Water Rally Draft Schedule


1		Time	Room	Event	Title	Speaker or Presenter	Description

2	FRIDAY
3		1 - 5 pm	Bayfront Pavilion	TRAINING	CLEAN WATER ACT MANUAL: THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS	April Ingle (River Network) Nelson Brooke (Black Warrior Riverkeeper) Justinn Overton (Coosa Riverkeeper) David Butler (Cahaba Riverkeeper) Cade Kistler (Mobile Baykeeper)	Join us for this interactive workshop to learn more about how you can use the Clean Water Act to protect your communities and local waters. During the workshop, you’ll hear case studies of how the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Cahaba Riverkeeper, Coosa Riverkeeper, and Mobile Baykeeper are using the Clean Water Act to protect their waters. You’ll also learn how you can use the recently updated Clean Water Act Owner’s Manual to help guide your efforts to protect and restore the waters in your community via presentations and interactive exercises where you can practice using the Manual.
4		6 - 6:45 pm	Dining Hall	SUPPER
5		6:45 - 7:15 pm	Chapel	Social / Networking	GETTING TO KNOW YOU...
6		7:15 - 9 pm	Chapel	WELCOME + OPENING	Welcome to ARA, Water Rally and Fairhope (Land of Muscogee)	Cindy Lowry (ARA) William Strickland (Mobile Baykeeper)
7		7:15 - 9 pm	Outside the chapel	WELCOME + OPENING	COSMIC WALK: A JOURNEY THROUGH DEEP-TIME	Dr. Bill Deutsch (author)	Friday evening will be a true delight as we take a Cosmic Walk with Dr. Bill Deutsch and friends. The story begins 14.6-billion-years ago with the big bang that kicked everything off!. Through the mesmerizing voice of Dr. Deutsch, we’ll visit the origin of the solar system, life, and advanced life all the way through the age of dinosaurs and humans. This interactive exploration through time will beautifully illustrate how we got to this moment and what’s at stake.
8
9	SATURDAY
10		7 - 7:50 am	Meet outside Dining Hall		Birding with Bill	Dr. Bill Deutsch (author)	Bill will guide a 30-min, pre-breakfast walk around the grounds, looking and listening for birds. Some winter birds are hanging around before their journey north, and some neotropical migrants are starting to come in from Central and South America, so be ready for a good mix of feathered surprises alongside our year-round resident birds! Binoculars are helpful but not required.
11		8 - 8:45	BREAKFAST
12		9 - 10:15	Chapel	Plenary	LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY	Justinn Overton (Coosa Riverkeeper) Bradley Davidson (Conservation Alabama) Jack West (Alabama Rivers Alliance)	A little like Schoolhouse Rock’s How a Bill Becomes a Law (in Alabama), sprinkled with a little pollution! The Alabama Legislature has the power to make important decisions impacting our waterways. This plenary will discuss the upcoming legislative session, how you can build relationships and engage with your elected officials and what’s in the works from environmental groups for this session. Coosa Riverkeeper, Alabama Rivers Alliance, and Conservation Alabama are eager to share updates on legislative priorities around safe and healthy outdoor recreation, “Fisher’s Right to Know”, and PFAS “forever chemical” pollution we hope to see the legislature take up this session.
13		BREAKOUT SESSION 1
14		10:30 -11:30 am	Alves 1	SCIENCE	FISH PASSAGE	Hank Hershey (Auburn University) Jason Throneberry (The Nature Conservancy of Alabama)	Dams have severely altered our river systems throughout the state. They have blocked the ability for fish - such as paddlefish and shad - to migrate upstream to spawn and support mussel reproduction. Looking closely at the Mobile Basin, one of the most biodiverse basins in the entire nation, we will learn about the natural history of fish migration, what has been lost, and what we may still be able to restore. We will also discuss efforts by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Alabama to conduct a feasibility study on the Alabama River. Many species of native and migratory fishes historically utilized this corridor which has been disconnected since dam construction. If successful this would reconnect the Cahaba River with the Gulf of Mexico, potentially the most ecologically significant river restoration in North America.
15			Alves 2	POLICY	PUBLIC HEALTH & THE ENVIRONMENT	Dr. Claudette Pool (UAB)	Public health and environmental challenges are intricately related but it is not a simple task to identify and verify those connections. This session will look at ongoing work with communities in Alabama's Black Belt around household sanitation. This work seeks to increase community-based identify problems and propose feasible solutions. Dr. Poole will share lessons learned from a community-based participatory research project to conduct helminthiasis disease (parasitic worms) surveillance in at-risk children in the Alabama Black Belt.
16			Bayfront Pavilion	ORGANIZATIONAL	TALKING TRASH WITH LITTER GITTER	Don Bates and Ellie Mallon (Osprey Initiative)	Using data to tell a story about litter collection is a critical way to show the success of a project centered around litter removal. Learn more about Osprey Initiatives' modified Escaped Trash Assessment Protocol (ETAP), collection methodology, and Litter Collection Devices in this breakout session!
17		11:45 am -12:45 pm		LUNCH
18		1 - 2:30 pm	Chapel	Plenary	WATER AND WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE	Sherry Bradley (Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program) Eric Reidy (ADEM) Dr. Mark Elliott (University of Alabama) Eva Dillard (Black Warrior Riverkeeper)	The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) have brought an unprecedented amount of federal dollars into our state for improving water and wastewater infrastructure. This panel will share how these essential dollars are being used to address long-standing sanitation inequities in Alabama’s Black Belt region as well as how the money is being distributed statewide and how you can advocate for projects in your community.
19		2:15-2:45 pm			GROUP PHOTO		We know you love it - it's group photo time! We have to have some way to let folks know what you've been up to all weekend, right? We promise it will be painless for the introverts and extroverts? You can get in front!
20		BREAKOUT SESSION 2
21		3 - 4 pm	Alves 2		THE BUBBLING BROOK	Moderated by Maggie Johnston (Wild Alabama)	So many times at Water Rally, conversations begin bubbling up during a session or breakout that just are too good to end when the clock strikes. This space will be held open so those conversations can continue, around the water cooler so to speak! We’ll have a facilitator ready to help guide the conversation if needed, but that leader may organically bubble up as well!
22			Bayfront Pavilion	POLICY	THE IRA AND THE BIL: A LOT OF LETTERS THAT MEAN A LOT TO ALABAMA	Sheree Martin (Energy Alabama)	The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), two federal laws enacted in 2022, incentivize and provide federal funding for a myriad of programs that will speed up the transition to clean, renewable energy across the U.S. In this session, Sheree Martin (Energy Alabama) will describe these programs, who stands to benefit from them, how the funds are being (or will be) disbursed, and how to seek funding for your organization, community, family or business (including farms). The focus of this discussion will be on programs most relevant to water defenders, but attendees are encouraged to bring questions and curiosity about the broader range of programs and funding opportunities under both important laws.
23			Alves 1	ORGANIZATIONAL	COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND TRUST BUILDING	Karen Jones (To Whom It May Concern, Inc.) Jean Cox (Friends of Pinchgut Creek)	Whether you are starting a new organization or you have been around for years or decades, organizing a group of allies and building trust in communities is essential to your success in protecting your local waterway or your community’s health and safety. Community organizing is not one size fits all. Each community has its own unique qualities and leaders that only someone from the community knows and understands. This session will provide examples from two community leaders’ experiences in very different communities in Alabama—a suburban white community and an urban community of color. These speakers will share ways they are able to reach their goals by building relationships within their communities. We will discuss how to get members of the community involved, how to find and build our leaders, and how to get our community or municipal leaders onboard to make great things happen. This will be an interactive session with plenty of fun and informative discussion time.
24		BREAKOUT SESSION 3
25
26		4:15 - 5:15 pm	Alves 2	SCIENCE	Flooding and Green Infrastructure Funding	Beth Stewart and Ben Wegleitner (Cahaba River Society)	As our cities continue to grow and sprawl, new developments are required to use more protective practices to control stormwater, reduce flooding, and prevent erosion. However, that won't be enough to turn back the clock on the damage already done to urban waterways. To fix those issues, cities and counties must also be actively retrofitting stormwater infrastructure in older developed areas that lack the necessary controls to capture and treat stormwater runoff. Funding is often the most challenging piece of implementing a stormwater retrofit project. In this session, we’ll discuss a few of the funding mechanisms being used around the state and the country—including State Revolving Fund (SRF) loans, Section 319, FEMA floodplain buyouts, and others—along with some creative ways for municipalities to meet their grant match requirements.
27			Bayfront Pavilion	POLICY	USING THE CWA MANUAL TO #DEFENDRIVERS NEAR YOU	April Ingle (River Network)	Local advocates are the driving force behind achieving the Clean Water Act’s objectives and goals. Join us for this interactive session to learn how you can use the Clean Water Act to protect your communities and local waters. During the workshop, you’ll hear an overview of River Network’s recently updated Clean Water Act Owner’s Manual and you’ll practice using the manual to address pollution challenges you’re facing. The Clean Water Act Owner’s Manual is a foundational tool that will guide you in applying the Clean Water Act to protect your local waterways and community. It also offers examples of how the Act has been used to advocate for specific issues facing communities and local waters, such as stormwater and wastewater pollution, climate change, and environmental injustice. This session will introduce you to tools that can help you track changes in your waters, ask important questions, and advocate for implementation and enforcement of the Act in ways that are just, advance equity, and take climate change into account.
28			Alves 1	ORGANIZATIONAL	THE FUNDRAISING TRIFECTA: MEMBERSHIPS, GRANTS & EVENTS!	Cece Pless (Mobile Baykeeper) Abby Brown (Coosa Riverkeeper) Cindy Lowry (Alabama Rivers Alliance)	You’ve got your mission fine-tuned, your programs up and running, and an awesome group of volunteers and/or staff ready to make a difference in Alabama. Now you just need members and money to support the important work you are doing! Hit the trifecta with these three main pillars for a successful fundraising plan: membership cultivation and retention, grant research and writing and event planning and execution. Learn the importance of a diverse fundraising portfolio and the pros and cons of each of these pillars as you set your organization up for a successful and sustainable future!
29		5:30 - 6:45 pm	Bayfront Pavilion	HAPPY HOUR + SHRIMP BOIL			What’s an evening on the Bay without a little Shrimp N Spirits? Our friends at Osprey Initiative (the makers of the Litter Gitter) are excited to host this delicious Shrimp Boil with all the fixin’s (plus Camp Beckwith salad bar!) ARA will provide some River Defender beer from Red Clay Brewery and some non-alcoholic drinks to be enjoyed by all - but feel free to bring your own spirits to add to the mix!
30		6:45 - 8 pm	Chapel		RIVER CELEBRATION AWARDS		Coming soon!
31	SUNDAY
32		8 - 8:45 am	Dining Hall	BREAKFAST
33		9:30 -11:30 am	Chapel	PLENARY	CONNECTING WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS FOR RESEARCH & ADVOCACY	Hank Hershey (Auburn University) Taimoor Arshad (University of Alabama Law School) Victoria Miller (Alabama Rivers Alliance) Jaxon Tolbert (University of Alabama in Huntsville) Moderated by: Dawn Lee	As small nonprofits, we can’t always hire enough staff to conduct our research and do the work needed to achieve our goals. College students and academic institutions can be a great resource for groups to connect with the most up-to-date research and provide much-needed professional help for organizations. Learn how to connect with undergraduate and graduate-level students and what they need from you to get the most out of internships and volunteer opportunities to build their skills and career opportunities. It is a win-win for everyone involved when you know what to do!
34		11:45 am - noon	Chapel		IT'S CLOSING TIME!		Coming soon!
35		noon - 12:45 pm		LUNCH
36		12:45 pm - !!!			FIELD TRIPS		Coming soon!