Fee: Free.
Registration: Space is limited; advance registration required.
Lynden’s 40 acres represent a small piece of the greater Milwaukee urban forest. Located in River Hills, a small, heavily wooded municipality, we are well situated, as the only public space in the Village, to serve as a model for urban forest management in our community. With the support of a 2021 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Urban Forestry Grant, we have been engaged in a year-long project to digitally inventory our heritage trees and to create an up-to-date urban forestry management plan. Our land managers, Kyle Welna and Robert Kaleta, Jr., have worked with consultant Matt Smith of the Riveredge Nature Center to develop a shareable geodatabase for use in the ArcGIS Collector app. We are now ready to demonstrate how we have used this tool to develop the Lynden database.
This outdoor workshop is for professionals, students, and neighbors who are interested in trees, urban forestry, land management, and tree inventory techniques. We will share some of our findings; show you how we use the app and database; and talk about managing the urban forest. The tool records qualitative and quantitative assessments of trees and can be used to establish a benchmark for a new management plan or to check in periodically on the success of your management practices. We look forward to sharing our research with you, and to providing a foundation for future urban forest collaboration in River Hills and the surrounding areas.
Please dress appropriately for the weather. Snacks and hot drinks will be served.
About the Instructors
Kyle Welna has been with Lynden for four and a half years and enjoys the wide variety of interconnected projects at the sculpture garden. He is interested in invasive plant control and is currently a graduate student at UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences.
Robert Kaleta is wrapping up his third year at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. He is very interested in restoration ecology, native plants, and edible wild plants, and in bringing these interests to the landscape at Lynden.
Matt Smith is Research and Conservation Director at the Riveredge Nature Center in Saukville, Wisconsin.
