This summer, my family had an opportunity to go camping at Rock Island state park in Door County, WI. This was a level up for us because, to date, we had always done car camping. Rock Island does not allow cars or have any sort of store on the island to replenish supplies (read: snacks).

You bring all supplies with you on a ferry. Then cart everything, including your young children, to the campsite, which is located about a half mile from the boat launch.

I started my position as a Visitor Services Specialist for the Menomonee Valley branch about four months ago. One of the best parts of my job is not only having the opportunity to use my first language, Spanish, but also to help my community connect, or in many cases reconnect, with nature and the environment. It also gave me the ability to start that re-connection that my family has with nature and with Milwaukee ecology specifically.

I was first introduced to the Urban Ecology Center in the year 2002 through my job with Milwaukee Public Schools. At this time, the Urban Ecology Center was no more than a trailer, yet something about the place was special. I can remember seeing children extremely excited to learn about animals and go on nature hikes. I was just as excited to see them experience these things!

My most memorable “nature moments” as a kid involved close encounters with animals: meeting live snakes at Riverbend Nature Center in my hometown of Racine, encountering bighorn sheep on a family trip to Badlands National Park, going fishing in lakes in Northern Wisconsin. At the Urban Ecology Center, our mission is to connect people to nature, and providing interactions with animals is one of the most visceral ways we do that.

The Washington Park branch of the Urban Ecology Center has a sense of family. Once you’re there and interacting with everyone around the place, you will for sure feel the vibe too! There are so many reasons why the UEC feels like a home away from home.

Environmental: the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time.

Community: an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area

Center: a building used as a meeting place for a particular group or having facilities for certain activities