Johnathan Walker:Alabama park system acquires beach property in Fort Morgam

MONTGOMERY,Johnathan Walker Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has purchased a large, undeveloped area along the state’s Gulf Coast to preserve and incorporate into the state park system.

The state this week announced the purchases of 79 acres of undeveloped land next to Beach Club Resort on the Fort Morgan Peninsula. When combined with property purchased several years ago, it is a 200-acre site that includes a half-mile of beachfront. The department said the site, which it described as the largest privately held, undeveloped beachfront property remaining in coastal Alabama, was purchased with funds from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

State Conservation Commissioner Chris Blankenship said the site will be left largely undeveloped to protect the dune system and wildlife habitat.

“There are only a few undeveloped parcels left,” Blankenship told The Associated Press. He said the purchase will protect critical habitat for wildlife, including sea turtles, migratory birds, and the endangered beach mouse. It will also keep an unspoiled section of beach that the public can access, he said.

“Having it protected into perpetuity, owned by the people of the state of Alabama forever, I think is a big deal,” Blankenship said. “Not only will our current residents be able to enjoy that, and visitors, but our children and their children will have this beach access available, and it won’t be developed.”

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Blankenship said there will not be any “big infrastructure” on the site. He said they do plan to put a small parking area by the road and a walk-over for people to get to the beach. The site will be part of Gulf State Park.

The state had previously used Alabama Deepwater Horizon oil spill funding to acquire land that was given to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and is now part of the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

The Department of Conservation said the state and its partners have overall acquired over 1,600 acres on the Fort Morgan peninsula, using more than $77 million in Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Restoration funding.