Great Waters Group

Take the Milwaukee 105 Nature Challenge

This year the Milwaukee County Parks are celebrating 105 years of maintaining our beautiful park system which intersects with our 3 rivers – the Milwaukee, the Menonomonee, and the Kinnickinnick.   How many cities have 3 rivers running through them? And multiple excellent nature centers? And lots of woods and wild places?

The Park People in cooperation with The Milwaukee County Parks Department have produced a passport.  As you travel through our parks this year, on foot or by bicycle, or by car hopping to different locations, I am challenging you to find and make a list of 105 discoveries that demonstrate the diversity of our park system residents and users as you explore the Oak Leaf Trail and our parks

The following is my suggestion for your list  --  Find different species of the following:

20 birds,   20 plants or grasses,   20 insects (6 legged),   10 trees,   5 spiders (8 legs),   10 four legged animals,  10 amphibians, reptiles or fishes, and  10 people (no names) of different cultural or national heritage. If you don't know the species' names, just write or draw a discription. Don't forget to note where you saw them. We can talk about it at the End of 105 Days celebration on September 15 at Estabrook Park.

If you can't attend the party at Estabrook park, send a copy of your list in with your passport to The Park People for the drawing. See rules on the last page of the passport.

Talley Ho!   It is time for an urban wild things adventure.        www.parkpeoplemke.org

The following poem, posted here by request, was written by poet Suzanne Rosenblatt specifically for GWG's Earth Day celebration.  It is copyrighted and reprinted here with the permission of the author. 

CONSEQUENCE SEQUENCE      April 2012

Every step we take, every rung we climb,
How we spend each moment of our time
Everything we do has a consequence,
WE CAN'T AFFORD TO SIT ON THE FENCE.

Oh look, oh look, something landed on my foot
I suspect it was,  particles of soot
I'm afraid of breathing, I'm furious, I'm seething
is there a coal-burning plant nearby?
Now I've got a mote in my eye!
A coal-burning plant emits
microscopic particulates,  and coal dust
Which migrate into ALL of us
Who knows, who knows, where a particulate goes,
Comes in through mouth, comes in through nose
osmoses to the lungs and blood and flows
Up to the brain, down to the toes
Transforms into asthma, We live in a miasma
Of particulates, of coal dust, In industry we trust
To do the job cleanly, To do nothing unseemly
As seams of coal become our air, particulates and dust, doesn't anyone care?

Men fish in the river
And if they glance back
Can see sooty smoke rise from the coal smoke stack
Can't see it land, with mercury, into river, lake, and sea,
Can't see the toxicity, Can't see, can't see
Soot and mercury rain into the river
Go from water to fish, To the dinner dish,
from hook, to cook, then to the eater's liver
Everything we do has consequences
When will we ever come to our senses?
We have to learn to simplify
Go back to life's basics, or earth's gonna die

Thrum hum honk toot squeal screech rumble
Clatter chatter yikes oops snarl growl grumble
Overabundance of concrete, teeming traffic on street
Dah dum, dah dah, dah dum, car radio's heart beat
Exhaust fumes, constant energy, vibrate in the air, engulf me
Deafening sirens, motors, engines, foul fumes, oh, my head spins
Air pollution, noise pollution, Is there any any solution
I can't think of one, perhaps dis-solution has  begun!

Where can we go when we're caught in town
With constant cars & clatter getting us down?
To the park, yes, the park, to serenity, to tree after un-interrupted tree
Where native plants and wildlife live pesticide free
Where we can regain our sanity!

But what if we looked up and we could see
Power poles towering to infinity?
Why why  wires buzzing, high energy transmission,
Wires weaving through treetops,
Did someone give permission?
Towering power poles in the park,
Or perhaps along the river bank
Power poles in your back yard,
and you don't know whom to thank

It's jobs versus nature here,
Some think the solution's very clear
Others know it's NOT clear-cut
Know we're in a rut, rut, rut,
and the solution's not clear-cut

Do unto Earth as you'd have Earth do to you
Don't don't don't run the power line through
The trail for monarch butterflies
Who would be so greedy, so unwise
In order to survive, what do monarchs need?
Acres of asters, goldenrod, milkweed
For nectar, for nectar, on which they feed
And at night they roost in the sheltering oak trees,
Blanket them like layers of orange and black leaves,
This is an idyllic space
Certainly impossible to replace
Nature versus jobs, nature versus energy,
Nurture the Earth, then it will nurture thee

Everything we do has consequences
It's time for us to come to our senses
We can't afford to sit on fences
We have to learn to simplify
Go back to life's basics, or life will say goodbye.

                 Copyright, Suzanne Rosenblatt, 2012

                      More Than 100 Attend Earth Day Celebration

John Muir couldn't have been more pleased. It was standing room only at Hart Park's Riverview Room when GWG Conservation Chair Dianne Dagelen invited all to parade with colorful “eco-puppets” in the opening ceremony for Great Water Group's 2012 Earth Day Celebration, held April 20th in Wauwatosa.  

Meanwhile, musicians Jahmes Finalyson and Jeff Bray played “This Earth Is Your Earth” and other songs throughout the evening. Participants from a diverse cross-section of the community joined together to honor Mother Earth, including inter-faith readings on earth stewardship from Ojibwe to Islamic traditions.

The program painted a broad conservation brush, framed by personal experience. Wauwatosa Mayor Kathy Ehley introduced photographer/blogger Eddee Daniel as our keynote speaker. A fellow Sierran, he showed local slides to demonstrate the incongruities of “Urban Wilderness” to reflect on the ethics of maintaining biodiversity in a densely populated city, whose diminishing wildness is often at odds with development.

Enhancing the evening’s theme, Butterfly Lady Barb Agnew described the sustainability challenges for monarch migration on Milwaukee County Grounds’ Monarch Trail and Erin Lee of Fight Asthma Milwaukee Allies taught us about particle pollution by coal plants and other sources and its relationship with respiratory disease, heart attack, and stroke.   Entertainment included the children's dance class from Core El-Centro performing as bumble bees, rose, and butterflies. Written specifically for this event, Earth Poet Suzanne Rosenblatt read her poem “Consequence Sequence” which focused on how pollution, coupled with green space degradation, impacts our lives.   Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and John Muir stopped by in between to reinforce these ideas.

Author Eric Hansen with his essay “A Place Where Water Sparkles” and Rev. Willie Brisco with his talk on “Our Commission to Take Care of the Earth” ended the program followed by singing “Blowin' In the Wind.” Re-cycle art activities were available to children during the entire program. In addition, 19 civic partners provided a variety of environmental information including Preserve Our Parkway, The Park People, Water Sentinels, American Lung Association, and Waukesha Environmental Action League.  

Green Drinks  *update* 

Transition Milwaukee is now managing Green Drinks events in Milwaukee.  

There is a new volunteer committee for Green Drinks that is excited to re-energize the event with interesting speakers and a growing attendee list!

The next Green Drinks will be Wed., May 9 from 5-7pm at Club Charlies - come out and help us re-group.

** WHAT IS GREEN DRINKS? This is a world-wide program, a great oppotunity for good conversation, good drinks, and a chance to network with other environmentally-minded people. **

WHEN: Every second Wednesday of the month from 5pm to 7pm.

WHERE: Club Charlies (located between Milwaukee St. and Broadway St. – across from MIAD in the third ward). 320 E. Menomonee, Milwaukee, WI 53202