SAVE THE DATE NOW FOR OCT. 28 – 30!
You don’t want to miss the Annual Alabama Sierra Club Retreat! Invite your friends! Let’s expand our Sierra Club family and friends group!
ONE PLANET: ACT WITH CARE a sustainable living summit focusing on how our actions affect the place we live
OCTOBER 28 -30, 2016 at beautiful Camp McDowell, Nauvoo, Alabama
ANNUAL RETREAT FEATURING. . .
- All meals will include at least one fresh, local food item (meals included in registration price)
- Different price levels for lodging
- Joint activities with Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN)
- Limited Number of Scholarships Available – Email mhill@jsu.edu for application form
We are pleased to announce that this symposium will share events with Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN) During the day on Friday (10/28), ASAN will be hosting a Regional Food & Farm Forum at Camp McDowell / the McDowell Farm School.
These Forums feature peer-to-peer roundtable discussions on a wide variety of food and farming topics, exhibit tables, hands-on components, networking opportunities, and of course, amazing food!
Forums are open to farmers, gardeners, community leaders, and local food supporters of all varieties and skill levels.
We encourage you to start your weekend a little early, and mix and mingle with farmers and food lovers, by participating in the Regional Food & Farm Forum!
To register for the Farm Forum and for more information, go to http://asanonline.org/RFFF16.
Forum attendees are being encouraged to stay for the cookout and campfire activities on Friday night, jointly hosted by ASAN and Sierra Club!
Friday Evening – October 28
- Opportunity to attend the ASAN Food and Farm Forum
- Sierra Registration in Pradat Hall begins at 4 p.m.
- Last item under Friday Evening – Joint ASAN/Sierra cookout 6:00 pm – featuring local grassfed burgers. Followed by campfire activities and music. (Leftover cookout food will be saved for late arrivals)
Saturday – Caring for Ourselves and the Earth with Our Food Choices
- Farmers’ Panel: Making Wise Food Choices
- Majadi Baruti, Magic City Agriculture Project: Making Good Food Choices Available for All
- Scott Douglas, Greater Birmingham Ministries: Including Diversity in Our Outreach
- Adam Johnston: Meeting with Alabama Sierra Student Coalition
- Afternoon Hikes – Secret Canyon, Caney Creek Falls, Natural Bridge, Bankhead Tree ID
- Alternate Afternoon Activities – Beginning Harmonica Class, McDowell Farm Tour
- AN EVENT TO REMEMBER – A Farm to Table Feast at the McDowell Barn
- Evening of Music – Starring Red Mountain White Trash with Joyce Cauthen calling
Sunday – Caring for the Earth with Our Life Decisions
- Kendra Burns, Camp McDowell Naturalist–Cherishing All the Pieces
- Rev. Mark Johnston, Director Camp McDowell – Geothermal Presentation and Outing
- McDowell Farm School Tour
- Dexter Duren, West Alabama Sierra Outings Leader - McDowell Tree Hike
- Lunch and Fabulous Door Prizes
- Bob Hastings, Alabama Sierra Club Chapter Chair – Together We Can Do It!
What to Bring: layered clothing, toiletries, musical instrument for Friday night, camera, hiking shoes, hiking stick, towels (unless you are staying in Miller Commons), harmonica if you plan to take Beginning Harmonica on Saturday afternoon.
*A limited number of different levels of scholarships are available. For more information and/or a registration form, email mhill@jsu.edu.
To register for the Farm Forum and for more information, go to http://asanonline.org/RFFF16.
You can download the registration form and information about the event here.
Coal's External Cost to Uniontown and other Alabama communities, It's Time to Move Beyond Coal in Alabama
Submitted by Adam Johnston
It's not hard to observe the impact of the coal industry in Alabama. For good and bad, the coal industry influences life and society in our state. I am very thankful for our miners and other employees who work hard in the industry and related businesses to support our families; however, I am very concerned with the external costs of coal in Alabama.
Some external costs of coal include: unsafe working conditions, black lung & workers' health impacts, loss of worker health insurance or pension, toxic waste full of lead and arsenic, severe water & air pollution around mines and plants, "stripped" and less-productive land, etc.
Other external costs include: toxic coal ash landfills around the state like the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown; coal ash storage upstream of drinking water in Gadsden; coal dust damaging property in Mobile; political policies that hurt energy customers and consumers like Alabama Power's taxation of producing solar; and thousands of unemployed and talented workers.
According to recent articles and reports, employment in Alabama coal fields has decreased 43 percent between 1990 and 2014. As the market for coal has transitioned, the number of mines fell by half. During that time, more than 21,000 coal-related jobs disappeared in 19 counties, costing their economies more than $1.8 billion in lost wages.
That's a lot of bad news, but there is good news! And like every industry or business, there comes a time to transition.
The Alabama Sierra Beyond Coal Committee is working on leading this transition in Alabama. We support several current, local efforts to help minimize coal's external costs while creating job opportunities and economic development in renewable energy. We also support the Federal and state programs being designed to get federal resources to impacted communities.
Examples of the local work include supporting the leadership of Black Belt Citizens in Uniontown and the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition in Mobile. Examples of National programs include the RECLAIM ACT, which plans to accelerate $1 billion in available funding in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation (AML) Fund to revitalize coal communities hardest hit by the downturn of the coal industry.
Alabama's current economic and ecological crisis is interconnected to our shared history of land & resource exploitation. Our current moment of contamination, pollution and unemployment is the external cost of "business as usual."
Our shared destiny awaits our ability to self-determine our transition away from our current exploitative economy. The time to support the communities fighting the pollution is NOW! The time to demand environmental and climate justice is NOW! The time to unite and move Alabama beyond coal is NOW! We have plans and methods to meet goals. Please contact bbcfhj.aj@gmail.com if you want to get more involved. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers few.
Photo courtesy of John Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper
Adam Johnston
Coordinator, Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health & Justice
Mailing Address: 23355 County Rd 53 Uniontown, AL 36786
Visit our Website Address for more information.
Find us and follow us on Facebook here.
State park memories make me smile
By Joe Watts, the president elect of the Birmingham Audubon Society and the Alabama Sierran webmaster.
Originally published on al.com
State Parks have always mattered to me. I can't recall a time in my memory when a trip to a state park didn't stir a sense of joy and a sense of wonder in my heart and in my soul. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited to support Amendment 2, on the ballot this November. There are plenty of things to disagree about on the ballot, but supporting state parks isn't one of them. Everyone can enjoy these treasures and everyone should understand the importance of maintaining them for the future.
There's really no other way to say it. When I think of the views from Cheaha State Park or the rush of the water over Desoto Falls, I think of my mother. And I smile. I smile a lot.
We were raised to have an appreciation of the outdoors. From our family home in the country to the Great Smoky Mountains, we spent more time outside than in. A good bit of that time was spent in Alabama's wonderful state parks. Days on end were spent exploring deep hardwoods and thickets of blackberry brambles, wading into shallow creeks or just lolling beside a fallen log and reading.
Mama, who was 46-years-old when I was born, would typically join me in many adventures. As a 46-year-old myself now, I look back on those days and marvel at how she had the energy to keep up with a wild-haired young boy at her age. But she did and she thrived on it, and so did I.
Living as we did in the country, you might imagine that an ideal vacation for the Watts family would be somewhere with lights and restaurants and action, if for no other reason than a change of scenery. Not my Mama. She loved the scenery of Alabama's natural places, so we'd pack up the car—my dad, my mother, me and as many of my five sisters as could fit—and we'd head north. North to Mama meant anywhere north of Montgomery, of course, so we didn't have to travel far. But we did travel often.
Her favorite place was Desoto State Park. And it fast became mine. We'd visit there every year, usually renting a chalet or a cabin. The cabins were, and still are, rustic. Chalets were rustic too, but they had sleeping areas you could only get to via ladder. Slipping up that ladder and having a space all to myself was a special treat for a young boy who had five older sisters.
As magical as that sleeping area was, the real magic was found on the trails. Even the trails leading between cabins held a surprising ability to captivate my young imagination. Plants that seemed mundane on our farm suddenly became fascinating. Birds that, sad to say, might have fallen prey to the BB gun if spotted along a fence row at home soared overhead, no longer targets but marvels of feathers and flight. And the waterfalls. The water rushing over rocks represented something I never really experienced on our farm. To see it, to hear it and, of course, to feel it on my feet and rushing through my hands was a sensation I remember to this day. Mama would often join me, putting her feet in the rushing cool water, now, I realize, to soothe her tired feet from trudging along the trails with a young and energetic boy.
But it was the wildness that we came for. There were plenty of people in the world, but not enough wild places, Mama said. She believed we needed to understand the wild places in Alabama to appreciate our home state. And she was right. Her appreciation of our state parks kindled a love for all of Alabama's wild things—from the birds to the trees. Camping under the stars, floating along in a tippy canoe, walking a worn trail—these are the memories Mama wanted to be sure I had, not some rush of streetlights and fast moving cars. She understood where you could get close to God.
I grew up interested in hiking and backpacking. I hunted, too, as a teenager, and I've hiked all across America. But nowhere could ever be as special as those times I spent walking the trails in Desoto State Park, running around the bend to see what was ahead until I was too tired to walk back. And there was Mama, always able, bad back and all, to carry me home.
We could all learn a little something from my mother. Those visits to our state parks kept her strong and made her love Alabama more and more. And she always—always—believed that our state parks deserved the love and affections, and protection, of everyone, because they are, after all, for everyone to enjoy.
I'll be doing my part on November 8th to show my love for Alabama's state parks. I'll be voting YES on Amendment 2. And I'll be thinking about my Mama. And I'll be smiling.
To learn more about Alabama State Parks and the benefits of Amendment #2, please visit www.alparkspartners.com.
Love Your State Parks Day!
Dear Friends,
My name is Maddie Hoaglund and I am a senior at Westminster School at Oak Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama. I am working toward my Girl Scout Gold Award with a project entitled, Love Your State Parks Day! The purpose of this project is to raise awareness of the importance of preserving our state parks through community support. In addition, I hope to strategically increase attendance to Alabama's State Parks through social media, word of mouth and getting individual park directors on board through this initiative. This day will be held Saturday, September 24, 2016 at Oak Mountain State Park at the Dogwood Pavilion and the Demonstration Farm. The opportunity for media coverage and special programs will increase attendance to the state parks and will allow supporters of the parks to further their message, especially for the vote of Amendment Two in November. It is my aim that this day will become an annual state-wide event.
As a state parks partner, I need your help! Please consider the following options to support Love Your State Parks Day, 2016!
- Visiting and encouraging others to visit Oak Mountain State Park onSaturday, September 24, 2016 for Love Your State Parks Day, 2016!
- Setting up a booth/tent at Oak Mountain to advertise your organization on September 24, 2016 for Love Your State Parks Day, 2016!
- Organizing programming such as a day hike, environmental talk, educational program, etc. to be added to the list of events at Oak Mountain onSeptember 24, 2016.
- Advertising the date on your social media outlets or website
- Organizing a group of volunteers to make improvements to theDemonstration Farm at Oak Mountain on September 24, 2016- (These improvements include: repairing the fencing, animal enclosures, and painting, etc.)
- Creating a PSA or other promotional materials about the event
- Sponsoring promotional materials such as t-shirts, signs, etc.
- Distributing literature to visitors at the park regarding the upcoming vote on Amendment 2 in the fall
- Donating food, water or other materials to be distributed to volunteers and visitors
If you are willing to help in any way, please email me and let me know. I am also open to suggestions for how I can make this a great event for the community and increase awareness about the state parks system. As I am sure you are aware, due to deep budget cuts in the Alabama State Parks system, many of Alabama's State parks have closed or are limiting days/ hours of operations. It is my hope that I can use my Gold Award project to increase awareness of this issue. This November there is a vote on Amendment Two to protect the funds for the state parks. I wish to increase the awareness for this proposition in the community. Alabama has some of the most beautiful land that America has to offer and it would be detrimental to wildlife as well as communities if those natural areas were not protected. It will take citizens advocating for our State Parks to ensure that they will be preserved for generations to come.
Many thanks for your time,
Maddie Hoaglund
maddiehoaglund@gmail.com
PROCEDURE FOR SENDING MATERIAL TO THE ALABAMA SIERRAN
Many thanks to Roe Hyche, Bob Hastings, and Peggie Griffin for agreeing to be the new newsletter committee.
The newsletter is put together monthly, and material for the newsletter should be sent to plgriffin@comcast.net, with a subject line of "For the Editorial Board" no later than the 15th of the month.
Group newsletter editors may continue sending group meeting information and calendars of events to Joe Watts at joe@joewatts.com, no later than the 25th of each month.
Guidelines for Material:
- The newsletter committee is seeking articles about Alabama environmental issues, articles highlighting Alabama’s special beautiful places, and engaging write-ups about group and chapter activities.
- Articles should be originally written for the Alabama Sierran, factual, and timely.
- A link to another publication should only be used rarely, but if a link is to be used, a full summary of the information (at least a paragraph long) should be written, with the link provided for more detailed information.
- The newsletter committee has the right to make any changes, so that material will meet these guidelines.
Outings and Events
Cahaba Group
Typical Monthly meetings - 2nd Thursday every month at 6:00 pm at the Birmingham Zoo Auditorium (building to the right of entrance gate) NOTE: locations do vary, so check the facebook page for the latest information.
Business meeting at 6:00, presentation at 6:30.
Coosa Valley Group
Sept. 8, 6:30 pm – Movie – Catching the Sun. An enjoyable and informative movie about solar power.
Oct 13, 6:30 pm – Martha Hunter, Alabama Rivers Alliance (tentative)
November 10, 6:30 pm – Trails of Alabama – Joe Watts, President Elect, Birmingham Audubon Society and webmaster for the Alabama Sierra Club.
Dec. 8, 6:30 pm – Christmas Pot Luck
Directions to the Joe M. Ford Center: From I-59, take the exit for I-759. Follow I-759 until it ends at George Wallace Dr. Turn right, then take the first left onto East Cardinal Drive. The Joe Ford Center is the first building on the right.Connect with Sierra Club: By phone |256| 459 8177 (get info, text, leave a message) fb.com/CoosaValleySierraClub
Mobile Bay Group
Tuesday evening, Sept 6. What: Mobile Bay Sierra Club Monthly Meeting
7:00 p.m. Program Presentation
6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served prior to program.
Please forward this information invitation to any interested people or groups.
Meeting Location: 5 Rivers, Tensaw Theater
Address: 5 Rivers, Alabama’s Delta Resource Center, 30945 Five Rivers Blvd., Spanish Fort, AL 36527
(entrance is across from Meaher State Park on the Mobile BayCauseway)
Follow the Sierra Club signs to the meeting location at 5 Rivers.
For more information, please contact Carol Adams-Davis, 702-496-5050
or email: mcadamsdavis@earthlink.net
Montgomery Group
Note that regular Group meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM at Aldersgate Methodist Church (Room 25), 6610 Vaughn Road, Montgomery, AL 36116. (334) 272-6152
North Alabama Group
Tuesday, September 6 - Monte Sano Evening Hike. Moderate.
Depart at 6:00 p.m. sharp from the Monte Sano State Park Hikers’ parking lot on Nolen Avenue. There is a small fee to enter the park and all dogs must be on a leash while in the parking lot and during the hike. Though not strenuous, hikes may be vigorous and range from 3 to 5 miles. For directions or questions Patricia Wales at pwales77@gmail.com
Saturday, September 10 - Explore Wade Mountain Hike. Strenuous.
10-12 mile hike covering Land Trust Trails on Wade Mtn. Join us for a fun* and strenuous hike leaving from the Land Trust Parking lot on the east side of the preserve, located on Spragins Hollow Rd. NW. Arrive by 8:15 am to sign-in. We will leave the trailhead promptly at 8:30 am. Bring water, snacks and lunch. Appropriate hiking shoes required. We will hike rain or shine, but thunderstorms will cancel. For directions or questions contact Aaron at sctrailevents@gmail.com *Fun not guaranteed.
Tuesday, September 13 - Monte Sano Evening Hike. Moderate.
Depart at 6:00 p.m. sharp from the Monte Sano State Park Hikers’ parking lot on Nolen Avenue. There is a small fee to enter the park and all dogs must be on a leash while in the parking lot and during the hike. Though not strenuous, hikes may be vigorous and range from 3 to 5 miles. For directions or questions contact Alan Greene at agreene256@comcast.net
Saturday, September 17 - A Historical Adventure in Monte Sano State Park. Strenuous.
Approximately 7 to 9 mile hike. Join Charlie and me as we hike down a series of trails to the base of the mountain to a historical structure to start our discussion. We'll then follow a stream bed and continue up, off-trail, to a series of steps and beyond. Group size is limited. Dress for the weather, wear sturdy hiking shoes, and bring snacks, lunch, water and funds for the Park’s entrance fee. For more info, contact Sandy at sandykip56@gmail.com
Tuesday, September 20 - Monte Sano Evening Hike. Moderate.
Depart at 6:00 p.m. sharp from the Monte Sano State Park Hikers’ parking lot on Nolen Avenue. There is a small fee to enter the park and all dogs must be on a leash while in the parking lot and during the hike. Though not strenuous, hikes may be vigorous and range from 3 to 5 miles. For directions or questions contact Suzanne Cawthon at atirawolf@yahoo.com
Saturday, September 24 - Dog Friendly Hike and Dog Fair on Monte Sano. Easy.
Dog- friendly hike held in conjunction with the HOTC Dog Fair on Monte Sano. We will hike 2-3 miles. Dogs must be on a leash at all times. For directions or questions Patricia Wales at pwales77@gmail.com
Tuesday, September 27 - Monte Sano Evening Hike. Moderate.
Depart at 6:00 p.m. sharp from the Monte Sano State Park Hikers’ parking lot on Nolen Avenue. There is a small fee to enter the park and all dogs must be on a leash while in the parking lot and during the hike. Though not strenuous, hikes may be vigorous and range from 3 to 5 miles. For directions or questions contact Carolyn Brooks at dr_c_brooks@outlook.com
West Alabama Group
Thurs. 9/15. 7:00pm. Monthly meeting. “Having a student coalition affiliated with the Sierra Club” Adam Johnston, St. Francis Parish, Mulvoy Building, 811 Fifth Avenue, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401.
Sat. 9/17. Caves and Waterfalls of Northeast Alabama. Join us for a cool outing in September. We will tour one of the largest and most beautiful caves in the country; known as Cathedral Caverns State Park. Also, in the late afternoon around sunset, we will go to Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge to view the spectacular daily exodus of the Indiana Gray Bat colony from the mouth of the cave. In between the two cave tours we will go to at least one waterfall site and lunch and dinner before going to the Sauta Cave to view the bat colony. For Cathedral Caverns Tour: Admission is $18.00/person (Adults)-Sorry no senior discounts. $8.00/person (5-12 years old). We plan to eat lunch at a small café in Guntersville, AL and dinner will also be in Guntersville at another restaurant, before we go to Sauta Cave. Meet at the old Books-a-Million parking lot at 7:30 a.m. It will probably be about 10:00 p.m. when we arrive back in Tuscaloosa, so plan for a long and fun-filled day!
10-20-16 Update on the Northport Sewage Spill presented by Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior River Keeper. Contact person Charles Gleaton
Visit our website for up-to-date info.: http://www.sierraclub.org/alabama/west-alabama