SPANISH FORT, Ala. — In a bid to help a “disempowered” community reconnect with its ravaged Gulf Coast habitat and rejuvenate struggling coastal economies, an environmental coalition launched a five-year plan Tuesday to build 100 miles of oyster reefs and 1,000 acres of marsh wetlands and grass beds.

Dubbed “100/1000: Restore Coastal Alabama,” the restoration plan combines the efforts of Mobile Baykeeper, the Alabama Coastal Foundation, The Ocean Foundation and the

Alabama chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

The proposed public-private partnership, unveiled on the banks of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta at Spanish Fort’s 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center, merges the resources formerly dedicated to intermittent, smaller-scale oyster-reef rebuilding projects over the past few years toward a common, if ambitious, goal.

Casi Callaway, executive director of Mobile Baykeeper, said the bay has experienced sustained and significant loss of marsh, seagrass and oyster-reef habitats through development practices, erosion, storm events and the impacts of the recent Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

“This oil disaster disempowered the community … but this restoration effort will reconnect us not only to the bay and our culture and our history, but it will connect us back to each other and give us back some of the power that BP took from us,” Callaway said.

London-based BP PLC has been deemed the “responsible party” for the four-month oil spill that stemmed from the April 20 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. An estimated 200 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico during what has been called the nation’s worst environmental disaster, and Callaway said the 100/1000 initiative creates an opportunity for coastal residents to have a proactive hand in repairing the ravaged marine habitat.

The spill’s colossal scope and impact “forced us to combine our efforts and think a whole lot bigger,” Callaway said, acknowledging the construction of 20 miles of oyster reef per year for five years “is no small feat, but it’s very doable if we all work together.”

The partnership’s first phase, a small-scale restoration project at Helen Wood Park on Mobile Bay’s western shore, is slated to begin next week.

Local and regional organizations already committed to supporting the project include the Coastal Conservation Association of Alabama, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium and Mobile Bay National Estuary Program.

In addition to providing a foundation to revive local businesses dependent on the bay’s resources, 100/1000 is expected to create jobs because crews will be needed to construct and deploy artificial oyster reefs.

Financial support

The J.L. Bedsole Foundation has announced that it will provide seed funding for the initiative’s first phase with additional funds provided by the Hearin-Chandler Foundation, the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, the Crampton Trust and the Cole Foundation Trust.

Continued funding will be crucial to sustaining the effort, however, because the five-year project carries a $60 million cost, or about $600,000 per mile.

Callaway said that is a small price to pay for resurrecting a way of life.

“If you think what BP has to spend to fix what they’ve broken in our communities, what we’re asking for is very reasonable. Environmental restoration is the only key to long-term economic recovery, and that’s going to require a long-term investment in our community,” she said.

For more information, visit any of the following websites: www.100-1000.org, www.joinacf.org, www.mobilebaykeeper.org, www.nature.org/gulfofmexico, www.gulfrestorationfund.org.