Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources strives to extend the trend after the most important successes of 2024

To say that 2024 was an excellent year for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) to limit an understatement, and the plans for 2025 will continue this trend, according to ADCNR commissioner Chris Blankenhip.

Due to a large number of sources of financing, ADCNR has used more than 218 million dollars for improvements to the State Parks in Alabama, facilitating the investment of more than 385 million US dollars in coastal alabama and ensuring that more than 37 million US dollars for improvements in improvements Boot driving and fishing have come. In addition, 660,397 hunters and anglers support nature conservation and the leisure industry of Alabama by buying hunting and fishing licenses.

ADCNR is much larger and more complex than most people recognize. It consists of four departments – wildlife and fresh water fishing, marine resources, state parks and state areas – and the size of its budget together with the Department of Corrections to the Tier 1 agency in Alabama State Government has been relocated by the means of transportation, the department for HR department , Medicaid and the Ministry of Mental Health.

According to Blankenhip, most Alabamians have no idea about the diversity and the scope of the work for which ADCNR is responsible for the state.

“Most people who interact with the department usually interact through an activity that they carry out,” said Blankenship. “In other words, if you are a hunter and use a wildlife management area (WMA), you may think that hunting is everything we are responsible for. Or if you go to State Parks, you may think that parks are everything we do. The same is the same with access and fishing the boot driving. In fact, ADCNR is really a broad department.

“We do many different things, especially on the coast with the funds for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Restoration and with Gomesa (Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act). We manage all natural resources, state parks, the Forever Wild program and the offshore oil and gas exploration and management, ”said Blankenship. “We also manage a little more than 1 billion US dollar projects for Deepwater Horizon restoration.”

Blankenship hopes to educate the public for the extensive and different responsibilities of ADCNR.

“I think we have our resources in the state, both play as well as fish, fresh water and salt water, well,” he said. “We have great fishing from one end of the state to another. Our deer season is longer than somewhere else in the country. I think the main tasks of the department are well carried out, which we can really be proud of. One thing that we have been very successful in recent years is the acquisition of the funds to carry out many infrastructure improvements for public access throughout the state.

“I am the most proud of the amount of real estate that we have acquired through the department for public access. We have added more than 86,000 acres since I was in office for Commissioner and Governor (Kay). For a state the size of Alabama, this is a pretty good piece of land. This contributed many of our WMAs and State Parks and created new WMAs. On the coast, it protects a critical habitat that enables the public to have access in some of the rapidly growing areas in the counties Baldwin and mobile. “

Another facet of ADCNR's work that makes Blankenship proud is the improvement of state parks in the entire state.

“One thing I would like to point out is how much investments we work in State Parks in 2024 and in 2025,” he said. “These 218 million US dollars were used for projects that were either completed in 2024 or that we offered, and the construction takes place in 2025. This is an amazing number. We have renovation work in all of our parks, from one end of the state to another. “

The largest State Parks projects include a new hotel in Cheaha State Park, an executive campground in the Gulf State Park, the reconstruction of huts on Lake Shelby in the Gulf State Park and the 14 million dollar conversion of the Gulf State Park Pier.

“We also renovate the Lake Lurleen State Park near Tuscaloosa,” said Blankenship. “We spent $ 13 million that totally renovated the Oak Mountain State Park Campground. We have made many other improvements in other parks that make a big difference, not only for the pleasure of the public, but also income for state parks that keep us self -sufficient. “

In 2010, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill's disaster had an impact on all golf coast states, and that with the settlement in connection with the settlement in 2024 and in 2025 further recovery projects. Blankenship gave the design and allowed and started building.

“This includes the project of 13.5 million US dollars Gulf Shores Ecotourism project and the fairhope industries at the Fairhope Pier, which will be around 10 million US dollars,” he said. “We also have some very large projects financed by NFWF (National Fish and Wildlife Foundation), such as the Dauphin Island Causeway, which was around 28 million dollars. The East End Beach Renourishment on Dauphin Island was around 26 million dollars. We have two projects that are implemented by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, a 19 million dollar restoration project in the Theodore Industrial Canal and a project with 20 million US dollars on the Fowl River. We also had Gomesa investments in the counties Mobile and Baldwin in 2023 and 2024 of around 98 million dollars. We expect another 30 million US dollars at Gomesa Fund for projects in 2025. ”

One of the ADCNR missions in recent years has been to improve and increase the public's access to the rich waters of the state.

“We had a very strong initiative in collaboration with Innovate Alabama for accessing the boat throughout the state,” said Blankenship. “We have more than 30 million US dollars of boat access projects that are underway or will be later in 2025.”

This month, a band cut for the renovation of the Brown's Creek Public Ramp on Lake Guntersville took place after a Ribbon cut in January for the extended facilities and the ramp in Mount Vernon.