The SGI Blog
Last December, I joined SGI’s Executive Director Dwayne Estes and Chief Science Advisor Reed Noss in representing SGI at the Volgenau Climate Initiative’s 2023 Elevating the Profile of America’s Grasslands retreat. As part of the event, each attendee was asked to bring an object that represented their work in grassland conservation. I was stumped.
While botanists have been exploring the Cumberland Gap for decades, some areas remain seldom visited. Martin’s Fork, a boggy tributary to the Cumberland River which originates in the higher elevations of the park, is one such area. During a 2021 survey of the area, SGI’s Southern Appalachian Grasslands Coordinator, Zach Irick, made an exciting discovery: a population of the federally endangered white fringeless orchid (Platanthera integrilabia).
“In the Southeast,” says Zach Irick, SGI’s Southern Appalachian Grasslands Ecologist based in Chattanooga, “most of the natural sites that need to be restored are on private property.” In fact, approximately 90% of the land in this region is owned by private landowners. Essential to our work of protecting these vital ecosystems is informing and collaborating with landowners.
While working as a graduate research assistant with the Center of Excellence for Field Biology and the Southeastern Grasslands Institute at Austin Peay State University (APSU), Thomas Murphy identified four new species of Clematis and one species that had been forgotten about for over a century. He did this through a form of scientific gardening in conjunction with observations of herbarium specimens, field work, and collaborations with Jesse Harris from the University of Colorado - Boulder who provided DNA analysis.
On October 12, 2022, Dwayne Estes (SGI Executive Director) joined Larry Weaner (Founder of New Directions in the American Landscape) to co-present a workshop at Bridgestone Firestone Wildlife Management Area in Sparta, Tennessee. The all-day workshop was attended by landscape architects, resource managers, private individuals, and others interested in learning about Southeastern grasslands.
Several members of the SGI team headed to Louisville on October 3-6 to attend the 12th Eastern Native Grassland Symposium. This symposium is held every two years in different parts of the eastern U.S. and brings together people from all walks of life – researchers, land managers, seed growers, private individuals, resource managers, students, and others – who love grasslands.
Dwayne Estes is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute. He is also a Professor of Biology and Principal Investigator with the Center of Excellence for Field Biology at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN where he has mentored more than a dozen graduate students. His enthusiasm and love of Southeastern grasslands, botany, and natural history is infectious as anyone who has had the opportunity to talk with him can attest. Recently we sat down with Dwayne to learn a little more about him and his role at the Southeastern Grasslands Institute.
Five years ago, on October 5, 2018, the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI) was officially born. Like any birth, it didn’t just magically occur. It was preceded by a long period of gestation and behind-the-scenes activities. We wouldn’t be where we are today without that gestation period or the people who supported SGI before it officially existed, but that’s a story for another day.
