Kratzsch Conservancy in Washington County is a treat

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Scheduling a tour outdoors in early December can be risky. Cold rain had been in the forecast. But our recent string of unseasonably warm days held through the weekend and on Saturday morning, bright sun lit the colorless landscape like a torch. It turned out to be a perfect day to tour Kratzsch Conservancy, a 73-acre preserve located near Newburg in Washington County.

Our guide was wildlife biologist Ryan Wallin, Stewardship Director for the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust (OWLT), which owns and manages the site.  Wallin considers himself fortunate. Not only did he recently land his current position, which enabled him to move back home to Wisconsin from a stint in distant Washington state, but he also gets to live in this beautiful place. The historic Kratzsch family farmstead has been turned into a private, live-in headquarters for the OWLT stewardship program.

We hiked the circuitous 2-mile trail system that looped through a surprising variety of undulating glacial terrains. The property contains 14 acres of wetlands, 24 acres of forests and 37 acres of grasslands. Wallin explained that the trails are being managed in a way that tries to balance the needs of wildlife with the expectations of human visitors. For example, trails are designed to circumscribe open areas because cutting a trail through the middle of a prairie would degrade it as a habitat for certain species, particularly ground-nesting birds. Trails, it turns out, also are used by carnivores as well as humans!

As recently as 2012 much of the property was still being farmed. Those sections that are currently forested were mostly wooded pastures for grazing livestock. A few mature oaks are all that remains of the historic forest. OWLT has planted hundreds of new trees, including paper birch, white oak, red oak, burr oak, sugar maple, white ash and black cherry.

The grasslands are likewise newly planted with prairie grasses, along with some trees. Wallin explained that the whole area once was forested and most will be allowed to follow a natural succession process that will gradually replace the grasses with woodlands.

We passed by a very solidly built hunting blind that overlooks one of the prairies. It is raised high enough for visibility but not so high that it can’t be accessed via a ramp. Not being a hunter myself—or disabled—it had never before occurred to me that there might be a need for an accessible blind. The ADA compliant blind was built in 2014, Wallin said, and sees moderate use.

Kratzsch Conservancy has 2,500 feet of frontage along the east/west branch of Milwaukee River and can be accessed from the water by kayak and canoe. It is strategically situated along an environmental corridor among other protected properties in order to increase connectivity and enhance wildlife habitats. 

Goldenrod gone to seed

World fish migration day at Riveredge Nature Center

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Did you know there was a World Fish Migration Day? I didn’t. But Riveredge Nature Center in Ozaukee County was honoring it and I found out when I got a Facebook invitation to attend. So I went. It was on Saturday and the weather—finally—was splendid and warm enough to feel like summer had arrived. Reason enough to go for a walk in the woods along the Milwaukee River!

According to the official World Fish Migration Day website, the one-day “global-local” event is intended “to create awareness of the importance of open rivers and migratory fish.” Although I don’t really need a reminder that open rivers are healthy rivers and fish need to migrate freely, I was curious about the event.

I arrived at the river just as a team of fish specialists from the Ozaukee Fish Passage Program, which co-sponsored the day, was wrapping up a fishing expedition. Clad in hip waders, they used electroshocking to stun the fish and scooped them up with nets. Then they brought the catch back to a floating dock where visitors including several families were waiting to see what they had.

The fish were dumped into a tank on the shore where children could press their faces up against the glass and get a good look. Some of the kids eagerly reached in and held up a wriggling specimen. Most of the fish were no more than a few inches long. The prize of the day, however, was the approximately 18-inch smallmouth bass (top). I asked if that was an unusual size and was told that the record at Riveredge was 20 inches, so yes indeed, it was a good find.

In the tank along with the fish there were a couple of healthy, native crayfish. This was a good sign as the invasive rusty crayfish has been aggressively competing with the natives in Milwaukee’s rivers.

Later I went for a walk in the woods where I found a wealth of spring wildflowers and, of course, collected some photographs. 

Phlox

Trillium

Tangles of roots, dead trees and branches in the river provide good habitat for migrating fish, as the crowd was told by the fish specialists.

A particularly lovely fungus specimen on a stump

 The may apples, which were budding but mostly not quite ready to flower, were the most spectacular ground cover species I noticed. Here they carpet a hilltop.

May apple, worm's eye view

I only saw this one tent caterpillar colony, however it doesn't take but one to give me the willies. The devastation the caterpillars can cause to a woodlot is one of my earliest childhood memories relating to the balance of nature.

The forest was full of trees bearing bright red-orange markings. I enquired about them. Some years ago a team from U.W. Stevens Point had done a tree study in order to improve forest management techniques. The types of marks indicate a variety of tree species and conditions.

The original owner of the land that is now Riveredge Nature Center had developed a modest version of a Dells-like resort, I was told. Crumbling and overgrown foundations are all that remain of the endeavor.

false rue anemone, vole's-eye view

A beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Snow!

The Menomonee River in Hoyt Park yesterday.

I was out most of the day and shot at least a hundred pictures. It was fabulous! I hope I have time soon to process a few more of them.

The Milwaukee River in Kletsch Park. How about that urban wilderness!

Urban Wilderness and Accessibility

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“This game of preserving, managing, [and] restoring … very public green space in our fair city is not a game for sissies.” – Ken Leinbach

New Cambridge Woods trail

Ken, Executive Director of the Urban Ecology Center, made this thoughtfully provocative statement in an email response to concerns that recently were voiced about a new wheelchair accessible trail being constructed in Cambridge Woods.

A healthy patch of trillium

My fondness for Cambridge Woods, a strip of riparian parkland along a stretch of the Milwaukee River north of Locust Street, goes back more than twenty-five years. I lived a block away. Nearby Riverside Park, once one of the Olmsted-designed jewels in the Milwaukee Park System’s emerald necklace, had gone feral and was considered unsafe. Few people ventured there.

Retaining wall collapse

I still remember “discovering” the path north from Riverside, between the water and the Oak Leaf Trail, which was still called the “76 Bike Trail” back then. Mountain biking was not yet popular and a well-used but narrow dirt path led past prodigious CCC-era retaining walls, up and down surprisingly rugged terrain, through tall stands of hardwoods and thickets of mostly native shrubbery.

Banzai blocked with logs and brush

Near the end of Cambridge Avenue a wide ravine had become a defacto banzai half-pipe for kids on short trick bikes. Ropes strung from trees enabled them to swing out across the intervening space. Unpoliced, the slopes were pounded bare and eroded.

Together Riverside Park and Cambridge Woods lent several meanings to the term urban wilderness, mostly dark connotations indicative of places civilization has either fouled or neglected.

Much has changed since then.

A healthy patch of May apples

In 1991 the Urban Ecology Center established an outpost in Riverside Park. Long story short, over time the Center and its programs grew; the park was transformed once again, this time into an inviting natural area and outdoor classroom and laboratory. It also was made accessible to a public that had long since learned to shun it.

Natural areas as significant as the Milwaukee River Greenway, as it has come to be known, are magnets for diverse activities. This is particularly true in cities where relative scarcity creates high expectations. Accessibility means different things to different people – and inevitably leads to conflicting demands. The drug dealers that made the parks unsafe have largely moved on, but taggers continue to spray paint colorful graffiti under bridges and along decaying foundation walls. Hikers must stand aside as mountain bikers blaze past. Their wide treads have expanded and muddied once narrow paths, gouged the rugged slopes, and exposed tree roots. Anglers who wade into the river shallows also must contend with a growing contingent of canoes and kayaks as more and more people discover the Federally designated Urban Water Trail.

Wild geraniums

As new appreciation for urban wilderness grows some of the conflicts that arise – ironically – are amongst the very people who most care about the land. Now a new controversy has erupted over the new trail being constructed in Cambridge Woods. Accessibility is the heart of the brouhaha.

New trail construction

On the one hand, the dirt track is being widened and paved with gravel. Trees have been cut, hills and curves straightened. Some have complained that the “wilderness experience” is being “ruined.” If I didn’t know the feeling myself, I would find it amazing: That we have a constituency who feel that a wilderness experience is possible in the most densely populated zip code in the state must be some kind of miracle!

Endangered red trillium

But the new trail not only will provide access for disabled people; it is more inviting to many who would not otherwise enjoy the beautiful woods. The beauty of this place is not in fact a miracle or illusion but part of a deliberate management plan. As Ann Brummitt, director of the Milwaukee Greenway Coalition, put it, “Cambridge Woods is home to the greatest biodiversity in the Greenway. It has an extraordinary array of plants.”

Invasive garlic mustard

It doesn’t take a long walk to recognize the threat that invasives like garlic mustard pose to that diversity. The new trail is not being constructed in isolation; it is one element in a comprehensive restoration project that will close opportunistic trails that cause erosion and protect native plant species. And the contractor, Marek Landscaping, which specializes in native landscaping, is doing the work with integrity. At one point I asked the crew what a deep pit next to the trail was for and the reply was “a living retaining wall.” Sounds better than concrete to me. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

May apple, worm's eye view

The accessibility conundrum and controversy is hardly unique to this area. National Parks and natural areas in far less populated places face the same concern. Ken Leinbach admits, “The Urban Ecology Center can be seen as a culprit here as we are now bringing tens of thousands of visitors to the area.” Then he continues, “This game of preserving, managing, [and] restoring … very public green space in our fair city is not a game for sissies. Trying to accommodate one user often alienates another.” I personally will never fault the Urban Ecology Center for pacifying what once was a demonstrably dangerous urban wilderness.

Leinbach, Brummitt, and many others who help manage and protect the Greenway understand very well that “improvements” can go only so far without destroying the essence of what makes it unique and marvelous.

Riverside Park trail, bird's eye view

During the leisurely walk when I made the photographs that accompany this story I met a man in the company of four large furry dogs along the newly graveled trail. I asked what he thought about it. With a reflective demeanor he considered for a moment, clearly torn. Then he said, “I was disappointed when they did this in Riverside Park, but now that things have grown back, it seems fine. I've gotten used to it.”

A healthy patch of wood anemone

Like nearly everyone I’ve heard on the issue, I would prefer the old dirt path. Unlike most, I mean the old old dirt path: before the explosion of activity, the mountain bikes, and the increased erosion. But the increase in usage is a double-edged sword. Greater access has already created the constituency that has made protection of the Greenway a reality. Well managed, the urban wilderness is resilient.

I agree with critics who insist that some sections of the riparian trail system ought to be left as "wild" as possible. Some trails should be reserved for foot traffic alone. How fortunate we are that the Milwaukee River Greenway is large enough to provide such a choice.

Choke cherry blossom

Buddhism teaches us to be mindful of the “true nature” of things and people. We are remarkably blessed to have urban parks like Cambridge Woods and the Greenway. Unfortunately, much as it pains me to confess it, they will never be wilderness in the literal meaning of the word. But if we walk there in wonder, with our senses awake to the vitality, we will know its true nature and be comforted.

The Greenway with Cambridge Woods on the right

Annual Earth Day river clean up draws thousands

It was a glorious spring day, which always helps. Over 4,000 people came out to participate in the annual river clean up sponsored by Milwaukee Riverkeeper. Today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the complete story but I got around to a few sites before I settled in at Krueger Park, along Underwood Creek, where I mostly pulled garlic mustard and baby buckthorns. Here are some images.

Large contingents fanned out along both sides of the Milwaukee River near North Avenue.

Volunteers working among the sandbar willows next to the rushing narrows just north of Caesar's Pool.

A plastic bag flutters like a defiant banner in the upper branches of a tree while volunteers collect an enormous volume of trash below.

It took a lot of heft to remove this old, rusted tailgate from a remote part of Krueger Park in Brookfield.

Furniture was the item of the day in Underwood Parkway, near 115th St.

Riverside Park was burned on Wednesday!

I learned after the fact that the Urban Ecology Center (with help from the Milwaukee Fire Dept. and others) had conducted a controlled burn in parts of Riverside Park. I wish I could have been there to witness the event. As is explained on the UEC website, burning is important for long term sustainability of certain habitats and native species. (Before we humans interfered it happened naturally, of course.)

Although I missed the burn itself, I had to go check out the aftermath and take a few photos.

The burn is kept at ground level and even during natural burns established trees and hardy native shrubs seldom suffer for it.

Before long (especially with the early spring we're having this year) new shoots will sprout up amongst the ashes. Native species withstand the effects of burning better than exotics.

While I was there I met a nice young volunteer who explained why many of the trees in the park have blue bags hanging from them. These are sugar maple trees that the UEC taps for maple syrup, which they process themselves right at the center.

But if you want to see that you better head out there soon. They will be having a pancake breakfast on Saturday, March 24.

We're all invited. (Go to the UEC website for more info.)

While you're in Riverside Park to see the burn and the maples being tapped, make sure you wander on down along the Milwaukee River to see how other strategies are being used to control invasive species.

Large swaths of the flood plain have been covered in black plastic sheeting. No, it's not an elaborate environmental sculpture project, a la Christo. It's to control reed canary grass.

There's always something constructive going on around the Urban Ecology Center.