Humboldt Park Friends is a non-profit organization focused on engaging Milwaukee, WI, communities by fostering park stewardship through volunteering, preserving park history, improving park amenities and safety, and sponsoring educational and enjoyable events and programming. Humboldt Park Friends, originally Humboldt Park Watch, was founded in 1997. The organization quickly became a community voice for the park and established events that include an Easter egg hunt, corn roast and a jazz concert series. Humboldt Park is one of six parks created when the city of Milwaukee established a Parks Commission in 1890. The park, originally named South Park, was 45 acres and opened to the public in 1891. In 1900, the park was renamed Humboldt Park in honor of Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian geographer and naturalist who did extensive work on botanical geography. Additional land was acquired in 1922 bringing the park to its current size of roughly 71 acres.
Trees being planted in Humboldt Park in Milwaukee, WI, that were donated to Humboldt Park Friends by The Milwaukee Urban Forestry Fund.
Humboldt Park Friends – under the leadership of a board and committee chairs – sponsor a number of events aimed at preservation, restoration and education. Noting that nearly 3,000 trees had been removed from Milwaukee County Parks within the last 10 years, with more than 80 trees removed in Humboldt Park alone due to infection, infestation and weather conditions, the group created a 100 For Humboldt fundraising campaign to build awareness and raise funds to purchase and plant 100 new trees in the park. In addition to an annual spring cleanup, Tree Day is an annual educational environmental program for area first grade students hosted by Humboldt Park Friends and Milwaukee County Parks. The program includes a nature hike through Humboldt Park, participating in a tree planting, leafing rubbing, story time and button making. Students can also earn a badge and become a junior steward of the park through the group’s Humboldt Park Ranger Program.