Parks staff highlight Indigenous Plant Project; volunteers helped install 647 plants in 2025

Andra Pruitt, coordinator for the Murfreesboro Indigenous Plant Project, briefed the commission on 2025 accomplishments and upcoming work for 2026.

"My name is Andra Pruitt," she said in opening remarks. Andra told members the project focuses on increasing native plants in city parks through three strategies: prioritizing parks that host rare species, growing plants in a city native nursery from southern seed sources, and installing native gardens. She said staff installed 647 plants back into parks last year and estimated the effort saved about $3,300 compared with buying from a wholesale nursery.

Andra said Rutherford County hosts many rare plant species and the program identified 12 state-listed species of concern in local parks, five of them classified as critically imperiled. The project also ran a fall plant sale that generated revenue, and city volunteers logged 532 hours on the program’s events and plantings.

Commissioners asked about invasive bamboo and other nonnative species on the Greenway and whether seeds are collected. Andra said there are native cane varieties and invasive bamboos and that staff tackles invasive removal with volunteer events and by contracting professional crews where needed. She described a responsible seed-collection practice and a small conservation-breeding program for some imperiled species while noting that scaling seed production for commercial sale would require larger agricultural space.

Andra said the project will continue planting aquatic species in the Murfrees Spring Pond, update beds at Barfield near the Wilderness Station and install new plantings at the Patterson roundabout in 2026.