Supporters are rallying to extend Alabama’s successful Forever Wild land conservation program before it expires in 2012, wrote John S. Peck in a Monday opinion piece for the Huntsville Times editorial board. The program is funded by the Alabama Trust Fund, which in turn gets its money from the state’s oil and gas leases. Forever Wild receives 10 percent of the interest earned by the trust fund.

Forever Wild's logo

Forever Wild was established in 1992 with an amendment to the Alabama Constitution. Peck wrote that the program has acquired and protected 200,000 acres of land since then, including a 35,000-acre tract of wetlands in the Mobile delta and the 21,000-acre Walls of Jericho Preserve.

Despite the program’s successes, Peck says the state and other interests are eyeing the Alabama Trust Fund and Forever Wild’s funding. The $3 billion trust fund has already been used to fill holes in the state’s education budget, and some are looking to use the fund for a $1 billion highway improvement plan.

“Forever Wild can’t continue if its resources are gutted for other purposes,” Peck wrote. “The Alabama Trust Fund should be absolutely the last resort if raiding it would jeopardize this vital public land program.

If you’d like Forever Wild to continue its mission, start writing your representatives and senators now. It’s never too early to bring attention to something like this.