Lucius E. Burch State Natural Area is a 728-acre natural area
located in Germantown and Shelby County and is a part of a larger
6,000-acre county park (http://www.shelbyfarmspark.org/sfpc/front).
The natural area is a remnant of historic river meanders, bald
cypress-water tupelo swamps, bottomland hardwood forests, and open
river channel habitat. Unfortunately, much of this ecosystem has
been significantly altered as a result of change in hydrology and
the invasion of common privet, an invasive exotic pest plant.
Lucius E. Burch Natural Area offers passive recreation activities
such as day hiking, bird watching, and wildlife viewing within the
metropolitan Memphis area. The natural area is a relatively large
unfragmented forest that follows the banks of the Wolf River. It
provides a refuge for forest dwelling birds, mammals, reptiles, and
amphibians within an urbanized environment.
Lucius E. Burch State Natural Area is a place where impacts on
the resource can be interpreted and used as an educational tool to
demonstrate the ecological effects of river channelization
(straightening of the river channel) and the impacts of invasive
exotic pest plants. This outdoor living classroom is reacting to
the change in environmental conditions since it was channelized.
Common privet is native to Asia and has been widely used as hedges
in urban landscaping. It has spread throughout the understory at
Lucius E. Burch and has displaced many native species. Its impact
is indicative of a problem facing all urban natural areas where
adjacent landowners introduce invasive exotic pest plants. These
landscaping practices create the seed source from which invasive
exotics are distributed into natural areas by animals, wind, or
water. Privet has invaded at Lucius E. Burch since drier site
conditions were created by the channelization of the Wolf River.
This invasion often occurs when a natural ecological disturbance
regime has been altered or where the native landscape has been
severely changed by development. Historically, the site was
bottomland forest and a part of the Wolf River floodplain. This is
evident by the occurrence of large cypress trees that are
periodically encountered in relatively dry habitats. The state
listed Copper iris (Iris fulva) is found in some existing low wet
areas in the natural area.