In 2018, Christopher Joe’s father urged him and his siblings to think of creative ways they could use their 200-acre farmland in Hale County, in Alabama’s Black Belt.

The wheels started turning in Joe’s mind, and he connected with eco-tourism experts and birding experts from Alabama Audubon.

“I’m playing on the farm,” Joe said. “I’m just trying to do my part.”

Today, The Joe Farm is a destination for birdwatchers all over the country, and one of the standout locations for the “Black Belt Birding Festival,” where birders can see Mississippi kites diving for insects.

Joe, a conservationist with the National Resources Conversation Service, was able to draw so many birds—and later so many tourists—by implementing practices that encouraged the native prairie habitat to flourish.

Now, a

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