Village Creek is steeped in Birmingham’s history, serving as the water source for a booming steel industry that gave birth to a city that rose like magic from a simple crossroads community. Unfortunately, with the rise and subsequent decline of the steel industry, Village Creek and the communities along its banks have struggled with the adverse impacts of their industrial heritage. Pollution, socio-economic decline, and abandoned industrial sites are some of the many problems that this watershed faces today.
Canoe trip down Village Creek
However, there is hope. The Freshwater Land Trust has experience in helping beleaguered waterways. Now, we have a plan to help the people, communities, and businesses along Village Creek develop a series of parks and greenways designed to improve not only water quality, but also quality of life.
The Village Creek Greenway Initiative is a collaborative partnership among neighborhood associations, businesses, government and others designed to improve the health of Village Creek and its communities. Valerie Wilson, the Land Trust’s Village Creek Coordinator, works with a fifteen member Community Advisory Committee. Together, they will develop a greenway plan, establish greenway goals and create a set of conservation tools for greenway development. Strategies for improving water quality include the development of parks, wetland restoration, acid mine remediation, and community wide clean ups. A critical component will be brownfield inventory, assessment, and cleanup work that can result in new economic development opportunities.
Valerie is working to obtain funding from programs such as EPA Brownfields Grants, Land & Water Conservation funds, EPA Five-Star Restoration grants, Federal Transportation funding, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation grants, FEMA grants and others.
Village Creek is a major tributary of the Black Warrior River, part of the Mobile River Basin. The Mobile River Basin is considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as one of the most imperiled drainages in the continental United States, and it is critical for conserving freshwater biodiversity. Improving water quality in Village Creek is crucial to halting the decline of both the Black Warrior River and the larger Mobile River Basin.
Improving conditions along Village Creek will not only result in cleaner water, but it will also help transform the lives of the people who live along its banks. With the Village Creek Greenway Initiative, we believe that the decline of Village Creek can be reversed, and in turn, leave our grandchildren a legacy of hope and renewal.