Photo Essay: Update on Three Bridges Park

The next time you visit Three Bridges Park walk to it using the path from the Urban Ecology Center on Pierce Street. You will see an elegantly arched steel structure that has been newly placed along the Hank Aaron State Trail not far from the Valley Passage. On the inside surfaces of the twin arches you will see the laser-cut names of donors who made the park possible.

The primary purpose of the arches, which were dedicated recently, is to represent the named donors—and there are many. But they also symbolize the bridges for which the park is named, along with the metaphor of that name for a park that owes so much to so many and means so much to such a diverse constituency....

...Elsewhere in the park it was spring planting day. A couple dozen volunteers, along with Urban Ecology Center staff members, braved the heat to plant 900 small potted seedlings along the south edge of the park where lush vegetation meets a still running railroad. 

This story was published at Milwaukee Magazine.  Click here to continue reading.

Planting Day at 3 Bridges Park: A photo essay

The Urban Ecology Center hosted a planting day on Saturday as a part of its efforts to flesh out the still largely bare 24-acre landscape of 3 Bridges Park. A crew of volunteers including a number of young girl scouts eagerly pulled invasive weeds as well as planting new seedlings. Here is a photo essay of the activities and participants.

Preparations underway for the community gardens (above and below)

Volunteers arriving at the park

A group effort

Michael, a UEC staffer, helps Henry with a potted seedling.

Invasive thistle

Katie & Kaylin

Willie

Terry

Patrick, a UEC staffer, helps Jacob with the shovel.

Photo op

Pete with Chayton

Melissa, Hank Aaron State Trail manager

Jeff, UEC land steward, carries a flat of seedlings past a railroad maintenance crew at work.

A 3 Bridges Park halleluia!

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Update: How to grow an arboretum.

It's been a while since I've visited the Rotary Centennial Arboretum. Since Autumn to be precise. Well, spring is here--at last! And among other things that means people are out again at the Arboretum, adding new plants, mulching and doing all the other things needed to make the still largely empty land come alive.

How do you grow an arboretum? Well, if your arboretum is on land reclaimed from a brownfield of broken bricks, you look among the piles for newly staked seedlings. Here is what I found when I visited yesterday.

Joel, an Urban Ecology Center staffer.

Similar activity was taking place farther downstream along the Milwaukee River where the River Revitalization Foundation is beautifying its recently acquired property near North Avenue. I arrived shortly after burlap was laid down over the cleared and reseeded slope.

Tanya, an RRF staffer.

To view previous installments showing progress on the Arboretum:

How to grow an arboretum

Planting Rotary Centennial Arboretum

Autumn in the Arboretum

Planting the Rotary Centennial Arboretum

Last Thursday I got back over to the Rotary Centennial Arboretum, which is still in progress along the Milwaukee River. Due to open in September, a crew from the nearby Urban Ecology Center was busily planting plugs to jumpstart the new growth. I shot a few pictures of them in action before a storm drove them--and me--indoors. (To read more about the arboretum, read my previous post: "how to grow an arboretum.")