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In Wisconsin Transcript #000633    Airdate: 05/15/2008
[Captioning made possible by U.S. Department of Education]
bulletpoint graphic Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly
A unique dragonfly living in Wisconsin is drawing national attention. more »
related links
Species Information
US Fish and Wildlife Service Species Information
Hine’s emerald dragonfly recovery plan
Critical Habitat Proposal
Information on scientist Dan Soluk
Hine’s Dragonfly Website
Mink River
Watch Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly
Click Here to Watch Hine's Emerald Dragonfly - 7:45 (Windows Media)
Click Here to Watch Hine's Emerald Dragonfly - 7:45 (Real Media)
  Wolf-Dog Hybrids
The domestic dog was bred from wild wolves more than 10, 000 years ago. Wolves and dogs still share much of the same DNA, but their behavior is very different. Domestic dogs have been bred to be a docile, social companion while wild wolves are usually very shy and flee from human contact.
In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the deliberate breeding of wolf-dog hybrids and problems have ensued. What happens to Wisconsin’s wolves when these wolf-dog hybrids escape or are let loose by their owners? What problems are these hybrid animals causing for humans? Producer JoAnne Garrett continues her five-part series on wolves with this report about what happened when an animal suspected to be a wolf-dog hybrid appeared on the land of a Columbia County farmer.

related links
Overview of Wolf-Dog Hybrids
Information on Wolf-Dog Hybrid
Part 1 - Wolf History - 9:30 (Real Media) - Aired 04/24/08
Part 1 - Wolf History - 9:30 (Windows Media) - Aired 04/24/08
Part 2 - Wolves and Bear Hunters - 6:30 (Real Media) - Aired 5/01/08
Part 2 - Wolves and Bear Hunters - 6:30 (Windows Media) - Aired 05/01/08
Part 3 - Wolves and Farmers - 5:03 (Windows Media) - Aired 05/08/08
Part 3 - Wolves and Farmers - 5:03 (Real Media) - Aired 05/08/08
Part 4 - Wolf-Dog Hybrid - 8:30 (Windows Media) – Aired 05/15/08
Part 4 - Wolf-Dog Hybrid - 8:30 (Real Media) – Aired 05/15/08
Part 5 - Capturing Wolves on Film – 9:40 (Real Media) – Aired 05/22/08
Part 5 - Capturing Wolves on Film – 9:40 (Windows Media) – Aired 05/22/08
Wolf-Dog Hybrid in Wisconsin
  Metal Casting
Could the field of manufacturing be the hot job market of the future? U-W Platteville professor Kyle Metzloff says there’s already a demand by state factories for workers with specialized manufacturing skills. Metzloff teaches the Metals Manufacturing Senior Design Class at UW-Platteville, and says that while factory after factory closed down in the 1980’s, demand is now surging for people with skills in high-tech, precision manufacturing. Reporter Andy Soth takes us to UW-Platteville, and explains how Metzloff prepares a new generation of students for manufacturing jobs by giving them hands-on practice casting molten steel into precise parts.

related links
Donated Metal Casting Software
Milwaukee Precision Casting
Click Here To Watch Metal Casting - 7:24 (Windows Media)
Click Here To Watch Metal Casting - 7:24 (Real Media)
  Smith Rapids Covered Bridge

related links
Click Here To Watch Smith Rapids - 2:12 (Windows Media)
Click Here To Watch Smith Rapids - 2:12 (Real Media)
Round Lake Logging Dam


Reporter:
Dan Soluk is doing something that for most people would be against the law. He's trying to catch a Hine's Emerald Dragonfly.

Dan Soluk:
There we go. Caught one.

Reporter:
The Hine's Emerald Dragonfly is a federally endangered species once thought to be extinct. And even though it’s an endangered species, more of them live near the shore of Lake Michigan in Door County than anywhere else in the world.

Soluk:
People who work with dragonflies hold their wings backwards over their body, but we found that this is a way that puts less strain on them. You can see the green eyes.

Reporter:
Soluk has a permit to catch a few dragonflies because he's doing research that may help save them from extinction. He began his research in the early 1990s.
Soluk:
It was quite a challenge, because nothing -- you know, here you have a species which is very rare which almost nothing is known about.

Reporter:
One thing was clear from the beginning. When it comes to four-wheeled predators, dragonflies don't stand a chance.

Soluk:
Usually you find at least one or two on a day like this. This one has just been killed. Very bad shape. Sometimes they're in such bad shape that we can't even tell exactly what species they are.

Reporter:
His research shows that the deadliest stretch of road is County Highway Q north of Bailey's harbor. The highway is currently posted at 45 miles per hour. Soluk is trying to get the speed limit reduced for two months during the summer while dragonflies are on the wing. He's been working with Cathy Carnes from the U.S. Wildlife Service.

Cathy Carnes:
We have been advocating that speed limits signs be put up. We feel that going 15 miles per hour or less in these areas would prevent vehicle collisions with dragonflies.

Reporter:
Adult dragonflies only live for about two months, but they spend up to five years in the immature stage called larvae.

Soluk:
They're looking like a little hairy, dirty, tennis ball is the Hine's Emerald Dragonfly.

Reporter:
Soluk and his students are trying to find out what larvae they need to survive. But when they first began looking for them, no one knew where they lived.

Soluk:
We looked lots of different places. We tore apart sedges and roots, and we rooted around in the dirt and everything else.

Reporter:
They finally found them underground in the muddy burrows of what's commonly called the Devil Crayfish. The research team developed a technique to safely collect dragonfly larvae by pumping out the crayfish burrows with a bellows and a hose.

Soluk:
This technique is a good one, but it does annoy the crayfish. They'll often cap their burrows after we do it. So we have to sometimes open them up again, if we want to place the Hine's Emerald back in the burrow. You can imagine if you had somebody put a big vacuum cleaner at your front door and sucked up the contents of your house, you might do the same.

Reporter:
The most amazing part of this discovery is that crayfish actually eat some of the dragonfly larvae in their burrows, a fact Soluk learned by videotaping an experiment with infrared light.

Soluk:
It seemed like the last most unlikely place to go. Why would you go into the burrow of a crayfish that's probably going to kill you? But that's where they were.

Reporter:
Dragonfly larvae go into crayfish burrows to survive the dry season above ground.

Soluk:
So here we have an endangered species that is somewhat dependent on one of its predators to survive.

Reporter:
Soluk points out how important it is to understand these complicated relationships between predator and prey in order to help endangered species survive.

Soluk:
The first thing that would have occurred to anybody who knows that crayfish are predators on an endangered species like the Hine's Emerald, would be we've got a common crayfish, let’s get rid of crayfish. I think elimination of crayfish in the area is likely to lead to the elimination of the dragonfly.

Reporter:
The Hine’s Emerald dragonfly depends on the crayfish to survive. It also depends on the unique wetland where the crayfish set up house.

Mike Grimm:
Most of their habitats where they do well, the surface water actually disappears, and it's drawn down in a natural sort of cycle every year.

Reporter:
Mike Grimm is a biologist with the Nature Conservancy in Door County. For almost five years the Hine’s Emerald was thought to be extinct. It was discovered here on the conservancy’s Mink River preserve in the late 1980's.

Grimm:
What's interesting about the Hine's Emerald is that the water that they need is sort of hidden away in these little rivulets that run through this sedge meadow.

Reporter:
The Nature Conservancy is working in partnership with Soluk and others to save this endangered insect. Because this watery habitat is critical to its survival, they're trying to find out where the groundwater that bubbles up to the surface here comes from. Grimm says the source could be well beyond the border of property protected by the Nature Conservancy.

Grimm:
People make the analogy to sort of pipes in the ground. So you can have one sinkhole, you know, two miles away, and if there's a direct, you know, fissure coming right to this outlet here, that could be the way it gets here, through just one pipe.

Reporter:
And if that one pipe is shut off by developers who sink new wells, the downstream effect could be devastating. The results of the water flow research will help the government protect this endangered species by identifying areas off limits to development.

Carnes:
Anyone that may be doing an action that could affect the habitat or the dragonflies themselves should be consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on any permits they may need.

Reporter:
Doing research to understand and save an endangered species, like the Hine's Emerald Dragonfly, takes time and money. Although some may question the value, others like Soluk feel it's well worth it.

Soluk:
I think sometimes we struggle to find explanations for, you know, some economic value, and the only reason it's any good is it has some economic value to us, and I don't think that's a really good way of thinking about it. The adult stage is certainly a very beautiful animal. It's been around for a long, long time, doing just fine before we ever came around, and I think we do have a responsibility, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the land, and we shouldn't just sort of offhandedly let these species vanish through our activities.



 
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