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Events

Bankhead Restoration Monitoring Tour

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bankhead District Headquarters, Double Springs, Alabama

8:30 a.m.

Wild South members and the general public are invited to attend the next restoration monitoring tour of the Bankhead Forest Health and Restoration Project. Restoration monitoring tours are a great way to learn more about how our national forests in Alabama are being managed by the United States Forest Service.

Wild South played a key role in the development of the 2004 Land and Resource Mangagement Plan (LRMP) through our participation in the Bankhead Liaison Panel. Beginning in 2004, we headed up the Panel's Timber and Thinning Working Group, which has evolved into what is now our Restoration Monitoring Program.

Three or four times a year we organize multi-party monitoring tours with the USFS, academic and scientific professionals, and the public to view restoration activities and discuss goals, operations and outcomes. The Liaison Panel and the Forest Service recognizes the need to monitor the cultural practices used to achieve restoration goals, both to mitigate the negative effects of these practces on soil, water and vegetation and to facilitate adaptive management, where what we learn informs future management decisions. Both pre- and post-treatment conditions are monitored over the long term.

Our tour on the 16th will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Bankhead District headquarters on Highway 33 in Double Springs, Alabama. There will be a brief meet and greet and overview of the sites we plan to visit before heading out into the forest. Acting District Ranger Art Henderson will be accompanying us, along with USFS wildlife biologist Allison Cochran and USFS silviculturalist Stephanie Love. We have a full agenda of sites to visit, most of which are south of Highway 278. We will try to complete the tour by 3:30 p.m.

Pack a lunch, snacks and drinking water.

For more information or to receive an itinerary and list of sites to be visited on Feb. 16, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Phone: 256-974-6166

Wild South's Mark Kolinski and Vince Meleski on Restoration Monitoring Tour

The Wild Places at Your Backdoor

A Wild South Special Event:

Learn outdoor skills, hike in a wild place and support Wild South

Saturday and Sunday, January 23-24, 2010

The Wild South office in Wren, Alabama and the Bankhead National Forest

There is nothing quite like the beauty, peace and wonder of wild, natural places. A special place in the Warrior Mountains of North Alabama, which answers perfectly these qualities, is the William B. Bankhead National Forest. Bankhead's 180,000 acres contain within its boundaries the incomparable Sipsey Wilderness Area through which the Wild and Scenic Sipsey River flows.

Even outside the Sipsey Wilderness, this forest is rich in biodiversity, breathtaking scenery, history, canyons, waterfalls and more. There are arborglyphs, petroglyphs, many miles of canoe and hiking trails, rockhouses (bluff shelters used by Native Americans), and more places to see and explore than can be accomplished in a lifetime!

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it now and come join us for two fun days of learning as Bob Crow teaches how to explore this magical and mythical place! Class size is limited to 10, so sign up now. The fee for this educational event, which includes lunch on Saturday, is only $75 per person. Participants must be at least 18 years old. Your entire donation will stay right here in Alabama and be used to continue the forest protection work being done by the local Wild South staff.