Hunters and bats will be among the beneficiaries of new corporate conservation easements of more than 1,000 acres in southwest Pennsylvania.
Consol Energy, headquartered in Canonsburg and the largest producer of high-BTU bituminous coal in the United States, will turn over 1,125 acres of Greene County land in a project supported by the National Wild Turkey Federation's Energy for Wildlife Program.
Consol will donate 125 acres in the Enlow Fork watershed to the Pennsylvania Game Commission for public use by hunters. The company has enrolled the remaining 1,000 acre-tract in a conservation easement that will help protect wildlife and their habitat adjacent to the game land. Specifically, the land will harbor the Indiana bat, which is on the federal Endangered Species List.
Energy for Wildlife is a membership-based certification program for energy companies. Only companies involved in the production, transmission or distribution of energy are eligible to become members of the program, with the primary goal of enhancing wildlife habitat on lands the companies manage, own or influence. The lands include power line and gas rights of way, plant sites, woodlands and other properties. The Energy for Wildlife program's 31 member companies manage approximately 3 million acres to benefit wild turkeys and other wildlife nationwide.
Last year, CNX Land Resources, a division of Consol, received the Energy for Wildlife Corporate Achievement Award, which recognizes corporate efforts to improve wildlife habitat and promote conservation and North America's outdoor tradition.
First Published: January 11, 2009, 5:00 a.m.