Last month, the Nature Conservancy of Alabama announced it had completed the purchase of an environmentally sensitive tract of land in the Paint Rock Valley that will add 1,648 acres to the Alabama's Walls of Jericho Preserve in Jackson County.
According to the Huntsville Times, the Conservancy stated that part of the river that will be protected is biologically significant containing many federally endangered aquatic species including mussels and darters. Biologists say the Paint Rock is one of the few remaining high-quality, free-flowing rivers in the Tennessee River basin and is home to 17 types of imperiled mussels. In the last several years the Conservancy spearheaded the effort to buy the Walls of Jericho and lands within Jackson County, Alabama and Franklin County, Tennessee, amounting to over 23,000 acres.
For more information about this outstanding effort by the Nature Conservancy of Alabama, contact them at 205-251-1155.