Hyundai donates $50,000 for interactive gopher tortoise habitat in Millbrook

Millbrook families will get a new hands-on stop inside Discovery Hall at the Alabama Nature Center by the end of 2026, where a crawl-through gopher tortoise burrow is designed to turn a conservation lesson into something children can actually walk through. The exhibit will sit inside the NaturePlex, the 23,000-square-foot welcome and education facility that already serves as one of central Alabama’s biggest outdoor learning draws.

Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama said its $50,000 investment is making the interactive habitat possible. The company and the Alabama Wildlife Federation are using the donation to sponsor a display that will show how the tortoise lives underground and why its burrows matter to other animals across Alabama’s longleaf pine landscape. For families looking for an affordable outing in the Millbrook area, the appeal is practical as much as educational: the habitat gives visitors a clear, physical feature to explore instead of a passive exhibit to glance at and leave.

That matters because the gopher tortoise is more than a mascot for the woods. Outdoor Alabama says more than 360 species are known to use active or abandoned gopher tortoise burrows. The state also says gopher tortoise populations have declined by at least 80 percent over the last 100 years, and the species has been a candidate for endangered-species listing throughout its eastern southeast range since 2011. In Alabama, the tortoise is federally threatened in Mobile, Washington and Choctaw counties, and protected by state regulation elsewhere in its eastern range.

The new habitat will place that ecology in front of children and visitors in a way that is easy to understand. The display is expected to connect above-ground and underground habitats in one experience, giving families a better look at a species that quietly supports much of the wildlife around it.

The project also builds on a destination that is already drawing regular traffic. The Alabama Wildlife Federation said more than half a million people have visited Lanark and the Alabama Nature Center since opening in 2007, and the NaturePlex was completed in 2015. For Millbrook, that means the tortoise habitat will not be a stand-alone gesture. It will become part of a growing attraction that helps define the city as a place where education, conservation and family recreation overlap.

Hyundai’s role is also part of a larger regional footprint. The company marked its 20th production anniversary in 2025, said it has built 6.27 million vehicles since opening in 2005, and said it employs about 4,200 team members. Scott Posey, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama’s public relations manager, said the company has partnered with the Alabama Wildlife Federation for more than a decade and has already given more than $100,000. For central Alabama, the result is a new public-facing attraction with a clear purpose: make one of the state’s most important species visible, understandable and worth protecting.