With support from a USDA-NIFA Developing Pathways internship, Carlie Blackburn — a recent graduate from the College of Coastal Georgia — spent the summer of 2023 on Jekyll Island, conducting an innovative monitoring study of a large sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia sericea)…
BIO-CULTURAL CONSERVATION ON THE COAST! We are starting a new project, funded by NOAA and Georgia Sea Grant, investigating sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia sericea) and other plant species of cultural and ecological importance to Gullah Geechee people and Georgia’s maritime ecosystems. The…
This article, just published online in Landscape and Urban Planning, analyzes how two fields of scholarship and practice — ecological restoration and cultural landscape conservation — have faced similar challenging issues as they seek to manage complex intersections of human…
As part of our research on the status and future of Barrier Island Maritime Live Oak forests on the Georgia coast, on March 12, 2018 we convened a day-long workshop with managers from five barrier islands, coastal ecosystem managers and…
Understanding the past, present, and future fate of forests on Georgia’s barrier islands is motivating a lot of work in our lab these days…. Together with Warnell faculty colleagues Nate Nibbelink and Clint Moore, we received 4 years of funding…
Dr. Eric MacDonald of the College of Environment & Design at UGA is shepherding this student-run initiative that uses prescribed grazing to control invasive species, reclaim forgotten natural areas on campus, and foster environmental stewardship in students. The goats, or the…
Georgia has one of the least-developed coastlines on the Atlantic seaboard, and a lot of that coastline is salt marsh — hypnotically beautiful salt marsh. While the graceful mosaics of water, marsh, and upland hammocks may appear “untouched,” coastal ecosystems…
Jekyll Island State Park is a veritable “turducken” of some of the best things the Georgia Coast has to offer: It’s a state park with beautiful natural areas, the Sea Turtle Center, and fantastic conservation programs; it’s a tourist destination…
This project is investigating how and why Sansevieria volkensii, a humble succulent native to Kenyan drylands, has become a pernicious pest plant. The proliferation has coincided with intensifying grazing pressure in the area and drastic reduction of grass cover. The…