Wehr Nature Center is a 220-acre environmental education facility located within Whitnall Park that opened in 1974. It offers award-winning educational programs for all ages focused on fostering environmental awareness and conservation. The center has five ecosystems - woodland, wetland, prairie, oak savanna, and lake - that serve as a living laboratory. It provides teacher training and works to get all people, including underserved groups, outside and connected with nature. The mission is to promote earth care through education and as a public information center.
2. Wehr Nature Center
The environmental
education facility for
the Milwaukee
County Parks
220 acre Nature
Preserve in Whitnall
Park
Opened in 1974
5. Award Winning
Programs!
2009 Winner of the Ideal
2004 Winner of the National
Award from Keep
Feinstone Award for
Greater Milwaukee
Excellence in Environmental
Beautiful
Education
10. Origins of Wehr in Conservation
Education
Dust Bowl brought need for
conservation education
Wisconsin was first state in nation to require
conservation be taught in public schools.
(1934)
13. Wisconsin is again first
•Environmental Education is required K-12
•Teachers are required to take one credit
of EE
14. Expansion- Nature in the Parks
Created in 1981 as the outreach
program of Wehr
Cooperative effort of the UW-
Extension service and the Milwaukee
County Parks
Our traveling naturalists
Operate the Adventure Summer Day
Camps
43. Children
with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) are better able to concentrate after
contact with nature (Taylor 2001)
44.
45. Professional
Development
College Credit Courses Offered Through UW-
Milwaukee and UW- Whitewater
Courses focusing on teaching science with live
animals
Workshops in Project Wild, Growing Up Wild, PLT,
Project Wet, Flying Wild and Great Lakes in My
World
46.
47.
48. Future Challenges
Reaching underserved audiences
Forming new partnerships
Provide scholarships
New delivery methods to accommodate
increased class sizes