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Wildlife Habitats Enhance Alcoa Sites, Surrounding Communities
Two Alcoa locations in the United States are working with local communities to create and sustain wildlife habitats that will provide aesthetic as well as environmental benefits, such as cleaner air and water.
Alcoa’s Lafayette Operations in Indiana is providing resources to get the plant site, local schools, businesses, and eventually the entire Lafayette community certified as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). For a community to receive certification, a percentage of its businesses, schools, and homes need to be individually certified habitats. Certified habitats must contain the four basic elements for wildlife and wild spaces: food, water, shelter, and places to raise young.
A grant from Alcoa Foundation provided NWF with the resources to train Lafayette’s educators and volunteers on the skills needed to build wildlife habitats. The training kicked off in 2002 with a community event called “Workday for Wildlife” that was planned for and hosted by the Lafayette facility. Alcoa employees and their families along with community members designed and planted a demonstration habitat at Purdue University—Tippecanoe County Cooperative Extension Service. The habitat is now being used as an outdoor environmental classroom to help volunteers and community members learn how to garden for wildlife. Upcoming projects include more teacher workshops and the possibility of using ACTION grants from Alcoa Foundation to help schools develop their own schoolyard habitats.
“The program will bring many benefits to our community because people will be able to visit completed habitat sites and learn how they can develop similar sites in their own backyards or on their business properties,” said Linda Eastman, environmental coordinator for the Tippecanoe County Soil and Water Conservation District. “There’s definitely a growing awareness in the community about habitats.”
Adds Eliza Russell, national volunteer manager for NWF, “Alcoa’s involvement has resulted in a higher participation level in teacher training due to the awareness built from the Workday for Wildlife event. Before the event, NWF had limited success in encouraging schools and teachers to engage in building an outdoor classroom and incorporating environmental education in their curriculum. In working closely with other locally based businesses and corporations to orchestrate the workday, Alcoa also demonstrated that corporations do not have to be in competition with other businesses on community matters. Rather, these parties can use their influence and community involvement to foster partnership between companies for a central cause.”
In support of Alcoa’s global sustainability initiatives, Alcoa’s Gum Springs plant in Arkansas created a wildlife habitat enhancement program in January 2001. That plan led the site to adopt a comprehensive, five-year habitat management strategy for the 607-hectare (1,500-acre) site.
The site has begun enhancing its various habitat types by emphasizing the use of native vegetation and increasing plant diversity. Butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees were among the first to benefit. They’re being attracted to a new garden near the plant’s main office building. Deer, songbirds, quail, and rabbits are finding a wildlife food plot growing sorghum, millet, soybeans and cowpeas irresistible. A nest box monitoring program is helping the site document the activity of the its bird populations, and the planting of native species and the creation of brush piles are providing more suitable habitat for other wildlife species regularly seen on the site.
More recent activities include the implementation of rotational mowing to improve and increase the variety of habitat in the fields surrounding the site. In cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the site also planted four plots with a mixture of vetch (climbing plants with small flowers), ladino clover, and crimson clover to attract white-tailed deer, quail, and bird species like the tufted titmouse and American goldfinch. Pollinator plots of native annual and perennial wildflowers are planned, as are wooden duck boxes and 25 bluebird boxes built in conjunction with the local public school.
“I believe the staff at Gum Springs has a very workable plan to establish and maintain prime wildlife habitat that will provide much enjoyment for wildlife observers in the area,” said Johnny Cantrell, wildlife biologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vx District.
In 2002, the Wildlife Habitat Council certified the Gum Springs Plant. The organization’s certification program recognizes outstanding wildlife habitat management and environmental education efforts at corporate sites and offers third-party validation of the benefits of such programs. Certification requirements are strict and require that sites apply for periodic renewal.
Related Sites
Lafayette Operations
Learn more about this Alcoa site.
 Related Site
Gum Springs
Learn more about this Alcoa site.
Related Site
National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation is the United States’ largest member-supported conservation group.
Related Site
Wildlife Habitat Council
The Wildlife Habitat Council is a nonprofit, non-lobbying group of corporations, conservation organizations, and individuals dedicated to protecting and enhancing wildlife habitat.
Related Site
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