Alabama Environmental Council

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The Alabama Environmental Council, (AEC), formerly the Alabama Conservancy, is a statewide non-profit environmental education and advocacy organization with offices located in the former Barber Milk Company headquarters at 2717 7th Avenue South in Lakeview. The group seeks to promote protection and preservation of Alabama's natural resources and heritage, and to increase awareness of environmental issues.

The Alabama Conservancy was founded in 1967 by Mary and Robert Burks along with 33 other charter members. Early projects included the development of the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, establishment of the Alabama Wildlife Center at Oak Mountain State Park, and establishment of a network of college campus-based affiliates, including the Birmingham-Southern College Conservancy. The group also participated in the creation of the Bartram Trail which crosses south Alabama, and headed the efforts to establish the Sipsey Wilderness within the Bankhead National Forest. Other groups that have been launched by AEC members include the Legal Environmental Assistance Fund and the Cahaba River Society.

The AEC adopted its current name in 1995, has approximately 1,000 individual and organizational members across the state and participates in numerous public policy debates with environmental impacts, such as its involvement in the movement to reform the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) and in the oversight of the destruction of chemical weapons in Anniston.

In addition to lobbying and education, the group was best known for operating the Community Recycling & Resource Center, which moved from downtown Birmingham to 4350 1st Avenue South in Avondale in 2016 and then closed in December 2018.

When Birmingham-Southern College closed in 2024, Roald Hazelhoff director of what was then called the Southern Environmental Center, partnered with the AEC to assume fiscal sponsorship for the organization, renamed the Alabama Resilience Center, and its educational programs. In 2025 the AEC was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Philip A. Morris Fund for the Design Arts to support the creation of program space at the Continental Gin complex in East Avondale for the Alabama Resilience Center and an EcoScape garden.

Executive directors

References

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