In recent decades, coastal Alabama has begun experiencing burgeoning growth and development and rapid population increase, with many consequences that threaten the health of some of the nation’s most biologically productive ecosystems, Alabama’s estuaries.’ In this program, Discovering Alabama host Dr. Doug Phillips canoes down Baldwin County’s Magnolia River for a return visit to one of Alabama’s best kept estuaries, Weeks Bay (originally featured among the series’ earliest shows thus drawing public attention to the natural values of this special estuary and helping win protective federal designation as a National Estuarine Reserve.) Host Dr. Doug Phillips examines troublesome changes and impacts affecting Weeks Bay today and talks with local leaders who discuss the rising potential for environmental decline throughout Alabama’s coastal area.