See the prairie wild flowers at the Oak Ridge Cedar Barren on Saturday, August 24, during a hands-on maintenance activity with plant experts to identify wild flowers and grasses. Volunteers are needed to uproot invasive plants that would otherwise shade and kill the native cedar barren prairie plants, a press release said.
Located next to Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge, the barren is a joint project of the City of Oak Ridge, the State Natural Areas Division, and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning. One of just a few cedar barrens in East Tennessee, the area is subject to invasion by Chinese lespedeza, Japanese privet, autumn olive, mimosa, Nepal grass, multiflora rose, and woody plants that threaten the system’s prairie grasses, the press release said.
