By: Jim Hannaford

If you drive by the Weeks Bay Visitor Center and see a school bus or two parked out front, just know that it’s a field trip that’s not just fun and games. There’s probably some serious learning happening, too, and it could even be life-changing.

The distinguished sand-colored building stretches out like open arms on the south side of Scenic 98. It’s literally an entry point to the roughly 10,000 acres that make up the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Some of the acreage is forest, some of it is marsh or wetlands, and some of it is completely submerged in Weeks Bay itself. 

It’s a unique ecosystem that helps you visualize the Alabama coastline of yesteryear, before widespread development, and that’s why it’s been officially protected for the last 38 years. The experts use the term “biodiverse” to describe a small area that has an incredible range of plant and animal species, and this one absolutely is, says the reserve’s manager, Angela Underwood.

“People talk a lot about tropical rainforests in terms of biodiversity, but pitcher plant blogs like the one we have here, rival them in a lot of ways, just on a smaller scale,” Angela says.

Congress established 30 such reserves along America’s coastlines, and ours became the 16th one in 1986. It’s an example of a partnership program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State of Alabama and is administered by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ State Lands Division.

The reserve was designated after a grassroots campaign headed up by noted local conservationist Arthur C. “Skipper” Tonsmeire III. He is credited with being instrumental in getting The Nature Conservancy to purchase the initial tracts of land for it,  as well as a much larger undeveloped area that became the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

Besides getting a crash course on the history of the place, the visiting students get eye-opening lessons on all the amazing things that are happening on the grounds, in the air, and underwater. 

“Many of these students may not go outside often or never have been on a boat or in the bay,” Angela says. “Some are scared at first, but it’s exciting to watch as they pull up nets full of fish, crabs, and shrimp. The students just fall in love with it and really enjoy it.”

Most days they see dolphins in the bay, which is a first for many, and they often see a bald eagle or two soaring overhead. And that’s just scratching the surface. 

They might also learn, in Angela’s words, that “plankton” is something that’s very real, not just a character on SpongeBob SquarePants. Besides being important links in the food chain, these often-overlooked marine organisms “also look like tiny aliens under a microscope.”

For many of the students—and lots of their teachers, too—these are adventurous steps outside their comfort zones. The center’s education coordinator communicates with the instructors ahead of time to tailor their visits to reinforce what they are already learning in school. They can also suggest more ways the instructors can move their classes beyond the confines of the classroom whenever possible. 

“There’s a lot of research that shows that just being outside, even if it’s a reading class or a math class, can calm students and help them focus better,” Angela says.

She knows from personal experience how little sparks of discovery can change your course in life. She was studying biology in a master’s program at Auburn when she unexpectedly developed a passion for carnivorous plants. That’s what drew her to Weeks Bay. She came aboard as an Education Assistant in 2008 and climbed the ranks to manager two years ago.

“Pitcher plant bogs are also called carnivorous plant bogs,” Angela says. “There are plants in them that have evolved to attract and capture and digest prey items, mostly insects.” (Not all insects, though. Some enterprising bugs have adapted to actually live inside the plants without being consumed.) 

“South Alabama is a hotspot for carnivorous plants, including tube-shaped pitcher plants as well as sundews, which some people call flypapers, having sticky little hairs that can prove fatal to tiny insects,” she says.

"Bladderworts, which have trap doors, are another carnivorous plant you’ll find in pitcher plant bogs,” she continues. “A lot of people ask about Venus flytraps, but they are found only in areas of North and South Carolina.”

Besides piloting the 45-foot pontoon boat on educational tours, Stewardship Coordinator Eric Brunden is heavily involved in other major parts of the reserve’s mission, such as research and land management. One of his duties is setting up and overseeing the controlled burns that are essential in maintaining the natural habitat that fosters such productive plant and animal life.

Wildfires used to happen naturally with some regularity, keeping nature in balance, he explains. Without fire, very simply put, some species of trees tend to overtake an area by “shading out” other types of plants. This is a problem because those other species may be necessary for the overall health and balance of the ecosystem.

“I would like to do a time-lapse video next time we burn,” says Eric. “People who are unfamiliar with fire ecology may not understand the benefits. A time-lapse video would show how verdant and lush the habitat returns. It’s just amazing.”

The reserve sees about 10,000 visitors a year on average, and people go there for many different reasons. Some of the regulars like to simply stretch their legs on the peaceful, winding boardwalks and nature trails, maybe bringing their dogs along. 

Many love lingering over the exhibits in the Visitors Center, which includes mounted specimens of local fauna (plus some live ones, like Checkers the corn snake). Birders know that the incredible diversity of native plants attracts hundreds of species of birds, and many more during the spring and fall periods of migration.

Angela and her staff welcome all visitors warmly and hope they leave with a better appreciation of their natural surroundings.

“We want them to be able to look around and appreciate what they’re seeing,” she says, “because until they can do that, they’re not going to want to protect it.”