Threatened orchids were returning to southern Kentucky, then a tornado hit

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]One year after the London Somerset tornado, down trees are still piled around a small wetland site just west of the Daniel Boone National Forest. Tara Littlefield is a senior botanist and ecologist with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She and other researchers have spent almost 20 years on an environmental restoration project in Mount Victory.

[00:00:19]Littlefield and her team are working to bring back plants that once thrived here on the Cumberland Plateau. Specifically, the white fringeless orchid.

[00:00:26]>> We used to say that these were like the the ghosts of Kentucky. They're like little white floating like plants that you can see, you know, looking out across the wetland.

[00:00:37]>> The orchids look like wide blades of grass right now. In July and August, their white flower blooms will begin dotting the greenery, emitting a strong fragrance. But that wasn't always the case.

[00:00:47]The orchids are federally threatened.

[00:00:49]They began proliferating here again after efforts to bring them back started on the site. Before the tornado, the orchids competed with new growth trees that sucked up lots of water and blocked sunlight from the forest floor. Many of those trees are now downed, smothering the surrounding land. And because of that, the orchids are adjusting to new levels of shade and sunlight, creating a new battle for resources. A year later, they've made a lot of progress.

[00:01:11]>> This time last year, it was like despair. It's like, oh, we did all of this work for nothing. But now I think there's some hope and there's some intrigue on what is going to happen to this system.

[00:01:25]>> Researchers with the restoration project plan to push forward with the hope of replicating their process in other locations. For the Appalachia Mid South Newsroom, I'm Lily Burris.