The Cahaba River Basin Management Program was established in 1997 and it included only Jefferson and Shelby counties. Bibb, Perry, and Dallas, the lower basin counties, were not included. On Monday, February 23, Dr. Wilson, Mrs. Kastenmayer, Tera Powell (environmental science major and President of Judson’s Cahaba River Society), and Jennifer Goolsby (marine science minor) went to Birmingham for the Cahaba River Basin Project Steering Committee meeting. The meeting was called to order by co-chairman Wendy Allen, Executive Director of the Nature Conservancy of Alabama. Everyone was welcomed by coordinator Shaun Crawford. Dr. Randy Haddock and Mr. Lynn Wood discussed the Comparative Risk Analysis for the river.

We attended the meeting to support the proposal from the Lower Basin counties for representation on the Steering Committee. The Lower Basin counties were asking for three seats on the Steering Committee. The Lower Basin (Bibb, Perry, and Dallas Counties) makes up 70% of the Cahaba River which is not represented on the Steering Committee. Whereas the other 30% is being represented by about 15 different people. Before beginning this discussion, we were asked to leave the public meeting without even the opportunity to speak. About 45 minutes to an hour later we were asked to come back in. They then asked us if we had anything to say. Dr. Wilson talked about the Forever Wild Project that would create the Barton's Beach Cahaba River Park and pointed out the fact that 70% of the river watershed was not represented. Tera discussed the educational opportunities provided by the river. Jennifer discussed the recreational uses of the river.

All in all we had an impact on this committee and the Lower Basin will probably get one seat out of the three requested. They set up a committee to discuss the bylaws in order to make an amendment in their constitution so the Lower Basin might have a seat on the Steering Committee.

After the meeting, we had a fine BBQ lunch at Nick's and discussed the events of the day. We look forward to other environmental adventures and treasure the fact that we were thrown out of this meeting ... just like the 60's.