By Zeb Hargett

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Collaborations are fun. Different people and organizations unite for a common cause, making a difference in our communities. Collaborations are also important. When progress and growth encroach on the natural beauty of our coastline, some unintended consequences happen. Mother Nature plays her part as well. 

All this is to say, we appreciate the organizations looking out for our pristine natural areas, and the partners who support these efforts with their time, talent, and treasure. Fortunately, with the growth of the Scenic 98 Coastal area, a lot is going on behind the scenes regarding conservation efforts. 

The Nature Conservancy stands out among the many non-profits with a mission to fuse progress and growth to protect our natural resources. TNC is a worldwide group of scientists, staff, and members advancing effective, lasting conservation in more than 80 countries and territories. You may not realize it, but The Nature Conservancy has been extremely proactive in our own backyard for more than 35 years, with remarkable results.

I recently visited with Judy Haner, the director of Coastal Programs for Alabama, to learn about a few of the important projects in which TNC is involved. There are many, and they are making a huge difference. You may have read that last year, TNC acquired 8,000 sensitive acres in the upper Mobile-Tensaw River Delta for $18.2 million. Much of the funding comes from private donors, including those who founded and operate Patagonia's clothing brand. 

Private funding helps pay for staff to write grants for funds to execute important projects that protect and preserve the area in which we live. TNC has a staff of three in the Mobile office, with its state chapter’s headquarters located in Birmingham. They also collaborate with other coastal states along the Gulf.

TNC first made its mark in coastal Alabama by acquiring lands in Oyster Bay near Bon Secour River with support from donors in North Alabama. The Ruth McClellan Abronski Splinter Hill Pitcher Plant bog, home to many unique pitcher plant species, is another important TNC project in this region. 

More recently, Lightning Point in Bayou La Batre was restored after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon spill severely impacted the fishing industry and damaged access to the waterways. Lightning Point successfully protected the area through several severe storms in 2020, including Hurricanes Sally and Zeta. There are now plans for a public park and market on the restored and improved waterfront property.

“Mother Nature came in and did her thing,” says Judy. “Working with our partners including the City of Bayou La Batre, Mobile County, ADCNR, environmental engineers, the University of South Alabama, and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, we developed a plan and went to work. We added breakwaters and marsh to shore up the inlet. The public  now has  a pavilion with an entire view of Alabama’s Mississippi Sound.”

With the shipbuilding and fishing industries as primary economic drivers along the South Mobile County coast, Judy says the inlet would have become another Katrina Cut, which split Dauphin Island in two. She cites Bayou La Batre as the “strike zone” for big storms in 2020 like Hurricanes Cristobal in June, Sally in September, Delta in early October, and Zeta in late October. “Zeta was the worst, with storm surges of 8 feet and 3’ to 4’ waves on top of that. Thankfully, nature protected this area.”

“There is too much to do all by ourselves, so we work with everyone. Flooding in Southern Mobile County is a big issue, and we try to get as big a bang for our buck as we possibly can. We study how much and where the water is moving through the system. We strive to make a great investment turn into an economic benefit for everyone.” 

Judy mentioned ecotourism as a growing attraction. “Even at the high school level, we are introducing ecotourism through our current projects. People from across Alabama and many different states vacation here. The designated Alabama Birding Trail runs throughout Alabama connecting the mountains to the Black Belt all the way to the coast where people can observe  more than 50 species of birds that migrate across our projects.”

Judy tells me that TNC’s approach is to ask, “How do we solve this problem and add value?” After land acquisition, they hire an engineering firm to assess the site and develop the designs, then they find funds to build what is wanted and needed. With flooding issues at the new Brookley Airport, she tells me that is a different watershed requiring a different solution.

“We are partnering with the Mobile Airport Authority to get in front of this issue. In its current state, it’s not up to par. We want a solution that will filter the water before it enters tributaries and then Mobile Bay. Each project we work on is unique, and we are trying to meet the community's needs by looking across the entire landscape with each endeavor.”

Further east in Baldwin County, TNC is working with USA engineering students and faculty on a project at Waterfront Park in Orange Beach. “We try to leverage our partnerships. This project will have an impact on the area in which they live. They have some skin in the game. We want some buy-in, so we don’t do it all.” 

Also in Baldwin County, Robinson Island is a popular recreational area for boaters. It is located in Orange Beach near the Perdido Pass between Alabama and Florida, and adjacent to Old River, Cotton Bayou, Terry Cove, and the Intracoastal Waterway to the north. In 2020, Hurricane Sally came in forcefully, but as waters receded, it sucked the sand from the islands, undermining the trees and marsh grasses, and causing extensive damage to Robinson Island, Bird Island, and Walker Island (non-human access). Walker Island lost its “tail” after Sally, creating an unstable shoal. Frequent and more intense storms threaten these islands' existence and the natural habitats for wildlife that make their homes there.

The challenge facing The Nature Conservancy and its partners, including the City of Orange Beach, the State of Alabama’s Marine Resources, the Perdido and Pensacola Bays National Estuary Program, and others was stabilizing the shoreline, restoring the sand and dunes, and protecting nature while allowing recreation. 

“Balancing nature here involves a different type of livelihood than what we were able to accomplish in Bayou La Batre,” says Judy. “Working with the engineers, regulators, and City of Orange Beach, among others, we designed a series of habitat enhancements that will help feed sand downstream to the recreational islands and provide more space for both humans and wildlife,” Judy tells me. 

The project entails re-establishing the dune ridge and moving sea grasses that would be impacted to nearby seagrass beds. “This is one of the few areas in the nation where seagrasses are expanding.” In August and September 2024, more than 40 volunteers dug and transferred 4600 squares of seagrass, moving them from where construction will occur and adding them to the existing seagrass beds. This is a community effort, to say the least.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded The Nature Conservancy a grant, the first of its kind, to study the Perdido watershed in its entirety. The Alabama Trustee Implementation Group (AL TIG) has also committed to Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) funds from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill to the project. Over the next few months, sand will be dredged, marsh plants planted, and habitats transformed.

“Projects take a long time. This project has been several years in the planning. It took two years to get a permit from the US Army Corp of Engineers. “We hope to be finished pumping the sand at Robinson Island by the end of April, and the rest of the project will be done by mid-summer. In the meantime, we hope recreational boaters will be cognizant of the dredge pipes and machinery. There will be lots of monitoring to see how the project performs.”

A few of the other projects in which TNC has been involved include the Lillian Swamp on the Perdido River and Bronson Field near the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. “Forever Wild owns the 6,000 acres that make up the Lillian Swamp Complex. 

“This marsh is an important transition between the bay and river and ties to Splinter Hill Bog at the headwaters of the Perdido River. Across the Perdido Bay to the southeast, Bronson Field, near the Pensacola Naval Air Station, which closed after WWII has some shoreline and hydrology issues. We are working with the Department of Defense on this project.”

Judy grew up on a potato and dairy farm in the Finger Lakes region of Western New York. She earned her undergraduate degree at Lynchburg College in VA, before earning her Masters in Marine Science from William and Mary “studying crabs.” After school, she moved to Naples, FL, and worked with the National Estuarine Research Reserve for a dozen years. 

After spending two years at the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve in Alaska (the largest Estuarine Reserve in the system), she returned to manage Everglades Restoration Projects for six years. Judy and her husband moved to Dog River in 2008, where they still reside. In 2010, she was hired by The Nature Conservancy, just before the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. 

“Throughout my career, I figured out how to best connect with people. I had worked with The Nature Conservancy on small projects. When the Deepwater Horizon explosion happened, we had an opportunity to make some big changes along the Gulf Coast. The Deepwater Horizon allowed partners that had been competing with each other, or had remained in their silos, to come together and make things better.”

She concludes our conversation, “Change is difficult. Seeing is believing. Working together with our partners leverages all of our work toward addressing real issues and finding effective solutions to protect and save the areas that we all enjoy.

As far as what brought Judy to the Scenic 98 Coastal Community, and keeps her here addressing ways to marry conservation with growth, she says, “We need clean water for our livelihoods. For me, the saltier, the better.”