major projects

 
 

Photo from Barnett’s Woods and Prairie State Natural Area

  • Best Hope Farm is an 80+ acre farm managed by Deborah & ___Rosenthal. The Rosenthals have been important catalysts in SGI’s work, and have implemented SGI’s restoration practices and philosophies to bring their farm’s prairie remnants and restoration sites back to health. To learn more, follow Best Hope Farm on facebook.

  • SGI currently owns and manages 250 acres near Clarksville, TN called Barnett’s Woods and Prairie State Natural Area. SGI works closely with adjacent private landowners, the City of Clarksville, and Fort Campbell Army Base on protecting and restoring important prairie remnants in the area. Eventually, Barnett’s Woods State Park will be open to the public with trails for recreation and educational purposes. 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Blazing Star at Best Hope Farm

  • Boots to Botany is an Army-approved Career Skills Program that partners closely with the Southeastern Grasslands Institute. The program works with neighboring Fort Campbell military service members to train with the SGI team and prepare them for civilian careers in botany, ecology, and restoration.

    Please contact Jeremy French if you are a servicemember interested in our Boots to Botany program.

  • Need info on the Berkley Project

Need better Chatt. photo

  • The Southeastern Grasslands Institute has partnered with the City of Chattanooga on multiple projects. An important project has been restoration work in the biodiverse prairie remnant and state park Orchard Knob. The City of Chattanooga has recently been designated as a the first National Park City in North America, and SGI is working to help further this accolade.

  • The Southeastern Grasslands Institute has partnered with Dunbar Cave State Park in Clarksville, TN, to restore and maintain open grassland areas in the park.

    Be sure to check out our Volunteer Calendar for opportunities to help with restoration efforts at Dunbar Cave State Park in Clarksville.

Seeding with a tractor on the Google Prairie

  • SGI works closely with the Google Data Center in Clarksville, TN to manage a total of 105 acres of prairie. To learn more about the Google Prairie partnership, check out the video Where the Internet Lives: Data center on the prairie on YouTube. 

  • SGI is working with Kilbride Nature Sanctuary to restore warm season grass fields to remnant grassland of the Ridge and Valley. Kilbride is a part of Tennessee Wesleyan University.

    SGI is grateful to the following partners and their support of land restoration work at Kilbride: Tennessee River Gorge Trust, City of Chattanooga, Lula Lake Land Trust, Reflection Riding.

SGI’s Zach Irick with community partners following a prescribed burn conducted to restore Kilbride Nature Sanctuary

Funding for this project is from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

  • SGI has received funding from the NFWF’s America’s Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (AERI) to uplift grassland conservation in central TN. The work of this grant will restore and reconstruct thousands of acres of grasslands in Middle Tennessee. SGI is working with both private landowners, such as Bask Retreat Center, and public lands, such as Shelby Bottoms Greenway and Natural Area. 

  • SGI works closely in Virginia on the Farm at Sinking Creek. The historic farm is run by long-time SGI supporters, Bill & Tracy Frist. The farm is an example of how agricultural production and ecological restoration can be done simultaneously.

Image of the Farm at Sinking Creek featuring milkweed.

The project is funded in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service

  • SGI has entered into a partnership with the National Parks Service that spans 40 National Parks from Mississippi to Vermont. SGI will restore existing but degraded grasslands by removing invasive species and seeding with native species from the ecoregion. Some sites will improve existing grasslands that are in need of management, and some sites require reconstructions, which tend to involve fields formerly used for agriculture reconstructed into native grassland ecosystems. A majority of SGI restoration staff are involved with this project. The goals of the project are to restore and monitor important species of plants and invertebrates in grasslands in our national parks.

sgi past projects and partners

The Southeastern Grasslands Institute is grateful for the partnership of many agencies, donors, and organizations since our inception in 2017. Please see the list below of significant projects and partners that have advanced grassland restoration in our focal region.