Winter work party at Wingra Oak Savanna (Photo: Micah Kloppenburg)
On many Saturdays, somewhere in the Arboretum, an exceptional mix of dedicated volunteers pull weedy plants from soils, lop woody brush in a restored woodland, or patiently harvest seeds from prairie flowers. Building on decades of Saturday work party volunteer efforts, we can now expand restoration activities beyond our traditional work areas and schedule.
When Saturday restoration work parties resume in mid-February after a winter break, we will introduce two notable changes. First, we will add new meetup locations to facilitate restoration activities in more natural areas. In addition to the current meeting spots – Grady Tract parking lot, the Visitor Center, and the Arbor Drive parking lot off Monroe Street – we have added two more. Both are located along the road through the Arboretum. The Curtis parking lot, west of the Visitor Center, will provide access to Noe Woods and west Curtis Prairie. The Wingra Springs parking lot, east of the Visitor Center, will be closer to work sites in Wingra Woods. Both new meeting locations are a short distance from the Visitor Center.
The second change is to how we schedule locations. Instead of a regular monthly rotation of work sites, the locations will be planned quarterly based on restoration needs and tasks. This will give us more flexibility to align volunteer efforts with seasonal land care needs. For example, we may spend several consecutive Saturdays in May focused on a pesky patch of garlic mustard in Noe Woods; or we might schedule a single September Saturday to harvest prairie plant seed in Wingra Oak Savanna.
These changes to our work party schedules and meetup locations will enhance the valuable experience for our volunteers and the benefits to Arboretum natural areas. And the seasonal schedule of Saturday work parties will always be available in advance on the Arboretum events calendar.
If you ever have questions about when, where, or how you can join a Saturday work party, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
– Micah Kloppenburg, restoration outreach coordinator
