Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Richard Shelby, Congressman Spencer Bachus, Sam D. Hamilton, Southeast Regional Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Jeff Danter, Executive Director, The Nature Conservancy of Alabama

Dedication ceremony for the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge, and presentation of a $23,500 grant from Alabama Power/Southern Company and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Sunday, May 2, 2004. 2:30 p.m.
News media representatives are invited to join invited guests for lunch at 12:30 p.m. at the Cahaba Lily Community Center, 1012 Main Street in West Blocton, followed by a tour of the refuge beginning at 1:30 p.m. The dedication ceremony, which is open to the public, will begin at 2:30 p.m.

Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge & Cahaba Lily Community Center on Main Street in West Blocton (please see the attached map with driving directions). The refuge tour will leave directly from the community center, with transportation provided. Van transportation will also be provided to the ceremony site. For those who are unable to attend the luncheon and tour, the dedication ceremony will take place on Cahaba Overlook Road (just off County Road 24 – follow signs).

The Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge was authorized by Congress on October 19, 2000, through legislation sponsored by Congressman Spencer Bachus and then Congressman Bob Riley. The refuge was established with 1,200 acres of land on September 25, 2002, and has since expanded to its current size of 2,997 acres. This represents almost 90 percent of the land that is expected to ultimately be protected by the refuge.

The refuge was established through a partnership between The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The refuge protects the largest concentration of Shoals Lily in the world and preserves a vital section of the Cahaba River, a river which hosts the greatest concentration of fish diversity of any river of its size in North America.

The grant is being presented to The Nature Conservancy of Alabama for restoration of 185 acres of longleaf pine at the refuge. The grant is part of the Longleaf Legacy program, a partnership which began in August 2003 between the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Southern Company and its operating companies, which include Alabama Power. This five-year program is focused on restoring the South’s signature longleaf pine ecosystem to conserve biological diversity and sequester carbon.