your impact

In 2019 Milwaukee County declared racism as a health crisis, and created a vision that 'By achieving racial equity, Milwaukee will be the healthiest county in Wisconsin'. Race is a key predictor of the quality and length of life, where on average a white person in Milwaukee County will live 14 years longer than a black person. Racial equity will be achieved when race no longer predicts health outcomes and outcomes for everyone improve.

Whitnall Beer Garden aims to be a welcoming, accessible space for all, and now features wheelchair-accessible picnic tables and restrooms as well as free Aira service. Through the free Aira app on a smartphone, people who are blind or have low vision can access highly-trained, remotely-located agents for instant access to visual information.

The Natural Areas team at Milwaukee County Parks are front-line responders to tackling invasive species that threaten our native plant and wildlife populations. 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.

Milwaukee County Parks is working with organizations throughout the region on a long-term plan to improve the water quality in our rivers, lagoons, ephemeral ponds, creeks and lakes. The work will reduce pollution levels and create healthier waterways for us, and for wildlife.

Milwaukee County Parks is an economic engine for the region. As well as directly creating around 600 seasonal jobs each year, the park system supports dozens of local businesses and attracts thousands of tourists to the area, all of which helps support our local economy.

The Parks Operations team oversees 16,000 acres of managed and natural area park land in Milwaukee County. You'll see our operations crew throughout the year maintaining the parks, including trash pickup, forestry management, trail maintenance, graffiti removal, snow removal, athletic field preparation, rentals preparation, and mowing.