WFF Awarded Longleaf Pine Restoration Funds; Cost-Share Grants Available to Landowners

The ADCNR Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division has been awarded a $300,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant to continue longleaf pine restoration efforts in Alabama. The grant was awarded on October 19, 2009, through a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and will be made available to qualifying landowners for longleaf pine restoration on private lands. Landowners are encouraged to submit applications to receive assistance with seedlings and/or planting costs. The tentative deadline for applications is January 29, 2010.

The ARRA funding will cost-share up to 50 percent of the total cost of the seedlings and/or planting. For landowners to be considered eligible to receive funding, the property must be within the historic range of longleaf pine in Alabama, or contain suitable soils to support longleaf pine. Program details include: no minimum acreage, and cutover sites and agricultural sites are eligible. The site preparation for planting must already be completed, and planting cannot exceed 435 trees per acre on selected projects. For more information contact Traci George, Landowner Incentive Program Coordinator, at 334-353-0503.

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Forever Wild Secures More Land for Public Use

The State of Alabama’s Forever Wild Land Trust and Molpus Timberlands Management, a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson, Miss., have concluded a yearlong negotiation for the purchase of a 93-year recreational lease within two of the state’s largest and most heavily used Wildlife Management Areas. The project will net over 61,000 acres in four central Alabama counties for recreational use including hunting and fishing. In addition to completing the successful purchase of the recreational lease, Forever Wild has secured more than 205,372 acres of land for long-term habitat protection and recreational use since the program began in 1992.

The transaction provides for approximately 27,858 acres within the Bibb and Shelby County portions of the Cahaba River WMA, and 33,280 acres within Tuscaloosa and Walker counties for the Mulberry Fork WMA. Both areas have been part of the state’s WMA system for the last decade, and will now be secured under the long-term lease negotiated by Forever Wild. These two units represent heavily utilized public hunting areas adjacent to the greater Birmingham metropolitan area. For more information on the Forever Wild Land Trust click here.

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Student Artwork Featured in 2010 Coastal Resources Calendar

More than 1,600 students from 45 Mobile and Baldwin county schools recently participated in the 7th annual marine resources calendar art contest held by the ADCNR Marine Resources Division. The calendar art contest promotes an awareness and appreciation of Alabama’s coastal resources. The winning art work will be featured in the 2010 Conserving and Enjoying Alabama’s Coastal Resources art calendar. The calendars will be available free to the public in January 2010 at various locations including Alabama Marine Resources offices in Gulf Shores and Dauphin Island.

The Alabama Marine Resources Division will have the winning entries matted and framed for exhibitions in four different museums. January and February of 2010 the art will be on display at the University of South Alabama Library Gallery. March and April the art will go to the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center in Spanish Fort, and then to the Mobile Museum of Art in May and June. The final showing will be at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope during July and August. After that show the pictures will be returned to the students. On April 25, 2010, a reception will be held at the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center for the winners, their families and teachers. Click Here

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Madison County School to Use Pond for Education

The pond at the newly-built Legacy Elementary School in Madison County, Ala., will be used as an outdoor classroom beginning in 2010. Recently, school staff met with Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries biologists to discuss the educational possibilities of the pond, which will provide hands-on learning activities to satisfy requirements for all grade levels of science. Legacy Elementary students, science teachers, and administrators are excited about the pond’s educational possibilities.

Preparing the pond to serve as an outdoor classroom will take place during the remainder of the 2009 school year. Successful stocking of bream, bluegill and redear sunfish is done in the winter, and largemouth bass are stocked the following spring. Channel catfish may be stocked at any time. The fish will need a year to grow to catchable sizes. Once properly stocked, the pond will be used to introduce children to the dynamics of aquatic environments and provide fishing opportunities for the students.  Click Here

The outdoor classroom program is a partnership between the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Alabama Wildlife Federation and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Nearly 200 schools across Alabama are developing outdoor classroom sites through this program.