By Cecilia Marrero

On an overcast October day, Connie Gray and I went to South Rockdale Park.  The trip was informative as much as it was visually pleasing.  The naturally occurring arrangement of grasses and forbs (or flowering plants) was as if someone had gone in there and painted a beautiful grassland in this urban location. Connie Gray, Ecological Resource Specialist, led the trip with a lesson on the meadow grasses and forbs, defining them as being typically dominant in open, stable communities such as this one in South Rockdale Park. These photos were taken during the warm season when grasses tend to be showier in their active growth (versus cool season grasses) when soil and nighttime temperatures are regularly 60-65F.  Because of park protection, this dry-mesic open land has flourished with little competition, displaying a broad range of composite species that indicate a healthy community: Sorghastrum nutans (Indian Grass), Solidago speciosa (Showy Goldenrod), Silphium asteriscus (Starry Rosinweed), Panicum anceps (Beaked Panic Grass), Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem), Silphium compositum (Kidney-leaf Rosinweed), Liatris graminifolia (Grass-leaf Blazing Star).

South Rockdale Park showcases a native grassland that is an ecosystem which has been generally disregarded and plowed under for agriculture or destroyed for urban developments since European settlement. The value of this habitat is not only for human visitors, but also provides important habitat for wildlife in an increasingly urbanized locale.

An essential part of the maintenance of our park systems should include conservation efforts needed for the protection of these wildlife havens. We will continue to make frequent visits to various protected areas and greenspaces to further our experience and knowledge so that we may extend the interests in environmental activism through restoring what has been lost in the Georgia piedmont.