NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Austin Peay State University’s Southeastern Grasslands Institute (SGI) is leading a $10 million project to restore native grasslands across Middle Tennessee, including a major makeover for Shelby Bottoms in Nashville.
"Most Tennesseans don't really stop and consider that we had grasslands at all," Southeastern Grasslands Institute Co‑founder Dwayne Estes said.
Historically, Tennessee was home to around 8 million acres of native grassland. Today, only about 1 percent remains. The landscape at Cornelia Fort Air Park in Nashville — now dominated by non-native plants — looks very different from what was here centuries ago.
"If we didn't have these open ecosystems two, 300 years ago, Nashville probably wouldn't have been settled when it was," Estes said.
Estes explained that overgrazing in the 1830s and the aftermath of the Civil War altered the land permanently.
"All the green that you see behind me now is primarily dominated by European species that replaced the original American species long ago," Estes said.
The institute is on a mission to bring these ecosystems back.
"Just because they're gone doesn't mean that we can't bring them back," Chief of Ecological Restoration Jeremy French said.
The project will restore approximately 2,500 acres of grasslands in Tennessee. This effort will help the institute reach an overall milestone of restoring 10,000 acres of native grassland.
With the new funding, SGI will expand its restoration efforts from Clarksville to Nashville, and into Dickson and Hickman counties. Communities across the region will see progress over the next four years.
"There's nothing more American or Tennessean that you can do than conserve American plants. And Tennessean plants in American places and in Tennessee's backyard," French said.
The grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s America’s Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, with matching contributions from benefactors, will bring 47 new jobs to the area.
"We like to say with these grassland reconstructions, restorations that first they sleep, then they creep, then they leap," French said.
The restoration work is about helping the planet and its wildlife — from pollinators to rare wildflowers — while creating spaces for everyone to enjoy.
"These native grasslands and their species. They need us," French said.
"Our biodiversity needs these landscapes, from the butterflies and the bees to small mammals and certain species of wildflowers. They need these habitats," Estes said.
The public will have a chance to get involved. SGI is hosting a volunteer invasive-species removal event at Shelby Bottoms on April 18, followed by a community presentation. Click here to sign up.
"It’s really one of the greatest gifts I can think of to this urban community here and to the rural communities out across Middle Tennessee that we're going to be serving through this project," Estes said.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Patsy.Montesinos@NewsChannel5.com
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