Friends of Shades Creek meeting, featuring Mitch Reid!

January Friends of Shades Creek Meeting

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Homewood Library, Room 101 (downstairs)

7:00 to 8:30

Presenter: Mitch Reid, Program Director at the Alabama Rivers Alliance

We are starting the year off with a look at challenges and opportunities in local and state governments as well as the Federal government. The next few years could be tough, but underlying everything is the belief that people really do want clean safe affordable water resources for drinking, for utility in homes and for recreation. Friends of Shades Creek as well as other groups plan to advocate for this, for all citizens.

Mitch manages the Alabama Rivers Alliance programs, working with both the state and federal governments towards real and lasting protection of our rivers. Some of the projects that Mitch is working on include a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency to reform the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s pollution permitting program, the relicensing of several Alabama Power hydroelectric dams under the oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and working with partner groups from around the state to develop protective and sustainable water policies for Alabama.

Mitch hales from Bellwood, Alabama, a small town in Southeast Alabama right on the Choctawhatchee River in Geneva, county. He graduated from Slocomb High School in Slocomb, Alabama and then went on to pursue his undergraduate degree at West Point and his law degree at the University of Alabama. After West Point, Mitch served in the Army until 2004. He was stationed for most of his military career in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 16th Military Police Brigade. During this time, he was deployed to Afghanistan from August of 2002 until March of 2003. In 2014 he completed the United Nation’s Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) course on International Water Law which focused on the common principles associated with sharing water resources and protecting the right to water.

During his free time, Mitch and his wife Sarah, along with their two adorable boys, enjoy paddling and photographing the beautiful rivers and streams of our state.

Come hear our presenter and join the conversation. Refreshments will be served before the meeting.