Keep My Neighborhood Clean!

On April 16, the awesome kids at La Escuela Fratney's Boys and Girls Club participated in Global Youth Service Day by picking up trash in the grounds around their school.

"I feel like a detective!" said Aliciayana, a third grade member of the Boys and Girls Club, "Some of this stuff is just gross."

The kids cleaned up the section of Fratney between Concordia and Auer, then moved west along Auer before heading across the playground to deposit their trash. Though the area is relatively small, the kids found plenty to pick up, from bottle caps and cigarette butts to shredded plastic bags left over from winter. Best of all it was fun! The kids took on a playful competition, each trying to fill their trash bags with the most interesting trash, or the largest pieces.

"You don't have to be lady-like about it," said Rosemary to her peers as she dug in to extract some small bits of plastic from the ground. It was a beautiful day to be outside and the kids seemed anxious to move past school grounds.

Rosario, the Boys and Girls Club coordinator said with more volunteers and parental permission, the kids could potentially be able to venture further into the neighborhoods to help out there, where people who might have trouble getting at the trash live.

The 'Keep my neighborhood clean' project was headed by the Boys and Girls Club Torch members and coordinated by the Institute for Service Learning out of UWM

Take a hike, plant a tree!

As the Earth Day 2011 draws near, the River Revitalization Foundation is swinging into its 15th year with Plant a Tree, Take a Hike! On the rainy morning of April the 16th, seven volunteers trouped out of the city and into the woods to pick up trash, meeting others at the end. "You can smell the garlic mustard," said Eli, a UWM student in conservation and environmental science, "you can actually make pesto out of it, though this soil is pretty contaminated." Everywhere the little leaflets of this invasive species were just beginning to sprout through the spring soil. Next to the Garlic Mustard, however, small clusters of Virginia Waterleaf, a pretty, mottled plant that resembles a watercolor, are crowding for real-estate. These plants will need more space if they hope to regain the ground cover. Also along the path, new arms of Dogwood have been transported from larger clumps to help thin out the Burdock, another invasive. These native species are a key factor in 'filling the ecological niche'.

All along the trail as the intrepid volunteers; Dan, Maria, Ryan, and Mario, disentangled blown-in bits of trash from the sharp slopes lining the west side of the Beerline Trail,Eli, and coordinators Theresa and Kimberly showed me the beginnings what will be one of this area's biggest projects, The Rotary Centennial Arboretum. The project, sponsored by the River Revitalization Foundation, The Urban Ecology Center, and The Milwaukee Urban Rivers Foundation, among others, will clear out, regrade, sculpt, and re introduce nutrients to many parts of the Milwaukee River basin. This project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

As the trail poured out onto Riverboat Rd, south of North ave, the projects of the day culminated in a large group of people all of whom were digging holes, planting new local species, and using pulled up Buckthorn; another invasive species, making fences to keep their new planting safe while they take to their new homes. Other volunteers kept scouring the river valley for trash-there was so much!

Some volunteers were affiliated with the parent organizations that helped bring together Global Youth Service day in association with the Institute for Service Learning Center at UWM. Many of these people came on their own, in general interest for the environment. All took part in making a difference in their community.