Wildlife Habitat Council - WHC Spotlights

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A crested caracara (Caracara cheriway) makes its home on the Wildlife Learning Preserve at the Corpus Christi Complex of Flint Hills Resources, LP.

Member Spotlight

Each month, WHC showcases member environmental stewardship efforts, partner programs and articles of interest. Send in links, company Web pages or outside media Web outlets that showcase your program to publications@wildlifehc.org. Mail good quality news clippings to WHC's main office.

Stop by these links to learn more about news, celebrations and projects:

Companies and communities are working together to sustain natural resources through good stewardship and science-based solutions. These ecosystem management techniques result in many benefits, including improved biodiversity conservation and opportunities for environmental education programs.

MEMBER NEWS CLIPS

Learn about WHC members and partners in highlighted news clips, Web sites and articles from around the globe.

U.S. Department of the Army & WHC
Enter Into Memorandum of Understanding

The U.S. Department of the Army, acting through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a mutual framework of cooperation to develop opportunities for management, partnership and community outreach on Corps-owned properties.

WHC President Bob Johnson (left) and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works John Paul Woodley, Jr. (right) sign an MOU at the Pentagon.

Under the MOU, the two parties will work together to enhance and restore native plant habitat, emphasizing high-priority habitats, including habitats of threatened and endangered species. The agreement will also advance awareness and appreciation of wildlife issues and needs within the public communities that Corps projects serve.

“The Army Corps of Engineers is fast becoming a leader in environmental restoration and protection by implementing new projects with non-federal sponsors, and by conducting conservation and stewardship activities at the over 12 million acres of land and water resources under their jurisdiction”, said the Honorable John Paul Woodley, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. “And this important agreement with WHC furthers our shared environmental objectives and paves the way for collaboration in the future.”

As one of the nation’s largest water resources agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages over 600 reservoirs located throughout the United States. These facilities are operated for multiple purposes. As part of this responsibility, the Corps natural resources stewardship program focuses on the ongoing care and protection of the 12 million acres of lands and waters associated with these reservoirs in 43 States. The twin goals of the stewardship program are to help maintain healthy ecosystems and to ensure the availability of these resources for future generations.

Read the press release.

Marathon Findlay Office Complex Provides Habitat for Threatened Peregrine Falcon

Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC’s Findlay Office Complex Wildlife at Work program just got a little wilder. Employees noticed a raptor hanging around a 10-story building in the complex and the bird was obliging enough to allow an employee to take its picture. The photo was sent to Jim Abrams, wildlife office supervisor for the state Division of Wildlife in Findlay, who identified it as a peregrine falcon -- quite a find in Hancock County!

Marathon Findlay Peregrine Nest Box
ODW staff, (from left), Pat Baranowski, Ross Muszynski, Andy Thompson and Scott Butterworth pose with a peregrine falcon nest box at Marathon’s Findlay Office Complex. Photo courtesy of Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC.

Karla Snyder, Marathon HES Professional and Wildlife Team Leader, invited staff from the Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODW) out to the Findlay Office Complex to assess the site’s suitability for peregrine habitat. The ODW experts deemed that the site was promising enough to justify installing a nest box.

A peregrine falcon’s natural habitat is high cliffs from which they can dive-bomb their prey, mostly other birds, at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. Falcon populations, like bald eagles, were decimated by DDT, a pesticide widely used in the US until it was banned in 1972. The species has made a steady recovery, culminating in its removal from the federal Endangered Species List, but it is still listed as threatened under state law in Ohio. Unlike most rare species, falcons have shown a remarkable adaptability by trading in high cliffs for high-rise office buildings in urban locations. The falcons find plenty of food by picking off other birds that have adapted to urban life – namely pigeons and starlings.

Even the most enthusiastic member of the site’s Wildlife Team was not prepared for the recent peregrine sightings. Karla Snyder, who coordinates the site’s Wildlife at Work program, remarked, "This is definitely one of the most notable sightings that we have had with our Wildlife Habitat Program." The Findlay Office Complex’s Wildlife at Work program was first certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council in 2000.

Anheuser-Busch Launches Employee Program to Support World Environment Day

Employees at Anheuser-Busch’s 12 U.S. breweries and agricultural facilities acted locally to celebrate World Environment Day, June 5, 2009, as part of the global company’s efforts to become the ‘Best Beer Company in a Better World.’ Coast to coast, employees took time to clean up their communities, encourage others to recycle, and challenge each other to find ways to conserve natural resources both at work and at home.

A peregrine falcon and fledglings hatched at Anheuser-Busch's Manitowoc Malt Plant. Photo courtesy of Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

“In 2008, Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. breweries continued a 100-year company tradition of minimizing our impact on the environment in our operations by reducing fuel usage by 8.6 percent; electricity use by 5.1 percent; CO2 purchases by 30 percent; and water use by 13 percent,” said Peter Kraemer, Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of Supply. “All of these efforts combined reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 10 percent. In addition to conservation, we’ve expanded our use of alternative fuels such as solar energy, wastewater we convert to methane gas to offset our use of natural gas, and landfill gas, and we have more alternative energy projects planned for this year and beyond, all while maintaining our high quality standards.”

Since 1972, World Environment Day has been the United Nations’ platform to encourage people all over the world to engage in local environmental improvement projects. The nation’s largest brewer challenged its employees to find ways to conserve, recycle and reduce the resources used to produce its products – all with the hope of reducing the company’s environmental impact. In the United States, Anheuser-Busch breweries and agricultural facilities planned 47 activities to celebrate World Environment Day, including:

A World Environment Day festival, tree planting, Alternative Transportation Day and community gardening project at the St. Louis flagship brewery;
Employee tours of the Fairfield, Calif. brewery’s newly installed solar panel and Bio-Energy Recovery System (BERS) alternative energy projects;
A celebration of the recent Wildlife Habitat Council certification of the Manitowoc, Wisc. malt plant’s peregrine falcon project. Since 1990, 39 falcons have hatched in the nesting box, with 4 eggs scheduled to hatch this year;

A tree planting at a local park in Fort Collins, Colo., which was attended by more than 60 brewery employees and their families.

“The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is very pleased that Anheuser-Busch and its employees around the world are commemorating World Environment Day in such a significant way. Their activities can serve as an example for other companies to follow in the global efforts to reduce global warming,” said Amy Fraenkel, director of UNEP’s Regional Office for North America. “Every action counts when you are trying to reduce the use of natural resources and tackle the challenges of climate change.”

Lafarge Aggregates Quarry Wins Prestigious UK Conservation Award

Lafarge Aggregates’ Dry Rigg Quarry was named the winner in the Conservation category of the Business Bird Challenge 2008 presented by the British Trust for Ornithology. The site is located in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in North Yorkshire, England.

David Park, Northern Regional Manager for Lafarge Aggregates, praises the site’s efforts, saying, “Lafarge considers biodiversity over the full life cycle of quarrying. We have developed a biodiversity management system which has been validated by WWF (International). The plan ultimately leads to the preparation of a site biodiversity action plan, drawing together all biodiversity issues under one cover, to make implementation, recording, monitoring, reporting and auditing much easier.”

The Business Bird Challenge began in 1994 and is a unique partnership between businesses, the BTO and local communities which encourages biodiversity on business and industrial sites. Held every two years, the Challenge has become a celebration of environmental initiatives by businesses throughout the UK, in the categories of Conservation, Community and Birds.

Water level management and creation of suitable habitat at the site attracted a diversity of migrant and breeding birds. Expansion of restored areas of the site led to successful breeding of species such as lapwing, redshank, snipe, oyster catcher and moorhen. 2008 also saw first sightings of merlin, water rail and tufted duck.

The quarry also drew national and regional significance with the first official record of the great crested newt in the national park. A colony of the newts was established at the restored lake on the site.

Says Park, “We are extremely fortunate at Dry Rigg because the full project team is passionate about wildlife and biodiversity and the receipt of this award recognizes their engagement and hard work in establishing Dry Rigg as an exceptional site for wildlife.”

The award is testament to a longstanding tradition of environmental responsibility by Lafarge. Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK, part of the worldwide Lafarge Group, seeks to ensure efficient industrial production, conservation of natural resources and respect for both society and the environment.

WHC Members Receive 2009 Energy Star^® Awards from EPA

On March 31, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honored businesses and organizations for their outstanding contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency at the 2009 ENERGY STAR Awards ceremony. Four WHC members - 3M, Merck & Co., Inc., Raytheon Company, and Toyota Motor Engineering Manufacturing North America, Inc. - were awarded the ENERGY STAR Award for Sustained Excellence. Also receiving this award was GE Consumer & Industrial, a subsidiary of longtime WHC member General Electric Company. In addition, CEMEX USA was honored as a 2009 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year. See the full list of ENERGY STAR award winners here.