2WLI0705HD Creative Confluence Transcript

[gentle music]
- Angela: Coming up on Wisconsin Life, meet an urban arborist, climbing to the top... 
[saw scratching]
[bright music]
a seamstress with a higher calling...
a conservationist restoring our waterways...
and an architect working to memorialize a native Wisconsinite. It's all ahead on Wisconsin Life!

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- Wisconsin Life is funded in part by: Alliant Energy, Lowell and Mary Peterson, American Transmission Company, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.- Hello, this is Wisconsin Life and I'm Angela Fitzgerald. Today's journey takes us to the beautiful bluffs at Wyalusing State Park. This Grant County park overlooks where the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers meet, offering some of the most breathtaking views of the area. Wyalusing State Park is one of the first state parks to be created in Wisconsin. The state commissioned famous landscape architect John Nolen to establish a new park system that included this park. His work has helped to preserve this pristine environment for generations to come. There are 14 miles of hiking trails, river access, and cliffside camping, all within over 2,000 acres of land. On top of the ridge, visitors can hike along the First Nation's Effigy Mound Trail that has over 60 mounds still visible. I'll hit the trails here in a bit, but before I do, let's get into our first story. 
[bright music]
We climbed the treetops of Madison with an urban arborist rising to great heights.

[upbeat music]

- The techniques within tree climbing have really developed a lot, even since I've been an arborist. 
[birds chirping]

[chainsaw buzzing]
My name's Evan Slocum. I own and operate Urban Tree Management, a private tree care company. I'm also the board president of the Urban Tree Alliance. 
[saw scratching]

Arboriculture is the management of individual trees. As an arborist, that's primarily what I'm doing. I'm meeting with people on private property. We're looking at issues or conflicts. And each property owner, each person that has a yard with trees in it, is managing those trees differently.

[ethereal music]

A lot of the work that we've done has been in response to emerald ash boring. It's really hitting Madison now. I think this is the worst summer yet, and we're seeing a lot of trees dying. The options at our disposal are climbing a tree, using the basket on the end of the boom with the crane, or using the crane to remove the tree. Sometimes a tree just isn't safe, and that's a big part of what we do as arborists in urban environments, is managing safety, basically. 
[chainsaw buzzing]

Removal of trees is a dirty business.

Certainly as a whole, our industry is known as being a little rough around the edges. I think that the way that I do things is fairly different. So like the crane that I own, nobody has a crane like that. Nobody in North America has ever built a crane like that. 
[saw scratching]

[gentle music]
Make some room for the crane. All right, there we go.

And so using that, yeah, we can remove trees and work on trees a lot more efficiently than other people can.

I always try to stay current with what's out there and implement new things when I can. I've noticed myself that the more I climb, the better I get at it. I can do more while being less tired.

[chainsaw buzzing]

I think I have an approach to tree care which is a bit more hands-off. The essence of it comes from the value of trees in our urban areas. Living in harmony with trees means to feel good about the trees that are around you.

[upbeat music]

- Angela: For our next story, we journey to New Auburn to meet a seamstress who's called to create.- White, purple, blue, green, sometimes black, and white.- Angela: Melinda Halom knows her colors.

- Green is what's called Ordinary Season. It represents the growth. 
[lively music]

- Angela: Melinda is a part-time pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in New Auburn. However, it's her other job that is attracting attention.

- Melinda: My husband's also a pastor, and realized it was really time for new stoles.

Went to the store, bought new fabric, and started sewing. Posted those crazy stoles to Facebook, and Quilted with Prayer began.- Angela: Before long, Melinda was in business.

[sewing machine clunking]
- So as the stole piece started to grow, it just fell into the lifestyle that we live, that I can work in my home, and work on the stoles.

My husband has had my back 300% this whole process. When I saw her year one, I was just like, "Oh my gosh, you're actually making money! "This is really impressive."- Angela: Soon a room in the basement was being converted into a workspace. 
[machine whirring]

- It's my woman cave! 
[laughs]

Fabric, for anyone who works with it, knows that it really should not be in the sunlight. I call it my "woman cave" because it's a cave! It doesn't have windows; it is truly a basement.

It's my space.

- Angela: Word spread quickly about what's happening in the woman cave.

- Melinda: We'll make sure that seam is really good and pressed in. I cannot stand when stoles are crooked. And so I cut them in a way that you should be able to just grab a hold of 'em and keep 'em straight.- Angela: Creativity, craftsmanship, and custom stoles got Melinda noticed.

- The pastors are like, "Make sure you tell Melinda "that my congregation members "are actually making comments on it." It just blows me away.

- It started with a pastor who loved camouflage. And as we go into hunting season, many congregations are gathering their hunters together, and blessing them, and blessing the orange, as it's often called.

- Angela: Another iconic Wisconsin tradition also made its way into church.

- I was challenged by colleagues in Wisconsin that they desperately wanted a Packer stole. So I said no for about six months. However, I make peace with it. Most of the Packers' season is during the season of green. Packers, green, it works. On a Sunday morning, even in my congregation, I am truly the only person not wearing Packer gear. You've addressed the elephant sitting in the middle of the church. You can get on with worship.- Angela: In some cases, the stoles are split, like those congregations praying for either the Packers or the Vikings.

- And so they do it as a fundraiser and say, "Pastor, if we raise enough money, "you have to wear the Packers stole." Craziness. 
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- Angela: Melinda makes stoles for all seasons and all reasons.

- This stole is very specifically rainbow colors to make a clear statement to folks that would come in and see the pastor wearing it, that says, "LGBTQ folks are welcome here." Another Sunday that I learned about through my stoles is Holy Humor Sunday. I love emojis. I use emojis all the time.

[machine whirring]

- Angela: Behind her sewing machine, Melinda is truly on a mission.

- Melinda: I hope they see the personality and the faith of the pastor that is wearing it. I think I would have given up on this eons ago if the people that received the stoles in the mail didn't come back to me and say, "It's more than what I wanted."

Cool machines, huh? 
[machine whirring]
They thread themselves, too.

[upbeat music]

- Angela: The stoles have been shipped around the world.- Melinda: So three years, I'm at about 1,300.- Angela: Melinda's stoles are unique and a piece of her is sewn into every design.

- It is so much a part of my heart. I never would have dreamed the stories that I have gained, the people that I have met and shared ministry with. And often I'll see a fabric and just go, "Oh, I know what I need to make out of that!" 
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- I'm navigating my way through this beautiful state park in southwest Wisconsin. 
[lively music]
Wyalusing State Park overlooks the breathtaking confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. The park has a lot to offer, from sweeping views to scenic trails along the bluffs. To learn more about this park, I met with Park Ranger April Ammann.- Well, as you can see behind you, a big highlight or draw for us is the sweeping views of the Mississippi River Valley.

- It's beautiful.

- And then, the Wisconsin River Valley just north of here. We also have a number of hiking trails.

- Very nice, I experienced those!

- Did you, yeah?

- Yes.

- How was it?

- I mean, I got a nice cardio session in. I was surprised at how steep they were, actually.

- Yeah, yeah, good.

- I didn't expect that.

- We have a few trails that start at the bottom of a bluff and then you're climbing maybe 500 to 600 feet in one trip.

- Wow.

- So yeah, it's a good workout!

- Angela: A workout that could lead you to trails that pass living artifacts from Wisconsin's First Nations. And I noticed as we were coming up here, there are some effigy mounds, so can you tell us about those as well?

- Sure, the effigy mounds were constructed by past cultures, specifically what would be called the Hopewell mound-building culture. And then after them, another mound-building culture. And some are in the shapes of what we call circular or conical mounds. The effigy specifically refers to mounds in the shape of an animal. So they can be in the shape of a bear or a deer, or an eagle, sometimes seen along the river valley here.

- Very nice, so preserving some of that culture.

- Absolutely, yep, they've been here for hundreds of years so it's exciting that they're still here.

- That's excellent, so tourists can come, experience some culture, take in the breathtaking views. I saw the campsites; they can set up and just enjoy an awesome camping experience with their families.

- Yes, yep, along with the views of the Mississippi, we have several sites that are open where you're camping, you're havin' a campfire at night and you're overlooking the river valley and the city of Prairie du Chien.

- Angela: Campfires aren't the only thing to experience as night falls. The park is also home to an amateur astronomy group.

I met with Kyle Kern, a member of this nonprofit organization.

- We're here at the Wyalusing State Park Observatory. We're a group called the Starsplitters of Wyalusing. We're a charitable organization that runs completely on the donations from people that come and visit.

- Wow, and so tell us, why would a state park have an observatory? That just seems different compared to other parks that we've been to.

- Yeah, a lot of state parks have great trails, and I'm sure you've seen 'em here, and great views and things like that. But we offer views of the night sky, of objects that are millions and millions of light years away, and things that you can't normally see with just the naked eye, so I think that's somethin' special that we really offer.

- That is, and I see a lot of really cool, sci-fi-looking equipment behind us.

- Yeah, we're very lucky to have all the equipment we have. We've had a lot of generous donations from multiple families in the area. On the night of a program, we typically come out here and we pull these telescopes that are down on this pad out of the shed that's behind us, and roll 'em right out here, and we use 'em. We'll have sometimes lines of 30 or 40 people behind each telescope, comin' up and lookin' at what we have in the eyepiece. 
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- Angela: So how can people become involved?

- So if they just come out here, we have a website, starsplitters.org, or you can find us on the Wyalusing State Park website. And then our calendar is on there, when we're out here. And if they just come up and say, "Hey, I'm interested in being a part of your group." We'd be happy to show you how to get goin' in that. 
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- Whether the sun is shining, or the skies are dark, there's always something to discover here.

Now we explore the landscape of West Wisconsin with a conservationist in Sauk County working to keep our waterways and soil healthy.

[stream gurgling]
In the rushing waters of a cool stream, Sauk Country conservationist Serge Koenig is gathering samples.

- It is important that we get our feet wet and get our hands dirty and get right in there and figure out what's really happening.

- Angela: Serge is part scientist, part ambassador for conservation.

- This is the resource that we work to protect.

- Yeah, thank you.

- Angela: That resource is the watershed that feeds the Baraboo River.

- Serge: The Baraboo drains almost half of Sauk County.- Angela: The historic river that rolls by Circus World in Baraboo has seen many changes in recent years.

- Serge: The Baraboo is the longest restored river, from dams, in the United States.

It was grist mills and electricity production and some woolen mills, and it was working hard.

- Angela: Now it's Serge who's hard at work to improve the water quality.

- Serge: What we're trying to do now is just clean up the water a little bit. It's the second most polluted feeder into the Wisconsin River. And the Wisconsin River 
[chuckles]
is a long river, starting up by Eagle River and down to Prairie du Chien. And we're number two on that, from a phosphorus standpoint, phosphorus runoff.

- Angela: That runoff from farms and towns threatens the diversity of life in the water as it flows through Wisconsin to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf. There, Serge witnessed firsthand the effects while on a family vacation.

- So we waded in the river where the Mississippi entered the Gulf, and it was eerie. It really was dead, there was no life in that water. And so that's when it really hit home that we've got some work to do up here.

- Angela: That work means connecting to Sauk County's farmers.

- By then we're gonna have grass about this tall.

- I'm just gonna watch the clover.

- Okay. It's a lot different than what I would've learned in college, in the sense that we just never learned the ins and outs of farming. And yet, that's what we had to learn in order to be more effective at our jobs.

- Angela: Serge learned on his own, even volunteering to milk cows for three weeks.- Get up at four in the morning, milk cows. Go to work, work the eight, nine-hour days and come back and milk cows again, and get up the next day and do it again, you know? And I really got a sense of what that life was like. I've made so much fence and laid so much water lines. I've moved people's cattle, yeah, no problem. 
[laughs]
It's just a little bit easier to talk the talk when you've walked the walk a little bit.

- Angela: It's been a long walk for Serge, one that could easily have kept him feeling like an outsider. He was born in Madagascar, off Africa's coast, where his love of the outdoors was first nurtured.

- Serge: I always gravitated towards that natural world.- Angela: That didn't change as a student at UW-Stevens Point.

- I considered a lot of things but I always came back to the natural resources, so I thought, well, it must mean that this is what I'm supposed to do.

- Angela: He does it with the scientific training he's received, but more so, with the personal connections he's able to make.

- Man: I mean, you're getting what you're paying for.

- You know so, you can Google like, "How do you clean up a stream that's polluted?" Or you can ask Siri. 
[laughs]
You can always figure that out, you know? But it's the people part, that's the hardest part to learn.

- Angela: Serge's skill with people has convinced many to adapt better environmental practices, like converting farmland to rotational grazing.

- Serge: Last year we put in 1,065 acres. We went from 10 acres to 1,065 acres. It's unbelievable. 
[people chattering]

- Angela: But Serge is a believer. It's what makes him a compelling messenger for conservation.- We can work on farms and we can try to address the root of the problems, but if we don't know how to do this, it doesn't matter, right? It's really all about people all the time, and it's probably why I'm still here. I feel like this is my calling. 
[people chattering]

[wind blowing]
- Angela: Our last story takes us to Newton, where one architect is working to honor a past Wisconsinite.

[leaves rustling]

[gentle music]

- Angela: On the shores of Lake Michigan stands a modern home designed by architect John Durbrow.- John: Come on! 
[hand slaps]
I have been an architect for my whole life.

Like this house is the first residence that I ever did.

- Angela: John had worked exclusively in commercial architecture, helping to design such Chicago icons as the James Thompson Center, the dorms at Illinois Institute of Technology, and the high-rise at 120 North LaSalle.

John's latest challenge, creating awareness for a design eight feet tall, a memorial inspired by a book.

- John: I read a book by Shareen Brysac, "Resisting Hitler."- Angela: It's the story of Mildred Fish-Harnack, a Milwaukee native, University of Wisconsin graduate, and the only American woman executed on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler.

- It gave me a pretty in-depth background as to her life and the sort of controversy that surrounds her memory.- Angela: Mildred met German scholar Arvid Harnack at the University of Wisconsin. They married and returned to Germany. The Harnacks formed a resistance network and risked their lives providing secrets to the Americans and the Soviets.

- It must have been towards the end of the book when I realized that she really hadn't been commemorated in any notable way around here. I thought it was just obvious that she should be, that somebody should do something about that.

- Angela: "That somebody" would be John Durbrow.

With his own money and his own design, John set out to honor this forgotten daughter of Wisconsin.

- This is a 1/8 scale version of the statue. It is this same black granite, except it stands eight feet, six inches high.

- Angela: John commissioned the sculpture and had it delivered to his property near Newton, Wisconsin. That's where it remained covered in weeds for the next twelve years.

- John: And it never even occurred to me that if I did something, it wouldn't be received with great enthusiasm in Madison.- Angela: Instead, finding the statue a home proved far harder than he ever imagined.

- Well, this has to do with the global politics and the changing perception of our allies. 
[melancholy music]

[door clunks]

- Angela: Once captured, the Nazis put the Harnacks on trial as Soviet spies. Gestapo records made no mention of their ties to the U.S. embassy. 
[missiles zooming]

- Everybody looks at World War II as the good war, and anything done to forward our victory is seen as a noble gesture. But in her case, she has been denied credit for having been involved in something that everybody else is giving accolades to.

- Angela: After the war, the CIA took the Nazis at their word and investigated surviving members of the German resistance as Communists.

- John: She was tagged with that Communist association.

- Angela: In 1947, the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine published an article putting Mildred in the spotlight. Instead of honoring Mildred, it triggered an FBI investigation. And in 2019, those FBI and CIA files remain heavily redacted.- She had been very much allied with the Soviets during the war, and so postwar was tarnished with the anti-Red brush.

- Angela: As a result, when the Cold War heated up, university plans to honor Mildred were halted. All the more reason John knew exactly where he wanted the statue to go.

- The first place was the university. It just seemed like it really ought to be on the university grounds.

- Angela: Again, the university declined the offer to honor Mildred with a statue.

- John: The reaction really wasn't centered on the piece itself. There were just people who found this to be a controversial subject. And again, I was surprised.- Angela: The idea to honor Mildred was going nowhere, and the sculpture wasn't either. For more than a decade, John never gave up.

- John: Twelve years is a long time for waiting and wondering about whether or not something will come to fruition.- Angela: John's dream of honoring Mildred would gain momentum when the City of Madison Parks stepped forward. 
[engine rumbling]

- John: I wanted something that could stand apart and stand alone, and that would sort of transcend its setting, something that I thought would be in the spirit of Mildred's lifestyle.

- Angela: The site selected, an inspirational one.

- John: It's in Madison, and it overlooks some of her favorite points, Picnic Point and the University Hill.- Angela: Heartfelt places Arvid, her husband, remembers too, in his farewell letter to Mildred on the eve of his execution. 
[somber music]

- Narrator: Do you still remember Picnic Point when we got engaged? I sang with joy early in the morning in the club. And even earlier, our first serious conversation on State Street? This conversation became my guiding star and has been so ever since.- Angela: In the summer of 2019, hundreds gathered for dedication day at Marshall Park. 
[people chattering]

- I am very grateful that we can finally place Mildred back in Madison overlooking the lake that she had loved.

- Angela: For John, it marked more than a decade of determination and an unwavering belief Mildred was worthy of such an honor.

- Thank you, everyone. We hope that the presence of this sculpture elicits the curiosity of many to become more acquainted with the legacy of Mildred Fish-Harnack.

[emotional music]
- It's been a wonderful trip visiting this gorgeous park right on the Wisconsin border. If you wanna learn more about the places and people featured today, like Wyalusing State Park, visit WisconsinLife.org. We love hearing from you, so send us your ideas and stories at WisconsinLife@wpt.org. I'm Angela Fitzgerald and this is our Wisconsin Life. See you in the great outdoors, bye! 
[bright music]
- Come on, guys. 
[people chattering]
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- Wisconsin Life is funded in part by: Alliant Energy, Lowell and Mary Peterson, American Transmission Company, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.