A prime focus of the Alabama Land Trust’s agricultural lands’ protection efforts is the Blackbelt Region. The old plantation belt was drawn to this region by productive soils that were originally an ancient sea shore which then became a vast grassland covering dark, loamy soils. We have worked with landowners to protect over 11,000 acres with conservation easements.  Most of these easements adjoin or are in close proximity to one another and thus help preserve the agricultural viability of this area.

The area also drains import­ant watersheds such as the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers, where our CEs protected over nine miles of streambed. These easements guard the natural condition of hardwood bottomland, riparian areas and many tributaries.

The most productive region in Alabama up to the Civil War, the Blackbelt supported some corn cultivation, although cotton was the primary crop. After the onset of the boll weevil compelled agricultural diversification and the mechanization of agriculture, the region now supports primarily soybean cultivation and beef cattle production.

Bartram described his excursions into the east part of the Blackbelt which he reached during his travels down the Chattahoochee and into pockets of the Blackbelt in eastern Alabama. Few areas remain of the native grasses and flowers that blanketed the area when Bartram passed through on his way to the Gulf.