Canoes and kayaks are, without a doubt, the most popular items in our equipment lending program. Every weekend throughout the summer months, our boat racks are completely empty, as our members enjoy paddling up and down the Milwaukee River and all throughout our community.

One of the longest running programs we have at the Urban Ecology Center is called River Connections. Through this program, students get right into the Milwaukee River in hip waders to test water quality at two locations – one urban, here in Riverside Park, and one rural, at Riveredge Nature Center. The students are amazed when, on occasion, the readings they find in the city are better than the rural readings. We teach them that this is due, in part, to the removal of the North Avenue Dam which allowed the river to flow free, cleaning itself.

This free flowing water is essential to river health, which is essential to our health.

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” — Ryunosuke Satoro. 

I love the community we’ve built at the Urban Ecology Center! I am constantly amazed by the dedicated and passionate people I meet here. Here are four affirming vignettes – all from one day!

First I had a meeting at Menomonee Valley:

Throughout history Milwaukee’s rivers have tremendously affected the people of this area. People have relied on these now-urban waterways for food, travel, trade, industry and recreation. But just as Milwaukee’s Magnificent Waters have affected us, our actions and behavior affect the rivers we love and rely on. In 1987, the Milwaukee Estuary was designated an Area of Concern (AOC) by the federal government. The waters of the Estuary are considered impaired as the result of historical modifications like dredging and straightening, and heavy pollutant loads. It is one of forty-three AOC-designated Great Lake watersheds in the U.S. and Canada.

Ever since the North Avenue Dam was removed in 1996, the Milwaukee River Corridor from Estabrook to downtown has gone through a remarkable transformation. Where once only a few species of fish could live in the highly polluted waters, this stretch is now teeming with life.