Alabama State Lands Go Social with New Forever Wild Website

The Forever Wild Land Trust has launched a new social media-driven interactive website, alabamaforeverwild.com. The new site serves as a social media hub that integrates services such as Foursquare, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook, and is a forum for fans of Forever Wild to share their favorite outdoor experiences.

To help visitors get started using the new Forever Wild website, a helpful video tutorial has been posted in the blog section of the site, and on YouTube at http://youtu.be/Prw7RHpmxGI.

Greg Lein, Alabama State Parks Director and Director of the Forever Wild program for the Alabama State Lands Division, said the new Forever Wild web experience is a place for fans to interact and engage with each other, and to discover the beauty and recreational activities that Alabama’s public lands have to offer.

“Social Media has become a daily tool that most of us use to communicate and share information,” he said. “The new Forever Wild site helps people connect though shared experiences that are associated with public lands in Alabama. Social media is the perfect platform to promote Forever Wild because it is a medium through which the public has a direct voice.”

A primary social media feature of the new website is the ability for visitors to share their photos and videos of Forever Wild properties with the use of hashtags, a word or phrase with the prefix “#” that makes that word or phrase searchable in various social media platforms. In order to share a video or photo on the Forever Wild site, users can tag their personal Flickr photos or YouTube videos with the land tract hashtag provided on the tract’s individual page on the new Forever Wild website.

Users of the site can also virtually “check in” to the individual land tracts and become that tract’s “mayor” by using a Foursquare account. Each land tract page also features the news feed of its Facebook and Twitter pages as well as any YouTube videos associated with the property.

An educational component is also embedded into the site with a section just for educators. Have questions about the flora and fauna on a particular public land? Each tract also has an “Ask a Biologist” section and a list of plants and animals that are commonly found in the area.

Do you have a favorite outdoor activity or Forever Wild property? The new Forever Wild website allows users to search that category and find every land tract in Alabama that offers it, and the interactive map pinpoints each Forever Wild land tract in Alabama. The map is searchable by your current location or where you will be traveling. You can even check the local weather to ensure the conditions are favorable for your recreational activity.

Log on to alabamaforeverwild.com and share your favorite Alabama Public Lands experience today!

Alabama DCNR

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is the state agency responsible for the conservation and management of Alabama's natural resources including state parks, state lands, wildlife and aquatic resources. ADCNR also issues hunting and fishing licenses for the state. The department promotes wise stewardship and enjoyment of the state’s natural resources through five divisions: Marine Police, Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. Supporting those divisions are seven support sections: Accounting, Diversity and Recruiting, Engineering, Information and Education, Information Technology, Legal, and Personnel and Payroll.