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I completed my service! Yay! In the end I put in 40.5 hours at the Urban Ecology Center. After finishing up and reflecting on my service, here are a few things to note:

I found that “service learning” at the UEC is much more than overseeing programs or pulling weeds in the park. It’s about gaining a deeper knowledge and connection to not only nature but the community. I saw this working both for ROOT and at the reception desk. I definitely know more about the center and what it provides from being a reception desk volunteer, and from that knowledge can say that the UEC really does achieve its mission of connecting people to nature. Many who came into the center were eager to learn about the community programs that promoted environmental education and preservation. Many people came to simply enjoy the park the UEC is built on, connecting them to nature in a more passive but not less important way. I feel as though a roadblock the UEC may face in spreading their mission is that a lot of people didn’t even know the UEC existed or what it was about-- at least one person a day would come in and tell me that they’ve never been to the center before. And honestly, before I volunteered there, I didn’t know it existed either. Perhaps finding a way to spread awareness of the UEC and it’s mission would be helpful, whether it be through posters or fliers or even more of a social media presence. Overall, I really loved working at the Urban Ecology Center and would love to go back and volunteer if I get the time next semester. 

To answer my final research question on how to get a community involved: one article from The Guardian states that to get a community involved in anything, there are seven distinct steps: Stop consulting and start acting, make the activities fun and easy, not worrying about getting every single person involved, finding active communities, mixing social media communication and meetings, carefully considering charities to work with, and understanding your audience. It’s a lot to take in, but in a society where time is a limited and precious resource people want to spend time doing something that matters, whether their involvement results in good food or a positive impact on the world around them. Most of those who get involved in their communities, however, tend to be better educated and in the middle class range. To talk more specifically on involving communities in the environment, a page on the University of Glasgow School of Law Blog discusses the role of communities in environmental conservation. In this article, it is discussed that empowering communities to take control of their own local environments in important in involving the community to make a positive change. This encourages communities to take responsibility of their local environments, giving the community a sense of pride and greater concern and involvement with improving environmental conditions. 

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I will admit that I have been failing to keep up posting consistently, for I have volunteered two more times since I last posted. I worked at reception both times. One of these times I got to help set up for a wedding. I found it really interesting to watch how the place transformed in preparation for a wedding. It’s cool how many different ways the UEC serves the community. I have one more session remaining at the reception desk at UEC and I feel like I’m going to miss it. A lot of fun and interesting people work there and it’s nice to get to talk to them. Perhaps I will consider volunteering there again in the future if I have the time. 

For my final research question, I would like to address how to get communities involved in environmental conservation projects. The UEC is big on learning about and preserving nature, and I’m curious to see what sort of ways both the UEC and other organizations get the community involved to promote better environmental health. 

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You should find out about Frederick Law Olmsted and how the park came to be. He is a very famous landscape architect.  What was his original plan?

Frederick Law Olmsted was the designer of Riverside Park, the park which the Urban Ecology Center resides on. He is well known for designing several parks in New York City, his most famous park being Central Park.

Olmsted designed Riverside, Lake, and Washington Park simultaneously, creating what he dubbed the “Grand Necklace of Parks.” He envisioned these places to be a network of parks connected by “parkways” or scenic drives from park to park. These parkways would also extend green space from the parks and into outside properties, enhancing the property values of places that resided on the parkways. Each park was to offer a different quality, making each one unique in the larger set. The key feature in Riverside Park was the access to the riverfront and and a mature and beautiful oak grove on the east side. The park was also centered around a natural ravine, which has since been filled in. Because of its location, Riverside Park was a popular place to boat and swim in its early days. As the quality of the river grew worse, swimming at the park stopped. And eventually, the park fell into disrepair until the early beginnings of the Urban Ecology Center created an initiative to clean up the park in 1991. Today, while the park is certainly not exactly as Olmsted had originally laid out, the park is enjoyed once more as he intended. 

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I volunteered two more times on Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30 at the reception desk. Both days were pretty slow because equipment lending hasn’t started yet, but it was interesting just to people watch from my post at the desk. 

I researched my previous question and came upon an article from the National Recreation and Park Association talking about the benefit of centers such as the Urban Ecology Center. And while the National Recreation and Park Association is a government based program and not a non-profit organization like the Urban Ecology Center, a lot of what is said rings true for both. The article talks about how these centers benefit communities economically, environmentally, and socially. On the economic side of things, private property around parks and recreation centers tend to have higher property values. These properties also generate more tax revenue. Additionally, running parks and recreation centers like UEC does not cost the community-- these centers are funded by revenue gained through things like memberships, program fees, and donations. Environmentally, places like UEC, who focus on educating the public on the natural world and conservation of such, have a positive impact. Additionally, these places also promote public health as many people exercise in parks and benefit from the improved air quality and ground water a park provides. And finally, centers like the UEC have a positive social impact. Parks and recreation centers are often places of community pride and bring people together as natural gathering places. These places are also not restricted by social or economic class for everyone is able to enjoy these places on their own for free. Additionally, access to parks and recreation centers is linked to fewer instances of crime in the community around the centers. 

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Since many of my questions have been focused on environmental conservation and effects the environment has on the community, my next question to explore will be how centers like the UEC work to bring communities together in a more general sense. I see a lot of different people at UEC and I’m wondering how the center affects the community as a whole. Or, a bit more broadly, what sort of effect to community centers have?

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Well both yesterday and Friday I worked at the reception desk at UEC. I trained Friday, but yesterday I ended up flying solo. It went well! The center was pretty busy, but I mostly just ended up refilling the coffee pots and getting board games out for kids to play. It’s interesting to see all the different people who visit the center and what they do there. A great deal of families come in and explore the center, but individuals, couples, and groups of teenagers come visit the center as well. The position is still a little nerve wracking to me because I don't know how to do EVERYTHING yet, but with time I feel as though those nerves will subside. The longer I work at the center the more functions I see it serve; it’s a place for children to play and learn but it’s also a place for adults to relax and learn themselves. Overall, I do really enjoy the atmosphere at UEC and working at reception really helps me to take it in all the better. 

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The Urban Ecology Center

I have been volunteering regularly at the Urban Ecology Center (UEC) for well over a month now. Here is some information about the organization:

The Urban Ecology Center of Milwaukee has three branches, one in Riverside Park, one in Washington Park, and one in the Menominee Valley. The organization started in 1991 at the Riverside Park branch, where a group of citizens wanted to take back a neglected and crime-ridden Riverside Park. They proposed to combat crime with environmental education and began to fix up the park, replanting native species using it as a tool to teach students in the neighborhood about nature. A sense of community around nature arose, leading the UEC to expand their initiative to two other locations. Their mission today is to inspire curiosity and respect for nature and connecting people to nature. They also continue to strive to protect and restore nature throughout Milwaukee today.

UEC offers many programs for the youth in the neighborhood. NEEP (Neighborhood Environmental Education Project) is one such program that connects children to natural sciences. Other early-childhood education and after-school programs are offered as well. As well as youth education, the UEC also offers Community Science programs that allow community members to aid in carrying out academic research on the plants, animals, and environment at the parks.  Other programs that involve getting people out into nature are offered as well through planned events and equipment lending.  And finally, the UEC holds birthday parties and weddings from time to time.

From the UEC website: “The full- and part-time staff members include those with bachelor's and master's degrees in biology, history, education, communication and business, to name a few. All of them are passionate about developing new models of environmental education and environmental mentoring.” The majority of the staff at the Urban Ecology Centers are professionals in their fields, from scientists to teachers to business and communication managers. The UEC does also rely on a great deal of volunteers. Programs like ROOT and Community Science all rely on the help of volunteers to keep the UEC running smoothly. Additionally, receptionist positions are mostly staffed by volunteers.

Funding for the Urban Ecology center comes from memberships and donations. Members at the UEC can rent any of the outdoor equipment for no additional cost for up to 3 days. This equipment ranges from bikes and boats to skis and backpacks. The center also gets money through programs such as summer school and family programs and sells merchandise. The center also makes money from sponsorship at their events.

The number of volunteers the center has is difficult to judge, for many volunteer opportunities are open, letting people drop in whenever they like. Some opportunities, such as NEEP, reception, and Community Science see more regular volunteers. I do know that the UEC does keep record of volunteer’s names and hours, so I can ask when I go back next. 

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Here were some of my findings from the previous question:

Many developments now are including green space into urban planning. Green spaces positively effect metal health of citizens, can keep cities cooler, increase sustainability, and provide crucial healthy habitats for local plant and animal species. Like Riverside Park, some green spaces are planned, leading a city to be constructed around them. However, it’s a little more tricky to add green space back into an already crowded “concrete jungle.” Rooftop gardens are common ways to incorporate a bit of green space back into an otherwise barren landscape. Additionally, repurposing old structures is another way to reincorporate green space. New York City’s High Line park does just this by planting on old train tracks that would otherwise be destroyed. Overall, as cities become more populated and dense the need for green space grows, whether it be implemented in planned space set aside for a park or placed on a repurposed piece of infrastructure. 

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Another question to explore while working at UEC is how green space can be better integrated into cities. Green spaces certainly benefit the community, so I feel as though it would be beneficial to incorporate them into cities more often. The Riverside Park UEC for example was built on an already existing park. I wonder how green space, whether initially planned or added later, is being incorporated into city landscapes.

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After doing a bit of digging on the Human Health Laboratory page from the University of Illinois, I found that green spaces have effects such as reducing ADHD symptoms, reducing domestic violence, discouraging crime and boosting and self-discipline, and overall just bringing communities together. 

I explored one of the articles that talked about greenspaces and their effect on productivity and resilience. The article cited a study that showed that, in a Chicago public housing facility, women who had greenery directly outside their homes showed less procrastination on dealing with major dilemmas in their lives and made their lives more manageable. This is explained on how greenspace seems to “refresh” one’s ability to concentrate and allows people to center themselves and their thoughts more easily. I found this interesting, for while it’s pretty obvious why a greenspace would bring people together (people come out to enjoy a walk in the park on a nice day and meet other people) but I hadn’t really considered the overall mental effects just being around plants and nature has on a person. 

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Another session of ROOT down, and this time we finally were able to go outside! We cleared away buckthorn, which is an invasive species of bush. Aside from crowding out other native species, the berries of the buckthorn act as a diuretic for birds and other animals that eat them, meaning that they’re low in nutritional value and virtually useless. Unfortunately, the buckthorn lives up to it’s name, as I got a big thorn stuck right into my palm while I was dragging away the branches to the compost pile. It was certainly hard work, as I spent quite a while ankle deep in the snow sawing at thick branches with a handsaw, but seeing the hillside clear of a species that is causing the environment harm is certainly rewarding. 

As far as research questions go, I am in the process of reading the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory page from the University of Illinois. I will post what I find there shortly!

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I’m a little late on getting this update out for this happened on Friday, but I have started training to work as a receptionist at UEC. I learned how to work the computer system to set up reservations for outdoor equipment, answer the phone and redirect calls to their proper place, and I learned how to make refill the coffee station that is loved by so many of the people who visit UEC. I was surprised by how many reservations I made for the outdoor equipment. I had at least 10 people come to pick up reserved equipment for the weekend and made about 10 more reservations. Seeing this, I learned that the UEC is really fulfilling it’s mission of connecting people with nature-- so many people are eager to get out into nature and have a good time. This is something I’ll note while doing more research on how green spaces and how they effect the community.

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Another seed cleaning session at UEC, but probably my last. We cleaned the last of the seeds this morning and were informed that we would be out in the warehouse fixing up tools and equipment next ROOT session. While I did enjoy cleaning seeds (I cleaned the rest of the assortment of fuzzy seeds I started last Tuesday) I look forward to being able to do some more things outside!

While I’ve been cleaning seeds there are often a great deal of people milling around the urban ecology center, with age ranges from small elementary school students to older adults. As I’ve been observing this, the biggest question I have is how green spaces such as the urban ecology center benefit communities and what kind of effects do they have long term.

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Well another session of ROOT is over and yet another round of seeds have been cleaned. I cleaned bottle gentian today and found several dead (and one live!) caterpillars nestled among the seeds. While we were working, I asked my supervisor Joel why it’s important to plant native species and eliminate invasive ones. He replied that there is often a higher concentration of insects found on native plants rather than invasive species. So while invasive plants can still provide food and shelter for insects and other animals, native plants have shown, through several studies, to have more insects on them. More insects = more birds = more predators = healthier ecosystem. Additional, he discussed how some plants and animals evolve codependently. When one of the those creatures is removed from the environment, the other suffers. Therefore, bringing back native plants can also bring back species that evolved specifically to rely on said plants. So ultimately, planting native plants results in a healthier overall ecosystem. 

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I attended the morning session for ROOT today. There were A LOT more people at this session compared to the last. Today I cleaned the seeds of the purple prairie clover along with a mixed bag of fluffy forest plant seeds. We did get the news that since the stock of seeds that need to be cleaned is starting to run low, we may have to start working outdoors with fixing tools and other facilities. I look forward to going outside, especially after being stuck indoors by the awful weather we've had this winter. I suppose that as I clean the seeds, all of which are native Wisconsin species, I am beginning to wonder why it’s so important to rebuild Wisconsin ecosystems with only native species. 

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I just finished my first volunteer event at the Urban Ecology Center. While there, I cleaned and sorted grass-leaved goldenrod seeds to prepare them to be replanted in the spring. Reintroducing and maintaining native plants and wildlife is a very important goal of the UEC and it was interesting to hear the people I worked with talk about the importance of native biodiversity.

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Mission Statement FROM the Urban Ecology Center

From the Urban Ecology Center website:

“Mission: We connect people in cities to nature and each other.

Vision: Our vision is to inspire generations to build environmental curiosity, understanding, and respect. We restore hope and heal our urban natural world, neighborhood by neighborhood.”