Milwaukee Riverkeeper has a long history of working to protect the County Grounds (located off Hwy 45 & Watertown Plank Rd. in Wauwatosa). The organization was originally formed in 1995 as Friends of the Menomonee River and our first campaign was a citizen-led effort to protect the County Grounds from development.

Countless years later, we continue to battle for the purpose of protecting the remaining natural areas of the Milwaukee County Grounds. There are ongoing meetings both pertaining to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s plans to create an Engineering Campus on 89 acres of the County Grounds, as well as meetings regarding the rezoning of both the Campus property and an adjoining 55 acre parcel of open space, which will be changed to a conservancy district (and hopefully will be the subject of a legally binding conservation easement).

Read more about the history of our work on the County Grounds.

Read Eddee Daniel’s 2007 essay County Grounds: A landscape in transition

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