Milwaukee Urban Ecology Blog

April 28 Update: Our branches remain closed to the public, and onsite programming is suspended, in compliance with the Governor’s Safer at Home Order. We look forward to reopening our branches and resuming onsite programs when permitted under Wisconsin’s Badger Bounce Back Plan. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy the outdoors (with safe social distancing), and please enjoy the virtual offerings we’re providing through Urban Ecology Center in My Backyard.

“Would you like to hold it?”, I asked the 8th-grade boy. He said “Yes” and I gently poured the spoonful of pond water that held the dragonfly larva into his hands. Ever so carefully he touched it with his fingertips and turned it around in his hand exploring it thoroughly. “Can I try another one?” he asked? He put the dragonfly larva back into the basin of pond water and I quickly scooped out a damselfly larva and poured it into his hands. Again he carefully felt and explored the small, delicate creature. After returning it to the pond water basin, he asked to try another animal. This time I scooped out a snail and poured it into his hands. Once…

As a member of the Urban Ecology Center, one of the great perks you have that you can borrow a variety of adventure equipment for your family and friends. This Equipment Lending benefit allows you to have adventurous experiences in our urban parks or wherever you wish to go! While you can borrow snowshoes and cross-county skis at any branch, Washington Park has something unique -- ice skates! And one of the places you can try out our skates is on the Washington Park lagoon; that is, when the ice is thick enough. But how thick is enough?

One of my earliest interactions with a bird happened when I was a child. However, it was not actually with a bird, but instead an interaction with the source of its food. Every year as a child my family and I would pack up the car and head up to the great north woods to our log cabin situated on a small lake. In front of our cabin there was a birch tree just feet from the edge of the lake.

On the longest night of the year, surrounded by family, friends, the woods and a roaring fire, Nick and Leslie promised themselves to each other at the end of their beautiful ecofriendly wedding at Riverside Park. One year prior, the couple signed a contract to rent the Urban Ecology Center for their winter solstice wedding and the planning began. “Being eco-minded is the foundation of who we are already,” they told me and it helped form what they wanted to do for their wedding. To assist with planning, they attended the UEC’s Eco I Do Green Wedding Expo to get some ideas.

I did it! Well, actually we did it. Josh (my husband) and Jude (my almost three year old) and accomplished what we set out to do last year around the same time. Remember my blog post from last February? Just kidding, I don’t actually expect you to remember! In 2019 I made a promise to myself and my family to be more brave and adventurous with our food selections. Here's how we reached our goal, and how you can too! 

As a member of our community of supporters, you have created a unique container in which kids and adults in the city can connect to nature and to each other, engage in healing the land and learn from it. It’s quite amazing really. A few months ago I had the opportunity to swing by the Washington Park UEC Autumn Celebration. Oh my! It was amazing to see so many people out and about from the neighborhood on a cool, blustery October weekend. In our often racially divided city, these events cross relational bridges that are so needed and fun to be part of. I wish there was a measurement for smiles and laughter and exclamations of glee as people try…

Are you confused about what items can be recycled? Do you think it doesn’t make a difference anyway so why bother? OR do you think you have the whole recycling thing figured out? If so, you might want to read on! A group of Urban Ecology staff had the opportunity to tour The Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where all of our recyclables are sorted, baled and sold to other facilities that use them to create new products. The Milwaukee Recycling Facility serves both the City of Milwaukee and over 20 communities in Waukesha County. The city works with an educational partner, Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful (KGMB), to provide tours, programs, and recycling information. On the tour, we discovered that in…

What was it like to be a Research and Community Science intern at the Urban Ecology Center? Where do I even start? I met a lot of passionate people and did several interesting animal surveys. If you stopped by any of the Urban Ecology Center (UEC) branches during the summer, you probably found three young adults with clipboards in hand and backpacks strapped tight walking through the parks. Depending on what time of the summer you came, we either looked slightly confused or highly confident (I am happy to say that the latter was at the end of the summer).

Every year around this time the Facility Rentals team at the Urban Ecology Center reflects on how many wonderful clients and vendors we had the opportunity to work with all year long. All of them believed in our mission to help reduce waste and host more sustainable events and we couldn’t be more thankful. This time of year we are also prepping and planning for Eco I Do Green Wedding Expo which is another way we forward this mission. Guests who attend the event can learn how to host environmentally friendly events from local and eco-friendly caterers, florists, and rental companies. They are also able to try samples, talk with local businesses to find out about their green initiatives, and…