What is now known as Alabama and the environs of the Deep South, boast exceptional biodiversity and capture the imagination with its rich cultural and historical significance. It is the ancestral home of Cherokees, Choctaws, Muscogee or Creeks, and numerous lesser known Native nations and also the place where civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael planted the seeds of Black Power. Moreover, Dr. King famously marched from Selma to Montgomery, weaving along the Alabama River to manifest a dream of unity.

Listen to rich stories of ecological restoration and preservation of places of civil rights history that is Alabama. In 2021, we spoke with Bill Finch of Alabama River Diversity Network and the Paint Rock Forest Research Center, and Phillip Howard, Project Manager of Civil Rights People and Places Initiative. They shared the vision and mission of these non-profit organizations dedicated to preserving and promoting the extraordinarily diverse natural and human heritage of this essential region.

Bill Finch is the founding director of Paint Rock Forest Research Center [https://paintrock.org] and founding partner of the Alabama River Diversity Network [https://alabamarivernetwork.org]. Finch is author of Longleaf, Far As the Eye Can See, an exploration of the potential in North America’s most diverse forest ecosystem. He is former conservation director for the Nature Conservancy’s Alabama Chapter, and an award-winning writer on gardening, farming and environmental issues.

Phillip Howard is Project Manager for The Conservation Fund’s Civil Rights People and Places Initiative. He recently produced a film about the Campsites of the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail called 54 Miles to Home.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

54 Miles to Home: https://vimeo.com/591288364

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/conserving-civil-rights-history-and-biological-diversity-in-alabama/

Support the Podcast: https://socal350.org/contribute-to-socal-350-climate-action/

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Interview by Carry Kim

Intro by Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 122

Image: EJR with thanks to Bill Finch and Phillip Howard