Like much of the American Southeast, Durham County was once filled with an extensive patchwork of prairies and savannas characterized by a mix of fire-tolerant trees and warm season grasses. Although most of these prairies and savannas disappeared after European settlement, a few holdouts persist, including several in Durham County. The story these landscapes tell is both ecological and historical. On the one hand, the remaining prairies and savannas are often associated with extreme soils, the product of geological events that occurred over 200 million years ago. On the other hand, many of these biologically diverse ecosystems were kept open by indigenous communities for thousands of years through burning, foraging, and agriculture, and would likely revert to closed-canopy forest without human intervention.

The Open Space Program recently used a grant from Burt’s Bees to fund a study of these Piedmonts prairies and savannas. Conducted by researchers from the Natural Heritage Program, this project identified additional prairies and savannas in Durham County through site visits and analyses of soil, geological, and botanical data. The report, available here, highlights priority areas for conservation and offers practical recommendations for managing and protecting these unique landscapes.

Click here to view the report.

^{Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum). Courtesy of Justin Robinson.}