Conservation News - Alabama Department of Conservation and ...

Conservation News
Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
The Governor’s Conservation
Achievement
Awards were created to promote
leadership by example and
in turn increase conservation
of the natural resources in the
state of Alabama including its
wildlife, forests, soils, water and
air. The program is designed to
bring about a greater knowledge
and awareness of conservation
practices and projects
and to give proper recognition
to those persons and organizations
that make outstanding
contributions to the natural
resource welfare of their community
and state.
The Alabama Wildlife Federation
Governor’s Conservation
Achievement Awards are the
most prestigious conservation
honor in the state of Alabama.
Over the past 30 years,
the AWF has presented these
awards to individuals and organizations
that make great contributions
to the conservation of
Alabama’s wildlife and related
natural resources.
The AWF, established by
sportsmen in 1935, is the state’s
oldest and largest citizens’ conservation
organization. The mission
of the AWF is to promote
conservation and wise use of
Alabama’s wildlife and related
natural resources as a basis for
economic and social prosperity.
To learn more visit www.
alabamawildlife.org.
Barnett Lawley Awarded
Conservationist of the Year
Commissioner Barnett Lawley was recently
awarded the Conservationist of the Year
Award at the 2010 Governor’s Conservation
Achievement Awards banquet. The Alabama
Wildlife Federation held the banquet, cosponsored
by the Alabama Power Company
and PowerSouth Energy on Friday, August 6,
2010. Other sponsors included Cooper Marine
& Timberlands, First South Farm Credit,
Mr. Lee Thuston, National Wildlife Federation,
Talladega Superspeedway, Mr. Robert
Almon, and Consolidated Pipe & Supply, Inc.
In his eight years as Commissioner of the
Alabama Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, Barnett Lawley has fostered
both innovation and growth for the benefit
of Alabama’s natural resources, Alabama
outdoor enthusiasts and citizens, and the Conservation
Department.
Under Lawley’s guidance, the department
instituted computerized licensing system,
saving the state thousands of dollars each
year. Through this effort, Alabama now issues
more than 80 percent of hunting and fishing
licenses online and has a much better ability to
communicate with user groups.
Commissioner Lawley also successfully led
the effort during his tenure to pass legislation
to increase hunting and fishing license fees –
the primary source of funding for both game
and non-game wildlife programs in Alabama.
Conservation education and connecting
Alabamians, especially youth, with the
outdoors has also been a priority for Lawley.
During his tenure as Commissioner, the Alabama
Archery in Schools program has grown
to include more than 100 schools and more
than 1,000 students participating in the annual
state competition.
Shortly after coming on board as Commissioner,
Lawley led a bold “Outdoor Alabama”
branding campaign focused on connecting
youth and adults with Alabama’s abundant
outdoor resources, the recreation and tourism
opportunities they provide, and the role the
Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources plays in promoting, protecting,
and providing many of the
tremendous outdoor opportunities
available in our great state.
Governor Bob Riley
presenting the
Conservationist
of the Year award
to Conservation
Commissioner M.
Barnett Lawley
30 Outdoor Alabama | OCTOBER 2010

Mark Sasser Named Wildlife
Conservationist of the Year
Mark Sasser of Montgomery was
recently awarded the Wildlife Conservationist
of the Year Award at the 2010
Governor’s Conservation Achievement
Awards banquet.
Sasser is an exceptional wildlife biologist
who serves as the Nongame Wildlife
Program Coordinator for the Wildlife and
Freshwater Fisheries Division of the Alabama
Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources. Throughout his career,
Sasser has been an effective leader and influence
on a variety of fronts in the natural
resources community.
Sasser works diligently behind the
scenes for the cause of non-game wildlife
and their habitats. He has promoted recovery
of several imperiled species in Alabama
through judicious management of available
funding. Most notable are his efforts with
two species in the longleaf pine ecosystem,
the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW)
and the Eastern indigo snake. Sasser was
key in the implementation and oversight
of Alabama’s RCW Safe Harbor program
which has turned out to be a
win-win for landowners and
the birds. A protected and
threatened species, the Eastern
indigo disappeared along
with the longleaf forests over
time. Sasser was a key player
in convening a coalition of
partners including Auburn
University, the U.S. Forest Service,
Project Orianne and the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
in a multi-year project that began this year
with the release of 17 young eastern indigos
in the Conecuh National Forest. Under
Sasser’s oversight, the success of both projects
has surpassed all expectations.
Over the last several years, despite limited
funding and a small staff, Sasser has
been the impetus behind the adoption of
regulations and laws designed to protect
some of our most vulnerable non-game
wildlife species, including Alabama’s freshwater
turtles and the gopher tortoise.
He is passionate about wildlife and is
frequently on the front lines preventing
the import/export of wildlife species in
Alabama. These efforts have lessened the
impacts of the pet trade on many of our
unique reptiles and prevented widespread
destruction of our native species through
import of exotic/invasive species.
Sasser has also been an active and
productive member of AWF’s Alabama
Wildlife magazine editorial board, volunteering
his time to find qualified authors on
a variety of topics, and sometimes writing
and delivering quality feature articles to the
magazine’s readers.
Jon Sims Awarded Conservation Enforcement Officer of the Year
Sergeant Jon Sims of Salem was recently
awarded the Conservation Enforcement
Officer of the Year Award at the 2010
Governor’s Conservation Achievement
Awards banquet.
In his eight years as a conservation enforcement
officer, Sims has distinguished
himself as one of the most resourceful,
intelligent and hardworking investigators in
the state. Leading the Special Investigations
Unit of the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries
Division, Sims and his team have solved
baffling cases and tracked down numerous
hard to catch violators.
When outlaws in south Alabama were
suspected of killing black bears, Sims and
his team got the call. The team walked the
6,000-acre area where discarded bears were
believed to be and discovered the bear
carcasses. Within a few days, Sims and his
team had confessions from two individuals.
A few months later, in a separate incident
involving a dead bear dumped along a road
side, Sims used his detective skills to track
down the person who killed the bear and
dumped the carcass – two months after the
bear had been found on the roadside. His
determination and tireless work led to the
suspect and eventually a full confession.
Not surprisingly, Sims is an avid outdoorsman
even when he’s not at work. He
hunts, particularly turkey, and manages
several hundred acres of land in Lee County.
He also maintains a dove field and stages
a free dove hunt each year for conservation
officers and their children.
www.outdooralabama.com 31

Conservation News
Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
BILLY POPE
L-R: Doug Huff and Julie Perry from
ADCNR’s IT section; and Maj. Bob
Huffaker, Division Director John Jenkins,
and Lt. Erica Shipman from the
Alabama Marine Police Division were
instrumental in the development of
COORS, which helped to streamline
the division’s administrative process.
Alabama Marine Police Win National
Award for Technological Innovation
The Alabama Division of Marine Police
(AMP) has recently been honored with
an Innovation in Technology award from
the National Association of State Boating
Law Administrators (NASBLA), a
national nonprofit organization that works
to develop public policy for recreational
boating safety for all 50 states and U.S. territories.
AMP Chief Enforcement Officer
Maj. Bob Huffaker was presented with the
award at NASBLA’s annual conference on
September 13, 2010.
AMP received the award for its Conservation
Officers Operations Reporting
System (COORS), which allows officers to
document daily activities, vehicle usage,
patrol hours, and other division specific
information over the Internet. COORS
was developed in-house by AMP and the
Alabama Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources (ADCNR) IT section at
no additional cost to taxpayers.
Marine Police Lt. Erica Shipman says
COORS was created to better utilize AMP’s
resources. “With only 60 officers statewide
this system allows them to spend more time
in the field instead of behind a desk filling
out paperwork,” Shipman said. “What used
to take an officer an entire day each month
and eight to 10 pieces of paper passing
through as many hands, now takes a few
minutes each day saving countless valuable
man-hours, not to mention the cost of the
paper forms and money spent on transporting
the reports to Montgomery.”
Since the COORS system went into effect
in September 2009 it has streamlined
the division’s administrative process in
other ways. Earlier this year, the system was
used to create disaster reports related to the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which freed
up officers to be more actively involved
in the hands-on aspect of the Alabama’s
recovery efforts.
Other uses for the system include
creating accident and disaster reports
to be shared electronically with other
state and federal agencies, and posting
boating courses to ADCNR’s website,
www.outdooralabam.com.
The Alabama Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources promotes
wise stewardship, management and enjoyment
of Alabama’s natural resources
through five divisions: Marine Police,
Marine Resources, State Lands, State
Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries.
To learn more about ADCNR, visit
www.outdooralabama.com .
32 Outdoor Alabama | OCTOBER 2010

BILLY POPE
Alabama Has New Tool to Fight Poachers
The Alabama Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is launching
Tip411, an Internet based tool that enables the
public to report hunting or fishing violations
anonymously via text message.
To report a hunting or fishing violation,
anyone with a cell phone can now text the
keyword “GAMEWATCH” to the number
847411. The public is encouraged to include as
much detail as possible when reporting a violation
such as: the name and description of the
suspects, vehicle or boat description, license
plate number, boat registration number, clothing
description, time of your observation, and
the area where the violation occurred.
Examples of hunting and fishing violations
include: hunting over bait, hunting at night,
hunting from a public road, exceeding creel
limits, hunting or fishing on private land without
permission, and illegal sale, importation or
possession of wildlife. For more information
visit www.outdooralabama.com.
“Tip411 is another tool we are using to stop
wildlife law violators in Alabama,” said Allan
Andress, Chief of Law Enforcement for the
Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater
Fisheries (WFF). “Citizen involvement is the
key to protecting Alabama’s natural heritage
from poachers, who unlike the majority of
Alabama’s hunters and anglers, disregard ethical
hunting and fishing practices.”
To date, Alabama is one of only three states
using this technology to report hunting and
fishing violations. Tip411 is used by other
law enforcement agencies across the country
including the Birmingham Police Department
and the NYPD.
Tip411 removes all identifying information
before ADCNR receives the tip making
the sender totally anonymous. According
WFF Captain Michael Bloxom, the anonymity
of the process has produced results in those
other states. “There have been successful tips
in Washington state and Wisconsin that have
resulted in hunting violation convictions,”
Bloxom said. “Because of the total anonymity
of the program it is a great way to pass information
on without fear of retribution.”
The GAMEWATCH telephone tip line,
1-800-272-GAME, is another way for the public
to anonymously report wildlife violations
in Alabama. Critical information leading to an
arrest and conviction in one of six categories
is eligible for a reward of $50 to $2,500. The
program is funded by Alabama Wildlife Federation
(AWF). Funding for Alabama’s Tip411
program is provided by the AWF and the
Coastal Conservation Association (CCA).
“We appreciate the financial support from
AWF and CCA, which enables us to offer this
service to the public,” said Corky Pugh, WFF
Director. “This joint effort to curtail poaching
enhances our quality of life by ensuring we
can enjoy Alabama’s wildlife indefinitely.”
Guntersville State
Park Golf Course
Renovated
After more than a year of renovation
work, the golf course at Lake
Guntersville State Park is now open
again for play.
Improvements to the course include
new greens (Tifdwarf Bermudagrass),
a new irrigation system,
new clubhouse cart path, deadwood
and underbrush removed
from the woods around the course,
new shaping around the greens,
all new bunkers and sand, and five
new tees.
The landing area on the thirteenth
hole was also improved
to allow for lay up shots, and the
driving range tee was moved back
35 yards toward the clubhouse to
accommodate longer drives. The
parking lot was also repaved.
Lake Guntersville Golf Course
Superintendent Jim Strong says the
new course is a variation on the old
greens, and slightly more challenging
without losing the playability
of the old course. “The reshaped
greens inject more movement into
the course,” Strong said. “All in all,
the course is forward tee friendly
and slightly more receptive of approach
shots than the old greens.”
Jerry Pate Golf Design in Pensacola,
Fla., redesigned the course,
and Benson Construction from
Tifton, Ga., preformed the renovation
work.
Reservations are now being
taken for tournaments and
golf retreats. For more information,
call the park’s pro shop at
256-582-0379. Golf packages are
available through the sales office
at 256-505-6601. Course hours
are 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. seven days a
week. Players should call for a tee
time on the weekends. Learn more
at www.alapark.com/
www.outdooralabama.com 33