Forests to the Climate’s Rescue (Hour 2)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake WSOTA studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Crichtlow.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning, 606 on a Tuesday.

It's November 4th, 2025.

Another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake WSOTA.

For more every year spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media radio network or catching us,

through the live stream on Facebook or YouTube, podcast, website, all the other ways to get here.

We appreciate it very much.

I got a question for you.

Is there a place where you used to work that if you went back there for a visit, you would be cheered, you'd be given a hearty welcome, even if it was say you left for a competitor, but you know, you left on decent terms?

Or would you face a more hostile greeting?

in a couple of minutes, we'll tell you how to play it out for someone who made an awkward visit back to their old job.

But it got me wondering for you, what job would you what job job site?

What would you like to revisit a place to go back to where you haven't?

Maybe there's still some old coworkers there and you haven't seen them in forever.

Or what job site will you never go back to because you're quite sure your old colleagues would not be

Very welcoming.

If you have any thoughts to share on that, get in the comment sections of Facebook or YouTube or give us a call at 855-75-CIVIC-855-7524842.

You can also use that Civic Media app to call us or to text us or to use a voice note and tell us how things might play out if you were to go back to one of your old jobs.

We'll talk about that a bit.

Also, in some breaking news, former Vice President Dick Cheney has passed away.

He was 84 years old.

The news coming down in the past hour.

The cause was complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.

He had had coronary problems all of his adult life.

He also had a connection to UW Madison.

He went to school here as a doctoral student in political science.

from 1966 to 1968, for a time he worked for Wisconsin Governor Warren Knowles when he was a student, and his wife, Wynn, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She went here as a graduate student from 66 to 68, earned a PhD in English in 1970.

Again, Dick Cheney has passed away at the age of 84.

So you'll hear more about that throughout the coming day or throughout the day as well.

Now there is one year to go until Election Day in Wisconsin for some very big elections.

Governor of course is tops on the list, but there are congressional elections legislative elections a whole host of others It is an election day in some other key states.

We'll be watching to see what happens in New Jersey and New York City and Virginia in California among others and so I am sure at this time tomorrow We'll be talking about what those numbers say especially versus what we think they might say because

It doesn't matter who's on the ballot today.

I mean, it matters, but my point is the interpretation is going to be through a national lens.

And what does that say about what voters are feeling about the government shutdown, about the Trump administration, about Trump himself?

And it's not necessarily fair to the candidates who are on the ballot today, but you know, that's pretty much.

how it works and so we'll watch those elections but as for today with one year until elections

An hour from now, we will be talking with Emily Berge, who is a candidate for Congress in the third congressional district.

That's the Derek Van Orden district in western Wisconsin, parts of central Wisconsin as well.

She's one of two Democrats running, hoping to unseat Van Orden next year.

And so we will visit with her coming up a little later this morning.

And we'll tell you more about what's coming up in the show in just a bit here.

But first, down to Madison we go and Studio A2.

where producer Parker Olson is standing by, near as I can tell, because I don't know if he's adjusted his headphone.

Are you still hearing me halfway, or are you, what is happening over there?

What?

Exactly, see?

What did you do?

We're one-sided here.

I don't know what I did, Pat.

I laid down.

I think that was my problem.

I laid in bed last night, and I watched a YouTube video, and all of a sudden, I'm like, my left ear feels kind of different.

And

that's

the one, was that the one you were laying on?

Or was it?

Yeah, that's when I was laying

on.

And all of a sudden I'm like, hmm, feels a little quiet over there.

And I roll over and I go, oh, I just can't hear out of my left ear.

How do you, how do you're one ear?

I can, it's a little exaggeration.

I can kind of hear out of my left ear.

Okay.

I just, I don't

know.

It feels like I got to pop it and I can't pop it.

So.

Yeah, I think I think I know the situation.

And again, sometimes it's fun to welcome a 22 year old into the world of life in your 60s.

But

that's good to hear

three times my age.

Good.

Well, Alicia says, did Parker's cold move to his ears?

It could be.

But it could also be I would just try those.

wax those eardrops for for ear wax and see if maybe maybe a little little smidge of something moved to a place where it shouldn't be and you don't want to go after it with a q-tip or anything the the toughest the easy part is oh I have to lay here on my side for 15 minutes while I put these drops in and let them fizz like an Alka Seltzer tablet or something okay I can lay down for 15 minutes

But then comes the funny part and that's walking to the shower with your head still turned as close to 90 degrees as possible and then getting in the shower and letting it drain out and and everything else.

So I think the fun things we can talk about is six o'clock in the morning here.

Pat, this sounds like a solution that could be solved by just starting in the shower.

But you have to keep your head for 15 minutes.

That's why they want you to lay down.

Otherwise, you're going to trade the ear problem for a crick in your neck.

So.

I

mean, that's

how it goes to solve one problem with another.

There you go.

Uh, let's see.

Alicia also says anytime I've visited an old job, I've been greeted kindly because I try not to be a total booger.

She says in parentheses, radio safe language.

Yeah,

that's I

know what you

mean.

Tony says, I'm not sure if I walked into my current workspace.

Anyone would know who I am.

The joys of remote work.

Absolutely.

Tony.

Yeah, I'm

here.

I've only been to civic media's world headquarters like five times.

And I can't tell you how many times I've looked at somebody like, hey, Pat, how are you?

And a little voice in my head going, I don't know who this is.

I got no idea.

If I ask him, it looks so stupid.

You have asked me who that was after someone has said hi to you.

Yes, I have.

Yes.

And I'm sure your thought was like, how did you not know that was so and so?

But again, unless they're on my screen here, they're just a name in the chats.

Yeah, that's fair.

It's a little world.

Exactly.

Here's what else is coming up on the program today.

We will be talking to Dan Schaefer from the Reconbobulation Area.

He is Civic Media's political editor as well.

He's only the latest person to write about Mandela Barnes and whether he should or should not run for governor.

I mean, the New York Times did a piece.

The Milwaukee Journal just did a piece.

There was a strongly worded editorial in the Milwaukee Courier newspaper that said on behalf of part of Milwaukee's black community, they don't want Mandela Barnes to run for governor for critical reasons.

So we'll talk to Dan about that.

Also,

We're gonna talk to courier newsrooms camp Stevenson from the nation's capital here about the shutdown And we'll talk to Hans Brighton Moser as well Parker I'm gonna pause and take a sip of coffee here while you take a stab at who we were talking about About going back to their old job.

Oh boy.

Yeah, you know, I was okay with that I Was pretty well liked throughout I think

If I were to go back to my college newspaper, I would get more warm of a welcome that I would like to get.

Oh, OK.

Like they want you to reenroll.

Yeah, probably.

I

had a guess.

I guess.

Well, it didn't work out that way for Miles Turner.

Miles Turner, yes, did a lot for the Indiana Pacers.

And as a result, a lot of Milwaukee Bucks fans did not like Miles Turner, but now Miles Turner is a Milwaukee buck.

But after everything he did for the Pacers,

He kind of thought his longtime fans would give him at least a polite warm ovation in his first game back against his former team.

And no, he heard booing all night long from the moment the PA announcer introduced the pregame video tribute.

And every time Turner touched the ball, every time he scored a point, every time he checked into the game, a hurtful crescendo of jeers would restart, according to the AP story.

He said it was disheartening, man, it was frustrating.

You give 10 years of your life, your blood, sweat and tears, you take pay cuts, you survive trade rumors, you try to do everything the right way, and then sometimes that stuff shakes out.

And Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after the game, he was discouraged by had all played out, but to be fair, Indiana had said they wanted to resign Turner, but he left and he left for division rival point.

I would point you toward the things I've said about Craig Council.

Yeah.

He also said some things about wanting to be on a competitive club.

And he says it didn't come out the right way.

You didn't come out the way he meant them to.

But this was clearly not a willy-a-dama situation last night for Miles Turner, you

know.

But as for the game, the Bucks pulled out a 117 to 115 victory.

Giannis with a buzzer beater, a mid-range jumper from about 17 feet away was your dagger.

Giannis scored 33 points.

And again, the Bucks squeak out a victory.

over the Pacers and they headed right to Toronto.

They will be playing there tonight and then they will be home Friday against the Chicago Bulls.

So that, that's where that came from.

Uh, wondering if you, if you'd go back to your old place, would you hear cheering or booing?

And we've got both Willie Adamus and now Miles Turner as examples here.

Gotcha.

You know, it really sucks when the team does the right thing, like doing a tribute video for a guy who's been with you for 10 years.

Like that is exactly what you should do.

Mm-hmm.

Very good job by the Pacers.

That sucks that the fans did not give him a

good welcome.

They did not.

But again, I think of all the booing for Craig Council and it's like, okay, so how much of it was because it was a division rival versus things he said or whatever?

Yeah.

Roger echoes a sentiment on old jobs on Facebook that we've talked about here.

It's been 11 and a half years since I left my previous employer.

I believe the entire staff has turned over in that time.

Which would make sense because it certainly has at the TV station, but I couldn't really go back to the TV station because I'd been there for nearly a decade anchoring the news then decided to run for office.

Nobody knew my political affiliation.

I was very careful about that on air.

So immediately 50% of the people the ones who thought it was a Republican were very mad and it would have worked the other way had had I know declared as a Republican and Of course in the newsroom.

They don't want to be seen as currying favor.

Yeah,

so it was always a little awkward

when I was

back there

You know, uh, especially when I get to see, you know, my old co anchor, Judy Clark and, and things like, Oh, which reminds me speaking of broadcast legends, Jane McNair.

Yes.

Announcing yesterday on her show that she is retiring come December.

Jane, we love you.

Bless you.

Congratulations.

You're going to have so much fun.

You're going to do so much.

traveling, I am absolutely sure.

Yeah, it's, it's fantastic.

So we just wanted to put that out there in case you missed it yesterday at Shane Mattener.

Absolute legend.

Radio legend in Milwaukee.

And she hates when you say that, but it's true.

And we've loved having her at Civic Media these past couple of years.

But it's really gotten into my head.

It's

like, and I

know she's she's a couple years older than me, but still it's like

Oh, she's retiring in December.

What can I do?

How can I make this happen sooner?

How can I make this work for me?

And then I'm like, wait a minute, you're a political beast, and there is an election cycle ahead.

And by the way, you're doing this thing you love doing.

I absolutely I'm working my dream job here.

This is fantastic.

I also get to share with you that the Badger men's basketball team ranked 24th in the country, won their season opener against little Campbell University, the fighting Campbell soup cans of North Carolina 96 to 64.

John Blackwell

the Badger scoring with 31 points.

They will host Northern Illinois come Friday.

We're going to talk about a bunch of bills vetoed by Governor Tony Evers and your daily history lessons on the way in just a little bit as well.

First, from the heart of America's up north, live from Lake Basota.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Crichtlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

I still haven't even told you everything that's coming up on the program today.

We'll also talk to Hans Breitenmoser and he's brought along a couple of friends, Keith Phelps and Scott Hershberger, who work in forest management, a special kind of forest management, encouraging the growth of forests in order to store more carbon and help fight a changing climate.

So we'll hear all about the plans to do that, which is more than just, you know,

plant a lot of trees, more to it than that, of course.

And all the other topics I mentioned earlier, so if you can't stick around for the whole show from now until nine o'clock, get get yourself over to Spotify or Apple.

Wherever you get your podcasts and follow us that way and that way you can listen on demand and while you're signing up for things get over to our website up north news wi.com and sign up for our Sunday morning newsletter with a focus on Wisconsin politics and a little bit of national politics as well and our question of the week where this week I ask you about the economy over the next 12 months because remember there's a big election One year from now

And how's the economy going to do between now and then?

Is it going to kind of, you know, tread water, kind of the same kind of slog we're going through?

Are we, are we going to a better place?

Things are rough right now, but things are going to get better at some point here.

or do you feel like things are actually going to get worse from here over the next 12 months?

A lot of folks responding so far.

You can sign up for our newsletter at UpGrowthNewsWI.com and find out more.

In our weekday newsletter, Ellie Bordeaux put that together.

This morning's edition is out.

It includes a way that you can help support food banks because of President Trump's government shutdown and cut off of SNAP benefits.

HIV is offering hot food service and free kids meals this week for kids 12 and under from four until seven.

And then that same meal will be offered to everyone else at $3 with to-go or dine-in options.

That story and so much more in our newsletter again sign up at up north news wi.com All right, so here's a fair question to ask about the way our legislature should work.

Is it a waste of time and money?

waste of taxpayer resources for legislators to create and listen to and debate and past and pass the bills that they know

are going to be vetoed by the governor.

Well, some would say it's right.

It's the right thing to do.

You're making a statement by passing those bills, even if the governor vetoes them.

Others would say, you know, that's right up there on par with this meeting could have been an email.

Instead of going through all the rigmarole of writing a bill and scheduling committee hearings, just issue a press release on what it is you'd like to do if you had a governor of your same party.

Well, either way, Republicans sent a bunch of bills to Governor Tony Evers and he vetoed a bunch of the bills.

He signs a lot of bills too, but he signed or he vetoed rather several Republican bills, some of which they have passed to him before and he has vetoed before.

And that's the part that kind of gets to me.

It's one thing if you pass a bill one time to make a statement.

It's another thing if you kind of keep repeating the process over and over because now you look like you're just looking for something to do instead of actually doing things that could pass and could be beneficial to your constituents.

So again, the governor did sign some bills like the bill that would lead to an eventual cell phone ban in all schools.

There was a bill that would crack down on reckless driving, but he vetoed one that would require

state employees to return to full-time in-office work because many had gone off-site of course during the pandemic and as the governor noted

Frankly, there are some jobs that have worked better as offsite jobs rather than cramming everybody into a bunch of cubicles or whatever the case may be, and that these state agencies need the flexibility to determine which jobs should come back in-house and which jobs should continue to be remote.

and maybe the legislature shouldn't be micromanaging that.

Again, you may disagree, but that was his reason for vetoing it.

He also vetoed a bill that would have limited how John Doe investigations can be done, especially when it comes to police officers who shoot and kill people in the line of duty.

And we've talked about this one before.

The DA has the authority to determine whether or not to issue a criminal complaint to charge someone like a police officer with a crime.

If the DA decides not to file a criminal complaint, a judge can still hear, a judge can still hold a hearing, listen to evidence and then determine whether there is probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and then issue a criminal complaint, which would lead to formal charges against that officer.

And why would you do that?

Well, frankly, because there's times where the district attorney might be a little too cozy with police officers.

And this is a way for a third party, essentially, to look at things.

And Republicans want to take that away.

They want to say, you know what, if the DA decides not to press charges, that's it.

That's the end of the matter.

They passed a bill saying as much, and Evers said, nope.

We're going to veto that as well.

Let's see, what else was there?

There was one that was micromanaging the Department of Workforce Development, basically as a way again to make it tougher for people to collect unemployment.

He vetoed another bill that changed the identity verification process for unemployment compensation.

Again, these are solutions in search of a problem.

There was another one that would go after people who applied for jobs but then didn't show up for the job interview.

Because again, they're Republicans that want to carry on the trope of like all these people are applying for jobs with no intention of going to the interview.

But now you're penalizing people who actually can't make it to an interview.

Maybe they've got a sick kid.

Maybe they can't get childcare because their Head Start Center just closed, things like that.

So he vetoed that bill as well.

Here's another bill that's going to get vetoed because it just got introduced.

Here's a new bill, Assembly Bill 560.

It will seek to ban absentee ballot drop boxes.

Yeah, we talked about this when it was a just language for a bill that some Republicans said they were gonna introduce and now they have formally introduced a bill that would ban absentee ballot drop boxes because again, it just seems If you can't win election on your ideas, you try to limit the amount of people that can vote Alright, you occasionally hear me gush about an album an album that you've got to have even if the album is more than 30 years old.

It is just that

Good.

And we are kicking things off with, well, we're just going to rock out for the start of today's history lesson.

And get yourself set to download the album that I'm going to tell you about in just a bit.

I'm Pat Kratlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Today's history lesson starts with a little Delbert McClinton.

Delbert McClinton is 85 years old today.

Happy birthday.

The legend from Lubbock, Texas.

And I cannot recommend enough his 1992 album, Never Been Rocked Enough.

That song there every time I roll the dice is track one on it.

And every one of them is just...

Amazing.

The album was co-produced by Bonnie Rait.

That might tell you something.

She's got a duet with Delbert on the album.

Tom Petty and Melissa Etheridge singing some of the background vocals.

Just an excellent album, top to bottom.

That's Delbert McClinton, who today turns 85 years old.

All right, on the birthday list today as well, Ralph Macchio, 64 years old today.

And here's where...

Again, we we pick on poor Parker so much for the things that he has or hasn't seen But the fact of the matter is my a lot of my friends and colleagues They can't believe a lot of the things that I haven't seen and Ralph Machio It leads to this admission.

I've never seen five minutes of a karate kid movie.

Oh, any of them not the original not any of that followed.

Geez

I am, you know, like Casablanca, not karate kid, but that's okay.

That's me.

Anyway, that little karate kid, Ralph Machio, 64 years old today.

Jeff Probst from Survivor is also 64.

I can't, I can't square that.

Again, because they were famous at two different times, that Jeff Probst and Ralph Machio were born the same day and they're 64 years old.

Yeah, that's a little weird, actually.

Yeah.

A melancholy happy birthday anniversary to Loretta Swit, hot lit Sulehan from Mash.

She passed away back at the end of May at the age of 87.

She was born 88 years ago today.

All right, time for a little album chart trivia.

It was on this day in 1997 that an album was released that is still one of the top 10 albums of all time.

You'll know it's album I'm talking about just by the first line of this song.

Let's go girls.

Yeah, that'd be that one.

Shania Twain released her third album come on over this day in 1997 with that track there plus that don't impress me much honey I'm home from this moment on you're still the one love gets me every time don't be stupid.

at 31 million certified copies sold.

It is the world's seventh best selling album of all time.

And by the way, we talked about this a year ago and said at the time, it was the eighth best selling album of all time.

So

it's actually climbing

the list as as somehow I forgot to see which one below it but people bought more of Shania Twain's album than of whatever was above her on the list.

So it's still climbing the charts.

That's wild.

I know.

So again, that album was released this day in 1997.

The number one song this day in 1972 was by Johnny Nash.

That

was 1972.

On this day in 1973, in the Netherlands, they had their first ever Car Free Sunday.

which was caused by the OPEC oil embargo of 1973.

So on Sundays, highways were only to be used by people on bicycles and roller skates.

Since gasoline, it was really hard to come by.

Only in the other

ones.

Could that happen?

I feel like we could have done that.

Yeah, with with more.

Anyway, let's see what else have we got today.

Oh, 1978.

Oh, okay, now I have to bring down Johnny Nash because

I so love this next song and I want to hear the very, very beginning of it because it's off of Linda Ronstadt's Living in the USA, which on this date in 1978 went to the top of the album chart with a lot of remakes, including this one.

There's not a lot of people who can take a song by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and make it their own.

Linda did it.

She had this.

She had just one look and other singles off the living in the USA album number one this day in 1978.

The number one single this day in 1978 was also a slow song.

You know, it's Anne Murray.

I'm not gonna badmouth Anne Murray.

It's just that it's no Linda Ronstadt, but here was the number one single from Anne Murray this week in 1978.

It is fair to say, by the way, with these two songs from 1978, that not everything was disco 24-7.

There was still room for something else now and

then.

That's a

good point, yeah.

One year later, 1979, the Iran hostage crisis, a group of Iranian college students overran the U.S.

Embassy in Tehran and took hostages, some of whom would remain in captivity for 444 days.

One year later in 1980,

Ronald Reagan would be elected 40th president of the United States defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter and our country has never been the same since and that is not a compliment Thankfully offsetting that is 2008 on this day Barack Obama became the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected as president of the United States Sadly that made far too many people lose their minds and our country hasn't been the same since

On this day in 1989, the number one song was by the Swedish pop rock duo, Rockset.

And now we're going to go way up to 2015, 10 years ago today.

Chris Stapleton had a big night at the CMA Awards.

He won New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, and Album of the Year for Traveler, his solo debut.

And he also mesmerized the crowd with a performance of this

song.

I will say that, again, that performance he did with his wife, Morgan and Justin Timberlake.

It says here it went viral.

It didn't for me at the time, but looking at it yesterday, I'm like, oh yeah, I totally see this.

They completely killed this one in a good way.

And I loved one of the comments on YouTube that said, I don't always listen to this song, but when I do, so do my neighbors.

Yeah, it is one of those times you just have to blast

just turn it up So I again I would recommend the version Chris Stapleton his wife Morgan and Justin Timberlake from the CMAs 10 years ago today All right the national day calendars here, and we have a bit of a spoiler alert We might have talked about this one already Parker.

We might have talked about this one a little bit already.

It's election day, Pat

Yes, it is.

Okay.

But a good reminder as well that there are elections one year from now in Wisconsin.

And if you're not registered to vote, head to myvote.wi.gov and look up your information.

I have to

read.

I hate being

registered.

Parker.

You've set this up as just like the world's perfect public service announcement.

Here we go.

Parker, don't be dismayed.

Checking your registration status is quick and easy.

Go to myvote.wi.gov.

And if you've moved and need to get registered in your current location, there are quick and easy instructions in there for it.

Oh, thank goodness.

Thank you, Pat.

Now I feel like I could really go out and make a difference in my community by voting.

It's almost like we rehearsed this.

I promise you we did not All right, I thought I was gonna I thought I was gonna be unhappy about this next one But go ahead.

What's what's next on the national day calendar?

Candy

day not candy corn day

candy

not any specific kind of candy.

No, this is where I was gonna blow up again and go, what's with these general things like candy?

It's like, we have days for every other candy.

But then I had a revelation.

Oh, yeah, it's when my Catholic upbringing kicked in.

It's like, wait a minute, we, we have something called All Saints Day, which we just celebrated.

And we have all the days for all the other saints.

But yeah, there's an All Saints Day.

So today is kind of the All Saints Day for candy.

Just

all candy.

That's one way to look.

Yeah.

Okay.

And I like that.

And I have a confession to make about candy and candy corn.

So I did pick up some candy corn because we had a jar of peanuts that hadn't been emptied yet.

And we'd been nibbling on that for a while.

Kind of making a little salted nut roll.

But now I'm out of peanuts.

Oh, this candy.

I don't want to eat just plain candy corn.

Oh

gosh.

I know.

Let's see, from Alicia, she says, oh, I am registered.

And she says, I think the election of Barack Obama was the start of my journey away from the Tea Party.

Well, the Tea Party really got going in the midterms in 2010.

And again, it was the people who lost their damn minds over Obama being elected.

And yeah, some people were pulled to it, and then some people were

We're repelled by it in time, repulsed by it, I should say.

Perhaps it has something to do with our third entry on the National Day calendar.

Well, Pat, some people just need to remember that today is user common sense day.

Just common sense, folks.

That's all we're asking.

Today is common sense day.

All right.

What do we have for entertainment news today?

Oh, well, perhaps not very common sense.

Disney is in a dispute with YouTube TV over rights, media rights, and frankly,

Everyone is just going, Oh, well, this is just another wrench in my trying to stream stuff.

A lot of people

are

annoyed because Disney has, you know, ABC and ESPN.

So people are not watching a lot of sports.

So I did not know that this was a thing late last week when when it first happened.

And then called my mom to check in.

Oh, my mom, how are you?

Patrick, I'm so angry.

You know how my mom occasionally calls me and says, do you know what they said on the view today?

And I'd be like, no, mom, I have a job.

And I kind of follow the news myself.

But she just and now I can't watch.

I can't watch.

I can't watch my shows because her local ABC affiliate was on YouTube.

She was a streamer.

She'd cut the cord.

We got her all set up with YouTube TV and all the apps, you know, she was streaming Yellowstone on Paramount and she was streaming other things through HGTV or whatever.

She was a happy little cord cutter.

until Disney and YouTube got into this fight with Google and cut all the ABC and ESPN stations off.

And so, yeah, you hear mostly about it, about ESPN, that people can't get their ESPN on there, but people want their ABC stations, man, and they are not happy.

No,

there's been

a while.

Because here's one billion dollar company against this billion dollar company.

Who are you rooting for on that one?

Yeah, except for maybe both of them to burn down, you know, I mean, honestly, what do you do?

Yeah, I don't know.

It was funny to be, I saw a comment from JJ Watt yesterday, um, complaining about it.

And he's like, I'm not paying for another streaming service.

I just, I guess I'm just not watching Monday night football now.

Wow.

Interesting.

Cause he can afford to do it.

And he's

choosing to do it, but it's the, it's the principle of it.

And, you know, and much like health insurance and all these other things.

cell phone plans.

There's like no easy thing.

It used to be you call your cable company.

How much does it cost to hook up?

You know, $9.99 a month or whatever.

It's probably five bucks a month back when I first got cable.

And that's it.

And now it's, well, you could go with the silver package or the silver medallion package or the gold package or the gold medallion package.

No, we don't offer that.

It's that way for everything.

It's so convoluted and unnecessarily so.

So Google, Disney.

We're rooting for you to find an agreement.

Please.

And then get broken up.

Please.

We'll be back.

I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio

Network.

Nice to have you back here on a Tuesday morning pack right low here in Chippewa Falls Parker Olson in Madison producing things and then your phone calls texts comments I'll welcome at eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two or call us through the civic media app text us through the civic media app leave a voice note through the civic media app or Get in the comment sections on Facebook and YouTube like Roger did from Steven's point

to talk about how actress Diane Ladd, who just passed away, in 1974 portrayed Flo in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

And I have to straighten out again for our younger listeners, not Flo from Progressive.

This was a waitress character in this 1974 movie, Flo.

And when the movie became a TV series, the TV series Alice, two years later, Polly Holiday took over the role of Flo.

And then when Holiday left the series for her own spin-off, Diane Ladd created a new role as Belle and stayed for a few episodes.

But Diane Ladd passed away just two months after Polly Holiday did.

So a couple of entertainment.

Legends from the early 1970s have passed away that we wanted to share today as well.

What else do we have in entertainment news here today?

Well, Pat, Dr. Phil, he's been ordered to liquidate his media company.

That is the order.

He's in a bankruptcy case.

Ordered to liquidate it because of worries of alleged wrongdoing.

Apparently there were text messages that were deleted.

Um, which suggested that he was filing for bankruptcy.

Uh, just a jumpstart a new company.

Oh, I had not heard this.

Gee.

Dr. Phil, the guy who's always talking everybody else down, you know, because I'll say it again, kids.

I'll say it again.

Look, you can, you can give all the advice you want.

I don't have a problem with that.

It's when you, you strike the holier than thou pose, you know, that it.

you know, you're just inviting karma.

And Dr. Phil's not like you, you and I, we would, we would talk at length about our foibles.

And, you know, but we also wouldn't try to, you know, commit the crime of declaring bankruptcy just to get out of paying your bills and then starting a whole new company.

You can't do that kids.

And Dr. Phil just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I guess so it is.

Yeah, it is.

media company that's kind of going down, I suppose.

Yes, no doubt there.

All right.

What else we got new out there on on the streaming services?

Over on Netflix, you can watch there is a new series that they've got called famous last words.

It's all it's in depth interviews with famous people, but they don't release the interview until after the person has died.

Okay.

So it's like, there's only one right now.

It's Jane Goodall.

I don't know how.

So

Jane Goodall agreed to be interviewed and the condition was it wouldn't be released until she died.

Yep.

Okay.

It's an interesting premise.

First off, there's a certain level of trust there that you go, yeah, I'm going to spell all my secrets and you're not going to air this until I'm gone.

And then like a week later,

He turned on national scandal as celebrity admits, blah, blah, blah.

I don't think if I were, you know, a celebrity, if they approached me for something like that, I mean, not me, but if I were a big time celebrity, I don't think I could go along with that.

No, it seems a little maybe I'm just cynical.

I've been

accused of that before.

We

know that.

Yeah.

In this case.

OK, so it's a series of one at this point?

At this point, yeah.

I don't know who other people are, but apparently there are other people who have or will do this.

And we don't know until they die.

So I guess it's all waiting game, Pat.

OK.

Speaking of waiting game, the wait is over.

I know.

people were trying to find out the news yesterday, but you had to wait until like midnight or something to find out that People magazine's sexiest man alive 2025 is Jonathan Bailey, the star of the wicked movies, to which I had to say who thank you.

Yes.

I mean, so he takes over people's sexiest man alive from John Krasinski, who had the honor last year.

But I mean, the sexiest man alive award, the first, the first one, you know who the first one was?

1985.

No, not me, sadly.

I finished second that year, Mel Gibson.

It's also been, you know, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, JFK Jr., David Beckham.

JFK Jr.

Again, the award was created in 1985 Parker this

is long before

his passing in 1999.

Yes Yeah, the JFK junior was a was a big deal and then again passed away in a plane crash far too early David Beckham had been at John Legend Dwayne the Rock Johnson Pierce Brosnan Patrick Dempsey and the one that always kind of befuddled me Paul Rudd Paul Rudd's a perfectly wonderful person as is John Krasinski.

Don't get me wrong, but Paul Rudd like

Sexiest man alive?

Jonathan Bailey had lots of great things to say about it.

He also spoke about being you know an outward gay actor He founded the shameless fund which supports LGBTQ plus organizations and says I know the LGBT sector is under immense threat at the moment So it's been amazing to meet people who have the expertise and see potential that I could only dream of and so again That's Jonathan Bailey sexiest man alive for 2025 so let the let the lobbying begin let the campaign begin for

The Sexiest Man Alive 2026.

Tony and Ashlyn puts on YouTube.

I was robbed.

Yes, Tony, you were.

But again, maybe next year we can put that in.

You know who we do have coming up in our next hour?

Voted Sexiest Man Alive in Rhinelander.

year after year after year, Dan Hagen from News Watch 12.

WJFWTV will be joining us to talk about the stories that he is following up in his part of the Northwoods.

And because it is one year until Election Day, we're going to be talking to Congressional candidate Emily Berge, the Eau Claire City Council President, who is running in the Democratic primary for the third congressional district, looking to unseat Derek Van Orden.

I'm Pat Crightlow, much more coming up after the news.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

you

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Cratlow powered by Up North News.

Now, for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Cratlow.

Hey,

good morning.

Welcome back.

Nice to have you here up north on a Tuesday morning, November 4th, 2025.

I'm Pat Cratlow here in Gippel Falls.

Parker Olson producing things.

down in Madison Studio A2.

We're going to be talking to Emily Berge, candidate for Congress in just a minute or two here and then later this hour.

Hans Brighton Moser will be along.

He's brought a couple of guests that want to talk about a special kind of forest management and using Wisconsin forests as a way to help capture more carbon out of the atmosphere and reduce the impact of climate change.

But first a personal question for Parker since we have to get up so darn early to do this show and I noticed that my

my second cup of coffee is almost gone already, which usually does not happen until the end of the show.

Oh, must be good.

But, well, I'm trying to go to bed at the same time, even though I'm really tired because of the time change.

And I'm still waking up at my quote unquote, usual time.

So, you know, it, the clock says 3am, but my body's thinking, well, it's four o'clock time to get up.

So

I've been up since three and the coffee's almost gone.

And I got a feeling I'm not the only person who's making that adjustment.

I often I think about people's pets, of course, but then if Sherry were here, she would talk about the cows.

Oh, cows do they are not a fan of daylight saving time.

First off, because cows can't tell time.

That little wrist, the wristwatch just does not fit.

No, it's hard to get your hoof up that close to look.

No.

And when when you're used to eating at the same time, it's just it's not work or we're getting milked in the case of the cows.

They're like, they are not happy.

So this is a week of adjustment for everybody.

Just want to let y'all know you're not alone.

And for that reason, I'm

I'm gonna have to figure out what to do when this coffee's all gone here, but we'll we'll endure together.

Won't we?

I'm sure the third cup.

Yeah, exactly.

So we'll be talking again about forest management coming up how it relates to a changing climate.

We will be talking to James Kelly from our newsroom here in the Chippewa Valley about some of the stories he's following in this part of the state for civic media.

But first, speaking of this part of the state, I am just a

literal stones throw away from the third congressional district, which cuts right through Chippewa Falls or Chippewa County, goes down to Eau Claire to La Crosse and then arches around and gets up into the Stevens Point area.

And there are two Democrats currently running in the primary looking to unseat the incumbent Republican Derek Van Orden one year from now.

It's election day in several states around the country, not here, but a year from today on that first Tuesday in November.

People will be going to vote to pick a new governor and perhaps pick a brand new member of Congress.

Emily Berge is one of those two candidates running the Democratic primary next August.

Emily is also the president of the Eau Claire City Council.

Emily Berge, good morning.

How are you?

Good morning, Pat.

I was just hearing your chatter all day late savings.

Another population you forgot to mention is children.

They also

have a hard

time.

Oh, yes.

At the bottom,

that was very difficult when they were young because they still got up at the same time.

Oh, yeah.

And then you throw a Halloween candy into the

mix.

Yes.

Depending on what the what the sugar has done to them one way or another.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is it is a week of adjustment.

I was looking over at the Facebook page for your campaign.

You can learn more at

that's B-E-R-G-E, burgeyforcongress.com or burgeyforcongress on Facebook.

And I found it rather interesting that one of your latest posts talks about having made more than 125 campaign stops in the district so far, which is a heck of a lot more than the incumbent member of Congress has held in terms of town halls or anything about leaving his basement.

Yeah, yes.

Well, I've been very much...

My whole focus is on the district and prioritizing the voters.

You got to show up for people.

As elected official right now, I know that's important.

I do that as council president and running for Congress.

It's also important because right now, with me being everywhere, meeting all the people, that's how I want to serve the district.

I think what I'm doing now, because behavior is consistent, so I want to prove to people that I will always show up for you and be there and listen.

And that's what I'm, and I love people.

It's super fun to be down in Roca, down in Grant County, over in Point and Portage, Adams County, you know, Black River, like it's, it's all, and River Falls.

I mean, it's a huge district, but it's so much fun just meeting people, listening to people.

I mean, we'll get into it, but I'm hearing on the ground too, but yeah, I'm hearing a lot, and I think that's important to show up.

Well it is, it's incredibly important and again much more than what you know the incumbent Derek Van Orden has been doing to this point but even before the government shutdown when we talked about you getting into this race originally

It was in part because Derek Van Orden had been, you know, downright hostile toward Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley.

Since that time, you know, in the wake, for example, of the Charlie Kirk murder, he's made all this talk about cutting off federal funds to Eau Claire because of things that that city council members had to say, which again,

you already have a base of support in the Eau Claire area, but Van Orden's conduct between the Charlie Kirk murder and then the government shutdown, I have a sense it's not one him much for new voters in the third district.

What are you hearing?

Exactly.

I mean, I've had people come up to me say, you know, we voted for Derek Van Orden in the past, but we cannot, this isn't.

not okay.

He's not acting in a professional way.

It feels like he doesn't care about Eau Claire, doesn't care about us.

So I'm hearing that in Eau Claire especially.

And because they said they're not going to vote for Derek or Jordan, they'll vote for me.

Mostly because they've seen me lead.

And in these areas where he's come after Eau Claire, they have seen me stand up to him and defend the city.

And that's what people want from a leader.

They want someone to fight for them.

And that's what I'm doing.

Now fighting doesn't mean yelling and blaming.

Fighting just means standing firm in your values and standing up for people.

But I'm hearing that throughout the district too, not just so clear that they voted for Eau Claire, a lot of veterans are voted for Derek Van Orden, but they're done with him and they're supporting me.

Well, we're certainly seeing that from President Trump as well, people who thought they would give him another chance and did not think that he was going to go as extreme as he did.

And there's really nothing much more extreme than shutting down the government as they have.

And it, of course,

We can talk about it on a couple of different fronts with Emily Berge, candidate for Congress in the third district.

There is the cutoff of SNAP, the arguably illegal cutoff of SNAP and its impact locally.

And of course, the whole basis behind the shutdown, and that is Republicans wanting health insurance premiums to skyrocket under the Affordable Care Act, you can take whichever one you want in terms of what you're hearing the most from people about their reaction to the shutdown overall.

Oh, it's just so much.

I'm hearing so much.

So we could talk forever on this.

So what I'm hearing more actually is healthcare and staff.

I mean, it goes back and forth.

But I think where people are feeling with staff, it was staff benefits.

I mean, I've heard from some people that are directly impacted from that, from those cuts.

I mean, guys, remember, this is two cuts.

So this is cuts from the big, beautiful bill that Derek Van Oren voted for, which he said he would not cut some staff benefits.

And then now with the shutdown, the November allocation of food benefits will not be coming forth.

So I've talked to a few people that are directly impacted by that, but a lot of people are just concerned about our community and people that won't be having food and children will be going hungry.

Also healthcare, I'm hearing more from people that are directly impacted by healthcare.

Right now as I'm going around the district again, a city council president talking to constituents.

People are getting notices in the mail right now that their healthcare is going up 110 percent more than a hundred percent And they don't know how they're gonna afford it and people are it's like this thicker shock And I think some people maybe if you're super paying attention You might know it was coming by a lot of people didn't know this was coming and people are really concerned and it just adds to the already anxiety and fear and certainty that people have been feeling

We're talking to Emily Berge, who's a president of the Eau Claire City Council and a candidate for Congress here and learning more about the race and talking about the the government shutdown and the impact as well.

As we mentioned, there are two Democrats in the race, including Rebecca Cook, who was the nominee last time around and is running again.

I was surprised to see the see an endorsement come down from Senator Tammy Baldwin for Rebecca Cook.

She's had other

people from outside the state come in and endorse her and campaign for her.

So, you know, we'd obviously have to say what your reaction was to the endorsement and to the people who have been endorsing your campaign so

far.

I'm very proud of all my in-district, all my support has come from, and endorsements have come from people who live in the district who can vote in this election.

That's been my priority.

I'm the local candidate as a local government leader, and I'm really focusing on the local folks in the third congressional district.

So yeah, I have endorsements from elected leaders throughout the district.

You know, the La Crosse County Board Chair, I have, Stevens Point Mayor has endorsed me.

most of the city council here in Eau Claire.

I have the county board members here in Eau Claire, Chippewa, Dunn, you know, I have elected leaders and just community leaders who are endorsing me.

And these are the people who vote in the district and who have direct connections with people in the district.

So my focus

in the district because that's who I'm serving, that's who I will serve, that's who's policies, that's who I'm connected with.

When I'm in Congress making policies and deciding what's best, I need to be connected to the people in district and I will always prioritize the people in the district over interest, over the establishment even, and over big money.

We are talking to Emily Berge.

She's a candidate for Congress.

You can learn more at BergeForCongress.com or BergeForCongress on Facebook.

And Berge is B-E-R-G-E.

And in running this race, how much of it is reflective of, you know, Derek Van Orden and or local concerns?

Or do you, how much of it do you feel like is out of your control and the whole midterms next year are going to be a referendum on Donald Trump and his presidency?

Well, I saw my whole, my kind of life model and as a counselor, a therapist is what I tell people is to put energy into what you can control.

And so that's where my, how my brain works then is like, okay, what can I control?

And I'm going to put energy into that.

And I think we have a lot we can control.

That's why I'm running because I'm standing up for the people in the third congressional district.

I've done that for Eau Claire, the community as past president of the League of Wisconsin, Miss Pallies.

I've stood up for cities small through large.

and DC already.

And so I have that experience and I can stand up and go against Derek Van Orden and we can flip the seat.

People are fired up right now in the district.

You know, there's a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety.

People come up to me with tears

in their

eyes and I just and I feel that and people are ready to work and they're asking me how they can help.

What can we do?

And so I think we have a lot of control.

This seat is flippable.

I mean, Derek Van Orden, even for the last

election.

He underperformed five points in a mock-up and he still won.

So this seat is flippable and we can do this.

Emily, when you talk about people with tears in their eyes, I can absolutely vouch for that.

I hadn't told the story yet this morning of being I was running errands yesterday and how a clerk very tearfully told me about her son in the military who is on furlough.

And by being on furlough, it means he won't get back pay.

You know, a lot of federal employees will get back pay when this is all over.

He will not and can't make the house payments and the daycare bills.

And as aging parents, now they're having to support somebody who served in Iraq.

That's the amazing part about this and that somebody like Derek Van Orden is

in support of that.

Emily Berge is our guest.

She is the president of the Eau Claire City Council.

She is a candidate for Congress.

And again, her website is BergeForCongress.com, Berge for Congress on Facebook as well.

Quick sports note before we go to break the Wisconsin Badger Men's basketball team won their season opener over Campbell University 96-64 and the Milwaukee Bucks got a buzzer beater from Yanis to beat the Indiana Pacers 117 to 115.

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 Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Remember, you can sign up for our daily newsletter at UpNorthNewsWI.com, UpNorthNewsWI.com for a weekday newsletter and our Sunday morning political newsletter that includes a link to the stories that Selena Heller and I have done about the cutoff of snap food aid to families as part of the government shutdown.

Again, UpNorthNewsWI.com.

This is normally the spot where you hear Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12, and you will.

He's right here, but we're also continuing our conversation with Emily Berge, City Council President and Eau Claire and a candidate for Congress.

Dan, good morning to you.

Good morning, Pat.

How are you?

I'm good.

Thanks.

We're going to find out more about what you're following in the Rhineland area.

But first, I want you to join me just for our final couple of minutes here with Emily Berge running for Congress.

And Emily, like you, like we've said, you're also City Council President and Eau Claire.

And I feel like the last time we talked about city council matters and city matters in Eau Claire was because, you know, a couple of members of the council will being targeted by Derek Van Orden for having the the gall to express an opinion or to state anything about Charlie Kirk.

Hopefully that's behind us now.

But what are some of the other matters that you're following from a local level?

Yes, I'm not heard since I so Derek Van Orden came after the city.

I stood up.

Right away came on your show.

I was protesting in front of City Hall with folks saying that this can not stand.

You cannot come after our city, Derek Van Orden.

I haven't heard much.

Well, he did that bill in Congress.

Last time I checked, I think it has three co-sponsors.

I haven't heard much about that at all, which is good.

Of course, then even after the Mayo Clinic, also not cool.

But with other things that are affecting the city, we're doing district discussions right now.

The city manager and I just wrapped that up because I think it's really important that elected officials are available to their constituents.

We've been having meetings at local parks in Eau Claire.

We have beautiful parks in Eau Claire.

So just hearing from people, it's just kind of open forum of what are on people's minds.

And like we talked about before, actually healthcare came up, SNAP came up, transit, of course roads always come up at local government, garbage came up, our budget will be passing our budget next, meeting next week, that came up.

So it's just really good always to have that connection with local folks and hear what's on their minds.

Sometimes at the end of a show, we're not exactly sure what the soundbites gonna be.

And then sometimes a guest makes our job easy, like Emily did just now.

He

went after the Mayo Clinic.

Also not cool.

Yeah, words to live by.

Let's see, Dan, you want to jump in with a question for Emily?

I know you're way up there in the seventh district, but I'm sure you've got some questions for a candidate for Congress.

Our viewing area at WJFW does extend down to the third district in Wood County and Portage County.

So Emily, you know, you said earlier that Derek Van Orden, he underperformed by five points.

I'm sure that Rebecca Cook would frame that as she overperformed by five points.

I know she was one of the more overperforming candidates.

So why do you think you have a better shot at defeating Van Orden than Rebecca Cook does?

While Rebecca has been running this race for about five years, she's had this, she's tried it twice and she hasn't been able to do it.

And people are just losing faith in that.

They're ready for a new candidate, someone with experience like me, I have eight years of elected experience.

I've been elected three times.

I'm essentially, I'm the highest, I'm essentially the mayor, we don't have a mayor, the highest elected official in the largest city in the district.

I'm very connected to my local community.

And I am connected to the people.

That's how we're going to win.

This is how we're going to win in in 1st August and then November.

It's not going to be, I mean, big money in politics.

It's not going to be what the establishment wants.

It's about the people who live in the district and it's about them showing up.

It's about them volunteering and they've already, I've had hundreds of volunteers sign up for my campaign.

I've made over a hundred campaign stops in the district.

People are saying they've supported Rebecca in the past and no more.

They're ready for something different.

There you go Emily Berge running for Congress Berge for Congress calm and at Facebook Berge for Congress as well Emily we always appreciate catching up safe travels with all those stops Again, you've only outnumbered Derek van Orden by like a hundred and twenty four out of his hundred twenty out of your hundred twenty five But keep at it and we'll touch base another time soon.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

All right.

Thanks

very

much.

Hey Dan

Let's go back to the other big story that you're covering up there.

The long suffering drought that has had to be endured by a local hunter man.

Anything new on that front?

That's right.

Yeah, I know.

Previously you would say local hunter man with air quotes for radio listeners Because he never really never successfully shot anything that would be me by the way I've been on a five-year drought since I was introduced to hunting But that changed yesterday Pat it changed

in a big way so I was

Sitting at my dear stand and I could hear something behind me walking

And I knew it was a deer at this point

after five

years you can distinguish a deer from squirrels.

I thought maybe a stalker you are a TV anchor.

Yeah, go ahead Yeah,

but you could have been too but I saw it was a deer and once I saw that antlers

you know i had buck fever i have to admit i was kind of raggedy breathing and i was just kind of waiting for a good time to bring up my crossbow and he actually started to kind of run away so i was like okay this is my chance i brought the crossbow he stopped 50 yards away i set the scope on his uh right behind his front legs shot and i think i hit him i thought i hit him

Um, so I sat there for a little bit.

So the idea is if you shoot a buck, you should wait, you know, for a little bit because you want to let the deer die instead of just kind of running around and the adrenaline actually ruins the meat if that's the case.

So I wait a little bit.

I go to where I shot him and I do see blood.

Um, sorry for the viewers out there and listeners who are

a

little sensitive to this.

Um, but I saw some blood and, uh, just followed the blood trail and, and there he was a hundred yards away.

Dead so I got your buck.

I finally got him.

So

it feels pretty good.

He's hanging in my garage right now, and I'm gonna Butch room today.

We'll see how that goes.

Well, congratulations.

I mean, it's like like I was listening to my old colleague Dave Carlson telling stories from the hunt here and instead I got it from Dan Hagen who as we mentioned earlier people magazines sexiest man alive in Rhinelander.

Yeah,

well

Maybe Ryan Lander probably.

Dan, always good to catch up with you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Have a great day.

When we come back, we're going to be talking about forest management and carbon capture and about ways that we can use our own resources right here to help mitigate a changing climate.

That and much more ahead.

I'm Pat Critello from Up North News.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back tomorrow on the program.

We will have our regular monthly visit with Congressman Mark Pocan to tell us more about the government shutdown and whether there's any progress being made.

We'll talk to the Congressman about that.

That's also the subject of a conversation in our next hour with Cam Stevenson from Courier Newsroom live from Capitol Hill joining us on these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.

It's time to check in with Hans Brighton Moser, dairy farmer from up in the Merrill area where

That has occasionally been the coldest spot in the state these past few days.

You've definitely felt the change of seasons.

We didn't even get to talk to you last time around because you were out there doing field work.

How are things coming along up there?

Pretty good pretty good.

We've got our corn combined beans are combined We've got a bunch of manure to haul yet and a bunch of fall tillage to do but we're in pretty good shape

I was gonna say they have not been bad conditions here.

So And we may talk more about this in a couple of weeks, but I know you were in Washington DC What would be the the quick overview of what you what you got out of that?

Yeah, so I was out in DC and to help lobby with ABIC, American Business Immigration Coalition, talking to our legislators and their staffs about the importance of immigrant labor and how we just cannot farm without folks who come from different countries to come and do a lot of the work in this country with labor or excuse me, with agriculture and with hospitality.

nursing and all sorts of things.

So

sounds like the kind of thing that should should not be a partisan thing and people should be able to come together and solutions.

Same same goes with the climate.

Whoever thought it would be a partisan political issue and yet it is.

And that's what's going to lead to a couple of guests that you're bringing in from UW Madison Extension to talk about forestry and carbon capture.

How did that come to your attention?

Well, good old farm.

Technology days, I was walking around and bumped into these guys and learned more about what they do.

I was interested in this because myself and most farmers have some small wood lots and the carbon market exists.

And it's trying to connect small wood lot owners with that carbon market so that we can maybe capitalize on that by changing how we do our practices and so forth.

So I think they've got something interesting to share with

us.

And they would be Keith Phelps and Scott Hirschberger from UW Madison Extension Forestry who join us now.

Scott and Keith, good morning.

Good morning.

Nice to have you both here.

You guys are going to be helping put on a webinar about this, about the Family Forest Carbon Program.

You can learn more about it.

You're going to need a pencil here.

We'll put it in the show notes as well.

go.wisc.edu, that's go.wisc.edu slash carbon dash webinar.

Having said all of that, I don't know which one of you wants to take this first, but

what exactly is the family forest carbon program?

What does this have to do with mitigating and changing climate?

Sir, I can take this one, Scott,

if you don't mind.

So the

family forest carbon is one voluntary forest carbon program that is operational in Wisconsin.

As you mentioned, this is a program that private landowners can participate in in order to kind of generate carbon credits and receive financial payment for that service.

The Family Forest Carbon Program is kind of operational in the northern third of our state, and they kind of have a handful of enrol leaves currently and are looking to kind of expand enrollment.

There are also two other carbon programs available, forest carbon works and land yields.

But family forest carbon program may be the ones that most Wisconsinites are familiar with.

All right, Scott, let's go back to the basics on this.

Why is it important that we maintain and even grow healthy forests when we're talking about a changing climate?

Right, so.

About half of the dry weight of a tree is carbon.

And so forests are constantly absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they're growing through photosynthesis and storing that carbon in their trunks, their branches, their roots in the soil as well.

And so maintaining healthy forests is a really important way to

Draw that extra carbon dioxide that we've emitted as a species from the atmosphere so currently our forests in the United States are sequestering or absorbing about 10 to 15 percent of our annual greenhouse gas emissions And so we really want to maintain that or potentially even increase that percentage and so

these forest carbon programs are basically a way to try to create financial incentives for landowners to manage their forests with carbon in mind.

I do want to emphasize that it's totally possible for a landowner to focus on carbon in their management strategies without being enrolled in a program.

This is just one option of a way to do it.

So the basic idea is that companies or other organizations are trying to reduce the amount of carbon emissions that they're responsible for in their operations.

And if they have some emissions that are really hard to reduce, one thing they can do is they can pay the forest carbon company, who then in turn pays the landowner, to implement these carbon management strategies on their land.

And then the company can basically take credit for those reduced emissions and meet their emissions goals.

So it's kind of this market based solution to mitigating climate change.

And Keith, that's the part that I want to get into with you is this notion that there are industries that would essentially, you know, purchase these credits and, you know, a critic would jump right on that and say, well, that's just a convenient way for a factory to throw money at the problem and continue polluting the atmosphere.

The distinction here is on

industries that are where it's very challenging to decarbonize.

And those are things, I don't know if you have particular examples that you could share of where this program would really add value.

Sure.

So we are aware kind of like on this question, there are kind of two current

market systems that are operational.

There is a compliance market, so this is more of a government regulation market that sets emission limits for certain industries, so that could be methane gas producers, say electric utilities.

Wisconsin does have forest land enrolled in some of those heavy polluting industries, but these are typically forest lands that are not in private ownership, some kind of industrial based forest lands.

The voluntary carbon markets, these are more kind of non-government stakeholders for people generating carbon credits.

companies kind of participate in these voluntary carbon markets.

That's where landowners kind of are seeing most of their enrollment and engagement with.

So I think as a landowner, it's kind of important to think about if you are interested in one of these forest carbon programs, what are the companies that the forest carbon program itself is engaged in?

who do they buy and sell credits to kind of doing your due diligence as a landowner to kind of understand what organizations are behind.

got the generation of carbon credits is always a good protocol.

That is Keith Phelps with UW Madison Extension Forestry and Scott Hirschberger from UW Madison Extension Forestry talking about a forest carbon program.

And Hans, I don't know how much of this is in your wheelhouse, but I mean, we certainly talk a lot about, you know, the conservation reserve program and all of the other areas that are designed to help reward good land stewardship.

So is this

like just another tool in the toolbox that encourages setting aside certain lands.

Is it a way of getting even more bang for your buck?

I don't know if you can double enroll in both a conservation program and a carbon management program, but it clearly caught your ear.

Yeah, yeah one and it caught my ear because I am concerned about the climate I mean I live and die by the weather forecast and we we know what we've seen this change over the past 50 years and you know in my lifetime here on the same Exact farm so so it is an urgent concern, but when you break it down into more of a local economic thing I think

that it's those of us who are out on the land, whether we own forest land or cropland, who are going to be the engines of mitigating the climate emissions and so forth with forest land, with cover crops and so forth.

This is something that we can do out in the countryside.

And as industries, you know, understand their roles and their responsibility, it is the case that some of them are having a hard time lowering those emissions as quickly

you like.

But my research suggests that most of these companies are trying to do something above and beyond.

And in addition to, they're paying for these carbon credits.

So it's a way that we can really do some good, do well by doing good and having those dollars come into rural areas where they're desperately needed.

And you lay that on top of the fact that we've had

paper mill closures like Wisconsin Rapids and so forth.

So the economy has changed in the paper industry and that's going to kind of drive how we manage our forest lands as well.

So if small forest lot owners can manage to extract some income by changing our management slightly of these forest lands, I think it's a win-win.

And

the other

thing I'd like to point out if I could real quick is that I feel like the UW is is a good resource for us Anyways, but but this is one of those This is one of those arenas where I really appreciate their presence because the the carbon market is the Wild West right now and my hope is that it gets regulated and settled down so that so that they're

you know it's easier for people to connect the dots nobody wants to leave any money on the table nobody wants to get screwed over by some fly by not outfit and so it's nice to be able to have somebody who doesn't have any particular skin right in the game to be able to help out and say yeah this this makes sense this might not be a good deal here's what the market is doing just some advice from from somebody who can can give that sort of

referee perspective.

Right.

Well, I mean, that always has been the magic of what we have in Wisconsin with the UW extension.

You know, it is the Wisconsin idea in action rather than waiting on, you know, some corporation to come tell you what they think is best for you.

So there will be this webinar.

And again, the web address is go.wisc.edu slash carbon dash webinar.

So for folks who sign up, it is free.

So Keith, is it basically just for landowners or can any other schmuck like me, you know, tune in and learn more about the issue?

Great question.

So we have designed this for landowners, but we absolutely welcome anybody who is interested in this topic.

So if you're a forester, if you're a land manager, if you're somebody who does not own land, but is interested in this topic, we welcome you to attend.

A lot of the content will be geared towards land management.

We'll be talking about basic eligibility requirements, what you should know as a landowner.

So just be prepared for that perspective.

And Scott, I'm sure people are asking about the dollars and cents in this and whether I mean, should I go buy an acre of forest land right now and roll in this and this is this is my powerball ticket or are we talking like a $5 check and thanks for doing your part for the climate?

Right, that's a really important question.

So a couple of things on that right now that you have to have at least 30 acres of forested land for the family forest carbon program, at least 40 for land yield and at least 100 for forest carbon works.

And the

Amount of payments is changing over time right now kind of the ballpark estimate would be about ten dollars per acre per year So definitely not a powerball ticket.

This is more like a little bit of supplemental income that can help with your property taxes or help You know fund some of the like invasive species management that you need to do other things like that on your land

Um, so yeah, you're not going to get rich off of this.

No, but you're going to be doing your part, uh, for again, and this is something that is achievable because again, we, we know what force do.

We know the benefits of them.

So, uh, you know, why not make that part of your, your land management?

So Scott Hirschberger and Keith Phelps are with us from the UW Madison extension forestry and dairy farmer Hans Brayton Moser from up in Lincoln County.

Gentlemen, this was great.

I learned so much.

Thank you so much all of you for your time today.

Thank

you.

It's our pleasure.

All right, good to see you all.

Hans will see you in a couple of weeks here and we'll talk more about your trip to DC and I think we're going to get into Christmas tree farms around Wisconsin as well in a couple of weeks here.

All right, still ahead, we're going to be talking to Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area, Civic Media's political editor, and live from Washington DC, Cam Stevenson from Courier Newsroom with his Below the Beltway newsletter update.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

All right, we've got a focus on the Chippewa Valley again in this segment.

We talked to Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge a half hour ago and now we've got James Kelly here from Chippewa Falls in our Civic Media Newsroom to talk about the stories that he's following.

You can follow James at 93.5 the tap.