INWE0921 Wisconsin Public Television

Transcript: In Wisconsin #921

Air Date: April 14, 2011

Patty Loew:

Welcome to In Wisconsin. Im Patty Loew. This week, John Muirs family farm.

Man:

I have a love affair with this place.

Patty Loew:

Meet the man who now walks in Muirs foot steps. Plus, this little purple book contains Mother Natures secrets.

Woman:

I think somewhere in our evolutionary memory, were still wanting to be in touch with the rest of nature.

Patty Loew:

Find out why its important to Aldo Leopolds legacy. And strike up the band, the UW Band. Next on In Wisconsin.

Announcer:

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. Were 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.

Erik Brynildson:

I really want Wisconsin as a state, and the citizens within it, and of course the nation as a whole. to recognize just how important Fountain Lake Farm is to our cultural history.

Patty Loew:

Perhaps the best way to understand the father of our national park system is by traveling to the place where he first explored the outdoors here in Wisconsin. Next Monday, theres a new American Masters special on PBS called John Muir in the New World. More on that in just a moment. First, we want to take you to his boyhood home on Fountain Lake Farm. Its been about 150 years since preservationist John Muir lived here. Today, another man is following in his footsteps in Buffalo Township.

This is the place in the mid 1800s where a young boy from Scotland first experienced the American landscape. Here, he could watch geese fill the sky, experience the call of sandhill cranes, and watch a deer meander in the meadow. A sanctuary for wild flowers and a lake nearby inspired the 11-year-old John Muir.

Erik Brynildson:

It definitely fueled Muirs fire in terms of his relationship with nature.

Patty Lew:

The legacy of Muir is also the catalyst that fuels current landowner Erik Brynildson.

Erik Brynildson:

I have a love affair with this place.

Patty Loew:

By coincidence or fate, he found himself walking in Muirs footsteps literally.

Erik Brynildson:

I acquired the property, and I live here full-time, as I have for 23 years. Everything now is about the landscape and restoring it back to its pristine, wild pre-settlement condition as best we can.

Patty Loew:

Thats right. His goal, restoring the land to what it would have looked like when the Muirs first walked on this sandy stretch of prairie in 1849.

Erik Brynildson:

Its a little pine.

Patty Loew:

Removing invasive plants by hand. And regular burns will help achieve a pres-ettlement native prairie.

Erik Brynildson:

Oftentimes its two steps forward and three backwards.

Patty Loew:

Hes been at it at Fountain Lake Farm for nearly a quarter of a century and Wisconsin Public Television was there in 1988 in the early years of his quest.

Erik Brynildson:

I think that Fountain Lake Farm and the adjoining environs represent the place thats most fundamental to the evolution of the father of our national parks, John Muir.

Patty Loew:

Today, restoration of this panoramic view closely mimics a sketch John Muir drafted more than 150 years ago from the ridgetop overlooking the lake. All these years later, the prevailing winds carry that same spirit.

Erik Brynildson:

I think Muir is alive and well here. I think the spirit of Muir is very strong yet.

Patty Loew:

Both men attended the University of Wisconsin, but Muir left the university after two years for what he called the university of the wilderness. As a graduate student, Brynildson was mesmerized by the wilderness that seduced Muir.

Erik Brynildson:

I kind of took off on a tangent myself and decided that the boyhood home of Muir had not been adequately studied. I changed my graduate work in a hurry to that. It was just a special interest I had that originally it was a project that became a life.

Patty Loew:

A life that included building a private residence on the exact foundation of the Muirs farmhouse.

Erik Brynildson:

I was able to document that the house indeed sat on this identical site and also on the old cellar depression. The house behind me is of indigenous Montello granite. Its a design that I came up with, and it mimics National Park Service rustic architecture of the arts and crafts period.

Patty Loew:

None of the original Muir buildings exist today, but if you know where to look, you can still see traces of their time on this land.

Erik Brynildson:

We determined that silver maples were indeed deliberately set out as shade trees in the yard by the Muirs. Two large lilacs still boom here that Sarah Muir, Johns older sister planted.

Patty Loew:

Before the California redwoods and Yosemite Valley, this would be the landscape Muir would first seek to preserve.

Erik Brynildson:

Muir did feel that it was beyond just majestic snow-capped peaks, and landscapes of that scale, that a sedge meadow such as this one was just as important in terms of landscape diversity.

Patty Loew:

Just like John Muir fought to preserve the most expansive pieces of American wilderness, Brynildson fought to give this small property Landmark status. Muirs Wisconsin frontier experience is often overshadowed by his grandiose achievements in the west.

Erik Brynildson:

Wisconsin is definitely unsung, those years that he spent here, that I would argue were probably the most important years of his life. All one has to do is read his auto biography, The Story of my Boyhood Youth. He fully credits Fountain Lake Farm as being the place he conceived the notion of saving wild space.

Patty Loew:

And for all his spectacular achievements, its this prized piece of real estate that eluded Muirs preservationist intentions.

Erik Brynildson:

We probably cant find a personality in our history thats responsible, single-handedly responsible for more acres of wilderness reserves and parks, and yet Muirs early attempts to save this simple little garden meadow, he called it, were never successful. So the irony in that is pretty amazing.

Patty Loew:

But John Muirs failure turned into Erik Brynildsons success.

Erik Brynildson:

I feel very privileged to be a part of that story. And now were finally accomplishing and making that dream come true.

Patty Loew:

Erik Erik Brynildsons home and the 17 acres around it are private property and are not part of the adjoining Muir Memorial County Park. The unsung story of Muirs boyhood home will soon garner national attention on PBS. We were there more than a year ago for a look behind the scenes when the film crew was here in Wisconsin.

Catherine Tatge:

What do you think he learned from nature in particular?

Patty Loew:

Catherine Tatge is a freelance producer with Wisconsin ties. And on this day, her production crew is on location in Marquette County.

Catherine Tatge:

I was a student at Lawrence University here in Wisconsin, and I had no idea that Fountain Lake existed and this is a place that is a magical place.

Patty Loew:

Shes producing a John Muir documentary for the PBS series American Masters.

Catherine Tatge:

I hope that the this will make us much more appreciative of what we have, because it is remarkable in this country. Ive lived all my life abroad, all my younger life. And I have to say this is an extraordinary country with enormous possibilities. And to see what John Muir was trying to do is — I think thats the message that I would like the film to have.

Narrator, John Muir in the New World:

Muir looked to the wilderness surrounding the family farm as a place to escape from his stern father.

From John Muirs writings, John Muir in the New World :

Baptism in natures warm heart. Every wild lesson a love lesson, not whipped, but charmed into us. Oh, that glorious Wisconsin wilderness.

Erik Brynildson:

I think Muir was literally natural, I mean a natural naturalist. He had that kind of curiosity and spirit from day one. He started to be befriended by nature. He identified with it.

Narrator, John Muir in the New World:

Other than a few months attendance at school, John Muir had no formal education in America. He stayed home to work the fields. But he taught himself, with the encouragement of his mother, who helped him see the world beyond the farm.

Catherine Tatge:

The subject of John Muir is really timely, because I think that right now with all the discussion about saving the environment and all that, I think people really need to know more about Muir and his writings. Its in his writings that you get a real understanding as to why, whats the urgency, and why we need to take care of this land and take care of our environment.

Patty Loew:

The American Masters documentary called John Muir in the New World is scheduled to premiere this coming Monday night, April 18, at 8:00. It explores the life and legacy of the revered naturalist, author and scientist. In addition to director/producer Catherine Tatges ties to Lawrence University in Appleton, Garth Neustadter, a 2010 graduate, composed the documentarys score, which was performed by Lawrence Conservatory of Music students. Also, watch for professor of anthropology Peter Peregrine. He portrays Muirs stern Bible-reading father. And Lawrence University senior Mark Hirsch plays Muir during his early years at the University of Wisconsin.

Another one of Wisconsins legendary conservationists also tried to save the Muir property. Aldo Leopold in the last week of his life attempted to preserve fountain lake farm, but the effort ended when he died on John Muirs birthday. After his death, Leopold also left behind a legacy of his own. In Wisconsin reporter Jo Garrett shows you how Leopolds study of phenology is the science of new beginnings.

Jo Garrett:

In the dead of winter, its easy to forget that the natural world is all about change. That calendar of change in the natural world, when a particular pond melts, when a certain species of forest flower first peeks out in a place, when a migrant bird wings back through our state. That calendar, that catalog of years first times is a branch of science called phenology. Its current to discussions about climate change and as old as the Bible. For lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; and the time of the singing of the birds is come. Kathy Miner is a woman who spends a good part of her work time on the lookout for these changes.

Kathy Miner:

This is its time, early to mid-April. This is a little bit early.

Jo Garrett:

Miner is a naturalist, on the staff of the University of Wisconsin arboretum. This 1,268 acre tract is as wild as can be in the middle of Madison. Its a great place to watch things come and go.

Kathy Miner:

Toothwort is one of a group of plants called the spring ephemerals, which are a group of early spring wild flowers that live out their whole life cycle in about a six-week period between when the ground thaws and before the trees leaf out.

Phenology is the art and science of noticing things. The phen part comes from appearances, as new things appear in nature over the course of the natural year.

Jo Garrett:

The arboretum has a particularly important phenology history. Its a place founded by this man, Aldo Leopold, the Wisconsin conservationist who revolutionized conservation through his book A Sand County Almanac. Leopold was also phenologist. He kept copious notes of his observations, both at his shack in Sand County, and here in the arboretum.

Kathy Miner:

Aldo Leopold and one of his graduate students kept track of phenological data here from 1935 to I believe 1945. It was at least a decade. And we have those records, and we are trying to keep up with them, to keep faith with them, and keep making the same observations and see how things have changed, or maybe havent, since then and see whats going on in the natural year.

Jo Garrett:

In 1939, they first observed pussywillows in pollen on April 6. Bloodroot in bloom on the 20th. Canada geese on March 21. This list of first times in a place can lead to patterns. Leopold wrote this about phenology. A year-to-year record of this order is a record of the rates at which solar energy flows to and through living things. They are the arteries of the land. By tracing their responses to the sun, phenology may eventually shed some light on that ultimate enigma, the lands inner workings.

Kathy Miner:

These are Virginia bluebells. When theyre in bud, theyre pink, but when the flower opens it will be this lovely sky blue color. As it fades, it will become pink again. Its only blue for a short time. I actually just read in an article by a horticulture expert that the color pink and red are almost invisible to bees. As with most insects, they see in a whole different color spectrum than we do. They see blue very easily, so that flower being blue right at that time when its receptive to the bee, its one of those examples of perfect timing.

Jo Garrett:

And if the timing is off for the bluebells or the bees–

Kathy Miner:

The bluebells might open and bloom a little too early, earlier than the insects are here, and youd have a gap between the time of pollen being ripe in the flower and the time that the agent would be around to move it from flower to flower.

Jo Garrett:

Long-term, very structured structured phenology studies are a critical element in some global climate change studies.

Kathy Miner:

I started keeping in book in 1999.

Jo Garrett:

But Leopold himself wrote that phenology, with all its weighty subject matter, is a very personal sort of science. Miner keeps a personal phenology journal, what she saw when.

Kathy Miner:

So 2010 started with the starling. The first robin for me this year was on March 7. Then I go on to sandhill cranes.

Jo Garrett:

Phenology embraces not just sights, but sound. American toads making a ruckus. This season is a time when all the senses are in play. And as Leopold wrote, Keeping records enhances the pleasure of the search.

Levi Wood:

This is a definite sign of spring. When the over-wintering buds on the willow have expanded to a point where theyre pussy willows, some people would say spring is here.

Jo Garrett:

Looking for signs of spring. Its a tour in the arboretum led by Levi Wood, another arboretum naturalist.

Levi Wood:

Thats one of our spring plants coming up. Just the leaves. It will be another three weeks probably, maybe a month, before we get the flowers up. So spring is coming.

Jo Garrett:

Theyre looking for those firsts, emerging flowers, a hungry hawk thats just migrated back in.

Levi Wood:

Hes after a snake on the ground.

People:

-Oh, yeah. Look at the snake.

-Yeah.

-Oh, wow.

Levi Wood:

Thats an immature red tail hawk.

Jo Garrett:

And on the walk, they see an example of a previous peoples tied to nature, an Indian mound in the shape of a panther

Levi Wood:

The mound builders were here between 800 to 1200 years ago. There are mounds all over the Four Lakes area of Madison. One of the things I like about this panther mound, come springtime this has one of the best areas of spring beauties. I wager, if this is like past years, if I come back here sometime mid to end of April, I can identify where the mound is by the fact that the soil is different and its covered with spring beauties.

Kathy Miner:

We lived outdoors before we lived indoors, so I think somewhere in our evolutionary memory were still wanting to be in touch with the rest of nature.

Patty Loew:

Aldo Leopolds daughter Nina continues her dads phenology studies at the Leopold Shack in Sauk County. You can find out more about what that study revealed and how to add your own observations to national phenology research. Just go to wpt.org/inWisconsin

Spring is in the air and its time to strike up the band. The University of Wisconsins Varsity Band Spring Concert is on the way. The Badger band is celebrating its 125th anniversary. To honor this milestone, videographer Chuck France captures the history of the UW fight song in Madison.

Mike Leckrone:

Exactly 100 years ago today, in the Red Gym, just down the street, the University Glee Club performed for the first time the song that John Philip Sousa called the greatest college marching song ever written. And I think you all agree with that, dont you? I certainly do. [applause]

On Wisconsin, its such a great little four-note fragment.

Patty Loew:

Maybe its more than a march song and a two-step.

Mike Leckrone:

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 a 18th century chamber group might have played it. And we played it as a Russian composer might have written it.

We played it as if a Latin American composer would have written, or an Asian composer would have written it. Youll find On, Wisconsin, if I write an arrangement, youre going to find a hint of it. You may have to look for it, but its going to be there. It works so well.

Patty Loew:

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 Karl Beck overheard Purdys melody, penned a few verses and On, Wisconsin was on its way to 100.

Mike Leckrone:

It had an immediate acceptance and so from that point on, every sporting event you could think of, it was a part of it.

Patty Loew:

Its hard to guess how many times On, Wisconsin has been performed.

Mike Leckrone:

I dont even know if I want to know the answer, because its such a staggering amount.

Sports Announcer, 2005:

Theres no tragedy tonight, just celebration.

Mike Leckrone:

We could play On, Wisconsin, depending on the number of touchdowns, anywhere from 50 to 70 times on a given Saturday. Then you multiply that times seven or eight games a season times 40, and that just takes care of Saturday.

Patty Loew:

Hes 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.

Mike Leckrone:

Sort of a loosely knit group of people that was largely under the military, since it was a land grant school.

Patty Loew:

Its probably fair to say that Beck and Purdy had no idea how much times their song would be performed. Karl Beck lived long enough to be honored at the 50-year anniversary of On, Wisconsin in 1959.

Newsreel Announcer:

Now its its all hail the champion.

Patty Loew:

That was also a good year for Badger football.

Newsreel Announcer:

Wisconsin wins its first undefeated Big Ten title in 47 years as they battle before emerging with the championship.

Patty Loew:

Also in 1959, On, Wisconsin became the official state song.

Mike Leckrone:

You know, great songs like that are really timeless. Todays students get just as much enjoyment out of singing and performing it as they did back in 1909.

Patty Loew:

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. One YouTube entry came from uwhiphop.com. It starts with a scratchy recording of on Wisconsin. The catchy hip hop version could become a fan favorite, just like House of Pains Jump Around.

Mike Leckrone:

Its going to stick around for a long, long time, easily another 100 years.

Patty Loew:

That entry by uwhiphop.com did go on to win the contest. Michael Jacksons estate owns the international rights to On, Wisconsin. You can bet it will be played at this years UW Varsity Band concert called Return to the Roses. Its an evening of Rose Bowl memories and tributes to Glee and Motown. You can watch it when Wisconsin Public Television airs the spring concert on Saturday, April 30, at 8:00. Now, for a look at the reports were working on for the next edition of In Wisconsin.

Adam Schrager:

Lambeau Field is a shrine to football fans everywhere. Im Adam Schrager. Coming up on In Wisconsin, well take you up the road about 15 miles to see a different kind of shrine thats now known worldwide.

Woman:

We had it all to ourselves all these years. Now we need to share it with everybody.

Man:

Rock Island might be one of Wisconsins best kept secrets.

Patty Loew:

Come along for an overnight stay inside the states oldest lighthouse on Rock Island.

Man:

Wisconsin really does have a rich maritime history, and this is part of it.

Patty Loew:

And some poetry in motion, as Bianca shares her sweet poetic treats.

Bianca:

They rise before the bread to mix and roll and march, legions of biscotti onto sheets join the baking roll with the precision of a percussion ensemble.

Patty Loew:

Well visit one of Milwaukees family bakeries. Those In Wisconsin reports next Thursday at 7:30 right here on Wisconsin Public Television.

Finally this week, we want to take you back to the wilderness a young John Muir first explored in Marquette County. In Wisconsin videographer Wendy Woodard pays tribute to Muirs Scottish heritage with a closer look at the natural areas at John Muir Memorial Park. Have a great week in Wisconsin.

From John Muirs writings:

The sudden flash into pure wildness, baptism in natures warm heart, how utterly happy it made us.

Announcer:

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. Were 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.