Saving Southeastern Grasslands  | Dr. Dwayne Estes | TEDxClarksville

The Catalyst: Depression and the Dream of Sunshine

• The author experienced burnout, bipolar depression, and seasonal depression around 10 years ago, which was exacerbated by their baby boy requiring open heart surgery and a long, cloudy winter in Tennessee, leaving them craving sunshine and access to nature (59s).
• Growing up in the country, the author needed something that a forest couldn't provide at that moment in their life, specifically sunshine and healthy, biodiverse landscapes (1m26s).
• To cope with their struggles, the author sat down with their kids at the kitchen table to do some coloring, which helped to soothe their mind and soul (2m1s).
• While coloring, the author looked out the back window and saw the sun come out for the first time in weeks, prompting them to tell their kids about the history of their backyard, which used to be a tallgrass prairie (2m20s).
• The author explained to their kids that 220 years ago, their backyard was home to buffalo, greater prairie chickens, and other wildlife, which sparked their imagination and creativity (2m48s).
• The author created a crayon sketch with their kids, depicting a fanciful drawing of their family in a prairie landscape, complete with a beautiful prairie sunset, wildflowers, and diverse wildlife (3m23s).

Remembering the Prairie

• Prairies are more than just grass, featuring hundreds of species of native wildflowers, shrub thickets, and scattered groves of trees, contributing to amazing amounts of biodiversity (3m48s).
• There are 118 types of grasslands in the southeastern United States, including dry prairies, wet prairies, mesic prairies, savannas, rocky open rockout crops, marshes, and natural ponds, all of which support a wide range of wildlife (4m8s).
• The southeastern United States originally had a vast open and grassy landscape, known as the southern grassland biome, with a Prairie belt that was 220 miles wide and 30-40 miles across at its widest point, but 99.99% of this landscape has been lost (4m31s).

The Search for a Prairie

• Northern Clarksville, located on the southern end of this Prairie belt, no longer has any remaining prairies, prompting a road trip to the nearest accessible Prairie in southern Kentucky (5m8s).
• The trip involved driving through endless corn fields, soybean fields, pastures, and residential areas, but no remaining prairies were found after 200 years (6m0s).
• A visit to the Baker Prairie natural area near Russellville, Kentucky, brought a sense of life and warmth, despite the cold temperature, and inspired a desire to build prairies back in the hometown (6m14s).

Gathering the Resources

• The goal of building prairies in the hometown was set, but four key ingredients were lacking: seeds, land, a team, and the knowledge to restore prairies (6m50s).
• A call to Randy and John Seymour, owners of a leading native Prairie seed-producing company, resulted in a donation of seeds and guidance, valued at around $35,000 (8m9s).
• Contact with Tennessee State Parks led to the possibility of using land at Dunbar Cave State Park in the hometown to build the prairies (8m31s).
• A 15-acre hayfield was purchased and added to a state park, with plans to close the deal in two months, providing a perfect opportunity to create a prairie (8m36s).
• The area was historically known as Dunbar's Buffalo Path, where bison would migrate from the Great Prairies near the Kentucky-Tennessee state line to drink from Buffalo Spring, now known as Dunbar Cave (9m7s).
• The historical significance of the area added a new layer to the story of creating a prairie, combining American history with the conservation efforts (9m28s).

Building a Team

• A fellow botanist, Theo Witzell, was contacted to help spread awareness about the importance of prairies, as native wildflowers and species like the Bob White Quail were disappearing due to the lack of open, healthy ecosystems (9m36s).
• The Midsouth Prairie Symposium was hosted at Austin Peay State University in May 2016, attracting 150 people and 33 invited speakers, including a philanthropist from New York City who was interested in supporting the conservation of Southern grasslands (10m2s).
• The philanthropist offered a $20,000 planning grant, which led to the formation of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute, with the goal of rebuilding the forgotten grasslands of the South (11m0s).
• The organization was established at Austin Peay State University, marking a key foundational step in building a team to focus on conservation efforts (11m24s).

Growth and Expansion

• Over time, the organization grew, speaking to over 100,000 people, creating a website, video, and social media presence, and writing numerous grant proposals (11m49s).
• A call from Google led to an invitation to submit a grant proposal, providing another opportunity for the organization to secure funding for their prairie initiative (12m24s).
• Rebuilding a prairie requires understanding the native ecosystem and the species that inhabit it, as non-native grasses can disrupt the entire system, affecting pollinators and wildlife like the Bob White Quail (12m53s).

The Science of Prairie Restoration

• To rebuild a prairie, teams of students and experts assess the current state of the land, then start over, using reference sites like the prairies at Fort Campbell army base, which has 25,000 acres of prairies and savannas, to determine how to restore the lost landscapes (13m34s).
• The reference sites are used to study the species and determine which seeds are needed to restore the ecosystems, including wet prairie, dry prairie, oak savannah, and shrub thickets (14m1s).
• Preparing the site for planting can take years, as seen in the example of a site that took two years to get ready, from 2015 to 2016, before seeds could be planted in June 2017 (14m33s).
• The prairie goes through phases, first sleeping, then creeping, and finally leaping in year three, when the plants send up diversity and plant matter, attracting bees, grassland birds, and small mammals (14m50s).

The Prairie's Lifecycle and Community Involvement

• The prairie is designed to mirror the natural ecosystems, and the process involves partnering with other organizations and agencies to document the insects, grassland birds, and mammals that inhabit the prairie (15m49s).
• The involvement of people is crucial to the success of the project, as there is not enough money to hire enough staff to do all the work, and volunteers, including children, play a vital role in the process (16m24s).
• Prairies are adapted to fire, grazing, and management by Native Americans, and acknowledging the role of people in the ecosystem is essential to creating healthy grassland ecosystems (16m45s).
• Prairies are places where children can learn and connect with nature, and involving them in the process is essential to the long-term success of the project (16m56s).

Community Engagement and Workforce Development

• A community volunteer day is being held, where elders are preparing a site to be hand-sewn with native seeds, while children are building and playing, constructing a grass thatch hut, promoting community building and outdoor exercise (16m58s).
• Workforce development is being done by training young men and women in wildland firefighting, prescribed burning, and native seed collection, with hundreds of pounds of native seeds being collected per year (17m30s).
• The collected seeds are mixed at headquarters and then distributed back out in the winter, with volunteers from various groups, including the football team, participating in the process (17m50s).
• Herbicides are being used to treat invasive species, with people being taught how to carefully and appropriately use them (18m5s).

Scaling Up and Partnerships

• In the first five years, only 75 acres were restored, but the goal is to scale up, with nearly 1,000 acres now being restored, including 500 acres 20 miles east of town and 350 acres just west of town (18m29s).
• Restoration efforts are also being done in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Google, and the US National Park Service, with a $1 million grant to restore grasslands across 40 US National Parks (19m16s).
• The vision is to rebuild the American landscape, with the community coming together to make it happen, and to create a beautiful and thriving ecosystem, as described by Ruben Ross in 1812 (20m1s).
• The goal is to make this vision a reality, not just in one area, but in towns, cities, and rural areas across the country, with the help of people from all walks of life (20m51s).