GULF SHORES — Did you know Alabama's state flower, the camellia, is native not to our rich soils but to China and Japan?

Or that there are hosts of carnivorous marine flowers that call the Tensaw-Delta home? That, just like many families have only ever called Baldwin County home, many species have only ever been seen to live here?

A captive audience learned those facts and more on Thursday, April 30, as environmental journalist and conservation activist Ben Raines, credited for discovering the Clotilda and storyteller behind documentaries such as "America's Amazon" and "The Carnivorous Kingdom," explored the wonders found among the flora and fauna around coastal Alabama, Mobile Bay and River and the lush delta beyond.

It's the most biodiverse place in the nation per square foot. Yet, not all of his slides showed life.

They also showed pollution and decay, runoff and rampant human interference.

The talk was the keynote segment of Shared Shores, an event hosted by Gulf Coast Media that aimed to strengthen community connections across potential divides.

Environmental stewardship, protection and advocacy can be a cause for division. It can be politicized, and it has different access points to people across lines such as age and ability to dedicate money or time.

But as Raines' presentation showed the wondrous life that depends on the health of our local ecosystems, waterways and land, protecting it bodes well for everyone, whether you're a fifth-generation farmer, beach vacationer, high school student, seafood lover or just someone who gets really excited when the hummingbirds return to their front yard every year.

Through Gulf Coast Media's partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places emerging journalists into local newsrooms across the country to report on under-covered issues, we've been starting to tell those stories of why our environment is so important to our way of life, and how Baldwin County's growth is impacting it, for better and for worse.

Shared Shores, sponsored by Report for America, brought together people across generations to talk about how we can all do our part today now. We worked with Gulf Shores City Schools, particularly academies and GSCS CTE director Jessica Sampley, with help from environmental science and AP environmental science teacher Krista Fleming and K-12 career coach Tyler Morgan, to bring students to the conversation. Because at the end of the day, all of this matter the most to them, right? The ones we leave this world to, for better or for worse.

Five high school students served as ambassadors and participated in a Q&A with Raines following his presentation. Moderated by GCM's Chavez, the students asked about how their generation can bring a fresh perspective to conservation and how storytelling can transcend into purpose and action.

Hosted at the Gulf Coast Center for Ecotourism and Sustainability, guests got to tour the 1-year-old facility and grounds and taste bites from chef and GSCS culinary instructor Jonathan Kastner. Sourcing every ingredient except the flour from local farmers markets and even the Eco Center's garden, Kastner and student assistant Parker Pennington whipped up grilled squash blossoms stuffed with whipped ricotta and local shrimp, chargrilled Navy Cove oysters with compound butter, raw oysters with mignonette, several versions of pizza with fresh local toppings, kale salad with strawberry vinaigrette, dehydrated strawberries and pickled turnips and ended the night with lemon cookies topped with a dollop of lavender ice cream.