- Welcome to "In Wisconsin."

I'm Patty Loew.

This week, a medical breakthrough at the University of Wisconsin.

- To end up with a product on the market where you're actually helping people is wow!

- Helping and providing hope for people who risk brain damage if they eat protein.

Plus, a unique Tribal AmeriCorps program.

- Follow your dreams.

Don't let anything hold you back.

- See how Wisconsin's Native American communities are benefitting.

And on-the-job training with the restoration of an historic ship.

- This national treasure is being restored by our next generation.

- And it's being done at UW- Platteville.

Those reports and our Quest environmental reporting project looks at the impact of climate change on ice fishing.

Next on "In Wisconsin."

Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by: the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable and environmentally friendly energy, to keep homes, neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.

Alliant Energy, we're on for you.

And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis, a veterinary team working with pet owners and family veterinarians, providing care for oral disease and dental problems of small companion animals.

- We begin this week with a change in Wisconsin's eleven Native American communities.

It's change that holds the promise of providing assistance in a way that's never been done before.

"In Wisconsin" reporter Liz Koerner shows you how some solutions are starting to take shape at Lac du Flambeau.

- It's a place blessed with natural beauty.

The lakes are sparkling and clean, and the trees grow tall.

This healthy landscape contrasts sharply with the health of many of the people who live here.

- Historical trauma has been a real issue.

Boarding schools has been an extremely big issue.

Relocation of native people has been a real issue.

- Native Americans are plagued by a disease that's been passed on from generation to generation and is triggered by alcohol.

- We see alcohol and drugs as sort of self-medicating trauma.

- Problems in the past have led to problems in the present.

- The stress and conflict that a lot of our families are going through; some of them are just barely making it from day to day.

- Alcohol abuse has been well documented here, from tribal members old enough to drive, all the way down to children barely in their teens.

A recent survey found the problem is now starting at an even earlier age.

- There's a significant number of youth that are starting to drink as early as 7 years old.

So, that's a big concern for us.

- To combat the downward spiral of this disease, the tribe formed a coalition of professionals and concerned community members.

Then, applied to the AmeriCorps program for workers who could devote full time to helping youth.

Heather Wolfe is a Lac du Flambeau tribal member and works with children at the public school.

- I've grown up with a lot of kids that, you know, that watched their parents, and they swore they'd never drink, and swore they'd never do this and that.

And now I look at them today and it's sad because they're just, I mean, exact same place as their parents were.

- Now age 31, Heather has struggled with substance abuse herself.

- I just think that if I could help some of these kids not have to go down that road, then I think it would be worth it.

- One strategy for substance abuse prevention is reconnecting Native American children with their own culture.

An example is Ojibwe language lessons.

- (Teacher and children practice Ojibwe language) - Our elders have taught us that in order to continue to be strong and have inner peace, you have to be able to identify who you are as an individual.

- And I think if that culture was taught and really, I mean, at a young age and then continually, then that will help, too, with them choosing, you know, making better choices as they get older.

- LaShawnda Maulson and Jeffrey Dunbar are also AmeriCorps members based in Lac du Flambeau.

This is LaShawnda's second year serving under a grant held by the Marshfield Clinic Center for Community Outreach.

She leads after-school activities, including games, that teach math skills.

(Teacher and children interacting) - Good job, all right.

- She's seen how important it is to have caring adults in the lives of these young students.

- If you're just about being a person, a positive person, every other day you see them, or you tell your story and they hear it, they think, "Well, I can make a difference, too."

"I can be a person that can also do it."

Or, " I can just do better myself."

- LaShawnda is on a first-name basis with her students, and they clearly enjoy the time she devotes to them.

She offers them a message from comes from the heart.

- Just really encouraging them with all their dreams, that's my thing, you know, follow your dreams, don't let anything hold you back.

If you don't like something, just work around it.

Don't let it hold you back.

- It's advice that she's now taking herself, because of her AmeriCorps experience.

At age 25, she now knows that she wants to work with children as a career.

- I just love it when a little kid comes up and says "Hi," and they remember my name and give me a hug.

It's really heartwarming to be able to do that.

And I'm really glad, I'm really proud to say that I was part of AmeriCorps.

What is 2 plus 2?

- Four!

- Good job!

- While AmeriCorps has sent workers to Wisconsin's Indian communities for years, this is the first year the tribe got a grant for their own tribal AmeriCorps members.

A total of 13 positions were funded in a grant held by the Sokaogon Chippewa community.

Tribal AmeriCorps members have also been involved in areas of juvenile justice, organic gardening, and a junior tribal council.

To find out more, just go to our website at wpt.org, then scroll down and click on "In Wisconsin."

- Now we turn to a medical breakthrough at the University of Wisconsin more than 10 years in the making.

Imagine living in the dairy state and not being able to eat cheese, eggs or meat.

For some people, those basic foods can cause depression and even brain damage.

This week "In Wisconsin" reporter Frederica Freyberg has an update on the revolutionary new foods made from whey, a cheese byproduct, in Madison.

- The diet is extremely restrictive.

Jesse's never eaten meat.

She's never eaten cheese.

She's never eaten fish.

She's never eaten pizza, hamburgers... - In 2008, Ann Zimmerman told us about her 10-year-old daughter's special diet.

Instead of the usually kid-friendly fare for Jesse, she continues to thrive on a special formula, liquid nutrition that provides essential nutrients without protein.

A newborn blood test that greets every baby born in the U.S. discovered Jesse had the genetic disorder called PKU, that's short for phenylketonuria.

About one in 10,000 babies in this country lack the enzyme needed to digest phenylalanine, an amino acid found in protein.

Even the protein found in milk causes brain damage and severe retardation in people with PKU.

- Porridge, spaghetti, her special crackers.

- So, people living with the disorder eat an array of specially made low-protein foods measured out in precise amounts, along with their formula.

But that strict diet is hard to follow.

- When I was at home, I didn't have a problem.

But when I was out, or when I was in school, it was hard to have self-control to say, "Okay, I can't have that."

It looks really good, it smells really good, but I can't have that.

I know that.

- Matt Cortright says he went off his special diet completely, as a teenager.

He suffered the consequences, developing neurological damage that caused a disabling movement disorder and seizures.

The dire consequence of falling off a PKU diet was about to get a pre-emptive strike, because scientists discovered how to isolate usable proteins from whey that comes from the cheese-making process.

They purified one whey protein making it free of phenylalanine, the amino acid that causes brain damage.

A potentially whole new food group took off from there and UW-Madison professor of nutritional sciences, Denise Ney, was in the lead.

- It could just make the difference between life being a little bit easier and higher quality, to be able to have a variety of foods, a variety of foods that were more typical foods, you know.

I think it could be life changing.

- Scientific trials testing mice with PKU on the new protein diet proved safe and nutritional.

And so, dairy researchers got to work making puddings and sports drinks using the new intact protein called GMP.

- Is it good?

- The foods proved much more palatable in test patients than the special formula.

And the human trials also proved the products safe for consumption.

And so, seven years after Professor Ney started her research, a breakthrough in science has come to the breakfast table, and is now available commercially to buy.

- It looks like milk.

It's slightly sweet, kind of maybe a vanilla, kind of a blander flavor.

- The new product is called BetterMilk and it's produced by a small company in Massachusetts.

- People say that it's easier to take than the amino acid formula.

They like the taste of it basically.

Either plain or flavored.

The other thing, they say that they feel good with it, and that they don't feel hungry all the time.

That it's satisfying.

- The product can also be used in cooking or in smoothies, and the company is developing more foods and drinks using the GMP protein.

- It's an amazing thing to start with an idea and the first research that was done in an area, and to end up with a product on the market where you're actually helping people is, wow!

The red or the pink is the GMP diet... - But the scientific work isn't done.

Ney is now testing lab mice to determine whether the GMP protein diet improves bone development and strength.

- Go ahead and put your hand up like this for me... - Because, osteoporosis is a chronic complication of PKU, causing even people in their 20s to develop weak bones and fractures.

- If we could show that the GMP diet improved bone development, that would help it become the standard of care for better health for those with PKU.

- Those results are expected later this year.

In Jesse Zimmerman's case, Professor Ney reports that she's still sticking with her pantry full of special foods and formula.

But from the safety standpoint, the new product is FDA approved for people age 2 and up.

- Professor Ney says the new food product is especially helpful for parents of children with PKU that can't get used to the traditional formula.

Another clinical study gets underway in March.

It will involve comparing the traditional PKU diet and the new GMP diet as people use the foods in their homes.

Both the UW-Madison and Harvard University are taking part.

In if next few months, college students will set sail for a new job in the real world.

The chances are most won't be working with a cauldron of liquid steel.

This week in our "Money Matters" segment, "In Wisconsin" reporter Andy Soth shows you how students at one UW campus are getting skills for a hot job and a history lesson to boot in Platteville.

- In this cauldron, steel is being heated to more than 3,000 degrees.

Nearby, special sand is formed and packed with precision.

Soon, molten steel will be poured into these stand blocks.

- So, all the texture is great, love it.

It's going to come out beautiful, too.

- If all goes well, the steel will cool and retain the shape of the mold carved out of the sand.

This is not a professional foundry or factory.

Really, it's a classroom.

Welcome to the UW-Platteville's Metals Manufacturing Senior Design Class taught by Professor Kyle Metzloff.

- What I'm trying to do with the students is to go from project start and design, all the way through finished parts shipped out the door.

- While they probably don't start a night shift at Neenah Foundry with a chili cook-off like they're doing here, the work these Platteville undergrads will do tonight is very real.

The South Street Seaport Museum in New York has given them a special commission.

The class is to make a part vital to the restoration of an historic ship: the Wavertree.

- This national treasure is being restored by our next generation.

- Philip Harrison is part of the team restoring the ship in New York.

He's traveled to Platteville in December for this important step in the process.

This model is being shaped in plastic, by what's called a three-dimensional printer.

It may not look like anything special, but after 40 pieces like it are cast in steel and shipped to New York, they'll be fitted on top of poles that will hold up the deck of the Wavertree.

- These pieces actually are stronger than the originals, which lasted over 100 years.

- Harrison may have come here to get something made the same way it was a century ago, but Platteville's program is state-of-the-art high-tech.

- There is no way I can do what I'm doing right now without the support of Wisconsin businesses.

- A million dollars' worth of donated computer software helps students model the flow and temperature change of the steel as it enters the cast.

- And this gives us a good idea of how the part will solidify.

- Armed with the knowledge of what will happen after the liquid steel is poured, the students put the sandcasts into position.

The effort to restore the Wavertree is an act of historic preservation.

But if you lived in Wisconsin in the 1980s and saw one factory close after another, you might wonder if studying manufacturing today is also an effort in preserving history.

- In the '70s and '80s, there was some bad times.

And probably the parents of high school children, right now, those parents have that as a recollection in their mind that manufacturing is not such a great place to go into.

- But because manufacturers didn't hire in the 1980s, today there's actually a worker shortage.

- Wisconsin has a two-tiered work workforce, where many of our manufacturing employees, skilled technicians and others, are between the ages of 55 and 65, who are going to be retiring and leaving the workforce here, in the next five to ten years.

We're not sure where the next generation of those workers are going to come from?

And that's a serious long-term challenge for manufacturing in Wisconsin.

If we can get the best and brightest into manufacturing positions and allow them to go ahead and use their brains to figure out how they're going to beat the overseas competition, we can go ahead and win in a global marketplace, despite what people say about having to compete with manufacturing and 25 cent an hour labor.

- Mass produced goods can almost always be made much more cheaply overseas.

Where Wisconsin companies can compete is with specialized and precision manufacturing, like medical equipment.

And as for the new technologies like biotech and biofuels, that many see leading to a new economy, Metzloff points out that we can't get there without manufacturing.

- We can't build the equipment that it takes to, let's say, make ethanol or any of the high-tech biotechnologies.

All these things require equipment to, you know, to produce whatever it is.

And if we don't have the know-how, we can't get it made in China.

It's not necessarily a good option, at least.

- So, these students under Metzloff's guidance are learning those skills.

And they're now ready to pour the molten steel into the molds.

- Learn how to problem solve is really the main goal.

And problem solve on your feet.

If there's a ladle of molten metal sitting there and we have about 30 seconds to decide whether we're going to pour that into the molds that are going to make our castings, and we have some sort of problem, well, you better figure out to do it quick, because otherwise it will be a large cost to your company and effort wasted.

- Metzloff takes almost missionary zeal in his effort to bring new people into manufacturing.

Working through the night with his own students isn't enough.

He's also taking it to the high schools.

At Waunakee High, he's lent an electric-powered kiln to a Tech Ed class taught by a former student.

It's made for ceramics, but hot enough to melt aluminum.

- I'm trying to present a package that they can get into metal casting, back into it in a lot of cases.

Some schools have had these programs and closed them down probably in the '80s.

And now we're trying to reintroduce them.

- Back at Platteville, it's time to open the sandcasts and see if all that hard work has paid off.

- Yeh, it's got a little bit of red to it.

For all the good points Metzloff makes about the need to preserve manufacturing as a vital part of the Wisconsin economy, it's clear he also just wants to share his passion.

- It's in my family.

It's in my blood, I guess.

I'm a third-generation metallurgist.

My father was in metals.

My grandfather also.

I still get excited when I see that metal pour.

Or you know, when I open the mold up to see if the casting came out.

I think that if people do what they like doing, it's not even like working.

Okay, good job guys.

- All of Platteville's December graduates in metal casting have already found work in the field.

Professor Metzloff says it may be a leading indicator that economic recovery is around the corner.

Foundries that make precision parts are usually the first businesses to benefit from an improving economy.

Foraging for food?

A look at sustainable logging and the woman making it in a man's world.

Those are just some of the reports we're working on for the next edition of "In Wisconsin."

She was a UW professor, flight instructor and shot down in Vietnam twice.

And that's only the beginning.

- She realized that she could not learn to fly as a girl.

They wouldn't teach her as a girl.

So, she thought, "Well, all right, then I'll be a boy."

- Wait until you hear the rest of DJ Douglass' amazing story.

- This is "In Wisconsin" reporter Jo Garrett.

And, I'm breaking the rules, sneaking a taste.

- They're very good.

- You should try one, Frank.

On a one-of-a-kind nature trail, devoted to wild edibles.

There's only one in the country, and it's in Wisconsin.

- This is "In Wisconsin" reporter Andy Soth.

This great northern forest is a tribute to the advice of Chief Oshkosh.

- When you reach the end of the reservation, turn and cut from the setting sun to the rising sun, and the trees will last forever.

- At first glance it looks like a forest that hasn't been managed, but it's anything but that.

It's a managed forest.

- We'll show you the Menomonee way of forestry.

- Join us for those "In Wisconsin" reports next Thursday at 7:30, right here on Wisconsin Public Television.

This year, "In Wisconsin" is putting a greater emphasis on environmental reports, including those on climate change.

This time of year, Wisconsin's frozen lakes are dotted with anglers and ice shanties, but Wisconsin winters are changing.

Ice fishing dates back well before European settlers, to when Native Americans chopped holes in the ice in order to spear fish.

This week, as part of our reporting project called Quest, Finn Ryan, one of our partners with the Educational Communications Board, shows you how climate change could impact the future of ice fishing in Madison.

- Ice fishing in Madison starts when there's at least four inches of ice on the lake, for me, anyway.

Ooh, Just missed it.

See if I can get him again.

- You know that almost everybody that drives by thinks you're nuts.

♪ ♪ - I've always liked being outside and being out in nature.

I think I'd go nuts if I had to sit in a house all winter long.

Fish tastes better in the winter, too.

You don't have all the algae and all that other stuff growing in the water.

All that isn't in their bodies at the time.

- So, you go down until you hit the bottom, and then you just feel that tug.

- There's one down there, now.

Let's see if I can get him to bite.

Just a little guy.

We usually get blue gills and perch and some crappies, a lot of pan fish.

Having ice on the lake affords you to get out where the fish are, or otherwise all you have a chance to get is what you get from shore, and that's usually pretty little fish.

♪ ♪ I think it was four years ago that Monona had two spots that were as wide open, probably a football field length and width, that didn't freeze.

I think the length of time the ice is on Madison lakes is getting less.

I can't say that for sure, but it would make it real difficult to ice fish if that didn't freeze over.

- We actually are more competitive than we care to admit sometimes.

But it's friendly competition, right?

- I usually catch more fish.

- I think it usually depends on the day who catches more fish.

Right, Tom?

- If you say so, dear!

(both laughing) - UW researchers have been collecting ice data on Madison lakes since 1855.

Looking to the future, Wisconsin's average winter temperatures are expected to increase some seven to nine degrees in the next 45 years.

Change which would have direct impact on ice cover and ice fishing across our state.

For additional information about our environmental reporting project, or the report you just saw, go to QuestWisconsin.org.

There, you'll find links to additional research and reports.

A quick reminder about our interactive blog called the Producer's Journal.

It's updated each weekday by the people who work in front of and behind the scenes on "In Wisconsin."

We hope you'll check out the Producer Journal at wpt.org and click on "In Wisconsin."

You can find out in advance about reports we're working on, the people we've met, and the places we've been.

It's all in the Producer's Journal.

You know the saying, "There's no such thing as safe ice."

Well, some geese apparently didn't get the message!

Our final video this week is from Columbia County, where the geese gather around open water on what's appropriately called Goose Pond.

This kettle depression made by the retreating glaciers is a favorite winter spot for waterfowl, but it's not always an easy landing.

Enjoy the view and have a great week, "In Wisconsin."

(Geese honking) ♪ ♪ - Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by: the people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable and environmentally friendly energy, to keep homes, neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.

Alliant Energy, we're on for you.

And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis, a veterinary team working with pet owners and family veterinarians, providing care for oral disease and dental problems of small companion animals.