Birmingham, Alabama: Putting People First

BIRMINGHAM – As the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) turns 50 this year, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will join Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell tomorrow, Tuesday, July 8, in the city’s East Lake Park to celebrate the fund’s importance in creating parks across the country.

Jewell and Bell will highlight community support for LWCF, which funds conservation, clean water and outdoor recreation projects across the country. Created in 1965 and scheduled to end in 2015 unless Congressional acts to renew it, the LWCF has funded the creation of more than 42,000 state and local parks, playgrounds, urban wildlife refuges, greenways, trails and open spaces. The fund is paid for by royalties from offshore oil and gas development.

Bell is a member of Mayors for Parks, a bipartisan coalition of mayors from across the country working for the renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Mayors for Parks is a project of the City Parks Alliance.  East Lake Park was made possible in part by the fund.

Who:

·         Sally Jewell, United States Secretary of the Interior

·         William A. Bell Sr., Mayor of Birmingham

What: A celebration of the Land and Water Conservation Fund

Where: East Lake Park, 116 84th Street

When: Wednesday, July 9, 2014, press conference to begin at 11:30 a.m. (CDT)

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City Parks Alliance is the only independent, nationwide membership organization solely dedicated to urban parks and is serving as the Mayors for Parks day-to-day coordinator. Their mission is to engage, educate and nurture a broad based constituency to support the creation, revitalization and sustainability of parks and green spaces that contribute to dynamic cities. City Parks Alliance has a strong track record of uniting and serving a growing network of hundreds of civic and community leaders, government agencies, parks and recreation authorities, funders and others.