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Eco Gardens by Washburn
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(608) 386-3117
ecogardensbywashburn.com

Episode 2 of the Wisconsin Great River Road Microcast features Raptor Resource Project execuitive director John Howe.

Bob: Why are we all fascinated with the bald eagle?

John: It’s our national symbol. I think the thing that draws people in and they’re so interested in the details of the eagle is that people typically see bald eagles and you see them flying way up in the air, you might see a nest or you might see them perched along the river.

Bob: John Howe is the Executive Director of the Raptor Resource Project. John, what is that? What is the Raptor Resource Project?

John: The Raptor Resource Project was started back in 1988 by Bob Anderson, and primarily started to captively bred and raise peregrine falcons to help repopulate falcons after the devasting effects of DDT across the country. The work actively monitoring the peregrine falcon population up and down the Mississippi River from northern Minnesota down to Illinois, at about 50 sites that we band peregrine falcons. We’ve got nests. We’ve got nest cams and ways that we share that and help educate people.

Bob: John, why is the Wisconsin Great River Road the home to such a high number of eagles nests and raptors in general?

John: It’s the river that brings them. The Mississippi River is a national flyway for raptors and other waterfowl. It’s amazing. They congregate along that flyway, and it’s part of their instinct to follow that flyway. It’s a major food source for them. It’s a pass way for their migration. It’s a home. It’s being along the Wisconsin boundary of the river and the river floodplain along the Mississippi and the tributaries that come in. That’s where you’re going to find the tide populations and the congregations of these raptors that we love to watch, [including] the bald eagles. We were talking the other day a little bit about the peregrine falcons. At different times of the year there are great opportunities to hear them and see them and watch them in their home territory.

Bob: Where’s the best place on the Wisconsin Great River Road to watch the eagles and the raptors?

John: Right in the season of Bald Eagle Days up and down the river – Ferryville, Prairie du Chien. A lot of the little towns along the river have their Bald Eagle Days celebrations. Really, the way to get hooked into that is seeing it. Up until about this point where we’re watching, for example, bald eagles, we’re watching them grabbing sticks, breaking sticks, perching, and they’re pair bonding and they’re getting ready for egg laying. When that comes up, we’re going to be looking at egg laying. You can’t see that kind of stuff when you’re driving on the highway or even if you’re along the river. We were talking earlier about that fascination with eagles, and the wild popularity with the Eagle Cam is we actually get to see those details about what’s going on.

Bob: Let’s just jump into that right now and ask a little bit more about the Eagle Cam. If we don’t have the opportunity to be on the Wisconsin Great River Road, how can we check out and find out more about eagles and watch them be born and kind of see their habitat?

John: We manage a number of different cams in the area. For bald eagles, the premier eagle cam is the Decorah Eagle Cams. Going to our website, www.raptorresource.org, our cams are there. We also stream them through explore.org.

Bob: Where along the Wisconsin Great River Road is the best place to view eagles and raptors?

John: Between La Crosse all the way down to Prairie du Chien, there’s some great viewing areas. You’re right along the rivers, so it really depends on timing. [There also are] lock and dam areas. The lock and dams typically … That disturbing that happens right at the downstream where you always see the boats and the fishermen, that’s where the eagles are going to be congregating to fish also.

Bob: John, earlier you were mentioning about the Mississippi River Flyway. Are there any cameras you have in the Great River Mississippi Flyway area?

John: One of the original peregrine falcon cams – and probably the best one we have – is the Great Spirit Bluff peregrine falcon cam. That’s also available on our website, as I mentioned before. When you move away from the bluff and look down and see the tundra swans and the pelicans and the eagles during the great migration along the flyway in the Mississippi River. It was a dream, and we ended up putting up a cam down there on an island out on Lake Onalaska. It was a collaborative project with the National Wildlife and Fish Refuge and the Raptor Resource Project. We started that up last fall, and we have one season of watching all the waterfowl and the eagles. We’ve caught falcons, and we’ve caught great horned owls out there. [There is] a lot of neat waterfowl and raptors right out in Lake Onalaska. The audio on the camera, it’s almost like you’re sitting right down there in the middle of the flyway. Birds will do things out there without a human there. You’re going to get to see and hear some things that you would not see or hear if it wasn’t being brought to you by a camera.

Dean talks about how he values his employees, how to apply for a job and about snow removal in this months microcast.

Episode 1 of the Wisconsin Great River Road Microcast features storyteller and historian Michael Scott.

Bob Schmidt: I’ve known Michael Scott for a long time. Michael is a history buff, but he’s also a storyteller. I’ve had the chance to see him on some of his different walks that he takes around the City of La Crosse. Michael, what do you like best about living in a river town?

Michael Scott: There’s the history. I’m down at Riverside Park often. That is an international port. I could put my kayak in the Mississippi River right there, and I could go to Key West. I could go to the Caribbean. I could cross the ocean if I was so inclined. It’s such a beautiful place. I came here in 1986, and I just fell in love with the river and the bluffs.

Bob Schmidt: The Great River Roadway is known basically the entire country, and perhaps the entire world. What makes, in your mind, the La Crosse area so unique?

Michael Scott: I’ve traveled the whole length of the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge, and it’s all beautiful. But there is just something about La Crosse, and it could be … Even the native people felt that La Crosse is a sacred place. It’s because three rivers come together – you have the Mississippi, the Black, and the La Crosse River. In Native American culture, that is a sacred place, and they say no mighty wind will blow. Every night I’m down there, I get a sense of that. There is just something special about it. I don’t know if I can put my finger on it exactly, but you know it when you see it.

Bob Schmidt: Michael, you’re a performer and you do a lot of stories and you do a lot of tours. Tell me about some of the things that you do in the City of La Crosse that helps to share the wonderful Mississippi River with those that come to visit.

Michael Scott: It’s called “Dark La Crosse Walk.” We would take visitors through the City of La Crosse and tell them about our seedy underbelly. We would talk about these murders that happened a long time ago. We would talk about the brothels that were here in La Crosse, and there really were a lot of them. I like to point that out in every tour; we just walk them a little bit here and there. Ori Sorensen ran for Mayor in 1913. In his campaign, he claimed to have a list of 40 to 50 brothels that were operating within the City of La Crosse. I tell people we easily could have been nicknamed “Sin City” long before Las Vegas had a hold of it. I also started to do … I call it an active interpiece called “Walking Twain” where we walk along the river and I dress up like Mark Twain. I have the big white hair and the mustache and the white suit. I identify the six different stages along the river, along in the park there. We walk along, and I’ll stop and I’ll do different passages from Mark Twain’s writings. If you want to find out more information, you just need to go to the website footstepsoflacrosse.org.

Bob Schmidt: Michael, I know that you do other tours as well. What are some of the other tours that you personally do?

Michael Scott: The big one is “The Ghosts of Historic La Crosse Walking Tour.” I’m going on my third season from the popularity of the “Dark La Crosse” tours. You know, we figured, ‘Boy, people really like this.’ I am a storyteller, so I knew of several ghost stories in the downtown area. I went to the library, and I said, ‘Let’s do a ghost walking tour, and it will be a fundraiser for the Public Library.’ To build the tour, I went into the archives and found old newspaper accounts of haunting in the downtown. I love it. Over these two seasons, I have met people from all over the world. La Crosse is really becoming a budding tourist location. Lots of people are coming here.

Bob Schmidt: Do you think the Mississippi is one of the things that brings people to the area?

Michael Scott: I think so. I don’t know if I read it or I heard it, but when they ask people from elsewhere – Europe and people from other places around the globe – what they would like to see in America, the Mississippi River is in the top five. And believe me, you don’t want to see the Mississippi River right at the south of us where it’s just barges. You want to see the upper Mississippi River, I think, with the bluffs and inside the refuge that La Crosse sits in the middle of. I don’t think a lot of people realize that La Crosse is pretty much right smack dab in the middle of this huge wildlife refuge, and so there’s all this protected land from Wabasha all the way down to the Quad Cities. There are just so many opportunities for recreation – kayaking and boating and bird watching. We have little sandbars, and you can pull up there and camp for I think 30 days if you wanted to at one spot. It’s free, and they just ask you to keep things clean.

Eco garden by washburn and I've had the opportunity to go through and look at your website and your Facebook stuff and I think it's really cool that you have the software you have the ability to help somebody actually plan their yard using 3-D landscape design.

Yes.

That is so cool and to tell you the truth it is kind of like playing a video game because you can sit there and pick different plants and my client sits right next to me and says you know what maybe I would like something else maybe something more of a purple foliage. So we picked something out and we delete the one plant we put the new plants in. And what's also neat is that you can see each plant as the seasons change to. So like if we put a crab apple in the front yard or something you'd be able to see the beautiful magenta or white flowers in the spring. And then you turn it to fall. And there's not really that big a fall color on a crab apple but switch that around with a sugar maple. Holy buckets is that ever different. One of the coolest parts is that I can actually make the client a movie. So make them a movie in this movie. There are birds and butterflies and you see the wind blowing the grasses. When I design landscapes that have patios with fireplaces or outdoor kitchens you can see the flames of the fire pit illuminated. There's outdoor lighting that lights up music too so you can you can have a little jazzy tune or you can have crickets chirping in the background also designed some landscapes that have ponds in them so there's a little goldfish that are swimming around and this is this is like a video game. And you push the spacebar and it throws fish food and then the fish come up to the surface. Really I can hook this up to a

big screen TV or just glance at it on the computer. I always finish a flash drive so that the client can do this or that.

No you'd mentioned a couple of different things like backyard patios and decks and fish and ponds and things like that is that all stuff that eco gardens does.

I do small paper patios I do very small retaining wall feet walls nothing taller than three feet high and usually not more than 100 feet long. Now the ponds do not do so I leave that up to the professionals when it comes to the other gardens we've talked about.

We've talked about planting gardens and stuff but I know in the past we've had conversation about different types of gardens like pollinator gardens and rain gardens and rock gardens. Is there anything special you need to do to those types of gardens as we turn to the next season leaving your plants and to the spring to benefit the pollinators.

You could give it a really good reading if you know like a rock garden. What I'm kind of thinking is it's hard to leave if you have a lot of leaves that fall onto your garden and then sit and decompose there. What I mean that's turning into organic matter and with organic matter we get growth. So it's a weed seed goes into the organic matter in between a rock that more than likely lead to plants that you don't want there otherwise known as a weed. If you can blow those leaves out or pick them out. But that would be the best thing you can do going into winter for a bit like a rock garden. But your other garden I would invite the leaves fall in their.

New Year new resolutions, also talked about marriage, and branding. Got any ideas for Branding Chris Jones? Something that says Chris Jones in 5 words or less. Also we talked about Chris's syurp addiction.

Invisible Fence Brand of the TriStates / E4 - Sharing
Invisible Fence Brand of the Tri-States
319 Northstar RoadWI 54636
(608) 399-1266
https://tri-states.invisiblefence.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Pet-Service/Invisible-Fence-209481692915/

Bob: You mentioned the word ‘system’ a lot of different times. So it’s a full, everything encompassed type of system?

Karla: It can be. You can do a basic system just outside, or you can expand it to do all kinds of things you need to do inside, outside, camping. If I sit and I talk to my fellow dealers when we’re at conferences, it’s really interesting listening to some of the different things people have helped with. I mentioned to you that I helped a gal in a wheelchair with our shields. I just heard from another dealer that had a dog that was obsessed with the vacuum cleaner. We hear this story a lot. The dog will bark and grab the vacuum cleaner. Mom is trying to clean, and isn’t that annoying? They attached a small microshields to the vacuum cleaner. Now the dog leaves the vacuum cleaner alone and doesn’t bark at it anymore. Isn’t that just great? The dog is going, ‘I can’t go over there, so I’ll leave that thing alone.’

Bob: You just said camping a little bit ago. A lot of like to go on trips, like to go to different places. Is the Invisible Fence Brand fence and shield compatible with other places other than home?

Karla: Yes. With our Invisible Fence Brand Shields Rock, we can actually attach some wire to it, and you can actually take it camping with you. You can use it for camping, or let’s say you’re going to grandma’s house and grandma doesn’t like it when your best friend runs through the house and might knock something over.

Bob: That happened a lot when I was a kid, and it was mostly my friends that came over. My mom yelled at me for that.

Karla: But now your best friend is your dog, so they can take that shields with them. Some people will use their shields when they go to the vet or take their dog for a car ride because the dog is so excited and wants to jump between the front seat-backseat, front seat-backseat, front seat-backseat. They’ll take their shields and put it in the front seat so the dog can’t come up to the front, which is a safety issue because if you’re driving and you have a big dog that jumps in your lap, you could get into a car accident.

Bob: Invisible Fence Brand can help with that.

Karla: Oh, my gosh, yes. Like I’ve said before, not just [with] dogs, [but also with] cats, goats, pigs. Some people have more than one Invisible Fence Brand system. For instance, I have some people that have cabins or vacation homes, and they have an Invisible Fence Brand system there. They take their dog between the two systems, and they just share collars between the two.

Invisible Fence Brand of the TriStates / E3- Shield Products
Invisible Fence Brand of the Tri-States
319 Northstar RoadWI 54636
(608) 399-1266
https://tri-states.invisiblefence.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Pet-Service/Invisible-Fence-209481692915/

Karla: We’ve done things in homes where we’ve had two dogs tha - t mom and dad want to feed both their dogs at the same time [and] not one in one room and one in the other. We’ve used our shields products so that each dog can’t get into each other’s food, but can eat at the same time. It’s so cool. We have cats and dogs eating next to each other.

Bob: That’s true love right there.

Karla: It really is. We have dogs that aren’t allowed to get into the cat litter, but the cat can get into their cat litter. The cat can’t jump on the counter, but the dog can lay next to the counter. It’s really cool the things that we’re able to do.

Bob: You mentioned ‘best’ a couple of different times, and you want to do the best for our animals, our pets. Do you think Invisible Fence Brand is the best?

Karla: I do. Invisible Fence has spent a lot of money on research. We’re able to tell how often your dog is getting a correction, or if they’re just getting that warning tone, which is totally cool.

Bob: So you’re able to pull up a report saying, ‘Your dog got this?’

Karla: Yeah. When we look at our programmer, we can tell you … What’s really cool about it is when we start that training process we’ll talk about how many they had, and a lot of people … I play a little game, [and I ask], ‘How many times do you think they activated the collar?’ Believe it or not, they’re usually close. With our Perfect Start Plus training, it’s easy for us to teach the dogs on most stimulations so that they’re not at a high level. They’re never meant to be at a high level unless that’s what they need. We don’t want them at a high level.

Bob: Does it change for different breeds?

Karla: No.

Bob: So it depends on the temperament of the dog?

Karla: Absolutely.

Bob: That’s a good thing to know, because I think a lot of people might think that, ‘I have a chihuahua,’ or, ‘I have a mastiff.’ Can you help them both? By the sounds of it, you can.

Karla: I can. They’re customized for each individual dog. It’s not a, ‘Let’s look on a chart and it’s this breed of dog [and] this many pounds. This is what it should be.’ It’s not like that at all. We’re trained by animal behavioralists to look for cues and to understand how that dog is responding to the system. Then we’re using our tools to verify that information that we have.