Sunday, April
22, is Earth Day, and we’re celebrating by highlighting some of our
environmental initiatives.
Sometimes, we
encounter threatened and endangered species during our construction projects.
The projects could include building a new natural gas line or installing new
power lines. We need to be aware of the animals in our project zones.
Wood turtles
are listed as a threatened species in Wisconsin. They prefer to nest in sand
banks near rivers and streams, but they also are known to nest along roadsides,
fields and gravel pits.
When we have
a project that has the potential to disturb wood turtle habitat, we collaborate
with the Department of Natural Resources to ensure we are taking all
appropriate measures to avoid any impacts to the habitats. These measures
include conducting surveys in advance of our projects to ensure our equipment
will not come in contact with the turtles. We also have installed exclusion
fencing to prevent the turtles from entering our work zones, and we
directionally drill to bore underneath turtle habitat to prevent disruption.
As part of
our protection and conservation of wood turtles, we assist Turtles For
Tomorrow, a conservation program dedicated to habitat management and landowner
education about rare reptiles and amphibians in Wisconsin. We have assisted
with restoration of several nest sites near our hydroelectric facilities, as
well as provided funding for a camera-monitoring and site-management project
that will aid in monitoring nest predation, vandalism and hatching success.
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