You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime,
anywhere.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, from our Lake Rosota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Good morning.
It is 7.06.
It is nice to have you here up north on this Tuesday morning, August 12th.
2025.
Parker Olson is producing this shindig down in Madison Studio A2.
Brittany Merlot is off today.
So I can tell you that the Milwaukee area, which really did not need more rain, just got a bunch more of it.
A system that is now moving offshore by and large has just moved, the heaviest stuff has just moved past Sheboygan.
Still some light to moderate showers that are stretching from the Milwaukee area up to Oshkosh, again, moving toward Manitowoc at this point.
And then there's still a back
full of light rain that has yet to reach the Madison area.
So essentially the southeastern third of Wisconsin is getting precipitation right now and we obviously are hoping for the best for those folks down in Milwaukee.
from the terrible flash flooding there.
We'll be talking to Dan Schaefer in a little while from the recombobulation area, but with him being a Milwaukee resident and just back from vacation, I might add, we're going to be asking his thoughts and impressions on what he's seen over in his part of the Milwaukee metro area.
It was around 14 inches of rain.
that fell in places in just a matter of hours leading to record high floods.
So far no fatalities reported, still lots of road closures, some roads that were washed out.
Let's see, Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency.
and that authorized some resources to be used.
And of course Milwaukee's Milwaukee County executive, David Crawley, had declared a state of emergency.
There had been some whining on social media saying, well, why isn't Waukesha County getting anything we had flooding to?
And, you know, the response quickly came.
It was because the Waukesha County executive had not promptly issued a state of emergency declaration that has since happened.
And hopefully the, again, the usual Milwaukee bashing political
Snowball throwing comes to an end.
The National Weather Service said, you know, all the rivers in Milwaukee area hit record high levels, whether you're talking about the Kinekinek, the Milwaukee, the Menominee, the Root, all going, in some cases, four feet over flood level.
Firefighters responded to more than 600 calls for water rescues, gas leaks, flooded basements, electrical outages, and more.
and I've heard everything from it's a once in a 500 year event to a once in a thousand year event in any case it is still part of the basically the slow motion disaster movie that we're living one of those you know climate change disaster movies where in the movies it all happens rather quickly suddenly another ice age is upon us
but it works a lot slower than that with an increasing number of storms like this.
And this is what we're living with in this day and age.
From Tigerton, Rob says, good morning from Tigerton.
It's cloudy and 67 degrees, got a few sprinkles.
Yesterday I had mowing jobs in Wittenberg, then got a migraine headache from the wildfire smoke and had a 10 hour sleep.
Then said he's got mowing jobs in Tigerton today, weather permitting.
Uh, let's see.
He, we talked about middle child.
This is national middle child day.
And he says he's the second oldest among his siblings.
It's also national milkman day.
We don't, don't have milk delivery the way that we used to.
Um, Rob says the milkman would come and pick up the milk on our dairy farm every other day.
Okay.
Not that kind of milk man, but yeah, that's technically a milk man too.
That empties the bulk tank and brings it all in.
Uh, let's see.
Rob says the, the brewers are playing like 1982.
The last time the brewers won
the pennant and went to the World Series.
Well, we hope so, but we're also hoping with better results.
That would be nice anyway.
And as far as the milkman and what they say about the milkman, if you're middle sibling, it looks a little different.
Alicia notes, well, now we talk about it being the UPS or the FedEx guy.
to which I don't know.
I don't know if UPS and FedEx guys, if they want that kind of a reputation.
Alicia says, after we were playing the Backstreet Boys, I remember other teenage girls in the late 90s going crazy for in-sync in the Backstreet Boys.
And Tony lets us know that the radio audience missed out, the social media audience got to watch Parker lip-syncing along to the Backstreet Boys and really getting into it.
I can't say that I noticed.
I was reading my notes at the time, but are you?
You missed out.
How do you plead to the lip syncing of the Backstreet Boys?
Sure.
Lip syncing to the Backstreet Boys?
You never know what's going to come of that history lesson.
That's the thing.
That's
wearing pants.
You never know.
Oh, no, that's tomorrow.
Melissa Kay will join us and we'll find out the latest on how Lee Lu is doing.
And I saw a social media video that she put up about, you know, doing some cage cleaning.
I would not recommend.
Oh, is that so?
You know, that's, that's the kind of pet maintenance that, you know, I don't need to be, I don't need to read along with it.
Keeps me from getting up at
Yep.
Let's see, from the text line while we're taking care of those are some of the comments on social media.
How about the text line?
You can do that through the Civic Media app.
Luke Mathers, middle child here, representing a national day of my people, my people, of his people.
Let's see.
We talked earlier about Wisconsin Dells and getting to appreciate things besides the water parks.
On the text line from Jim and Brookfield, good morning Pat, as a geologist, I know that Wisconsin Dells are a natural wonder.
I've hiked many times in the area, photographing the unique rock formations and canyons.
There's a lot of natural wonder to see via hike or a boat ride or a duck ride.
You ever been on one of the ducks?
Not that I remember.
I feel
feel like you'd remember being on the Ducks.
you're in a car or in a bus, and they're driving right into a body of water, and then you're floating.
It's an experience.
Yeah, very interesting experience.
Let's see.
There were a couple of notes from yesterday, and I want to apologize for not getting to them.
We were talking with Tom Nelson, who wrote a book about the Edmund Fitzgerald.
And it's it's used as a metaphor for the American economy and the post postwar industrial age in America.
And Mike from Milwaukee heard that and had to mention that Billy Strings recently covered the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald at the Pfizer forum last Friday, and the place went nuts.
Which I like that because I like knowing that people still recognize the song.
yeah.
And you know, recognize the the tragedy that
befell those 29 crew members back then.
Jim wrote yesterday that our sun pump is continuously running.
Our front ditch is now a deep stream, but we are very fortunate.
The basement stayed dry.
The power stayed on.
Multiple surrounding low areas are flooded and there will be
several homes in the area that are cleaning out their basements.
And other folks shared with us their photos or video clips.
They texted them to us using the Civic Media app to show us just how bad things were.
And I mean, I do appreciate it.
If there's, if there's one place I wish I could live, and I tell Sherry about this all the time, whenever we cross over what you would call, you know, either a creek or a small river.
let's say.
And I always think it would be cool to live alongside one of those, one that you could, you know, you could walk across it, you know, something that was, shall we use the cliche, a babbling brook, if you will.
Would would be a nice place to live, you'd think.
But then, whether episodes like this happen, and you realize something that we call it comes with a price tag, you know.
But I get the attraction.
People love living along the water.
We live along the Chippewa River here, but we're up on a very high bank.
We really would have to be at a disaster movie level of flooding for it to get up here.
know.
I was just looking to see what Tony, Tony puts up New Zealand.
Oh, was this a Lord of the Rings movie filming situation?
you know that?
They filmed all the stuff?
think some of Game of Thrones may be filmed there as well.
I mean, I totally get the attraction.
It's still one of my favorite trips.
I mean, I haven't been there.
It's been 25 years since I've been to New Zealand.
And anytime somebody brings it up, I say all the time, go, just go.
Even if you don't make it to Australia, although I'm sure you will, because why wouldn't you combine the two?
But New Zealand is the underappreciated one.
It is gorgeous.
It is right size.
It has just about every feature possible from fjords to prairies to volcanic areas.
You name it.
It's just a fantastic place to be.
I would highly recommend making a trip out there if you can.
Coming up a little later this hour, we're going to be talking to Hans Brighton Moser and to Sheila Everhart.
We will be talking about legislation being proposed that would allow farms if they choose to to have some overnight campers and Without the the need to have a campground license as a way to diversify their their business practices their revenue stream And so we'll talk to them about what are the current barriers?
Who is proposing this?
How exactly would that work?
That's all coming up
And then at 752, we'll be talking to Jeff Renneke from Friends of the Apostle Islands in our way up north segment.
He's going to talk about safe boating and a system that's in place up there in Lake Superior to help people navigate in the area and to a boat more safely.
So again, that's just the sour alone.
And then Dan Schaefer and Chad Holmes coming along in our eight o'clock hour.
Tomorrow we're going to be talking to State Representative Dana Wachs.
And if you just heard on some of the local newscasts, you might have heard that Governor Evers vetoed a bill that was all about, you know, so-called gig workers, let's say delivery drivers for some of these food companies and the
Bill was billed as a way to get benefits to those gig workers, health insurance and things like that.
And there were some people unhappy when they heard that the governor vetoed it.
And again, that's not the full story.
The full story is why the governor vetoed it.
It was a very industry friendly bill.
And there is a real problem in this country with intentional misclassification of workers in order to avoid paying benefits in order to avoid paying full time.
wages to avoid responsibility in the case of an accident or an injury on the job.
Dana Walks is a trial attorney, a former state legislator, and he's going to talk to us tomorrow about, you know, what it is that we really need to do in the legislature and in Congress to do better by our workers.
I mean, I couldn't help but note in the news story that DoorDash alone spent a million dollars lobbying
on this bill in the Wisconsin legislature.
I mean, as a legislator, I've met with lobbyists.
They don't carry around envelopes of cash.
This is money they get paid to go visit legislators, to work up, you know, briefing books or whatever the case may be.
I just think of where that million dollars could have gone if instead of using it to lobby on a bill, if it had actually gone to the delivery drivers in higher pay or benefits or things like that.
Uh, I would be remiss if I didn't hit the brewers right away before we took a break here because of course you've got the brewers now on a 10 count them 10 game winning streak, the second double digit winning streak.
Not a lot of teams get to do that.
Brewers beat the Pirates 7-1.
Bryce Terrang hit his first career leadoff home run.
Jose Quintana allowed three hits over six innings, and Christian Yelich hit his 22nd home run of the season.
Freddie Peralta will now pitch tonight.
They gave him an extra day's rest taking on Paul Skeens, and the pregame will start at 6-0-5.
And again, at the risk of overselling it, Paul Skeens, Freddie Peralta.
fun one to watch.
That could be fun.
You know, we love the home runs, but, you know, a good pitchers dual, nothing to shake a stick at.
Local update is next for some of you from the heart of America's Up North, live from Lake Wissota.
Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.
I'm Pat Critello.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
It is 7.22 and we are joined now by Dan Hagen from WJFW TV News Watch 12 in Rhinelander.
Dan, how are you this morning?
I'm doing very well, Pat.
How
are you doing?
Good.
You're in your big comfy Blues Clues chair there with your handy-dandy notebook ready to solve another mystery for us.
You know, I'm very consistent except for when I, you know, show up to the show on time.
Sometimes I can be a little inconsistent on that one.
No, you're here and that's what counts.
We're very happy about that.
So there's so many times when we talk about the weather up your way, you know, recall a few months back when, you know, you had the hodag dome collapsing and all the other bad things that happened.
And so now we're watching everything that's unfolding down in Milwaukee.
And the fact of the matter is there
it actually was not a kind and gentle weather weekend anywhere.
You know, there was damage in Vernon County and Door County and other places as well.
It's just that we didn't get, you know, a once in a 500 year rain event.
But still, how is it like out by you?
Well, here's the thing.
I was actually down in the Milwaukee area.
I went to the Bristol Renaissance Fair.
Have you heard of
this?
Yes, yes.
Yeah, we've talked about it.
Um, yeah, so a couple of my friends and I went down there.
So we were camping in Richard bong state natural area, uh, which is, uh, in near Kenosha.
And we had a, you know, a rain, you know, seems like a normal storm that night, not realizing that, you know, just in Milwaukee, uh, I don't know, 50 hundred miles away that, um, it was the crazy flooding videos that we've all seen.
So, uh,
Yeah,
it is.
And of course, now we're in an age where, you know, you can see everything in real time.
And so you can look at an app and go, Oh, it's really raining harder over there.
Whereas, I mean, imagine how it was not that terribly long ago, where it's like, you didn't realize the weather was that bad until like a day or two later, maybe it would be in a newspaper, you know, or something like that.
But we got to see right away, just how very bad it was.
Are you a Renaissance fair devotee?
Um, I know this the first time I've been to one and I was dressed up like a wizard at the beach So I had a wizard hat.
I put a mop on my face for a beard and Then I wore a Hawaiian shirt and shorts.
So it was about 90 degrees.
So it kind of worked out
Where did where did this idea come from?
Um, I think someone told me about it.
There's a there was a show called Merlin where Merlin is dressed up once as a
Hawaiian shirted vacationing man.
So that's where it came from.
But I would recommend people go to it.
There was like jousting competitions, which were really fun.
Um, there was a booth where you had tomatoes and you tried to throw it at a heckler who made very, um, kind of off color jokes at your expense while you were throwing it.
Oh boy.
So, uh, can
you imagine that as when you're anchoring the news, if people could just like, you know, respond in real time?
to what they think.
Yeah, I would be too afraid of that.
My ego would be too fragile.
I would be doing the
news from behind plexiglass, yeah.
Give it
best shot.
I was going to say,
instead of the closest we get now, I didn't have this back in my early days of anchoring.
But now you can finish the newscast and you can get on social media.
And you can right away see all of the keyboard tomatoes that are being thrown at you going, oh, I can't believe you wore that tie.
I can't believe you got that story wrong or whatever the case may be.
Yeah,
that happens for sure.
Early in my career, I'd be interested to hear your perspective, Pat.
But early in my career, I would respond to the haters, go right back at them.
But now I'm just like, it's not worth the effort.
What do you think?
Oh, no.
No, not worth it at all.
Yeah, I think I did once or twice in the early days.
And then just realize that that's not worth your time.
You know, some people just they just want to say what they think.
And look, I feel the same way when I'm delivering a lot of news or commentaries, like, you know, this is this is not a conversation.
There's room.
There's time for conversation.
But this is me delivering a message to you.
And sometimes people just want to deliver a message to you and you go, All right, noted.
So I could make you happier this time along.
Yeah.
Did you have to like ever cut tape in the news industry?
I only had to cut tape at the college level learning about it because there were probably still a handful of radio stations left that were hand splicing audio tape with a razor blade and with splicing tape in order to edit, you know, a sound bite together.
So I did get
in education how to do it.
But by the time I got to my first radio job, that was no longer necessary.
And then we were at the TV station, we were among the first to get what's called nonlinear editing, meaning editing on a computer.
And that I mean, editing video tape, the old way involved, you know, a couple of big machines.
punching buttons, looking up time code.
And, you know, when it worked, it worked, but it was very clunky.
Boy, the first time I did that on the computer, oh, I'd seen the future kids.
I was glad to still be alive to see that day and age.
Yeah, I can't imagine cutting tape like I could get back to the news station.
Ten minutes to show and, you know, put something together.
But yeah.
It would take an hour or something.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, now things happen so quickly and it is wonderful.
Although, as we learned earlier in the show, when computers crash, you suddenly realize you can have all the talent in the world, but you are at the mercy of somebody's software that did or did not update properly.
So.
You know, we noticed that about cars.
To me, my late dad tried to change jobs and become a car handyman.
And there was nothing he couldn't fix on a car.
But he ultimately couldn't do it because he was right then at the era where cars were becoming more and more computerized.
And that goes beyond what you got in a toolbox.
Yeah, it seems like those are the computer systems are what's failing the cars nowadays not the actual, you know engines and guts of it
Yeah, you need a degree.
And again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
I'm just saying it was it was a switch in technology.
Well, we didn't get much into Rhinelander news, but I'll tell you where to find it.
Go to wjfw.com and see what Dan Hagen and his team are doing at NewsWatch 12.
And we'll we'll be a little bit more cognizant of local news headlines for you next week, Dan, if that's okay.
Yeah, sounds good.
All right, good.
Well, hey, enjoy the week.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Sounds good.
Have a good
week.
All right, when we come back, we'll talk to Sheila Everhart and Hans Bright and Moser.
That's here on these mornings, powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Pat Crichtlow.
If you haven't done it yet, sign up for our newsletters over at upnorthnewswi.com.
Click subscribe up in the top banner.
We have our Sunday morning newsletter focused on Wisconsin politics, including our question of the week.
And this week we're asking, should politicians delete their social media accounts?
Now, it's clear that Congressman Derek Van Orden's personal social media account is an embarrassment to the entire district, but
Does that mean he should delete it or does that simply give constituents a look into who he is as a person and not just somebody that puts out press releases and sound bites?
What are your thoughts?
Should they maybe focus on their job?
instead of posting on Twitter.
Again, you get to see that question first on Sunday mornings by signing up for our newsletter, upnorthnewswi.com.
Sheila Everhard is standing by from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, and we're gonna talk about a bill that would permit camping to take place on farms.
As always, we're also joined by Lincoln County dairy farmer Hans Breitenmoser, and I got a question or two about fields to ask him about first.
Hans, good morning, how are you?
I'm doing all right, although I was so, I'm not a superstitious person, but I was very hesitant to bring up just how good the crops were looking, how tall the corn is, how beautiful everything's looking, because I know from the field across the way here, I have lived through, you know, the kind of summer where everything is looking
perfect and then in August either a drought hits or a hail storm hits and I'm heartbroken to hear that along with all the other severe weather around the state that there's been a significant hail damage that's been done to people's crops as well.
Yeah, yeah, no it is a trick and and thank goodness There's there's such a thing as hail insurance in our area right in our immediate area.
It wasn't too bad We had some corn and beans that did get hit by hail, but it was very small.
This was about three weeks ago But in that same storm Sort of to the south and east of me on the other side of wasa they got clobbered and so there's you know like a couple thousand acres where the corn and beans were absolutely destroyed
I mean like nothing left of them and the silage bags that people had were also damaged to the extent that you know feed had to be restored or something had to be done with those bags to try and repair them so that the feed that was stored in them didn't you know didn't perish as well.
So really tough for those folks who didn't
choose to get the hail insurance and and it's tough regardless if you're a cash cropper or if you're using that
that crop to to feed your animals because if you are then obviously you need to go out in the marketplace and and you know be buying semi loads of hay or or or corn silage that's still standing miles away from from other producers and so forth so it's it is it speaks to that that your earlier comment about you know these events that are supposed to happen once every 500 years and now happen once per summer and I think local governments really have to pay attention to to that to that change because it's
going to impact infrastructure and so forth.
But that's all another conversation.
Oh, yeah.
And it gets into this whole notion of, again, diverse fine revenue that we'll talk with in Sheila in just a second.
I will mention, though, that in terms of crop conditions here, third cutting of alfalfa hay is 72
72% complete across the state.
Potatoes are already 20% harvested.
Now just want to ask you about this one, Hans.
Corn silking reached 90%.
Corn in the dough stage reached 36%.
5% of the corn crop was dented.
So we've got silking the dough stage like bread dough and dented.
Can you tell the city kid the difference between those?
Yeah, corn condition was rated 81% good to excellent, which is unchanged from last week.
And again, we just hope that that continues.
But as we know, there is that ongoing focus to diversify farm operations.
And that includes sometimes things have to be changed in terms of state law, which is why we welcome in our friend Sheila Everhart from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association.
Good
morning.
How are you?
Oh,
as always.
It's always nice to see you here.
So we mentioned that in the fall session, bills come up that maybe they were going to be in the state budget bill.
Maybe they weren't.
But regardless, it's, you know, the budget's behind us and we move on to other matters.
And so I wanted you to explain the legislation being proposed that would make sure that farmers could diversify a certain part of their business and not require a campground license.
Can you tell us more about that?
Yes, currently being circulated at the Capitol is LRB 2907.
LRB 2907.
Here,
let me jump in and translate there.
LRB is the Legislative Reference Bureau.
They draft these bills.
That's the bill number draft.
So it doesn't have a bill yet.
It's not Assembly Bill 100 or Senate Bill 100.
It's the draft of a bill by the Legislative Reference Bureau.
So LRB and then the draft number.
Now tell us what the bill that what the draft
So
this would allow Wisconsin farmers to have paying campers on farms without the obligation or without the requirement to obtain a campground license.
I explained this before.
Prior to 2017, the law said that if you had
zero to three sites on your property, you did not need a campground license.
This would allow farms to allow people to
put a tent up in a pasture and experience stargazing, stay overnight in the pasture, and have rustic camping, or bring in a self-contained trailer and park that on the farm when they're overnight for farmstays, pick up the eggs in the morning, have a farm breakfast.
This law was changed in 2017.
It was out of fear, I believe, that
The whole using social media, electronic platforms for reservations was being popular.
And it was changed that all sites need a campground license.
And we feel that the farmer needs that additional revenue streams.
Other states across the United States are doing this, allowing zero to three sites without a campground license.
It's that additional revenue stream.
The target market here is not the person who's going to be going to a campground that wants the pool, the hall, the activities being on top of their neighbor.
We're looking at that environmentally conscious camper who wants the broad outdoors, the fresh air, the very little noise pollution or actual noise.
So there seems to be this concern, like you were saying, that there's some kind of competition with campgrounds or with hotels.
And we've gotten into this as well with agricultural event venues, so-called wedding barns and things like that, where again, you're looking for changes in state law that are more farmer friendly as they look to have diversified businesses, right?
Yes, this last legislative session, there was Act 73 was created.
Now currently and previously under current law, you do not need a license or permit to legally consume alcohol at a private party.
private event.
So it was private party invitation only events you do not need any licensure or permitting for consuming alcohol.
So the couples would rent space on a farm.
And this has been happening for years, and we have 41 years of documentation where agricultural event venues or wedding barns have used this business model.
So what happened with X73 is they redef...
redefined venues like the agricultural event venue the wedding barn as a public place so they said under the law they are no longer considered private property and we have a real problem with this because farms are private property your your homes are private property places are private property so it's now it says that if you have.
a wedding barn or agricultural event venue that's considered a public place under the law and you have to obtain a liquor license to allow consumption on their premises during events or they can no longer use that business model.
But they did something where they said they could allow the agricultural event venues to apply for a no sale event permit.
But they really strangled the farmer in that they said you could only serve beer and wine could be consumed.
and you could have one per month or six per year and that's against the farms economic liberty the opportunity to earn a living because that cut most of our seasonal temporary farm
private events down by 75%.
Sure.
And
Hans, let me ask you to jump in here and say that, look, this represents something that is probably as old as farming itself is the other jobs that farmers can do.
I mean, whether it was, you know,
working on machinery, having something to do with horses, you know, food processing, whatever the case may be, you know, farms have eternally looked for what we now refer to as side hustles, but are, you know, the today's lexicon is business diversification.
Yeah, and just, I mean, just the freedom to drink beer outside standing up, I think is what's being on here.
So, so no, I mean, I feel like they're
these are those opportunities that for diversification on smaller farms.
And certainly we'd like to see that we have the opportunity to do just that.
And I think to your comment, Pat, it is, there is a cultural component to it as well.
I mean, anybody who's lived out in the country for a long time has those memories of going to these types of places where when it was somebody's,
Private wedding on their on their home or on their farm I should say and and and so there is a cultural component to it and and you know the other thing that I'm always concerned about is these old bank barns and we need to
they need to maintain their relevance so that people will maintain the structure.
And it's kind of heartbreaking to see those go away.
So this is another opportunity to keep those structures alive.
Yeah.
And Sheila, I've got less than a minute here.
So real quick, what is it that you would like people to do?
Is it simply call their legislator and tell them broadly to support these efforts to allow for camping and wedding barns?
Exactly.
For example, for the agricultural event venue, we want working farms to be exempt from X73.
We
have sports stadiums, we have yards, we have campsites, we have all different kinds of exemptions.
We
want working farms to be exempt from X73.
We'd also like everyone to call their legislators and tell them to support.
our B2907.
We call
it the farmstead component and the support agricultural event venues and wedding barns.
And the
time is now.
We need everything done this week.
We need to get this legislation through before October.
Sheila Everhart, thank you so much.
We'll talk to you again in a couple of weeks.
You as well, Hans.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
All
right,
some of you have a local update next others will talk to Jeff Renneke from the Friends of the Apostle Islands about boating safety on Lake Superior.
I'm Pac right low.
This is the civic media radio network
You're listening to civic media
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Remember, you can always subscribe to this radio program as a podcast as well.
That way, even if you listen live every morning, you can listen back to something that I hear that right or I want to hear that guest again.
Head over to Spotify and follow us that way or Apple wherever you get your podcast.
It would also enable you to listen back to Tom Nelson.
talking with us yesterday and with Kristen Lyrely on her show last weekend about his new book, Wrecked, the Edmund Fitzgerald and the sinking of the American economy.
If you heard the interview and you're interested in getting the book, head over to the Michigan State University Press.
They're the publishers MSUPress.org for more about the Edmund Fitzgerald as a metaphor for
the late 20th century economy and some terrible decisions made at the corporate and governmental levels.
Lake Superior boating is also part of the topic we're going to discuss with Jeff Renneke though on an admittedly smaller scale than the Edmund Fitzgerald but still there are plenty of boating that happens and Jeff as a part of the Friends of the Apostle Islands is going to tell us about a partnership aimed at keeping boating safe including these boys as part of the WaveWatch program.
Jeff Renneke, how are you?
I'm doing well, Pat.
Thank you.
I'd rather be out boating, but I'm glad to be here talking about
it.
Exactly.
If it helps other people to boat safely, then that's just fine.
So the WaveWatch boys are a joint project between UW Madison, the Friends of the Apostle Islands, and the National Park Service.
And so tell us about these five different data boys deployed in strategic places around the island.
What is it that they do and how do we benefit from them?
Well, first, maybe a little background.
I always chuckle when I see that Minnesota license plate boast about 10,000 lakes, because Wisconsin actually has 15,074.
And we border the two of the Great Lakes.
And so we have some of the greatest boating in the world.
But with that, of course, comes some dangers.
In 2023, Wisconsin unfortunately set a record with 28 boating fatalities.
We average about 19.
And so the WaveWatch buoy project is a way to show folks that safe boating is informed of boating.
And with the buoys, we can help people make better decisions as you were talking about a moment ago.
And so you do that in these boys that tell you about the things that they measure.
Sure.
So there's five boys out there in strategic places that are important to boaters in the Apostle Islands.
Every 30 minutes they send back information on wave height.
wave frequency, which is the time period between the crests of the waves, the wave direction, and water temperature.
And then it's refreshed every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the entire boating season.
So it's not a forecast.
It's even more important.
It's real time information right for where the boaters are going, right at their fingertips.
So this is information at your fingertips.
Is there like any kind of a charge to access this information?
I don't think boating safety should have a price and so use of our wave watch program is free.
People can just go to our website at friendsoftheposalislands.org and ask us to send them a QR code.
And what I do as a boater myself is part of my preparation process in my boat is before I slip the lines, I take my phone, I scan the QR code and I check conditions to where I'm going.
So the use of it is free.
Now, of course, there is a cost in the process.
And so we appreciate donations to try to keep this project going.
And those donations as well can be made at our website.
But safety should be for all of us and it should be free.
Yes, because as noted, it's a roughly $17,000 a year contract with UW Madison.
So sponsorships are greatly appreciated.
Are there also ramifications when it comes to, you know, measuring our changing climate with these boys?
Yeah, very much so.
Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world by surface area, as many people know.
And so it's very, very fragile to the changes in climate because it has such an incredibly large surface area.
And also, like all lakes, of course, it goes through what they call upwelling or flipping.
And so the recording of temperatures, surface temperatures, can be very important.
We had an event last year
with the buoy out by Myers Beach which is near the sea caves where the temperature literally dropped something on the order of
25 or 30 degrees in a matter of a very short period of time when the lake flipped.
Now that information is not only important to boaters because of course cold water can be a very dangerous situation if you're not prepared.
But it's also important to climate change researchers to understand how our lake is reacting to the changes in water temperature and the extreme conditions that climate change can bring about.
And then finally, how's been the reaction to it, to having this kind of a rather sophisticated safety program out there on the water?
People love it.
They call it, if for some reason we've had 98.7% connectivity on the buoys, which is incredible, because if I was floating around in Lake Superior from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I wouldn't have 97.
8% connectivity.
But as soon as it goes down, my phone starts ringing.
People are using it.
We've had more than 30,000 hits on our website last year for this, and people are getting used to it.
They're checking it.
It's even become kind of a recreational thing.
People who are not even going boating that day, sometimes wisely because of strong winds, will check on the buoy in a place like
the flats near Long Island or Devil's Islands just to ooh and ah about the size of the waves.
So it's become a very important tool for safe boating in the Apostle Islands.
Oh it sounds like it and again to learn more head to friendsoftheapostleislands.org and learn more about the WaveWatch Boys and much more about the group as well.
Jeff Renneke representing it for us on our weekly Way Up North segment.
Hey it was great to talk to you again Jeff.
Thank you so much for the time.
you're welcome.
Let's all be safe out there.
Yes, please.
Coming up in our next hour, we're going to be talking to Dan Shaver from the Reconpopulation area and also a Milwaukee area resident about
what he's seen and experiencing and also a bit about his recent trip heading over to London to take in a little personal time and to see a particular show that I'm sure we're all looking forward to hearing about.
Chad Holmes along the way as well all after the eight o'clock news.
I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
The national news cycle never stops.
but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
