Urban Wilderness

A Snowy Silence

2012-01-22T16:34:00.000-08:00

A walk during our recent snowstorm led to some musings:

One of the best times to escape the turmoil of hurried lives in an urban society is immediately after a snowfall – or even while the storm swirls all around. When the world is covered in white, everything slows down. Sharp edges are layered in softness; colors are muted.

I love to go out before the plows have begun their noisy scraping and clearing of streets; before the snow blowers start to rev up. I am drawn, as always, to the parks, to nature. But in a snowstorm it isn’t even necessary to get away from my neighborhood to find silence, peace. I walk down the middle of the street, cutting the first tracks, like an adventurer in the wilderness, a wilderness that for the moment lurks right outside my door.

If I huddle inside I lose a precious opportunity. I’ve learned not to turn on the television at times like this. Forecasters trumpet catastrophe on slight evidence, like Old Testament prophets of doom. If I don’t have to drive anywhere, the storm is far more of a blessing than a danger.

In “The House at Pooh Corner” A. A. Milne has Eeyore say this bit of wisdom:

"I shouldn't be surprised if it hailed a good deal to-morrow…. Blizzards and what-not. Being fine today doesn't Mean Anything. It has no sig—what's that word? Well, it has none of that. It's just a small piece of weather."

Don’t tell the TV weather forecasters – with their Doppler radar and remote on-the-scene camera crews, who hold microphones and wear no hats – that it’s “just a small piece of weather.”

I digress. Today the wilderness outside my door beckoned and I answered the call. The snow was light but a steady wind whipped it around me as I trudged through Hoyt Park. By the time I reached the County Grounds I was warm with exertion and ready for the open range.

I find it curious that even in the midst of a snowstorm nature can present distinct moods.

Where a woodland or ravine provides shelter from the wind, silence prevails. It is this peaceful silence that I generally find most conducive to introspection and spiritual resuscitation. Because the city is so seldom silent the occasion seems wondrous. To paraphrase Thoreau, silence is an opportunity for the soul to commune with its own infinity.

Infinity and eternity are easy to contemplate in a world turned white and silent.

The blizzard also is a reminder of the limits of human activity. We throw tremendous resources into our attempts to pacify nature, to make winter not merely survivable, but comfortable, for example. However, we can never completely cast out the wilderness.

As I walk out into the open prairie on the County Grounds, my mood swings drastically as I am buffeted by the storm. I face an elemental force of nature, but not in opposition, like Ahab confronting the White Whale. I open myself to the gentle fury of the blowing snow. I am one with the wind, the snow, and the land. Again I count my blessings. Still so close to home that I am at liberty to expose myself this way. Wrapped in Gore-Tex and Wellingtons, I have no fear for my welfare. In my urban wilderness experience, the storm is not only survivable, not only comfortable, it is exhilarating!

After about half an hour the wind dies down, the snow tapers off, and the sun comes out. The wilderness settles into the familiarity of home. I head back, thankful for a small piece of weather that can transport me so profoundly.

County Board to consider resolution regarding power lines in parks

2012-01-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

The Parks and Parkways need your support!

The Milwaukee County Parks, Energy and Environment Committee is meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24. Supervisor Schmitt plans to introduce a resolution that would prohibit power lines in Milwaukee County Parks, Parkways, the Oak Leaf Trail, or wetlands and natural areas. This is an excellent step! He can use all the support we can give. Details below.

If you cannot make the meeting please look for the contact information below and send a note of support for this resolution.

The impetus for this resolution is the proposal by the American Transmission Company (ATC) to route a power line through Underwood Parkway. This proposal not only would compromise the integrity of Underwood Parkway, a stretch of the Oak Leaf Trail, and the common good, it would set a terrible precedent for all Milwaukee County Parks and Parkways. The ATC proposal provides alternative routes, but they have indicated that the parkway route is a preferred one.

Proposed power line route: Oak Leaf Trail in Underwood Parkway

To learn more about this issue read my previous posts.

Here are the key points of the proposed resolution:

The county and city support the effort to supply additional electricity.
The county and city oppose Route B, which runs through Underwood Parkway.
The county and the city oppose any other current or future plans involving placement of high voltage electric transmission lines along Milwaukee County Parkways, the oak Leaf Trail, or wetlands and natural areas.
The county and city request that ATC trench the transmission lines that will traverse the County grounds.

Supervisor Schmitt has said that his resolution will be first on the agenda on Tuesday. The committee meeting begins at 9 a.m. and will be in either Room 201B or 203R of the County Courthouse. If you can attend, please allow time to go through the security checkpoint at the entrance. I hope you'll join me there.

If you cannot attend, contact:

Chairman Lee Holloway

Milwaukee County Board lee.holloway@milwcnty.com

Supervisor James "Luigi" Schmitt
James.Schmitt@milwcnty.com

A complete list of county supervisors is available here.

A similar resolution is being introduced at an upcoming Wauwatosa Common Council meeting. Please send a copy of your message to Common Council Chair and Acting Mayor, Eric Meaux: emeaux@wauwatosa.net

Let's keep our parkways and bike trails free of power lines.

2011: A year in the Urban Wilderness

2011-12-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

Following the time-honored year-end tradition, I offer my personal selections of the best of the Urban Wilderness from the past year. These are the stories of my explorations from month to month. Some are from far-away places, but among my favorites are many from right here in the Milwaukee area, as usual! We have much to be grateful for.

January – A walk in the bosque along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

February – Reconsidering Aldo Leopold, from the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Park.

March – Finding fragments of nature in Atlanta.

April – A hike in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

April – Impressions of the Cherokee Marsh in Madison.

May – A photo essay from Milwaukee County Parks.

June – National Trails Day in the Milwaukee River Greenway.

July – The Chicago wilderness sustains an abundance of wildlife.

August – Images and metaphors from the Kinnickinnic River.

August – Meditations on the Milwaukee River.

September – Wonderland: Urban parks stimulate more than the imagination, from the Menomonee River.

October – Seiche: Symbolism and reality in an unlikely urban wilderness.

November – Ecopsychology among the kettles and moraines, near Eagle, WI.

December – Discovering urban wilderness in Staten Island, NY.

December – Milwaukee’s “Thin Places,” a meditation on the parkway system.

The stories include images, as you have come to expect, and I hope you enjoy them all. It is hard to choose one best, but if I had to today I would pick this one from the KK River. It symbolizes the challenges that exist and the hope that I have for urban wilderness, wherever it is found.

Thank you for following the Urban Wilderness – I hope to see you out there in 2012. Have a Happy New Year!

Season’s Greetings from the Urban Wilderness

2011-12-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

Maybe this happened to you, too: Saturday morning, after long anticipation, I was surprised when I woke up to find snow covering the yard and street outside my windows. Suddenly the holiday season felt real. Finally!

I hurried outside, only to find that the “season” was barely an inch deep. It wasn’t enough to visibly affect the “wilderness,” but pent up enthusiasm kept me going, across Hoyt Park and the Menomonee River, into the wide-open spaces of the Milwaukee County Grounds.

I had an ulterior motive. I’m working on a book of photographs about the fragile beauty that I see on the County Grounds and I’m short on winter scenery. When I got there, though, I found I’d been right: as I topped the detention basin berm I looked out over forty or so acres of very brown cattails. Tiny caps of snow were insufficient to give the marsh a wintry aspect.

Beyond the basin lay the hills of Milwaukee County’s newest (and as yet unnamed) park, also brown in the distance. Only a thin white streak that I recognized as a trail bore any traces of snow. The book would have to wait a little longer. No matter. It was a beautiful day in the urban wilderness and I wasn’t going to waste it.

I was not alone! Both the wide gravel trail that encircles the two basins and the narrower ones threading across the hills are regular routes for dog walkers, but this day they were out in force. The fact that I didn’t have a dog made me a curiosity to many. The people I met would apologize for their dogs, which were either A) ferociously barking at me or B) cheerfully jumping on me with wet paws. Then, when they found out I was a writer, they would tell me about their love and concern for the place.

“Have you seen Charlie the three-legged coyote?” one woman asked me with obvious affection.

While three big Labradors roamed freely through the high grass, a pair of couples shared their fears for the future, when the construction of Innovation Park will obstruct the horizon to the west, as the towers of the Medical Complex already do to the south.

A tall man with a ramrod bearing who wore a camouflage cap and blaze orange vest suggested that the Parks Department establish a bow-hunting season in the new park. “They could sell limited season permits for a TON of money!” he exclaimed. While that wouldn’t make me feel particularly comfortable, I was intrigued that he considered the County Grounds large enough for that. He also expressed uncompromising concern for the welfare of the abundant wildlife on the Grounds.

Back on the basin path a jogger stopped, pulled out her earphones, and asked me what I was taking pictures for. When I said I was making a book, she exclaimed, “I love the County Grounds!” Then she took off again down the path.

As I neared the end of my journey, the bright sun reached its low winter solstice zenith. The meager snow shrank further and the gravel path became muddy. But on Underwood Parkway, near Swan Boulevard, I found the tree.

I’ve never seen who does it, but for several years now someone has decorated one of the parkway evergreens. Last year, as I recall, the ornaments had begun to look faded. But now there were bright new ones shining in the sunlight bringing holiday cheer to the County Grounds.

Though far from natural, there is something about this anonymous gesture that seems more like a gift than an intrusion. Like the wide-open spaces of the County Grounds themselves, which provide a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle all around. Mayfair Mall is just visible over the tree line to the west, but it seems small and very far away. Out here, where unhampered breezes gently rustle the cattails, I can feel peace on earth and good will to all people.

For another, very different, take on the same hike in the County Grounds go to Arts Without Borders.

Preserve Our Parks opposes power lines in parkway

2011-12-17T15:18:00.000-08:00

Please write to the American Transmission Company (ATC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) and add your voices to keep power lines out of Underwood Parkway. The more letters they receive the more impact they will have. Contact information is at the bottom of this post.

Below is the text of the letter being sent by Preserve Our Parks (POP) to the ATC and the PSC in opposition to siting of the proposed power line. POP's is a principled position that doesn't recommend either of the two proposed routes from the west. Instead it recognizes the public interest in preserving parklands and open green space. (Full disclosure: I'm on the POP board and drafted the letter for the board's approval.)

I have posted two times before on this topic. To read the earlier posts and learn more about the issues, go to my statement or to public hearing. Informative photos accompany those posts, as usual.

The letter:

RE: Transmission line routes to new County Grounds Substation

Preserve Our Parks, as its name indicates, is an organization dedicated to the preservation of parks and public green spaces. We would like to make known for the record our position on the proposed routes for the transmission lines that are planned for the Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa.

· We oppose routing power lines, whether overhead or underground, in any part of Underwood Parkway. This would effectively eliminate most of Route B from consideration.

· If Route A is chosen, then the segment that runs along Highway 45 through the County Grounds, should be underground. Alternatively, Route A could be used until it reaches the County Grounds at which point it could switch to the underground segment of Route B.

· We believe that the principle of preserving the public’s interest in undisturbed parks and green spaces should be a primary consideration over and above the economics of one route versus another.

Our opposition to Route B is consistent with the position of Milwaukee County Parks Department and many other organizations concerned about parks, wildlife habitats, wetlands, open green space, and the recreational use of the Oak Leaf Trail, all of which would be compromised if a power line were sited within the Parkway. Since no other public parkway in Milwaukee County has been transformed into a power corridor, this also would set a precedent that we believe is not in the public interest.

The Parkway should not be chosen simply because it is the cheapest route since it is inherently less expensive to develop in parklands than in places with established development. Although the specifics of the case dealt with road construction instead of power lines, this principle was established in U.S. Supreme Court case law in CITIZENS TO PRESERVE OVERTON PARK v. VOLPE, 401 U.S. 402 (1971).

The decision about which two of four routes to use for these transmission lines assumes the need for additional power in this area, an assumption we do not necessarily share. We urge the Public Service Commission to look closely at this assumption and to examine other options available. These should include ambitious and creative reconsideration of how power is used by the Milwaukee County Medical Complex as well as requiring any new development at Innovation Park, the Research Park, and elsewhere to meet stringent and sustainable limits on energy usage.

Contact info:

ATC will be accepting comments until mid-January. Email Mary Carpenter: mcarpenter@atcllc.com

The PSC is responsible for the final decision. Therefore a letter to them is critical to provide support for the parkway.

PSC: Reference the Western Milwaukee County Electric Reliability Project, Docket #5-CE-139. Email Mr. Ali Wali: ali.wali@wisconsin.gov

Menomonee Valley Power Plant public hearing Monday

2011-12-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

The following message is from the Cleaner Valley Coalition. The organization's mission statement is below.

EPA Community Meeting Dec. 12th

EPA Community Meeting on Valley Coal Plant Pollution, Health Concerns and Environmental Justice

Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency are participating in a Community Meeting and Forum to discuss environmental justice and health concerns, including We Energies’ Valley coal plant, located in the heart of the downtown Milwaukee. Sponsored by Cleaner Valley Coalition, the community has the opportunity to talk about the plant’s pollution and its health impacts, which primarily affect low-income people of color who live in the Menomonee Valley.

EPA representatives include Susan Hedman, Head of EPA Region 5 in Chicago, and Lisa Garcia, Associate Assistant Administrator for Environmental Justice, Washington, D.C. There will be an opportunity to provide personal statements to head EPA officials; written testimony accepted too.

The Valley coal plant is one of the dirtiest plants in the state, yet sits in Wisconsin’s most populated city. The community has grown deeply concerned over the increase in cases of asthma and respiratory illnesses in children in Milwaukee, particularly within the African-American, Latino and lower-income communities.

When: Monday, Dec. 12, 6:00 p.m.

Where: Ascension Lutheran Church,1236 S.Layton Blvd. Parking in rear.

What: Community members giving testimony, EPA officials

Contact: Dianne Dagelen, ddagelen@sbcglobal.net

Cleaner Valley Coalition is a coalition of health advocacy groups, civil rights organization, grassroots organizations and local service providers and individuals concerned about the health of our families. Together, we are working to improve air quality for all Milwaukee residents by cleaning up We Energies’ coal plant in the Menomonee Valley. The window of opportunity to clean up We Energies’ Valley Plant is here. Ultimately, we call on We Energies to be a responsible neighbor and clean up the plant for the health of Milwaukee and our children’s future.

Milwaukee’s Thin Places

2011-12-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

On a gloomy, December day, when “the sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine,” it’s tempting to stay curled up somewhere warm, inside, by a fire. Or to busy myself with the million things I have to do before the holidays. It’s easy to find excuses not to take a walk in the woods when it’s cold, wet, and dreary.

But those are often the days when I need it most, when the ordinary world is wearisome and business becomes busyness. I bundle up and go.

I’m rarely sorry once I get outside and I am immediately glad I made the effort. On the muddy path along the Menomonee River I feel youthful and content, like Christopher Robin, who didn’t mind what kind of weather there was “as long as he was out in it.”

The turgid river, swollen with rain, flows like a living, burgeoning being, like a colossal, dark glistening snake, slithering through the landscape, swallowing whole all it encounters. All along the quickening river, the rain-darkened trees stand, brooding. Behind the trees, a rank of houses obliterates the illusion of wilderness.

In summer the screen of trees suffices to hide most traces of the city through which our fluid snake writhes. Now, with the onset of winter the curtain is frayed; the fragile thinness of the parkway is revealed. As if in confirmation of this truth, a train suddenly rushes by close behind me with an emphatic roar.

Caught in this thin place between railroad and houses my attention becomes more focused. I begin to feel nature. The rough bark on the great black willow seems to flow down its huge trunk as if in harmony with the river.

In a world gone mostly gray there remain a few persistent spots of green. Black berries hang in the air, bejeweled by the rain.

The furry carcass of a raccoon, likewise bejeweled, glitters as if in triumphal declaration of transcendence.

Intricate patterns of fungi and lichen brighten a decaying log nearby. Wild places, no matter how squeezed by civilization, reveal the natural order; the cycle of life, death, and regeneration is everywhere apparent.

The ancient Celts believed that there were Thin Places in the landscape; spiritual places where the veil between this world and The Other could be perceived by anyone attuned to the ephemeral signs. Some were marked with dolmens, the mysterious standing stones that are among the earliest known structures on earth.

Today, most people live in cities instead of in the countryside and it is easy to feel like we are outside the natural order, even somehow exempt from it. Warm, secure, and insulated from inclement weather, we have developed an unconscious – and false – sense that we are separate from nature. But, fortunately, there are “thin places” in our community – the parks and parkways – where we go to remember our connection to the land, to reinvigorate our relationship with nature, which is never truly broken.

The still green lawn of vacant Hanson golf course runs right down to the riverbank, in dramatic contrast with the brown fringes of taller grass and the few trees that line the two banks. The narrowness of the parkway corridor, so apparent in the starkness of winter, is no accident. The architects of Milwaukee County’s park system, which largely follows its rivers, understood the importance of connectivity as well as the “edge effect” of long, thin natural corridors.

In Greenways for America, author Charles Little observes, “The edge effect is almost magical. For most people, the great utility of preserved open space…is not measured by its area but by its edge: that is, what you see when walking or riding down a street alongside it…. From the edge, a wooded park that might be a mile across looks the same as one that is two hundred feet in width. Clearly, therefore, a long, thin greenway can provide a great deal more apparent open space per acre than a consolidated parcel of land.”

But as I walk in the midst of its somber December beauty, the magic of the long parkway corridor goes much deeper than the prosaic benefits outlined in bureaucratic land-use plans (important though they are!) For me, this truly is a Thin Place, not just a narrow one. I may not perceive the Other World in a supernatural sense, but in the hustle and bustle of urban life, perceiving the natural world can in itself have a similarly transporting, extraordinary effect.

I feel fortunate to live near “thin places” through which flow the Milwaukee, Menomonee, Kinnickinnic, and Root Rivers – as well as their tributary creeks, so many enshrined in the parkway system.

Walking along the river can reignite the sense of wonder that children instinctively possess but which is all too easy to lose in the busyness of maturity. Pooh says to Christopher Robin, “Sometimes, if you stand on… a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”

I lean over and watch the Menomonee River slip quickly away beneath me.

Urban Wilderness: Staten Island, NY

2011-12-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

The photographs throughout this post are from Staten Island’s Greenbelt system of parks and trails. Some of them illustrate passages directly from my story, but others are meant as a complementary photo essay.

Having a few hours before I needed to return my rental car at Newark Airport, I thought I might explore a bit of the Meadowlands, which are nearby. However, the spaghetti of freeways on the map was more than a little intimidating. Trying to navigate them in the car seemed a fool’s errand. I opted for Staten Island.

Although I grew up in New York and have visited “the city” many times since I moved to Wisconsin, I’d never been to Staten Island before. Someone said, “Why go there? It’s just another suburb.” In fact, on a map it looks much more like part of New Jersey than New York.

Why go there? I’d read about Fresh Kills, once the world’s largest landfill. An ambitious project now underway means to transform it into parkland. Its 2,200 acres make it three times larger than Central Park. It sounded like an appropriate urban wilderness adventure to me.

After the twelve-lane expanse of New Jersey Turnpike, the drive across the tunnel-like Goethals Bridge was a white-knuckle adventure in itself. A large steel paneled truck rattled along mere inches away from my side mirror. As we sloped down out of the cattle trough onto Staten Island, the road widened again. Wetlands stretched off on both sides, seasonally sear and brown, but a welcome contrast to the seemingly endless port terminals, refineries, industries, and highways of New Jersey.

Fresh Kills was easy to find. The West Side Expressway slices it like thanksgiving turkey. Barren mounds rise on either side like skinned breasts laid on a platter; man-made mountains that dwarf the houses, hotels, businesses, shopping centers, and power plants around its edges.

Cypress knees

As parkland it seemed completely unsatisfying; a pregnant wasteland that leaves me wondering how a landfill can be called “former,” as if the noxious contents will ever disappear. Maybe it will be more convincing in thirty years, when the “state-of-the-art ecological restoration techniques” have had a chance to mature.

Cypress and goose pond at Willowbrook Park

I circled it, looking fruitlessly for a way in. I didn’t need the numerous “no trespassing” signs to convince me to find a more inviting place for my urban adventure.

Fortunately, Staten Island offers many other opportunities to scratch my itch for exploration.

I chanced upon Willowbrook Park, despite narrow street access and low visibility signage. I found there a lovely pond surrounded by a paved path full of people strolling amid aggressive geese; cypress trees and a slew of their attendant knees along the water’s edge; and a park office with a map of The Greenbelt. Score! That led me to a larger, more alluring natural area.

I parked at the Greenbelt Nature Center, ignored the irony of the bench on its small lawn that bore a plaque reading “THE ADVENTURE BEGINS HERE!” (Am I supposed to sit?), and plunged gratefully into the forest. A more compelling sign on the nature trail proclaimed that this area will remain “forever wild.” I set out hopefully in search of its promise.

The trail, which was wide and clear enough to follow without assistance, was emblazoned with rectangular swatches of colorful paint. Apparently that wasn’t enough for someone; everywhere I went there also were vibrant pink and orange ribbons dangling from branches overhead. As I progressed along several trails with differently hued markers, I came to places where some over-achieving trail manager (or adolescent volunteer?) had spray-painted the ground itself, along with an occasional rock, wooden bench, and even dead leaves. No getting lost in this urban forest!

Photomontage of trail markings

Spray paint aside, the forest was indeed pretty wild. Leafless trees poked up from heaps of logs and downed branches that were shrouded in vines, brambles, and creepers, like thick cobwebs, making the place appear disheveled, faded with neglect, like Miss Havisham’s dining room in Great Expectations.

The trail dropped into hollows, some too muddy to cross, requiring me to backtrack and choose an alternate route – red or yellow this time? It wound around stagnant pools, like dark, cloudy crystal balls, mirroring the broken sky. In one a giant timber dipped into the still water, as if a gargantuan witch had long ago abandoned labors over a murky cauldron.

An unmarked (but easy to follow!) spur trail led to “ruins,” as identified on the trail map. My expectations of discovering a romantically decaying colonial mansion were dashed, though, by what proved to be the remains of a small corner made of rough stone with a set of concrete steps leading up to…a snarl of small trees. A ring of blackened charcoal, along with beer cans in a cave-like basement window well, indicated regular and irreverent visitation.

However, despite all the manifestations of humanity, my hike was quite solitary and peaceful. By the time I returned to my rental car I had spent long enough in the wilds of Staten Island to quiet my restless spirit and to brave a return trip over the Goethals Bridge and the short stretch of turnpike to the airport.

Ribbons hanging from branches to mark the trail.

The Meadowlands, as well as a rehabilitated Fresh Kills, remain on my bucket list for future explorations.

Reflections on an dark day

2011-11-22T05:26:00.000-08:00

November is a month of gathering darkness. Even on sunny days dusk arrives quickly, prematurely, it always seems to me, like a shroud drawn over a youthful corpse. I cannot help thinking: Too soon! The day dies too early. I am not yet prepared for the dark.

I know I have no reason for despair. I have seen too many winters turn into springs not to be assured of another. And yet.

I walk a dim forest trail. Even in bright light the somber colors lend the landscape the nostalgic aura of an old sepia toned photograph. Everything seems an intimation of death. The leaves are down, already trampled and brown. The bare branches left overhead are raised as if in supplication.

Decay is everywhere apparent. The soft and crumbling heartwood of a once mighty tree is exposed. Worm trails are etched on trunks stripped of bark. Fungi and other agents of decomposition are lords of the forest.

The stripped landscape reveals nearly as many trees broken, bent, or lying in tangled piles as remain standing. The riparian land along the Menomonee River Parkway seems truly wild. A walk in the forest in November inspires introspection.

All living things return eventually to the earth of their origins. Nothing is wasted. There is no real death, only the ceaseless cycle of regeneration. Nothing that occurs naturally in the environment, that is.

In defiance of the natural order of things, I find indestructible plastics, bottles of every shape and size, snack food packages, cast-away toys, a gigantic tire. What is the death of foliage compared to the undying detritus of our consumer culture where things are designed to be wasted?

Black Friday approaches. In this gathering darkness I search for reassurances that spring will come.

Art and environmental remediation

2011-11-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

In 1969 Patricia Johanson, inspired by close observations of the natural world, made simple pencil drawings of animals and plants in sketchbooks and on loose-leaf pages. Copious notes written in casual long hand surrounded the drawings. Johanson had a vision for designing artworks that were not merely representations of nature – what is more common than that? Nor was her idea to reflect on or abstract those sources.

Johanson, in tune with the Zeitgeist that led to the first Earth Day in 1970, wanted nothing less than to heal the earth using art.

She has been doing just that for decades now, often on a monumental scale.

This past Wednesday, the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, WI hosted Johanson for a talk entitled Science, Art, & Infrastructure. The event was sponsored by the Design Coalition Institute in partnership with UW-Marathon, UW-Madison, and UW-Extension.

Beginning with the humble ideas sketched so long ago, Johanson, who subsequently received a degree in architecture, went on to describe several of her major completed projects.

The Dallas Museum of Art is situated picturesquely on Fair Park Lagoon. Water quality in the lagoon, however, had been so badly degraded over the years that it was biologically dead. Johanson’s solution was a sculptural design based on plant forms that simultaneously buttressed eroding banks and created a series of microhabitats. Unlike most public sculpture projects, the obvious concrete structures are only the most visible tip of the iceberg. Native aquatic plants and animals introduced into the newly rehabilitated environment are as important, if not more so.

Not coincidentally, the sculpture doubles as a playground and outdoor classroom for people young and old who visit the newly invigorated site.


archival photo courtesy Anthracite Heritage Museum

Scranton, Pennsylvania provided Johanson with one of the most daunting challenges: a landscape utterly ravaged by coal mining. She outlined the historical background, which includes human suffering along with environmental devastation. The many levels of now abandoned underground mines have become a defacto reservoir into which all surface waters, former streams, etc. have disappeared.

Her designs are sensitive to this history as well as current conditions, the needs of the local community, and the intention to help ameliorate environmental problems.

This aerial view of the water treatment facility under construction in Petaluma, California gives a sense of the enormous scale of some of her artistic accomplishments.

Aside from sheer wonder, delight, and appreciation for Johanson’s work, there were four main points that struck me:

This is work that requires enormous amounts of research and cooperation for it to be successful. No amount of self-reflection in the studio can produce such far-reaching and practical results.

Johanson reiterated several times the need for community involvement. She was not there, in whatever the location, to impose an aesthetic concept on the land. She listened to the public and the local stakeholders and her designs respect their needs as well as her own creative imagination.

The third point is sadder, I think. Her presentation as well as her work reminded me of Betsy Damon, who had given a talk at UWM a while ago. Afterwards, I asked Johanson about Damon. Unsurprisingly, they are friends. She went on to say that there were only a few like-minded artists doing these kinds of projects that combine imaginative artistic design with actual restoration and bio-remediation – and they are, like her, all getting along in years.

Young artists are not uninterested in the environment, she said, but they tend to want to draw attention to places or frame issues rather than dealing directly with healing the earth.

There were many young people, university students no doubt, in the audience. My hope is that some of them heard her message and found her example inspiring enough to turn that around.

Finally, as I did when I heard Damon speak, I couldn’t help wishing there is a way that one of these artists could be brought to Milwaukee to do their creative and restorative work. The Menomonee Valley would be the perfect location.

Project descriptions and more images can be found on Johanson's website.

Ecopsychology among kettles and moraines

2011-11-15T07:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon; fourteen gather in the parking area of the Scuppernong trailhead, Kettle Moraine State Forest, for “A walk in the woods with Philip Chard.” Straight rows of tall pines divide rectangular patches of asphalt cut into the forest. On this preternaturally warm, windy November day the lot is unusually full. Grateful, I leave my jacket in the car.

Philip Chard is a psychotherapist and naturalist – two vocations that merge in the relatively new field of ecopsychology, which unites mental health and spiritual wellbeing with environmental health and ecological principles. Among other things, he leads groups like ours….

After a very brief orientation, we head off along the wide, well-groomed Scuppernong Trail. Markers establish a one-way loop for cross-country skiing. Contrarily, we pass the “do not enter” sign.

More straight tree lines make the trail feel like a high corridor – or the nave of a gothic church. Is an architectonic forest 40 miles from Milwaukee more natural than an urban park?

As if reading my mind, Chard urges us to leave the beaten trail now and then – respectfully – in order to enrich our experience. Be mindful, attend to details. Allow yourself to be drawn to nature, to anything that attracts your attention. Among the regular rows of trees, I am attracted to irregularity. A thicket of purple brambles stands out against the gray-brown landscape. I’m not tempted to step off the trail into them.

A hundred years ago, he says, most people worked outdoors; now the reverse is true.

In contrast with clocks, calendars, and the daily grind, nature puts us in touch with “deep time:” geologic time, planetary time, celestial time. We climb a steep ridge – the trail following the line of a moraine – and observe the abrupt drop into a deep kettle, a depression formed 10,000 years ago at the edge of the Wisconsin ice sheet.

Time, like traffic, moves more slowly on a forest path than it does on city streets.

Each kettle we pass was once a mammoth chunk of glacial ice, calved from the receding glacier and then buried in terminal debris.

We go off-trail into a pine grove. A dense evergreen canopy hides the sky. The glen is dark and close. A carpet of needles softens our steps. Involuntarily, we hush, as if entering a chapel. I hear someone sigh with enchantment. Maybe me.

The sky is surprisingly bright when we reemerge onto the trail. The tops of the trees toss in the wind.

“The wind is the breath of the world.” We have reached a peak of sorts; a crest on the moraine with a view towards the setting sun. The flat expanse of Scuppernong Prairie stretches out before us – the largest wet prairie east of the Mississippi River.

Facing into the stiff breeze, Chard spreads his arms wide…: inhales deeply. Exhales deeply.

“Open yourselves to the wind,” he says. “Release your breath into the breath of the earth” for a spiritual cleansing. We inhale. Exhale.

Theodore Roszak coined ecopsychology in 1992. It was dismissed as ‘new age’ fluff at first, says Chard, but has achieved credibility. Although our brains are constantly bombarded with culturally conditioned information, we still think as our prehistoric ancestors did. Civilization and culture are the creations of humanity, but we became human in nature, not in civilization.

On impulse, one of our group climbs the sagging limb of a gnarled oak. “That was on my bucket list,” she says as she slides into upraised hands that gently set her back on the ground.

Nearing solstice, the afternoon darkens early. Clouds scud by on strong winds. Bright sun blinks through broken overcast.

The planet has received its 7 billionth human.

The Western black rhino was declared extinct this week. Other subspecies to follow.

The total number of rhinos left in the wild is smaller than the human population of Waukesha County, in which we are hiking.

“If ever you need strength…,” Chard says; then pauses. Unbidden, like the wind, the thought flies through my mind: who doesn’t? Pointing to the brown oak leaves clinging to twisted branches overhead, he continues more emphatically, “If you need tenacity just come out here in January. You will find many of them still here, still clinging.”

Trees are more completely evolved than humans, he says: wiser.

Is a chance meeting of friends like the random collisions of subatomic particles? It is a busy day in the forest. We pass many like-minded strangers. But, twice, we greet friends, hiking the same path. Perhaps friendship exerts a gravitational pull that makes encounters more likely. Still…

Life must be full of near misses.

The sun sets in subtle hues through a screen of tree trunks, beyond the far ridgeline. In the gathering twilight, Chard tells us we might have the good fortune to see the gloaming. “OK, I’ll bite,” someone says: “What’s the gloaming?”

The gloaming, he replies, is the moment sometime after dusk when day is indistinguishable from night. “Sounds mystical,” someone whispers. Like a portal between existential realms. The path under our feet is dim and a mist seems to have enveloped the trees all around us. We look up to see a still bright sky through the crevice in the canopy that mirrors the path. Not yet.

A bat rises from the leaf litter at our approach. It is indistinguishable from the leaves, as if a piece of the ground has lifted and fluttered off. The gloaming of the earth.

We still ourselves in the near dark. The susurration of the wind rushing through the treetops sounds like distant surf, like the breathing of the ocean. Here on the ground all is calm, quiet.

In the dark, we hear, your peripheral vision is clearer than your focal point. In my peripheral vision the corridor of the trail contracts, the line of individual trees merges into a wall; the people around me become phantoms. My eye is drawn, moth-like, to the broken hole of the sky, the still-dimming light overhead. Breathing.

In the peaceful, preternaturally warm November evening, we await the gloaming, when we are indistinguishable from the forest.

Wauwatosa residents speak out against power lines in parkways

2011-11-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

“Everyone wants a power line underground and somewhere else,” spokesman Peter Holtz intoned as he began Monday night’s presentation by the American Transmission Company (ATC). He also quickly and readily acknowledged the oppositional mood of the crowd of about 100; most were there to “say NO to route B.”

As reported in Wauwatosa Patch, ATC has proposed four transmission line routes to bring power into a new substation being planned by We Energies. The substation will be located next to an existing power plant on the Milwaukee County Grounds. Route B would access an existing line at 119^th St. and run east through Underwood Parkway.

Two of the four proposed transmission routes are said to be required in order to provide secure redundancy for the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, although that was a point of contention questioned by several in the audience.

Overhead routes are preferred because they are less expensive, according to Holtz. When pressed for specifics he said that the parkway option would cost $8 million. The longest underground option, along 92^nd St., would cost $20 million.

There was some grumbling about comparing apples to oranges, since the distances are unequal and most of the options likely would include a combination of overhead and underground construction. This includes Route B, which would dive underground in two potential alternatives after its passage along Underwood Creek Parkway.

The crowd applauded when it was observed that this is a one-time expense and the cost would be spread out over the 50- to 70-year life of the system. The higher cost of the underground options was deemed worth it to preserve the environmental and recreational value of the parkway.
There was no dissent as speaker after speaker reiterated that the parkway should be considered inviolable. Long-time resident John Novotny described moving “from the city” to the neighborhood because of the “bucolic” character of the parkway, which has “intrinsic value” that would be diminished by power lines.

In a passionate plea for preservation, Willie Gonwa went further: “We are not talking about just one mile of parkway. Eighty-six miles of parks and bike trails create a unified loop around Milwaukee County. This project would break the green necklace that was designed by Charles Whitnall in 1906. Nowhere else have the parkways been converted into power line corridors.”

In an apparent attempt to mollify the restive crowd, Holtz pointed to a slight change in the proposed route. Between 119^th St. and 115^th St. the route originally was sited north of the railroad tracks. Reacting to DNR objections that this would degrade one of the very few wooded wetlands left in Milwaukee County and therefore not be permitted, the ATC added a new alternative south of the tracks and the creek.

Holtz said, “We will advocate for siting in the wetland,” where it would be somewhat less visible from the parkway road. An apparent contradiction was noted by several people who decried the destruction of sensitive wetlands for the aesthetic benefit of avoiding one section of the parkway. (The power lines would continue east from 115^th St. next to the Oak Leaf Trail in either case.)

Holtz maintained repeatedly that the PSC would not make its decision based on “aesthetic grounds.”

The neighborhood has allies. Holtz reported that Parks Director Sue Black and the Milwaukee County Parks have issued a statement opposing Route B. Cheryl Nenn, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, and Jim Goulee, director of The Park People, were on hand to express opposition. Also, County Supervisor James “Luigi” Schmitt, who is running for re-election, was present and stated that his preference would be to “stay out of the parkway.”

ATC officials repeatedly deferred some of the most heated questions, about the need for additional power and the decision-making criteria, to We Energies and the Public Service Commission (PSC). That response angered some members of the audience since no one from either was present to provide answers. Holtz countered by encouraging continued involvement in the review process.

Concerned residents can attend future public meetings, review the project application on the PSC website, and ask questions of the PSC, We Energies and the DNR. Most importantly, Holtz concluded, comments can be submitted directly to the PSC, which is responsible for the final decision. The PSC contact is Scott Cullen, email: scott.cullen@psc.state.wi.us.

The public hearing was requested by a fledgling neighborhood association whose membership has been ignited by this issue. Observing the standing-room-only crowd, Kit Hansen, chair of Preserve Underwood Parkway, said that the outpouring of unified feeling about an issue was a first for the neighborhood.

Although almost everyone who spoke was from the Underwood Parkway neighborhood, a few representatives attended from the Walnut Street neighborhood, which is where one of the other proposed transmission routes is sited. They were understandably concerned about the impact underground power lines would have on their property.

Afterwards, Hansen expressed gratitude for the civility and focus of the proceedings. The two neighborhoods could have been pitted against each other, obscuring the larger issue of environmental impacts to public parkland. That didn’t happen.

The sentiment in the room was summed up in a succinct, heart-felt statement by Jan Baldus: “This is wrong. Please don’t do this!”

This story originally appeared in Wauwatosa Patch and you can read my earlier blog post about this issue - with pictures - by clicking here.

Open letter to County Board regarding the budget

2011-11-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

The following is a letter I sent to the board of supervisors of Milwaukee County. I urge you to send a letter of your own. To access the list of supervisors click on County Board.

Dear Board of Supervisors,

I spoke at the public hearing Monday evening at the Washington Park Senior Center. However, in the allotted two minutes I was unable to complete my statement.

Here are the essential points I’d like to make:

·      The Parks budget should be reinstated in full.

·      Separate, dedicated revenue sources should be sought for both Parks and Transit.

·      One possible source for dedicated Parks funding can be the half-percent sales tax that was passed in a referendum in 2008 but never implemented.

·      With due speed, an independent regional Parks District should be created that would be responsible for Parks budgeting and the Parks budget removed from the county budget.

·      Transit is critical to the poor, to students, and everyone who uses it to go to their jobs. We must have convenient, affordable mass transit.

·      People need health care and equality of services.

·      The county budget should not make poor people suffer.

·      One possible source for money to balance the budget without sacrificing services that benefit the poor or support county workers is a progressive tax increase.

·      Funding the Parks benefits everyone, including the poor. Decreasing Parks funding hurts the poor disproportionately since wealthy communities have proven that they can support their neighborhood parks, pools, etc.

·      Estabrook dam should be removed. Trying to repair it would waste money that should go to other priorities.

The last point is tangential to the others, but telling. Supervisor Lipscomb has a responsibility to his constituents, but the few property owners who would benefit by having a lake in their backyards should not drive the rest of the supervisors to do the wrong thing.

It was clear from Chairman Holloway’s opening remarks and throughout the public hearing that the overwhelming majority of people who attended were those who will suffer if the proposed budget is passed with its severe cuts to services. The people who would complain – and we know they would – if their taxes were raised were mostly not present. Why? Clearly they take for granted that they have nothing to worry about.

I’d like to conclude with a short personal observation. I have a new son-in-law from Nicaragua. He is continually amazed by the quality of services that we have where I live in Wauwatosa, including things we all take for granted, like garbage collection and leaf removal. (He has yet to experience snow plowing.) His observation is that we enjoy visible benefits because we pay taxes. That is not his experience in Nicaragua.

Someone suggested on Monday evening that the county board try getting around to work and their other daily activities entirely on the MCTS. That would be instructive. I’ve long thought that federal as well as local government officials, along with the anti-tax faction of the general public, would get similar personal perspectives if they spent two weeks or more living in a low-tax place like Nicaragua.

Our taxes should provide services for the common good, especially for the neediest people.

Seiche: Symbolism and reality in an unlikely urban wilderness

2011-10-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

In the midst of active rail lines and towering industrial buildings, I find the activity of beavers most mysterious. Discovering the little haven of nature in a place so completely altered by humans is itself unexpected. The presence of a beaver, an animal also driven to modify its environment, seems miraculous and symbolic.

Against long odds, a wetland remains within the historic estuary of the Milwaukee River.

Milwaukee’s estuary, with its vast wild rice marshes, once was one of the greatest treasures in the entire great lakes basin. First it drew myriad Indian tribes, who prospered from its abundance. Later it drew European settlers who, to make a long story short, cleared the wilderness, filled the wetlands, paved over the earth – and transformed it into “the machine shop of the world.”

Today the estuary is reduced to the confluence of the city’s three rivers, their banks lined with concrete and steel. But, accompanied by Megan O’Shea of the Wisconsin DNR, I set out to explore a tiny unnamed wetland in this unlikely setting.

Starting at Skipper Bud’s Marina on the Kinnickinnic River, we follow an uninviting ditch strewn with trash. There are plans to clean and rehabilitate it. In theory, aside from providing drainage the ditch should be hydrologically dynamic. Surprisingly, inland bodies of water as large as Lake Michigan can have something like a tide. It is called seiche. Storm fronts, high winds, and variations in air pressure can cause water levels to fluctuate from one side of the lake to the other, like water sloshing in a tub.

During a seiche event, high lake water can flow into the wetland bringing aquatic life with it as high tide does in a salt marsh.

It takes only a minute or two to reach the heart of the miniscule marsh from South Marina Drive. Atop a large berm we look down on a patch of cattails nearly overwhelmed by tall non-native reeds called Phragmites. Attractive but aggressively invasive, these will have to be eradicated.

We walk along a weed-choked dirt track to reach the far end of the mostly dry 6.5-acre site. A healthy wetland is more than a place that’s wet. Fortunately for this site, size is not a crucial factor. Three things are needed: the right soils, plants, and hydrology – or flow of water. Surrounding uplands add complexity and vitality to the ecosystem, which increases biodiversity.

Bushwhacking through tangled undergrowth, we are suddenly, marvelously immersed in nature. Even here, where surrounding industrial buildings, boxcars, or dry-docked boats are rarely out of sight, the variety of colorful plants in slightly faded autumn splendor is a revelation. We skirt an impenetrable stand of sandbar willows. Poplar leaves quiver in the breeze, by turns silvery and golden.

The wind dies as we enter a slough. All evidence of the surrounding city disappears. After a rainfall the wetland drains through here into the ditch. We see the telltale trees, gnawed and toppled. The teeth marks are gray with age and some of the neatly coned stumps have long since resprouted. Among the many incongruities of our diminutive wetland this evidence of beavers is the most compelling.

I imagine a beaver swimming down the Milwaukee River. First the intrepid creature has to leave its comfortable habitat, probably near the headwaters where the river is relatively wild and protected by Kettle Moraine State Park. Before long it reaches farmland where cow pastures occasionally denude the riverbanks. Then for most of its long journey it paddles past suburban homes perched on lawns to enjoy riverfront views.

Our big-toothed, flat-tailed protagonist would have to portage past – or slip over – at least a couple dams; avoid piers, boaters, fishermen. When at last it reaches downtown Milwaukee it is confronted by a canyon of condominiums and industries, with their bulwarks of concrete walls.

The beaver perseveres. It threads its way through the hardened confines of the constrained river; past barges, motorboats, bridges; until it reaches the narrow, polluted outlet of the only wetland left in the estuary. What instinct drives it to this apparently desperate end?

The question reverberates as we emerge from the copse to see a flat, vacant brownfield, dotted with mounds of asphalt and gravel. Even this harsh landscape sprouts new mosses, grasses, and trees. Nature is persistent. The brownfield would double the size of the preserve. Sadly, it isn’t included on the planning map.

Why should we care? Why restore such a meager wetland, so long neglected and circumscribed by blight? In a few hours time a bulldozer could erase the last wetland, flatten its gentle contours, prepare it for pavement. Centuries of progress have led us, like the beaver, to this desperate end.

This unlikely place is precisely where we need a refuge. Yes, we can replenish a habitat for the fish, birds, and other creatures that require it to thrive, but our own salvation is no less at stake, inextricably bound as it is to theirs. We humans are drawn to nature, to water and the soft edges of the land, as surely as the beaver.

We are at a moment, if not a turning of the tide then at least a high water mark – a seiche – when the effects of our own pressure on the earth are swamping outdated and unsustainable impulses. Like beavers, we have the power to shape our environment. We can push it around with bulldozers but we cannot conquer nature. How we shape it will determine if we thrive or perish.

It is time to become reacquainted with nature. There is no better place to begin than here in the ravaged estuary of the Milwaukee River. This seemingly insignificant wetland at the edge of civilization is what we have left to work with. We must not merely protect it; we must make the most of it.

2012 Milwaukee County Parks Budget

2011-10-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

It is autumn in Milwaukee. Let's hope that's not a metaphor for the continuing deterioration of our award winning county park system.

We thought the parks were in trouble when Scott Walker was County Executive, when every year brought dwindling support. There was hope that the new Executive, Chris Abele, would be kinder to the parks. Apparently not. Immediately below I have paraphrased a letter put out by The Park People. Following that you can read the entire text. I hope you will join me in contacting your county supervisor to urge him/her not to cut the parks budget. Thanks! Eddee

On Sept. 29th County Exec. Abele released his proposed 2012 Milwaukee County budget. It includes a 3.7 million dollar (14%) reduction in funding for our parks.

The cuts center on costs related to park personnel that total over 2.2 million dollars. All staffing reductions come at the cost of front line positions that provide the end product: safe, clean and presentable parks.

At this point the budgeting process is in the hands of the Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors have until the first week in November to edit the County Exec's budget, should they choose to do so. In the past the Board often reversed the County Exec's proposed cuts in park funding. However, with an election coming up next April they will need to hear from constituents who express concern about the parks. Here is a link to get information as to who serves you and how to contact them:

http://county.milwaukee.gov/FindSupervisor

The problem with Milwaukee County's handling of park funding can be generally summarized as mishandling. Is this what we, as citizens entrusted with a critical civic asset, would have preferred? We think not.

The time has come to secure a sustainable and responsible funding source for our parks. To do that we need the assistance of the State Legislature. One method that had the support of a few State Legislators two years ago was a half percent raise in the County sales and use tax. A Milwaukee County advisory referendum to do this passed in November of 2008.

Another method would be the creation of a separate Park District. If this were accomplished, the park system would be transferred away from Milwaukee County and placed under an elected, volunteer board of directors. [Urban Wilderness favors this approach.]

Maybe the 2012 park budget, once it manifests itself in even poorer care and maintenance of our parks will foster that discussion.

Full text of The Park People statement:

2012 Milwaukee County Parks Budget Issue - Fall 2011

On Thursday September 29th County Executive Abele released his proposed 2012 Milwaukee County budget. "As I developed this budget, everything was on the table except a property tax increase and a fixed-route bus fare hike," Abele said during his presentation to the County Board of Supervisors.

Prior to his release of the budget it was generally assumed that Abele would be kind to the Parks Department in regard to their precarious financial position in the wake of the previous County Exec's seemingly endless downsizing of our storied park system and Abele's well stated respect and admiration for Parks Director Sue Black. In addition, Sue Black had recently turned down a highly coveted job leading the Chicago Parks District to stay with Milwaukee County and many assumed that Abele would reward Black giving her a budget devoid of any cuts. Not so. As it turns out, Abele has proposed a 3.7 million dollar (14%) reduction in property tax funding for our parks in 2012 which lends credence to the old adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

Abele's proposed reduction in property tax support of the parks is made up of true budget cuts and an increase in expected revenue. The cuts again center on costs related to park personnel which total over 2.2 million dollars. Extremely troubling is a 30% reduction in seasonal employee staffing ($1,000,000) and the elimination of 15 of the remaining 46 full time front-line Park Maintenance Workers ($470,000). All staffing reductions come at the cost of front line positions that provide the end product: safe, clean and presentable parks. The remaining cuts, unrelated to personnel, are in the utility budgets (gas and electric) which total a little over $700,000.

The 2012 revenue goal is troubling as well with a total increase of $850,000 for a department that already has an unobtainable revenue target of $17.5 million dollars. The average revenue actually generated by the parks over the last three years is approximately $16.5 million. To make budget every one of the last few years the parks department has internally substituted cuts in staffing levels totaling $1 million dollars to bridge the gap between budgeted revenue and actual revenue.

At this point in the County budgeting process the ball is in the court of the County Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors have until the first week in November to edit the County Exec's budget in a way that they find appealing. In the past we could count on the Board to reverse many of the County Exec's proposed cuts in park funding. However, with an election coming up next April for many current Supervisors and significant funding needs in other County service entities such as Transit and Social Services, it is unlikely that there will be any significant budgetary relief offered by the Board to reverse Abele's most egregious park budget reduction proposals for next year. Of course that does not mean that we, as park loving citizens, shouldn't try to inject our will into the process. If you want to let your elected officials know what you think about further reductions for our parks you should write or call your County Board Supervisor. Here is a link to get information as to who serves you and how to contact them:

http://county.milwaukee.gov/FindSupervisor

It has been obvious to The Park People organization for many years that Milwaukee County, with its myriad economic problems, cannot continue to be counted on to keep our parks viable for the future. Each and every year there seems to be an insurmountable deficit facing Milwaukee County that ultimately affects the Parks Department budget. As a matter of fact, there has been a constant erosion of park funding going on for more than twenty five years. The chart below shows in gory detail how property tax funding for our Park System has shriveled over the years. The property tax for park operations in 1986 (the high water mark for property tax funding) was actually over 5 million dollars more than that provided in 2009. If one were to factor in inflation over that time period the loss of funding is staggering with a gap of approximately 30 million dollars when adjusted for the consumer price index for that period.

Click for link to graph

One of the major ramifications of this gap in funding is the loss of front line workers. In 1986 there were 760 full time park employees. Today there are approximately 210 and less than half of those are the people working in the field providing the end product.

The Park Department budget which is its actual spending authority, is made up of not only property tax funding, but revenue as well. Proceeds from golf courses, marina operations, parking at O'Donnell Park, athletics, building rental fees, picnics, etc., also contribute to the parks spending authority. The chart below displays total park funding from 1983 to 2009

Click for link to graph.

If the Park Department budget had remained whole during this period the spending authority would be approximately 88 million dollars in 2009, about twice as much as it actually was, again, shining a light on the County's ability (or intent) to properly fund our parks.

If the County budget as a whole had remained mired in the same malaise as the Park Department budget over time one could understand the park system funding deficit. That unfortunately, is not true. Since 1983 the County budget has almost tripled while Park Department funding has basically remained the same.

Park Budget Comparison to the Overall County Budget (1983 – 2009)

Click for link to graph.

The whole conundrum of Milwaukee County's handling of park funding over time can be generally summarized as a mishandling. Is this really what we, as citizens entrusted with a critical civic asset, would have preferred? Our guess would be no.

The time has come to take matters in hand and work together to secure a sustainable and responsible funding source for our parks, to do that we need the assistance of the State Legislature. The County is basically a ward of the State and the changes necessary to secure park funding has to come through legislation that the State could provide.

One method that had the support of a few State Legislators two years ago was a half percent raise in the County sales and use tax. A bill was drafted that would allow the increase but did not advance because the majority leaders in both the Senate and Assembly blocked a floor discussion that would have been put forward for a vote. It seems that the majority leaders did not want to allow their fellow legislators to vote on a tax increase even though a Milwaukee County advisory referendum to do such had passed in November of 2008.

In 2007 a bill that would have allowed the creation of Park Districts in Wisconsin did not get a committee assignment in the legislature, a sure fire way to kill a bill. If a Park District was created in Milwaukee County the park system would be transferred away from Milwaukee County and placed under an elected, volunteer board of directors. The ability to levy a tax for park purposes would as well be transferred from the County to the elected Park System Board of Directors. Under this scenario the County would have to reduce its property tax levy by an amount equal to the Park District levy. In essence, there would be no immediate increase in taxes for the citizens of Milwaukee County. This would not provide more dollars for park maintenance but it would stabilize funding for our Park System as it would no longer have to compete with other Milwaukee County Departments for precious tax dollars in subsequent years.

It is likely that other park funding scenarios are possible. The problem is that there is currently no public discussion of these alternatives.

Maybe the 2012 park budget, once it manifests itself in even poorer care and maintenance of our parks will foster that discussion.

Love Parks Week

2011-10-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

In England a non-profit called GreenSpace, founded in 2006, has created an annual event called Love Parks Week. According to their website, the event "is now established as a major event that is celebrated in parks across the country."

Let's do it here! Milwaukee has one of the premier park systems in the US. Why not celebrate it more?

Canoeing the Milwaukee Urban Water Trail, Milwaukee River Greenway

This is also from the Love Parks Week website:

Did you know?

91% of people believe that public parks and open spaces improve their quality of life.

Over 33 million people in England choose to use their green spaces, with around a tenth of the population visiting daily, and over half of us do so weekly.

Air quality, air temperature, water and flood management, are all kept within manageable limits because of parks and green spaces.

The more often a person visits urban open green spaces, the less often he or she will report stress-related illnesses.

A brisk walk every day in your local park, can reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes by 50%, fracture of the femur by 30%, colon cancer by 30%, breast cancer by 30% and Alzheimer's by 25%.

Local authorities are not legally required to provide, invest in or maintain public parks and green spaces.

I don't know the comparable stats for the US but I'd bet they are similar.

I love the parks. I know a lot of other people who do. Milwaukee should get out in front of this one, don't you think?

Autumn paints the Urban Wilderness

2011-10-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a great week in Milwaukee! Here is an offering of autumn color.

Veteran's Park, Lakefront

Monarch Trail, Milwaukee County Grounds

Menomonee River Parkway, Wauwatosa

Research Park, Wauwatosa


Research Park, Wauwatosa

Third Urban Ecology Center breaks ground in Menomonee Valley

2011-10-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

UEC director Ken Leinbach

“Milwaukee is an amazing city!” exclaimed Ken Leinbach, the dynamic and indefatigable director of the Urban Ecology Center (UEC). “When it comes to supporting the work of the center,” he continued, “miracles just seem to come down from the sky!” Then he looked up…leading the crowd also to turn their heads…just in time to see tiny parachutes flutter down bearing seed packets. Children scrambled to scoop them up.

The occasion was the groundbreaking ceremony last week for the new UEC, its third satellite, which will occupy a soon-to-be renovated 1933 tavern on 37^th St. and Pierce in the Menomonee Valley.

Mayor Barrett plants seeds with a buddy

At the completion of the ceremony the seeds were planted along the recently completed Valley Passage, adjacent to the center’s site, which leads to the Menomonee River,
Hank Aaron State Trail, and as-yet-uncompleted 24-acre park. Such notables as Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee County Parks director Sue Black, and many others bearing trowels, each buddied up with one of the children.

The emotional intensity of the ceremony was electric. Speakers included board members, CEO’s of Valley businesses, major donors, DNR personnel, and representatives of the Silver City neighborhood where the site is located. Everyone was thrilled to be part of an historic moment. Most moving, I thought, was Michele Bria, CEO of nearby Journey House, who had brought the elementary students. She spoke with unmistakable excitement about the prospect of bringing them all to the new center and being able to visit the new park in their own neighborhood instead of having to ride the bus to Riverside Park.

Raising trowels in salute for the groundbreaking

The new branch of the UEC, which is slated to open in fall 2012, would be reason enough to celebrate. However, this is just part of a unique collaborative effort that will do much more than transform the Menomonee Valley, once largely a post-industrial wasteland, into a vital, ecologically significant, culturally rich, and economically powerful part of Milwaukee. It may well spark a revitalization of the entire region.

For the project, called “Menomonee Valley – From the Ground Up,” the UEC has teamed up with
Menomonee Valley Partners, a non-profit whose mission is to redevelop the Valley. The project has four components:

· Improving pedestrian/bike access to and from the Valley.

· Doubling the Hank Aaron State Trail with a six-mile western extension.

· Establishing the third branch of the Urban Ecology Center.

· Transforming a 24-acre brownfield into a visionary public park and ecologically significant natural area.

At Tuesday’s groundbreaking plans for both the UEC branch and the park were unveiled to the public.

Rendering by Uihlein-Wilson Architects

The old tavern has been reimagined and enlarged in designs by Uihlein-Wilson Architects with an eye toward sustainability. The rooftop sports an array of solar panels. An exterior stair provides access to a deck from which both the panels and the Valley can be viewed. At 6,000 sq. ft. it is smaller than the UEC flagship in Riverside Park, but will provide similar environmental programming, including community gathering space as well as science-based classrooms. The elegant new building steps down from its perch on Pierce St., visually and symbolically directing attention towards the Valley Passage and the park beyond. A lower level classroom opens directly onto the Passage.

Within five years the new branch expects 10,000 annual visitors and to provide students in 22 south side schools with environmental stewardship projects, urban recreational adventures, and science education, among other things.

Site of the new park

I took the time to walk through the Valley Passage for a peek at the new park.

Bikers already use the recently erected bridge across the Menomonee River and head west on the Hank Aaron State Trail. Looking east past the temporary gate, however, all I can see are large, featureless piles of dirt.

The concept is compelling: to make of this vacant former railroad yard a “touchable ‘wilderness’” with “a mosaic of biodiverse landscapes, including forest, prairie, and ephemeral wetland,” and to evoke topographic formations specific to glaciated Wisconsin. What a refreshing way to conceive of “landscape architecture” – to design a long-abused urban space in such a way that it becomes a healthy, functioning ecosystem, so that it appears un-designed – natural.

Rendering by Wenk & Associates

The quality and ecological integrity of the design has already generated national acclaim. The
American Society of Landscape Architects has granted local designers Landscapes of Place, LLC
an honor award for their plan, called “Making a Wild Place in Milwaukee’s Urban Menomonee Valley.”

Before long, guided by Urban Ecology Center staff and volunteers, school children from all over the south side will be roaming the hills, exploring the woods, and discovering the river. Milwaukee is an amazing place!

Some additional photos of the event:

Ken Leinbach juggling trowels!

Menomonee Valley Partners director Laura Bray with renderings

Students from Journey House

Hank Aaron State Trail manager Melissa Cook

Parks director Sue Black planting with a buddy

Exploring an Urban Forest

2011-09-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

A new forestry center could add to the critical mass that has the potential to make the Milwaukee County Grounds one of Southeastern Wisconsin’s premier parklands.

High overhead branches toss wildly about, auguring another storm. The forest is still damp from yesterday’s deluge and dark from thickly overcast skies. But despite the moaning and twisting in the canopy, down here at ground level it is calm. The foliage rustles softly all around. The forest feels protective.

I make my way through a particularly dense patch of undergrowth, most of which is invasive buckthorn. I understand the need for management.

Farther along the trail the forest opens up, clear of most undergrowth. Last year’s leaves carpet the earth. A few bright yellow and red maple leaves, which turn early, accent the brown and contrast with the still intensely green woodland.

I reach the now dry depression that in spring was one of the few remaining vernal ponds, a vital habitat for many species. I understand the need for preservation.

Trails interlace the forest, winding among the giant hardwoods and brushy thickets. People come here to calm their minds, uplift their spirits, experience the mystery of nature. I step off the trail into wilder woodland and come upon a clearing where someone – some group by the size of it – has built a makeshift shelter. My mental tally of youthful shelters, tree houses, and forts now numbers four. I am reminded of my own childhood. How many more hideouts are hidden in the recesses of our local forest?

I understand the need for nearby nature that stimulates the imagination of people young and old.

Theodore Roosevelt, president and tireless advocate for nature, said, “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.” A new forestry education center, planned for this woodland on the Milwaukee County Grounds, would bring together children and trees. What a great concept!

The Forest Exploration Center’s plans for facilities and programming are ambitious. Eventually, a 60,000 sq. ft. indoor structure will be the heart of an educational complex that may include outdoor classrooms, a canopy walk/tower, and a working sawmill.

The “science-based” programming will emphasize cultural and economic aspects of forest management, according to board member Tom Gaertner, who owns a tree farm in Door County.

I welcome sustainable forest management. Clearing the buckthorn and other invasive species, thinning the box elders and other weedy trees would not only improve the aesthetic experience of the woodland, but also would increase biodiversity. At the same time, the perennial explorer in me hopes that enough of its wildness remains that the alluring mystery isn’t lost.

As a long-time educator – and advocate for urban wilderness – the idea of bringing school groups as well as the general public into contact with our remarkable forest is very appealing. I never tire of applauding the Urban Ecology Center, which has created a nationally recognized model for environmental education and stewardship. The new center’s board rightly identifies the need for educational opportunities that connect children with nature. They would be well advised to develop a cooperative relationship with the Urban Ecology Center.

Cooperation also should be the watchword amongst the several entities with similar interests that fortuitously share the County Grounds. With effective and visionary planning and collaboration the new Forest Exploration Center, along with the new County Park, the Monarch Trail at Innovation Park, and MMSD’s flood detention basins together can fulfill the enormous potential to make the Milwaukee County Grounds unparalleled urban parkland.

After all, it’s important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees!

A hundred years after Teddy Roosevelt, another president, George Bush, said this:

“Trees can reduce the heat of a summer's day, quiet a highway's noise, feed the hungry, provide shelter from the wind and warmth in the winter. …Forests are the sanctuaries not only of wildlife, but also of the human spirit. And every tree is a compact between generations.”
Click here for an aerial view of the forest and surroundings.

Click here for an aerial view of the forest and surroundings.

Menomonee Valley design wins award

2011-09-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

"Making a Wild Place in Milwaukee’s Urban Menomonee Valley" won an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The award recognizes the importance of this design to the restoration of the Valley, a place that "has been mistreated for a hundred and sixty years."

The winning design firm is Landscapes of Place, LLC. The team of Nancy Aten and Dan Collins are the principles of the firm. Congratulations!

A project description can be seen on the ASLA website.

Project site is on the right side of the river in this view from 2008

Wonderland: urban parks stimulate more than the imagination

2011-09-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” –Alice in Wonderland

Believing in an urban wilderness makes about as much sense to most people as the wonderland Alice discovers when she throws caution to the wind and follows the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. However, I am a great believer in that paradoxical experience. We in Milwaukee County are fortunate. The county’s Parkway system provides many marvelous examples of urban wilderness, something that is what it isn’t.

Many stretches of the Menomonee River Parkway near where I live are heavily wooded and lovely to walk through. There is one place, though, that I find almost magical. Every time I go there I feel as though I’ve fallen into something like Alice’s rabbit hole, where what you wouldn’t expect to see, you see.

I leave my car at the end of the parkway drive. The paved off-road Oak Leaf Trail bike path runs north from there, but I am averse to pavement. I head due west, across a short bit of lawn, onto a well-trodden path that leads into what appears to be solid forest. Hardly a secret, dog-walkers and mountain bikers use this entrance to follow the trail, which cuts immediately south along the riverbank where the riparian woodland provides shade.

But I go straight through what is actually a narrow screen of trees at this point. Here is my rabbit hole. I emerge into dazzling sunlight and waist-high grass. Before I can even focus my eyes on it (let along my camera!) a great blue heron lifts off from the nearby limb of a long-dead tree and disappears across the river. The whisper of its large, lanky form skating over the forest canopy kindles my imagination, evokes something primeval. I behold a natural wonderland that envelops my senses.

For perhaps a dozen feet other curious explorers have trampled the grass. But clearly most of them have been stymied, for the trail ends abruptly at the steeply eroded riverbank. A much fainter path leads off into the marsh northwards. I often come prepared with boots, knowing that I may need them to go farther. Today the near drought conditions enable me to proceed in street shoes.

The marsh glows in the late afternoon sun. There is no other person about. It seems impossible. I am in the most densely populated metropolitan area in Wisconsin and my solitude is immense, the wildness is palpable. The scree of a hawk punctuates the feeling.

The wilderness deepens further as I cross the marsh and enter a woodland swamp. Giant black willows lie broken on the forest floor in various states of decomposition. Moss, fungi, and the new sprouts of resurgent willow rise from the decaying mass.

A trio of deer startle at my approach, then bound off in alarm at my intrusion into what is obviously their domain. From the edge of a pond two more herons arise, like wraiths, in silence. My spirit calms. The daily tensions of civilization disappear like deer in the dusky forest, like herons in the sultry blue sky.

That I don’t find conversational caterpillars or animated playing cards doesn’t make this place less wondrous to me.

Alice says, “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.” Well, I have a world of my own – we all do. Sense or nonsense, our world never will be more or less than what we imagine it to be. Cities can be the repositories of wilderness, providing opportunities for salvific engagement with nature, wildlife, and open space.

“Alice laughed. ‘There's no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can't believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven't had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” –Through the Looking Glass

Reflections on Wilderness from opposite poles of experience

2011-09-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

I guess I wouldn't call one of these "parkmobiles" an urban wilderness, but it's a clever idea. A little piece of greenspace is better than none at all!

Photo: Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times

The article, Tiny Parks are on a Roll, is from the Los Angeles Times, but is about the parkmobile project being undertaken in San Francisco.

For a very different point of view, an article entitled "A Well-Regulated Wilderness" reflects on the nature of the term and the need for management and rules that preserve the illusion of the freedom of wild lands. Some of the author's thoughts echo those I included in my book on Urban Wilderness.

Power lines may ruin what remains of parkway

2011-09-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

Who will speak for nature? Who will speak for Underwood Parkway?

“I wish to speak a word for Nature, forabsolute freedom and wildness….” – Henry David Thoreau

Like Thoreau, I wouldlike to speak a word for nature. Although the “freedom and wildness” that ourparks provide us in Milwaukee County can hardly be called “absolute,” thatdoesn’t make them less valuable or less deserving of protection. So, let mespeak a word for relative freedom and wildness.

Once upon a timeUnderwood Creek was as free and wild as any other stream in Wisconsin. Thenhouses were built near it and the Menomonee River, into which it flows.Eventually, flooding occurred. What followed, for long portions of UnderwoodCreek, was called channelization. Riparian woodlands were chopped down, themeandering stream was bulldozed straight, and its channel was lined withconcrete. This “solution” was not only temporary; ultimately it led to increased flooding.

Current plansfor Underwood Creek include the removalof concrete and the restoration of a more naturally meandering stream. Thisalready has been done for the short stretch that runs next to Hwy 100 as wellas for stretches of other waterways in the county.

Despite the degradationsto which it has been subjected, Underwood Creek is valued enough to be part ofthe award-winning Milwaukee County Parkway system. A popular segment of the OakLeaf Trail runs through it. Furthermore, a short stretch of the original, un-channeledcreek lies in a densely wooded, swampy area. This is a place that is just aboutas free and wild as nature gets around here, a place where even Thoreau mighthave found what he termed the healing “tonic of wildness.”

Sadly, unlessthere is concerted public effort to preserve it, this small bit of urbanwilderness may soon be destroyed.

As reportedrecently in Wauwatosa Patch, WeEnergies is planning to build a new substationon the Milwaukee County Grounds. Electrical power will be brought to thesubstation via two new transmission lines to be constructed by the AmericanTransmission Co. (ATC). Four routes are being considered, from which two willbe selected by the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Map of four proposed alternatives

One of theproposed alternatives would run 60- to 100-foot-tall high-voltage overheadpower lines through Underwood Parkway. If this route is chosen, an 80-footright-of-way would be cleared, effectively destroying one of the few naturalareas left in Wauwatosa. What is potentially more distressing to the manypeople who use it, utility poles and overhead cables also would run along theoff-road portion of the Oak Leaf bike trail between 115^th St. andWatertown Plank Rd.

This doesn’thave to happen. There are three viable alternatives. Unfortunately for theparkway and the people who enjoy it, other alternatives run along residential streets.The prospect of having your yard and street dug up for a buried power line,even temporarily, is a powerful incentive to become a vocal opponent of that alternative.This is to be expected and it is how a solution that benefits the few may winout over a solution that benefits the many.

The parkway andOak Leaf Trail need vocal opponents of the Underwood Creek alternative. Only ifmany people are willing to speak a word for nature will we save it.

Please attend the open house on Sept.12 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Wauwatosa Civic Center, 7725W. North Ave. ATC experts will be able to answerquestions about the project and explain how to provide input to the PSC. (You can email comments to info@atcllc.com if you cannot attend the meeting.)

The PSC will rule on the final tworoutes based on input received from all interested parties, including ordinary citizensas well as residents of affected neighborhoods and major stakeholders such asthe Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex and UWM.

No one wants overhead power linesobstructing their own views. Cables will be buried in sensitive locations, likethe Medical Complex, UWM’s Innovation Park, and residential neighborhoods. Butthis is expensive. From a purely economic standpoint, the parkway seems an attractivealternative because the overhead power lines would save money. From a politicalstandpoint, the parkway lacks residents who complain. From an ecological andrecreational standpoint, however, overhead power lines and an 80-foot wide swathof clear-cut are anything but attractive.

It is ironicthat just three months ago Wauwatosa announced a new branding campaign forwhich the theme of the city will be Innovation Parkway. If the city is going topromote the value of its parkways – as it should – sacrificing one of them inthis fashion would be antithetical to the effort. Officials in Wauwatosa whosupport the Innovation Parkway theme, as well as all Milwaukee County users ofthe Oak Leaf Trail should be pounding home the point – power lines do notbelong anywhere near our parkways.

For the benefitof all, let us speak a word for nature…!

Here is an Underwood Parkway photo essay with explanatory captions. Click to enlarge each photo.

This view west from 115th St. is the channelized Underwood Creek most people see.

This is a view of the original creek that still exists in a little-known natural area immediately north of the previous view.

This set of tracks bisects the parkway and separates the two channels pictured above.

Underwood Parkway drive and Oak Leaf Trail immediately south, adjacent to the channelized creek pictured at top.

This existing power line, at 119th St., is where the proposed new transmission line would begin. An 80-foot-wide right-of-way would be cut through the woodland to the right.

This wetland would be in the power line right-of-way. Wetlands, which slow and absorb stormwater run off, are important for flood management and groundwater recharge.

The off-road segment of the Oak Leaf Trail east of 115th St. If the Underwood Creek Parkway alternative is chosen, this scene would include overhead power lines 60-100 feet tall.

Alternative routes that run through residential neighborhoods, like this Walnut St. route, would use buried cables.

Thousands gather at the river to hear Water!

2011-08-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

What a triumph! Yes, the music was magnificent, but there was much more to Saturday’s concert, aptly titled Water, at the Marcus Center. More even than the diverse outdoor performances and festive activities that literally surrounded the concert outside the hall. The real triumph was the Milwaukee River and the crowds who gathered there to experience the multimedia extravaganza orchestrated by Present Music.

When I moved to Milwaukee in 1976, the then Performing Arts Center (PAC) was still new. I didn’t realize at the time how bold a move it was for Milwaukee to build its premier performing arts showcase on the riverfront. Unlike today, there was no riverwalk then and even the businesses that lined it didn’t face towards the river.

Although a newcomer to the city, it didn’t take me long to discover that the sorry state of the river itself was the main reason. But it wasn’t just the polluted river. Downtown Milwaukee suffered the malaise of many rustbelt cities in the 1970’s. No one lived there and after five o’clock it emptied. The streets were deserted by six.

The riverside plaza behind the PAC that led down to the water likewise languished, underutilized.

Flash forward to today.

While no one will claim that Milwaukee has overcome all its problems, its downtown, and especially its namesake river, couldn’t be more different than it was 35 years ago. On Saturday evening thousands of people packed the riverfront plaza and lined the two flanking bridges. Boats of all sizes paraded past, idled to watch. The musicians floated up to the concert hall on the water.

This event made the Marcus Center, at its prescient location, the epicenter of a revitalization that has water as one of its defining features. The theme of the evening was no coincidence and its success was far more than symbolic. It represents a still nascent but real transformation in the hearts and minds of Milwaukeeans.

Moreover, the event brought together two constituencies that haven’t always found common purpose. It warmed my heart to see this event sponsored by both the United Performing Arts Fund and Milwaukee Riverkeeper, by the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Urban Ecology Center. For once I don’t have to choose between my two blogs to post this story, for it is appropriate to both.

The performances by Present Music and its partners, including Danceworks, several choirs, and video artists, were remarkable and moving. The music evoked the various rhythms and sounds of water in its many forms. In a piece commissioned especially for this concert, water itself was one of the “instruments.” The musician seated before a clear plastic tub with his sleeves rolled up looked incongruous, even humorous – until he began to “play” the water with reverent solemnity. The gentle, natural sounds he made harmonized beautifully, fittingly, with the voices and instruments of the ensemble.

Poet and naturalist Gary Snyder has said, “Art is not real unless some wild is let in.” Kudos to artistic director Kevin Stalheim and composer Kamran Ince for taking his metaphor to a new level.

The highlight of the evening, for me, was the concluding piece, a medley of songs “concocted” by Stalheim. Small groups of choristers stood around the periphery of Uihlein Hall, adding their voices to those on stage. Familiar tunes – How Dry I Am, The Water Is Wide, Down by the Riverside, Row, Row, Row Your Boat – joined with Handel’s Water Music (of course!) The melodies tumbled and washed over the audience like water.

A crescendo was followed by a hush. Then, out of the pregnant silence, a child’s voice sang out the single line: “Shall we gather at the river?” In a brilliant move, the thrilling climax erupted from the audience itself as the hall filled with two thousand voices proclaiming in song, “YES, WE’LL GATHER AT THE RIVER….”

And we did.

For more detailed reviews of the concert, read those by Tom Strini in Third Coast Digest and Jim Higgins at JSOnline.

The images that accompany this post are my own tribute to this important event.

Potholes degrade the Parkway experience

2011-08-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

Broken pavement is a symptom of economic malaise and misplaced priorities.

Over a century ago, Frederick Law Olmsted conceived of the parkway, intended to be a place in the city where its citizens could go for a ride or a walk and enjoy natural scenery. Charles Whitnall, founding father of the Milwaukee County parks, took Olmsted’s brilliant idea even further by designing parkways that parallel rivers and streams.

However, it’s hard to achieve the level of serenity envisioned by either man when a ride on the parkway requires constant vigilance in order to prevent a serious mishap due to potholes and crumbling pavement. This was brought forcefully home to me by contrast the other day.

I was out walking in the Milwaukee County Grounds the other day. I took the gravel path east around the detention basin from Hoyt Pool. When I reached what has been a wide gravel access road I was surprised to find a pristine expanse of newly laid asphalt stretching as far as I could see in both directions.

My first reaction was, who needs asphalt here where gravel would suffice? I am often dismayed when parkland is covered with concrete or asphalt. When I’d had a moment to reflect on the smooth surface further, though, I got angry instead.

Why has this dead end road that bears so little traffic been made so smooth while the heavily used Menomonee River Parkway continues to crumble? If you’ve driven on the parkway lately you know how bad it is. Potholes that can wreak havoc with a suspension system or cause a blowout seem to appear overnight.

In warm weather, overworked County crews eventually come by and throw a patch of asphalt in the worst of the holes. In winter the patches don’t stand a chance against the snowplows. Every year, in April the parkways look like they’ve been bombed. I’ve seen whole caravans of cars swerve into the opposite lane to avoid a wide swath of potholes.

If, like me, you enjoy riding a bicycle along the parkway, it’s even worse. There are some stretches where the severity of the conditions goes beyond the potential to cause expensive damage. It is downright dangerous to ride a bike on these roads.

Between Swan Boulevard and Congress Street, the Oak Leaf Trail coincides with the Menomonee River Parkway. The off-road section of the Oak Leaf Trail north of Congress is one of the loveliest places to ride a bike and I used to go there regularly. I don’t go as often now because I have to ride on the parkway to get there. It worsens year by year.

I made a call to the County Parks Department to ask about the situation. The County has a budget for road repairs and when a particular road reaches the top of the priority list it gets repaired. For now, believe it or not, there are worse roads on the list than this stretch of the Menomonee River Parkway. Compounding the problem for our particular stretch of parkway, apparently, are some turf battles between Milwaukee County and the City of Wauwatosa over who is responsible for repairs.

The paving of the road into the County Grounds, although on County land, was part of MMSD’s detention basin construction project and as such was paid for out of that budget – a different pot of taxpayer money.

Personally, I don’t blame the County workers. It’s the budget. Who isn’t aware that the County budget is out of whack or that the parks are underfunded? The problems predate any current incumbent and have continued to escalate through administrations of different political persuasions.

It’s easy to pick on potholes. No one likes them. I don’t understand why there hasn’t been a louder public outcry over this before now. But frankly, we are all responsible. In the current anti-tax environment we are going to have to live with potholes a long while. What we need is the political spine to increase revenues. Otherwise our broken roads will never be repaired.

While we’re at it, let’s get our priorities straight. Take a look at the accompanying photos and tell me what’s wrong with the picture. Why are our taxes going to pave roads we don’t use instead of the ones we do? If this kind of thinking prevails we really will find ourselves at a dead end.

Update:

The above first appeared in the Wauwatosa Patch on my WildWauwatosa column. I’ve since learned from my county supervisor, James Schmitt, that there is nothing in this year’s budget for repairs to the Menomonee River Parkway. “Maybe in 2012,” he said; “we’ll see.” Thanking me for bringing it to his attention, he went on to suggest that more complaints from constituents would help him argue in favor of moving up the timetable on road improvements.

So, what say? Let’s give him plenty of ammunition: send a message to your county supervisor and tell him or her that our parks and parkways deserve better care, more funding. We all deserve better than a smooth road to nowhere.

Where are today's Olmsteds and Whitnalls, who have the vision to improve our quality of life, our psychic and spiritual well-being, with the serenity and beauty of urban nature?

The Real Water Park!

2011-08-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sweet Water, the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, kicked off its new public awareness campaign yesterday - with a splash!

Milwaukee alderman Nic Kovac gets wet in a dunk tank specially decorated for the occasion.

With Greenfield Park's Cool Waters for a backdrop, a boatload of officials announced the campaign slogan, "The Real Water Park." It's a fantastic idea. The real water park is not a fenced pool with water slides and jets of spray. The real water parks are our natural waterways, lakes and ponds - an idea that comes quite naturally to Urban Wilderness!

Sweet Water's Jeff Martinka, surrounded by bags of fertilizer and facsimilies of dog poop, led off the program.

The simulated poop and fertilizer were there to represent two of the most common concerns for our natural water parks, pollution from "non-point sources," including you and me. A major feature of the campaign is to bring the public up to date on the main causes of water pollution, which has changed over the years from clearly identifiable industrial "point sources" to more widespread run off from streets, lawns, and farms.

The next speaker, Tom Grisa, the Brookfield Director of Public Works, dramatized the issue by wearing a pair of swim goggles as he suggested that no one would swim in Cool Waters if they knew there was dog poop floating around in the pool. It isn't a giant leap of logic to observe that we should all be just as intolerant of common pollutants like dog poop and fertilizer getting into our rivers and lakes.

Wisconsin, which invented the idea, has led the nation when it comes to water parks. Here is an archival image of one of the earliest water parks at Gordon Park on the Milwaukee River in 1921. A large lake was created behind the North Avenue dam, enabling Milwaukeeans to have a taste of the country just minutes away from downtown.

Milwaukee and its rivers have changed a lot since 1921. Pollution made swimming unappealing and then downright dangerous. Then came the Clean Water Act and other environmental reforms of the 1970's. By the 1990's, when the North Avenue dam was finally removed, it once again was possible to envision the river as a recreational resource. This is a current view of the Milwaukee River near Gordon Park.

The highlight of yesterday's festivities was the dunk tank, which also was filled with (simulated) dog poop. After alderman Kovac (above), Neil Palmer, Village President of Elm Grove, took a turn. Former Brewer Jerry Augustine made the pitches.

One of the unfortunate side effects of excessive fertilizer getting into the waterways is an unhealthy build up of algae in ponds and lakes. I didn't have to go far after the ceremony to see an example. This pond, completely covered with a thick mat of algae, is right in Greenfield Park. The ducks that I discovered lingering along the edges did not swim away from me as I approached the bank. They flew off instead.

The Sweet Water website is beautiful, engaging, and also filled with helpful tips on how you can help minimize your own impact on our real water parks so that they will be healthy and appealing places to enjoy.

Kinnickinnic River: images and metaphors

2011-08-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

I watch for clouds. When I notice them tumbling overhead, I seek out open spaces where I can see the drama unfold. Today a brisk westerly wind whips them up. I’ve been eager for an excuse to revisit the troubled Kinnickinnic River. On my way there I crane my neck to see through the car windows. Cumulus, billowing and wrestling, converge on torn patches of blue sky.

By the time I reach the KK Parkway gray clouds have overcome the blue. It is completely overcast; gloomy. Disappointed but unfazed, I head down the concrete slope into the KK channel, where gloomy seems an appropriate mood.

Last week I kayaked down the Milwaukee River. (Read my previous post.) The KK River repels as romantic nonsense any notion of setting a boat into it. This river repels even the notion of “river.” It appears more like an empty freeway with a watery median.

What kind of society paves its rivers?

To slightly alter one of my favorite lines from an old song by Paul Simon, “I’d rather be a river than a street….” So, now and then, I step off the concrete “pavement” into the channel. The chorus concludes, “I’d rather sail away, like a Swan that’s here and gone….” But I am determined. I continue down the much-abused river.

Within fifteen minutes the clouds have dissipated. Shredded remnants are a theatrical backdrop for the river of concrete. The resurgent sun lightens my mood as well as the surroundings.

I rarely go out without my camera, which is probably my loss. Mostly I acquire a lot of pictures that fill up an enormous amount of space on my hard drives. What I risk losing is the freedom to experience my surroundings aimlessly, purely.

Thoreau wrote, “Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression….” (Substitute “photo” for “poem.”) The Kinnickinnic River, with its relentless concrete, leaves an indelible impression.

I am glad for my camera today. The abased river is rich with imagery and metaphor.

I come to a wall built during the Civilian Conservation Corps era. The meticulous craftsmanship of its construction is still evident despite the depredations of time and erosion. Vines dangle over it and in places trees burst through the carefully laid stones, as if mocking our puny efforts to control natural forces, raging rivers, erosion. Even a walk along a concrete river can provide a lesson in humility. Who are we to wall in a river?

Adding insult to injury, the steel ramparts of a railroad bridge are defiled with layers of graffiti. One particular tag is compellingly ironic: boldly, the word JOKE vanquishes previous tags, for now. The question goes begging: on who is the joke? Trailing vines swing in the breeze, emphasizing how inert the JOKE really is.

A variegated shaft of sunlight slashes across the warring layers of graffiti underneath the bridge. There is no victor here. But! Farther on….

Grass ruptures concrete. The leaves of emergent bushes burst through, spill out like an organic solvent for human arrogance. Trees rise from the paved river. An ovation of clouds rises to applaud the transfiguration.

The Kinnickinnic, identified as one of the “most endangered” rivers in the country, is nothing to celebrate. The penetration of concrete by blades of grass, while marvelous, does not constitute redemption. And yet…!

I arrived in gloom; but the clouds have lifted and so have my spirits. There is hope. The ruptured concrete may be a symbol of a new awareness. Not far downstream machinery is poised to remove the concrete channel from a section of the KK and reconfigure a more natural river. The concrete channel is not ordained. Let us be like the humble grass.

We can be a society that unpaves its rivers. But it is in ourselves that change must happen.

I leave the concrete river, satisfied that I have managed to arrest the flow of time and the river with a few photographs, but challenged by Thoreau once again:

“It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful, but it is more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. We are tasked to make our lives, even in their details, worthy of the contemplation of our most elevated and critical hour.”

Meditations on the Milwaukee River Greenway

2011-08-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Twelve kayaks put in below the dam in Kletsch Park in Glendale. The rain-swollen river pours over the dam like water from a tipped bucket that never empties. Our progress is swift. Without lifting a paddle we can drift and daydream. Welcome to my daydream.

Richard Louv suggests that technology and nature are not incompatible, but “the more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need to achieve a natural balance.” I’ve left my cell phone behind, but not my camera. To each their own technologies. Balance, too, is up to each of us.

There are few places on earth with an abundance of fresh water. The danger of abundance is a tendency to take the resource for granted; perhaps to fail to protect it. Milwaukee, part of the Great Lakes watershed, is particularly fortunate. Drifting, my mind fills with the grace of abundance.

It is Friday, a workday; lawn chairs poised to enjoy river views sit empty and silent. The day, warm and bright, reminds me of a line from Leonard Cohen’s song, Suzanne: “the sun shone down like honey…”

Canada geese preen themselves on stones near the shore. I slide slowly towards one who nonchalantly continues its regimen of grooming until I am so near I could wack it with my paddle. (Indeed, this species is often considered a pest and others might have been tempted to do so.)

We round a sharp bend to where the river parallels the forbidding barrier along I-43. The tranquility of our idyll is disturbed by the sound of unseen traffic. A famous line comes to mind from Frost’s poem, Mending Wall: “Something there is that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down…”

Serenity returns when the river veers into Lincoln Park. The river divides into two channels around an island. Our guide, Jeanne, cautions us to keep to the right, which only serves to whet my curiosity: what would I find if I go to the left? Had I been alone, I might have tried it, but, conditioned as I am by my years of teaching, I dutifully follow the group.

Purple loosestrife grows rampant on the muddy floodplain exposed when the Estabrook Dam was opened a couple years back. Ironic, perhaps: an invasive species floods in where an invasive dam once held back the water. Something there is that doesn't love a dam, that wants it down…

We drift with the current, under a synchronicity of clouds.

I am stupefied, unable to conjure a clever caption. Robert Michael Pyle asks, “What happens to a species that loses touch with its habitat?”

On the freeway a river of cars, nearly as incessant as water, speeds over the Milwaukee River.

We portage around the dam, the proposed removal of which has generated so much heated debate. Frost’s poem returns to haunt me: neither walls nor dams make good neighbors.

We also portage around the falls in Estabrook Park. Four teenage boys in the flood-swollen river use the dangerous cataract as a waterslide. The cell phone comes in handy. We drift on. We can only hope that the police will arrive before tragedy befalls the foolish.

Buddhism teaches us to be mindful. Mindfulness is not disengagement but its opposite. It is thoughtlessness that allows us to fritter away the earth’s abundance – or to sit idly by and see it frittered away, doing nothing to prevent it.

Below the Capitol Drive bridge we enter my favorite stretch of the Greenway. In the kayak, in the middle of the channel, the last remaining tower slowly disappears behind the tree line. With it goes the feeling of being in the city. My imagination is set completely at ease.

The elusive feeling of wildness resolves itself and I welcome it.

Still adrift, still moving buoyantly forward, I raise my eyes skyward, filled with enchantment.

I have long been inspired by Thoreau’s famous words, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” I don’t believe it diminishes Thoreau to agree with Mike Houck, director of the Urban Greenspaces Institute in Portland, OR, who updates that for the twenty-first century: “In livable cities is the preservation of the wild.”

After three hours, twelve kayaks pull up on the bank at Riverside Park, below the Urban Ecology Center, which organized our excursion into the urban wilderness.

In a new book called Urban Green, Peter Harnik says “…parks are on the public’s agenda” and “…cities are vying with one another for ‘the best park system’ and the ‘livability crown’….” He mentions New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Seattle, and even Detroit as examples. Why not Milwaukee? Where are Milwaukee’s cheerleaders when it comes to promoting the virtues of our gold medal park system?

Scientists study evolution in New York City

2011-07-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

“Evolution is one of life’s constants. New species emerge; old ones become extinct. Environmental changes have often steered evolution in new directions. And modern cities like New York have brought particularly swift changes to the environment.”

And so, according to this fascinating article in the New York Times, scientists have begun studying evolution in some of the most unlikely of places, including the medians that divide traffic lanes on busy streets.

Like studying evolution anywhere, the work isn’t always easy. However, the complications in an urban setting tend to be somewhat different than in, say, the Amazon rainforests: “We get police called on us a lot,” said Dr. Munshi-South, an assistant professor at Baruch College. “Sometimes with guns drawn.”

Some of the equipment they use gets mistaken for drug paraphernalia, too.

“…Urban evolution is attracting more research these days, because cities are fast-growing, and the urban environment is quickly taking over large areas of the Earth’s surface.”

The issue of invasive species is another constant in evolutionary studies. This article offers an unusual perspective: “As the invaders adapted to New York, they put extra pressure on native species, competing with them for space and food. In the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for instance, American bittersweet vines are dwindling away, outcompeted by Oriental bittersweet. At the same time, the two species are interbreeding, producing hybrids. “It’s a double-whammy,” said James D. Lewis, a plant ecologist at Fordham University.”

Check it out: Evolution Right Under Our Noses.

Underwood Creek: good, bad, and ugly?

2011-07-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

Underwood Creek has long been a troubled waterway. Much of it was channelized in the 1960’s, as is most dramatically evident in this view west from 115^th Street in Wauwatosa. Now Waukesha wants to dump its (treated) wastewater into Underwood Creek – from whence it would flow into the Menomonee River.

If you’ve been following this issue you know that the diversion of Lake Michigan water over the boundary of the Great Lakes watershed has been highly controversial. Although the Wisconsin DNR recently approved the application process, allowing it to move forward, the decision still must be ratified by the governors of all states (and provinces) that border on the Great Lakes, in accord with the Great Lakes Compact.

I urge everyone to attend one of three public hearings that have been scheduled for southeastern Wisconsin to give the DNR a chance to provide an overview of this process.

One of the public hearings is at 5:30 on Wednesday, July 27, at Hart Park in Wauwatosa.

The other two are in Pewaukee (July 26) and Sturtevant (July 28). For much more information about the issue and all three public hearings, go to Milwaukee Riverkeeper.

As part of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’sflood management project, a lot of time, effort, and money have gone intoremoving a section of the concrete channel from Underwood Creek. The benefits of this are far more than aesthetic. This photoshows part of that work in progress in 2010. What will happen to all of thiswhen the extra wastewater from Waukesha in thrown into the mix? I hope thepublic hearing will shed some light on that and many other questions.

Other things are happening along Underwood Creek. On theplus side, I recently biked underneathBluemound Road on the Oak Leaf Trail for the first time – a huge improvement,as anyone who frequents this popular bike path can attest. As this photo shows,there is still some work to be done before the new path is completely connectedon either side of Bluemound.

On the unfortunate and ironic side, a section of UnderwoodParkway, near Watertown Plank Road, is being repaved. I’m all for new pavement.This parkway has been getting progressively worse for many years. But why arethey putting in curbs?

Progressive streetscaping uses swales instead of curbs.Swales are gently sloping ditches that allow stormwater to soak into the groundinstead of running along the curb and into a sewer pipe. They are a perfectsolution for a roadway like the parkway. How much taxpayer money has gone intoflood management on both sides of this parkway, along Underwood Creek and inthe County Grounds? But now we’re putting in new curbs and sewers to carry offstormwater instead of inexpensive swales?

Chicago wilderness sustains an abundance of life – human included!

2011-07-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been able to get so close to a great blue heron before – not without startling it into rapid retreat. I had been strolling along the bank of the Chicago River in the shade of the dense hardwood forest canopy. I came to a clearing where the slant of the evening light shone like a spotlight on the opposite bank. My attention was drawn by the dramatically splayed skeletal roots of a long dead stump and the symmetry of its mirrored image on the water.

I made my way incautiously towards the point on the bank opposite it to frame a good shot of the stump. I set up my tripod and looked through the viewfinder. Only then did I notice the heron perched on a log off to the side, motionless and perfectly camouflaged against the exposed earth and tangle of roots on the deeply eroded bank.

I was stunned. Not by the heron’s presence; I see them frequently along urban rivers. The surprise was that it remained there, so still and poised, focused on its quarry below the surface, after I wandered carelessly into its field of view. An ancient bird, the great blue heron has adapted well to habitats altered by human development. However, unlike some other species, it has not grown accustomed to humans themselves and nearly always flies at the slightest intrusion.

Perhaps its lack of fear was a result of immaturity. The slate gray of a full-grown heron was still mottled with shades of brown and white, indicating this bird’s relative youth. I waited patiently for it to fly off and provide a picturesque moment. It didn’t. Finally, I waved. It looked up at me and then back at the water. Nearing exasperation, I threw a stick. The rippling water fractured its slender reflection but the bird remained imperturbable. Two men jogging on the bank above yelled back and forth to one another. As their colorful outfits flashed by there was no reaction from the heron.

Finally, for no apparent reason, it slid gracefully off its log and sailed away – just after I’d given up and lifted my camera from the tripod, missing the shot.

Later, as I rounded a bend and beheld the idyllic scene ahead another heron, larger and grayer, disappeared with more characteristic alacrity, proving the rule that had made my first encounter so surprising.

I saw many deer. There are always deer. The whitetail is common enough to be a nuisance. Two does shepherded two tiny dappled fawns as they foraged across the river. Elsewhere, two young bucks with velvet antlers allowed me to get even closer than the heron, without an intervening river. But the self-assured poise of the deer was not surprising; they had little to fear from me and clearly knew it.

I was alone with the animals for quite a while. But when I came to rail line turned recreational trail that bridged the river I found a refreshingly diverse, steady stream of people using it. I noted two joggers, a cyclist, two young mothers pushing strollers, a dog walker, several solitary amblers, and a trio of shirtless Hispanic teens in thigh-hugging baggy pants and exposed boxers. All were enjoying a tiny green space wedged between Chicago’s urban grid and a curve of the Edens Expressway.

I crossed the old railroad span – staying well away from the edge without any railing! Through the trees ahead I spied a field full of soccer players. I was reminded of Richard Louv’s book, “The Nature Principle,” in which he insists not only that everyone needs the tonic of wildness to maintain wholeness and mental health but also that we who already love the parks need to understand the cultural and preferential differences of others who use parklands and the various needs that they satisfy.

On the other hand, there must be limits to tolerance, including abuse of the natural resources themselves. I wasn’t bothered by the graffiti, since some unwritten but welcome code confined it to the concrete of the bridge abutments.

At the start of my little excursion I had passed the incongruously placed grate that provides access for one of Chicago’s extensive system of stormwater tunnels. Randomly interspersed around the same meadow were small patches of grass that appeared to have been burned. Returning through the meadow by a different route on my way back to my car the mystery was solved when I came across the sulfurous remains of someone’s impressive arsenal of fireworks.

It is easy to decry the destruction caused by unsupervised explosions. The stormwater tunnel, which stores raw sewage during storms for later treatment, represents ecological impacts of human development on a scale that are much harder to fathom. The urban wilderness, always a place rife with paradox, reveals challenges while it provides opportunities.

"I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" These lines of Aldo Leopold’s are often quoted. I’ve quoted them before myself. Sadly, more and more young people grow up far from the truly wild areas to which Leopold was referring. On the brighter side, more and more people, young and old, like the ones I was seeing here, are realizing the virtues of what Louv calls “nearby nature” and are making efforts to experience the freedoms it provides without leaving the city they live in.

I did a Google map search to find this park, which is called LaBagh Woods, before I came down from Milwaukee. I do that whenever I plan to travel and expect to have a little free time for exploring. When set to “map” mode the green areas on a Google map look remarkably like “blank spots on the map.” Clicking on “satellite” mode reveals the lush textures of woodland canopies that, for so many of us who live in cities, can and must be a substitute for Leopold’s vision.

Biography of Olmsted reviewed

2011-07-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

A new biography of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin is called Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted. Michael Lewis has written a thoughtful review of it on his blog.

Barb Agnew gets recognition in Wisconsin Trails blog

2011-07-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Barb Agnew is probably familiar to regular readers of Urban Wilderness, but in case you don't know who she is, she is the Barb in Barb and Dick's Wildflowers, a lovely flower shop on the western fringe of Wauwatosa. She is also the founder of the Friends of the Monarch Trail and indefatigable defender of the Milwaukee County Grounds, which is where the Trail is located.

She is the subject of a nice, and well-deserved, write up on the Wisconsin Trails blog. It comes with a few nice slides of her and her beloved butterflies.

Hank Aaron State Trail goes west!

2011-06-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

I know I should have done it before now. I’ve been meaning to ride the west extension of the Hank Aaron State Trail (HAST) since the new Valley Passage and Menomonee River bridge opened way back in November! (See previous post.) With apologies to friends at the Friends of the Hank Aaron State Trail for my tardiness, I’ve finally biked the section of the trail that runs from Miller Park out to 123^rd St.

It was clear from the start that plenty of other people had discovered it. As I rode up the incline from the Valley Passage, I passed a steady stream of bikers coasting down. I thought I knew what to expect: The trail was established on an old railroad line, which is common enough to have its own Rails to Trails national program. This railroad line ran due west from the Menomonee Valley, through urban neighborhoods of Milwaukee and West Allis. I expected to see a lot of houses, businesses, and industrial buildings.

Well, Okay, I did see a lot of those things, but I also saw a lot more than I expected, including some interesting bits of nature. I didn’t expect to see any wildlife, the corridor being so narrow, but I soon caught out my own bias in this regard. Richard Louv observes in his new book, The Nature Principle, that many people think only of animals when they think of wildlife. There is even a term for it: “plant blindness.” I guess I’ve been guilty of this on occasion.

Some of the bikers on the trail speed along without glancing around, focused on fitness perhaps, or trying to reach a destination. Some ride in pairs or groups, making the trail a social experience. I saw at least one girl riding along with one hand gripping the handlebar and holding a cell phone up to her ear with the other. I hope there were a few who enjoyed discovering the flowers and other plants as much as I did.

Among my favorites was the wild rose, which I saw frequently. Many of the blossoms had already started to wilt, but enough were fresh to brighten up the lush green foliage with their delicate pink accents.

At Wood National Cemetery I passed a hillside full of daisies.

I found a tall stand of newly planted wild rye grass near Miller Park to be surprisingly dazzling in the bright afternoon light.

Unfortunately, many of the plants, even attractive flowers like this multiflora rose bush, are non-native. This is a common problem throughout the urban wilderness, of course. Not all non-native plants are invasive and many have been planted deliberately, but they do tend to compete with the native species and limit biodiversity.

The trail passes through the State Fairgrounds where I found some decidedly unnatural curiosities.

The pavement ends at 94^th Place but a gravel trail continues quite a bit farther. Eventually, it will be paved all the way to where it will intersect with the Oak Leaf Trail near the Milwaukee County line. But it passes under the Zoo Interchange where I-94 meets I-894 and Highway 45. The whole interchange is due to be rebuilt in a few years. Paving the HAST will follow that huge enterprise.

After riding for several miles in relatively narrow confines, the west end of the trail begins to seem pretty wild by comparison. There is no illusion of wilderness, what with the freeways and power lines, but the character of the trail changes and more open.

Cattails grow in puddles alongside the trail.

The trail itself becomes a dirt track crowded with weeds. This lovely crop of yellow flowers is, sadly, invasive. When I sent the picture to a plant-knowledgeable friend to confirm its identity as bird’s foot trefoil, she added “ick.”

Currently the HAST doesn’t quite reach its intended destination. The abandoned rail line continues on but old railroad ties remain in place, making it impossible to ride that way. I had to make a short detour on the road to finish up and return home via the Oak Leaf Trail.

Wauwatosa’s innovation: Marketing parkways?

2011-06-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

This is adapted from my recent column, Wild Wauwatosa. I wrote it in response to current events in the city where I live, but the issues and principles are hardly unique to this location.

What‘s in a name? First came Innovation Drive, in Wauwatosa’s Research Park. Then the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee touted its planned engineering campus on the Milwaukee County Grounds as Innovation Park. The Crowne Plaza Hotel, on Innovation Dr., even adopted the moniker for its restaurant. Now officials have decided to brand the entire city of Wauwatosa as “Innovation Parkway,” based on the observation that it is interlaced with Olmsted-inspired Milwaukee County parkways.


View west across the Innovation Park site, one of the most spectacular locations in Wauwatosa.

The brand is being rolled out with the companion slogan “great opportunities at a great location.” The intent is to encourage economic development by promoting the city’s central location in the Milwaukee region and its accessibility with an emphasis on the proximity of the parkways.

I’m in favor of economic development. Of course. Especially in the current economic climate, who would question the need to attract business and create jobs? I’m also – no surprise here – in favor of parks, parkways, and open green space. What’s in a name? I call this blog Urban Wilderness in order to promote the idea that regular contact with nature is essential for a healthy life.

View southeast from UWM’s planned Innovation Park site showing Medical Complex towers.

The Milwaukee County Parks and parkway system provide beauty, serenity, and recreational opportunities within the urban region, making Wauwatosa and Milwaukee County especially attractive places to live. I hope that it is this inherent value of parkways that the architects of Wauwatosa’s new identity had in mind and that all new development will respect the integrity of those lands.

A short stroll along the Oak Leaf Trail on a pleasant evening is enough to convince anyone that people all over the county love the parkways. Wauwatosa officials and their newly created Community Development Authority should not be surprised if many of their constituents view this campaign with a measure of skepticism. Real estate developments notoriously are named after natural features that have been diminished or destroyed. The term “park” itself long has been coopted, its meaning subverted in oxymoronic combinations like Industrial Park and Business Park. How farfetched is the fear that “Innovation Parkway” will likewise disregard the meaning of parkway, or that public parkland will be lost to commercial development? Examples of this are as near and recent as Aurora’s Hospice Care Center on Honey Creek Parkway and the “Research Park,” which sits on land that really did look like a park not so long ago. Cookie cutter suburban subdivisions all over the country sport names like “Rolling Meadows,” “Tall Pines,” and the particularly egregious subcategory of “The Preserve at…[fill in the blank.]”

Wauwatosa’s new identity and marketing campaign won’t necessarily have this destructive effect on the parkways, nor should it. But if economic development is allowed to trump land preservation and the public’s enjoyment of nature then the danger is as real here as it is elsewhere. The citizens of Wauwatosa should be particularly concerned that the Community Development Authority is empowered to negotiate privately – without public input – even when development plans involve public land and taxpayers’ funds.

A scenic natural area along Underwood Parkway.

The consultants who recommended the new brand to city officials wisely identified the parkways as among Wauwatosa’s most valued assets. The Mayor wants to use the new marketing strategy to “make a buzz around Wauwatosa.” A truly innovative idea would be to promote Wauwatosa and Milwaukee as cities where people can enjoy nature and places that protect natural areas. Let’s make a buzz about the indisputable importance of the parkways and the nearness of nature to the quality of life in our community. Economic development and the public interest both would benefit from this approach.

A view of High Pointe Office Center from Underwood Parkway.

Economic development is essential. Wauwatosa and Milwaukee have plenty of places that need revitalization. Development should be sensitive to the public’s enjoyment of the parks and parkways; it should occur in locations that will never compromise their value. This includes consideration of the views from the parks and not just the attraction of the views into the parks. The recently created overlay-zoning district for the Milwaukee River Greenway should serve as a model for development in ecologically sensitive areas. Milwaukee County really is blessed with an abundance of nature – that’s something worth creating a buzz around.