The Urban Ecology Center is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Their mission is to educate the Milwaukee community about the environment, conservation, sustainability, and other issues related to

urban ecology Urban ecology is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms with each other and their surroundings in an urban environment. An urban environment refers to environments dominated by high-density residential and commercial buildings ...

, as well as to preserve and protect the natural areas in the city. In 1991, a group of residents of the Riverside Park neighborhood founded the Riverside Urban Environmental Center in response to the growing crime and pollution in Riverside Park. The neighborhood surrounding Riverside Park, was at one time an affluent neighborhood, which eventually became polluted and had an increase of criminal activity, while similar problems occurred in the neighborhoods surrounding Washington Park and Menomonee Valley. The organization is headquartered in the Riverside Park neighborhood. There are two other branches: the Washington Park branch which opened in 2007 and the Menomonee Valley branch which opened in 2012.

Branches

One of the organizations main focuses is to revitalize parks in urban neighborhoods to educate urban youth about environmentalism and nature. All three branches have a specific focus on urban nature and programs concerning conservation, which have revitalized their respective neighborhoods, which have experienced economic downturn and criminal activity.

Riverside Park

Riverside Park is located near the Riverwest and East Side neighborhoods. The park itself is approximately 25 acres in size. (10.2 ha) Riverside Park itself has a rich history, it is one of the three parks in Milwaukee that was made by

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co ...

, who was responsible for making some of the most famous and iconic parks in America. The park is a mainly temperate forest, composed of mainly

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

and

broadleaf tree A broad-leaved, broad-leaf, or broadleaf tree is any tree within the diverse botanical group of angiosperms that has flat leaves and produces seeds inside of fruits. It is one of two general types of trees, the other being a conifer, a tree with n ...

s. The

Milwaukee River The Milwaukee River is a river in the state of Wisconsin. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 Once a locus of industry, the river is now the c ...

runs through the park, as well as the Oak Leaf Trail. The park has a wide variety of wildlife and is a migratory stop over site for many species. Many bird species live there, such as

Great horned owls The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extrem ...

, Red-winged blackbirds,

Downy woodpecker The downy woodpecker (''Dryobates pubescens'') is a species of woodpecker, the smallest in North America. Length ranges from . Downy woodpeckers primarily live in forested areas throughout the United States and Canada, with the exception of deser ...

Magnolia warbler The magnolia warbler (''Setophaga magnolia'') is a member of the wood warbler family Parulidae. Etymology The genus name ''Setophaga'' is from Ancient Greek ''ses'', "moth", and ', "eating", and the specific ''magnolia'' refers to the type lo ...

s, and

Nashville warbler The Nashville warbler (''Leiothlypis ruficapilla'') is a small songbird in the New World warbler family, found in North and Central America. It breeds in parts of the northern and western United States and southern Canada, and migrates to winter ...

s. The park is also home to the Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum, a 40-acre (16.1 ha) Arboretum that was built on a former

Brownfield land In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

. There is a restored

Oak savanna An oak savanna is a type of savanna—or lightly forested grassland—where oaks (''Quercus ''spp.) are the dominant trees. The terms "oakery" or "woodlands" are also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Medite ...

in the arboretum, one of the most endangered habitats in the United States. It is one of twenty two

US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

dedicated "Children's Forests", meaning the park has a specific focus of educating children and families, while preserving the natural habitat. In 2007, Wisconsin's largest solar array was the 44.4 kW array on the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee.Largest Wisconsin Solar Array to be Dedicated February 10
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Notable associates

Wisconsin State Senator Nikiya Harris was formerly a special events coordinator and membership manager for the Center.

References

{{Authority control Organizations based in Milwaukee Nature centers in Wisconsin