Summer camp season is in full swing here at the Center, and our branches are echoing with the sounds of happy children having adventures! If you’re feeling a little jealous of all the fun our campers are having, then we have the perfect event for you – our Grown-Up Summer Camp, brought to you by our friends at New Belgium Brewing and hosted at our Riverside Park branch.

Warm weather has arrived, and that means it's canoe and kayak season! If you missed this blog post when it was originally published in 2015, we think you'll find it's just right for inspiring visions of sunny days out on the water. Read on, and be sure to take a look at our full list of summer paddling programs after the post!

It’s time to explore! Our Urban Adventures programs will have you paddling, pedaling and climbing all summer long. Get into nature, there’s so much life!
Thanks to your support, kids and adults in the city can canoe, bike or climb — often for the first time. What a great way to be introduced to nature!

My first month as an Urban Ecology Center intern is in the books, and while I already feel totally at home here, I still have a lot to learn about the everyday happenings at the Center.

Last week there was a brief lull in activity for myself and the other interns; our official training sessions had ended, and most of the interns were working on refining their lesson plans for the coming Summer Camps they would be assisting with. I used the quiet week to explore some of the activities that happen at the Center every day, all year long.

I once asked a friend of mine, if he could have anything for a birthday present, would he want? His response – a river. What an amazing answer! There is something about rivers that people are drawn to, something intrinsic. Maybe it’s the unpredictability and power of a river that commands our respect, or the mystery and intrigue of the life concealed beneath a river’s surface. Perhaps it’s the freedom and excitement we feel when we're recreating on a river. Or it could be the smell, the sound, the primal feel of the river that restores us. Maybe it’s something different for everyone…

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