March 6, 2007: Black Warrior Riverkeeper Volunteer Orientation at UAB

Location: Hill University Center: Room 411 (Classroom on University of Alabama Birmingham’s Campus)

Details:  From 5-7PM on Tuesday, Black Warrior Riverkeeper staff welcomes all current and potential volunteers for orientation about our work.  Volunteers will learn about our mission, strategies, and how they can best represent us at events or assist us with cleanups, outreach, patrolling, and more.  The session will start with Nelson Brooke’s 30 minute presentation about threats to the Black Warrior River Basin. 

Contact: Charles Scribner: 205-458-0095 or cscribner@blackwarriorriver.org

  March 7, 2007: Black Warrior Riverkeeper Volunteer Orientation at UA

Location: Bidgood 221 (Classroom on University of Alabama’s Campus in Tuscaloosa)

Details:  From 5-7PM on Wednesday, Black Warrior Riverkeeper staff welcomes all current and potential volunteers for orientation about our work.  Volunteers will learn about our mission, strategies, and how they can best represent us at events or assist us in other ways.  The session will start with Nelson Brooke’s 30 minute presentation about threats to the Black Warrior River Basin. 

Contact: Charles Scribner: 205-458-0095 or cscribner@blackwarriorriver.org

  March 16-18, 2007: Alabama Rivers Alliance’s Watershed Leadership Conference

Location: Camp McDowell: Nauvoo, AL

Details:  Celebrating 10 years of saving rivers with the Alabama Rivers Alliance.  Speeches, learning, networking, and field trips in the Black Warrior River’s beautiful Sipsey Fork Basin. Full payment is due with your application. A limited number of scholarships are available.

Contact:  Contact clowry@alabamarivers.org for more information or to apply for a scholarship, (205)322-6395, toll-free at (877)862-5260.  You can register for the Conference via this link: http://www.alabamarivers.org/WLC07/07reg.htm

  March 24, 2007: 15^th Locust Fork Whitewater Classic Canoe/Kayak Races

  March 26-28, 2007 – Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team Training

Location: All sessions will take place at Twin Falls Resort State Park in Mullens, WV.  There is also a summer-long “Practicum,” a chance to put what you learn to work in your area.  The ACCWT will cover ALL expenses for participants’ travel, lodging, food, and registration and provide access to help throughout the practicum as well. 

Details:  To qualify for this opportunity your group or organization must serve some area of a county deemed “Distressed” by the Appalachian Regional Commission.If you are unsure whether your county is a Distressed County, please check http://www.accwt.org/distressed.html to see the 2007 ARC Distressed Counties list.  Two representatives from each group must commit to all three sessions– the spring training, the summer practicum and the fall training.

Contact: If your group is interested in this opportunity for free training focused specifically on the coal-impacted counties of Appalachia, please contact ACCWT by email (training@accwt.org) or by phone (304.461.3132).  Feel free to pass along this information, please!

  April 21, 2007: Alabama Environmental Education Consortium Conference, with Dr. E.O. Wilson and the Rev. Sally Bingham

Location: 9:00AM-3:300PM, Wright Center, Samford University.

Details: Dr. E.O. Wilson, one of the world’s top scientists, will be this year’s keynote speaker.  The Rev. Sally Bingham will also address the conference.  The afternoon session will focus on the “Art of Action,” with strategies for action on a local level. We hope to create networks for further conversation and involvement.  Watch for updates as additional speakers are confirmed.  This is a FREE ADMISSION event, with lunch included.

  April 28, 2007: 13^th Annual Hurricane Creek Cleanup and Chilli Cookoff

Location: Starting at 8:00 am, at Watson's Bend (formerly Stroker Point)
where Holt-Peterson Road crosses Hurricane Creek in Holt, AL, just outside Tuscaloosa

Details: Please join the Friends of Hurricane Creek and their investigative arm, Hurricane Creekkeeper (our fellow Waterkeeper, John Wathen) To celebrate Earth Day and Hurricane Creek! This event is the Friends of Hurricane Creek’s way of giving back to our community. Hurricane Creek is Tuscaloosa’s Crown Jewel and we want to show it off in full bloom. We will remove all garbage and trash from bridge crossings and roadside access points to the creek. There will be a canoe trip to pick up trash from the creek banks. This is done to raise awareness of the creek and the amount of uncontrolled litter we see annually. The creek will be in full bloom with wild Alabama azalea and mountain laurel. Airplane rides, courtesy of SouthWings, will be available for photographing the watershed. Please contact us to sign up for a spot! Later there will be a chili cook-off and door prizes. Speakers will include environmentalists from around the state.

  April 28, 2007 - Annual Five Mile Creek Volunteer Cleanup

Location: Five Mile Creek, Fultondale.  Just off Highway 31 at the Days Inn (Get off Exit 266 on I 65, about five miles north of downtown Birmingham/malfunction junction. Go north 1 mile on 31. Days Inn is on your left)

Details: Registration begins at 8 a.m. Cleanup at 9 a.m. Finish cleanup at noon, followed by free hot dog lunch for volunteers.  SPECIAL Attraction: We hope to provide brief walking tours of the old beehive coke ovens adjacent to the cleanup site, which will soon become the centerpiece for a historic park planned by Fultondale.