Footpath leading through native plant gardens to west entrance of the Arboretum will be replaced with a City of Madison shared use path in June, 2024.
In June, the City of Madison will extend a shared use path from Manitou Way to McCaffrey Drive, providing an off-street path alongside Seminole Highway to McCaffrey Drive and the west entrance of the Arboretum.
The ten-foot-wide path, part of the Bikeways 2023 contract, is meant to improve accessibility and safety for cyclists and pedestrians coming to the Arboretum. At the same time, the project will affect the native vegetation in the area, which includes native plant gardens and two large oak trees that are each at least 100 years old.
One oak tree is close to the road, and it was important to the Arboretum and the City to protect it. The shared use path was designed to curve around it to avoid its removal and minimize harming the roots. Some of the existing garden beds will be removed to make room for the path, and the remaining gardens will be fenced off during the construction.
The other oak tree is set farther back from the road and surrounded by native plant garden. It is showing signs of stress, which may be partly due to soil compaction caused by foot traffic on two rutted unofficial footpaths near the tree.
Once the new path is finished, the footpaths will be closed and a subsequent garden restoration project will replace them with native plantings. The garden restoration area will be fenced off until plantings are established. The goal of removing these footpaths is to reduce the effects of soil compaction and improve the health of the tree growing within the garden. The garden restoration project will recover most of what is removed to build the shared use path.
The shared-use path project will also include a rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) crossing at Manitou Way and Seminole Highway. The construction project may affect traffic on Seminole Highway. If you have questions about this construction project, please contact the City of Madison.
Facilities projects inevitably take a toll on natural landscapes. We’d like to thank UW–Madison Facilities Planning and Management and the City of Madison Engineering Department for coordinating and implementing the new path and restoration in cooperation with our staff in order to protect and enhance the surrounding landscape.
— Susan Day, communications manager
