[Announcer] This program is supported by grants from The Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation, the Alabama Wildlife Federation, working for wildlife since 1935, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama providing educational and social opportunities for adults.

Discovering Alabama is a production of the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

(soft inspiring music) -(birds chirping) -(footsteps rustling) As a child, I often wondered, does the breeze wave the trees, or does the waving of the trees create the breeze?

(river flowing) Pristine waters shimmering across the forest floor.

Is this where precious stones are polished?

Multifarious light glistening among the arboreal.

Is this where the rainbow gets its color?

Red light running lightly below the branches.

(flames crackling) Can it really give birth to new life?

Hi.

I'm Doug Philips.

Here in an Alabama Enchanted Forest, it's kind of fun to harken back to those childhood days of mystery and wonder.

Now that I'm, well, a little older, I've learned that the magic is real.

(wind rustling) The waving trees clean the breeze, refreshing the air for you and me to breathe.

(river flowing) Entire watersheds are nourished as pristine waters emerge from forests for you and me to drink.

(wind rustling) Colors of the rainbow can be found glistening in the autumn sun.

(flames crackling) And even that which we once thought only threatening can be seen in a whole new light.

Join me for a walk in the woods.

We'll enjoy Alabama's Enchanted Forests, and we'll explore the ecological and economic wonders of these arboreal realms.

We'll investigate the science behind the magic.

We'll probe misconceptions about the timber lands.

And we'll meet the men and women, the private landowners, and their consulting foresters, who keep the forest flourishing for you and me.

(gentle uplifting music) This program is about a land unknown to many people, a land that in many ways has maintained its native natural wonders, a place of bountiful back country, forests, streams, and wildlife more diverse than can be found in much of the inhabited world.

Come along with me as we explore the wild wonders of this land.

Come along as we discover Alabama.

(people chatting) (wind rustling) (birds calling) (birds continue calling) Welcome to Discovering Alabama, and welcome to the Enchanted Forest.

By the latest tallies, roughly 70% of all of Alabama is covered in forestland.

Our state is indeed a grand sylvan realm.

-(helicopter blades whirring) -(soft music) From above, it's easy to mix metaphors, and think of Alabama as adrift in a sea of forests.

(exciting dramatic music) (exciting dramatic music continues) (exciting dramatic music continues) (exciting dramatic music continues) (exciting dramatic music continues) (exciting dramatic music continues) (exciting dramatic music continues) (exciting dramatic music continues) (music fading) 23 million acres of timber lands in Alabama.

23 million acres, and of that staggering amount, the great majority is owned by private nonindustrial landowners.

(soft piano music) In the more than 30 year history of Discovering Alabama, we've spent a lot of time in Alabama forests.

(soft piano music continues) We've done a number of shows, for example, about our national forests, our state parks, and other public lands.

But public lands are just a small part, only about five percent of Alabama lands.

(bright inspiring music) By far the largest portion of Alabama's grand sylvan realm is privately owned, some in corporate ownership, and the great majority owned by individual Alabamians and their families.

The caring stewardship practiced by private forestland owners is essential to the continuing abundance of Alabama's forest heritage.

(bright uplifting music continues) The resource, the quality of the resource, and the amount of the resource is extremely important, to everybody in Alabama.

And we are certainly happy to have the rockets and the airplanes, and the automobiles, and everything else, it is so important to our people, and the economy of our state, but we need to have that awareness that agriculture and forestry and related businesses are still the backbone of Alabama's economy, and our environment.

(tractor engine rumbling) -(soft uplifting music) -(birds chirping) The private forestland in Alabama is far greater than most people think.

More than 70% of the forests that we have in Alabama are owned by the nonindustrial private landowner.

Timber industry owns less than 17%.

So the primary manager of our forests are people like you and me.

(motor rumbling) (birds and insects chirping) Yeah, well I think it's very important for Alabama, because we only have a small percentage of our forests that are public forests, that are national forests or in some other type of public holding, and yet forestry's so important to the state of Alabama.

So I think it's important economically because most of our logging and forest industry is based on private land as opposed to forest holding.

I think it's also important for recreational purposes, and for species richness of the state, which is one of the things we really value very much, because we have so much high species richness.

-(birds and insects chirping) -(water flowing) (birds and insects continue chirping) (river flowing) A great deal of the stewardship of forests comes through private owners, and I think in Alabama, there's been some great successes with private owners who really take that very seriously.

The backbone of our economy and our environment.

There was a time not so long ago when some folks saw economic values and ecological values as being in conflict with one another.

Nowadays, we recognize that a forest's values are diverse.

One of the great gifts that we have in Alabama is the diversity, across the board.

Among trees, we're one of the most diverse states in the nation, and that's pretty rare, across most of the country, to have that diversity available.

Some of these trees are fantastic to keep for economic reasons, for saw timber, for pulp wood, for poles.

Some of them are just great for wildlife benefits because of the fruit or the nuts that they produce.

And other for aesthetics.

And it looks like it's big enough to be cut.

-That one right there?

-Yeah, uh-huh.

And I have a leave of- I have seen a great deal of change, back in the day when I was in forestry school, a lot of the forest management was encouraged and driven by the need for plant pulp wood.

There's been a gradual but very drastic change.

Many landowners are going to restoration projects.

(birds and insects chirping) With something in the neighborhood of almost 200 different native tree species in Alabama, opportunity abounds for forestland owners.

Typically, management incorporates the objectives that a landowner would have for their land if, for example, they're more concerned or primarily concerned with maximum timber income.

(chainsaw buzzing) Or they're concerned primarily with recreation.

Or they're concerned with aesthetics.

You can devise a plan for them that will help them accomplish their objectives.

Now management can be a whole wide range of things, from prescribed burning, to road construction and maintenance, to thinning and harvesting timber, and the regeneration of that timber.

(flames crackling) (flames continue crackling) For the most part, you'll find many private nonindustrial landowners are interested in a combination of objectives.

But if you really think about it, they all go hand in hand.

You can accomplish multiple objectives by setting a program for them based on timber management, recreation, or aesthetics, and still combinate various other objectives.

-(birds calling) -(wind rustling) You can make recommendation based on landowner goals, but you also have to understand the local ecology.

And you can't lose sight of that.

Everything, every decision that's made, should be driven by landowner goals and site conditions, and supported with good science.

-(birds chirping) -(footsteps rustling) Some might say managing the forest for certain goals seems incongruous.

They might think well, the forests were here long before we humans, so if we just left the forest alone, wouldn't nature manage the forest?

Well, maybe.

But we humans have a habit of not leaving the forest alone.

This is as good an example- [Doug] For instance, we could do a whole show on the human-introduced invasive species that threaten our native forests.

Very, very difficult.

Here are the berries from last year.

Birds eat 'em, thinking that they're getting a bunch for it.

Cogon grass, which is what this grass is, to be able to control this, there are virtually no opportunity for us to control it.

[Doug] Come to think of it, we have done a whole show on the alien invaders threatening our homeland.

The biggest threats to our forests though may not be from faraway places.

They may be right up the road.

(helicopter blades whirring) Urbanization is another big threat.

We have more and more people that are living in urban areas, and less and less connection with rural, we'll just say, rural Alabama, rural America.

And an understanding that somebody has got to get their hands dirty.

Somebody has got to be willing to tend that forest.

-(birds and insects chirping) -(footsteps rustling) Fewer and fewer Alabamians are getting their hands dirty.

Fewer and fewer Americans are getting their hands dirty.

And this can lead to misconceptions about forestland ownership.

One of the more common misconceptions is that all private forest owners are wealthy.

[Joe] David, you have three brothers and two sisters, and y'all own this property jointly?

That's right.

We've kind of tried to hold onto it, and it goes back, I guess, this property, when I was growing up, was owned by my dad and his four sisters, and dad worked hard to get this to where it is so we could own it, my five siblings and everything.

And we was able to.

So we've been very fortunate, and under his hard work, to get this place to what we have right now.

So we've been waiting for this, now this timber's probably 30 years old, and it's just now starting to get some value.

So it's been a process for us to get it back to this point, and so that's why we brought you in, to try to help us manage that part of it, and maybe we can start here in the very near future, start getting some income back off of it, and help all the family members some, because everybody could sure use a little bit of help.

[Joe] When you look at the fact that your income is very sporadic, maybe every 10 years, where you do a cut in a stand like this, and with that, every year you have your annual taxes, and you have to pay that on an annual basis, and you don't get income on an annual basis?

That's right.

That's exactly right.

We're the consummate example of being land rich, I guess, and money poor.

(flames crackling) (wind rustling) The misconception that all private forestland owners are somehow wealthy land barrens might not seem like a big deal.

But such fiction can lead to real-world consequences.

That's an accurate statement, land rich and dollar poor, because the asset has a tremendous value, but tax policy, inheritance taxes, and property taxes, ad valorem taxes, we see the family having to sell parts of the land, or over-cut timber more intensively than they would like to, or that would make sense from a purely timberland standpoint, and wildlife management standpoint, just to be able to pay their taxes.

(tractor engine rumbling) What probably not a lot of people really understand is that a lot of that tax does not come back to the landowner.

It goes out to different levels, to a local and a state level, which the landowner does not see a lot of return from that money as well, so it is a cost for them.

(saw buzzing) (tree cracking) (saw buzzing) This is not just a play place for us.

It's an obligation, and that we pay taxes, I don't care what they say about Alabama being the lowest tax rate in the nation, but we pay substantial taxes.

Dang right.

On this, just because it's- As long as you keep that down to a minimum, you're okay, because that's where more than- [Augusta] It is an obligation, yeah.

For us to take care of it.

And I think most city people think we're just playing in it.

The green is the pine, -of course.

-Right.

And this discolored, it makes everything look clean.

The benefit of having a lower tax here in Alabama is that it allows for that piece of property to stay in what it's meant to stay in, and that's timberland.

Timberland provides an awesome opportunity for not just that family who owns that piece of property, but for everybody else, because it does provide an avenue for clean air, for clean water.

As well as the wildlife value that comes with all of that.

That value benefits everybody.

It benefits the whole state.

(birds chirping) Tax policy can and probably will be debated till the end of time.

And like any debate, there are two sides, probably more, with the complicated issues of property tax.

(helicopter blades whirring) Critics will point out that Alabama forestland taxes are at the lower end of the scale when compared to other states.

On the flip side, moderate taxes are a major reason so many Alabama families can continue to own and care for the land.

Rising land taxes, typical in many states, are a leading cause of fragmentation and loss of forest, as owners are forced to divide their lands, or fall prey to commercial development.

I don't think we're ever gonna have a point where we've got to go in and say, we've got too much land protected, and we've gotta turn some of this over to commercial use, but as it is, over two thirds of the land in Alabama is privately owned.

And that's outside of federal protection, outside of state protection, and it's in the hands of those landowners as to what is done with that land.

(insects chirping) (birds calling) Public lands are certainly important, and we need to protect what we have on any parks, any wildlife refuges, any kind of protected habitats, at state level, federal level, county level, even.

Yeah, we have to keep that.

But these animals are distributed, some of them are very isolated populations.

They might be one or two populations on the public lands, and 50 on the private lands.

We need to be protecting those, too.

(leaves rustling) It's so important.

So we're doing work all over the state maybe in protected areas, maybe in parks, national forests, state lands, but it's really important to cultivate these relationships with private landowners that have maybe an important habitat for maintaining the connections in the ecosystem for different species in Alabama.

So that is extremely important.

And to have them understanding some of the science that we're doing, and developing that partnership.

(birds chirping) (wind rustling) We're very fortunate in Alabama that most of our landowners understand the conservation value of the land, and many of them have them in TREASURE Forest Association, or Forest Owner Associations, and they have read books, like Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac", or they've been to an environmental education program, and they realized the connections between the habitat and the health, of not only the flora and fauna, but of the people that live near those properties.

-(birds chirping) -(wind rustling) Private landowners may not all be rich, but they all do have responsibilities.

And fortunately for you and me, so many Alabama landowners take their responsibilities very seriously.

I would like to see some sort of mechanism in place to educate people on the value of rural timberland, on the value of forests, on the value of maintaining the forest.

I mean, 80 miles south of Birmingham, what goes on here, believe it or not, affects air quality up the river in Birmingham.

At this time, I'm educating my kids.

Let the trees mature, it's good for the environment.

You clear cut, you replant.

Everything you take off the land, you put back on it.

A good management of forest really protects the environment in any way.

This is what we're talking about.

There's a direct benefit then to good stewardship of our forests, and so we're referring to that when we talk about the ecological services.

And it's really a relationship between forests and the earth's surface, and hydrologic processes that we have.

So there's a direct relationship then between forest health and earth surface processes that are very important, and we're referring to this as ecological service.

-(river flowing) -(insects chirping) (birds chirping) Private lands help to filter the pollution out of the atmosphere, provides oxygen for you to breathe, they cool the planet, making life more pleasant for you there.

The soil and the leaf litter filters the water as it comes down, flows to the creeks, where it can be pulled up and used for drinking water.

They provide jobs.

(crane motor rumbling) (logs cracking) (motor rumbling) (motor continues rumbling) (motor continues rumbling) (motor continues rumbling) (machinery whirring) The air cleaning and water purifying job creating nature of our forests is today in the hands of human forest owners.

-(wind rustling) -(birds chirping) Sustaining the ecological services and economic services given us by Alabama forests requires ongoing human care.

And sometimes caring for the forest takes places outside the forest.

I do a lot of the analytical work that supports all of our forest management that we do, from growing trees on computer to doing discount and cash flow analysis.

Most of us got into forestry because we love the outdoors, and we wanted to spend outdoors, but as you start to get more knowledgeable and deal with bigger and bigger things, you end up sitting in front of a computer a lot more than you anticipated.

And in fact, the skill sets and the knowledge that a forester has to have, or some of the higher level sciences and math.

Hey Ruth.

Did you have a chance to look at that, -the output?

-Oh, yes.

Yes.

And it's, the numbers acres are right.

But we still got the variants in there.

And I'm not really sure what it is.

I'm gonna have to drill down.

But the good thing is, the negative ones, negative twos and zeroes are right.

So that's good.

Okay.

Well if we need to rerun that, we can always- We might have to rerun it under.

Science is one of those things, you get into it, and discover that you know just this much, and you open it up, and you realize, there's just even that much more to know.

And at that point, there's also an intuitive kind of thing that goes on, where the people that have spent a lot of time in the woods are observant, who have seen things, who have been around, like the Kiva Larsons of the world and stuff, that's where more of the art comes in.

-(helicopter blades whirring) -(gentle music) [Doug] Many, myself included, see the forest as a work of art.

Layers of color, subtleties of light, drama in action and a medley of sense and sounds come together to celebrate creation.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (engine rumbling) They can teach you certain things in school.

They can teach you the cost of carrying a plantation over several years, and that's a science.

The art is learning how your management tools interact with an infinite variety of forests that are out there, and there's no way to teach someone how to exactly manage a mature lonely forest on a lakeland sand in the Panhandle of Florida versus on a really good Orangeburg soil in Lower Alabama, and with all the different competing trees, and the different fire regimes, and the different harvest side of the seed, a lot of it has to do with simply getting the experience under your belt.

(motor rumbling) (flames crackling) These days, science and technology are informing our knowledge of forests, from the microbes that nurture the soils to the sunlight that trickles through the treetops.

When it comes to harmonizing information and artistry, it still takes people willing to get their hands dirty.

It's critical for us for the success of this to have a consulting forester.

Philip's an accountant, I'm a teacher.

We don't know how to grow trees.

If we didn't have somebody like that, it would not look anything like it does.

It is the way it is today because of Alex, and because of the other people that have helped us.

We don't have what I call a cookie cutter forest, because for us, the aesthetics is very important.

(birds chirping) We have to have a professional forester.

I'm not a professional forester.

I'm barely an amateur forester.

And this place does take a lot of effort to look after.

We rely on our forester an awful lot.

Stay in touch with him often, and sit down with him several times a year, and go over what the plans will be for the next year, the next three years, the next five years.

What does it look like?

And without that, (sighs) we couldn't do the job with respect to the timber.

(birds and insects chirping) Here in the state of Alabama, there is a licensing board, board of registration for foresters.

They have to have today two years of experience before they can sit for the exam, and then be a licensed forester within the state.

What consultants typically do are represent private landowners.

Found a lot of those around here.

There's a couple up there.

Yeah.

Red oak there.

Actually, a white oak too.

There's a white oak, yeah okay.

Yeah, that's a white oak, which you'll find a lot of those around here.

Yeah right, right.

There's a cherry tree.

Yeah.

It looks really good.

I know there's one right there, that splitting one right over there, it looks like that may be just a regular old water line.

(birds and insects chirping) A forestry consultant is a person who works for the nonindustrial private landowner to work just for that person, and not be an advocate for the timber industry.

Of course we work with the timber industry.

We sell our products to them.

But our interest is making sure that the landowner is protected in all of the things that he does in his forest.

(engine rumbling) (saw buzzing) (saw buzzing) (saw buzzing) (tree cracking) (tree crashes) As a consulting forester, we have to know a little bit about everything.

It doesn't mean we have to know everything, but we got to know who to go to to be able to help us bridge that gap to where we can help that landowner, because that's where our interest lies, is helping them to achieve whatever goal that they have.

(birds and insects chirping) It has evolved a whole lot to where it's not just managing.

It's counseling.

A lot of times we're helping families figure out how can they, there's five of them, and they've got so many acres, and do you wanna divide it, do you wanna sell it, do you wanna manage it, keep it together?

And they need that sort of advice.

You know, it doesn't need to have a thinning done right now, but it could.

-This in the back- -Oh so with have it, yeah.

This is where your pine plantation is, and we didn't look at it, but he showed me the road coming in on the other side.

So I've already looked at it.

To call yourself a forester in the state of Alabama, you have to be registered as forester.

And that requires you to go to at least a four-year degree, a bachelor's in science forestry management, or you could possibly get in a master's degree.

So if you're gonna call yourself a forester, and then advertise your services as professed in that profession in Alabama, you have to be a registered forester.

And you have to take the registered forester's exam, and pass it.

And it is one of the more difficult, I think I've heard it has about a 50% fail rate, and this is after you've gotten your degree, and had several years of experience in the field, so it's a very rigorous test here in the state of Alabama.

-(tractor engine rumbling) -(flames crackling) The very nature of Alabama is a rigorous test of the knowledge and skills of consulting foresters in our state.

Challenges abound.

From mountains of hardwoods, to coastal plain pines.

(bright inspiring music) (bright inspiring music continues) (bright inspiring music continues) -(birds calling) -(footsteps rustling) It's enough to make you wonder, is there a time when even a consulting forester needs a consulting forester?

You know, strange enough that you ask that question, my wife and I, we own some property in North Alabama, and things are different up there, in markets, and species, and access, and so forth.

And I actually consult with a fellow that works up there to advise me on what are the possibilities of managing that land up there.

All the ground underneath here, is starting to swallow your view- [Alex] We'll try to just sweep down in all in here, but up here to make a viable sale, do you think?

-Oh, yes.

-Would you say?

Yes, definitely.

-There's enough there.

-You think so?

Well that's good to know.

Just in terms of our thinking down south, where I work, we burn properties every two, three, four year cycle under the pine trees.

So would that have any place up here?

We got a little pine stand down there, or up in this hardwood.

We can use fire in the hardwood up here, as long as we keep it low and cool, and that can control some of these weed species that you got growing in here.

I'd like to see something done to control some of these weed species.

Alex, in terms of the forest health, one thing I have not seen is oak regeneration.

The shade that's on the ground, and the competition from these other trees, is just wiping out your oak regeneration.

We talked about fire, that can encourage oak regeneration.

(birds and insects chirping) Regeneration.

There's a word packed with meaning for consulting foresters, and for forestland owners.

Its meaning can be literal.

Well, Hurricane Ivan was followed by Hurricane Dennis, and what Ivan started one year, Dennis finished the next year.

But it was Alex who said this is gonna be our long range plan, and we followed what he said.

You know, with a consulting forester, it's a two-way street.

They have to listen to you to know what your goals are.

But when you need their expertise, you have to listen to them, because they have the ability to know.

And here we are now, and you can't tell there was a hurricane.

As liberal as the regeneration of the forest can be, there's that figurative sense of the word that has equally powerful meaning.

(kids chatting and laughing) So what kind of snake is he?

(all shouting excitedly) He's a king snake!

Some of the greatest experiences that students can have are those hands-on experiences outside those four walls of the classroom, and to experience the real world.

And we find that a lot of our private landowners within our county, and we're blessed with so many very good ones, that allow us to come onto their property, whether it be to go into their creek and do a little bit of water sampling, whether it be to walk through the woods, and just talk about the benefits of forestry, and the interconnectedness of wildlife and forestry.

And a lot of our landowners are just freely offering their resources to us, resources that we don't have available to us at a public school.

A lot of times, you have to start within those four walls of a classroom, and you have to give them the background and the knowledge that they need to be able to understand what they're going to see and experience when they go outside.

And that's along the lines of all the courses of study, and the standards, the science standards, the math standards and all that.

We must teach those.

That is something that we have to do.

But we extend that into something that will make sense to them, that they will forever remember.

(birds and insects chirping) And we're really blessed here in Alabama to have private landowners who allow school groups and other organizations to come onto their properties to experience so much of the natural resources that we have available to us.

(kids chatting) To be able to instill the love of the great outdoors, and to instill the love of the land in a child, is probably the greatest thing we can ever do, and we've all been blessed as educators to do that.

Did you do that?

That's cool, wasn't it?

You know, when I was a kid, we used to do that.

We sure did.

You know, we say oh this is my land.

It's not really my land.

It's God's land.

We're simply blessed to be the generational steward of it for this time period.

But you want to pass it to the next generation.

They're the next keepers of the forest.

And we want this property to be open where it can teach others.

That's the only way you're ever gonna pass the legacy on, and pass the knowledge on.

[All] Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

(all chuckling) A few years ago, my grandmother purchased about 100 Cyprus sprigs.

-From Ernie.

-From Mr. Ernie, our forester.

And she gave each grandchild, there are four of us.

She gave each of us 25 Cyprus trees.

And she said go out at the farm, wherever you wanna plant it, and plant all 25 trees.

And she gave us each shovels.

That was our Christmas present.

We got a shovel.

Me and my brother planted two just down this road next to an artesian well that's free flowing.

(water running) When Ms. Robinson called me and asked me for these seedlings, I wasn't sure exactly what she had in mind, and then she told me that she was gonna put y'all to work, so I got a real chuckle out of that.

But y'all did a good job of picking the right spots.

-(water flowing) -(insects chirping) You know, I've taught with folks really all across the country.

I've been able to meet 'em, talk to 'em, and really to understand what their objectives are, because if you can develop a good relationship with the landowner and do them the best job possible, it gives me a joy and a satisfaction as well to be able to come back, 15 years, or 20 years, and work on that same site that you did years ago.

I think the pieces of property and families we've worked with for the longest period of time, and seeing the properties develop, and the landowners' needs being met, that's a big satisfaction.

It really is.

We had some clients that, we still have a client, that we started work on 1950 something, or '53 or so.

Ooh, that's a long time that we've been taking care of that for those owners, for all that period.

And oh, the improvement of the property.

We do know that what we're doing today is many years down the road, and there is, clearly we have a real sense of responsibility to that, and we feel that.

Our profession feels that deeply.

-(motor rumbling) -(birds and insects chirping) You know, we have just a very small window in time that we're here doing this.

So whatever we leave behind for the future, I think is the major for success.

And it's just a very rewarding career, and I'm just totally blessed working with private landowners.

It is just a satisfaction beyond measure, being able to accomplish a goal for a landowner that they've been wanting to do for a long time, or just being part of that process.

Well I thought about doing some thinning- I love being a forester.

It's just pleasant out here.

It's an environment that brings you back and makes you realize who you are, where you are, what your relationship to the earth is.

Our souls can be regenerated, if you want to say it that way.

-(insects chirping) -(footsteps rustling) (birds calling) (river flowing) There are some solid pragmatic values to our forests.

They freshen our air, they cleanse our water, they bolster our economy.

All good reasons to appreciate the private landowners and consulting foresters who keep the forest flourishing.

Our Alabama forests, though, transcend the practical.

(river flowing) These enchanting realms inspire a freshening, a cleansing, a bolstering of the spirit.

(gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music continues) (gentle guitar music continues) (gentle guitar music continues) (gentle guitar music continues) (gentle guitar music continues) For forest landowners who might be interested in joining various helpful organizations, several are available.

Likewise, there is website information available for contacting a qualified consulting forester in your area.

(birds and insects chirping) (bright uplifting music) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) (bright uplifting music continues) [Announcer] Discovering Alabama is produced in partnership with the University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies.

Discovering Alabama is produced in partnership with Alabama Public Television.

Discovering Alabama is a production of the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

This program is supported by grants from The Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation, the Alabama Wildlife Federation, working for wildlife since 1935.

And the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama, providing educational and social opportunities for adults.

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