Wildlife Habitat Education Programs

Over the past three years, through the Wildlife Habitat Council’s Corporate Lands for Learning program, Marathon volunteers of the Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Refinery Wildlife Team have hosted over 600 school children for natural science and conservation programs at the refinery’s Savage Branch Reserve.

The team has provided off-site outreach programs to over 800 school children involving four different local school districts. The Reserve has also provided tours and programs for three professional organizations and facilitated a community service project for an Eagle Scout candidate in the Boy Scouts of America.

The Corporate Lands for Learning program provides students with a hands-on opportunity to study the forest and aquatic ecosystems. Activities include: studying the taxonomy and life cycles; songbird nest box monitoring; and learning about the changing seasons and how those changes affect the Reserves plants and animals.

The Refinery Wildlife Volunteer Team has developed partnerships with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, US Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service and University of Kentucky Agricultural Cooperative Extension Service. For its efforts, the Catlettsburg Refinery was awarded the 2000 Kentucky Business Conservation Partner of the Year by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Additionally, since 1989, Catlettsburg, Kentucky, refinery employees and their families have volunteered for the River Sweep. The River Sweep is a riverbank cleanup for the Ohio River and its tributaries. During 2002, more than 21,000 volunteers in six states collected 13,000 tons of trash and other debris from the banks of the Ohio River.

Detroit employees support the Rouge River Gateway Project in cleaning up of the Rouge River and the developing a Greenway along the length of the river. This Greenway will address not only the natural aspects of the river, but also celebrates the place the river has had in the history of the area.