{"id":28297,"date":"2019-12-19T05:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T11:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28297"},"modified":"2019-12-18T23:28:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T05:28:39","slug":"austin-peay-state-universitys-southeastern-grasslands-initiative-to-establish-texas-hub-at-lady-bird-johnson-wildflower-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/12\/19\/austin-peay-state-universitys-southeastern-grasslands-initiative-to-establish-texas-hub-at-lady-bird-johnson-wildflower-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University\u2019s Southeastern Grasslands Initiative to establish Texas Hub at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-324279\" title=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" width=\"250\" height=\"64\"\/><strong>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> &#8211; The Austin Peay State University (APSU) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.segrasslands.org\/\" >Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI)<\/a> and The University of Texas at Austin\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wildflower.org\/\" >Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center<\/a> will advance their missions of landscape conservation and ecological restoration through a recently formalized partnership.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_476539\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/APSU\u2019s-Southeastern-Grasslands-Initiative-to-establish-Texas-Hub-at-Lady-Bird-Johnson-Wildflower-Center.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-476539\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-476539\" title=\"Austin Peay State University\u2019s Southeastern Grasslands Initiative to work with The University of Texas at Austin\u2019s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. (APSU)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/APSU\u2019s-Southeastern-Grasslands-Initiative-to-establish-Texas-Hub-at-Lady-Bird-Johnson-Wildflower-Center-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University\u2019s Southeastern Grasslands Initiative to work with The University of Texas at Austin\u2019s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. (APSU)\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-476539\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Austin Peay State University\u2019s Southeastern Grasslands Initiative to work with The University of Texas at Austin\u2019s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The two organizations officially signed a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding on November 18th, 2019 that will establish a presence for SGI in Eastern and Central Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement recognizes that coordination between SGI and the Wildflower Center can advance the conservation of southeastern U.S. grasslands (e.g. prairies, savannas, meadows, etc.).<\/p>\n<h3>Outcomes of the partnership are expected to include:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A member of the Wildflower Center\u2019s staff joining SGI\u2019s Steering Committee and\/or future board as well as SGI\u2019s Scientific Advisory Committee.<\/li>\n<li>A staff position or positions to be based out of the Wildflower Center to jointly represent SGI and the the Center.<\/li>\n<li>The development of mutually beneficial proposals and grant applications.<\/li>\n<li>Shared production of educational and outreach materials and activities.<\/li>\n<li>Community-based grassland conservation teams based out of various cities in Central and East Texas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cSGI\u2019s work is critically important,\u201d Patrick Newman, executive director of the Wildflower Center, said. \u201cBy aligning with one another, we hope to strengthen our common goals of conserving North America\u2019s native plants and grassland ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Southeastern Grasslands Initiative | American Spring Live | NPT\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bubw9p-teQU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Dwayne Estes, APSU professor and SGI director, responded by saying that \u201cThe Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center does an outstanding job of educating the public and implementing urban ecological restoration, both of which are critically important for the current age we live in. Their ongoing field research and strengths in volunteer\/educational programs will also serve our collaborations in more traditional conservation efforts. Everyone at SGI looks forward to working with the Wildflower Center through a variety of events, promotions, and projects.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The SGI is a collaboration of leaders in international biodiversity conservation led by the Austin Peay&nbsp; State University\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/field-biology\/\" >Center of Excellence for Field Biology<\/a>, located in Clarksville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>[320left]SGI seeks to integrate research, consultation and education, along with the administration of grants, to create innovative solutions to address the multitude of complex issues facing Southeastern grasslands, the most imperiled ecosystems in eastern North America.<\/p>\n<p>SGI\u2019s focal region includes parts or all of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.segrasslands.org\/s\/SGI-states.pdf\" >23 states<\/a> in the southeastern United States. This forms an area of what is called the \u201cbiogeographic Southeast.\u201d The northern boundary is formed by the southern limit of glaciation during the Ice Ages and the western boundary is the eastern edge of the Great Plains. For more information about SGI, visit their website at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.segrasslands.org\" >www.segrasslands.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is the Botanic Garden of Texas.&nbsp;The Center promotes its mission to inspire the conservation of native plants through its internationally recognized sustainable gardens, education and outreach programs, research projects, and consulting work.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the Center, visit their website at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wildflower.org\" >www.wildflower.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clarksville, TN &#8211; The Austin Peay State University (APSU) Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI) and The University of Texas at Austin\u2019s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center will advance their missions of landscape conservation and ecological restoration through a recently formalized partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,6633,262,512,825,9054,34419,32061,8450,9768],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7mp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28298,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28297\/revisions\/28298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}