Alabama Power Stewardship Expo draws agencies, visitors in sharing environmental best practices

Partnerships make perfect.

About 10 state agencies and nonprofit stakeholder organizations came together with Alabama Power at the first Environmental Stewardship Exposition at an Alabama Power public recreational site, Beeswax Creek Park in Columbiana. 

The three-hour event, held near the shores of the company’s Lay Lake, drew visitors and partners interested in protecting the state’s natural environment and resources.

The focus was on sustainability and protecting the Yellowhammer State’s natural resources. Through planning provided by Dani Carroll, regional extension agent for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and Josh Yerby, land supervisor for Shoreline Recreation and Compliance at Alabama Power, the event brought together several agency partners who shared information and networked.

External stakeholder representatives, along with employees from the company’s Environmental Affairs, Corporate Real Estate and Electric Transportation departments, set up information booths and shared their environmental messaging. 

Alabama Power Corporate Real Estate employees shared information with visitors. (Alabama Power)

Alabama Power Forestry Management employees shared information with visitors. (Alabama Power)

Alabama Power Forestry Management discussed the use of protective gear in maintaining woodlands. (Alabama Power)

Alabama Power Forestry Management employees answered visitors’ questions. (Alabama Power)

“We’ve seen the value of supporting each other in these various agencies,” Yerby said, noting the groups have a common goal: to preserve and protect water, land, wildlife and other natural resources. “This was an opportunity to make new relationships and strengthen our partnerships with local groups.”

While other organizations got a bird’s-eye view of Alabama Power’s environmental stewardship efforts, Garret Parker took the opportunity to highlight examples at Beeswax Creek Park. Examples include a pollinator-friendly plot and the use of Osage orange wood. Parker, team leader for Shoreline Recreation at Alabama Power, is using Osage orange wood for gazebos at company lakes. 

Use of this naturally rot-resistant wood has saved on maintenance costs while the company works to beautify recreational areas for lake visitors.

Elizabeth York was so impressed with Parker’s message that she walked about a mile and a half to see the company’s Osage orange wood gazebo at Lay Lake, in Beeswax Park.

Master gardeners Kim Sprouse-Howell, Margaret Copeland, Carolyn Hudson, Elizabeth York and Barbara Williams of the Shelby County Master Gardener Association advised visitors about caring for their yards. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

Alabama Power welcomed environmental agency partners and visitors to the first annual Environmental Expo at Beeswax Park in Columbiana, Alabama. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

Alabama Power has built pollinator plots at eight company lakes. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

Beeswax Creek Park at Lay Lake is a lovely place for people to visit year-round, for recreation and respite. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

Visitors to eight Alabama Power lakes that feature pollinator plots will find educational signs that explain the importance of pollinators for crops. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

Alabama Power’s beautiful Lay Lake in Columbiana was the site of the first annual Environmental Expo. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

York, president of the Shelby County Master Gardeners Association that is sponsored through the Extension Office of Alabama A&M and Auburn universities, is always looking for ways to improve the natural environment.

“I wanted a look at the Osage, because I’d never seen it before and it’s a species that is native to Alabama,” York said. Her group is landscaping new children’s gardens for the nonprofit Family Connection Inc., a multiservice agency in Shelby County that provides a safe place for youth in crisis.

As master gardeners, York and her members help educate the home gardener. During the Expo, she and her team advised amateur gardeners.

“We provide the education and actually consult with people to enhance and beautify their properties,” said York, whose group meets monthly at the Shelby County Cooperative Extension Office in Columbiana. “We select native plants and deer-resistant plants. … A lot of people don’t know they can make their own deer-resistant spray at home, using eggs. We can tell you how to do this instead of having to buy a spray.”

Until property owners “break the cycle,” York said, they can expect female deer to forever train their offspring to forage in your yard. “Later on, the babies teach their own where to go for food,” she added.

Susan Hosch of the Herb Society of America, a nonprofit agency, showed off herbs that thrive in Alabama’s climate: African blue basil, dill, fennel, geranium, parsley, pineapple sage and rosemary.

“These plants are great pollinators,” Hosch said. “Look for scented geranium, which is edible – you can add the leaves in a salad.” She noted that scented herbs – lavender, lemon balm and lemon verbena – repel mosquitoes.

Beeswax Park on Lay Lake in Columbiana, Alabama, was the perfect setting for the Environmental Expo. (Donna Cope / Alabama News Center)

The Herb Society of America encourages people to grow pollinator gardens to help attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators that farmers depend on to grow crops. Through the society’s Green Bridges program, homeowners can create gardens that provide the safe movement of plants and pollinators to help maintain healthy ecosystems. Homeowners submit an application that describes their garden and can buy a metal sign that designates their yard as a Green Bridges area.

Parker said the agencies encourage year-round stewardship. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System has partnered with the company by providing guidance about developing pollinator plots at Beeswax Creek Park and other company public recreation sites. As part of this ongoing project, Alabama Power maintains eight pollinator plots at its public recreation sites and has installed informational signs for visitors’ enjoyment. 

“The networking aspect of the Environmental Expo has been a big positive,” Yerby said. “It has been worth it to all of us to see what other groups are doing in the same arena.”