(soft music) - [Bret] Could you just not afford vowels?

(Norm laughing) On today's "Prairie Sportsman."

- [Bret] We head to Finlayson to meet Norm Kester of RLVNT, a company that is reinventing the way we see and are seen in the outdoors.

- Telling people that it works is the harder part.

The duck's not gonna tell us, "Yeah, I see you."

- Next.

- We head to Morris to learn about efforts to reduce the carbon footprint on the farm.

- What if we could move the shade with the cows so the cows that always have the shade?

- Finally.

- We look into the continuing battle with Minnesota's aquatic invasive species.

- [Nick] We've got dozens of species we're worried about here in Minnesota right now, and there are tenfold more on our doorstep.

- Welcome to "Prairie Sportsman," I'm Bret Amundson.

We got a great show for you this week, and it starts right now.

(gentle intriguing music) (gentle thrilling music) (gentle thrilling music ending) (gentle music) - [Lisa] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, and by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org (gentle upbeat music) - [Bret] At a quick glance, there's not a ton going on in downtown Finlayson.

But tucked away in an old building in this small Minnesota town is a company using some high-tech equipment to change the way outdoors enthusiasts deal with the sun.

(gentle upbeat music) - RLVNT is a company for outdoor enthusiasts.

We say that we exist to give enthusiasts the edge, so we're trying to take some of our, maybe our technology or know-how that we've gained through the years in my other company, Quantum Innovations, and bring some of that technological know-how to the outdoor space.

We've got a lot of different products from our bait box, which is this small, little ice fishing box to hold your stuff made out locally harvested wood, all the way to, on the high-tech end, our glasses, our StealthScreen, our lures, and everything that we do on that end is somehow related to light.

- [Bret] Could you just not afford vowels?

(Norm laughing) - Well, I wanted to say that the product, no matter what product we came up with, just kind of as a mantra that it needed to be relevant all the time.

When I went to get that name relevant was already taken.

So if I took the vowels out, I could do it.

So I decided to make it an acronym, Solving Real Life Vexes with New Technology.

- And so I think the first time I heard of RLVNT it was your sunglasses.

That was the first product that I saw.

So, like, what makes your sunglasses special?

And why don't you show me how you make 'em too?

- There's a lot of different things that make our glasses special.

So one of the things is, is we want the lens to be as clear as possible.

So there's a few different lense that have the same optical clarity as the lens in your eye.

And so the lens that we're choosing is one of those lenses that's really, really clear.

It's called Trivex.

So the nice thing about Trivex is it's really clear, but it also gives you impact resistance.

And then, the other thing that we wanna do is we want you to be able to see your screen all the time.

So we have what's called Screen View.

So in order to do that we've got a special polarizer, and then we also have what's called a photochromic.

So a photochromic means that it's gonna absorb light, and then it's going to darken up.

And ours we call it a chameleon, because it also changes colors.

This is our hunting lens and this is a UV light, so it's kind of a greenish color And when we hit it with the UV light, it is gonna darken up and it's gonna change colors.

- Oh, wow.

- So when it darkens up, you can see it changed color.

So the chameleon lens will darken up based on the lighting conditions that we're in.

The other really great thing about this particular one is that we have two photochromics on this lens.

One that's in the visible range, one that's in the UV range.

And so that means when you're driving down the road, it'll darken up behind the windshield, which is unique to this particular product.

- Oh, wow.

I don't if it's a blue eyes type of situation or what, but I'll wear sunglasses on cloudy days a lot of times.

But also as a pheasant hunter, somebody that likes to wear glasses when I'm walking through, you know, thick, heavy cover, but as the sun gets lower and I'm hunting later in the day, I wanna keep that eye protection without having to change glasses and things like that.

So they'll lighten up as well?

- Yeah, that's a really great thing is, you know, you can get in the duck blind when, you know, it's not quite light, you can be in late at night.

And, because of that, it's going to lighten up and you're gonna get it in its relaxed state like it is now.

Or, you know, the sun comes up, and then it's gonna darken and give you that sunglass experience.

In fishing situations, we're gonna go, like around here, there's a lot of iron-rich water, so there's a lot of reds in the water.

So what we wanna do is we wanna turn down the color red, but we wanna pass all the other colors.

So what that contrast experience will be is that you can see deeper in the water, and you can see structure, you can see fish holding behind a log, you can see a lot of things.

So what we're doing is instead of having broad mirrors that they just look pretty, ours are functional.

- Let's go see how you make these.

(gentle upbeat music) Watch your step.

(gentle upbeat music) So what's going on here?

- So what we're gonna do when we're making a lens is we start with a raw blank.

And this is a lens blank with nothing on it, nothing's been done to it.

And the very first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna clean this lens.

So this is an aqueous cleaning systems and the lenses are all gonna be cleaned in this side, and on the other side, it is gonna be lacquer, 'cause it is really impact resistant, but we wanna make it really scratch resistant as well.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna put a titanium nanoparticle-infused lacquer in here that gives it a lot of abrasion resistant.

And then, we have to go into this other room, and then we're gonna cure this lens.

And then, we're gonna put a thin-film coating on it.

So this is actually a vacuum-coating machine.

We're gonna vapor apply thin films.

So the inside of this stainless steel chamber is gonna get to negative pressures like space.

There's an electron beam gun here.

So this is actually a pill of zirconium dioxide that has been melted.

We're gonna get this to its boiling point.

The vapor goes everywhere inside the chamber and the lenses are spinning inside that vapor plume.

And we put a layer of metal, and then we put a layer of glass, and then we put a layer of metal so that we can bend light in the way that we wanna bend it.

(gentle music) So this is a thin-film vapor deposition system.

It's a vacuum system just like the other one.

This one's just much smaller.

We actually make this at Quantum, our other company in Oregon.

What I wanted to demonstrate is actually putting a coating on so you can actually see what's going on inside the vacuum.

This is a nice machine for that.

So I'm gonna load a lens and choose a process.

So the lens goes on, what we call, the in-feed.

And then, it's gonna come up and say, "Hey, what do you wanna do with that lens?"

And I'm gonna choose maybe a rose gold coating, and choose the lens size.

And then, it's gonna measure that lens, and then it's gonna roll that lens into the vacuum chamber.

And what you're gonna see is you're gonna see different colors of plasma inside there.

So we're using a different technique than that in the other room, but similar in the fact that we're thin-film depositing in here as well.

So this is gonna create plasma based on the gases that are inside that chamber.

There's your plasma.

(machine whirring) - So after they come out of that machine over there, what happens next?

- So it's gonna come out, it's got the coatings on both sides of the lens.

And then, what we're gonna do is we've gotta take this lens now and we've gotta put it into the frame.

So what we do is we come in this room, and then we're gonna use this machine, and this is going to have a multi-axis cutter in here.

So we're gonna take this lens that's this shape, and then we're gonna turn it into lenses that look like this.

(gentle upbeat music) This is the old muni here in Finlayson, Minnesota.

And the other side of our building is the old fire hall.

So we repurposed this space and turned it into a pretty high-tech thing for this area.

And, hopefully, not only do we create those jobs, but we give an avenue for young people that are passionate about something, maybe technology, engineering, that sort of stuff.

They don't have to leave, they can stay here, and have something high tech in the area.

You know, I graduated with 81 people.

I didn't know what to do after high school, so I went into the military.

When I went into the Navy, I chose the electronics program.

And when I got out, I went to work for a company that makes thin-film coating machines.

And I left that company in 2002 and started my own company.

- [Bret] So you never went to college?

- No, I never went to college, no.

I don't actually have a formal degree in anything.

It's just a confluence of things, that's the way life is.

(gentle music) Once I understood that a lot of duck hunters don't know how ducks see or what causes them to flare, we contacted the people that work in university, some doctors, engineers, that sort of stuff, that understand ducks, and then turkey, and deer.

And then, started to try and create some experiments to really understand how we could influence the vision of ducks.

And then, I invented a coating that makes sure that the duck hunters' glasses won't be seen by the duck.

So the StealthScreen is something that kind of went along with that, which is if the number one problem that a duck hunter's gonna face trying to conceal themselves is the fact that a duck can see perfectly in the UV, then we ought to do some things to conceal the duck hunter.

So we messed around with a bunch of different products to try and get something that was going to block 100% of the UV, and by block, I mean it's absorbing 100% of the UV, so that you could put it on your face, you look totally normal to any other human, but when you look at it on the screen, with a UV camera and a UV light, you're gonna see that all the light is gone.

(chuckles) Always makes me laugh.

So you can see me in the screen where my nose is completely black.

It's really funny when you do your teeth or something like that.

(Bret laughing) And then, you know, if you look at me, it doesn't look like I, well, maybe it does look.

(Bret laughing) I can't see it, so.

- Pretty heavy coating.

But, yeah, you work it in and it'll disappear.

- Yep.

- So for the guys that don't wanna put on the black face paint, you can put this on and have the same effect, yet it's completely clear to see on the skin.

- Yep.

Wow, now I look real nice.

(Bret chuckles) (gentle music) When you see our lenses, they're completely gone to the animal.

So when you see the combination, the concealment technology with the StealthScreen, and that's the benefit that you get when you don't have any reflection, any UV reflection, going back to the animal.

- So does that work as a sunscreen as well too?

- Yes.

(gentle music) Telling people that it works is the harder part.

We can't talk to a duck, and so the duck's not gonna tell us, "Yeah, I see you."

(gentle upbeat music) - [Bret] So after the sunglasses you decided to get into the lure coating business.

- Yep.

- What do you hope to accomplish with that, and how does that work?

- Well, hopefully, we create a new category of lures.

The thing that I don't think anybody's really concentrating on is the way that fish see, and stimulating them to bite based on the way that they see.

And then, there's so much science that's been emerging around the way that predator fish see.

A lot of predator fish are gonna go and hunt using either UV or infrared depending on the lighting conditions.

And so what we wanna do is we want to use those, and use those to our advantage to reflect back in a natural way to the fish.

And then, what we're doing in the visible range, 'cause all the ones we made originally had no color in the visible range, and we were catching a lot of fish, but the fishermen were going, "I don't even know why."

- Right.

- So we started adding color, but we did that in a way that is consistent with a scale or with a prey fish.

So that way the fish is gonna see something that looks natural to them.

- We're talking about jigs, crankbaits, a number of different styles of lures, and currently you're working with other lure manufacturers?

- I had no intention of actually selling a lure.

I just had the technology and I wanted to do it for other people, because every time I went and I talked to somebody, they had the same kind of questions that you have, "Well, I can't see it.

How do I know it's gonna work?"

- Right.

- And so I just started with making some of the basic products.

What I'd rather do is put it on somebody else's lure, because we're not in the business of making lures, we're in the business of making the coating that needs to go on the lure.

We're using thin-film coatings, we're just gonna bend light.

In this case, we wanna somehow create an environment where the fish is gonna wanna bite.

So what we're doing is we're bending light in a different way, but we're still bending light, we're gonna use the same devices.

(gentle upbeat music) We are seeing what the fish is gonna see when this thing is going through the water is that we are reflecting UV lig So when we talk about the fact that we are reflecting in the UV, this is what we're talking about And this is just a normal crankbait, and I don't know who made this one, but you can see it's a traditional paint on there.

But this is what causes so much fish bites is because we're reflecting so well.

(gentle upbeat music) We're trying to solve a problem first.

That's just the way I see business, that's the way I see the world, is if there's a problem, we need to solve it.

So we're doing the same thing at RLVNT.

- [Eric] Less heat stress means more milk production.

- [Kayla] The biggest problem with invasive carp is that they're eating what everything else needs to survive.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] Farming has always been a risky endeavor.

Unpredictable weather, market fluctuations, pests, and disease can lead to serious trouble for farmers.

Any revenue source can be the difference between success and failure.

A relatively new idea called agrivoltaics, having both solar and agriculture use the same land, may provide some help.

At the West Central Research and Outreach Center in Morris, they are taking agrivoltaics on the road.

(upbeat music) - There are actually five areas of research happening at the Research and Outreach Center, most of them are agricultural.

There are 10 Research and Outreach Centers around the state of Minnesota, again, all doing agricultural and natural resources type research.

Our sort of guiding mission is to reduce fossil fuel use in agriculture.

We're one of the first and maybe still a sort of a rare example of agrivoltaics using grazing dairy cattle.

The solar array behind me is raised up off the ground about seven feet so that dairy cows can graze under it.

(upbeat music) - In previous studies, we've measured internal body temperature of cows.

So we've been able to reduce body temperature by over one degree Fahrenheit just by providing shade with solar.

- We had a masters student even do her thesis on studying if that shade provided by the solar panels would actually reduce heat stress in cows, and they found that, statistically, yes.

But, again, it's one of these examples where the grass is still growing, the forage is still growing under those solar panels because they're higher, and yet the cows get that benefit as well, and now we have another source of potential income for a farmer, you know, producing electricity on that same pasture that once was only grazing cows.

What we noticed is that you have a grazing dairy operation, so cows are moving to a different paddock every two to three days.

But the solar panels don't move, so we had this idea of like, what if the solar panels could move?

What if we could move the shade with the cows and the cows would always have the shade?

We would still collect electricity.

The problem being, of course, if you're moving the panels, how do you keep it connected to the electric grid?

So we designed a, what we're calling the SSPS, a Solar Shade Power Station, and we have batteries on that power station.

As the panels collect electricity, we store it in batteries, and then we can use it later.

- This is off-grid power, so you can, you know, use it to power, well, we have an electric tractor.

You can use it for maybe electricity for powering fences or irrigation.

I think the sky's the limit with our portable system.

- And depending on who you get the numbers from, in the United States, agriculture is about 10 to 11% of our total carbon footprint.

And if you look worldwide, it's about a quarter.

And agricultural loads are really difficult to decarbonize, so we've got big tractors, we've got animals, livestock buildings, which are unique, all this stuff is really difficult to decarbonize.

So I think that's what's exciting about the work we're doing here is it's necessary, we need to do this.

The challenge is really think about size.

So cows are big animals, and we wanna be able to provide enough shade for a good number of cows to make it worthwhile.

But yet, as you get a larger footprint of solar panels, the idea of moving them becomes more challenging.

How do we build a mobile trailer that can hold all these solar panels and fold up and then move?

This trailer now is almost 40 feet long and it's almost 40 feet wide when the panels are extended.

When the panels fold up, the trailer is a little bit less than 12 feet wide.

One other challenge with having a trailer that long is how are we gonna be able to steer through the gate?

So we actually purchased a used header trailer, which is designed to carry the combine head.

And this trailer we bought was only 17 feet long, but it had rear-wheel steering.

And we had a local shop basically chop it and extend it and make it 38 feet long.

And so we fired that up and we went out very slowly and we're checking things and watching parts to see if anything was moving or bending.

And, in the end, everything worked as designed, which is, you know, that's an engineer's dream.

I don't think I could overstate how excited we are to see it coming into fruition and to actually working as we designed it.

- Oh, definitely been a hit.

Yeah, they like going underneath it and spending the day underneath it out of the sunlight.

Less heat stress means more milk production, better fertility, and probably longer life.

- If it's successful and the shade part works and those cows, maybe they do produce more milk if they have access to shade all the time than the ones that don't, now suddenly you have an economic benefit from using it in addition to the electricity.

So that's offsetting your own electricity use, that's an income stream.

- The biggest thing is we're providing shade.

So why not utilize solar energy, produce energy and shade, and have happy cows.

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle music) - [Bret] "Prairie Sportsman" celebrates our love of the outdoors and opportunities to hunt, fish, and recreate, provided by our vast resources of lakes, streams, forests, and grasslands To protect these natural assets, the State of Minnesota directs 40% of the state's lottery proceeds to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

A 1988 Minnesota constitutional amendment created the trust fund that was set to expire in 2025.

But, last year, Minnesota voters renewed the fund for another quarter century, guaranteeing a long-term, stable source of funding for environmental protections, including efforts to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species.

(gentle music) (light airy music) Every year, about 5% of trust fund dollars are awarded to environmental projects recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

One of LCCMR's major funding priorities is aquatic invasive species research.

Much of this work has been featured on "Prairie Sportsman," including projects at the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center - We've got dozens of species we're worried about here in Minnesota right now, and there are tenfold more on our doorstep that we're worried about coming in.

The value of having a center-based approach for a problem like this is it's just so incredibly complex and large scale.

We bring together disciplines from across the university and stakeholders across the state, country, and around the world to help solve these problems.

(gentle music) - [Bret] Zebra mussels and spiny waterfleas are two of the invaders wreaking havoc with anglers.

- One study looked at how zebra mussels and spiny waterflea were affecting yellow perch and walleye in what we know as Minnesota's nine large walleye lakes.

What they found was that in lakes that had zebra mussels and spiny waterflea, walleye growth was 25% smaller going into their first winter.

- [Bret] The AIS Research Center has developed protocols and nets that volunteers can use to detect the invasive species' presence.

Identifying where the spiny invaders are present can alert boaters to be extra cautious when leaving these lakes.

- Stopping the spread is actually pretty easy.

It's just a matter of following that clean, drain, dry mantra.

And with spiny waterflea, dry is the really key element, because they do desiccate and die quickly.

And so we tell people, "You wanna, like, leave your fishing gear out in the sun," and then wiping down the fishing pole eyelets is really important.

- [Bret] To control zebra mussels, researchers have seen some positive results using low levels of copper pesticides.

But even more promising are genetic control strategies.

- We're testing genetic control strategies to see if we can turn genes on or off.

And if we can do that, then we can get them to do whatever we want.

- [Bret] The Center's also designing genetic control strategies for common carp that stir up sediment and impact water quality.

But the more dangerous species are bighead and silver carp that are moving up the Mississippi and knocking on Minnesota's southern door.

- [Kayla] Of the three invasive carp that we have in Minnesota, bighead carp tend to get the biggest, silver carp are the ones that jump.

- [Bret] The DNR has employed seining crews to capture and tag invasive carp to track their movement.

- The biggest problem with invasive carp is that where they land in the food chain, they eat algae, they eat, you know, phytoplankton and zooplankton.

So they're eating what everything else needs at some point in their life to survive.

- [Bret] Agencies use several different methods to remove carp.

- [Kayla] Netting is probably the the best way.

And that's what's been proven down south in high-density populations is that commercial fishing tends to be the easiest way to remove these fish.

- [Bret] Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund efforts to protect our waters are also being carried out at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station.

Scientists are investigating why invasive species are showing up in places they've never been seen before.

Toxic blue-green algae blooms are typically found in waters polluted with nutrient runoff, but they have been discovered in Isle Royale National Park and rock snot is showing up in Northeast Minnesota streams.

- Didymo has lived fairly happily on the shore of Lake Superior and people don't notice it too much.

This is the first time we've seen it in streams in Minnesota.

We don't understand how the north shore is gonna respond to it and our north shore streams are gonna respond to it.

That's what we're working on, spending our our research effort to understand this brand-new phenomenon.

- [Bret] The Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund has awarded more than a billion dollars to projects that protect, conserve, and enhance Minnesota's natural resources, and our quality of life in the outdoors will be enriched for years to come.

(gentle music) - [Lisa] Stories about aquatic invasive species research are brought to you by the Aquatic Invasive Species Task Forces of Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle, Swift, and Big Stone Counties, and by the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

We can stop aquatic hitchhikers from infesting more lakes and streams by cleaning up everything we pull out of the water.

It's a simple drill, clean in, clean out.

Before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment; remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash drain water from your boat, ballast tanks, motor, livewell, and bait container; remove drain plugs and keep drain plugs out while transporting equipment; dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

To keep live bait, drain the water and refill the bait container with bottled or tap water.

And if you have been in infested waters, also spray your boat with high-pressure water, rinse with very hot water, dry for at least five days.

Stop the spread of a IAS.

(gentle music) (soft music) - [Lisa] Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, and by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org (soft calming music)