[PCA] AP ARTICLE: Efforts afoot to save South's disappearing grasslands

[Carr, Amanda (Mandie) N]

*TITLE: Efforts afoot to save South's disappearing grasslands
*AUTHOR: Travis Loller, Associated Press

*PREVIEW:
In the early 2000s, a harvest of pine trees on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau led to a remarkable discovery. Once sunlight hit the ground, the seeds and rootstock of native grasses and wildflowers that had lain dormant for decades began to spring to life.

The area was originally part of vast patchwork of Southern grasslands that today hang on only in tiny remnants, many times in rights-of-way next to roads or under power lines. They have often been an afterthought in conservation, if they were even thought of at all. But that is starting to change.

In Tennessee, where the pine trees were cleared, wildlife officials now maintain about 4,000 acres of grassland in the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area with controlled low-temperature burns. Along with the native plants, grassland loving animals have returned, including ground-nesting birds and rabbits.

Meanwhile, the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative is working to restore thousands of acres of other grasslands while also developing a seed bank, discovering new species and leading volunteers to search for remnants.

...

*READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-efforts-afoot-south-grasslands.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20200922/b9492c47/attachment.html>