Turkey Creek Nature Preserve Parking Lot Improvement Project

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Description

Ruffner's mission is to advance the understanding of ecology in a rapidly changing world.

At Ruffner we believe that our mountains and green spaces are what make the city of Birmingham truly unique. Situated along a five mile stretch of the Appalachians, Ruffner Mountain remains an undeveloped free and natural green space open to the public that serves as a year-round resource in the realms of conservation, health and education for the Birmingham community and beyond. Not only this, but the Ruffner biome and its unseen effects are crucial to the health and well-being of Jones Valley and the Birmingham Metro Area. Every year Ruffner forests removes nearly a hundred metric tons of air pollutants; they provide over a thousand metric tons of carbon sequestration every year. As a watershed for Shades Creek and Village Creek, Ruffner prevents over 300 million gallons of storm runoff from polluting the community’s drinking water.

To lose Ruffner would be to lose not only an emerald in the chain of the Appalachians, but a daily benefit for Birmingham and beyond. This was almost the case in 1977 when a land developer with plans to construct an apartment complex on the mountain threatened what little vitality remained. The once bristling and natural habitat had been mined and quarried beyond recognition, wrecking its natural history. Ruffner Mountain is a nature preserve today only because a group of ordinary people sat around a kitchen table back in the 1977 and decided enough was enough. Development had become rampant, and they decided to save the mountain that they loved so much. This is how the Ruffner Mountain Nature Coalition was formed.