Roebuck Spring
- This article is about the spring, for the residential subdivision, see Roebuck Springs subdivision.
Roebuck Spring is a spring located within the present boundaries of Roebuck-Hawkins Park in the Roebuck Springs-South Roebuck neighborhood of the Roebuck-South East Lake community of eastern Birmingham.
The area around the spring served as the homestead of George Roebuck, who built a log cabin alongside it in 1850.
In about 1900 a small pond, approximately 150 feet wide by 450 feet long, was created by damming Roebuck Spring with a soil and fieldstone berm. A spring house was also constructed of fieldstone and decorated with a small water wheel. The building housed pumping equipment to supply the Industrial School with water.
The pond, with its wooded banks, supported a variety of wildlife and became one of four known habitats of the endangered watercress darter.
2008 fish kill
In September 2008 Roebuck-Hawkins Park director Regina Nummy had city workers level the berm, draining the pond and killing as many as 10,000 of the watercress darters. She claims that she issued the order in response to incidents of flooding which caused damage to the park's adjacent tennis courts. Her actions are being investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation. Both civil and criminal charges are a possible outcome of the investigation.
An emergency permit was secured to allow city workers to comply with a Fish and Wildlife Service order to restore the pond without using heavy equipment. Sandbags were stacked in the breach to gradually raise the pond back to its original pool level. The Alabama Rivers Alliance will monitor water quality during the pond's restoration.
Mayor Larry Langford has requested that the council approve the hiring of Balch & Bingham to represent the city in defending itself against possible federal action. His office has already paid the firm $10,000 for work related to the case.
On March 18, 2009 the city installed an overflow drain comprised of a concrete drain enclosure and corrugated plastic piping with adjustable inlet walls. The design was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and permitted by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2018 the Freshwater Land Trust partnered with the City of Birmingham and the Fish & Wildlife Service to plan and carry out a larger habitat restoration project, including the removal of selected paved areas and the construction of bioswales for stormwater retention, filtration and dispersion.
| Watercress darter (Etheostoma nuchale) | |
|---|---|
| Habitats | Glenn Springs · Nabors Branch · Roebuck Spring · Tapawingo Springs · Thomas Spring · Turkey Creek |
| Preserves | Seven Springs Ecoscape · Turkey Creek Nature Preserve · Watercress Darter National Wildlife Refuge |
| People | R. D. Caldwell (co-discoverer) · Larry Davenport · Mike Howell (co-discoverer) · Heron Johnson |
References
- Brown, Virginia Pounds (1984) Grand Old Days of Birmingham Golf: 1898 - 1930. Birmingham: Beechwood Books. ISBN 0912221011
- Bouma, Katherine (September 23, 2008) "Dam removal kills more than 1,000 endangered fish at Roebuck Springs." Birmingham News
- Wilson, Glynn (September 23, 2008) "At Least 1,000 Endangered Watercress Darters Killed" The Locust Fork Journal
- Bouma, Katherine (September 24, 2008) "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service orders endangered watercress darter pond restored in Birmingham." Birmingham News
- Bouma, Katherine and Joseph D. Bryant (October 8, 2008) "The Birmingham City Council holds a closed meeting over the Roebuck watercress darter kill." Birmingham News
- Wilson, Glynn (April 10, 2009) "Birmingham Faces Investigation, Fines in Fish Kill" The Locust Fork Journal
- Byington, Pat (March 12, 2018) "Birmingham Roebuck Springs habitat for the endangered Watercress darter to be restored" Bham Now