Arboretum conference, course examine landscape, prairie

Landscape and tall grass prairie will be explored during two August events sponsored by the UW–Madison Arboretum.

Native garden designs, insects, and the art and science of native landscapes will be examined during the Arboretum’s annual landscape conference on Saturday, Aug. 7, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

The gathering celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Wild Ones, a nonprofit organization that co-sponsors the conference, and promotes native landscaping and use of native plants.

The conference costs $35 and features presenters from around Wisconsin. A banquet and keynote address by nationally known ecologist and author Robert Michael Pyle, scheduled from 5:15-7 p.m., costs an additional $20. Field trips to natural areas and native gardens will take place on Sunday, Aug. 8. The cost is $20 for a half day and $30 for a full day.

For information and registration, visit http://gowild-madison.org, or contact Sue Ellingson, (608) 259-1824, SuEllingson@sbcglobal.net or Marian Farrior, (608) 265-5214, mlfarrior@wisc.edu.

The ecology and aesthetics of tall grass prairie will be studied during a five-day course in August that covers preserved prairies in southern Wisconsin and central Iowa. Tall grass prairie occupied a major part of the mid-section of the United States, but only a miniscule percentage of the original prairie remains, usually in preserves.

The course’s first three days will be spent examining preserved prairies in southern Wisconsin, identifying species, performing quantitative sampling and carrying out mapping exercises. The class will interpret the prairie’s aesthetic character through descriptive writing, drawing or watercoloring.

The course will culminate in an overnight trip to the restored Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge prairie, a restoration of 5,000 acres in central Iowa under the auspices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The course will be held Thursday-Monday, Aug. 12-16, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. The $300 fee ($270 for Friends of the Arboretum) includes the Iowa trip. Participants should bring their lunches. The instructors are Darrel Morrison, professor emeritus in the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia, and Nancy Aten, landscape designer.

Before joining the University of Georgia in 1983, Morrison taught with UW–Madison’s Department of Landscape Architecture. His design work includes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas; the Utah Botanical Center at Kaysville, Utah; and the native Wisconsin Garden at the UW–Madison Arboretum.

Aten practices landscape stewardship and design. She received her master’s degree from the University of Georgia in 2003 under Morrison’s guidance. Through Friends of Lake Wingra, she designed interpretive signs for a water-quality project funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. At the February 2003 Milwaukee Natural Landscaping Conference, she lectured on “slow gardens,” using southern Wisconsin oak savanna communities as models for urban landscapes.

For course registration and information, visit http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/arboretum/public/classes_and_lectures_registration_page.htm.