Southern Habitat Restoration
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Welcome to Southern Habitat Restoration. Located in West Alabama, we are a privately owned LLC and we know that no two properties are the same. We are dedicated to providing all services necessary to fully restore and ensure the best management for all of your habitat and property goals.
About Us
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Alabama’s Natural Habitats
Unrestored and unhealthy habitats now common to the South
Today, Alabama has over 70% tree cover, but this is not a healthy progression. Alabama’s primary habitat type used to be grasslands such as prairies, savannas, and open woodlands. These grasslands consist of a forest floor full of grasses and painted with flowers, and a canopy that allows for enough sunlight to pour through for these plants to thrive. These habitats were preserved by natural fires that were started by lightning, or even the various peoples who lived in the South and understood the value that this fire had in preserving the productivity and beauty of their land for generations.
But as modern times came, people forgot the old ways of habitat management, and these old grasslands have grown over with trees, shrubs, and all manner of invasive species—which over time led to wildlife and wild game dwindling and even some species fully going extinct from our state! Today, only remnants of these habitats exist. They hold scenic secrets that have been forgotten by most and have gorgeous, rare plant species that rely on these grasslands to live. But it’s not too late! With careful, specialized work, these remnants can still be restored with all the benefits, beauty, and enjoyment they bring.
A few of Alabama’s Restored Grassland Habitats, which once filled the South
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Why We Began Restoring Habitat
Above shows changes in areas before our restoration work and after restoration work on the property
We own a property that is now known to be the highest quality remnant of historic grasslands in its county and one of the most significant in West Alabama. After some of our work, it’s becoming one of the most beautiful, too! But this is not how it used to be. Before I was dedicated to restoring Alabama’s habitats, this property used to be seen as ‘crap’ land by me and my entire family. The soils were awful for timber production, had terrible habitat for wildlife and game, and the woods were ugly and near impossible to walk through. But the summer that I was just starting to learn about our Southern grasslands, I came up to the property not expecting to find much—yet what I found was beautiful wildflowers growing all along the roadside and some of the rarest and most endangered plant species in the state growing all on our land. I had discovered one of the best remnants in the state! I knew this needed to be restored. So after a year of hard work and time poured into the land, the property was nearly unrecognizable. Flowers were blooming throughout the woods, endangered species were flowering, populations increased by tenfold or more, wildlife and game populations were growing and moving in, and most importantly, I could walk in and enjoy every bit of my land! We went from losing money on this property to it being useful and enjoyable to all of us. This is the case for thousands of properties across the South!
A few of the Plant Species that returned, thriving, after some of our work.
(1 Endangered White Fringeless Orchid, 2 Goat’s Rue, 3 Smallhead Blazing Star, 4 Sampson’s Snakeroot, 5 Pink Milkwort)
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Why You Should Restore Your Property
The overwhelming majority of properties in the South have their true potential unrecognized and unfulfilled. Habitats once maintained by fire now find it absent and are swarmed by invasives, choked out by trees making the woods less productive, less usable, and less attractive. This “habitat poverty” is one that has afflicted hundreds of thousands of landowners in Alabama alone. We believe a property should be useful and enjoyable to its owner. Whether you enjoy hunting, hiking, or watching life blossom and flourish around you, restoring your property’s habitat is the best way to accomplish your goals for your land.
Southern Habitat Restoration is built on bringing you the best restoration possible by researching the ecological history of your property and developing a specialized plan tailored to its specific needs. We know that every property is unique; beneath thorns, pines, cedars, and privet, your land may be hiding a treasure trove of biodiversity and beauty that is eagerly waiting to be uncovered. We are determined to deliver the most efficient, ecologically faithful restoration possible. We ensure this complete restoration through our specialized services, including habitat and botanical surveying, prescribed fire, overstory thinning, invasive species control, and the re-establishment of local native species. Start restoring your habitat today by letting us take the first step.
Schedule an initial habitat survey by contacting us today!
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Our Services
Our services are focused on providing nearly everything needed in order to restore all grassland ecosystems. This includes savannas, open woodlands, prairies, glades, sandhills, barrens and everything in-between. With our specialized low impact services we can ensure a quality restoration that utilizes local ecotype species to provide the greatest historic accuracy to the ecology of your site.
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Photos from during a prescribed burn. This was done for the purpose of increasing population of endangered species
Prescribed Fire
We are certified to make and carry out controlled burn plans in Alabama for your habitat management and restoration needs.
Why we burn:
Prescribed fires are one of, if not the most important techniques used for restoring all kinds of grassland habitats. These habitats are often reliant on fire for their maintenance, and proper use of fire is a key tool in restoring them properly and efficiently.
What we do:
We will develop and carry out a safe burn plan specific to each site. Each plan is designed to accomplish your restoration goals, increase plant species biodiversity, and conserve sensitive, high concern species for the overall benefit of your property or site.
Habitats after their burns and the plant species which were stimulated into blooming after fire
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Overstory Thinning
Why thin the overstory?
Because fire has been suppressed in these grassland ecosystems, trees have taken over and crowded out the overstory. This chokes out sunlight from the grasslands, and simply reintroducing fire often is insufficient in restoring your property properly, in a timely manner. Returning sunlight to the forest floor activates your property’s seed bank—a historic, natural collection of seeds residing in the soil that is triggered by fire and, most importantly, light. Restoring this seed bank is one of the best steps you can take for your grasslands. When it returns, you will often see rare or endangered species return, wildflowers blooming in areas they have never been seen before, and grasses flourishing throughout the woods.
What we do:
We offer overstory thinning to bring sunlight back to the forest floor, allowing your property’s grasslands to return and begin thrive for the first time in potentially decades. We accomplish this using chainsaws, targeted herbicide applications, and other tools tailored to your goals, all while minimizing unnecessary and unhealthy disturbance to the ecosystem.
An example of before and after some overstory thinning
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Plant species native to rare grasslands are often overlooked, but are the gems of the South!
Restoration Planning and Ecological Surveys
We offer ecological surveys and restoration plans for your property to research and design a plan for the restoring the historic habitat, high-priority plant species, and diverse habitat types native to your site.
Why survey?
Ecological habitat surveys are incredibly important when beginning your restoration. Detailing native or rare plant species, historic habitat, soil types, and geology is essential to a holistic habitat restoration. Researching these factors gives you indispensable information about the history of your property, expected plant species, rare habitat types, high-priority or sensitive areas, and historic plant species that are now missing—which we can re-establish to fully restore your site.
What we can do:
Whether you want us to complete your restoration for you or prefer to do it yourself, we can survey your property and develop a detailed plan restoration plan for your habitat and goals. We are dedicated to detailing everything about your property and creating a restoration plan to revive these beautiful lost Southern habitats to the fullest and most historically faithful extent.
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Specialized Services
Our passion to restore these rare and unique grassland habitats has lead us to pursue and offer a variety of specialized services to restore each property best. This ranges from services such as local seed collection, local habitat research, propagation of undescribed species or local ecotypes, reintroduction of species historic to your site, and more. These depend on the uniqueness of your site and your specific goals for your habitat restoration.
