Foley gets $4 million grant to expand Graham Creek Preserve

Foley gets $4 million grant to expand Graham Creek Preserve

650 acre park includes 4 disc golf courses, 10 miles of hiking trails

Foley’s Graham Creek Nature Preserve is seeking a major expansion after the city received a $4-million federal environmental grant from The Coastal Zone Management Habitat Protection and Restoration Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to buy property to expand the facility, already the state’s largest municipal nature preserve.
The Graham Creek Nature Preserve is now about 650 acres in size. The preserve, located near Wolf Creek Drive in southeast Foley, includes 10 miles of hiking trails, two handicap-accessible boardwalks, a kayak launch and four disc golf courses.
Leslie Gahagan, Foley sustainability and natural resources director, said the city has been working with NOAA on the project for more than a year.
“They award very few of these every year nationally, and this year, we finally got notice that we received $4 million to go towards the acquisition of coastal lands for conservation,” Gahagan said.
Mayor Ralph Hellmich said Foley’s funding is the first NOAA grant approved for Alabama.
“Everything got behind this,” Hellmich said. “It was important. It was incredible that Alabama got this grant with us. It was very special that this grant was handed down this way. Leslie worked very, very hard on it.”
He said the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources under the direction of Director Chris Blankenship and State Lands Director Patti McCurdy also worked with the city to acquire the grant. Their contributions were instrumental in the process.
“We’re very proud of it. It was supported by the state Department of Conservation. I want to thank Chris Blankenship and Patti McCurdy for that,” Hellmich said.
The mayor said the city is continuing to work on funding for additional expansions at Graham Creek.
“We continue to cobble together money for the hope of the future,” Hellmich said. “There are a lot of good things going on down in that quadrant. We have a lot of partners, whether it’s the Forest Service, conservation department, even the governor’s office, I think they all really like what Foley’s doing with that nature preserve. It’s kind of like a state park that the state doesn’t have to operate or pay for it. So they’re very, very happy with us. And I think Leslie deserves a lot of the credit for this.”