For the second time in nine months, leading specialty chemical maker Albemarle Corporation has opened a public nature trail and wildlife habitat to conserve and showcase wetlands next to a company plant site, this time on a 50-acre site in central Pennsylvania.
Late last month, Albemarle's Tyrone manufacturing plant held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Albemarle Nature Trail to the community. A number of local officials, including Tyrone Mayor Jim Kilmartin and Tyrone Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rose Black, attended the event, along with Albemarle employees and other visitors.
"Work on this natural area actually began in 1995," said Albemarle Tyrone plant manager Randy Andrews. "Local residents cleared the trail twice after the design was laid out. But efforts over the last year have pulled everything together. Starting in the fall of 2007, an employee team helped with layout and construction of the trails, visitor signs, and brochures."
About 28 employees from the plant formed the core team involved in the project, Andrews said, but as more people visit and walk the Nature Trail, he expects more people will lend a hand to continuing development of the site.
The Albemarle Nature Trail follows a 3/4-mile loop through a 50-acre section of deciduous forest, open meadow, and wetlands formed by a beaver dam on Cook Hollow Creek.
The area serves as home to a variety of animal species: whitetail deer, red fox, raccoon, muskrat, beaver, bobcat and native birds such as wild turkey, great blue heron, green heron, red-tailed hawk and songbirds. In addition, the beaver pond and surrounding wetlands host frogs, salamanders and turtles.
The Albemarle Nature Trail provides habitats for many plant species, as well, including an upper layer of wild black cherry, red maple, green ash and oak trees; an understory of shrubs and trees such as flowering dogwood, apple, crabapple, hawthorn, and pines; a bottom layer of wildflowers, ground cover and ferns; and a meadow featuring red sumac, black walnut, aspen, and more wildflowers.
"Additions to the trail are still under way," Andrews said. "We'll finish an observation deck near the beaver pond, an educational amphitheatre for school groups, and informational kiosks located along the trail."
"We congratulate our team in Tyrone on their great work in designing and building this site," said Albemarle chairman, president and CEO Mark C. Rohr. "Our mission as a global, sustainable company is to deliver specialty chemical solutions to our customers and to the world in a responsible and environmentally sound manner. The Nature Trail shows how Albemarle employees are thinking outside the fence line to create solutions that also sustain and improve our community, supporting the things that matter most."
Last year, at Albemarle's Orangeburg, S.C. facility, the company opened a wildlife habitat and nature education center certified by the national Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), a nonprofit, non-lobbying group dedicated to restoring and enhancing wildlife habitat.
In 2006, the WHC also certified Albemarle's Artificial Marsh wildlife habitat and education center at the company's Magnolia, Ark. plants. That site includes natural, non-contact wastewater treatment facilities and a private wetland bank.
Later this month, Albemarle will sponsor signage and seating areas in the Vliegenbos forest, a nature and public recreation park adjacent to the company's manufacturing facility in north Amsterdam.
Additional information on Albemarle's holistic approach to creating a sustainable business model can be found in the company's 2007 Corporate Sustainability Report entitled What Matters Most. The report is available via Albemarle's website at www.albemarle.com.
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics; petroleum and petrochemical processing; transportation and industrial products; pharmaceuticals; agricultural products; and construction and packaging materials. The company operates in three business segments – Polymer Additives, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals – and serves customers in approximately 100 countries.
