Alabama’s Forever Wild is Vital to Land Conservation

Photo cour­tesy of Dr. Mike Howell

It is a rare occa­sion that the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust becomes involved in a leg­isla­tive issue. We are proud of our non-advocacy and busi­nesslike approach to land con­ser­va­tion and the broad part­ner­ships we have been able to build and uti­lize. How­ever, there are times when an issue arises that is too cru­cial for our con­ser­va­tion work to ignore. The reau­tho­riza­tion of For­ever Wild, a pro­gram with the same broad part­ner­ships and over­whelm­ing pop­u­lar sup­port as our orga­ni­za­tion, is one such issue.

Our Board of Direc­tors, there­fore, has made a com­mit­ment to mak­ing this piece of leg­is­la­tion a top pri­or­ity for our orga­ni­za­tion. The Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust is not only invest­ing finan­cially, but the Board has asked Wendy Jack­son, the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Land Trust, to take a lead­er­ship role. She is cur­rently serv­ing as the Vice Chair of Pro­tect For­ever Wild.

The Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust is proud to actively sup­port the Pro­tect For­ever Wild Coali­tion: a group of busi­nesses and con­ser­va­tion, envi­ron­men­tal, hunt­ing and angling orga­ni­za­tions, along with other out­door recre­ation enti­ties from all across Alabama. They have all come together in sup­port of the pro­tec­tion and reau­tho­riza­tion of For­ever Wild in its cur­rent form, as is.

Over the past 19 years, Alabama’s For­ever Wild pro­gram has worked with great suc­cess to pre­serve Alabama’s most beau­ti­ful and envi­ron­men­tally sen­si­tive land, mak­ing it more acces­si­ble to the pub­lic for out­door recre­ation, edu­ca­tion, land and habi­tat improve­ment, and much more. Hik­ing, bik­ing, pub­lic hunt­ing and fish­ing, bird­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy, camp­ing, nature study, canoe­ing, and horse­back rid­ing are only a few exam­ples of the activ­i­ties facil­i­tated by For­ever Wild lands.

For­ever Wild lands pro­vide the oppor­tu­nity for hunt­ing, fish­ing, and wildlife view­ing in Alabama, con­tribut­ing to the $2.2 bil­lion annual statewide impact of these activ­i­ties. Many For­ever Wild tracts like the Turkey Creek Nature Pre­serve, Ruffner Moun­tain, the newest Tan­nehill tract, and the Walls of Jeri­cho are extremely pop­u­lar, attract­ing tens of thou­sands of vis­i­tors every year from all over the coun­try. These vis­i­tors, in turn, drive local eco­nomic activ­ity through the pur­chase of gas, lodg­ing, food and a vari­ety of other expen­di­tures while vis­it­ing these local communities.

For­ever Wild was estab­lished in 1992 by a Con­sti­tu­tional Amend­ment gar­ner­ing an over­whelm­ing 84 per­cent of the statewide vote. Since its found­ing, For­ever Wild has pur­chased more than 200,000 acres on 70 tracts of land through­out Alabama for use as wildlife man­age­ment areas, recre­ation areas, nature pre­serves, and state parks. To date, more than 99 per­cent of the 200,000 + acres pur­chased by For­ever Wild are avail­able to Alabama’s cit­i­zens for pub­lic use and recre­ation, and 96 per­cent is avail­able for pub­lic hunting.

While our state has made valiant strides over the last 19 years, we still pale in com­par­i­son to south­east­ern states in terms of per­cent­age of state lands avail­able to the pub­lic. Alabama has the low­est per­cent­age of pub­lic lands (4.4%) among south­east­ern states: FL (21.2%); VA (9.9%); NC (9%); TN (7.3%); SC (7.1%); GA (7%); KY (6.1%); MS (6%). There­fore, we need For­ever Wild to continue.

Despite all of its accom­plish­ments, the fund­ing for For­ever Wild will end in 2012 unless reau­tho­rized by the Alabama Leg­is­la­ture. The Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust is com­mit­ted to work­ing to reau­tho­rize For­ever Wild, as-is, for another 20 years through its finan­cial com­mit­ment and lead­er­ship role with Pro­tect For­ever Wild. We proudly stand behind the great work of For­ever Wild, and will ded­i­cate our­selves to ensur­ing the pro­gram is reau­tho­rized so that all Alabami­ans can expe­ri­ence the won­der and joy of our beau­ti­ful out­doors. To see how you can help, please visit www.protectforeverwild.org.

To see Wendy Jackson’s March 20, 2011 edi­to­r­ial in the Birm­ing­ham News, please visit http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2011/03/viewpoints_most_people_want_fo.html.