Alabama Rivers Alliance Names River Hero of the Year

John Wathen Video

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Nelson Brooke, the staff Riverkeeper at Black Warrior Riverkeeper, received the 2010 River Hero Award Monday night at the Alabama Rivers Alliance’s Watershed Leadership Conference in the state capitol.

Glynn Wilson

Nelson Brooke

Brooke patrols and photographs the river and its tributaries, looks for pollution problems, responds to citizen complaints, researches and analyzes polluters’ permits, collects pollution samples for laboratory analysis when necessary, educates the public about the beauty of the river and threats to it, advocates compliance with environmental laws, and is a spokesman for the Black Warrior River watershed.

In the past year, Brooke and his group have seen a lawsuit settled against the Birmingham airport for erosion and sediment controls, advocated for conservation restrictions on land along the Locust Fork, the final step in a two-decade long fight to stop the Birmingham Water Works from damming this one wild and free-flowing river.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper is part of a coalition of Alabama environmental organizations petitioning the EPA to take over Alabama’s water pollution permitting program.

The group is also challenging two coal mine permits on the Black Warrior River’s Mulberry and Locust Forks.

Brooke was also there early and has also been involved in monitoring Village Creek and the watercress darter, where a city worker authorized the removal of a beaver dam that resulted in the death of 11,000 endangered fish unique to this part of Alabama.

Brooke has been Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s staff Riverkeeper since January of 2004. He also served as executive director from August 2007 through December 2009, when Charles Scribner became executive director, enabling Brooke to focus more on Riverkeeper patrol and advocacy.

John Wathen

Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke, River Hero of the Year

A Birmingham native, Brooke attended The Altamont School in Birmingham and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with an anthropology degree. He is an Eagle Scout and outdoor enthusiast who has enjoyed fishing and hunting along the banks of the river since he was seven years old.

The Alabama Rivers Alliance annually hosts the Watershed Leadership Conference, an educational and networking event for Alabamians interested in clean water. The conference moves to different regions of the state each year, and since 2010 is an election year, the conference was held in the state’s capitol this past weekend.

The conference is for anyone seeking to learn about clean water, environmental science, legislative policy and leadership. Each year the conference brings more than 100 individual attendees from a variety of backgrounds and 25 grassroots and conservation organizations together to share, network and learn. At the conference, participants receive professional development training from experts as well as their own peers on the newest ideas and innovations in their fields.

John Wathen

Nelson Brooke’s not really a big fan of Big Coal…

Tags: Alabama Rivers Alliance, Nelson Brooke

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Black Warrior Riverkeeper. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.