Linda Falkenstein
The Arboretum's bookstore specializes in environmental literature and specialized natural history titles.
Museum bookstores tend to be a bit of a hodgepodge — gifts related to thematically appropriate content, of course, but also T-shirts, mugs, branded pencils with novelty erasers and umbrellas and such. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; they support the cause.
But the bookstore in the visitor’s center at the UW Arboretum is a different animal. First off, it’s not quite a museum bookstore, since the Arb isn’t a museum. Secondly, the items for sale tend to be much more focused. The staff stocks a range of books that
The perfect guide for right where you are.
correspond with the Arboretum’s status as a laboratory for teaching, a beacon for conservation and an historical landmark as the first restored prairie ecosystem. Yes, there are a few more playful items, like Folkmanis animal finger puppets for the kids, but generally what you find here is very specific to a) the UW Arboretum, b) Wisconsin natural history or c) North American flora and fauna — both field guides and classics of environmental non-fiction.
Visitor center coordinator Katie Pfankuch says the staff tries to feature newer works that “may not be that mainstream” as well as some more obscure “dug-up-from-years-ago classics.”
These days, there’s also a nice selection of material on monarch butterflies, the research interest of Karen Oberhauser, the Arboretum’s director.
But for the engaged nature lover, the wealth of materials that are hyperlocal are probably the most exciting. Take The Vegetation of Wisconsin — still the bible for the state, even though John T. Curtis (namesake of Curtis Prairie) published it in 1959. Even more local is a smallish paperback that still costs just $4, Our Native Plants: Plants of Dane County and Where to Find Them, written by Victoria Nuzzo and published in 1977 by The Capital Times. The black-and-white drawings are quite helpful in identifying the plants that grow most frequently right here in Dane County without having to sift through a bunch that don’t. And for each plant there’s a place included where you can find examples of those plants, from ditches off county roads to spots in city parks. Even if some of these stands have fallen to development since Our Native Plants was published, it’s still an amazing resource.
There are even several guidebooks centered on plants found within the Arboretum itself: Prairie Plants of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and Spring Woodland Wildflowers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.
Linda Falkenstein
Are handy-dandy scat I.D. cards a thing? Yes, they are.
Want to drill down into just one species? Then the compendium Dragonflies of Wisconsin, a self-published but indispensable guide by Karl and Dorothy Legler that includes 115 species and 211 color photos, is the ticket.
Somewhere between geeking out on animal identification and a fun memento are sets of plastic tags, held together like a keychain, that help in identifying scat or tracks, easy and durable for bringing along on a walk.
Still, for the more casual visitor there are some fun items that count as less serious souvenirs — animal notecards by local artist Jim Stewart, beautiful trivets and coasters featuring the pretty spiralled grain of the invasive buckthorn from woodworker Lee Bjerke, and nature-inspired kaleidoscope prints from Carol Wood. Browse seriously, because these, too, support the cause.
The Arboretum bookstore is located inside the Visitor’s Center and is open 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Tues.–Fri. and 12:30–4 p.m. Sat.–Sun.
This story is part of our Arboretum Issue. Read the rest of our Arb coverage.
