Since the Urban Ecology Center (UEC) Washington Park branch opened in 2007, we have had the privilege to work in partnership with Milwaukee County Parks, Washington Park Partners, Washington Park Senior Center patrons, our neighborhood schools, numerous student and corporate volunteer groups, community neighbors, and a variety of workforce development partners to help care for and activate Washington Park.

Many of you venturing outside through the Milwaukee parks this spring may see various aquatic life- fish and frogs –floating rather than swimming at the surface of the park ponds.  This is known as “winterkill”. 

Plants lack an immune system like that of animals. However, plants have developed their own unique defenses to detect bacteria, fungi, insects, and vertebrate organism invasion and stop them before mortal damage ensues. Tissue structure and chemistry as well as existing ecological relationships between animals and plants contribute to a plant’s defense and disease resistance. Aside from providing plant strength and rigidity, cell walls, waxy or rubbery films covering leaf and stem tissue, and bark all perform as physical barriers to invasion.

Did you know Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States nearly fifty years ago? This annual event, which began on April 22, 1970, was proposed as a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace by Senator Gaylord Nelson, Denis Hayes, and Paul Erlich. Twenty years later the event went global. Today, more than one billion people in nearly 200 countries participate internationally in Earth Day activities each year!

Has the weather lately left you feeling parched yet sweaty? Us too, but we can hardly stay inside knowing Autumn’s flower and foliage color display is on its way. While the weather remains unseasonably warm and minimal if any rain is in sight, many of our Wisconsin native plant species can take the heat as well as the drought conditions.

People around the country are joining in on the growing native plant gardening movement. In addition to providing a multitude of vital habitat components for wildlife, native grasses, sedges, wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and ferns also conserve water, are less maintenance than majority of ornamental cultivars, and save money in multiple ways.

Yet, even with all these benefits it can be challenging to work through the many stigmas that have come to over shadow Naturescaping.