Environmental Stewardship and Public Service

The members of Balch & Bingham’s Environmental and Natural Resources Section hold numerous leadership positions at a variety of public service organizations. Over the years, examples of such organizations have included the American Bar Association, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the Alabama Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, and the Alabama Urban Forestry Association. In addition to the Section’s devotion to public service, members of the Section are also involved in projects and organizations that actively promote environmental stewardship. For example, the firm recently donated and planted a dozen native trees in the habitat area surrounding Roebuck Spring—the home of the endangered watercress darter.

Public Service

The Environmental and Natural Resources Section is heavily involved in the American Bar Association. Members have held various leadership positions and have served on numerous committees. Currently, Steve McKinney serves as Chair of the ABA’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER), while Stephen Gidiere currently serves as Council Member of SEER. In addition, Steven Burns serves as a Vice Chair of SEER’s Homeland Security Committee, Leslie G. Allen serves as a Vice Chair of SEER’s Energy Infrastructure and Siting Committee, and Alexia Borden serves as a Vice Chair of SEER’s Air Quality Committee.

Morever, the Section’s attorneys are involved in a variety of organizations devoted to public service. Jim Noles serves as Vice Chair on the board of directors for the Alabama Humanities Foundation. He also serves on the board of directors for the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham and on the board of directors for the Alabama Bench and Bar Historical Society. David Moore serves on the board of directors for the National Hydropower Association and serves as counsel for the Fernbank Elementary School Foundation. Grady Moore serves as a commissioner for the Jefferson County Greenways Commission. Thomas Casey serves on the Birmingham Bar Association’s Pro Bono Week Committee. Joel Gilbert serves on the executive committee of the Alabama State Bar’s Environmental Section. And Mary Samuels is a commission member and serves as counsel for the Keep Birmingham Beautiful Commission.

Members of the Section have also served as adjunct professors. Stephen Gidiere has taught natural resources law at the University of Alabama School of Law. Jim Noles has taught military law at the University of Alabama School of Law and historical resources law at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Joel Gilbert has taught environmental litigation at Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, and Tripp Head and Grady Moore have served as adjunct professors for the Masters Degree program in Environmental Management at Samford University.

Section members are also involved in the local community. Earlier this year, Jim Noles was a featured speaker at Crestline Elementary school’s annual Celebrate Writing program in Birmingham, Alabama and at the Alabama Writer’s Symposium in Monroeville, Alabama. Rob Fowler recently spoke at The Keystone Center’s Youth Policy Summit on Water Quality and Human Health. Rob’s talk focused on sustainability and how to manage population growth with clean water. The Keystone Center’s Youth Policy Summits provide students with a distinctive training and preparatory experience that engages a current, science-intensive policy issue.

Click here for a thank you letter from the Keystone Center.

Environmental Stewardship

On July 27, 2010, Balch & Bingham’s Environmental and Natural Resources Section hosted an urban tree-planting at Hawkins Park, a public park in the City of Birmingham, Alabama. Hawkins Park includes a section of Roebuck Spring, a naturally-occurring spring that is home to the watercress darter (Etheostoma nuchale), which is listed as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. Ten lawyers from the Section and eighteen summer law clerks participated in the tree-planting event. In total, twelve trees were planted ranging from three gallons to ten gallons in size, including native species such as bald cypress, black tupelo, swamp chestnut oak, and sycamore. These trees were selected with the assistance of both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the City of Birmingham’s urban forester.

The trees were planted as part of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) “One Million Trees Project,” which calls on ABA members to plant one million trees by 2014; this initiative was announced in 2009 by the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources.

Click here for a thank you letter from the Director of Hawkins Park.