I just assumed that Nashville was part of the great temperate deciduous forests that once covered much of the eastern half of the United States. When I went looking for the once-endangered Tennessee coneflower in 2019, I found them in a rocky glade surrounded by grasslands blooming with wildflowers. And if there are grasslands here now, surely there must have been grasslands here in the past. Today nearly all those Southern prairies — along with nearly all the other types of Southern grassland ecosystems, and nearly all the plants and animals they supported — are gone. In a study published in 2021, a team of scientists including Dr. Estes identified 118 major types of grassland ecosystems in the South.

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Persons: Ken Burns, Dwayne Estes, Dr, Estes Organizations: PBS, Tennessee coneflower, Austin Peay State University, Southeastern Grasslands Institute Locations: American Buffalo, ”, Middle Tennessee, Nashville, United States, Tennessee, North America, American, Clarksville, Tenn, glades