Sipsey Wilderness 50th Anniversary

50 Years of the Sipsey Wilderness

Dear Black Warrior Riverkeeper supporters,

Our partners at the Alabama Environmental Council (AEC) and Wild Alabama just sent us their exciting press release announcing the 50th Anniversary of the Sipsey Wilderness. On January 5, 1975, the Sipsey Wilderness was designated a federally protected wilderness area in the Bankhead National Forest when President Gerald Ford signed the Eastern Wilderness Act of 1975.

As our friends at AEC and Wild Alabama explain in their press release, “It was commonly believed at the time that lands in the eastern half of the U.S. did not qualify for wilderness designation. Alabama wilderness advocates changed that attitude, launching a national Eastern wilderness movement.”

The Sipsey Fork, one of the Black Warrior’s three major tributaries (aka “Forks”) which was dammed to form Smith Lake, is federally designated as Alabama’s only Wild & Scenic River along its upper reaches, where its headwater originate within the 24,962-acre Sipsey Wilderness and Bankhead National Forest. Starting as 12,000 acres in 1975, the Sipsey Wilderness received an addition of 12,922 acres in 1988, and 40 acres in 2021.

We at Black Warrior Riverkeeper are proud that the Eastern wilderness movement began in Alabama, and specifically in the Black Warrior River basin, thanks to advocacy 50 years ago by the Alabama Conservancy. Elberta Reid, a longtime member of our Board of Directors and current member of our Advisory Council, was pivotal to that effort. We are grateful to all the concerned citizens and elected officials who protected one of the most beautiful and biodiverse areas of our watershed, state, and nation.

Happy 50th Anniversary,

Charles Scribner
Executive Director
Black Warrior Riverkeeper

Turkey Foot Creek waterfall in Sipsey Wilderness. Photo by Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper.