I was on the outskirts of Fort Benning near Columbus last weekend to visit with volunteers who were busily planting native grasses among longleaf pine seedlings in a huge field.

Until recently, the field in Marion County was dominated by another species, the sand pine, a non-native — or invasive — species in Georgia. Sand pines were removed to make way for native longleafs.

The goal of the new project, which involves 20 conservation groups, agencies and institutions led by the Nature Conservancy of Georgia, is to restore thousands of acres in Marion and Talbot counties bordering Fort Benning to a longleaf pine forest, once the region’s dominant ecosystem.

Known as the Chattahoohee Fall Line Sandhills, the region is where the Chattahoochee and its tributaries cross the rocky shoals and sand hills of the Fall Line. The open, fire-dependent longleaf forest that once covered it had a thick understory of grasses, resembling a parkland setting.

Thriving in it was a rich diversity of wildlife, including the red cockaded woodpecker and the gopher tortoise — now endangered because only remnants of their once great habitat remain due to logging and development.

The volunteers were planting clumps of little bluestem and lopsided Indian grass — native grasses that once grew lushly among soaring longleafs. “First, we had to remove the non-native sand pines,” said LuAnn Creighton of the Chattahoochee Fall Line Conservation Partnership. “Now we’ll bring back the natural ecosystem.”

Fort Benning officials enthusiastically support the project. They fear that increasing human development along the boundaries of the 183,000-acre base could jeopardize its mission of training young soldiers for warfare. Civilian neighbors might complain of smoke, noise and low-flying aircraft, making it more difficult to carry out training exercises. A buffer of thousands of acres of protected forest around the base would greatly diminish those concerns.

IN THE SKY: The Geminid meteor shower will be visible most of next week with a peak of 50 meteors per hour on Thursday night (Dec. 13). Look to the east from about midnight until dawn, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer.

The moon, new on Thursday, will be a thin crescent low in the west on Friday evening. Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise; it appears near the moon Wednesday morning. Venus, rising out of the east two hours before dawn, appears near the moon Tuesday morning. Mars is low in the southwest at dusk and sets in the west a few hours later. Jupiter rises out of the east around midnight. Saturn rises out of the east three hours before dawn and appears near the moon Sunday night.