Patty Loew:
We begin this week with a success story about a park with a long history and a notorious past. Today it's a birding haven for school children to learn and migrating birds to flourish and it is the place that citizen scientists can conduct their many research projects. "In Wisconsin" reporter Jo Garrett takes you to the Urban Ecology Center in the heart of Milwaukee.

Man:
This bird is called a red-eyed vireo. Why do you think it's called that?

Girl:
It's eyes are red.

Man:
Excellent.

Jo Garrett:
Every year more than 35,000 students make their way to this place. The Urban Ecology Center. It’s an environmental organization located in the middle of Milwaukee.

Man:
You know the way this bird probably came from, where it was a couple months ago?

Children:
Where?

Man:
It was an egg a couple of years ago. It was definitely in a nest at some point.

Girl:
In a net.

Man:
It was in a net. These are great answers. A lot of the birds that we're studying here, this is their gas station and where they're going to stop and rest for a few days and get some food.

Jo Garrett:
The Urban Ecology Center is adjacent to the city park, Riverside. It is just one of many pockets of forest land in this bustling city of two million. Bordered by the Milwaukee River this 12-acre park serves as an outdoor classroom for the center. It is hands-on learning.

Man:
I think it likes you. You must have warm hands.

Jo Garrett:
This is Tim Vargo, and the reason why he has birds in hand, many birds, to show the children.

Tim Vargo:
A warbler, black bird.

Jo Garrett:
Because it's spring and Vargo is directing a team of volunteers who are mist netting migrating birds and collecting data. They're doing science. They are citizen scientists.

Tim Vargo:
Just let it go.

Jo Garrett:
Vargo is the manager of research and citizen science at the Urban Ecology Center. Every research project here requires the use of citizen scientists. No degrees required.

Tim Vargo:
The work our volunteers are doing is real science.

Jo Garrett:
Here is a volunteer citizen scientist.

Woman:
We'll blow to see how much Fat the bird has on it. There is a V bone here in their chest. If it's real concave that means the bird has just migrated and not real fat.

Tim Vargo:
As long as they're trained well and we have a good protocol it's real science whether it's a graduate student or a bartender or somebody else you've trained. Our volunteers run the gamut. There is a public relations assistant, a homeschool student, a retired professor, a ballet dancer.

Woman:
What we want to do is see what side of the net he came in on and that's this side. They fly in and hit and fall into a pocket. Hi, babe, how are you doing?

Jo Garrett:
Robin Squires is a retired school teacher and she's trained here in the techniques of science for the past two years.

Robin Squires:
It's the idea that you can do science and not have a zillion degrees after your name and you aren't in a lab doing it. You're out here and your observations have value. I live right across the river and knew about this place when it was a park that had a lot of crime in it. You stayed totally away.

Jo Garrett:
Riverside Park has a long and winding history. It was created in 1890 by Frederick Law Olmstead, the father of landscape architecture. The same man who designed New York's Central Park and the capitol grounds in Washington, DC. Over the years, Riverside, once so popular, was allowed to decay. The river was fouled and polluted. There was actually talk of giving up on the park and turning the land over to developers.

Tim Vargo:
In the 1970s crime got to its peak. An active drug trade, murders and rapes. Everybody knew it wasn't a safe place and people stopped using the park.

Jo Garrett:
Neighbors got mad. They wanted this green space.

Tim Vargo:
The simplest way they thought of saving it was to get people back using the park. You get more eyes here. If you're a criminal you'll feel less secure if there is a lot of people around.

Woman:
There he goes.

Boy:
That was awesome.

Jo Garrett:
It's a different place now, busy and safe. And the Urban Ecology Center is a critical part of that turnaround. The current day sound track, kids, city noise and a chorus of bird songs speaks to the surprising importance of this place and the need for research.

Tim Vargo:
I think urban forests tend to be overlooked. It's the importance of urban habitat for migration.

Jo Garrett:
Birds stop here and refuel. One of the studies the center is involved in, is looking at triglycerides in migrating birds. How fast can birds pack on the fat?

Tim Vargo:
For a bird that’s trying to get fat as quickly as it can so it can fly, high triglycerides are a good thing. It will put on fat quickly and minimize the time it spends here and continue on. We're taking blood.

Jo Garrett:
You're collecting a drop?

Tim Vargo:
Just a little drop. By measuring the triglycerides that will tell us how quickly the bird is refueling. The skin is very translucent. That's fat. You can see right through it and when the fat collects it’s orange. The only reason they'll have that much fat is if they'll head out. This bird is getting ready to hit the road. A bird putting on that much fat is probably going several hundred miles, at least.

Jo Garrett:
The data collection.

Tim Vargo:
65 is the band number.

Jo Garrett:
The careful accumulation. Bird...

Tim Vargo:
No fat.

Jo Garrett:
...by bird.

Tim Vargo:
13.5 grams.

Jo Garrett:
Faces different challenges in an urban forest.

Robin Squires:
What happens? A dog went through our net.

Tim Vargo:
There is urban research for you. We've had a snake take a bird out of a net and trailing away with the net and the bird trying to take it away.

Jo Garrett:
This urban forest is a critical stopover for  migrating birds. It's a great place for learning, research, and a touch of the wild. Kerry Jean Buhk is the public relations manager for the Urban Ecology Center. She's volunteered as a citizen scientist for years.

Kerry Jean Buhk:
You're holding a bird that might have started in Mexico or Panama or somewhere else and realizing you're only a part of the way of where it's going and we're just a tiny part of its life. You can go now. There you go. You realize that you're part of something really big and yet really small at the same time.

Child:
Goodbye, birdie.

Children:
Bye-bye.

Patty Loew:
To learn more about the Urban Ecology Center, including those citizen science projects, check out our website, wpt.org. When you click on "In Wisconsin" you'll also find information about a new program called Bird City. It's a new one-of-a-kind program tackling the dwindling population of urban birds.