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Ann
Brummitt, coordinator of the Milwaukee River Work Group, is
working to protect Milwaukee’s rivers from over-development.
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Following an active teaching career —
steeping students in French conjugations, vocabulary and culture —
Shorewood resident Ann Brummitt finds herself leading the charge to
create a Central Park in Milwaukee. The park would range both sides of
the Milwaukee River, extending from the site of the former North
Avenue Dam upstream to Silver Spring Drive.
"I needed a change and a
challenge," says Brummitt. "In seeking to serve I had to go
back to the environment. I talked with Ken Leinbach at the Urban
Ecology Center, who pitched me the idea of protecting the green space
along the Milwaukee River."
Subsequently, Brummitt found a platform
at Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers as coordinator of the Milwaukee
River Work Group. The group is populated by representatives from the
Urban Ecology Center, River Revitalization Foundation, Friends of
Milwaukee’s Rivers, Department of Natural Resources, National Park
Service and others, including neighborhood associations.
"We evaluated the tools we could
use to protect this area — everything from a national designation
requiring an Act of Congress to a state urban waterway, a state park,
a county park and others," she says. "We decided the best
tool is the municipal zoning code. That’s the most effective measure
we have to protect it."
Progress has been made. Shorewood has
already passed a shore land ordinance, and the group will submit its
recommendations to the city of Milwaukee for Milwaukee’s unfolding
Northeast side plan. "We are embedded in that process," says
Brummitt.
Key goals are to protect the watershed
and the "view-shed," so views into the valley are not
obstructed by un-neighborly development. Brummitt is optimistic.
"I think we’ll get the primary environmental corridor
identified by SEWRPC protected, but that’s strictly
bluff-to-bluff," she says. "But getting buffer zones,
effective height restrictions and set-backs — that’s where it
starts to get to be about money.
"Last night I realized I am one of
the last people to get around to watching Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient
Truth.’ It’s such an affirmation because he’s talking about
water," she says. "We are living on the edge of the greatest
body of fresh water on the planet. We have to think about Milwaukee,
its resources and all these water sheds that are feeding into the
Great Lakes. It reminded me again I am doing my little part to address
an issue that is global in its consequences."
If you want to get involved, check out
www.protectmilwaukeeriver.org.
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