Southeastern Grasslands Initiative’s Conservation Seed Bank: Leveraging the capacity to advance rare plant conservation efforts in the region

The Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI), based out of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN works to conserve, restore, and promote native grasslands of all types throughout a 24 state region. Earlier this year, SGI joined the CPC as a Participating Institution (PI) due to its growing efforts in in situ and ex situ rare plant conservation, making it the only PI in Tennessee and one of a few PIs working in the Midsouth, a region consisting of all or part of eight states. In addition to joining the CPC, SGI attained another foundational milestone in our efforts to conserve rare plants by launching the Conservation Seed Bank (CSB), the purpose of which is to preserve the genetic integrity of rare and declining grassland species. Since launching, we have collected 36 regionally and globally rare species consisting of 94 accessions. These collections have allowed us to begin new reintroduction, augmentation, or research projects for at least 8 of these species in collaboration with other partners in the region this year.