In pre-colonial times, pine savannahs stretched across vast areas of the southeastern United States. Very little of this unique grassland habitat remains in Georgia. Many native bunch grasses (i.e., big bluestem, Indian, eastern gamma, and little bluestem) have been virtually eliminated. Bird populations that depend on grassland communities for either breeding or wintering habitat have experienced precipitous declines.

Bachman’s Sparrow, Henslow’s Sparrow, Loggerhead Shrike, Eastern Meadowlark, and Northern Bobwhite are a few of the species that have garnered attention due to declining populations. During spring 2002, six sites in the Piedmont region of Georgia were planted with a combination of big bluestem, little bluestem, switch grass, and Indian grass. Several other sites were not planted, and are being maintained under current management practices of annual mowing and periodic fire.

Bird community composition is being monitored in all sites during summer and winter using mist netting, point counts, plot mapping, and behavioral observations. The success of the re-establishment effort is being evaluated with annual vegetation surveys in the planted and unplanted areas.