Community Restores the Outdoors at the Urban Ecology Center

Volunteers dressed in jeans, sweaters and tennis shoes walked toward an open field, gardening gloves on and blue-handled trowels ready. Large green reusable bags were placed on the ground near the first site that they would be working on. Today they would be uprooting yellow rocket, an invasive species of mustard in Wisconsin, to put into compost. As they shoved their trowels into the dirt, they talked and laughed together as a slight breeze came through to relieve them of the hot sun. This is Aaron Hilyard’s second time volunteering for ROOT after moving here from Colorado.

“I’m just looking to get outside, enjoy the beautiful weather, and meet some people in the area, and just get involved in the community and do something positive,” said Hilyard.

A group of six volunteers helped remove invasive mustard from Riverside Park through ROOT, a volunteer program run through the Urban Ecology Center, on April 25. Restoring Our Outdoors Together or ROOT, is a public volunteer opportunity offered at all three UEC locations. Jeremy “Moose” Rappaport has been the land manager of Riverside Park since July 2023 and leads ROOT on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the spring, summer and fall. For some parts of the year, he’s the only one tending to the 44 acres of land. 

“The program is, I think, useful in two respects,” said Rappaport. “One, it’s labor that we need. We pick up some interns and I share a land steward with the other branches. But it’s really just me on 44 acres and invasive species removal can be very labor intensive.”

ROOT started out as Burdock Brigade back in 2008 when they targeted mostly burdock, also an invasive plant. In 2013, the UEC Land Stewardship team renamed it ROOT and began offering the two-hour volunteering sessions. The UEC has had anywhere between one and 25 volunteers coming in. The mission of the center is to connect people with the outdoors and with each other.

Sofia Cortez is the land steward for all three UEC locations and has seen the benefits of ROOT starting to take effect. Just last summer, Rappaport, Cortez, and volunteers worked on a hill dubbed “Hell Hill” to clear out the massive amount of invasive Canada Thistle and motherwort covering it. By the end, native milkweed overshadowed by the invasive plants began to flourish. 

“If we didn’t have a group of volunteers, working alone just Jeremy and I, it would’ve taken a long time,” said Cortez. “There’s absolutely no way across three parks and close to 80 acres of land we can do it without ROOT.” 

Many high school and college students come to the UEC to fulfill service-learning requirements. Along with ROOT, the center offers other volunteer opportunities such as the early morning bird walk and the annual river clean-up with the Milwaukee Riverkeeper. Volunteer Coordinator Grace Alvarez has gotten to meet many of the volunteers that come to the Riverside Park location.

“I just like being able to connect with land and take care of it but also being able to meet new folks especially as volunteer coordinator,” said Alvarez. “I would say it’s quite nice to meet the volunteers and know exactly why I’m here in this position.”

As the weather starts to warm up and schools let out soon, Cortez is hoping for more volunteers to come out for ROOT.

“You know, it’s a nice way to meet people,” said Cortez. “Even if you come once a month your work is really appreciated. Even though it seems like you do very little, it does help us out a lot. Not only does it get you outside, but it’s also a good social thing and you feel good about yourself when you leave.”