Watershed Partnerships
Cawaco houses three watershed partnerships:
Black Warrior River Watershed Partnership: (www.warriorcwp.org)—The Black Warrior River CWP maintains and restores the biological integrity of the Black Warrior River Basin by providing Basin Facilitation Services with priority focus on AL Section 303(d) stream segments. The CWP Facilitator has completed additional Management Plans for Locust Fork, Mulberry Fork, Five Mile Creek and Black Branch sub-basins. The Partnership also facilitates coordination of Bankhead and Holt Lakes Renew Our Rivers Clean Ups. These clean ups are a partnership effort of corporate entities, governmental agencies, and citizen groups. The goals are: 1) to organize an annual cleanup on Holt and Bankhead Lakes, 2) to provide information about pollution caused by rainfall runoff, and 3) highlight watershed groups active in their area. You can also access the Watershed Plans for the Black Warrior, Locust Fork and Mulberry Fork Rivers. Funded through the Alabama Clean Water Partnership with ADEM Section 319 funds.
Cahaba Watershed Partnership: Cawaco RC&D receives a contract from the Alabama Clean Water Partnership to perform facilitation services for the Cahaba River Watershed. The Cahaba River Basin Clean Water Partnership (Cahaba River Basin CWP) was formed in 1996 and is comprised of stakeholders representing a variety of interest groups within the Cahaba River Basin. One task of the Cahaba River Basin CWP is to identify environmental problems in the Cahaba River Basin develop cooperative projects to remediate those problems. www.cahabacwp.org
Five Mile Creek Watershed Partnership: (www.cawaco.org/fivemilecreek)— was created as a result of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), signed by Jefferson County; the cities of Birmingham, Center Point, Tarrant, Fultondale, Brookside and Graysville; and by several non-profit agencies. The MOA created a formal partnership with the goal of establishing a Five Mile Creek Greenway Corridor. The Five Mile Creek Greenway plan envisions a series of larger parks and open spaces along the creek connected by hiking, biking and canoe trails to provide adjacent communities with alternative transportation, eco-tourism to benefit local economies, and renewed pride. The greenway would also conserve and protect natural and cultural resources, including historic mines and beehive coke ovens, abandoned railroad lines, and possible Native American sites. The greenway would help conserve natural resources by protecting and restoring floodplains, wetlands and stream banks, preserving critical habitat, and removing non-native plants, such as kudzu and privet. It would encourage developers, homeowners and businesses to follow best practices to help improve and protect the creek from pollution. In 2005, the Black Warrior—Cahaba Rivers Land Trust presented the Greenway Partnership with the “Partnership Project of the Year Award,” recognizing Cawaco’s contribution and stating “… This partnership is being hailed as a national model for cooperation … it has secured almost $2 million dollars in federal and local funding …” Other Five Mile Creek programs include the “Five Mile Currents Newsletter” ($7,500); citizens watershed stewardship workshops ($10,200); a new organization, “Friends of Five Mile Creek,” and Samford University’s Oral History project. Additionally, the Council received a $50,000 award (matched for a total of $100,000) to develop a Greenway Master Plan.
