Report to the Community

When it planted a seed through the "Urban Community Forestry Project" more than 20 years ago, Alabama Power continued its heritage of supporting forests, both rural and urban. E N V I R O N M E N T Greening Alabama 2 5 Today, two of its programs, Good Roots and Longleaf Legacy, continue that tradition of environmental stewardship through forestry. Good Roots The Good Roots program provides grants from the Alabama Power Foundation to help people around the state plant trees in their communities. The program provides grants of up to $1,000 to cities, towns, communities and nonprofit groups to buy trees native to their communties. As they mature, these trees add beauty, shade and comfort to neighborhoods and create a healthy environment where children can play and neighbors can gather. "We are particularly pleased that in partnership with the Alabama Forestry Association and the Alabama Power Service Organization, Good Roots has been able to support our state's tornado tree recovery effort," says Peggy Burnett, the Foundation's program manager. Longleaf Legacy The Longleaf pine, Alabama's state tree, once covered more than 95 million acres of the southern United States and provided habitat for a variety of wildlife, including woodpeckers, turkeys, gopher tortoises and nearly 600 species of plants. Today, less than three percent of those forests remain. Helping restore them is the goal of the Longleaf Legacy program. In 2004, Southern Company joined with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in a 10-year partnership to bring back the vanishing forests. Through the program, Southern Company and NFWF each give $500,000 per year in matching grants to conservation organizations and agencies for reforestation efforts. As a result, nearly $4 million of grants and matching funding have gone to almost 20 projects impacting Alabama. These projects have r e s t o r e d m o r e t h a n 26,000 acres of longleaf pine and planted more than 6,000 new trees across the state.

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