U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Archives - Wildlife Habitat Council

Atlantic Richfield | From Superfund to Super Habitat

Engaging in conservation activities on corporate lands sometimes requires managing ongoing impacts of historical uses. For the Atlantic Richfield Dutchman site, located on 3,447 acres in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin of southwestern Montana, a legacy of past mining, smelting and overgrazing resulted in significant impacts to habitats and wildlife.

The Dutchman property is part of the Anaconda Smelter NPL Site, an area of 300 square miles impacted by nearly 100 years of historical copper smelting by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. High arsenic levels in the soil caused by smelting required remedial action. Additionally, previous use of the property for grazing and breeding livestock had a detrimental impact on the site’s habitat and vegetative cover. Fortunately, Atlantic Richfield (a subsidiary of BP) has overcome the challenges posed by these impacts to transform the Dutchman site into a haven of grassland and wetland habitat used by wildlife and humans alike.

Ecological restoration began at the Dutchman site more than 30 years ago with the creation of a Functionally Effective Wetland Area, now 517 acres and the largest contiguous wetland habitat in the watershed. Through the years, further efforts have been made to address the site’s legacy of impacts, including native seeding, livestock and vehicle exclusion, invasive species management, erosion control and wildlife monitoring.

When describing the efforts Atlantic Richfield has made to exceed both wetland mitigation and remediation requirements on-site, team member Shannon Dunlap, Operations Project Manager, noted that, “What sets the Dutchman site apart is the rigorous monitoring Atlantic Richfield conducts year-round to monitor not only wetlands, but avian and mammal populations, invasive species, grassland vegetation and erosion.”

Field crews work with Go Bird Montana every year to inventory bird populations on-site and have so far observed over 120 species of birds from 35 different taxonomic families. These surveys have found evidence that several rare species and species of concern are breeding on-site. Atlantic Richfield is also investigating ways to implement more comprehensive monitoring that can better guide management efforts, such as the use of remote sensing technology or aerial spectral analysis by drones, or satellites to evaluate vegetative cover.

Not only are bird species thriving, but mammals are as well. Starting in 2008, Atlantic Richfield began restricting vehicle access and installing wildlife-friendly fencing, which restricts cattle access to the site while allowing wildlife to cross safely. These measures have permitted the grassland and wetland vegetation to flourish, benefitting numerous bird and mammal species, including deer and other big game, swallows, sparrows, chickadees, hawks, and waterfowl.

Atlantic Richfield makes a special effort to maintain the property as a public recreation area, offering features such as trails, educational kiosks and bird watching checklists to encourage the visitors to enjoy the site’s natural beauty. Atlantic Richfield also works closely with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to offer sustainable hunting opportunities to the community, which helps ensure that herds of elk, white-tailed deer, mule deer and moose continue to remain healthy and do not over-browse the habitat. Dunlap articulated that despite the difficulties in allowing public access, “it is a rewarding challenge to balance habitat preservation and public access at the site.”

The Dutchman site demonstrates how with time and commitment, a previously impacted landscape can become a thriving asset to both wildlife and the community.

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Relevant President’s Blog or Wildlife Blog posts
Project Guidances:
WHC Webinars:

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Boeing | Bringing the Salmon Back to the Duwamish River in Seattle

Salmon are an important source of nutrients for many species, including some endangered species like the southern resident orca. Millions of people rely on salmon as a healthy and reliable source of protein. Salmon presence is also an indicator of healthy aquatic ecosystems. Salmon migration runs push vast amounts of marine nutrients from the oceans to the waters of lower productivity rivers. As salmon disappear, the quality of ecosystems decreases. Seattle is just one example where critical salmon habitats are in decline, but one WHC member is working to change that.

The Boeing Plant 2 facility, located along the banks of the Duwamish River, was once used to manufacture planes before it was decommissioned for waste cleanup. The site now contains five acres of restored intertidal wetlands and riparian habitat, created as part of a federal and state order to restore the site for wildlife. The conservation project on the site includes cleanup efforts like dredging sediment and contaminated bank soils, and demolition of a building that extended over the waterway. Boeing used these cleanup efforts to transform nearly one mile of former industrial waterfront into vital habitat for salmon and other aquatic species.

Starting in 2012, Boeing removed nearly 700 contaminated creosote wood pilings, restored the shoreline, planted thousands of native plants, and added large woody debris, which provide refuge for fish, food for insects, and reduce excessive erosion. The restoration also created critical off-channel areas where juvenile salmon and other anadromous fish can rest, feed and acclimate to saltwater conditions during their migration from upriver freshwater habitat into the Puget Sound estuary.

Regular monitoring has revealed just how valuable this habitat already is to numerous fish species, particularly salmon. Boeing team member Monica Zimmer remarked that during a recent survey, “We counted over 7,000 Chum salmon and 260 Chinook salmon—a threatened species in Puget Sound—utilizing the embayment in just one tidal cycle!”

Typical of most large-scale conservation projects, there were challenges. Boeing struggled to protect the newly planted vegetation from Canada geese, which graze on young, tender plants and caused several areas to require replanting. The team tried several approaches to discourage the presence of geese with little success, including installing cardboard cutouts and 3-D models of predators. They also tried installing netting to prevent geese from landing, but this caused more problems by trapping debris and causing maintenance issues. The team finally determined that staffing and supervising the area with regular patrols during the geese’s key migratory periods was the best solution until the plants had grown enough that they could withstand occasional grazing.

Since first receiving WHC Conservation Certification^® in 2016, the Boeing Plant 2 program has seen a very positive response from the community. Several organizations have participated in walking tours of the habitat, and community members can participate in an annual boat tour. These tours help to highlight Boeing’s habitat restoration work and promote the need for additional restoration projects of a similar nature along the waterway.

Related Content

White Papers:
- The Critical Role of the Private Sector in Species Recovery and Protection
Relevant President’s Blog or Wildlife Blog posts
Project Guidances:
- Marine Intertidal
Webinars:

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WM | Helping Boy Scouts Achieve Their Goals through Conservation Projects

En Español

WM’s El Sobrante Landfill and Wildlife Preserve spans 1,333 acres in the town of Corona, California, 27 miles east of Los Angeles. This site is comprised of both active landfill and undisturbed open space, with nearly 700 acres actively managed as a habitat preserve. The team works diligently to protect sensitive and rare species by implementing the landfill’s Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), which was developed in 2001. The HCP covers 31 species of concern, including the federally-endangered and state-threatened Stephens’ kangaroo rat and federally-threatened coastal California gnatcatcher.

Miriam Cardenas, Community Relations Specialist and team leader for the conservation program, noted the popularity of the program among volunteers from the surrounding community. One particularly keen group of volunteers is the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Through this successful and long-standing partnership, the Scouts have completed a variety of conservation projects at the site, including those that helped fulfill badge requirements and at least 11 Eagle Scout and Gold Award projects, and contributing to the landfill’s goals for the HCP in the process. The team provides interested Scouts with a list of potential projects that would be helpful in meeting conservation goals, allowing the Scouts to choose a project that best suits their interests and requirements.

Several of the Scouts’ projects have involved artificial nesting and roosting structures, which help the Scouts strengthen their STEM skills through activities like measuring materials and using design schematics to construct the structures. For instance, the Scouts built 20 artificial nesting burrows for burrowing owls, a species covered under the HCP that has a low population in the area near the site. This species typically nests in abandoned burrows made by other species like ground squirrels. Although no nesting activity has occurred in the burrows yet, a male burrowing owl was observed scouting the burrows, spending about a month in two of them. Other structures built by the Scouts include barn owl nest boxes and bat houses.

The Scouts have also participated in several habitat restoration and protection projects, including native cactus plantings, trash cleanups of over 60 acres of historic illegal dumping, and closure of illegal ATV trails with the use of rocks, brush, and native cactus plantings to block and disguise the trails. When one Boy Scout wanted to help rapidly-declining monarch populations, the team provided him with an opportunity to plant native milkweed plants and seeds that have successfully been used by monarchs. This project was also recently completed by a local Girl Scout troop. Several Scouts created an artificial rock outcrop to help propagate the rare many-stemmed dudleya plant, and with instruction from the site team they processed collected seed pods and spread the seeds onto the outcrop using salt shakers. Several groups of Scouts also helped the team to replant native sycamore and western cottonwood trees in an area burned by wildfire in 2007, restoring important trees that in 2015 became nesting habitat for the state- and federally-endangered least Bell’s vireo.

The WM El Sobrante team has fostered a successful, integrated partnership with the local Boy and Girl Scouts by accommodating the interests and needs of the Scouts with projects that benefit the site’s conservation goals. It is a fine demonstration of how to create impactful, long-lasting partnerships that fulfill the goals of both partners.

Atlantic Richfield | From Superfund to Super Habitat

Boeing | Bringing the Salmon Back to the Duwamish River in Seattle

WM | Helping Boy Scouts Achieve Their Goals through Conservation Projects

En Español

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About

Work With WHC

Learn More

Member

UN Global Compact Business for Nature

Official ally

World Benchmarking Alliance

UN Global Compact
Business for Nature