South Region - Hiking Alabama: A Guide to the State's Greatest Hiking Adventures - page 187

approve the purchase. If they do, they will then ap-
proach the owner with an offer. Many times the owner
isn't a willing seller. If that's the case, the process ends
there.
Sometimes there is a property that comes up for sale
but Forever Wild cannot purchase it at that moment.
That's when other organizations such as the Nature
Conservancy and the Conservation Fund come in to
secure the property, with Forever Wild purchasing it
from them at a later time.
But the last twenty years haven't been as easy as it
sounds. In April 2005 state senators proposed diverting
30 percent of Forever Wild's funding to other agencies.
When the bill was announced, voters were so outraged
that they flooded the phone lines at the state capital.
The bill died before the ink had dried. Then in 2012 the
program was up for funding renewal. A bitter battle was
waged between proponents of Forever Wild and those
who wanted funding diverted, if not suspended. Once
again it was brought before the voters, and again the
public voted overwhelmingly to continue funding
through 2032.
To learn more about Forever Wild, visit its new web-
site at www.alabamaforeverwild.com . You can also
learn about the work of the Nature Conservancy in
Alabama at www.nature.org and the Conservation
Fund at www.conservationfund.org .