Category: Environmental Improvements

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Environmental Improvements Our Work

Stormwater Information and Resources

Stormwater Information and Resources

What is Green Infrastructure?

Green infrastructure captures rain water where it falls and absorbs water into the ground, keeping it
out of the sewer system. This is especially important in places with a lot of paved surface.

Green Infrastructure, as opposed to gray infrastructure like sewers, can take numerous forms like rain
gardens, barrels, and porous pavers for parking lots, driveways, and sidewalks. All of these strategies
store or absorb rain where it falls, keeping it out of our sewer system, which helps:

  • Protect rivers and lakes from water pollution.
  • Keep it from becoming someone else’s headache downstream.
  • Reduce the risk of basement backups, flooding, and sewer overflow.
Categories
Environmental Improvements Our Work

Ecological Breakwater Project

Ecological Breakwater project

The Ecological Breakwater project, originating from the Waterfront Innovations Design Charrette
convened by Milwaukee Harbor District and the City of Milwaukee in 2015, is a significant opportunity
to explore enhancing the structure that protects Port Milwaukee and other infrastructure in
Milwaukee Harbor.

The goal of the project is to find ways to augment the existing breakwater that
will provide greater protection to critical Port infrastructure and also build habitat for fish and
migratory birds. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District is responsible for maintaining
breakwater systems around the Great Lakes region. Harbor District’s vision for the Ecological
Breakwater is to explore the possibilities for integrating protection of coastal assets with habitat
improvements, a model that can be replicated throughout the Great Lakes.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded funding to Harbor District for the first phase of design
and engineering in 2023. This work involves developing conceptual alternatives to meet project goals
and modeling coastal dynamics to ensure the resilience of the project. It will be complete in spring of
2026. Harbor District worked with partners at Wisconsin DNR, Port Milwaukee, and US Army Corps of
Engineers throughout the project.

 
 
For questions regarding the Ecological Breakwater Project, please contact Milwaukee Harbor District’s Environmental Director, Aaron Zeleske, aaron@harbordistrict.org. 
 
 
 
Categories
Environmental Improvements Our Work

1st Street Green Infrastructure Project

1st Street Green Infrastructure Project

Harbor District and the City of Milwaukee were awarded funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to build green infrastructure along South 1st Street between Lincoln Avenue and Chase Avenue.

This project will reduce the street footprint from four lanes to two, replacing paved street with bioswales and native vegetation. It will also build an off-street multi-use path for pedestrians and bicycles in a place that does not even have a sidewalk.

The design and engineering work is complete and construction is scheduled for 2026.

Categories
Environmental Improvements Our Work

Ecology

Ecology

Even though the Harbor District is in the very heart of Milwaukee and has been the center of economic activity for centuries, there is still a healthy community of organisms that live here. From mammals like deer, coyotes, gray and red fox, muskrats, beavers, groundhogs, squirrels, and bats all the way down to dragonflies, insects, and barely visible invertebrates in the water, a rich ecology is thriving just out of sight.

The Harbor District has identified ways to improve habitat so that more things besides humans can find a home here, through rebuilding ecological functioning of the landscape. We do this by considering the needs of organisms for food, reproduction, shelter, and movement. Finding opportunities to re-introduce native plants and reserving space for animals is at the heart of this implementation, while also encouraging everyone to remember that nature is right here if you just stop to look and listen.

Harbor District has partnered with the Urban Ecology Center and Milwaukee Public Museum to learn more about the wildlife present. In 2019, we conducted surveys of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bats, and mammals. We found over sixty different species!

Read the Report

A great way to help collect information on wildlife and plants in the Harbor District is to use the smartphone app iNaturalist. It connects you with experts who can identify the species you find and keeps a log of everything you have observed.

Get the App

Even within our developed urban landscape, many different kinds of animals make a home or roam
through. We can improve the Harbor District’s ability to support wildlife by considering their needs and incorporating native plants and trees, connections between green spaces, and softening armored shorelines.

The Harbor District Terrestrial Habitat Plan (2020) identifies current and potential habitat areas and a
vision for improving the ability of the Harbor District to support a rich and diverse biotic community.

MILWAUKEE AREA OF CONCERN (AOC)

Milwaukee’s waterways, including the inner harbor at the heart of the Harbor District, bear the legacy
of decades of pollution and contamination from past industries, dumping of sanitary waste, and other
degradation. In fact, the EPA has characterized our estuary as one of the most “impaired” around the
Great Lakes and designated it an “Area of Concern.” Harbor District, Inc. is active in efforts to clean up
the contamination, repair ecological function, and make other improvements that will allow us to
remove the Area of Concern designation.

Read more about the AOC