Photos from the EcoScape at the Southern Environmental Center formerly housed at Birmingham-Southern College
Alabama Environmental Council is now the new home for the Southern Environmental Center
We have some BIG news to share! After the unfortunate closing of Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) earlier this year, Roald Hazelhoff, director of the Southern Environmental Center (SEC), met with AEC to discuss future plans for the center and its new environmental education program—the Birmingham Urban Watershed STEMM Initiative (BUWSI). AEC recognized the education and resource gap left by BSC closing and the opportunity for a great partnership. As the SEC aligns with AEC’s mission of environmental education, AEC decided to become the fiscal sponsor of the SEC and is pleased to announce this exciting partnership and new education program for the organization.
A little history: AEC, formerly called the Alabama Conservancy, helped start the SEC in the late 1980s. In fact, the SEC was formerly called the “Birmingham Southern Conservancy” as it was a student group connected with a network of college-affiliated groups the Alabama Conservancy created. In the early years, one project AEC and BSC collaborated closely on included a campus recycling program. The program was so successful, President George Bush gave the BSC student group a Point of Light Award on Earth Day 1990. In the following decades, the two organizations have worked closely together on waste reduction and countless environmental initiatives.
With a focus on climate change and environmental justice and education, the new SEC will now be called the Alabama Resilience Center (ARC). It will have an EcoScape field trip site, demonstrate how an industrial brownfield can be transformed into a carbon reducing greenspace, and showcase effective ways to harvest rainwater, solar, and wind power. Stay tuned for more about exciting plans in the works!
Come to our Green Drinks at Rojo Thursday, November 21st, 5:30-6:30 PM to hear about our plans for the ARC!
Birmingham Urban Watershed STEMM Initiative (BUWSI)
In 2022, the Southern Environmental Center (SEC) helped secure a $1.3 million National Academies of Science grant to incorporate environmental justice and climate change into teaching modules for schools in Mobile. A pilot version, the Birmingham Urban Watershed STEMM Initiative (BUWSI), was introduced for 11 Birmingham City Schools located within the Village Creek watershed in 2024. While the closing of BSC represents an enormous loss to the community, the merger of the SEC and BUWSI program with AEC will allow these STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathmatics, and Medicine) programs for Birmingham City Schools to move forward to continue, and in fact, expand.
Thank you to our BUWSI donors: Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham’s Rand-Lupton Fund and the Burnie and Verda Clifton Memorial Fund; and ABAHAC Foundation. Want to support our work? Click here to make a donation!