Native Warm-Season Grasslands

WHEN YOU HEAR THE term “grassland,” images of the vast prairies of the Northern Great Plains, or the iconic African savannas, might come to mind. The word may not immediately inspire thoughts of the eastern United States, and yet native grasslands are an important feature of the Wild East landscape.

Grasslands are complex, early successional ecosystems found on every continent but Antarctica. Their commonality is the dominance of grasses, but regional and local differences in climate, weather, soil, and disturbance lead to their great diversity in size and composition. Herbaceous forbs, woody shrubs, some trees, and an array of wildlife are common features. In the eastern U.S., where rainfall is consistent, native grasslands are dominated by warm-season bunch grasses such as big bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass and switchgrass, and they tend to have a high presence of flowering forbs like milkweed, goldenrod, wild bergamot, and black-eyed Susan. Oftentimes we refer to these areas as meadows.

Along the Appalachian Trail, native “grasslands” may take the form of high elevation balds, rich wildflower meadows, shrubby oak or pine barrens, and alpine tundra. For a hiker, they are typically a welcomed change of pace from the “green tunnel,” affording a glimpse of the surrounding landscape and some historical context for the area. These habitats generally exist based on some history of disturbance. The grassy balds of the southern Appalachians are thought to have been grazed by giant prehistoric herbivores like the Mastodon, while many of the bucolic meadows found along the A.T. in New England are remnants of small-scale farming operations dating back to the mid-eighteenth century. Much of the area through which the A.T. travels historically experienced understory fires every one to 35 years and mixed severity fires every 35 to 200 years. Before fire suppression became a regular practice, grasslands contributed to a dynamic mosaic of habitat in the eastern U.S.; as one grassland succeeded towards forest, another would emerge.

The loss of natural environmental processes, coupled with invasive species, fragmentation, and cropland conversions, are why only approximately five percent of America’s native grasslands persist. Recent research published in the journal Science demonstrates a loss of nearly three billion North American birds since 1970, with grassland birds suffering the greatest declines at a 53 percent population loss. Some of America’s most iconic birds, like the bobolink, eastern meadowlark, and American woodcock have been the heaviest hit, but many species of insect pollinators and small mammals have also declined with grassland losses.

Perhaps fortuitously, these sometimes under-appreciated areas are increasingly being recognized for their valuable ecosystem services. Grasslands are a productive way to reclaim areas previously timbered, surfaced mined, or otherwise degraded; and they are an ideal means of optimizing wildlife habitat while maintaining rights-of-way under powerlines and along pipelines. Native warm season grasses have extensive root systems that range from three to six feet in length, and this huge amount of underground biomass does an excellent job of sequestering carbon, controlling erosion, reducing stormwater runoff, and filtering drinking water. Because they are less susceptible to drought and disease than forests, and require minimal long-term investment to maintain, grasslands are being seriously considered for their climate change mitigation potential. As the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and our partners work to protect quality resources and experiences along the A.T., the conservation and restoration of grassland habitats is one way we are working to sustain a healthy, resilient, and biodiverse Wild East under an uncertain climatic future.