A con­test for the com­mu­nity to name our green­way sys­tem that will result from the Our One Mile Green­way Mas­ter Plan process. Con­tinue read­ing →

We at the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust are proud to serve in a lead­er­ship capac­ity with Pro­tect For­ever Wild, and we are work­ing hard to insure it is reau­tho­rized, as-is, this leg­isla­tive sea­son. For­ever Wild is a crit­i­cal part­ner in our land con­ser­va­tion efforts. Now, we need your help. Con­tinue read­ing →

I had the honor of work­ing with some great folks on the very first acqui­si­tion by For­ever Wild which was a gift of bald eagle habi­tat at Lake Gun­tersville State Park. It was fit­ting that the first acqui­si­tion was a dona­tion because it set the tone for the future of the pro­gram. For­ever Wild has been a model for con­ser­va­tion because it has max­i­mized its resources to the fullest extent pos­si­ble by lever­ag­ing the money as match for fed­eral dol­lars and through public-private partnerships. 

I believe the great­est thing about For­ever Wild is that it gives pri­vate landown­ers more options for their land.… they can sell their land while simul­ta­ne­ously insur­ing that the land they love will be pre­served. They can make a gift of the land for the tax incen­tives, or they can choose to keep it and not sell for con­ser­va­tion pur­poses because For­ever Wild only works with will­ing sellers.

When a pro­gram like For­ever Wild has been around for so long, many peo­ple take for granted the places it has helped pro­tect. But I recall what it was like before For­ever Wild, when there was no fund­ing to pre­serve the places that mat­ter to us as Alabami­ans and when we watched mil­lions in fed­eral fund­ing go to other states because we had no local match.  Turkey Creek, the Walls of Jeri­cho, and the tens of thou­sands of acres of pub­lic hunt­ing land  would not be avail­able for the pub­lic to enjoy with­out For­ever Wild. And you can believe that I don’t want to go back to the old days before For­ever Wild, because there wasn’t  much enjoy­ment in watch­ing Alabama lag fur­ther and fur­ther behind our South­east­ern coun­ter­parts when it came to land con­ser­va­tion.  It was even less fun to watch as our spe­cial places were being lost for­ever, even when the landown­ers were will­ing to pre­serve them, sim­ply because we had no money to buy them.   

With For­ever Wild buy­ing land for almost twenty years,  Alabama still ranks dead last in the South­east when it comes to pub­lic con­ser­va­tion lands.… but For­ever Wild gives us hope.… hope that one day we won’t be last and hope that many more of the places that mat­ter will remain for­ever wild.

Wendy Jack­son

We are thrilled about El Paso Corporation’s $35,000 com­mit­ment to our 51-acre pre­serve in Home­wood! Read more about it at http://www.freshwaterlandtrust.org/latest-news, and you can also see today’s front page story in the Birm­ing­ham News at http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/11/a_little_wilderness_close_to_h.html.

Last Fri­day after our Our One Mile seg­ment on Fox 6, Anchor Rick Jour­ney told me where his “one mile” is. He wanted to be able to walk from his house to a nearby park more safely, and it struck me that if you take a minute to think about it, every­one has some­where they want to go on foot. But, for what­ever rea­son, they can’t.

Think about it: can you safely walk or bike from your home to the near­est gro­cery store, school, park, or shop­ping center? Even if it is a long distance, what are the rea­sons why you’re not walk­ing there? I think that for most of us, it’s the lack of a good route. Is there a side­walk from your house to the near­est gro­cery store?  Or, is there a side­walk, except for one treach­er­ous, sidewalk-free stretch that is just too unsafe to travel?

We really want to hear from you tomor­row (Tues­day) at the Our One Mile Kick­off at 5:30 at the Ala­gasco Cen­ter for Energy Tech­nol­ogy on 20th Street in Birm­ing­ham. Please come and share your One Mile! We want to know where those treach­er­ous areas are that are pre­vent­ing you from walk­ing, bik­ing, strolling, or rolling. Your com­ments, ideas and feed­back will be worked into a green­ways plan for Jef­fer­son County. With your help, we can really cre­ate a more con­nected com­mu­nity for all of us.

Imag­ine this: step­ping out your front door and being able to walk, jog, or bike any­where you want to go in Jef­fer­son County, safely and eas­ily. Where do you want to go? Where is your One Mile? Con­test Page