Have you ever wanted to make an impact?
In 1999, ONE employee started a movement that has cleaned up over 10,000 acres of wetlands!!
Renew Our Rivers is a volunteer program that removes trash and litter from rivers and waterways throughout the Southeast. Started by an employee in 1999 as a local cleanup of the Coosa River around Alabama Power’s Gadsden Steam Plant, the program has grown to include a year-round schedule of cleanups for the entire Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Black Warrior river systems in Alabama, the upper Coosa in Georgia, and other waterways in watersheds in Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida.
In April of 2009, Southern Company employees and local community members have cleaned up over 10 million pounds of trash through Renew Our Rivers events. In 2007, this program received the highest award in the hydropower industry – the Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters award from the National Hydropower Association.
Look What We’ve Accomplished!
33 grants to 23 organizations with dozens of partner groups
Grants of more than $621,000, along with matching funds has a total impact of more than $1.89 million
Approximately 10,200 wetland and coastal acres and 45,870 feet of riparian buffers will be restored
Land Management at Southern Company
Opening more than 50,000 acres of wildlife areas for public use through conservation agencies, Southern Company is the largest non-government provider of recreation facilities in Alabama and Georgia. We balance environmental and economic factors through our protection of lakes, shorelines, and natural areas.
Recently, we donated several large tracts of land for inclusion in parks, perserving their public use and threatened plants and animals indigineous to them. In November 2007, Georgia Power donated 2,268 acres (most of Tallulah Gorge State Park). In 2009, Georgia Power also donated 3,059 acres known as Sprewell Bluff, along both sides of the Flint River, 2,052 acres at McGrau Ford in Cherokee County along the Etowah River, and a tract in Oconee County, South Carolina, along the Chattooga River. These places, respectively, have populations of longleaf pine, Cherokee and Etowah darters, and persistent trillium.
Lakes and Recreation
Over 30 lakes lie behind our hydroelectric plants – providing renewable power, flood control, irrigation, drinking water, fish and wildlife habitats, and recreation on more than 200,000 acres of lakes and 5,000 miles of shoreline in Alabama and Georgia. In addition to recreational activities like swimming, fishing, and boating on the lakes themselves, picturesque nearby areas have hiking trails, picnic areas, and campgrounds—many of which are accessible to people with physical disabilities. For information, news and maps about recreation, fish species, and hydroelectric plants at each of our lakes, visit Alabama Power lakes and Georgia Power lakes.
From an ecological standpoint, we compile and release biological assessments for threatened and endangered species. The reports propose actions we take to support biodiversity by protecting species of concern—and in some instances, enhancing habitats—in the watershed of the proposed project.
Southern Company manages the following areas:
- Timber - 240,000 acres
- Forests - 4,000 acres for longleaf pines (2,180,000 seedlings planted)
- Recreation - 50,000 acres of forested company land in Wildlife Management Areas operated by state agencies and open to the public
- Handicap-only Hunting - 3 special areas
- Habitat - Nearly 3,000 acres managed to benefit the red-cockaded woodpecker
- Lakes - more than 200,000 acres of lakes and 5,000 miles of shoreline in Alabama and Georgia.
Project SHARE provides emergency assistance to customers who need help with basic necessities—housing, food, medical care, and utility services. Project SHARE assists the elderly, the disabled, the unemployed, the sick, and others who are experiencing financial hardship. In some areas, Southern Company subsidiaries contribute directly to Project SHARE or match funds contributed by customers. We also promote Project SHARE in advertising and on customer Web sites and facilitate contributions by customers on thier electricity bills and by employees through payroll deduction. The program is administered by The Salvation Army in Georgia and the American Red Cross in Alabama and Mississippi.
Southern Company’s Certifications
The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC)
This program promotes habitat diversity. We're a charter member, maintaining certification since 1999. In partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, our foresters, wildlife biologists, and others manage timber and wildlife habitats tract by tract—approximately 82,000 acres of land throughout Georgia. We've received the Forestry for Wildlife Partnership award from the DNR for managing our land to benefit wildlife. For details, visit FWP Certified Plan.
National Wild Turkey Federation’s Energy for Wildlife
This program promotes habitat diversity. We're a charter member, maintaining certification since 1999. In partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, our foresters, wildlife biologists, and others manage timber and wildlife habitats tract by tract—approximately 82,000 acres of land throughout Georgia. We've received the Forestry for Wildlife Partnership award from the DNR for managing our land to benefit wildlife. For details, visit FWP Certified Plan.
Forestry for Wildlife Partnership Program
This program promotes habitat diversity. We're a charter member, maintaining certification since 1999. In partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, our foresters, wildlife biologists, and others manage timber and wildlife habitats tract by tract—approximately 82,000 acres of land throughout Georgia. We've received the Forestry for Wildlife Partnership award from the DNR for managing our land to benefit wildlife. For details, visit FWP Certified Plan.
Forests offer bountiful wildlife habitats, provide beautiful areas for outdoor recreation, and even create jobs. Our foresters and wildlife biologists manage approximately 240,000 acres of forested land in Alabama and Georgia for timber and habitats. Many threatened or endangered species inhabit the land we own, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and American bald eagle. Southern Company follows federal and state laws and guidelines to protect these species and their habitat and help states survey plant and animal species. For example:
- Alabama Power manages 1,000 acres at Lake Mitchell for 11 colonies of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
- Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear signed a Safe Harbor agreement in 2007 with the Georgia DNR to manage approximately 1,800 acres at its two nuclear sites for red-cockaded woodpecker and other longleaf-dependent species, such as the gopher tortoise.
- Georgia Power, with DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is creating a refuge for displaced tortoises on the Plant Vogtle site through a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances.
In addition to grants and charitable donations, Southern Company subsidiaries offer opportunities for employees to volunteer for community outreach, including hurricane relief, Relay for Life and March of Dimes' WalkAmerica. The latter two programs involved over 1,700 employees and raised over $350,000 in 2008. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, employees participate in a company-sponsored program—to make it a "day on, not a day off"—and work with community groups in the spirit of service, activism, and diversity. Another 864 volunteers gave nearly 2600 hours of their time on King Day in 2008.
Volunteer groups across Southern Company donated more than 150,000 hours in community service. In addition our "citizens" groups raise and disburse over $200,000 to communities and state projects.