Gulf Coast Roots

05/12/2026

05/02/2026

Thank you Lee Charities for your letter of support to Stop Solar in Baldwin 🙏🏻

Upcoming Dates:

**May 4th** Tensaw Community Meeting at Fort Mims, 6pm, to discuss 2,900-acre industrial solar site

**May 5th** Baldwin County Commission Meeting, 9AM, “Public Comments”, to voice support for FTR’s request for temporary moratorium/voice opposition to industrial solar sites in North Baldwin. 322 Courthouse Square, Bay Minette.

04/30/2026

This is really sad to hear. This is why raising awareness is important. We vote May 19th folks. Exercise your rights!

04/23/2026

04/18/2026

04/17/2026

Most people don’t realize how special this place actually is.

Alabama holds the top rank in the United States for freshwater biodiversity, with over 132,000 miles of rivers and streams and more species of fish, mussels, snails, and crawfish than anywhere else in the country.

Roughly 10% of the continental U.S.’s freshwater flows through this state, much of it through the Mobile River Basin, one of the largest in the nation.

There are species here that exist nowhere else in the world.
And it all connects.

It’s the bay.
It’s the beaches.
It’s the bogs, the creeks, the rivers, the miles and miles of water running through everything.
It’s fishing off the pier.
It’s white sand under your feet and endangered species like the beach mouse living in the dunes.
It’s jubilees rolling in and Spanish moss hanging low.
It’s the sound of cicadas in the summer and the kind of wild that you don’t fully notice until you slow down and look.
We have carnivorous plants growing right here.
Manatees that pass through our waters.
Alligators in our wetlands.
An entire world of life most people never even realize is there.
If you know what to look for, you start to see it everywhere.
And once you see it, you understand why it’s worth protecting.
These Gulf Coast roots run deep.
This is what we mean when we say protect the locals.

Protect our kin.

The plants and animals here aren’t separate from us.

They are part of this place just like we are.

04/15/2026

Lately we’ve been talking a lot about development and environmental impact.

And that matters. It does.

But this has never just been about what’s happening to the land.
It’s about what’s living on it.

Because if you know what to look for, you start to realize how much life is here along the Gulf Coast. And once you see it, you want to protect it.

So we’re getting back to that.

We’re starting something new with Gulf Coast Roots.

We’re looking for gopher tortoise habitats.

Gopher tortoises are a threatened species, not just here in Alabama but across the Southeast, and they are what’s called a keystone species. That means other species depend on them to survive.

Their burrows can stretch over 30 feet long and become shelter for more than 300 different species. Snakes, frogs, insects, small mammals all use these burrows to escape heat, fire, cold, and predators.

It’s not just a hole in the ground. It’s an entire ecosystem.

Gopher tortoises are protected under state law in Alabama, and it is illegal to harm them or disturb their burrows. The more people who know how to recognize their habitats, the better chance we have at protecting them.

Learning who the locals are is how we protect them.

Once you know what to look for, you’ll start seeing them.

Look for:
• Sandy, well drained soil
• Open, sunny areas like longleaf pine habitats
• A wide, half moon shaped burrow opening
• A mound of loose sand at the entrance

If you find one, don’t disturb it.

Take a photo from a distance, tag us, and share the location if you’re comfortable. We’re collecting data and bringing attention to where these habitats exist so we can better protect them.

You’re not just taking a picture. You’re helping document and protect what lives here.

This is how we protect the locals.