Alabama Meadows

Over the past five years, College of Architecture, Design and Construction landscape architecture faculty members David Hill and Emily Knox have been engaged in research exploring native meadow landscapes of Alabama. Historically, meadows and grasslands were a prominent part of Alabama and the rest of the Southeast; grassland landscapes were important to the region’s ecology and provided habitat and food for a variety of species, including large grazing animals, pollinators and birds. As meadows have disappeared in the southeastern landscape, so has knowledge about them. The project works toward reacquainting ourselves with these species, their wonderful spatial qualities and how to care for or manage them.

To design the meadows, Hill and Knox developed five circular plots of 150’ diameter each at the Auburn University Mary Olive Thomas Demonstration Forest. The plots are small enough that a person can see the edges of each plot from the ground, but large enough that their geometry is even more striking when seen by drone. Each plot encompasses a different microclimate with combinations of open grassland, grassland and tree saplings and mature trees. The research team has introduced a mixture of native meadow and grassland species in each plot and implemented different management interventions (disturbances), including removing existing non-native grasses and vines, mowing, raking and using prescribed burns to maintain the grasses.

Knox, an associate professor, said, “We like meadows and grasslands for a number of reasons — chief among them, we’re interested in how their wonderfully immersive and textured qualities might provide a counter to the traditionally tidy and static landscape aesthetic that we see all around us in the Southeast. More broadly, we’re also interested in asking how the designers’ hand might lend itself to larger-scale landscape management projects.”

The biodiversity of the meadow plots is evident: pollinators — bees and butterflies — visit the yellow and purple coneflower and other flowering species, birds swoop between the trees, small mammals can be seen moving among the shadows, and a snake slips out of sight in a tree stump. The five plots vary distinctly in character and textures. Plot 2 is a shaded understory of loblolly pines with a mown path through the center of the plot to form a vibrant green hallway through waist-high grasses. Plot 4 is fully open to the sun with a transect of wildflowers through the center. Plot 1 takes in the edge of a stand of pines before cutting across the road to sunny open land. The research team has partnered with College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment (CFWE) faculty members Drs. John Kush and Becky Barlow to initiate prescribed burns in some of the plots. Plot 1 had been burned in the winter, but by spring the new growth had covered any sign of previous fire.

In addition to the collaboration with the CFWE, a number of landscape architecture graduate students have engaged with the research team in implementing the disturbances, taking a census of plants and helping compile the extensive documentation of the evolution of the land across seasons through drawings, photographs and drone scans. David Hill said, “Our work has been incredibly experiential, depending on first-hand observation and collaboration between faculty and students who are fascinated by these rich and dynamic landscapes. We look forward to continuing the explorations.”

The history of those meadows can still be found in the remnants of former prairies and descriptions in historical records, such as writings from the Hernando de Soto expedition during the 1500s. Estes, D., M. Brock, M. Homoya, A. Dattilo. 2016. A Guide to Grasslands of the Mid-South. Published by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Tennessee Valley Authority, Austin Peay State University and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

The Alabama Meadows work has been presented nationally and internationally, published in Landscape Architecture Magazine (October, 2023), and received research awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects (Alabama Chapter, 2021, and National, 2022).