Bama Backroads is dedicated to covering news of the interesting places and things in backroad Alabama. Small towns, the outdoors, the environment… We publish slideshows and articles of these things as we are able.
Whooping cranes set for return flight home – TimesDaily.com 4/7
The Turtle Czar wants you! – GulfCoastNewsToday.com: News 4/7
Spread of Deadly Bat Disease Fans Fears for Crops – WSJ.com 4/7
Longer halt to landfill | The Atmore Advance 4/6
ADEM: Mobile Gas must investigate contamination in Eight Mile | al.com
Pace of dolphin die off slows in Alabama | al.com
Sudden arrival of pelicans upsets a longtime ibis rookery | al.com
The Daily Home – Endangered snail could hamper grist mill s repair
Some much needed closing of loopholes in Alabama’s commercial turtle harvest regulations are going into effect. All commercial collection of turtles from public and private waters will be off limits. People will still be able to legally take 2 turtles a day for personal, not commercial, use. The restrictions don’t stop turtle farmers from raising legally acquired turtles, nor does it stop dealers who deal in legally acquired turtles.
Hopefully, the new restrictions will be adequate to deal with the threat.
Alabama protects wild turtles from voracious Asian markets | Reuters
History, wildlife and industry come alive during park visit – Venture Bound – Pulse | The Columbia Daily Tribune – Columbia, Missouri A visit to Blakeley State Park in Mobile. 3/25
Mobile Bay’s Sand Island Lighthouse loses its namesake island again | al.com 3/25
Cuts may hinder wildfire fight – TimesDaily.com
Forever Wild: public lands from Mentone to Mobile (op-ed by Gunter Guy) | al.com 3/25
Forestry owners group sets annual meeting | TuscaloosaNews.com 3/25
Louisiana dolphins are ‘very sick;’ study of ‘unusual mortality event’ continues | al.com 3/24
Conservation Advisory addresses fish carcasses – The Wetumpka Herald: Outdoors 3/24
A River Ruined Through It 3/24
Poor rankings for Alabama rivers in pollution report – CBS 42 Birmingham, AL News Weather Sports 3/24 Just to clarify a point, this group did not conduct their own water testing. According to the Environment America group which released this report, The data and analysis in this report are based on 2010 data from the federalToxics Release Inventory, as downloaded from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Envirofacts database on 16 January 2012.
Changes in river reveal old, new after Eagle & Phenix dam breach | News | Columbus Ledger Enquirer
Column: N
ew fishing regulation for Gulf Coast spring breakers – times-journal.com: Sports
Growing with the flow: Local farmers hit by 3 twisters honored
Prattville’s Continental Gin buildings sold – WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.
History Lessons on the Battlefield – The Daily Sentinel: Lifestyle
Davis Hosiery Mill in Fort Payne taken by Roger Smith.
Time to garden! I say this as if I have some grand insight. Like I am early to the game. Thought I was, before I found out that I wasn’t.
Dumbstruck. That’s just how I felt last weekend when I realized I have no Super Sweet Sugar Snap peas. None I can find anyhow. I have yet to find anyplace in the area where I can walk in and buy them. I always have to order from Burpee or Parks. Every spring I plant my Sugar Snaps and bask in the feeling of being a real gardener. Yes, indeed. Nothing more real than playing in the dirt, reveling in the roar of the red tiller, brandishing that hoe and tossing seeds about like a garden fairy.
But a real garden fairy could make her seeds appear. And I could not. How I let this happen, I don’t know. How could I let March come around and still not have ordered the peas….
So, I settled for plunking some broccoli in my raised bed I’m trying this year. Truly, I’m behind the game here too. With temps having been in the 80′s, not expecting much to happen. Maybe a few flowering heads.
I think for next year’s garden, I will just plant everything real early. Like October. If I had done this last year, I would be enjoying a garden right now. With the lack of a real winter, it would’ve yielded in January, and hung around until now.
Update On March 10, The Conservation Advisory Board met and was presented with “recommendations to amend the existing turtle regulation, which included the elimination of commercial harvest from Alabama’s public waters. That recommendation was approved and will go into effect in the near future.”
