Donate today to help Birmingham stay informed.
Standing on the south side of the Rotary Trail near 23rd Street South, the Freshwater Land Trust sign is framed by the leafy trees of the trail. Nothing could be more appropriate.
FLT has relocated its headquarters to Birmingham’s historic Hardwick Building on the Rotary Trail. This places the land conservation and trail-building nonprofit at the heart of one of the city’s most recognizable public spaces. The move comes as FLT celebrates its 30th anniversary and the Rotary Trail celebrates its 10th.
The FLT has received several acknowledgements from partner organizations.
“We’ve worked with a lot of organizations throughout the years who’ve kindly recognized us for our conservation efforts and certain projects and things that we’ve worked on,” Rebekah Correia, the trust’s outreach and communications director, said, noting its three decades of work. “We’ve got more to do.”
That to-do list is topped by the aim to expand FLT’s conservation efforts.
“We’re in 14 counties across central Alabama currently, and we have 12,005 acres of land protected permanently,” Correia said. “Of course, we want to grow that. The goal is to protect 30,000 more acres. We do want to hit a goal of 50,000 acres total, so that means expanding into more counties across central Alabama, creating more conservation success in different watersheds.”
FLT facilitates the Red Rock Trail system, of which the Rotary Trail is a part.
“We’re working on an action plan right now, a 15-year action plan, the goal of which is to connect our three main greenspaces via a trail loop,” the communications director said. When we say trail loop, that’s pedestrian-friendly infrastructure to connect Ruffner Mountain to Red Mountain Park to Railroad Park. We want to fully develop that, obviously, within the next 30 years and then go beyond that to the next phase of the Red Rock Trail system, which will be determined later.”
FLT’s focus now is expanding its public access places.
“We have six currently,” Correia said. “We own properties that we’ve opened to the public for recreation. Of course, not all of our properties can be done that way. It’s privately owned, most of it. But we have the two canoe launches in Irondale — Moon River and Grants Mill. Those are both very popular. We have two in Homewood — the Homewood Forest Preserve and the Wildwood Preserve. We also have our newest acquisition in Blountsville, Mardis Mill Falls. That’s a really spectacular spot that’s been open for recreation for decades. We now own that property for conservation. We’re expanding places like that for our next phase as well.
“We work with landowners who want to keep their property the way it is.”
Freshwater Land Trust was a direct result of a lawsuit over raw sewage and wastewater pollution from Jefferson County’s aging sewer system. The resulting 1996 consent decree included a $30 million supplemental environmental project. Rather than having all of the environmental penalty go to the federal government, the money was directed toward protecting environmentally sensitive land along the county’s streams and rivers.
As a result, the organization originally called the Black Warrior-Cahaba Rivers Land Trust, which later became the Freshwater Land Trust, was created.
Liz Sims, FLT’s conservation director, said the trust has become more known in central Alabama, which has helped make it more effective.
“When I started here, we were roughly around 6,000 (acres). Now we’re over 12,000, and that’s just been in 10 years,” Sims said. “It’s just expanded and I think that’s due to just the organization kind of evolving over time. We originally were really focused on Jefferson County for the first 10 years because of how we were started. The last 20, I think we kind of became a traditional land trust. We kind of started from scratch in a way, in terms of just getting new donations of land and doing particular projects.”
Sims noted some of the trust’s key projects that raised its profile, including Turkey Creek and Red Mountain Park. Then FLT took on the Red Rock Trail system.
“We just have more name recognition now, so people are more aware of who we are and what we do,” she said. “That helps when you’re doing land conservation, particularly with the landowners.”
FLT’s efforts also extend to stewardship activities and trail work. “We’re like a three-legged stool,” Sims said. “They’re all equally important and I think they complement each other. That all helps raise the profile of our organization.”
