In a egg?
- Tim: Well, it was an egg a couple years ago.
It was definitely in a nest at some point.
- Girl: In a net? - Woman: Here's a foot.
Feet are always the issue. - Tim: It was in a net.
Wow, these are great answers.
A lot of the birds that we're studying here,
this is their gas station.
This is where they're gonna stop; this is where
they're gonna stop and rest for a few days and get some food.
- Jo: The Urban Ecology Center is adjacent
to this city park, Riverside.
It's just one of many pockets of forest land
in this bustling city of 2 million.
Bordered by the Milwaukee River,
this 12-acre park serves as an outdoor classroom for the center.
It's hands-on learning.
- Tim: I think it likes you. - Woman: Yeah.
- Tim: You must have warm hands.
-Girl: That's-- - Group: Oh! [laughter]
- Jo: This is Tim Vargo,
and the reason why Vargo has birds in hand--
many birds-- to show the children...
-Tim: It's a chestnut-sided warbler,
redwing blackbird,
it's a Wilson's warbler.
- Jo: ...is because it's spring,
and Vargo is directing a team of volunteers
who are mist netting migrating birds and collecting data.
They're doing science.
They are citizen scientists.
- Woman: 2, 5? Okay. - Tim: Just let it go.
- Woman: All right honey, bye-bye.
- Jo: Vargo is the manager of research and citizen science
at the Urban Ecology Center.
Every research project here
requires the use of citizen scientists.
No degrees necessary, just dedication.
- Tim: The value is tremendous.
The work that our volunteers
are doing are published in peer-reviewed journals.
They are doing real science.
- Jo: Lynn Ratkowski: volunteer, citizen scientist.
- Lynn: So, we're gonna blow right here
to see how much fat this bird has on it.
There's like a v-bone right here in their chest.
And if, if it's real concave,
that means the bird has probably just migrated
and it's not real fat.
- As long as they're trained well,
and as long as you have good protocol,
it's real science whether it's a graduate student doing it,
or if it's y'know, a bartender
or somebody else that you've trained.
Our volunteers, they run the gamut.
There is a public relations assistant,
there is a homeschool student,
there is a retired professor,
there's a ballet dancer.
- Robin Squires: What you want to do is
see what side of the net it came in on.
And that's this side.
They fly in and hit, and then fall into a pocket.
Hi, babe. How you doing?
- Jo: Robin Squires is a retired schoolteacher.
She's trained here in the techniques of science
for the past two years.
- Robin: It's the idea that you can do science,
and not have a zillion degrees
after your name, and you're not in a lab doing it,
you're out here and you have-- your observations have value.
And this is one of our target species.
I live right across the river, and knew about this place
when it was a park that had a lot of crime in it,
I mean, you stayed totally away.
- Jo: Riverside Park has a long and winding history.
It was created in 1890 by Frederick Law Olmsted,
the father of landscape architecture.
The same man who designed New York's Central Park,
and the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C.
Over the years, Riverside,
once so popular, was allowed to decay.
The river was fouled and polluted.
There was actually talk of giving up on the park,
and turning the land over to developers.
- In the 1970s, crime got to its peak,
there was a very active drug trade here, murders and rapes,
and basically everybody knew this wasn't a safe place,
and people stopped using the park, pretty much altogether.
- Jo: The neighbors got mad.
They wanted this green space.
- The simplest way that they thought of saving it
was just to get people back to use the park again.
If you get people back here, you get more eyes here.
If you're a criminal, you're gonna feel less secure,
if there's a lot of people around.
- Tim: Whoops, there he goes.
- Boy: Whoa, yeah, that was awesome!
[laughter]
- Jo: It's a different place now.
Busy and safe.
And the Urban Ecology Center
is a critical part of that turnaround.
The current day soundtrack:
[birds singing]
kids, city noise, and a chorus of birdsongs,
speaks to the surprising importance of this place,
and the need for research.
- Tim: Got another red-eyed vireo.
I think urban forests tend to be overlooked.
81 is the wing.
What's often overlooked is the
importance of urban habitat patches to migration.
- Jo: Birds stop here and refuel.
One of the studies the center is involved in
is looking at triglycerides in migrating birds.
How fast can they pack on the fat?
- For a bird that's trying to get fat as quickly as it can
so it can fly, high triglycerides are a good thing.
That means that it's putting on fat quickly,
and it'll minimize the time
that it spends here, so it can continue on.
And so we're taking a little bit of blood.
- Jo: So, all you're collecting is just a drop?
- Tim: Yep, just a little drop.
By measuring the triglycerides,
that'll tell us how quickly that bird is refeuling.
That's fat, so the skin is very translucent.
So you can see right through it,
and when the fat collects, it's orange.
The only reason that they're gonna have that much fat
is if they're gonna head out,
so this bird's probably just getting ready to hit the road.
A bird that's putting on that much fat,
is probably going, y'know, several hundred miles at least.
- Jo: The data collection. - Tim: 65 is the band number.
- Jo: This careful accumulation, bird...
- No BP, [blowing] no fat.
- Jo: ...by bird. - Tim: 13.5 grams.
- Jo: Faces different challenges in an urban forest.
- Woman: What happened?
- Robin: A dog went through our net.
- Tim: There's urban research for you.
- Robin: Yeah.
- We've had a snake take a bird out of a net,
and trailing away with the net and the bird,
trying to take it away.
- Jo: This urban forest is a critical stopover
for migrating birds, and a great place
for research, learning, and a touch of the wild.
- Carijean, you haven't let a bird go in a while,
do you want to do this one? - Carijean: Sure.
- Jo: Carijean Buhk is the public relations manager
for the Urban Ecology Center.
She's volunteered as a citizen scientist for years.
- Carijean: You are holding a bird that might've started
in Mexico or Panama, or somewhere else,
and just realizing that you are only just a part of the way
of where it's going, and we're just a tiny part of its life.
You can go away now, you can go.
There we go. [laughing]
You realize that you're part of something really big,
and yet really small at the same time.
- Children: [gasping] Goodbye birdie!
- Girl: Bye, bye.
- To learn more about the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee,
including those citizen science projects,
check out our website, wpt.org,
and then click on In Wisconsin .
We also invite you to check out our newly completed documentary,
called Our Birds .
Journey more than 2,000 miles as reporter Jo Garrett
and videographer Frank Boll explore the risky trek
made by Wisconsin's migratory birds.
You can watch the documentary Our Birds
and get a wealth of information at wpt.org.
It's a quest into every corner of our state,
and deep into the Central American rainforest.
We showed you some citizen scientists in our first report;
they can also draw inspiration from a man considered to be
Wisconsin's first scientist.
Increase Lapham was self-taught,
but his work in botany, forestry, and meteorology
is still having an influence today,
200 years after his birth.
This month marks Lapham's bicentennial birthday.
In Wisconsin reporter Andy Soth takes you on a quest
looking for Lapham's legacy,
and that journey starts in the Wisconsin Dells.
[upbeat folksy music]
- Andy: Not far from downtown Wisconsin Dells,
you'll find Taylor's Glen.
And in Taylor's Glen, at least on this crisp, fall day,
you'll find two history buffs on a mission.
- Well, take a look at this and see what you think.
That's definitely the location.
It's a matter of obviously where the light and shadow is,
and all the rest of that.
- Andy: They're looking for the setting
of a 19th century photograph,
a picture with personal meaning for each of them.
It was taken by H.H. Bennett, who's stereoscopic views
of the Dells made it known the world over.
Bennett's great-grandaughter, Deborah Jean Kinder,
hopes to retake the picture.
- So many people come here to see the water parks,
but I'm sad that people are missing out
on the natural beauty.
- We've got Bennett's dates that he's working here,
and that would've been 1865.
- Andy: Historian Rob Nurre will portray the subject
of the photograph, a person he's long been fascinated with.
That's Increase Allen Lapham, examining the geology
of Taylor's Glen.
No one in Wisconsin's early history
had a broader appreciation of the natural wonders of the state
than Lapham.
- He's been described as being a universal genius.
He's been described as being a botanist, a geologist,
a meteorologist, an antiquarian.
And it's just really hard to come up with a handle
for what this man was.
Andy: He was a self-taught civil engineer
when he came to Wisconsin to build a canal in 1836,
a dozen years before statehood.
The canal was never built,
but with his curious mind and range of interests,
Lapham never lacked for things to do.
- Rob: He is one of the first people who have now
come west of Lake Michigan, who has an interest
and skill in collecting biological material.
- Andy: Upon his arrival, Lapham immediately began
documenting local plants.
- Theodore: This probably is the first scientific publication
to have been issued west of the Great Lakes.
- Andy: Lapham published a list of the plants of Milwaukee,
and later donated thousands of specimens
to what became the UW Herbarium,
a literal library of plants.
- These pressed, dried plant specimens
are a series of examples of nature's bounty.
- Andy: The Herbarium today
holds more than a million samples for botanical research.
Lapham brought the same scientific approach
to documenting a unique feature
of the southern Wisconsin landscape: effigy mounds,
constructed centuries before his arrival.
Former state archaeologist Bob Birmingham
points out some intact effigy mounds in Madison.
- Bob: Head, leg, and then another leg here.
Body coming across here,
and then terminating in a very long tail.
- And I'd like to present a model of this effigy tree
from the Ho-Chunk nation.
- Andy: It's part of a set of mounds
that were recently rededicated
with the addition of a bronze sculpture
by Ho-Chunk artist Harry Whitehorse.
[drumming and singing]
The fact that these mounds remain intact
and the recognized connection they hold
with contemporary Ho-Chunk, owes a lot to Lapham.
- Like the mounds, Native people have persisted.
- Andy: PhD candidate Libby Tronnes
has been studying how effigy mounds
have been interpreted over time.
- Libby: People are very curious about these mounds,
so people are inventing stories
that clearly they were built by people from Atlantis
or the Ten Lost Tribes, the Greeks were here,
Alexander the Great was here.
So he's kind of at the forefront of solving the mystery
of whodunnit? Who built these?
He's rejecting the prevailing notion that
surely there was a lost, more advanced race.
The most obvious conclusion
is actually the contemporary Native tribes.
- It's a way to reach across the past
and touch your ancestors, and at the same time,
look ahead to the future.
- Libby: Actually, almost 40 years later,
the Smithsonian makes that same declaration.
So he's a bit ahead of his time there.
[drumming and singing]
- Andy: "Ahead of his time" also describes Lapham's understanding
of forestry.
- Rob: There are some people who had, before this time,
said, you know, "There is an unending supply of wood
"in northern Wisconsin.
"There's no way we will ever, for thousands of years,
"ever have enough demand that we would need the wood
"from northern Wisconsin."
But clearly, Lapham realizes that isn't the case.
- Andy: In 1867, Lapham authored a report
for the Wisconsin legislature.
- Rob: It's titled "The Disastrous Effect of the Destruction of Forest Trees."
- Andy: Despite the title's dire warning,
the forest disappeared.
- And we end up cutting off northern Wiscosin.
"The Great Cutover" as it's eventually referred to.
- Andy: Lapham had better luck influencing the government
when it came to the weather.
This is the view from what today is called Lapham Peak.
Not far away, on another rise,
sits this massive radar installation,
part of the National Weather Service office near Sullivan.
- A lot of people consider him
the father of the weather service.
- Andy: Meteorologist-in-charge Steve Brueske
keeps a portrait of Lapham on his office wall.
- I think he'd be stunned when he'd look at something
like this radar up here,
or he'd see the computers that we have.
- Andy: But he wouldn't be stunned by the work
being done by today's National Weather Service,
an agency he helped found and direct.
- I think today of looking at that weather map
that we see on television,
he is the one that really created the system
that we still rely on today.
- Andy: They say everyone talks about the weather,
but Increase Lapham actually did something about it.
His original motivation was to warn Great Lakes ships
of coming foul weather.
- Our primary mission is protect lives and property
by issuing warnings; the mission's the same today.
[gentle folksy music]
- Andy: On Lapham Peak, one of the many plaques in his honor
remembers Lapham as an "eminent scientist
"and useful citizen."
In predicting weather and preserving the natural
and archaeological treasures of Wisconsin,
Lapham's self-taught science served the public.
An influence that can still be seen when you look for Lapham.
- That report about Increase Lapham
is part of our environmental initiative here
at Wisconsin Public Television called "Quest."
For more information, go to questwisconsin.org.
You'll find a multimedia approach
to our environmental reporting.
You can also get more information
about Increase Lapham and citizen science
in Wisconsin.
For the past four years,
Wisconsin Public Television has featured gifted teen musicians
in the statewide Bolz Young Artist competition.
For several months, they've been auditioning,
but only four remain standing on the stage of Overture Hall.
One of those competitors is Elliot Yang of New Berlin.
[ Cello Concerto No.1 by Mstislav Rostropovich]
- Lori Skelton: He brings a focus to his music
that's laser sharp.
Whether playing in competition,
or during Sunday service at church.
[singing and string music]
Elliot plays at this church in part
because his father Joseph is the pastor.
And in part because his mother Susan asked him to.
She's on violin.
- Yeah, my mom has perfect pitch,
so she hears every note that's wrong.
- Lori: Everyone in Elliot's family plays an instrument.
His oldest sister Rachel chose the violin.
- She was the lucky one.
She got to pick what instrument she wanted to play.
- Lori: His other sister Stephanie,
who's away at college, picked the piano.
Elliot jokes that his parents wanted a trio,
so his only choice was the cello.
[music fades]
- I'm actually glad I was born last.
- Lori: Although he really enjoys team sports,
last year he decided to devote all his free time to the cello.
- Some days, I don't get to touch the cello,
and those days feel barren.
- Lori: But now he enjoys the team spirit
of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.
*
- Elliot: Just being able to meet people
with the same interests is really great.
And making music with them is really, really rewarding.
*
- Lori: And making music is exactly what he wants to do
for the rest of his life.
*
- I am grateful to God every day that I have this opportunity.
- He is inspiring.
That report was produced by Liz Koerner
and narrated by Wisconsin Public Radio's Lori Skelton.
One of the competitors Elliot faces
is 15-year-old Ariela Bohrod from Madison.
[midtempo piano music]
We'll introduce you to Ariela Bohrod
next week on In Wisconsin .
All Forte musicians will be featured performing
with the Madison Symphony Orchestra
on a program called Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte .
You can watch the competition Monday, March 28 at 8:00 p.m.
right here on Wisconsin Public Television.
You can also watch the profiles of all four competitors
by going to wpt.org and clicking on In Wisconsin.
With the arrival of spring this week,
we've got a place where you can really venture outdoors.
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail meanders across our state,
following the course where the last glacier
advanced in Wisconsin.
This week, we take you to a very urban section of the trail,
as seen through the lens of videographer Mike Eicher
in Janesville.
- Mike: I wanted to see for myself:
what does a hiking trail through a city look like?
Janesville is the largest city on the Ice Age Trail,
and it sits at the southernmost reaches of the trail.
For its diversity alone, the Janesville section
probably holds the most interest.
Hike through this lake at the 1,000-mile Ice Age Trail,
and you can go bowling, attend Mass,
and get a tattoo, all in the same day.
- Man: Nice.
- Mike: The trail also skirts two golf courses
and the renowned Rotary Gardens, a botanical wonder.
The trail often feels like any city's jogging path.
Moms with strollers, retired folks walking,
and kids using it as their main means of transportation.
[truck roaring]
The trail referred to as a southern gateway
to the Ice Age Trail is a work in progress,
taking you downtown, following the Rock River,
another gift of the glacier that ended 10,000 years ago.
I stopped in at Codos, a local coffee shop,
for a quick pick-me-up,
and it dawned on me:
the glacier made these dramatic changes
with nothing more than frozen water and time.
And I recall something about glaciers in school.
- Dr. Herald: Science in Action .
We've invited as our special guest on Science in Action ,
the famed "Glacier Priest."
Welcome to Science in Action Father Hubbard. - Thank you, Dr. Herald.
- Dr. Herald: Well, off we started with our study
with glaciers, with such things as ice crystals,
they look something like this.
- That's where the movement of ice
then begins to form what we call a glacier.
- Well then eventually of course, it packs down
until you have the floe started.
- It oscillates a little bit up and down,
and keeps pushing up like a bulldozer all the time.
- Mike: The glacier, a sheet of ice over a mile in thickness,
pushes and carves a new terrain.
The trail's most natural section is Devil's Staircase
in Riverside Park,
where you can get lost in the luxury of nature.
Feel the coolness of a stone wall, soft with green.
And there's a promise of water,
far below a canopy of leaves.
And so I've discovered,
the Ice Age Trail that runs through Janesville
was a gift left by the last glacier.
- For a look at some of our other reports
on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail,
just go to our website, wpt.org,
and then click on In Wisconsin .
Now, here's a look at some of the other reports
we're working on for the next edition of In Wisconsin .
- This is In Wisconsin reporter Frederica Freyberg.
The DNR is launching a multi-year study
on whitetail deer.
- This is a way to involve hunters
directly in the field research, alongside of us.
And that's exactly what we want to do.
- Frederica: Find out what's needed, and how you can help.
- This is In Wisconsin reporter Andy Soth.
- These people wondering what we're doing.
- Andy: I'll take you on a high-tech treasure hunt
as we zero in on the game of geocaching.
- So we're at a rate of finding 6.5 caches a day
since the day we started.
- I'm In Wisconsin reporter Liz Koerner.
For most low-income kids,
violin lessons come at a cost their parents can't afford.
- Teacher: First finger on the D string, ready, go!
- Liz: We'll introduce you to a woman
who's giving them the gift of music.
- Patty: Those In Wisconsin reports next Thursday
at 7:30 right here on Wisconsin Public Televison.
Just a reminder, you can always follow us online,
with our interactive blog called the Producer's Journal .
It's updated each weekday by the people
who work in front of the cameras and behind the scenes.
We hope you'll check out the Producer's Journal
at wpt.org, and then click on In Wisconsin .
Finally this week, the snow in southern Wisconsin has melted,
but northern Wisconsin is digging out from a spring storm.
At the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge,
the grassland plains will soon turn green.
The 32,000-acre Horicon Marsh
is the largest freshwater cattail marsh
in the United States.
Have a great week in Wisconsin.
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
- 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.