If the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is America’s Amazon, then the Causeway is its gateway. If the Causeway is the gateway, then the 5 River Delta Center is the gatekeeper. It is one of those places that you may not know what goes on there, but you are glad it exists, hopefully working to protect and support the place for which it is tasked with overseeing.

A little over a year ago, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) held an auction to lease, with an option to purchase, the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center. It was established in 2008 by the ADCNR to showcase the ecological diversity of the Mobile-Tensaw delta, provide conservation education, and promote stewardship. 

In June of 2025, a lease agreement was finalized between the ADCNR and the Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF) for the 75-acre campus to become the AWF Delta and Bay Conservation Center (DBCC) at Five Rivers, which officially opened in April. I spoke with the new Director of the DBCC, Scott Bannon, shortly after the grand opening. 

Scott Bannon may be a familiar name. He spent the last eight years as Director of the Marine Resources Division of the ADCNR. If in the past eight years, you had had a bone to pick about your snapper limit, Scott was your guy. There are videos on YouTube of Scott delivering news reports about reduced oyster harvest to groups of, let’s just say, not-so-happy oystermen. Watching them, I thought at any moment they would take up torches and oyster tongs and run Scott out of the State. But he stood his ground and gave an honest take on the state of the resource. 

Scott spent most of his career, 28 total, with the ADCNR, trying to protect and conserve Alabama’s marine resources for current and future generations of Alabamians. A native of Kentucky, he joined the Coast Guard after graduating high school and was stationed in Mobile. He never left the area. When his Coast Guard contract was up, he fell right into the Marine Resources Division as an enforcement officer and steadily moved up the ladder. Scott was eligible for retirement with the State of Alabama, but was called upon to do what he said was his second dream job. 

According to its website, “The Alabama Wildlife Federation is the oldest and largest non-profit conservation organization in Alabama. The AWF was established by sportsmen in 1935 to promote the conservation and wise use of our wildlife and natural resources and to ensure a high quality of life for future generations of Alabamians.” 

One of those founding sportsmen was Fred T. Stimpson, a Mobile native and relative of former Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson. The AWF has retained strong ties to Lower Alabama (as well as to the Stimpson family) ever since and has been involved in the work to conserve and protect this unique environment, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. 

In 1999, the AWF, the Alabama Forever Wild Land Trust, and the ADCNR worked together to purchase 50,000 acres in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. The AWF purchased 12,000 of those 50,000 acres on behalf of the Forever Wild Land Trust. More recently, in 2020 and 2021, the AWF partnered with various private entities to distribute 29 artificial near-shore reefs in Alabama waters. 

Further, in 2022, recognizing the importance of healthy oyster populations for water quality, habitat, and shoreline protection, the AWF set aside $250,000 for oyster restoration in Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound. The AWF worked closely with the ADCNR Marine Resources Division to identify specific restoration projects for implementation. 

AWF has a long-standing and close working relationship with the ADCNR. In fact, its first official order of business was to support a bill that would require a one-dollar annual fishing license, the proceeds of which were designed to support the fisheries work of the ADCNR. As the Director of the Marine Resources Division, Scott was at the forefront of these partnerships. 

He told me about a separate instance when someone called him with several sections of six-foot-diameter pipe and asked, “Wouldn’t this make a great artificial reef?” Scott told him, “Yes, it would be great.” The person replied, “Good, but I need it gone next week.” Scott joked, “I’m the government, I can’t get paperwork filled out in that amount of time, let’s call the AWF.”  Scott told me, “Within two days, they had trucks lined up and were loading barges with the pipe.”

The AWF is based in Millbrook, AL, where it has successfully operated the Alabama Nature Center since 2007. The Natureplex, as it is known, “allows the AWF the opportunity to teach children and adults about the wise use and responsible stewardship of our wildlife and related natural resources.” 

The Natureplex will be the model for the AWF Delta and Bay Conservation Center, whose stated purpose is:  “To provide planned, outdoor education field trips for public, private, and home school groups, summer and holiday Day Camps for youth, weekday and weekend programming and use opportunities for the general public, and rental opportunities for meetings when they do not conflict with our primary educational activities.” I encourage you to go to their website to see the offerings. 

The AWF is doing much needed major renovations to the 5 Rivers site to make it a more efficient and effective space for groups of all kinds. Decking has been replaced, overgrowth has been cleared, and the hiking trails have been revamped. They have installed monitors and kitchenettes and reworked floor plans to make their indoor space more functional. There is a changing of the guard on the Causeway, and with it are fresh eyes and fresh faces. 

Scott told me his new job “is the completion of a 46-year circle” because as a child, “I went to a conservation camp, and I truly believe it started my trajectory to where I’ve ended up.” Scott is a servant leader in the truest sense. He has been able to assemble a capable and experienced team from the staff at the Alabama Nature Center and a few others he was able to recruit. 

“God had a plan because I couldn’t build this team again,” he told me. “My job is to make sure our team has all the equipment they need, everything, all the items, so that when the buses roll in here, they know it’s going to be a good day. They know I’m going to move the lunches out to the picnic table, that I’m going to clean the bathrooms, and they know if they need something, I’m going to make it happen. So that’s my job, to make sure everything is in place for them to do what they do.” 

Scott told me he asked one of his staffers what she thought her purpose was at the BDCC. “I’m going to have the opportunity to meet a child and change her life,” she said. “It’s more than that,” Scott said as her eyes widened. “You are going to meet thousands and thousands of kids, and you are going to impact hundreds, if not thousands of lives, over some little thing you said on the trail or something some little girl watched you do.” 

If Scott and team and the AWF are holding the keys to the gateway, then I believe we are in good hands.