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) restoration project. The restoration work was done the previous winter by Jekyll Island’s conservation department and Georgia Audubon. They cleared turfgrass and planted tens of thousands of year-old sweetgrass plugs along the Jekyll Island oceanfront.
Carlie worked together with Tara Janosik, a Warnell wildlife major, to assess the condition of 9,000 individual plants. They flagged plants with colors according to their condition, then Jekyll Island biologist Dan Quinn flew a drone over the sites to visualize the spatial patterns of restoration success. 
Also, Carlie and Tara measured on-the-ground conditions such as soil moisture, soil salinity, and surrounding vegetation to determine if any of those conditions explained the variable health of transplants. Controlling surrounding vegetation emerged as an important factor in ensuring the early success of sweetgrass establishment. Carlie presented her findings at the State of the Georgia Coast conference on Tybee Island in September 2023.
Carlie Blackburn presenting monitoring study findings