Milwaukee Urban Ecology Blog

We are excited to announce that Ed Krishok is joining our leadership team as managing director in a new limited term role, for a two-year period as the organization begins transitions related to growth plans in Milwaukee. Ed begins the managing director role on July 1. Ken Leinbach, executive director, will remain in his role and concentrate on specific activities related to the long-term growth and financial sustainability of Urban Ecology Center. This adjustment in leadership roles sets the stage for future growth at UEC.

If you’ve been to one of our Urban Ecology Center branches, you have probably visited one of our Native Wisconsin Animal Rooms and seen the many cold-blooded critters that call the UEC our home. Our education animals are an important part of our mission to provide kids and families with life-changing encounters with the natural world. A lot goes on behind the scenes to make this happen: the animals need to be fed, their homes need to be cleaned, and we need to make sure they remain healthy. That last item is made much easier thanks to the generosity of Lakeside Animal Hospital.

Perhaps you remember dancing through the cool grass on a summer night, eyes carefully fixed on small, fleeting glimpses of light as they traveled silently through the air. You’d reach out and quickly grab into the darkness, and, if you were lucky, the spaces between your fingers would illuminate a bright green – leaving your face glowing with wonder. Many people have a joy of catching fireflies and watching them dazzle the night air. It can truly be a breathtaking experience.

Earlier this month the Urban  Ecology Center staff had the opportunity to tour the Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility. We had a behind the scenes look at what happens to our wastewater and learned some interesting facts along the way.

Managing inventory for our gift shop is always a tricky game. Sometimes we order too little and run out of items that people really want. Sometimes we order too much and have inventory sitting on the shelf for too long. That’s why we’re trying a new approach to selling UEC merchandise and building in a discount for YOU!

The world is at a tipping point with plastic pollution. Several countries are stepping up to make drastic changes and to ban single-use plastic in the wake of political and public pressure to wean us off this toxic convenience product. The United States is lagging behind, though many people are becoming aware of the problem and some states are looking at regulating plastics. The problems are our current approaches to tackling plastic pollution focus on small-impact solutions, which are well-intentioned and personally educative but are being quickly absorbed and morphed by the growth of global plastics production.

Deep down, we share an intrinsic desire to be connected to a place. The most obvious of these connections is social; the human need to belong to a community. At the Urban Ecology Center, we pride ourselves on helping people connect to the ecology of a place, teaching others about the interconnections between the rivers, lakes, and ecosystems around which our human society thrives, hoping to foster an ethos of mutual benefit between ourselves and the land. However, a third, historical connection to a place exists as well. These connections are not always obvious, but the decisions our ancestors made certainly have an effect on us as they impacted the land and society in which we live.

Is junk mail overcrowding your mailbox? If so, you’re not alone; the Environmental Protection Agency reports Americans as a whole receive close to five million tons of junk mail every year and according to the US Postal Service, 59% of all mail delivered is advertising mail, and only about half of it ever gets read. That equates to a lot of wasted paper and even when it can be recycled it still takes a lot of resources to print it in the first place. The Urban Ecology Center receives a lot of junk mail too and here’s how we’re taking steps to (hopefully) get rid of it permanently!

It is the end of April. That time again to gather on the 2nd floor of Riverside Park – surrounded and absorbed in words words words and thoughts on nature and Oak trees not getting cut down, plastics and songs. The Earth Poets in their 32nd year came together on April 19th to celebrate the earth and our natural environment while sharing words they have written and songs they created. Like minded and like-energy, together for a night in the glow of the building.

We are pleased to announce the hiring of Rachel Nielsen to the role of Director of Finance and Operations! “In addition to teaching through the Peace Corps and at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Rachel will bring years of finance and operations experience from the corporate world,” said Ken Leinbach, Executive Director at the Urban Ecology Center. “We are excited to bring her broad experience and expertise to our team.” Nielsen comes to the Urban Ecology Center from Rockwell Automation where she was the Global Finance Manager, Low Voltage Motor Control Center Business. Throughout her career, Nielsen has held finance and operations positions at Rockwell and Best Buy. “The Urban Ecology Center has such a strong reputation within the…