• Get a group together and go for a guided hike!
• Take advantage of multiple opportunities to volunteer!
• Pick up some great deals at the online gear store!
• Make a donation!

What does Wild Alabama do to support the Bankhead & Talladega National Forests?
Wild Alabama provides volunteers for projects in the National Forests and Wilderness areas in which we work. Our Volunteer Wilderness Ranger program mitigates the absence of Forest Service Wilderness Rangers in Alabama. Our Helping Hands Volunteer Program performs projects such as hiking trail maintenance, non-native invasive plant species control, trash pick-up, ecosystem restoration that the U. S. Forest Service no longer has the personnel to handle. Our position on the Bankhead Liaison Panel puts us in open discussion with the Forest Service and other National Forest stakeholders. We fund projects with partners through writing grants.

Why are the Bankhead and Talladega special places?
Largely because of the geology of Alabama, the Bankhead National Forest, Talladega National Forest, Sipsey Wilderness, Dugger Mountain Wilderness and Cheaha Wilderness support world-class plant and aquatic animal biodiversity. The streams and creeks in the Bankhead National Forest and Sipsey Wilderness are abundant, forming the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River and because it is protected, some of the cleanest water in Alabama. The Sipsey Fork is the only Wild and Scenic River in Alabama.

Why do these forests merit conservation?
Our wildest places in Alabama merit conservation because of all the life they support. Humans need wild places as much as the wild things that live there. Our National Forests and Wilderness areas harbor some of the last remaining wild lands, and with humans already having taken much more than our balanced share of the world’s forests for our own purposes, these wild lands should be conserved forever for the rest of life.

What challenges are there to the health and future of these forests?
The climate crisis, federal policy changes, over-use and abuse by humans.