Hoop Houses

The Green Team is back at it again, working to assist in improving our community any way they can.

Want to have peppers in the fall? The Green Team is here to help. They began working on building hoop houses and providing demonstrations in areas where we have built community gardens. A hoop house is an dome-like shelter built around a garden bed to keep heat inside the garden, which allows the vegeation in the garden to continue growing. 

The base is started. Now it is time for the plastic




Adding the cover to the foundation.



A finished hoop house.

Our 2011 Green Team

The summer of 2011 Green Team has been hard at work making Milwaukee a safer, cleaner and greener place to live, work and play. 

Our new Green Team has begun work on a Barrel-Ponics Project with their field supervisor Dave Mangin. Aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture (fishkeeping) and hydroponic (no-soil) plant growth techniques. There is no soil or chemicals required to produce large amounts of fish, fruits, and vegetables in a very small space.

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Gateway to Improved Long-term Spawning (GILS)

A team of local fisheries and habitat experts will be installing HUBS (Habitat Underwater Baskets) to introduce quality habitat for fish along the shipping channel of the Milwaukee River Estuary. Because these riverbanks are along the shipping channel, they are lined with vertical steel sheet walls, retaining walls, concrete, and steel bulkheads to provide structural stability and eliminate erosion from passing barges. It is not possible for fish to survive in these areas of the river due to dredging and lack of vegetation to support them.

HUB’s are rubber containers attached within the corrugations of steel bulkheads and contain a variety of wetland plants that young fish use as food and shelter. Unique designs have been engineered to reflect wall conditions, water quality, freeze/thaw patterns, ice and wave action, tolerant vegetation, and target species needs.

Though a pilot project known as the” Habitat in Hard Places” program lasted only one year because of high plant mortality, this was due primarily to late-season deployment. Prior to installation, the HUB’s tested well; both in the field and lab then re-sprouted after the winter freeze. Following Installation, the WI DNR along with area non-profits will monitor plant and aquatic life, and data collected will be used to prove the success of our pilot project before we expand.

Our long-term goal is to increase fish population and improve spawning patterns along the shipping channel of the Milwaukee River Estuary. Short term project objectives include:

• Identifying potential installation sites
• Selecting plant species
• Determining alternative plant rearing facilities & techniques
• Finalizing locations and bolstering project interest.
• Determining alternatives for attachment mechanisms, flotation containers, soil and plants; Choose best method
• Fabricating attachment device
• Establishing plant nursery and begin incorporating plant-rearing techniques
• Determining the best statistical methods to evaluate fish use of the structures
• Determining winter die off rate in HUB’s, spring re-sprout rate of plants and use by fish species.
• Monitoring of HUB’s for plant vitality, basket maintenance, and fish use
• Developing recreational and aesthetic surveys
• Placing fish & assemblage data in the MMSD/USGS historical database

The "habitat in Hard Places" program (of Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization) was the first pilot project to use habitat underwater baskets "CHUBS" in an effort to improve corridor fish habitat.

Grow and Play Lot

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/128099228.html

Join us with the Cluster Two Neighborhood Association in building a Grow and Play Lot. Work begins October 26th and will continue into early November. Help us create a safe place for kids to play and learn! Interested in volunteering for this project?

Volunteer



  Lad-Lake Synergy High School students mixing concrete for the Grow and Play Lot

Hope High School students finishing a concrete slab with decorative stone

Community Gardens

Download the 2011 garden plot permit application

The GWM Green Team worked with with six different community garden groups to build 41 main beds, and also completed maintenance tasks. 12 raised beds were built during mid-July with the Midtown Neighborhood Block Watch. They built 14 raised beds for the community garden at the Grow and Play Lot sponsored by the Cluster Two neighborhood association. The Green Team took on a project to build and fill 10 raised beds for a community garden at the Solomon Community Temple and they built 5 raised beds for a community garden with the Kinnickinic River Improvement Coalition (KRIC). The team also performed maintenance at other community gardens associated with the Lisbon Area Neighborhood Development group (LAND), as well as the Nigella Commons Community Garden in the WIlliamsburg neighborhood. The Green Team observed the positive impacts of the gardens on people's lives and on the environment at these and other locations they visited.

 

 

Harambee Grow and Play Lot

GWM Organized a clean up and celebratory cook out in Harambee's Cluster Two neighborhood.

The Green Team on the Milwaukee River BLM Islands

GWM Worked with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in removing trash, debris and invasive weeds from an island in the Milwaukee River. The BLM wants to conduct environmental education on the site but has not been able to use the site because of its lack of maintenance.

Rain Gardens

GWM Mainteined rain gardens, pulling invasive species and planting new plants. 

 

Brownfields

GWM assists residents, businesses, and local non-profit organizations in greening remediated brownfield sites to provide needed greenspace in Milwaukee's urban neighborhoods.

In 2009 GWM partnered with Lisbon Avenue Development Corp (LAND) to transform  the site of a former gas station into a neighbohood pocket park honoring victims of area gun violence

GWM is partnering with the City of Milwaukee to develop an outreach and education plan for the community around the City's phytoremediation site at N. First St and Nash in the Harambee neighborhood.

Stormwater

GWM works with local schools, community groups, and residents to implement projects to prevent polluted stormwater run-off on their property. These projects include installing rain gardens, installing green roofs, and planting trees to intercept rainwater. GWM partners with Milwaukee Community Service Corps, a local job training organization, Milwaukee River Keeper, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center and Milwaukee Public Schools in construction and implementation of these projects.  Completed projects include rain gardens at


Humboldt Park Elementary School


Fernwood Montessorri


Robert J. Modrezejewski Playground


35 & National (behind Mekato's Bakery)

Community Gardens

GWM has partnered with the Harambee Great Neighborhoods Initiative and neighborhood organizations in Harambee to turn vacant lots into community gardens. These gardens not only provide nutritious food to residents, but are also safe gathering places for neighbors.

 

Neighborhood and Community Planning

GWM continues to successfully acquire funding to host community planning processes around the re-use of vacant land in our targeted communities.

GWM partnered with the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Office to host a trailhead design process to provide ideas for trailhead amenities for the planned Kinnickinnic River Trail, a City of Milwaukee bike trail.

GWM has partnered with Sixteenth Street Community Health Center to work on the public outreach for the Kinnickinnic River Neighborhood Planning Process, which revolves around Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's removal of the concrete lining of the river.

Trails

GWM has made a long-term commitment to the Kinnickinnic River Trail (KKRT), a City of Milwaukee bike trail that will connect Bay View and Lincoln Village to downtown Milwaukee. GWM works with the Milwaukee Christian Center YouthBuild program on invasive species management and pedestrian path building between the bike trail and the Kinnickinnic River.

Take a look at the Charrette from the visioning event!

Building Connections to the Kinnickinnic River

GWM partnered with Riverworks Development Corporation, Marek Landscaping, Greening Milwaukee, and Harambee Great Neighborhoods Initiative to implement the first phase of the Beerline Trail and Community Park in the fall of 2008. The park runs along a City of Milwaukee bike trail that connects the Harambee and Riverwest neighborhoods.

Green Team

The GWM Green Team is a service-learning program to engage 14 to 17 year olds living in GWM's target communities. The program has dual goals: to prepare youth for a lifetime of environmental leadership and to develop community capacity to improve the physical environment.

Green Team members are immersed in GWM's practical projects and act as GWM employees, neighborhood stewards, and mentors to elementary-aged youth in their neighborhood.


Green Team members prepare soil to lay sod

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