Birmingham Weekly: Alabama Rivers Alliance hosts water conference

PROTECTING ALABAMA’S WATER: Environmental leaders from across Alabama will gather in Montgomery for the 12th-annual Watershed Leadership Conference hosted by the Alabama Rivers Alliance from Feb. 27 to Mar. 2. This year’s conference will feature the first-ever Alabama Water Rally, a four-day event designed to inform participants about key water issues affecting the state and the ways that citizens can become involved in protecting their waters. Participants at the conference usually include over a hundred lawyers, engineers, scientists, teachers, elected officials, employees of various agencies and concerned citizens. Participants receive training in community organizing and environmental policy work. The event will also include field trips, visits to the state legislature (it’s an election year, after all), and tours of the state agencies charged with protecting Alabama’s waters. The keynote address will be delivered on Sun., Feb. 28, by Janisse Ray, an award-winning author, naturalist, and environmental activist. Ray is the author of three books of literary nonfiction. Her first book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, is a memoir about growing up in a junkyard in the South’s ruined longleaf pine ecosystem. Registration information for the conference is available at www.alabamarivers.org.