A Baldwin County land conservation project is in line to receive $28 million after being placed on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council’s “Funded Priorities List,” money that state officials say would be used to acquire between 10,000 and 12,000 acres in southeast Baldwin County for a new wildlife and recreation corridor.
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship is helping coordinate the project, which would use the RESTORE Act funding both to purchase the land and to manage it for the following 10 years.
“This is a project to acquire between 10,000 and 12,000 acres along the Perdido River Watershed,” Blankenship said. “It’s part of a broader vision that we have to create a wildlife and recreational use corridor that goes from the Perdido [River] Wildlife Management Area above Interstate 10 all the way down through the Lillian Swamp, Forever Wild property that’s right there in Perdido Bay almost down to Lillian.”
The new acreage would connect with roughly 17,000 acres of land Alabama already owns along the watershed, plus about 12,000 acres across the state line in Florida. Blankenship said the goal is to eventually link those areas through a network of waterways and trails.
“In the Perdido River Wildlife Management Area now we have the Bartram Canoe Trail and a hiking trail that follows all the way through that management area,” Blankenship said. “Our goal would be to continue those two trails all the way down through eastern Baldwin County. It is part of a really ambitious project that we’ve been working on for the last couple of years. It would give a big chunk kind of in the middle of that whole area that we’re looking to acquire to start piecing it all together.”
Public comment period and next steps
The project was open for public comment through Jan. 10. Residents could review the proposal at restorethegulf.gov and submit comments by email to the federal Restore Council.
“It’s out for public comment now and then, after that, the federal Restore Council will be replying to comments,” Blankenship said. “We hope that plan will be approved in mid-February at a work session of the steering committee.”
Of the acreage under consideration, Blankenship said one large tract known as the Magnolia South property is the state’s top target, and negotiations with the owner are already underway.
“There’s one really large parcel that we’ve kind of identified as a priority target,” he said. “We call that the Magnolia South property. There are many other parcels along the river and in that same area that we could also acquire if the target property doesn’t work out. We will strive to acquire that parcel which is on the river, has a lot of river frontage on the Perdido River and has a lot of uplands as well.”
If the acquisition goes through, the state plans to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior on restoration work throughout the watershed, including rebuilding riparian stream buffers.
“A longleaf pine habitat management, and converting some of that over to longleaf pine will help with the gopher tortoises and indigo snakes and some of those threatened and endangered species,” Blankenship said.