Warrior Mountian Outpost

Following the morning hike in the Sipsey I figured it was time to find Mark Kolinski, Wild South's canyon mapper for the Bankhead. I knew they were located in Wren. However I drove in the opposite direction after leaving the Sispey as I didn't realize I had already driven by it. Wren sits just at the base of the Bankhead plateau a few miles outside Moulton. It is an intersection town, marked by a yellow blinking light.

I decided I would stop and ask about the whereabouts of the Wild South headquarters at a gas station/general store called the Warrior Mountain Trading Post. As I pulled into the lot I noticed two Toyota hybrids with Obama/Biden stickers, the only one's I'd seen in some time. I was getting close.

Inside it became even more obvious this store had something to do with what I was looking for. I noticed right off the bat several publications involving birding, a book on historic native American trails and after further searching, publications from Wild South itself. Pulling my head up I realized this was no ordinary general store. The back of the store was covered in taxidermy and Indian artifacts. There were fossilized plants, arrowheads, ancient tools, topo maps and guide books. I was talking with Jamie on the phone while looking at the cases. She was checking my email to find out if Mark had responded with where the HQ was and sure enough it was the Warrior Mountain Trading Post.

Asking the cashier, she escorted me to the back room where I met Vince Meleski and Janice Barret. Vince had been expecting me as Mark had sent him an email saying someone may drop by to chat. Mark was recovering from a surgery but Vice was more than happy to sit down and explain Wild South's work on the Bankhead National Forest. He went over the on the ground problems affecting the forest. Mainly the Forest Service's planting of 80,000 acres of loblolly pine plantations on what used to be mixed hardwood and longleaf pine forests. He went over the beginnings of the organization, the borderline violent contentions surrounding the initial stand against the Forest Service's ravaging tactics, particularly about clearcutting on native cultural sites. He elaborated a little about the Forest Service's past deceits, such as marking old worn down roads as functional ones to prohibit protection as wilderness. We talked about illegal ATV use, their monitoring and restoration of endangered longleaf pine ecosystems by using controlled burns. He spoke of the horrorshow of coalbed methane drilling on Southern forests, the fragmentation, the toxic ponds left over. We talked of bears, declining woodpeckers, exotic wild boars, and of course cougars. "Oh yeah, you hear of them." I had to ask whether he thought they were out there. He smiled, leaning back-"maybe." Vince had a soothing southern drawl and a calming temperment, which ws a nice respite from the few conversations I was able to have up to this point.

He is proud of their current situation on the Bankhead. There is no commercial logging taking place. All of the Forest Service's efforts are directed, with prodding and support from Wild South, toward restoration. I asked how it got to be that way when in other parts of the country, contentions are still high. He said they were lucky enough to get a forest supervisor who was interested in restoration. Since there are no current timber sales it is a perfect chance to focus funding on restoring the forest. He himself had wondered why this forest was so productive in the non-traditional way. When he asked the supervisor, he responded by saying instead of hiring the usual timber lobbyists and industry experts, I hired scientists. Interesting as we hopefully say goodbye to the days of lobbyists running the country. When Janice stuck her head in and asked if I would like to go for a hike the next day, the conversation switched to canyons and I was shown an elaborate map of the many canyons that had been explored and documented to date.

In all it was an enormous amount of information to digest. I planned on meeting Janice here again at 9am the following day for a "4-6" hour hike. Leaving the building I noticed the bulletin board by the entrance. I had not taken many pictures of the run down aspects of rural life in my travels because I didn't feel right documenting others misfortune for my own exploits. This bulletin board I regarded with the same feeling. However I caved and just before I left hurredly snapped this picture.