The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site

The Grand Rivers Corridor encompasses more than 513,000 acres in the watersheds of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers below their dams at Land Between the Lakes. This includes all of Livingston County and parts of Caldwell, Crittendon, Lyon, Marshall and McCracken Counties.

Important systems in the area include aquatic assemblages of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, sloughs and emergent wetlands, bottomland forest, oak flatwoods, forested ravines, non-hydric oak savannah, native grasslands and xeric glade communities. There are a number of rare federally threatened or endangered plant and animal species present.

Plants

• Threatened or endangered
  • Prices potato bean (Apios priceana)
• Other species of concern
  • Sandstone shooting star (Dodecatheon frenchii)
  • Ozark goldenrod (Solidago buckleyi)
  • June grass (Koelaria cristata)
  • northern prairie dropseed (Sporobolis heterolepis)
  • rough dropseed (S. clandestinus)
  • hairy fimbristylis (Fimbristylis puberula)
  • prairie gentian (Gentiana puberulenta)
  • beardgrass (Gymnopogon ambiguus)
  • Great Plains ladies-tresses orchid (Spiranthes magnicamporum)

Animals

• Threatened or endangered
  • aquatic snails (Lithasia armigera)
  • Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis)
  • gray bat (M. grisescens)
  • several mussel species including the fanshell (Cyprogenia stegaria), ring pink (Obovaria obtusa), orange-footed pearly (Plethobasus cooperianus), clubshell (P. clava), fat pocketbook (Potamilus capax), pink mucket pearly (Lampsilis abrupta)
• Other species of concern include numerous declining grassland birds

Threats

Current land use in the area is largely agricultural with 60% open land, 34% forested and 6% developed -- but urban development represents a growing threat to its biodiversity. Other threats include lack of fire management in both woodland and grassland systems, poorly planned silvicultural activities, wetland alteration, and runoff that is degrading water quality.

Our Conservation Strategy

Conservation targets for the area include rare or declining species listed above in glades, prairies, grasslands, wetlands, water, and karst areas and cave systems. 

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing

The Nature Conservancy is working with representatives from Quail Unlimited, the Kentucky Division of Forestry, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, and the Nature Resources Conservation Service. Working with numerous private landowners and local governments will be extremely important. Westvaco is recognized as a large landowner in the area and a potential conservation partner for this landscape. 

Projects/Preserves/Places to Visit

• Aimee Rosenfield Memorial Preserve
• Bissell Bluff
• Cypress Creek Swamp Preserve
• Crittenden Springs Glade Preserve
• Mantle Rock Preserve

 

Things To Do

Plan Your Visit

Directions

Discussion

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Add Your Comments

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