[CPEO-MEF] Mountain refuge truly work in progress

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Alabama
TUSCALOOSCA NEWS
Mountain refuge truly work in progress
By Elizabeth Bluemink
September 04, 2003

Bill Garland unfastened his seatbelt and hauled himself out of his
truck. A locked gate, painted bright yellow, blocked the wildlife
biologist's vehicle's path on a winding road to a century-old mountain
longleaf stand.

The edge of the pine forest that lines the Mountain Longleaf National
Wildlife Refuge's main road is punctuated with signs that read "Danger!"
and carry a picture of a stick figure falling away from an explosion. A
closer look reveals red concrete mounds wells for pollution monitoring
hidden among the trees.

Every time they drive in and out of the refuge, Garland and his
colleagues navigate past the danger signs and the locked gates installed
by the Army's transition/environmental cleanup force.

"There are locks on everything," he said, smiling ruefully as he
reentered his truck. "It's like you spend your whole life opening
gates."

The Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge is truly a work in
progress. Its hard-scrabble, steep eastern slopes accessible by
Choccolocco's Bain's Gap Road and featuring one dramatic overlook,
Moorman's Point will open to the public next April or May, officials
said.

But it will take at least a year for the Army to clean and hand over the
land that will be the refuge's base of operations and the site of
recreational trails in the western half of the refuge, according to Army
interim site manager Joe Doyle.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030904/APN/309040829&cachetime=5

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