Eastern Native Grasslands Symposium

In October of 2018 KDFWR, UTIA, UK AG Extension, and USDA NRCS partnered to hold a dinner for landowners interested in grazing NWSG in Madison County, close to the eastern boundary of the Bluegrass Army Depot. The dinner resulted in 12 landowners planting almost 200 acres of native grass for forage. The goal is 2,000 acres in the focal area. Based on the success of the Madison County project in 2019 landowners were solicited to plant NWSG in a new focus area in Green County. The goal is to convert a portion of production systems to native warm season grasses, a native forage base that is drought tolerant, toxic endophyte free, and more hospitable to native wildlife. The current use of KY31 fescue as the number one forage in most of the 5 million acres of open land in Kentucky has resulted in the precipitous decline of grass and shrubland fauna and flora, including game and nongame animals.