We’ve entered the season of thanksgiving and celebration, reflection and connection – an ideal time to “bellow forth the tubas and sousaphones, the whole rusty brass band of gratitude,” as Ross Gay expresses it in his moving poem “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.” At the Arboretum we have much to be grateful for; high on the list are the myriad and significant contributions of volunteers. Over four seasons, indoors and out, volunteers are engaged in education, restoration, research, administration, gardening, and visitor services. Volunteer engagement is beneficial both to the Arboretum and to those who volunteer.

A boisterous and visible opportunity for volunteer engagement is with Earth Focus Day Camp. This past summer, “sixteen volunteer assistant naturalists helped create lifelong memories for 135 campers. Many campers and volunteers attended multiple sessions throughout the summer – building new friendships and ecological awareness along the way,” according to Maddie Smith, community education coordinator. These assistant naturalists – who are primarily high school and college students – provide extra pairs of hands, eyes, and ears to support the staff outdoor educators and the campers. They join in games, distribute snacks, apply bug spray, and pull the supply wagon on hikes.

Assistant naturalists are positive role models for campers as they explore and engage with our natural world. For example, Maddie noted one accomplishment of summer 2025 was “incorporating more hands-on stewardship experiences into camp than ever before. Staff, volunteers, and youth participated in work parties to care for Curtis Prairie, the Native Plant Garden, and Gallistel Woods. Volunteers played a critical role in teaching youth to use tools safely, identify plants, and work as a team.”

Less boisterous, but still quite visible, are the impacts of restoration volunteers. As of late November, there have been forty-one restoration work parties this year, led by restoration team leader volunteers or restoration outreach coordinator Micah Kloppenburg. As spring moves to summer to fall, work party activities shift from pulling garlic mustard and dame’s rocket, to cutting back aggressive and invasive shrubs and trees, to collecting seeds for future restoration projects.

Micah said, “I am constantly impressed by the sure competence of our Arboretum restoration team leaders and by the work ethic of Saturday restoration work party volunteers. Over three hours on Saturday, October 11, two team leaders corralled forty-six drop-in volunteers who cleared a half-acre of choking brush from a remnant prairie and collected four full trays of seed from two prairie flowers. Crew leadership during a work party is no easy task, particularly with that many volunteers! The nitty gritty of restoration work requires hands-on fortitude and a willingness to learn new skills, like plant identification. On this particular Saturday – like most Saturdays – team leaders and drop-in volunteers rose to the occasion.”

The Arboretum also engages volunteers in citizen science monitoring projects. Annie Isenbarger, citizen science coordinator, said, “One takeaway I noticed this field season was how citizen scientists sparked curiosity about and care for the natural world among other community members. They were active stewards of nature, learning and caring about the ecosystems around them. For example, two Wisconsin Dragonfly Society (WDS) leaders spent a morning with Arboretum staff cleaning up the area around Curtis Pond – one of the Arboretum’s main dragonfly habitats. In less than two hours, the group collected four bags of garbage! WDS not only leads dragonfly outreach walks to help the public learn about dragonflies, they help restore and care for habitat crucial to dragonfly survival. The curiosity and care sparked by citizen scientists – whether monitoring dragonflies, fungi, chloride levels, bumblebees, monarch larvae, or bluebirds – are a gift.”

Another citizen science highlight came during a fungal diversity blitz, when UW students, Arboretum staff, and community participants documented over 140 species in the Arboretum, including one on the IUCN red list of threatened species.

The Lake Wingra springs chloride monitoring project began in 2011 as part of the Urban Road Salt Study. Almost fifteen years later, citizen science participants continue to assess chloride levels in groundwater at springs surrounding Lake Wingra. The data from this monitoring, along with data collected by other UW researchers, document the increasing salinity in Lake Wingra and help inform discussions of how to better protect urban waters.

Reflecting on the past garden season, native plant garden curator Susan Carpenter said, “as always, native plant garden volunteers were key to garden care throughout the season. We’ve shared routine tasks in heat and humidity but also special chance observations (like this emerging monarch that a volunteer found. We watched as it expanded its wings on a windy morning. Look, the stem is only being held on by threads from the silk pad of the caterpillar’s J-stage!) From collecting seeds for restorations, to encouraging native plant gardening in their neighborhoods, to leading community gardening spaces, to starting a native plant nursery – the volunteers’ broader contributions ripple out.”

Garden, restoration, and most citizen science volunteering pauses during the winter. Yet visitor center welcome desk and bookstore volunteers are active year-round. This stellar team of volunteers reliably show up and excel at visitor relations. According to Visitor Center manager Brad Freihoefer, the bookstore is on track to set a sales record for the second year in a row. “The suggestions from welcome desk volunteers to visit the bookstore, and the skill of bookstore volunteers at connecting people with nature items, are key factors in the success of the bookstore.”

As clearly expressed by staff, we have high regard and much gratitude for volunteers. And the feelings are mutual. Nansi Colley is a “multi-role” volunteer who serves at the welcome desk, as a bumblebee and bluebird monitor, and on the Friends of the Arboretum board. She stated, “I have enormous gratitude for the Arboretum and for the staff, for the welcoming environment and support. I learn a lot. It is gratifying to do ecological research with the bluebirds and bumblebees and to welcome visitors from all over the world while at the welcome desk, hearing their interesting stories and sharing unique Arboretum stories about its role as a UW research and teaching center that also serves as an urban oasis for our human and non-human neighbors.”

People volunteer because the experience is meaningful and valuable. This act of volunteering is a gift to the people employed at the Arboretum – and to visitors, donors, other volunteers, and all the species that live here, a gift that mutually affirms the Arboretum and its endeavors.

– Judy Kingsbury, volunteer program manager