The Friends of the Gottfried Prairie and Arboretum (FOGPA) welcome you to a hidden gem of Fond du Lac County! As a non-profit organization, FOGPA is committed to the preservation of the native plant community of wildflowers, grasses, and trees plus the promotion of the Gottfried Prairie and Arboretum as a recreation and environmental education destination.

When the first settlers came to the Fond du Lac County area, it was covered by 36,000 acres of native prairie plus scattered forests and wetlands. These native grasslands were home to bison, prairie chickens, bobolinks and other wildlife. Due to the prairies being plowed in the mid to late 1800’s and other changes over the past 150+ years, most of the native prairie has been lost. At the Gottfried Prairie and Arboretum, adjacent to the Fond du Lac County Campus (formerly University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Fond du Lac), a group of volunteers reestablished the native plants that once grew on this site.

At present, the Gottfried has over 40 acres of restored native prairie/grassland established with some species of seeds collected from remnants from the last remaining original prairie sites in Fond du Lac County. Another 10 acres include lowland shrub communities. The diversity and scale of the site has attracted many species of invertebrates, birds, and small mammals that lived here at the time of early settlement.

The five and half acres of formal arboretum is an innovative attempt to depict the native plants and plant communities of Wisconsin in a design representing the “Tension Zone” of our state.  The tension zone is the area of overlap of northern and southern Wisconsin plant communities, which occurs in the Fond du Lac area. It consists of southern hardwood forests, oak savanna, pine savanna, lowland forests, northern conifer- hardwood forests and boreal forests, plus their associated wildflowers. 

Discover and explore not only the prairie and arboretum but also our interpretive trails, bike trail, and wildlife pond.  To find out more details and maps, click on our Visit Us page.

Check out our SEED COLLECTION EVENT ON OCT 18TH & Fall luminary hike Nov 8th by clicking the Events Quick link below

Interested in other events, educational opportunities, or how to get involved with the Friends of the Gottfried Prairie and Arboretum?  Click on the quick links below and follow us on Facebook.