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Southern Forests Conservation Project

Alabama forests protected by the Southern Forests Conservation Project Map © The Nature Conservancy View the full map (.PDF, 172 KB, new window) Perdido River site in Alabama © Beth Maynor Young Enlarge this photo Fact sheet: Southern Forests Conservation Project in Virginia (.PDF, 191 KB, new window)

The Nature Conservancy and International Paper have undertaken a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect ecologically important forests, rivers and streams in 10 southern states. The Nature Conservancy will acquire more than 218,000 acres in the largest private land conservation project in the history of the southern United States. Partners include state governments, federal agencies, the Department of Defense and timber investment entities.

Total Protected Area in Alabama: 14,119 acres

• Perdido River
• River and stream miles protected: 15 miles

Representative Species

• Gulf sturgeon
• Swallow-tailed kites
• Cypress and atlantic white cedar
• Forests
• Prothonotary warblers
• Gopher tortoise
• Panhandle lily
• American chaffseed
• Alligator snapping turtle
• Florida pine snake
• Riverfrog

Opportunity to Reintroduce Species

• Red-cockaded woodpecker
• Mississippi sandhill crane
• Southern hognosed snake

Project Partners

• The Nature Conservancy
• International Paper

Alabama Forests

The Perdido River Corridor covers 120,000 acres of significant blackwater watershed. Comprised of the headwaters, forested and marsh wetlands, bogs and long-leaf pine communities, the river flows for 84 miles into one of the Gulf Coast's least developed back areas, the Perdido Bay.

Perdido River

This acquisition protects 14,119 acres of the Perdido River Corridor including 15 miles of river frontage on the highest quality remaining free-flowing blackwater river in the southern coastal plain. The high-quality forests along the river corridor include slash pine flatwoods, pitcher plant seepage bogs, upland longleaf pine forests, and riparian Atlantic white cedar swamps, rare this far west in the Gulf Coastal Plain.

The lands along the Perdido River are utilized by hundreds of species of neo-tropical migratory birds as stopover habitat for feeding and resting as the move through Alabama's coastal area each spring and fall.

The undeveloped lands along the Perdido River also serve an important water quality protection function for the Perdido River, as well as its associated estuary and marshes.

The acquisition parcel is connected to an almost 4,000-acre site the state of Alabama recently purchased to protect an additional 10 miles of Perdido River frontage upstream. The Nature Conservancy is working with the state of Alabama to eventually connect this parcel to several other state conservation areas.

Nearby protected areas in Alabama include the Lillian Swamp State Preserve downstream and the Splinter Hill Bog Nature Conservancy and Forever Wild state preserves upstream in the Perdido River headwaters.

Several other projects along the river include The Nature Conservancy's Rainwater Preserve on the Florida side. At the southernmost end of the river, along Perdido Bay, is the Perdido Pitcher Plant Prairie Preserve owned by the state of Florida.

The Perdido River Corridor has the potential to link the conservation efforts of the Panhandle of Florida with the protected areas of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, providing a corridor of movement for Alabama's restricted black bear population.

In the headwater area of Rabun, acres of pitcher plant bogs and forested wetlands form the beginning of the Perdido River Corridor. Owned and protected by The Nature Conservancy of Alabama, ADCNR -State Lands Division and the Forever Wild Program, the watershed extends from the origin of Dyas Creek in Baldwin County, south along the Perdido River to the mouth of Perdido Bay and Lillian Swamp.

The Perdido River was named by the Spanish who occupied the area until 1813. The word perdido in Spanish is translated as "lost."

For More Information

The Nature Conservancy in Alabama
Working with partners, local communities, and people like you, The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 120,000 acres of critical natural habitat in Alabama.

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