We are so grateful to all of our supporters who attended the Urban Ecology Center's 8th annual Summer Solstice Soiree last Saturday. The Riverside Park branch came to life as guests gathered to celebrate nature in an urban setting. We want to thank all of our guests, sponsors, board of directors, and friends who came to support our mission!

Many thanks to all who dug in and made our recent Earth Day of Service event such a smashing success! After celebrating for the entirety of April, we capped off Earth Month on Saturday, April 25th with a city-wide day of giving back to the planet. We are overwhelmed with gratitude at the dedication and care that hundreds of community members demonstrated on this day. Enjoy this recap of our Earth Day of Service events!

We began our hands-on, environmental education school program serving just 12 schools in a double-wide trailer in Riverside Park. Our dream was to serve all the schools in a two-mile radius and have a vibrant, environmentally-based center connecting people with the outdoors. We definitely needed more space (and indoor plumbing!). With the help of many, many friends, we opened our Riverside Park building in September 2004. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. We look forward to the next 10 years!

... and this year we (or rather, you) get to do it all; digging in dirt, helping with trail or rain garden maintenance, eating great food and discovering new things about the earth!

We've had a terrific Earth Month so far celebrating all the wonderful and important resources of our planet. Our Earth Month culminates with a city-wide, all-hands on deck Earth Day of Service, a time to give back, pitch in, and show the world a little love on Saturday, April 25. Come join us!

Our research program has two unique features: an urban habitat focus and the inclusion of volunteer community scientists.

The urban wilderness research and monitoring we do provides baseline data that allow us to track how our habitat improvements affect wildlife over time. We’re measuring the changes so others can replicate the results in other cities. 

We are one of the leaders of an international movement to facilitate community-led research and monitoring. Our Community Science program focuses as much on the process of engaging community volunteers as it does on the research process itself. What this means is that everyone can contribute in a meaningful way to scientific research.

In our home we have subscriptions to a lot of things, from my hometown newspaper to our internet service. In 2014 we decided to subscribe to healthier eating, though at the time we didn't know that's what we were doing. We just decided to become members of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm after hearing about it for so many years from our friends.

By generously offering their time, talent and contributions, our corporate partners are helping us build a strong, vibrant community.  Their significant support through sponsorships, grants, in-kind donations and hands-on volunteering helps us get people of all ages outdoors.  We are immensely grateful for their partnership in this work. See for Yourself! (No really, see how our corporate sponsors contributed to our success last year!)

We have lot of winter fun planned here at the Urban Ecology Center, but our random Wisconsin weather patterns don't always grace us with the snow we need. To make the most of the snow when it it does fall, we offer a Snow & Go Facebook group that will alert members to any spontaneous winter antics we whip up! Cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding... even skating on the Washington Park lagoon if the ice is safe!

Join the Snow & Go group to stay updated on winter fun that pops up when the snow flies.

Join the Urban Ecology Center's Snow & Go Facebook group

A preteen learns to ski at a Snow & Go event

We are excited to welcome Kirstin Anglea to the Urban Ecology Center team as Environmental Education Manager. Kirstin starts her new role at the Center with some familiarity; she has been a volunteer at the Riverside Park branch for several months and has played a key role as a Neighborhood Environmental Education Project (NEEP) substitute this spring.