Recently Protected: Lightning Point in Bayou La Batre

We're excited to share that GALT recently protected 40 acres in Mobile County, Alabama in partnership with The Nature Conservancy in Alabama, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Mobile County!

The historic Lightning Point in Bayou La Batre features habitats of intertidal marsh, brackish tidal marsh, maritime forest, and savannah/wet prairie. Significant to the Property’s hydrology are the tidal marshes and shoreline that border the confluence of the Bayou La Batre navigation channel and Portersville Bay. Since 1916, the shoreline near the mouth of the Bayou has retreated 200 feet from daily wave action, boat traffic, storm surges, and in extreme cases, hurricane events. The Nature Conservancy and other agencies have recently completed the largest coastal restoration project in the history of Alabama to repair the Bayou La Batre shoreline at Lightning Point!

Lightning Point is used by the public for fishing, recreating, bird watching, and viewing the shrimp and oyster boats leaving Bayou La Batre and coming in from Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound. By protecting this area, the nutrients being generated in the marsh will benefit the shrimp and oyster colonies found further out in the Sound, providing economic value to the small community of Bayou La Batre.

If you are ever visiting Alabama’s seafood capital, be sure to include a trip to Lightning Point!