With pillowcases in hand last weekend, a dozen of us plant and bird lovers waded through chest-high native grasses at Panola Mountain State Park to collect ripened grass seed.
Our goal was to help restore Georgia’s native grasslands, which, in turn, will benefit grassland-dependent birds, such as Eastern meadowlarks, loggerhead shrikes and several sparrow species. Over the decades, Georgia’s extensive loss of native grasslands — due largely to agriculture, development, pine plantations and exotic weed invasion — has led to the decline of most of these avian species.
During our four-hour harvest, we filled our pillowcases with enough seed to restore native grasses to at least 2 acres of old fields and other open spaces. (Pillowcases are ideal as seed collecting and storage bags because they are durable and less likely to allow mold growth.)
Led by the Georgia Important Bird Areas (IBA), which is part of a global effort to restore and protect key bird habitats, the seed-collecting program so far has helped restore native grasses to dozens of acres of old fields, pastures and other open areas in Georgia. Several of those open, sunny areas are at Panola in Rockdale County.
We collected the seeds of yellow Indian grass and little blue stem grass. As we went through the chest-high Indian grass, we stripped ripe seeds from the stems and dumped them into our pillowcases. For little blue stem, we shook the seeds into the pillowslips.
The seeds will go to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, whose staff will sow them by hand in select locations as part of the state’s native grass restoration effort.
Our leader, Charlie Muise, head of Georgia’s IBA, explained that the seeds we collected are “native phenotypes,” or direct descendants of plants that have lived in Georgia for millenniums — plants that grassland birds evolved with.
Before Europeans came, botantists believe, Georgia had scores of open native grasslands, ranging in size from a few acres to several hundred acres — composed, in part, of grass and sedge species also found in Midwestern tall grass prairies.
IN THE SKY: The South Taurid meteor shower will reach a peak of about 10 meteors per hour on Monday night, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Look to the east from midnight until dawn.
The moon, new on Sunday, will be a thin crescent low in the west at dusk on Monday. Mercury is very low in the east just before dawn. Venus is in the west at dusk and sets about three hours later; it will appear near the moon next Thursday night. Mars rises out of the east about four hours before dawn. Jupiter rises out of the east at sunset and is visible all night.
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