Restoring Greenspace

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
- John Muir"

The Wildlife Habitat Council has entered in a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) and Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST). Under the agreement, WHC will develop information about the latest understanding of applying ecological enhancements in site remediation. The goal is to demonstrate how federal, state and local agencies, industry and community groups can use ecological enhancements in site restoration and reuse. These ecological enhancements will prepare the sites for a variety of reuses, including wildlife habitat.

A former NPL Superfund site, which was reclaimed and delisted, along with a small parcel of a nearby former manufacturing facility have been combined by BP, in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, to create a wildlife habitat area. Native plants, such as Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and columbine, grasses, shrubs and trees have been planted at the site. Photo by Marcia Maslonek

These cooperative agreements stemmed from the highly successful series of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) conferences over the past 3 years. WHC will now focus on expanding this program by implementing the Objectives and Action Agenda for Implementing Ecological Enhancements, which was developed during the 2002 conference, Restoring Green Space: Using Ecological Enhancements at Superfund, RCRA and Brownfields Sites. 

In order to fulfill this agreement WHC has developed three-year Comprehensive Plans to address the different components of the Action Agenda. In addition, regional workshops will be planned over the next three years. A Steering Committee will be assembled during the next month to aid in developing the content and agenda for the workshops.

Learn more about these efforts with the newly developed section Land Restoration. Explore the resource directory, event section and newsletter. The newsletter will focus on the incorporation of ecological enhancements at waste and Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) sites. Members and other stakeholders can sign-up online to receive it via e-mail.

Partnerships
WHC partners with numerous local, state and federal agencies to encourage environmental dialogue and programs at all levels that include benefits for the local communities like improved outreach and awareness. Public and private partnerships are important since they blend industry, agency and conservation organization energies to produce unique opportunities that address global biodiversity and improve the management of our watersheds and ecosystems.

Partner programs promote critical thinking and bridge the gap between government and industry sectors while providing resources for technical assistance, and often, funding through grants. WHC engages in programs with agencies such as the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. EPA, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and USDA Forest Service, to name a few. These cooperative agreements result in improved habitat for wildlife, environmental education and community outreach.

For the last two years, WHC has offered a scholarship program sponsored by U.S. EPA through the U.S. OPM’s Federal Executive Institute and the Management Development Centers. The program provides ideas and sound solutions to watershed management issues and encourages environmental leaders to think collaboratively about effective and pragmatic decisions regarding watersheds. Expert speakers examine ecological principles for watershed planning and present ideas on ways in which representatives with different environmental goals can work together on wildlife habitat development.

Since 1996, WHC has worked with the USDA NRCS on numerous programs, including the Fish & Wildlife Habitat Management Leaflets series through the Wildlife Habitat Management Institute (WHMI) and Backyard Conservation. The MOU with USDA NRSC efficiently outlines opportunities and goals based on mutual shared interests, such as working with private industry to encourage participation in the conservation and development of wildlife habitat and wetlands on unused industry and company-owned lands.

Backyard Conservation is a cooperative project of the USDA NRCS, Association of Conservation Districts and WHC. Workshops teach community members how to use techniques, scaled down for home use, to create yards that support a greater diversity of desirable plants and animals. One local Backyard Conservation program benefits wildlife inhabiting the grounds of retirement and assisted living facilities with the help of local students. While many residents cannot always fully participate in the planting activities, they often provide expertise gained from their personal gardening experiences. The residents gain a sense of pride and ownership because these projects are taking place in and around their home.

WHC also provides alternative ways for corporations to protect wildlife habitat. Through an ongoing partnership with the WHMI, a new management program will develop wildlife habitat on utility rights-of-way (R-O-Ws). The focus of the Right-of-Way Demonstration Program is to assist landowners in the creation of wildlife beneficial habitat that will not compromise the ability to transmit power resources. There are thousands, perhaps millions, of acres of wildlife habitat available in R-O-Ws throughout the United States, areas that are occupied by the equipment necessary for the safe and reliable transmission of power over land and underground.

R-O-Ws are found in many ecological systems, including forested lands, shrublands, tidal and nontidal wetlands, streams, rivers, meadows and old fields. These areas supply important early successional habitat opportunities, especially in areas where population growth and development have limited habitat availability elsewhere. They also provide wildlife with crucial travel corridors needed for migration. Techniques like enhancing shrub-scrub wildlife habitat leave smaller shrubs and low-growing plants that provide food, nesting and cover for wildlife. Power companies and communities alike have vested interests in both maintaining a utility corridor’s ability to transmit power and preserving local ecological systems.

The WHC Vision for the Future

Waste Management, Inc.'s (WM) Kirby Canyon Waste Management Landfill, in Morgan Hill, California, was awarded WHC's 2002 Rookie of the Year. WM protects and enhances the serpentine-soil based grasslands, and the populations of endangered and threatened species present at the site, such as the Bay checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha bayensis).

The opportunities to share knowledge and enthusiasm about wetlands are endless. Activities from taking local school children on a wetland tour to talking with business partners about wetlands help to raise awareness. An important factor in education is continually teaching citizens about aquatic areas and how to protect them.

In 2003, WHC will research and provide different opportunities to help members and government agencies address critical issues related to wetland protection. There are millions of acres of drained wetlands that are waiting to be restored. Seeing the need to get more people involved, we encourage members to engage and sponsor environmental stewardship. Initiatives can happen in a variety of ways, from protecting and managing wetlands on corporate properties to encouraging good stewardship on public lands. As a result, our watersheds will be healthier—leaving behind a wildlife legacy for the children of tomorrow.

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