Ducks Unlimited

Demonstrating the company's commitment to care for the environment, we entered into an understanding with Duck's Unlimited to enhance and restore native ecosystems across the nation in the fall of 2000. The goal was to improve water quality and woodland tracts for wildlife, fisheries, and plant communities - including those that were threatened or endangered.

Duck's Unlimited is one of the preeminent conservation organizations in the world and has been conserving and managing North American waterfowl habitats since 1937. Thanks to our joint effort with this outstanding organization, habitats across America - in states such as Texas, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania - have been positively impacted.

In 2000, we donated $50,000 to develop a water management system on 290 acres of deep marshland in the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge located in Chambers County, Texas. The system allowed for the proper timing of flooding and draw downs to promote the growth of vegetation for wintering and migrating waterfowl, migrating shorebirds, resident waterfowl and wading birds.

In 2001, we contributed another $50,000 toward the enhancement and restoration of wetlands in Sacramento, California - one of the five highest habitat priorities for Duck's Unlimited. These funds were used to preserve a small wetland area where more waterfowl winter than any other place on the continent of North America.

That same year, we made another significant contribution to the Freeport, Texas Education and Interpretive Center. The project entailed the restoration of a 56-acre freshwater emergent wetland through the construction and installation of levees and water control structures. Not only did this effort enhance seasonal habitats for resident and wintering waterfowl, but also for migratory shorebirds, migrant songbirds, and other wetland-dependent wildlife. It also created a viewing platform and trail for bird watching and hiking.

Our commitment to the environment continued in 2002 with a total donation of $50,000 to three wetland restoration projects in Florida. The "Cockroach Bay Restoration Project" involved the creation of wetlands and the construction of a storm water treatment system on 651 acres located on an intertidal marsh habitat along Tampa Bay. The "Mottled Duck Production Project" restored 1,415 acres of habitat natural to the endangered mottled duck - a non-migratory waterfowl native to Florida - while maintaining a cattle-grazing operation in Highlands County. The "Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Project" involved the installation or replacement of 16 water control structures to preserve habitats in Brevard County.

In 2003, our conservation effort with Duck's Unlimited extended into eastern Pennsylvania and three more specific habitat restoration projects: "Blooming Grove," which converted a 50-acre stone quarry to a wetland complex providing quality habitat to shore birds, migratory waterfowl, reptiles, amphibians, wild turkeys and meadowlarks; "Matt Glennon," which restored 6 acres of wetlands by constructing earthen berms that trapped surface water from adjacent agricultural fields; and "Walter Wilson" which restored the habitat of the endangered bog turtle.

In 2004, the effort extended yet again into western Pennsylvania's Buffalo Creek Wetland Restoration Project in Washington County, where our efforts provided nesting and brood sites for resident populations of mallards and wood ducks as well as important food sources for waterfowl migrating through in the spring and fall. In addition to the waterfowl, both game and non-game species of wildlife such as whitetail deer, turkey, pheasant, bobwhite quail, amphibians, and reptiles benefited from this restoration effort.

Our 2005 environmental partnership effort with Ducks Unlimited was the Scott Kucharcik Wetlands Restoration Project, in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. This private lands partnership involved restoring wetland functions to a small wetland habitat that feeds the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Water quality improvement on the West Branch of the Susquehanna is a regional goal that is being addressed by multiple groups and projects.

In 2006, we joined the effort to restore both water quality and wildlife habitat on Ten Mile Creek with the Greg Vitale Habitat Restoration Project. Ten Mile Creek is part of the Monongahela watershed. Ducks Unlimited and RRI Energy are leading the way on this 98-acre site to reduce point source pollution with a variety of improved land management practices.

As our history with Duck’s Unlimited demonstrates, our commitment to the environment grew out of a deep-seated conviction to care for the land and the communities in which we work and live. This conviction, along with our conservation efforts with Duck’s Unlimited, will no doubt continue through 2008 and in years to come.