Session: FT 9 - Snakes, Canoeing, and Citizen Science at the Urban Ecology Center


Sunday, August 3, 2008: 9:00 AM-3:00 PM
West Well St. Entrance , Midwest Airlines Center
FT 9 - Snakes, Canoeing, and Citizen Science at the Urban Ecology Center
The Urban Ecology Center (UEC, www.urbanecologycenter.org) is a not-for-profit environmental education center that grew out of a grassroots neighborhood effort to save historic Riverside Park (designed by Frederick Law Olmsted) from crime. Located in the most densely populated area of Wisconsin, UEC grew from it’s humble beginnings in a double-wide trailer to an award-winning green building that boasts energy-efficient design, recycled materials, and a gray-water system, as well as a classroom camouflaged into the wall, an entryway that is a slide, and a 40-foot observation tower with a rock-climbing wall. This trip will start with a building tour and discussion of two of UEC’s nationally-recognized programs, the Neighborhood Environmental Education Project (NEEP) and the Citizen Science project. After lunch, we will venture on to the floodplains of the Milwaukee River with UEC’s researchers and citizen scientists to assist them in their monitoring of the state-threatened Butler’s garter snake, which is found only in the Milwaukee area and is facing the threat of habitat loss due to development. The trip will conclude with a lazy canoe trip down the Milwaukee River and back to the Convention Center. Please wear comfortable clothes for canoeing and a short hike through grassland.