Photo essay: Milwaukee River Greenway in white

Riverside Park

Another gloomy winter day made lovely by gently falling snow. The landscapes of the Greenway look faded, like sepia-toned etchings discovered in a disused trunk. The starkness of the season, paradoxically, increases the sense of wildness while simultaneously making it hard to ignore the urban in the urban wilderness.

Shelter 1, Riverside Park

 

Winter tapestry, Rotary Centennial Arboretum

 

Renegade cyclist, Riverside Park

 

Shelter 2, Riverside Park

 

Gordon and Riverside Parks from Locust Street Bridge

 

Riverside Pumping Station

 

Shelter 3, Cambridge Woods

 

Tunnel to nowhere, Cambridge Woods

Bluff trail, Cambridge Woods

 

Grafitti, Cambridge Woods

 

The river, Cambridge Woods

 

Red sandstone cairn, Riverside Park

Sanctuary Woods at the Milwaukee County Grounds gets national recognition

The Cultural Landscape Foundation lists the Wauwatosa property as threatened in its Landslide program

Sanctuary Woods in Wauwatosa has attracted a lot of attention over the past year as concerned citizens reacted to a controversial plan to develop portions of it. As of today, that attention has gone national for the first time. This morning The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a prestigious non-profit organization based in Washington DC, unveiled its annual call to action in support of important places it considers threatened. Following a rigorous application, jurying and vetting process, Milwaukee County’s Sanctuary Woods has been included among 13 at-risk landscapes from all over the country.

The mission of The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) is to connect people to places, to educate and engage the public “to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards.” One of the ways the foundation does this is through a program it calls Landslide: Open Season on Open Space, which draws attention to threatened places. The purposes of Landslide are to reveal the value of identified places, to highlight and monitor at-risk landscapes, and to save our heritage for future generations. This year Sanctuary Woods shares the Landslide spotlight with 12 other new entries that range from a tiny pocket park in Manhattan to the million-acre Boundary Waters Wilderness Area in Minnesota.

The Landslide designation recognizes that the southeast corner of the Milwaukee County Grounds, popularly known as Sanctuary Woods, is far more than a patch of woodland. Preservation advocates and development promoters alike have largely focused on its wildlife habitat and recreational value. As important as those things are, they do not tell the whole story. TCLF defines cultural landscapes as ones “that have been affected, influenced, or shaped by human involvement.” They can be repositories of cultural narratives and expressions of regional identity. Not only does Sanctuary Woods have a rich and compelling history, but fragments of that narrative are still evident in the landscape.

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

Photo essay: New Munster Wildlife Area and KD Park in Kenosha County

New Munster is in western Kenosha County, off Highway 50. The drive there took nearly an hour. Gambling with dueling forecasts, one of which showed overcast skies and the other suggesting partly cloudy, I left in the dark and arrived shortly before dawn. The gamble paid dividends when the clouds parted just before the sun rose. Having seen a lake on Google maps in a Kenosha County park across the road from New Munster State Wildlife Area, I went there first. I caught this lovely sunrise and had almost an hour of beautiful light before another cloud bank rolled over.

KD Park is being developed by Kenosha County into what they plan (according to the rather grand sign at the entrance) to call a Sustainable Living Education Park. Sounds interesting. So far it's a looping paved driveway with several small parking lots in a broad grassy clearing that slopes down to the lake.

234-acre KD Park was developed on a former gravel quarry. Its primary feature is the 39-acre lake, which provides opportunities for fishing and non-motorized boating. According to the park website, there are over 4 miles of trails maintained for hiking and cross-country skiing.

 

When the sun died I crossed the road and parked in the tiny dirt lot at the entrance to the New Munster State Wildlife Area. I'd never heard of it before. Since my recent tour of edible plants at Theresa Marsh I've been on an email list for DNR-sponsored hikes and this one was the next on the schedule. This hike was billed as a birding tour. I always love learning about birds. However, the gloomy overcast sky that had settled in motivated me to use a tripod for my photos and I found myself mostly hanging back peering through the tripod-mounted camera while the birders ranged ahead peering through their binoculars at the cedar waxwings, warblers and whatever else I missed.

The birds were mostly small and high in the canopy, so I focused in on other things.

 The New Munster Wildlife area, established in 1947, encompasses 1226 acres. The DNR website describes it as "predominately oak woodland, lowland woodland, shallow marsh, grassland, and agricultural fields." The DNR stocks the area with pheasant for the hunters. My eyes were opened to this when I asked our guide, Diane Robinson, about the sign: No pheasant hunting after 2:00 p.m. The stocking takes place after 2, she told me, so that there will be birds for the hunters in the morning.

 

Wauwatosa committee moves to protect County Grounds

Sunset, County Grounds Park

Vote is a victory for opponents of controversial master plan

A Wauwatosa Common Council committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to put on hold the controversial master plan for what is being called the Life Sciences District.

“We have been listening,” Kathleen Causier, Chair of the council’s Community Affairs Committee, told the packed room in the council chambers. The size of the audience for a committee meeting indicated once again the amount of concern and attention being paid to this issue by the community. The outcome included a provision that seemed to surprise nearly everyone in attendance.

During the public comment period before the committee deliberations the contentiousness that had characterized so many previous meetings simmered but never boiled over. The idea of putting the master planning process on hold was itself uncontroversial. Speaker after speaker rose to agree with it. Despite the narrow focus of the issue at hand, many couldn’t resist the opportunity to reiterate their opposition to elements of the plan itself.

When it came time for the committee to deliberate, Ald. Cheryl Berdan made the motion, which was to put the planning process on hold until such time as the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and Milwaukee County both completed environmental impact assessments of County Grounds Park and the non-park county land commonly known as “Sanctuary Woods.” Initially there was little opposition and the decision seemed a foregone conclusion.

Autumn, Wil-O-Way Woods, DNR State Forest, County Grounds

Then alderman Jason Wilke proposed what he considered a “friendly amendment” that add new protections to not only the two parcels stipulated in the original motion but also to the Wil-O-Way Woods property north of Swan Boulevard. This proposal was met with some confusion and Berdan refused to accept the “friendly amendment” to her motion. Wilke then moved to amend the motion without the “friendly” designation, which led to a lively discussion about the intent and feasibility of adding the protection.

The public is clearly disturbed by the part of the plan that involves these three parcels, Wilke explained, and protecting them would serve to reassure people and allow the rest of the plan to move forward. This clarification seemed to satisfy the committee members. The audience listened with rapt attention as nearly every member of the committee expressed agreement in principle with the intent to protect the land. Causier summed up the sentiments by saying “none of us want to see anything going in there,” referring to development on the three parcels.

The final hurdle to acceptance was a consideration of the City’s role in providing permanent protection. City attorney Alan Kesner explained that permanent protection required more than zoning, which is within the purview of the city. A conservation easement or other instrument of protection would require consent of the landowners—Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin. While acknowledging the possibility of resistance, in the end the committee voted unanimously to include Wilke’s amendment to do “whatever it takes to preserve in perpetuity” the three parcels.

It was a stunning development in the now yearlong controversy over the Life Sciences District Master Plan and the committee’s decision was met with loud applause from the audience.

Spring, Sanctuary Woods, County Grounds

The decision means that the scheduled May 15 meeting of the Plan Commission and others will be canceled or postponed until the conditions of last night’s decision have been met. If they are not met, we can expect to hear this issue come up again sometime in the future. However, today we can thank the Community Affairs Committee for their vote to save the County Grounds.

Attention now turns to Milwaukee County, where the decision to act on the Community Affairs Committee decision rests. Those concerned with actually saving the County Grounds will want to make their feelings known to County Executive Chris Abele and the County Board.

There is a meeting of the County Board Committee on Parks, Energy and the Environment Tuesday, May 16 at 9:00 a.m. at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, 901 N. 9^th Street, room 201. 

As always, you can see more photos of Sanctuary Woods and the rest of the County Grounds on Flickr.

Transformation: The week spring sprang

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Greenfield Park, West Allis, WI

Spring has been particularly fitful this year, one moment teasing with sunshine and warmth, the next plunging back towards winter. I’ve gone out for a walk in the past week, happily warm in a T-shirt only to find myself an hour later wishing I’d brought along a sweatshirt and a jacket!

Blue buttercups, Zillmer Trail, Kettle Moraine State Forest, Northern Unit

I find it essential now and then to pay attention to wildflowers. The cultivated ones are easily seen, often gaudily demanding attention. Seeing wildflowers in the forest requires a kind of mindfulness that is like meditation. It shifts your awareness from larger concerns to something humble on the ground, swaying gently in the breeze.

Greenfield Park, West Allis, WI

In a little over a week the landscape has blossomed. Woodlands that were barren and monochromatic now blush with new life. Here is a selection of photos that highlight the change, along with a few poetic musings about spring and nature.

Whitnall Park Pond, Franklin, WI.

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.  ~ John Burroughs

Franklin Savanna State Natural Area, Franklin, WI

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature -if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you -know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse. ~ Henry David Thoreau 

Mangan Woods, Root River Parkway, Franklin, WI

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. ~John Muir

Boerner Botanical Gardens, Whitnall Park, Hales Corners, WI

When I speak of flowers                   

it is to recall                                                        

that at one time 

we were young.

~William Carlos Williams

Hubbard Park and Milwaukee River Greenway, Shorewood, WI

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart. ~ Reiner Maria Rilke

Trout lilies, McGovern Park, Milwaukee, WI

I want to do what spring does with cherry trees. ~ Pablo Neruda

Kletsch Park, Glendale, WI

The day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~ Anaïs Nin

Jacobus Park, Wauwatosa, WI

See more spring photos from the wild lands of Milwaukee's parks and natural areas at Flickr.

Public meeting for Wauwatosa's controversial Master Plan proposal

Current Master Plan proposal will still bulldoze part of "Sanctuary Woods" and destroy wildlife habitat, including the owl roosting site. Make your feelings known:

Life Sciences District Public Meeting
When: April 6th
Time: 5:30- 8:00 pm
Where: Muellner Building 7300 Chestnut St, Wauwatosa (Hart Park)

You’re invited to attend the next public open house on the Wauwatosa Life Sciences District Draft Master Plan proposal on Thursday, April 6, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., at the Muellner Building in Hart Park, 7300 Chestnut Street. 

A presentation will be held at 6 p.m. and will include a summary of the online town hall survey and comments, and a description of the concept plan revisions and options based on public input.

The public will have an opportunity to comment between 6:45 to 7:45 p.m.

In addition, open house attendees can speak to the consultant team at discussion boards between 7:15-8:00 p.m.

Go to: www.CountyGroundsCoalition.org for updates and information.
Also on Facebook: Save the County Grounds Facebook and Conserve our County Grounds Facebook.

To see photos of the area threatened with development, popularly (but unofficially) known as Sanctuary Woods, go to my Flickr album.

Milwaukee County Grounds: A revealing winter walking tour demonstrates citizen concern

Open house at Wauwatosa City Hall invites public input on Tuesday from 5:30-7:30

“I heard that the city had changed its plans and will be saving the woods.” That was among the many comments I myself heard this weekend in a section of the County Grounds that some have dubbed “Sanctuary Woods.” I was talking with Dennis, who comes to the County Grounds almost daily to walk his two large dogs. Unfortunately,

--> Unfortunately, Dennis had heard something misleading—perhaps from an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel—that depended on how “Sanctuary Woods” was defined. The current draft of Wauwatosa’s Master Plan would cut a road through the very spot we were standing, just like the previous version did. Dennis, like nearly everyone else I met, was surprised when he looked around at the area that would be destroyed.

The pavement on this popular pathway is a legacy of the asylum grounds that formerly occupied the site. This is where the road would go.

Fortunately, there has been an outpouring of concern about the fate of the County Grounds as well as the Master Plan itself. On Saturday a group calling itself Tosa for Good led a guided tour of the area that would be impacted by the proposed road. Despite a gloomy, overcast day, 50-60 people—including several city and county officials—endured frigid wind chills to walk the route of proposed “Scenic Drive.” The organizers had made the impact of the proposal more vivid by taping off part of the route in a 60-foot wide swath.

Caution tape indicating the width and route of the proposed road.

The tape made it clearly visible that the plan’s proposed 58-ft. wide right-of-way would obliterate a lot of natural land and require cutting plenty of trees. Virtually everyone who was there and saw firsthand what’s at stake agreed that the road should not be built.

Seven-story tall Harwood Place gives a sense of the impact that even taller buildings would have on adjacent woodlands.

When people are further informed that the proposed plan allows 10-story buildings to overlook the County Grounds there is universal astonishment. No one I spoke with wants this to happen.

The proposed road would cut a swath approximately four times as wide as this unofficial but well used neighborhood trail.

Starting at 87^th Street the tour took the group east to a section of the grounds rarely included when people discuss “Sanctuary Woods.” But this combination woodlot and wetland that drains into the Menomonee River is the most secluded on the County Grounds. A trail well packed by neighbors skirts the woods on its way to the rest of the grounds. The proposed road would slice off a huge swath of the woods and create traffic through this bucolic corner of the grounds and around Harwood Place. However, the people who live in the adjacent neighborhood have developed an organized campaign that is generating more citizen interest and investment in the master planning process.

The proposed road would replace a series of warehouses along the railroad separating the County Grounds from Hoyt Park.

This wetland adjacent to “Sanctuary Woods” was isolated when the current roadway into the County Grounds was created.

Many of the tour participants had never been on the County Grounds before and no one wanted to miss the now-famous ravine. We entered the woods and followed the west rim. The packed earth trail indicates how popular this spot has become. There is apparently widespread agreement that the woods around the ravine must be saved. In fact, the master plan would protect it.

One of two stone staircases in bad disrepair that remain from the time this was a retreat for residents of the county asylum.

However, some who still want to build a road through this corner of the County Grounds have adopted the name “Sanctuary Woods” to justify the claim that it is being saved. In other words, the formerly undefined “Sanctuary Woods” is being defined by some to exclude natural areas that would be destroyed by the road. If built, a road would severely compromise the land as habitat and setting for peaceful recreation.

A lone jogger in the woods along the ravine.

As the tour passes the second of the stone stairs a couple of children break away to climb down and up again.

Beyond the end of the ravine several trails diverge and head uphill towards the rear of Ronald McDonald House. There are three meadows in the former asylum grounds. One is a remnant oak savanna, which is not only rare but also high quality habitat. The other two are hugely popular with dog walkers. All three would be destroyed by the road and development proposed in the plan. Two woodlots that many who use this land consider part of “Sanctuary Woods” would also be cleared.

The tour grouped around one of the entrances to the woodlot separating two meadows. This woodlot and both meadows are in the path of the proposed road.

The tour turned from the east meadow and headed back towards 87^th Street, covering only half of the area that would be impacted by the proposed master plan. I returned the following day in order to complete the walking tour in photographs.

The meadow in winter

Humble as it may appear in winter with its matted grasses and dull colors, this meadow is what I consider to be the heart of “Sanctuary Woods.” It is spectacular in the summer when decked out in wildflowers and surrounded by giant oaks and maples; or in autumn when the leaves turn red and gold. Plus, this is excellent habitat for the birds, butterflies and small furry creatures that keep it spectacular. Unfortunately, the proposed road would run right through the middle of it.

The meadow in autumn

Dog walkers socializing on edge of County Grounds Park. The proposed road would go through the woodland in the background.

Sunday was as overcast as Saturday, but warmer. I met dozens of people. Most of them were out walking dogs of all sizes and breeds. Normally I keep to myself but this day I stopped frequently to chat. Without exception everyone I met had heard of the master plan. And all considered the road idea a mistake at best. Most used spicier language to describe the plan.

A small creek runs through the woodland, excellent habitat for a variety of reptiles and amphibians.

A man with a graying beard introduced himself as Tom. He told me he’d grown up in Wauwatosa and was incensed about the road. He’d seen plenty of changes over the years and he confessed that he had never been opposed to the flood detention basins like so many others had been. But this new master plan was going too far, in his opinion. He proudly whipped out his cell phone and showed me a photo he’d shot of a buck peering out of the undergrowth. “At least 6-point,” he said. “Could have been an 8-pointer.”

Danielle on her daily walk with her two dogs.

“It makes me angry,” said Danielle forcefully, referring to the master plan. “There’s so much wildlife here. If they put this road in here it will drive off the wildlife. Expect coyotes in your backyards killing your pets!” She explained how careful she was to control her two dogs so that they wouldn’t cause any harm.

The proposed road would begin at the roundabout next to the Marriott hotel at Innovation Park and run through this woodlot behind the power plant.

Two members of the Wauwatosa Common Council had taken the tour. Second District Alderman John Dubinski spoke with passion about the grounds. A retired police officer, he recalled fond memories of the County Grounds and especially the County Asylum buildings when they were still standing. “Now almost forty years later it is gone.” He enumerated the losses: beautiful brick buildings; an old red barn; baseball diamond; soccer fields; “and gone are all of the mature trees that shaded the area.”

Alderman John Dubinski: “I am strongly against the proposed road.”

“I will be taking my Grandkids for a walk through the wooded area north of the McDonald house, and taking many photos. It will be good to have a record of history should the wrong decisions be made.” When I asked specifically about the master plan he was unequivocal: “I am strongly against the proposed road.”

I counted eight owls on Sunday and I met two birders
who had driven from Iowa to see them.

In an email after the tour Third District Alderwoman Nancy Welch summed up the event: “I was impressed by the number of people from all parts of Wauwatosa who had taken the time to walk through the woods on a brisk Saturday morning. As I spoke to individuals along the way, it was clear that they valued the area, especially the ones who were experiencing it for the first time. Most conversations started with them telling me that elected officials should be listening to their constituents and doing more to protect the area. The conversation quickly turned to the quality of life that attracted them to this community and keeps them here. They were very concerned that protecting the Woods would require more than a promise to change the zoning, it will require changing the current focus on promoting too much development. I lingered after everyone left to appreciate the setting and was rewarded with the sight of a heron flying above the trees.”

Open house at Wauwatosa City Hall Tuesday, Feb. 7, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

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This is an opportunity to ask questions, raise concerns and state your opinions about the plan.

More information available on the Wauwatosa website. 

To read the draft Master Plan, click here.

To see more photos of this area in other seasons go to Flickr.

An edited version of this story was published by Milwaukee Magazine on Feb. 6, 2017.