WEEKS BAY, Ala. — More than two dozen area residents and champions of the environment gathered Thursday evening to take part in a Conservation Conversations town hall meeting held at the Weeks Bay Resource Center. The event, sponsored by the lobbying group Conservation Alabama and the Conservation Alabama Foundation, was aimed at addressing issues of concern regarding rapid growth, as well as discuss state legislation that might make a difference.

Among the local groups taking part were Friends of Baldwin, Mobile Baykeeper and the Fly Creek Preservation Association.

Adam Snyder, CA executive director, said, “This has been a fairly successful legislative session for us. We got a few bills passed, and monitored bills that are a priority. This is the only group lobbying for the environment. There are a lot lobbying against the environment.”

More than 40 bills were tracked by the organization during the most recent session of the Alabama Legislature, he said. CA maintains a legislation hotlist on its Web site, www.conservationalabama.org.

Snyder said, “Most issues in the north part of the state involve quarries. Limestone County put limitations on quarries in parts of the county.” Down here, he said, water quality and stormwater management are the big concerns.

Something that has become much more than a blip on the conservation group’s radar of late is Forever Wild, the state land trust created through a 1992 constitutional amendment by an 80 percent vote of state residents. The initiative is up for renewal in 2012, and Snyder said everyone needs to get on board to make sure that happens.

“We have a strong environmental ethic in this state,” he said. “We’re tied to our rivers, streams and watersheds.” He added that as some veteran politicians retire in 2010, action needs to be taken to guarantee Forever Wild doesn’t go away.

“We’re trying to play electorally so we get conservation-minded people elected,” Snyder said. “It’s going to be tough to get the Legislature to pass a bill (for Forever Wild) and get it to a vote of the people. There’s not a lot of negativity around it. There’s just not a lot of awareness about it. As you know, opposition comes out of the woodwork.”

Sixty-seven tracts totaling 139,844 acres have been acquired throughout the state, with the largest concentration in Baldwin and Mobile counties. The lands are set aside and protected from future development, and serve as places for general recreation, nature preserves, Wildlife Management Areas and state parks.

Casi Callaway, Mobile Baykeeper executive director, said that group is partnering with 19 other organizations to address stormwater issues statewide. The groups received a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in order to accomplish their goal of solving stormwater problems, particularly in Baldwin and Jefferson counties.

“A lot of great stuff has happened in Jefferson County, and we can learn from the pros and cons of that,” Callaway said. She noted the fledgling town of Magnolia Springs has adopted tough stormwater management ordinances, and commended other municipal leaders working through the Baldwin County Stormwater Coalition for joining forces in order to make progress throughout the area.

Addressing the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s practice of sewage system enforcement, Snyder said, “We don’t have a state agency to get it done. When things are not done properly, the community has to pay for it.”

Mike Shelton of the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve believes education is an important component of turning the tide of environmental complacency among some. He said, “With Stormwater 101, what we do at the Weeks Bay Reserve and what Wolf Bay Watershed Watch does, is reach the public.”

Shelton said WBR’s new Watershed Wagon traveling educational exhibit is one way of reaching out to residents who might not visit the reserve. Another method being used is a 15-second environmental infomercial that will play at the RAVE Theater in Daphne more than 20,000 times between now and December. He added, “People need to hear things about eight times before it sinks in — to reach the nexus between stormwater and water quality.”

He continued, saying, “Thirty years ago, you didn’t see beach advisories. There’s a connection between what’s going on on the ground and swim advisories.”

Callaway hopes to get the public more involved in enforcement by training residents to become environmental watchdogs.

“Mobile Baykeeper will launch in August the Muddy Water Watch stormwater education program. It will train citizens to recognize construction issues and address them. We hope to get two to three trainings in by October or November. It will put some power back in the people’s hands. The (attitude of environmental law violators) — ‘I can do it because I’ve never been busted in my entire life,’ goes away.”