Description: This is a joint outing with the Tennessee Native Plant Society.
Get an inside / outside look at the Southeastern Grasslands Institute on a tour of SGI headquarters at Austin Peay State University, including their “Seeds of Success” native seed collection initiative, a tour of the largest collections in a Mid-South herbarium, and a stroll through the Native Plant Teaching and Research Garden.
Afterwards, we’ll drive as a caravan to see a nearby SGI restoration site that includes over 50 acres of Pennroyal Plain Prairie. The private restoration site should be in peak bloom for this visit!
Participants who need to leave after the campus leg may do so, but all are welcome to join us at the prairie and then leave from there. See directions below.
Main leader will be SGI’s volunteer leader Laura Hunt. Also Marcello De Vitis, Director of the native seed program; Jared Gorrell, herbarium manager; and Cooper Breedon, Plant Conservation Manager.
From SGI: “Dedicated to rebuilding the lost grasslands of the South, SGI is a grant and philanthropically funded grassland conservation organization that works to protect, preserve and restore our southeastern grasslands and the species that depend on them for survival. If you would like to receive the monthly volunteer newsletter with a calendar of events, or if you would like to be notified of future SGI events in your geographic region when they arise, sign-up for the SGI Volunteer Team! Join the 897 subscriber’s across the southeast awaiting an SGI event near them.”
Meeting place: SGI headquarters: 311 College Street, Clarksville, TN 37040. Park in adjacent lot #23 (marked on APSU campus map). Lot #23 is at (36.531120, -87.358372).
Next, we will drive to Lot #43 next to the Herbarium and gardens (36.533020, -87.351924). (#23 from #43 is easy – College St > Eighth St > Jackson Alley > Henry Ave. = left, left, left, left.)
Optional last leg of tour is a caravan to the prairie, about a 15-20 minute drive from campus: located near Boolean Drive and Guthrie Highway. We will share coordinates that day (it is on private property).
Difficulty: Easy, but at the prairie we are advised to wear skin-protective garments and closed-toe shoes for walking through “the millions of forbs in bloom. The thin to sparsely dense grasses and wildflowers are waist-to-shoulder high in June.”
Facilities: all locations
Leaders: Joanna Brichetto and Richard Hitt
Registration: Registration for this event is required. Visit signup.com to register.
