Wildlife Habitat Council- Corporate Lands for Learning

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CLL News

Couple donates hundreds of hours, honored as
Community Partner of the Year

Linda and Al Thrower earned WHC’s Community Partner of the Year award for their energetic and knowledgeable contributions to bird research and conservation at Ontario Power Generation’s Nanticoke Generating Station. A panel of third-party judges gave the Throwers top honors out of a field of nine excellent finalists. The couple

Linda and Al Thrower are instrumental to the Ontario Power Generation, Nanticoke Generating Station nest box program.

volunteered over 300 hours since 2007 in support of the generating station’s Wildlife at Work and Corporate Lands for Learning programs. The Throwers managed and maintained a network of 100 nest boxes and engaged in bird banding, data gathering and winter bird surveys. In addition, they led winter nest box cleanouts with the Boy Scouts; actively participated in conservation events such as Environment Week celebrations; and initiated new relationships and partnerships with organizations such as Girl Guides, the Ruthven Park Banding Laboratory and the Royal Ontario Museum. The Throwers’ energy is integral to the fulfillment of the Nanticoke Generating Station’s Corporate Lands for Learning mission to “instill wildlife habitat values in the Nanticoke employees and the surrounding community and inspire participation in wildlife habitat projects.”

WHC’s Community Partner of the Year award, introduced in 1998, is an opportunity to recognize one organization or individual for significant contribution to a site's wildlife habitat enhancement and conservation education programs. Sites may nominate local partners who help plan, implement and sustain their programs. The nomination form is available at http://www.wildlifehc.org/apply/. Nominees are recognized and the winner is named at WHC’s annual symposium in November.

International Presence of CLL Grows

Fife Girl_Pond

A girl uses a pond net to sample invertebrate life at ExxonMobil's Fife Ethylene Plant in Scotland.

In November 2009, ExxonMobil’s Fife Ethylene Plant became the first European site to win the Wildlife Habitat Council’s Corporate Lands for Learning Rookie of the Year award. Through remarkably extensive partnerships with schools and community groups, the plant employees transformed their site’s habitat area into a hands-on conservation education center.

The Fife Ethylene Plant is a leader among WHC’s growing community of outstanding international sites. Others at the forefront of CLL’s global efforts include PPG San Juan del Rio, Grand Bahamas Power Company, Ontario Power Generation’s four sites (Pickering Nuclear, Nanticoke Generating Station, Niagara Plant Group, Darlington Nuclear) and , Unimin Corporation Grupo Materias Primas’ Planta Ahuazotepec in Mexico, which was a 2009 Corporate Habitat of the Year nominee, and Monsanto Company’s newly-certified São José dos Campos Plant, which is currently featured on the CLL Spotlight page.

Ontario Power Generation Honored with WHC “C.E.O.” Award, 2009

WHC Board Chairman Scott Kilkenny presents the C.E.O. Award to Cara Clairman, Vice President of Sustainable Development at Ontario Power Generation. Photo (c) 2009 Lynda Richardson/Wildlife Exposed.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) was honored with the prestigious William W. Howard Conservation Education and Outreach (CEO) Award because of its commitment to establish site-based education programs, linked soundly to their habitat enhancement projects at many sites, resulting in a corporate-wide appreciation of the role of conservation education in achieving the goals of the corporate partner and the surrounding community. WHC President Robert Johnson comments, “This award is recognition for the extraordinary efforts that OPG has undertaken over the years in including people in its exceptional efforts to protect and study the biodiversity of the regions in which they operate. Their outreach programs reach a staggering amount of individuals at each site, while they also provide more intimate learning experiences for learners of all ages, including the opportunity to be a part of research and monitoring of their conservation projects.”