Brookfield has a few hidden delights right in its own backyard. One is the "Nature Center" just west of Brookfield East High School's soccer field. The Nature Center includes 17 acres of land and two ponds. The school district maintains trails around the ponds, through the mesic prairie, open dry prairie and woodlands with a wooden bridge across a marsh. Volunteers from the Elmbrook Garden Club have planted and maintained plantings of native plants around the visitor center/classroom for over twenty years.
Why would a local garden club get involved in this project? Well, the 35-member group supports community service projects and outreach programs for youth. As an affiliate of the National Garden Clubs, Inc., it aids in the protection and conservation of natural resources, promotes civic beautification and encourages the improvement of roadsides and parks. Then again it may be the children's delight when they visit.
A visit to the Nature Center is part of the field trip curriculum for all Kindergarten through 6th grade classes. Activities are led by a naturalist/Brookfield East High School Biology Teacher, Greg Wolfe. Children and the parents who accompany them thoroughly enjoy their visits. The students study trees; insects; bones, skulls and skeletons; birds, seeds and pods, the pond community, and satellites in the environment.
Brookfield Park & Recreation also holds its fishing classes at the Nature Center's ponds. High school classes and Scout troops use the center as an outdoor classroom as well.
After nurturing native plants for so many years, garden club members were dismayed when school district construction damaged a prairie planting - not once, but twice. The first time, the district installed a water line to the visitor center; the second time was during the construction of a concession stand near the soccer fields. The work was done without any warning to rescue the plants.
In the fall of 2007, the Elmbrook School District provided $900 for the purchase of native plants to restore the damaged plantings. The Elmbrook Garden Club also applied for and received a $300 grant from the Principal Financial Group Civic Development Grant Program, "Lets Go Native." This grant money is to be matched by the garden club and other community contributions. The $600 will be used to purchase additional plants, labels and for split rail fencing to protect the plants. It is the only garden club in Wisconsin that received a grant.
The National Garden Clubs, Inc. (NGC) established the grant program under the sponsorship of the Principal Financial Group Foundation Inc. to boost civic development across the nation by planting natives. NGC is a not-for profit organization composed of 50 State Garden Clubs and the National Capital Area, 7,183 member garden clubs and 221,943 members as well as International Affiliates from Canada to Mexico and South America.
The goal of this project is to restore the plantings around the visitor center, to increase the diversity of plants at the nature center and to educate visitors -- young and old. For more information about joining the Elmbrook Garden Club, touring and/or working in the nature center contact Judy Newman, newman9641@aol.com Community Coordinator.
