Alva Review-Courier -

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In the early 2000s, a harvest of pine trees on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau led to a remarkable discovery. Once sunlight hit the ground, the seeds and rootstock of native grasses and wildflowers that had lain dormant for decades began to spring to life.

The area was originally part of vast patchwork of Southern grasslands that today hang on only in tiny remnants, many times in rights-of-way next to roads or under power lines. They have often been an afterthought in conservation, if they were even thought of at all. But that is starting to change.

In Tennessee, where t...