Project Titles:

• Repair Pine Beach Trail (FFS #R4GK)
• Replace HVAC Windows, Doors (FFS #R4GL)

State: Alabama

Project Description: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will use stimulus funds to repair a popular public hiking trail and improve safety and energy efficiency at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge south of Mobile, Ala.

Healtheon, Inc., of New Orleans, La., was awarded a contract for $173,380 under the American Recovery and Re-investment Act, popularly known as stimulus funds. Under the contract, $25,286 will be spent to repair the refuge’s Pine Beach Trail, the nature trail most frequently used by the public, and $148,094 will be used for safety and energy efficiency improvements at the Nunley Bunkhouse, which houses volunteers, interns and researchers.

“Pine Beach Trail is the most popular trail on the refuge, and runs along Gator Lake and Little Lagoon and eventually winds up down on the beach at the Gulf,” said Jereme Phillips, refuge manager at Bon Secour, which is located on the Fort Morgan Peninsula in southern Alabama . “Parts of it are badly washed out from storms over the past few years. It’s completely impassable at times. The stimulus project will repair those areas, and improve the ability of public to hike down the trail.”

Stimulus funds will also go to extensive renovation on the refuge bunkhouse to make it safer and greener. A “significant amount” of asbestos will be removed, Phillips said, and unsafe electrical wiring will be corrected. A more energy-efficient heating and air conditioning system and water heater will be installed; deteriorated, leaking flooring will be replaced, as well as leaking windows; and insulation will be added.

From the French for “safe harbor,” Bon Secour is a 7,000-acre refuge that hosts more than 100,000 visitors annually. It is home to the endangered Alabama beach mouse, loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, foxes, coyotes, and more than 370 species of birds.

For more information visit the Bon Secour NWR website.

Contact: Phil Kloer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service public affairs officer, 404-679-7125, philip_kloer@fws.gov

Photos: Check out the Bon Secour NWR Flickr Slideshow to see more before and after pictures for these projects!

Pine Beach Trail at Bon Secour NWR is the most popular hiking trail at the refuge.	Pine Beach Trail has been badly washed out by storms, and stimulus funds will repair it.
Another view of Pine Beach Trail before the repairs.	Water damage to the ceiling at Nunley Bunkhouse.
The Nunley Bunkhouse houses interns and researchers and is in need of safety and energy-efficiency upgrades.	The heating and air conditioning system at Nunley Bunkhouse will be replaced using stimulus funds.
A water damaged ceiling was removed in the kitchen.	New insulation added to walls and asbestos flooring removed in kitchen.

Asbestos flooring and water heaters (to be replaced by energy efficient models) were removed from the utility room.

Originally posted 01/22/2010
Updated 02/12/2010
Updated 03/22/2010