YOUR ONE MILE: The Freshwater Land Trust (FWLT) is hosting a series of public meetings to seek comments and suggestions regarding Our One Mile, a comprehensive greenway master plan for Jefferson County. The Our One Mile initiative is focused on identifying trails and greenways throughout the county and making it easier for local residents to walk and bike. The project is part of efforts to combat the obesity rate in Jefferson County, which is said to exceed 30 percent. At the public meetings, community members can suggest good locations for trails and tell the FWLT the places they would like to better connected to. According to an FWLT news release, Our One Mile will improve residents’ health through easier access to active living. Greenways and parks, the release says, also help increase property values, attract businesses and tourists, and help the environment. The where you can make your voice heard. The next meeting will take place in Gardendale at the William Noble Athletic Complex, 2109 Moncrief Road, November 16, from 5:30-7 p.m. The second will take place at Lawson State-Bessemer Campus in the Jess Lanier Building, 1100 Ninth Ave. N.W., November 30, from 5:30-7 p.m. The final meeting will take place in Birmingham at Arlington Home and Gardens, 331 Cotton Ave., November 18, from 5:30-7 p.m. For more information, visit www.freshwaterlandtrust.com. AM

I KILLED A WABBIT: Hunting isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks “environmentalism.” But Alabama’s Forever Wild land acquisition program has acquired over 183,000 acres of land for huntin g grounds since its creation in 1992, according to a news release from the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (ADWFF). In fact, Forever Wild has provided enough land to create entirely new hunting tracts in the state. The main purpose of Forever Wild is to purchase land for recreational and conservational uses. It has created and expanded several state parks and protected many wildlife areas. Forever Wild has been generally perceived as a successful state program. Unfortunately, the program is set to expire in 2012. Environmental lobbying group Conservation Alabama has already put its support behind Forever Wild’s renewal, and the ADWFF, which manages hunting grounds in the state, is supporting the program as well. For more information, visit www.outdooralabama.com or www.alforeverwild.com. AM

HOW GREEN WAS MY FERN: If those ferns you’re trying to grow in your garden are a little more brown than green, fret not. There is hope for you yet. The Birmingham Fern Society holds meetings at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on the third Wednesday of every month from 12:30-2:30 pm. The meetings are open to the public, feature knowledgeable speakers and often provide garden tours. On top of all that, admission is free. The next meeting will take place November 17 and will feature a garden tour followed by lunch. For more information, call (205) 988-0299. AM

LOTS OF WORK FOR LAWYERS: With the Gulf oil spill and other hot eco-issues in the Southeast, including Alabama and Georgia’s epic struggle over drinking water, it’s probably a good time to be an environmental lawyer. If you’re a lawyer who’s hip to green issues, maybe you should check out the upcoming Environmental Law Fall Forum to be hosted by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program on December 3 in Mobile. Speakers from the Southeast will discuss climate-change litigation, regional water-quantity issues, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s obligations under the Endangered Species Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and other hot legal topics. The conference will take place December 3 from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at Mobile’s Radisson Admiral Semmes Hotel. The deadline for registration is November 23. For information, visit www.masglp.olemiss.edu/environmental_law_forum.htm or call (662) 915-7775. The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program is housed at The University of Mississippi School of Law. It is the legal arm of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. The law forum comes the day after the Alabama-Mississippi Bays and Bayous Symposium, also to be held in Mobile. JC

SCANS FOR WORKERS? The United Steelworkers issued a press release urging that greater attention be paid to occupational lung-cancer medical screening in the light of a recently announced medical study. Last week, the National Cancer Institute released the results of a 10-year national study involving over 53,000 people that demonstrated that annual medical screening with a low-dose helical chest CT scan lowered mortality due to lung cancer by 20 percent. “We are now presented with an enormous opportunity to save workers from dying from lung cancer,” according to USW President Leo W. Gerard, quoted in the release. “Millions of workers have been exposed to asbestos, silica, chromium, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, nickel and combustion products—and all of these exposures are firmly established as causes of human lung cancer.” Work-related lung cancer, according to the release, kills 10,000 to 20,000 workers annually and is the leading occupational cancer in the United States. The USW co-sponsors a lung-cancer screening program with Queens College in New York City and the Atomic Trades & Labor Council. The USW is an industrial union with 850,000 members in North America. It represents workers employed in metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy and the service sector. JC

BP’S NOT SO BAD, DUDE SAYS: The lead attorney on a presidential commission investigating the Gulf oil spill said Monday he had found no proof that British Petroleum sacrificed safety to save money as it drilled its well, contradicting assertions made by other government investigations. “To date, we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety,” general counsel Fred H. Bartlit Jr. said, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times by Neela Banerjee and Richard Faussett. BP spokesperson Elizabeth Ashford declined to comment for the Times story, but Banerjee and Faussett pointed out that Bartlit’s statement was a rare good PR moment for the oil firm. BP still has plenty of legal problems to deal with. David Uhlmann, a University of Michigan law professor, told the Times that the many civil cases and any future criminal cases against BP might not require “smoking gun” documents to succeed. President Obama created the commission, which is looking into the causes of the disaster, cooking up ways to prevent other such events and pondering legal and regulatory remedies. JC

WE’VE GOT LOTS OF WATER: Learn more about the many beautiful and ecologically vital watersheds of Alabama at the annual Alabama Clean Water Partnership (ACWP) Watersheds Conference, to be held December 8 from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. at the Alabama Power Water Course in Clanton. Agenda items will include the Gulf oil spill and the Alabama Scenic River Trail. There will be discussions and networking opportunities. The conference is free, but you must register to attend. For information, call (205) 266-6285 or send your email to coordinator@cleanwaterpartnership.org

Jesse Chambers is a Birmingham Weekly contributing editor, and Andy McWhorter is a Birmingham Weekly intern. Send your comments to jesse@bhamweekly.com or editor@bhamweekly.com.