Milwaukee Urban Ecology Blog

At the end of April, we conducted prescribed burns at both our Washington Park and Riverside Park locations. With the help from Dare Ecosystem Management and Urban Ecology Center staff, we were able to conduct a restoration by fire that took place over the prairie, savannah and oak woodland areas. This was the third burn in Riverside Park and the first burn in Washington Park. This successful technique knocked back the invasive species and allowed a more diverse range of native species to emerge.  Check out this video to see great photos and video footage of the burn and learn more about the benefits of a prescribed burn from an interview with Caitlin, one of our land stewards, who was on…

It seems like a simple task: start a fire, and boil a cup of water. Turns out it’s not so easy when all you have is a paper cup and three matches. During last year’s Teen Survival Challenge, I watched twenty different teams accomplish this task twenty different ways, and each of those ways gave me unique insight into the different ways teams work together and think through problems.

Every spring I get excited about the start of the growing season. You may think that my name being Matt Flower drives this next statement, but really, I treat it as a family reunion. Each week old friends come back to visit — either nesting in the same woods, growing in the same spot, slithering by the same log or fluttering in the same area. One of my favorites friends of spring are the common violets — a small purple flower of the forest, field and lawn. Despite its common appearance and stature, the common violets is a giant among edibles. Packing as much vitamin C as a whole orange and the leaves are one of two wild plants topping…

My favorite Wes Anderson film, hands-down, is "The Fantastic Mr. Fox." George Clooney's portrayal of the cunning and calculating Foxy is hilarious and executed perfectly. The story, based on a children's novel by Roald Dahl, chronicles a family of foxes that are hunted by angry farmers after getting fed-up with Foxy's nightly chicken thievery. The Fox family and many of their close woodland friends (including badgers, opossums, white-footed mice and rabbits) spend a good portion of the film trying to outwit the farmers and fight for their own survival. The biological detail that Anderson pays to all of the animals in the story is quite remarkable. Spoiler alert!! Take note of the correct Latin names that Fox uses for all…

“Get out your hard hat! It’s time to put some materials to the test. Stretch’em, soak’em, crush’em – use what you learned to construct something (a bridge, a bird nest or a building) to solve a problem.” This is the description for one of our school programs for second graders. We use the Three Little Pigs story as a reference. Students get to know about the properties of certain materials, then they are divided into groups to build up sturdy enough structures out of cups so as to withstand the wolves’ huffs and puffs.

At the Menomonee Valley branch of the Urban Ecology Center, we focused on Healthy Living for Earth Month. We've had a number of great projects, programs, and educational opportunities to connect people with their own and their community's well being. For me, April was the month that I brought my bike out of winter storage, tuned it up and hit the pavement!

Five years ago, the Urban Ecology Center, the Menomonee Valley Partners, and Layton Boulevard West Neighbors gathered several groups of folks who live and work near the Menomonee Valley and shared with them a crazy idea — converting an old rail yard into a park. They asked the group: “what would you like to see in this park?” They received a lot of answers, but one thing that came up again and again was a desire for space to grow food. The neighborhood just south of the Menomonee Valley is the most densely populated area in the state, which means lots of people and little space for gardening.

Spring is always a time of excitement and of release. As the snow melts and the birds return, I feel a sense of relief from the cooped-up restlessness of winter. The students I work with seem to have the same experience, though of course in a more exaggerated way. After a winter in often windowless classrooms, they are as wiggly physically as I am mentally. The typical structure of our classes with the Neighborhood Environmental Education Project, our school program, is to do one or two short activities inside before heading out into the park.

We believe in the power of the outdoors. We believe that all work and no play makes us all a little dull and that the antidote for the monotony of routine is to go outside. We believe that paddling, biking, fishing, camping, hiking and/or playing outside are essential elements of a healthy lifestyle. We believe that nature is everywhere- even in the city- and that adventure can literally be found right in your backyard. We believe that fun doesn’t have to be expensive or accessible to only a few lucky people. We believe it so much that we can taste it as fresh as the spring air.  We can’t wait to get out of the office, home or car to…

Every spring, Center staff members have a friendly competition of “firsts.” As the snow melts, folks vie to be the first person to see a red-wing blackbird, chipmunk or spring flower. But the most important “first” to me is found in the Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum. This is the first year we’ll begin to see the results of our hard work last fall. All of Wisconsin’s ecosystems are represented in the Arboretum, from soil make-up to wildflowers to tree species. This amazing new asset for the city was built for everyone to enjoy.