About Wiregrass By Rex Everage Wiregrass Chapter SAR Member
	In 1702, when Bienville and D’lberville du Moyne established the French settlement at Mobile, they found the native peoples of the southeastern part of North America inhabiting a vast ecosystem, a hundred and fifty thousand square miles of the Coastal Plain dominated by magnificent longleaf pines and supporting over five hundred species of grasses and wild flowers, not to mention an extraordinary variety of wild life. The wiregrass that gave its name to southeast Alabama and adjacent parts of Georgia and Florida, flourished throughout the area.    Flourishing beneath the canopy of tall longleaf pines, wiregrass (Aristida beyrichiana) grows in clumps about six inches across, the blades from one clump overlapping those of another. It is named after its tough, narrow, flat blades that curl inward at the edges, giving it the appearance of wire. These blades may grow up to twenty inches long. Wild turkeys, quail, and other ground nesting birds lay their eggs in this protecting cover.    Curiously, this vast ecosystem depended upon frequent fires to sustain itself; indeed, wiregrass flowers only after the summer fires. Its design promotes burning. The wiry blades of adjacent clumps overlap each area at ground level through which air may circulate to feed the fire. During dry weather, lightning may easily spark a fire, and it spreads and burns rapidly. Rapid burning prevents the destruction of the grass while simultaneously stimulating the production of flowers and seeds necessary to its reproduction. If fire is suppressed, the plant will not reproduce. Moreover, it will accumulate so much debris that fire, when it finally occurs, will burn so hot and so slowly that it will kill the roots of the wiregrass. The fires also prevented the growth of species of trees to rival the dominant longleaf pine. The pines and the wiregrass developed a mutually beneficial partnership, so to speak.    The earliest explorers in the wiregrass described fires, started often by lightning but sometimes by the native inhabitants, burned enormous areas, sometimes for a year or more. The European settlers, however, could not farm under these conditions, and so they began the eradication of this ecosystem, felling the trees, rooting out the wiregrass, and turning their cattle loose to graze throughout the forest. Later, the timber industry practically completed the process. Now, three centuries later, after having developed and flourished for aeons, the original ecosystem has been practically destroyed. According to some estimates, only one hundredth of one per cent, less than fourteen square miles, remains. Of the rich variety of plants and animals, over two dozen are now endangered species and a hundred are threatened. And the wiregrass? Three hundred years of farming have practically eradicated it.    But is this the end? Let us hope not. During the past few years, as more people have come to appreciate their environmental heritage, they have begun studying the original ecosystem. Now in small parks, some public and some private, they are beginning to preserve what remains and to recreate it where possible, so that future inhabitants of the Wiregrass can still understand their roots.
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