The Piedmont Prairie Partnership is a group of non-profit, state, and federal agencies working to bring back Piedmont Prairies. Organizations include the North Carolina Botanical Garden, Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Atlanta Botanical Garden, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Great to hear, Joe. Since you're in Georgia, I'd suggest emailing Jennifer Ceska from the State Botanical Garden of Georgia: jceska@uga.edu . She can help with ideas, management recommendations, possible funding sources, etc. We're also working on some landowner resources for the website but they're not quite ready yet.
Great question. Contacting both directly to indicate your support can certainly help. For counties, many people have had success asking for Piedmont Prairies when they're developing new parks. Orange county in NC is looking a developing a wildflower route as a tourist opportunity along an important stretch of roadside and powerline rights-of-way. We're also working on getting an article in the magazine of NC electrical coops. Certainly open to other ideas. We'll probably send a request for ideas out to the folks on the Piedmont Prairie Newsletter soon.
No mention of how invasive species like Bradford Pear hybrids are going to be prevented from taking over the Piedmont prairies. In our area of the Piedmont, any open space that is not mowed is soon taken over by the Bradford Pears.
Invasive species, like Bradford Pear hybrids, are definitely a big problem. That why the only prairies we have left are either on mowed roadsides, powerline rights-of-way, and on conservation lands managed with prescribed fire, mowing, and/or selective cutting and herbicide. We had a bit more on invasive species but ended up having to cut it from the video to save time. It was a tough choice.
Great to hear. If you haven't signed up already, there's a link at the bottom of the Piedmont Prairie Partnership website to sign-up for the newsletter: www.segrasslands.org/piedmont. We'll be sending out ways for folks to get more involved
