Nature Notes
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Eating From the Earth

by Nature Notes

Eating locally grown produce is a delicious and rare treat for city residents. When shopping at a supermarket, we usually find a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that have every appearance of freshness. But most of our produce has traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles before arriving in our stores.

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Stewardship Means Caring for the Natural Part of Our Community

by Nature Notes

“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources’, but it does affirm their right to continued existence in a natural state.” — Aldo Leopold, Sand Co. Almanac 1949

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The North Avenue Dam is Gone But Not Forgotten

by Nature Notes

Most people I have asked say, “Oh, it’s been at least ten years.” Or they say, “The dam’s been out since the early nineties.” Or in some cases, “I think it came out in the late seventies.” By looking at the land on both sides of the Milwaukee River above the North Avenue bridge, it is hard to know that the dam was removed in 1997. Barely five years ago!

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Ask the Naturalist! Nature Questions from Kids

by Nature Notes

Kids have a way of making us see the world differently–new perspectives, wild ideas, un-thought-of solutions, and a myriad of questions. Kids who visit the Urban Ecology Center ask a constant stream of questions about the native Wisconsin animals that live in our center–questions we may have wondered ourselves but for some reason never asked. […]