Arboretum News

Early Summer on Curtis Prairie

SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

It was overcast, warm, and windy on today’s Curtis prairie tour—beautiful. Perhaps you have already noticed the construction at the visitor center? The deck, which was in disrepair, has been removed. There is some orange plastic fencing around areas of the native plant garden, below the deck area, to protect ... Read more »

  • Grady Tract Oak Savanna and Greene Prairie

    SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    “Like a walk in the park.” That’s how some have described oak savannas. At the entrances to the Grady Tract are maps and posters describing ... Read more »

  • Jens Jensen: Writings Inspired by Nature

    FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 :: ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Join us on Saturday June 8 1:30 p.m. to meet the Author. Professor William Tishler, author of “Jens Jensen: Writings Inspired by Nature” will give ... Read more »

  • West Curtis Prairie, Leopold Pines and Noe Woods Walk

    WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    A little sprinkling of rain didn’t spoil our tour on Sunday to the western reaches of the Curtis Prairie, the Leopold Pines, and a bit ... Read more »

  • By Popular Demand – Additional Information on Bioenergy Luncheon-Lecture

    SUNDAY, MAY 26, 2013 :: FRIENDS OF THE ARBORETUM

    Download slides from Dr. John Greenler’s “Bioenergy: Sustainability Opportunities and Challenges” Luncheon-Lecture on May 16 Attendees interested in further exploring Dr. Greenler’s presentation can Read more »

  • Blooming Times Delayed by Cool Weather

    THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2013 :: ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Blooming times in the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens and native plant restorations are later than average, in fact, nearly the latest ever for some things. Lilacs will ... Read more »

  • Earth Partnership Institutes Summer 2013

    WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013 :: EARTH PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS

    2013 Earth Partnership Institutes will feature Indigenous Arts and Sciences and Water Stewardship. Edgewood College June 3-7, Edgewood College, UW-Madison Arboretum, Cheryl Bauer-Armstrong cherylbauser@wisc.edu, (608) ... Read more »

  • Earth Partnership Webinar Series

    WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013 :: EARTH PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS

    Earth Partnership staff and advisors have begun publishing webinars. Check them out on YouTube! Fawn Youngbear Tibbetts uploaded her webinar: Indigenous Arts and Sciences Mike ... Read more »

  • Woodland Wildflowers in a late spring

    SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    It finally felt like spring on Sunday and a large group of folks turned out for the 1 pm public tour. We anticipated this and ... Read more »

  • Earth Focus Day Camp Sessions filling fast

    SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2013 :: PRESS RELEASES

    Now in its 22nd year, Earth Focus Day Camp creates outstanding summer nature programs for children ages 3-14. With many different ecosystems including the oldest ... Read more »

  • EARLY MIGRANTS

    SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Mother Nature lied to us on Easter Sunday. At 1:00 she promised us a lovely, sunny afternoon – but she failed to deliver. ... Read more »

  • End of Winter

    SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Our tour for this first weekend of Spring is titled “End of Winter”, but the weather today seems more like the middle of Winter! With ... Read more »

  • Awakening Land

    SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    This year’s March is quite different from last year. At this time last year, there were woodland wildflowers in bud (and bloom!). This year, we’re ... Read more »

  • An Illustrated Native Plant Garden

    MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 :: ANNOUNCEMENTS

    This month, an illustrated Gardening with Natives column finds a temporary home here on the website, as we honor Arboretum volunteers in the March Friends ... Read more »

  • Registration Now Open!

    TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 :: ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Learn more about native ecosystems, ecological restoration, and serve your community. Registration is now open for the upcoming Arboretum Team Leader Training Learn more ... Read more »

  • Call for Artists Steinhauer Trust Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum Visitor Center

    MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013 :: PRESS RELEASES

    The Arboretum will be accepting proposals for shows to hang in the Visitor Center gallery January through December of 2014. Deadline: March 28, 2013 The purpose ... Read more »

  • Winter Birds

    SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    With temperatures hovering near 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and water obliged to display its according state, we began our tour in something of a heavy, mid-February ... Read more »

  • Winter Water

    SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2013 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    It seems that winter water is not a simple thing. Read more »

  • Rocks and Water at Lake Mendota shore and beyond

    WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2013 :: ANNOUNCEMENTS

    I find rocks and water fascinating, because of the juxtaposition of something static and something dynamic. In some of the photographs, moving water was captured ... Read more »

  • Grant provides funds for extensive brush removal on the Grady Tract

    WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2013 :: PRESS RELEASES

    Throughout 2013 you may notice large-scale restoration work in Greene Prairie and the Grady oak savannas. The Arboretum has hired Quercus Land Stewardship Services LLC ... Read more »

  • A Walk in Wingra Woods

    SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Sunday’s Wingra walk started with a bang; well it was more like a shriek. We heard the piercing, majestic call of a red-tailed hawk ... Read more »

  • Thinking Like an Arboretum

    SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    On an unseasonably warm November afternoon (not that I’m complaining, but it doesn’t feel NORMAL), we set out to “think like an Arboretum”. This ... Read more »

  • A Walk in the Late Autumn Woods

    SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    A good show of brave souls turned out for our walk – despite the steady drizzle and the ominous dark rain clouds on the weather ... Read more »

  • Red Lanterns – Fall Woodland Walk

    SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    The title of the walk comes from Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac. In the October chapter he refers to allowing his dog to wander from “red lanterns”– red leaves lit by the autumn sun – in search of grouse, woodcock and jacksnipe. Read more »

  • 2nd Indigenous Arts and Sciences Water Stewardship Institute Ashland in 2013

    WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2012 :: EARTH PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS

    Community dialogues in the Ashland, Red Cliff and Bad River communities on Lake Superior called for more community involvement. As a result, a 5-day experiential, ... Read more »

  • Arboretum Sampler – Hawks to Hedge Apples

    SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Sunday’s Arb Sampler tour started with a dramatic appearance of a red-tailed hawk that swooped down off of the Visitor Center, skimming right over a ... Read more »

  • Fall Flowers in the Grady Tract

    SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    The weather smiled on us for Sunday’s tour at the Grady Tract. It’s rare for us to tour at Grady two weeks in a ... Read more »

  • Notes from the Naturalist: Curtis Prairie Late Summer

    SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    A burst of yellow, and shades of purple and red, herald the coming of fall each year in Curtis Prairie. As we entered the prairie, ... Read more »

  • A Sample of Dane County in 1834

    SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Why did we choose 1834 in our tour name? If you’d been here in 1834, very little of the present Arboretum acreage would have looked the way it does today. Read more »

  • 2012 Leopold Restoration Award Winners

    WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012 :: FRIENDS OF THE ARBORETUM

    Awards highlight career excellence and community involvement The Leopold Restoration Awards program begins its second decade celebrating an exemplary career in ecological restoration and a group’s ... Read more »

  • Wingra Oak Savanna

    SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

    From thousands of years ago through the present day, this land on the northwest corner of Lake Wingra has also been bustling with human activity. Read more »

  • New Entrance for Longenecker Horticultural Gardens

    FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012 :: ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Construction is nearly finished on an entrance feature highlighting Longenecker Horticultural Gardens and the generosity of the Friends of the Arboretum. A stone wall ... Read more »

  • Drought Affects Plants and the Critters that Depend Upon Them

    SUNDAY, JULY 15, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Brown, yellow, and wilted green leaves are falling. Day after day the hot sun beats down on crisp brown grass and the parched earth. ... Read more »

  • Prairies in Bloom – Adapted to Drought

    SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Alvin, Simon, and Theodore … remember them? Cute, high pitched, Grammy Award winning singing chipmunks. For me, their musical stylings are best in small doses. ... Read more »

  • Many flowers in bloom on the prairie!

    SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Despite the heat, we had a good-sized group for Sunday’s Curtis prairie tour. We headed out in a westwardly direction, along the fire lane, cutting ... Read more »

  • New book looks at the history of the Arboretum

    MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012 :: FRIENDS OF THE ARBORETUM

    Frank Court’s new book, Pioneers of Ecological Restoration: The people and legacy of the University of Wisconsin’s Arboretum, is hot off the press — a scholarly yet ... Read more »

  • Curtis Prairie Walk

    SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    I encourage you to come and enjoy the show on the prairie in front of the visitor center. White Wild Indigo (Baptisia alba) is ... Read more »

  • Greene Prairie and Grady Oak Savannas

    SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    To me, the Greene prairie seems particularly dry compared to seasons past, but you wouldn’t guess from the lush green and the many plants in bloom. Read more »

  • Curtis Prairie and Noe Woods Walk

    SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    Are we growing asparagus out on Curtis Prairie? It looked like that to some visitors today. However with a closer look, we could see that ... Read more »

  • Greene Prairie and Grady Oak Savannas

    SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2012 :: NATURALISTS’ NOTES

    It was a busy Sunday in Madison—graduation, festivals, runs, and many other events—but we still had a good turnout for our walk across the Grady ... Read more »