Madison Parks

Heads up, neighbors: Parks is doing a prescribed burn today (Oct 6) at Acewood Conservation Park. 🔥

Ignition is planned for around noon, so if you see or smell smoke this afternoon, that's what it is.

Contact Parks main number (608) 266-4711 with questions or concerns.

The Hoyt Park main parking lot is now finished and it looks great. The city has put in a large water retention area (read- rain garden) so that runoff from the parking lot will be captured and funneled through the rain garden. FoHP volunteers will be planting city-provided native plants in the rain garden at the October Volunteer Workday on October 17th.

Work for Parks! We're hiring a Customer Services Administrative Coordinator! This is a responsible supervisory and administrative position directing programs and coordinating the Customer Services & Community Events staff within Madison Parks Community Services.

Starting salary range $68-79K.
Work Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm
Skills needed include:
•Strong organizational, multi-tasking, and attention-to-detail skills.
•Excellent customer service and communication skills with a commitment to serving a diverse patron population.
•Strong leadership skills with the ability to supervise, train, support, and guide staff.
•Ability to collaborate effectively with staff across departments, vendors, and external partners.

governmentjobs.com/careers/MadisonWi

🔥Disc Golf Course Alert for Prescribed Burn - Parks ecology team plans to conduct a prescribed burn at the sledding hill of Hiestand Park about mid-day on Tuesday, October 6. We anticipate this will temporarily affect the disc golf course holes 1 – 3 and possibly 4 and 5, as the fire moves. Map shows larger highlighted area (green), with a secondary smaller area (yellow) if time allows.

Backstory – Since ash naturally melts snow faster, by conducting the burn earlier, we hope to have any residual ash wash away with any rains received before winter settles in. Then we let Mother Nature play her part and provide the snow for good sledding!

cityofmadison.com/parkslandmanagement

ICYMI - Bird & Nature Adventures happen at various locations throughout the city.
Check out: cityofmadison.com/parks/events/adventures

🌿 Native Plant Feature: New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)🌸

As we wind down the 2026 growing season and our native flowering plants begin to go to rest for the season, we still have a few late bloomers showing off their beautiful colors!

This week’s Native Plant Feature is New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), a beautiful late-season bloomer that brings vibrant color to the landscape from late summer through October.

Growing up to 5 feet tall, New England Aster produces masses of purple, violet, lavender, and pink flowers with bright orange-yellow centers. It thrives in full sun or light shade and tolerates a wide range of soil conditions, including drought once established.

🐝 Pollinator favorite: Bees and butterflies are drawn to its abundant flowers, making New England Aster an important late-season nectar source for Monarchs and other pollinators.

🔎 Look closely! Before it blooms, New England Aster is easy to identify by its hairy stems and leaves that clasp the stem in a distinctive way, nearly encircling it.

Don’t be alarmed if the lower leaves dry up while the plant is blooming — this is normal and does not necessarily indicate disease or that the plant is dying.

Because New England Aster can reach great heights, pruning it back earlier in the growing season can encourage shorter, bushier growth.

🌱 A note for gardeners: Asters can be prolific self-seeders, and New England Aster does well in a broad range of soils. In smaller gardens and landscapes, removing the seed heads before the seeds ripen can help prevent unwanted seedlings.

And there’s even more happening beyond the flowers! Species in the genus Symphyotrichum serve as host plants for dozens of moth species, including the Wavy-Lined Emerald.

A late-season burst of color, an important food source for pollinators, and a host plant for moths — New England Aster is a great reminder that native plants keep supporting wildlife well into fall. 💜🦋



Photos 12&3 New England Aster

🍂All Aboard! Check out these haywagon rides coming up at select special events. Rides are typically about 20 minutes and no reservation is required. Cost: $3 per person, ages 2 and under are free, unless noted otherwise. Cash only and exact change is greatly appreciated.

-OR- reserve your own for your group up to 30 people through the Holiday Fantasy in Lights at Olin Park!

Two New Wagons!
One wagon offers an ADA accessible ramp, and one wagon provides stairs to enter/exit the wagon. Image credit: Weaver Wagons

Rain or Shine: Wagon rides happen rain or shine, however, ice or snow will cancel.

See website for all the details!
cityofmadison.com/parks/events/hayrides

🍂🍁Fall has arrived and that means the leaves are falling too. 🍂🍁

What can you do with your leaves?

🐝🍂Leaving Leaves means Helping Pollinators & Beneficial Insects🐞 🍁
Caterpillars, bumblebees, and other beneficial insects like fireflies use leaves kept on our lawns as cover to safe through the winter months.
So, if about 20% of your lawn is covered with fall leaves, just keep them where they fell. They will decompose on their own and you help give beneficial insects a safe place to survive the winter months.

Bonus: Consider turning part of your lawn into a native habitat. You’ll be creating a thriving ecosystem right in your backyard!
Your leaves = winter shelter + summer life. Let them lie and watch nature flourish. 🌱

🌊Rake the Gutter; Help Our Lakes🥬
When you rake leaves out of street gutters before it rains, you prevent nutrients from going into the storm drains. All storm drains lead to the lakes, so when rain falls on leaves in the street, it makes a nutrient-rich run-off, like a leaf tea, that goes right into our lakes. This "leaf tea" causes toxic algae blooms and other problems.

You can sign up to get text alerts for incoming rainstorms to remind you when to rake the leaves from the gutter.

🚮Mulch/Compost Your Leaves
If around 50% of your lawn is covered with fall leaves, try using them as mulch. Keep the leaves whole and use them like mulch around your garden. Remember mulch should be around 2 inches deep.

Or you could just run over your leaves with your lawnmower to mow the leaves right where they fell to add nutrients back to your lawn. It's free fertilizer!

‼️After you've mulched all you can mulch, composted all you can compost, and left all you can leave, then follow city collection rules.

For City of Madison residents, set out your leaves for pickup on the scheduled date for your home. Get your date from the Streets Division’s yard waste website.

‼️Follow the rules on how you should set out leaves for pickup.

And, Madison residents can take yard waste to any 3 drop-off sites. Get the hours and location details from the drop-off site webpage.

See Streets Division for more info: cityofmadison.com/YardWaste

Hello October! We've turned the page of our Madison Parks 2026 calendar to this beautiful image of Hudson Park by winning photographer Wendy Murkve.

Hudson Park, in case you didn't know, is located along the shore of Lake Monona and is the site of ancient burial mounds and a bronze memorial sculpture dedicated to the Ho-Chunk Nation. Native American artist Harry Whitehorse, of the Ho-Chunk Nation, transformed a storm-damaged tree into a memorial honoring his ancestors in 1991. The sculpture contains carvings of a wolf, bear, cub, lynx, thunderbird, eagle, and a Ho-Chunk warrior. After careful restoration, the statue was cast in bronze and rededicated in 2009.
cityofmadison.com/parks/find-a-park/hudson-park

Photography Contest Winners
📷🏆Who will be a winner for the Madison Parks 2027 calendar? We'll be announcing the winners later this month >> be sure to check back!
cityofmadison.com/parksphotography

In 2024, around this time of the year, we hosted a staff planting party at our Lakeside Offices - photos 3, 4, 5 & 6). 10,000+ native plants were gently installed in the dirt and gravel beds along the front side of the building.

Check out the after photos from today - photos 1 & 2

This is another step in the landscaping restoration project. Madison Parks system-wide features a variety of landscapes ranging from prairies, woods, and manicured gardens.

cityofmadison.com/parkslandmanagement