The Arboretum’s long-running Winter Enrichment series offers engaging talks and conversation for naturalists, volunteers, friends, and community members.
2026 Winter Enrichment Lectures
The 2026 lectures will take place on Thursday mornings in January and February, in person at the Visitor Center. Registration is now open.
Doors open at 9:30 a.m. for social time and bookstore browsing. Lectures run from 10 to 11:30 a.m. (They will not be streamed or recorded.) Lectures are $10 each and advance registration is required.
Students can register for free using the student registration form (link opens in new tab).
The Arboretum Research Symposium will take place February 5, in person at the Visitor Center. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and the program runs from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The symposium is a free event and no registration is required.
2026 Lectures
Thursday, January 15
Quantifying Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change
Michelle Probst, Land and Water Scientist, Dane County
Restoring or converting land to permanent perennial vegetation can enhance soil’s ability to store carbon, playing a vital role in reducing greenhouse gases. This session will summarize the Dane County Land & Water Resources Department’s effort to quantify the climate benefits achieved by establishing perennial cover in Dane County Parks and on private lands. Fee: $10. Register by January 11.
Thursday, January 22
How Reciprocal Restoration Fosters Cultural Revitalization
Ferin Davis Anderson, Natural Resources Manager, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Join Davis Anderson (Ojibwe) to learn about fire as an ecological and cultural tool to achieve beneficial and healing outcomes. We will discuss our relationship with fire and how we must find balance. It can be destructive but also revitalizing – it’s our duty to learn how to live with fire and be responsible stewards. Fee: $10. Register by January 18.
Thursday, January 29
State Natural Areas at 75 Years: Charting a Meaningful Future in Challenging Times
Matt Zine, Conservation Biologist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
The Wisconsin State Natural Areas program is the oldest and largest such program in the nation. Zine will speak about how this successful program aims to work through unprecedented challenges in pragmatic ways and still meet goals to support natural areas for education, research, and protecting biological diversity. Fee: $10. Register by January 25.
Thursday, February 5
Arboretum Research Symposium
Student, faculty, and other researchers will present findings from projects on Arboretum lands and in the Lake Wingra watershed. The research symposium is a free event, no registration required. The program runs 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Thursday, February 12
The Invasive Golden Oyster Mushroom Is Affecting Local Fungi – Now What?
Aishwarya Veerabahu, PhD Candidate, UW–Madison Department of Botany
Now that the ecological impacts of invasive golden oysters have been published and entered the public conversation, what happens next? Veerabahu, the Arboretum’s Leopold Research Fellow, will weave together the social, evolutionary, and ecological aspects of managing golden oyster mushrooms moving forward. Fee: $10. Register by February 8.
Thursday, February 19
Re-kindling Old Flames: Fire, Plant Reproduction, and Population Dynamics in Tallgrass Prairies
Jared Beck (he/him), Research Ecologist, UW–Madison Arboretum
Why are prairies losing plant diversity? And what can we do about it? In this talk, Beck will explore how habitat fragmentation and fire combine to influence plant reproduction and plant populations in fragmented tallgrass prairies. Fee: $10. Register by February 15.
Thursday, February 26
State Parks: Valuing the Invaluable in a Time of Austerity
Steven Davis, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies, Edgewood University
Davis’s new book, The Other Public Lands, is the first comprehensive account of the natural resource lands owned and managed by the fifty states. Davis will explore how policymakers underestimate or ignore the spectacular real value found in our state parks in favor of a strategy of neglect and austerity. Fee: $10. Register by February 22.