Milwaukee County’s goal is to enrich your life by providing essential services that meet your needs and those of your family, neighbors, co-workers and friends.
We enhance the quality of life in Milwaukee County through great public service.
Milwaukee County is home to over 950,000 people living in one of 19 communities, which range in size from the City of Milwaukee, with 595,000 residents, to the Village of River Hills, with roughly 1,600 residents.
Still a manufacturing stronghold, the region features 16 Fortune 1000 companies and thousands of others in the financial services, medical device, hospitality and retailing industries.
Find information about things to do and happenings in Milwaukee County.
From lagoons and marshes to forests and prairies, the natural areas under Milwaukee County Parks stewardship are vital to the environmental health of the region.
The Natural Areas team at Milwaukee County Parks manages over 9,000 acres of land, including nine beaches along the shores of Lake Michigan. We respectfully acknowledge that the lands and waters encompassed by the Milwaukee County Park System are on the ancestral homeland of Indigenous People. We honor the ancestral owners and strive to be respectful stewards. Learn more in our Land Acknowledgement Statement.
With the help of volunteers and community scientists, the natural areas team monitors wildlife populations, develops habitat restoration plans and protects the wild spaces that enhance the ecological health of Milwaukee County.
Managing invasive species that threaten our native plant and wildlife populations is an ongoing effort. To help combat invasive plants, the Natural Areas team helps organize weed-outs with volunteers and friends groups to help remove invasive species such as common buckthorn, Japanese knotweed and garlic mustard.
Monitoring wildlife populations is a reliable way to measure the ecological health of our natural areas and to determine the success of our restoration efforts. Data collected by Natural Areas staff and community scientists is crucial in helping to make sure that common species remain common, and that rare, threatened and endangered species are protected and properly managed within the Park System. Wildlife monitoring programs include:
As a designated Important Bird Area, the Milwaukee County park system takes additional measures to protect our feathered friends. The Moratorium Policy on Vegetation Management During the Bird Nesting Season directs the work of not only the Parks, but also the entities doing work through right-of-entry permits.
Milwaukee County Parks include nine miles of Lake Michigan shoreline as well as rivers, lagoons, ephemeral ponds, creeks and lakes. Our Natural Areas team works to improve water quality in these waterways through projects such as shoreline stabilization and monitoring.
The Natural Areas team helps monitor and maintain the Forked Aster Nature Trails throughout the County. The designated hiking trails within the Park System provide over 50 miles of soft trails for park users to enjoy, while protecting the natural resources that add to quality-of-life for our citizens.
The review of our research and community-based monitoring programs includes data on
Read the 2022 Review
In 2019, Milwaukee County Parks received the prestigious designation as Important Bird Area. an honor bestowed on only 2,700 sites in the United States.
The 15,000+ acres of Parks greenspace include a variety of habitats, include the southernmost extent of northern forest in Wisconsin, oak woodlands, riparian forest, recreated prairie, 85 miles of river and stream corridors, a diversity of wetlands, and 14 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. Diverse habitats and the proximity to Lake Michigan make this site an important corridor for migratory birds.
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Share and view coyote sightings in Milwaukee County on our iNaturalist page.
9480 W. Watertown Plank Road Wauwatosa, WI 53226 (414) 257-PARK (7275)
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