Project to help tourists get close to nature

Oriiginally published by the Mobule Press Register

Sunday, July 29, 2007
By K. A. Turner

Imagine, if you will, a weeklong vacation in coastal Alabama.
It could include some beach time and a po' boy, perhaps a charter fishing trip or a visit to the outlets and malls. The USS Alabama, Bellingrath Gardens and the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center might be on the itinerary.

But what if it could also include a kayak tour in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta?
A guided bird-watching adventure? A walking tour of a wildflower bog?
Or reaching into a touch-tank to hold a live shrimp?

Such are the kinds of experiences that LaDon Swann and Joanne McDonough believe will take on added importance with the help of a new nature-based tourism initiative.

McDonough, who took up residence in Baldwin County more than 15 years ago "because it was so beautiful," has been hired as a nature-based tourism specialist working out of the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau. The three-year project is a joint effort of the bureau and Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center.

McDonough's charge: evaluate existing nature-based tourism efforts, identify needs and coordinate resources for improving the businesses.

"Some of the ideas relate to packaging," said McDonough, who logged time working for CBS, some producing the "nature moments" that often closed Charles Kuralt's legendary On the Road series. "Moving them through different recreational opportunities, particularly in the nature-related area, is appealing to people."

Swann had much of the hands-on involvement in designing the nature-based tourism grant and building the partnership between Auburn and the visitors bureau. He is director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, an education and advocacy effort of Auburn and Mississippi State universities that works for a well-balanced use of land along the Gulf Coast.

Swann said the tourism effort is a major element of the consortium's strategic plan.
"The key word is sustainable -- a balance between making sure the environment is taken care of and trying to derive some economic bounty from the natural assets that we have," he said.

The project could be a boon for Lynn Irving, owner of Dauphin Island Kayak Rentals and Tours.
"I've been struggling since (Hurricane) Ivan," she said of her business, which she runs from March to October every year to supplement her late husband's military pension. "I'm just trying to keep it going."

Irving is excited about her initial meeting with McDonough.
"She's going to hook me up with a lady in Fairhope who does tours (antique houses, high tea and such) and talk to her about setting up a new one where people go to Fort Morgan, ride the ferry and take a tour with me," said Irving, whose rates start at $10 an hour for kayak rentals and $60 for guided kayaking adventures. She also offers a "trashy" discount -- about
10 percent off for customers who collect a bag of trash during their island stay.

The connections help, and McDonough also directs businesses toward the visitors bureau Web site to advertise their services. But as much as anything, said Irving, McDonough's encouragement is important.

She has been in their shoes.
McDonough for several years ran her own nature-based business -- Caribiana Island Cruises.
"What I wanted to do there was sort of in honor of Charles Kuralt ... show the beauty of nature, showing its meaning and purpose."

The effort, which involved marine biologists, botanists and ornithologists to enhance the information and experience for clients, yielded high-end tours that McDonough said ultimately generated about as much press coverage as profit.

But she brings lessons learned there to her new post.

"She has that first-hand experience," said Swann. "I think that's going to give her a lot more credibility sooner than someone who had never worked in that industry."