Major projects

The work of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute spans SGI’s focal region. Below are listed our main research projects and collaborators at this time. Please contact our Chief Conservation Officer Theo Witsell with any questions about SGI research projects.

Appalachian Bog Restoration

SGI is leading the studies on the efficacy of techniques to restore mountain bogs—some of the rarest wetland ecosystems on the Cumberland Plateau— and a priority in Tennessee’s State Wildlife Action Plan. These efforts target the recovery of imperiled species and include establishing butterfly meadows and canebrakes, reintroducing essential native plants, and building long-term datasets to guide adaptive management and ensure lasting ecosystem resilience. The project’s goal is to revive the natural processes that once sustained these wetlands and to support native plants like cranberries and cottongrass (Eriophorum).

Carbon sequestration in southeastern grasslands

SGI is collaborating with Dr. Heather Alexander & graduate researchers at the Auburn University Auburn Forest and Fire Ecology Lab to evaluate the ability of grassland ecosystems to sequester the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the soil. Researchers are especially interested in whether grasslands with a larger number of plant species are more effective than grasslands with only a few species in sequestering carbon, and whether certain plant species are more effective than others at moving atmospheric carbon into the soil for long-term storage. This project is funded by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.  

Cumberland plateau grasslands status assessment and conservation plan

The Cumberland Plateau, a roughly 9.4 million acre ecoregion on the western part of the Southern Appalachians, is a diverse landscape that historically supported a mosaic of forests, open woodlands, savannas, and embedded grasslands such as glades, bogs, and riverscour. While large areas of forest remain today, the grasslands have declined dramatically from their historical extent and quality, and are a major conservation priority. With funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, we are compiling the first-ever status assessment and conservation plan for open ecosystems of the region and the species that depend on them. The final report for this effort should be released in early 2026.

Grassland quality analysis

The SGI research team is developing new tools to both find grasslands and assess their quality. Based on the presence or absence of key indicator species, we are developing ways to identify if degraded or overgrown lands were natural grasslands historically. These tools will also help determine restoration potential of degraded grasslands which will inform restoration strategies. 

Grasslandia

SGI is developing a public online grasslands information portal and decision support tool called Grasslandia. This spatial, GIS-based platform will allow users to access a wide variety of historical and scientific information on grasslands through a map-based interface. From maps of where grasslands were found historically, to images and descriptions of remnant grasslands, to species lists and best practices for grassland restoration and management, Grasslandia will be a one-stop shop for all things grassland. Funded by the US Department of Agriculture, SGI research staff are working in partnership with ESRI and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on this ambitious grassland information clearing house. Stay tuned for updates on Grasslandia! Click here to learn more about mapping historical grasslands. Check out our blog Six Good Clues that a Southeastern Grassland was Here by Theo Witsell.

improved grassland classification & Mapping for the southeast

national park service partnership

SGI has entered into a partnership with the National Park Service that spans 40 National Parks. A majority of SGI staff are involved with this project. The goals of the project are to restore grassland habitats and ecosystems, and to monitor important species of plants and invertebrates in grasslands in our national parks, with major work scheduled to be published in peer reviewed journals.

Outside of our current project, SGI has worked in 60 of the U.S. National Park Service units within the eastern United States.

new Species Descriptions

From insects to plants, SGI’s staff and affiliates are aware of many undescribed, or “new”, grassland species that are unknown to the scientific community. Formally describing these species can take years of field and museum work as well as DNA analysis. Research on multiple species are currently underway by SGI staff and partners. Click here to see SGI’s publications.

prairie reconstruction Research

Google Prairie

SGI affiliated researcher Gabby LeFevre is utilizing the Google Prairie in Clarksville, TN as her experimental test site for her research on pollinator presence and absence affects on native and invasive flowers, as well as climate change related effects on prairie ecosystems. Additionally, research with SGI and APSU partners on mammals is underway at Google Prairie.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Anchor Sites

Monitoring for rare and sensitive species on prairie reconstruction sites is a core part of our National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funded projects to stabilize, restore, and reconstruct 2,500 acres of the forgotten grasslands of central TN.

Rights-of-way grasslands

Rights-of-way along roadsides and utility corridors like powerlines and gas lines are critical reservoirs of southeastern grassland biodiversity. In many regions, the prairies have all been plowed and the savannas have grown up into unnaturally dense forests, choking out sun-loving species.

Rights-of-way, some now nearly a century old, have served as critical refugia for grassland species and SGI is always on the hunt for these grassland remnants to search for rare species, collect seed, or look for grassland animals. In partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the Mississippi Entomological Museum (Mississippi State), SGI completed four years of field work and data collection that will result in a series of publications. The publications will center on data on the plants and pollinator biodiversity of large TVA rights-of-way under powerlines compared to the biodiversity under adjacent closed canopy forested areas. Many of the TVA rights-of-way contain rare grassland species throughout the southeastern U.S. To learn more about SGI’s work in Rights-of-Ways, click here. Check out our blog The Importance of Rights-of-Way to Sun-Loving Grassland Species by Theo Witsell.

Riverscour Research

Through millennia, many separate entrenched river systems have developed their own unique miniature riverside grasslands called riverscour. These communities have high biodiversity, with over 90 plant species in a single 10 x 10 meter plot! This richness rivals that of longleaf pine savannas, and for some river systems we have found more than 500 species of plants in nine river miles, restricted to the flood-scoured grassland zone. At least a dozen endemic plants are restricted to these intense, flood-maintained grasslands, and occur here and nowhere else on Earth. These grasslands support hundreds of plant and animal species, including timber rattlesnakes, butterflies, bees, and countless other species. Recent research shows that there are at least six undescribed plant species in these rich ecosystems that are completely new to science.

Despite their importance, there is limited representation of riverscour ecosystems in the scientific literature. Much of what’s out there is focused on botanical studies and less on these systems as a whole.

Spring Creek bladderpod (paysonia perforata)

Paysonia perforata, commonly called the Spring Creek Bladderpod, is a rare bladderpod only found in Wilson County, Tennessee. SGI researchers are working to better understand this rare plant and its ecology. SGI has been able to take an experimental and adaptive management approach for this population. This critically imperiled species is an annual and requires very specific conditions to germinate- the seed has to be directly exposed to sunlight. The research involves affects of different ecological restoration techniques on the plant, including experimental prescribed fire and mechanical disturbance to mimic buffalo disturbance.

Sumter Farm & Stock Company Mapping & Inventory

SGI is working with the Sumter Farm & Stock Company in the Black Belt Ecoregion of Alabama to map remnant grasslands, other ecosystems, and sites for future restoration work. All ecological communities are being mapped on the 11,000 acre property, which is unique in the ecoregion due to attentive land management and resulting abundance of remnant grasslands. A detailed inventory of the flora and fauna of the property is part of this project.

Vertical Grasslands

SGI’s Alaina Krakowiak was working with the National Park Service on monitoring rare plants of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, but was not finding the rare plants in their previously recorded sites at the base and tops of limestone cliff bands. Alaina hypothesized that the plants might be growing on the cliffs. Working with Dr. Laura Boggess, a cliff based ecologist, from Mars Hill University, Alaina repelled down the cliffs and found multiple sun-loving species growing on the cliff faces and ledges. An additional outcome of the vertical grassland work was taking tree ring core samples of very old cliff side eastern red cedars. Cliffs are undersurveyed biodiversity hotspots, and Alaina’s work has helped to better understand plant communities in southeastern cliff ecosystems. Link to blog. Cumberland gap - cliffs, bogs, rare plant monitoring.

Past Projects & 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.