[Announcer] This program is supported by grants from: the Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation, the Steiner Foundation, and the Alabama Wildlife Federation: working for wildlife since 1935.

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

(fauna chirping and singing) (water sloshing gently) A pleasant morning in nature.

A pleasant morning in nature in Alabama.

A pleasant morning in nature in Alabama, and within minutes of the bustle of a major Alabama metropolis.

(traffic droning) It seems the more hurried life becomes, the more gadget laden, the more crowded and urban, it seems the more we need quiet nature.

And sometimes quiet nature can be found within close reach.

I'm Doug Phillips.

Join me as we travel within close reach to visit a few examples of what might be called urban nature preserves.

We'll consider the many values of having some nearby unblemished nature, and we'll look at the role that private citizens and landowners can play in helping to establish such preserves.

(warm gentle 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 backcountry, 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.

(fauna chirping and singing) Welcome to "Discovering Alabama."

Now welcome to attractive, quiet, protected nature that is only a hop and a skip from the city of Montgomery.

(students chatter) The Alabama Nature Center is more than 400 acres of preserved nature, accommodating public access for outdoor learning, recreational enjoyment, and peaceful respite.

It is a choice example of an urban area nature preserve.

It's also a choice example of how a private landowner has made such a preserve possible by donating their special tract of nature to be managed and protected by caring stewards.

But I think it best to hear the story directly from those involved.

(cozy music) We want to develop a world-class outdoor education facility where they could come out, students and adults, and get involved in hands-on, real-world outdoor learning experiences.

Well, our goal, I feel like, is to just kind of create that initial spark.

A little bit of curiosity.

This is a real haven because it is preserved, it's protected, it's loved.

All sorts of different types of creatures that are happy and safe here, and this is wonderful.

It's a joy to be able to work in a place that is protected and at the same time is being shared.

But Lanark here in Millbrook, Alabama turned out to be the ideal place, the ideal set of circumstances to develop what we know today as the Alabama Nature Center.

(gentle uplifting music) (gentle uplifting music continues) Isabel and Wiley Hill were the owners of this property before the Alabama Wildlife Federation arrived on the scene.

It's a property that they spent most of their adult life here, they had cared for it, developed the scenic beauty here on the property, and it was very special to them.

Miss Hill knew that she wanted to make sure that the property lived on after she was gone, didn't become a neighborhood, but also too that it was shared and shared in the right way.

We realized that it was a great opportunity to achieve each other's objectives.

Isabel Dunn Hill was the mother, Isabel Thigpen Hill was the daughter, and they were both involved in the discussions.

And Isabel Thigpen Hill is still engaged with us.

And their daughter didn't wanna see it chopped up into a bunch of little subdivisions.

She wanted that to continue on and she gets to see that.

(warm thoughtful music) She loved this place and it had become their home for 50 years.

They had spent all that time planting daffodils and cherry trees and camellias and hydrangeas, that it was nice to know it was gonna be used for the whole state, especially that children would be out here.

(children chatter) [Tim] There are multiple destinations here at Lanark.

There's a historic home that goes back to 1820, and there's the Alabama Nature Center Facility, which is a 23,000 square foot structural facility with a hands-on discovery hall, theater and auditorium, classrooms with lab facilities and five miles of boardwalk and trails that traverse this, what is now a 425-acre property.

[Maria] What wows me is that everywhere I look, I can see different plants.

I can walk in one direction and spend hours trying to identify all the trees and the groundcovers and the vines and the bushes, and then spin around the other direction and do the same thing.

There's a lot out here.

Our top program is what we call Lanark Field Days.

That's where school and youth groups come for field trips and our professionals guide them through the forest, the fields, the streams, and actually let them get hands-on with the wildlife, aquatic species, and the trees that exist on this property.

Being hands-on is very important to us.

-It's really wet.

-Ew!

But this is one of those beetles that digs big holes in the logs and leaves behind all that sawdust.

-Is it alive?

-It is alive.

-You can see.

-It's moving backwards.

We do everything from field trip, school field trips, for public and private schools.

We have a very robust homeschool program.

-Termite!

-There we go.

Beautiful white trunk.

-That's just like the- -Wow!

That's cool.

-That does look like one.

-That is a beetle larva.

See it crawlin' on that leaf down there?

-Oh yeah.

Right here.

-Crawlin' on that leaf.

-Oh wow.

That's big.

-That's out of nowhere.

[Hollie] We have about 70 different reptiles and amphibians that live here as animal ambassadors at the Nature Center and one hawk.

We're working on growing our raptor programs.

This is Loblolly.

She's a broad-winged hawk.

They are mostly insect eaters.

They also prey on small mammals.

They are a migratory species, so they're only in this part of the world in the summertime, and she migrates down to South America in the fall.

They have very distinct black-and-white banding on their tail.

We're just hoping for one positive experience, just a little bit of something.

And they'll remember, they'll go home and they'll talk about their day and what they learned.

And it might not have been what we thought was the most important message might not have been what they'll remember, but they'll remember their time out here at the Nature Center for a very long time.

-A lady bug!

-A lady bug?

[Hollie] Once they take one hike in the woods, well, they're not afraid anymore.

They know that they're safe and they don't have to worry.

It's a lot of times a lack of experience.

One of the things that I find most inspiring is that when we look up and we see a young adult who has spent time out here going to field trips, going to summer camp or things of that nature, and they look up and they say, "I'm going to college to get degree in wildlife biology or wildlife ecology."

Different is nothing to be scared of.

Well, since our inception in 1935, we've had a commitment to wildlife and wildlife habitat, building and preserving that in our state.

The Alabama Wildlife Federation is Alabama people working together to make sure that future generations get to enjoy, I'm gonna call it the luxury we have enjoyed of having abundant and unique natural resources here in our state.

When we looked at Lanark, one of the things that we knew is that the urban-suburban area would grow right up to the property lines here at Lanark.

We didn't view that as 100% negative.

What we viewed it as, we would be in a very key location with a major population center close by that this would be a beacon right here in that area of what the natural world looks like.

A convenient opportunity for people to be able to come out and connect, a convenient opportunity for us to attract people here, get them outside hands-on.

Because it's a necessary thing.

People are supposed to be in nature.

We really are.

You know, there's a Walmart, an interstate, and new subdivisions on the other side of our creek, and if places are not put aside, then all of this will be gone one day.

One of my fondest memories is prior to Miss Hill's passing, driving her around with the pictures of where everything was going to be and seeing her smile and know that she had the visuals in her head of what this is gonna turn out to be.

So the Alabama Nature Center represents a joint effort by the Isabel and Wiley Hill family and the Alabama Wildlife Federation.

(bright encouraging music) (bright encouraging music continues) So here in the middle of our state, near the city of Montgomery, is this wonderful nature preserve made possible thanks to a private landowner who donated their tract of special Land to the caring stewardship of the Alabama Wildlife Federation, a citizen conservation group.

But there are several ways: land trust, federal programs, Alabama's Forever Wild program, that landowners can explore in considering future protection for their special lands.

(bright music) And private landowners have cooperated with these kinds of partners in creating numerous preserves in urban regions across the state.

For example, in Alabama's rapidly-urbanizing coastal area at the Weeks Bay Coastal Estuary and Reserve.

And another example near Birmingham, for one of the nation's largest urban nature preserves, the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center.

There's also the possibility that landowners may prefer to deal directly with the local city government as was the case for our next visit up in North Alabama.

The Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary is managed by the city of Huntsville.

But again, let's hear the story from those who know it best.

(gentle calming music) (gentle calming music continues) It's a sacred place.

It provides an opportunity to sit quietly, to be mindful of sounds and the breeze and creatures around you, birds, the songs of insects.

(fauna chirping and singing) It is a place where a person can forget about the worries and cares and ordinary things of life and simply be quiet.

It's a place for practicing mindfulness.

(warm uplifting music) (warm uplifting music continues) (warm uplifting music continues) My name is Marian Moore Lewis and I first came to this sanctuary in 2009 before it was open to the public.

I came with a group of people who were also nature enthusiasts, and after a career in biological research and molecular biology, had retired from UAH and I was wondering what to do with my life after that.

So I met Marian and at the time we began the sanctuary artist group.

During her walks we got to know each other very well.

We've become close friends.

[Marian] Margaret Anne donated the first 300 acres of this property to the city of Huntsville for a wildlife sanctuary.

And so it wasn't until I inherited it and I saw the Hays Preserve was set aside, and then I came to the conclusion that we needed a park also, another type of park that wasn't a recreational park, but a place where the wildlife came first.

(gentle comforting music) (soft reflective music) [Marian] And often out here I see things differently.

I notice things that I haven't noticed before, and this is an excellent place for spiritual contact in that it's a mindful process when you're concentrating on seeing and seeing small things, large things, and seeing old things in a new way.

The pond is interesting because it wasn't there originally, but a lot of gravel pits were developed in the big cove area.

So that's when the pond was built, and that was where I learned to swim as a little girl.

It's barren all around the pond.

And today the pond has naturalized.

So you would have no idea that it was a manmade pond.

So there has, there's been multi-use of the land and now it comes to this.

And look what we have.

We have a beautiful sanctuary for people to enjoy now.

Every season has its own specific gifts and they change over the years.

Over time, things change.

I thought about what would be my favorite spot here in the sanctuary, and it could be maybe the tupelo swamp with its tall tupelo trees reaching 90 feet into the air and anchored in the water, where the bases are, by buttressed bases.

(warmly solemn music) (warmly solemn music continues) Standing quietly, the mood of the swamp is tangible.

(warmly solemn music continues) (bird honking) (upbeat bright music) And then in Jobala Pond there's a muskrat.

It's probably not the same muskrat for seven or eight years.

It swims back and flips over in the water, makes a big splash.

(upbeat bright music continues) (gentle music) After I photographed and identified plants and animals that are here over a four-year period, I wanted to share the beauty and the biodiversity of the sanctuary with other people.

(gentle music continues) It's a good place for watching birds.

(gentle music continues) There is a heron rookery.

At the end of January, the herons come back to this area.

They remodel their nests high up in the trees and heron's feet are not really made for perching.

They're ungainly as they land on these branches.

But they sit on the nest.

And then in March and April, and in May, chicks are born and the herons will take care of the chicks for the next two months.

This pond, the water in it comes from springs at the head of the trail, of the Hidden Springs Trail.

There are several streams that flow into this pond and the streams are converging here, and then the outflow eventually goes to the Flint River.

This land has been inhabited back to when the Cherokee Indians and other Indian tribes made their way here and collected mussels from the Flint River and stood at the banks of the river and made shell mounds, which there are two mounds down near the Flint.

Flint River is a braided river.

It divides and reforms together, re-converges throughout its course, then flows into the Tennessee.

The interconnectedness of nature and life and the flow is a thing to reflect on when one is in the sanctuary.

It's become a real oasis and that will just increase as time goes on.

And you see subdivisions and development extend even further out.

So to have a place to go for that whole area just becomes more and more important.

[Marian] I think David George Haskell's book of "The Forest Unseen" is an excellent example of when children chase fireflies, they're really chasing wonder.

Look at that dragonfly.

[Marian] This place provides the opportunity for children to explore and do just that.

Found one!

As I look back at my ancestors, and it wasn't as I was growing up, it was years later as I could reflect and look back at what they had done.

And it was important to me to continue that tradition.

[Marian] The legacy that I would like to leave is that of inspiring other people to explore wild places.

You can't take anything with you and the only thing you can do is what you leave behind.

There is a word, it's a Hebrew word, and it's called tikkun olam, and that's to heal the world.

It's different acts along the way that you do to leave the world a better place.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (fauna trills and chirps) I hope you've enjoyed our look at the many values of having urban nature preserves and at the opportunities for Alabama landowners to help provide for these values.

I only wish we had time to visit more preserves across the state.

Maybe in a future show.

-(gentle music) -(fauna chirping) But wherever the preserve, whatever the nearby city, as our world continues to grow and fill with people, as our urban areas continue to develop and expand, it becomes ever more important to have protected natural areas and for us to have closeness to nature.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) [Announcer] "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, this Steiner Foundation, and the Alabama Wildlife Federation: working for wildlife since 1935.