BAY MINETTE, Ala. — From water management to invasive species, Baldwin County faces several critical issues related to the surrounding waters.

To address these issues and educate residents on the importance of them, the League of Women Voters will host a Critical Water Issues Forum March 26 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Baldwin County Commission Chambers.

"North Baldwin County has unique and special problems (such as) tornadoes, ice storms, flooding of the rivers, fires and uncontrolled burning, deforestation and loss of agricultural land, flora and fauna," Jeanne Lacey, ex-officio of the Baldwin League, said.

Additionally, Lacey said the area suffers from invasive species including the gopher tortoise and the red-belly turtle.

Lacey said some of the forum will be aimed at the unincorporated areas of the county. "Lacking any mechanism for zoning, these areas face problems related to population growth that will have ramifications on water supplies and management.

The forum will feature numerous speakers, specialists in various areas of concern.

Dauphin Island Sea Lab Professor John Valentine is studying the impacts of the causeway built across the bay in the late 1920s.

He will speak on the effects of the causeway on the ecological structure of the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta and how it has promoted invasive species increasingly found there.

Bob Fairbank is commissioner of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Region Utility Authority, an umbrella organization that assures a cooperative, regional approach to waste and storm water restoration efforts among individual authorities in that state.

The authority was formed by statutory law following Hurricane Katrina to ensure regional collaboration in the use of federal recovery funds.

Fairbank will talk about the successes his state has had since the authority's was implemented.

Peter Tuttle, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife specialist in resource contamination will also speak, as will David Yeager, former Mobile Bay National Estuary program director and University of South Alabama Environmental Engineering Professor Kevin White.

Yeager will speak to the establishment of a regional stormwater management authority, while White will address the issue of increasingly decentralized approaches to wastewater management.

Yeager and White spoke at the forum held for South Baldwin County held last October.

A question and answer session with the speakers will follow the forum.

The forums are part of an agreement between the League of Women Voters and the Baldwin County Commission to educate stakeholders on issues relevant to the health of the Delta, northern Gulf, local bays and waters.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information contact Margaret Solberger at margaretsolberger@wvsf.org or (251) 626-4498, Jeanne Lacey at jeannelacey@wvsf.org or (251) 626-4133 or Pat Laraway at (251) 945-5504 or fl9737@gulftel.com.