To benefit grassland birds and agriculture, Tennessee conservationists are providing key leadership for the restoration of native grasses in the Southeast, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Native grasslands and savannahs once were common throughout much of the region, but 99 percent of them have been eliminated. The Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) has identified the restoration of native grass/forb communities across most of the bobwhite range as the primary management objective for recovery of sustainable quail populations. Several priority grassland songbirds also can benefit, such as eastern meadowlarks, field sparrows, Henslow's sparrows, grasshopper sparrows, and dickcissels.

A major barrier to native grass and bobwhite restoration in the region is a long-standing and pervasive reliance by agriculture on invasive exotic forage grasses, which are easier to establish and manage. Native, warm-season grasses, on the other hand, can outproduce exotics, are more drought tolerant, require lower inputs and lengthen the period of active forage production.

In 2006, the University of Tennessee established the Mid-South Center for Native Grasslands Management in Knoxville, with collaboration and funding from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Center is a unique institution in the South, and begins the process of filling a major regional conservation void. Dr. Pat Keyser is the Center's Coordinator, a research and extension position envisioned to work with agricultural producers and other landowners throughout the state and beyond.

The Center and its collaborators wasted no time demonstrating the potency of such dedicated institutions. In January, the Center collaborators convened the first "Tennessee Native Grasslands Workshop," in part to raise awareness and examine the status of the Volunteer State's grassland resources. The workshop was geared to the professional conservation and agricultural community, but interest was so extensive that the workshop had to be moved to a larger facility at the last minute to accommodate more than 240 people.

A primary aim of the workshop was to launch a coordinated statewide effort to restore native grassland communities for birds and agriculture. TWRA Director Gary Myers attended the entire workshop to demonstrate the priority his agency is placing on native grassland restoration. Such initiative, adopted and replicated across the Southeast, would greatly accelerate the pace and expand the scope of grassland bird restoration in the region.

For more information about the native grassland-restoration initiatives and efforts of the Mid-South Center for Native Grasslands Management, contact Pat Keyser 865-974-0644.(dfm)