Posted on Sat, Nov. 01, 2003 Charlotte Observer
	Sweetening fumes with flora and fauna Industry shares its land with wildflowers, nests STAN CHOE Staff Writer To find the largest nesting area for heron in North Carolina, drive past a mountain of coal at Duke Power's Buck Steam Station in Spencer and around a few smokestacks and some rail cars before coming upon an old ash basin. Tucked inside Buck's 600 acres, the basin sits in a grove of ironwood trees and poplars, collecting ash from the power plant's furnaces before sending water to High Rock Lake. In the stand of trees that obscures smokestacks, about 50 heron nest. Here and at power plants, mines and office parks across the Carolinas, industrial sites are working with the N.C. Wildlife Federation and other environmental groups to inject a little green into some unlikely places. Even a wastewater treatment plant in Charlotte is participating in the Wildlife And Industry Together (WAIT) program by planting a wildflower meadow. It's the sweetest-smelling wastewater treatment center around, says Tim Gestwicki, N.C. WAIT coordinator for the wildlife federation. "In my line of work, we are fighting an uphill battle," he said. "The WAIT program doesn't solve all the environmental problems in our state, but it's a proactive step we can take." Gestwicki has been on a one-man mission, working to get companies certified in the program, which exists only in the Carolinas. To qualify, businesses must convert parts of their properties into wildlife habitats, appoint employees to coordinate the program for the site and bring in school kids to teach them about wildlife and habitat conservation. He's already signed up about 20 since the program began in 2000, ranging from Carmel Country Club to a Vulcan Materials Co. quarry in Concord to Duke's Buck station. The companies are building perches for hawks and cutting back on mowing schedules to allow wildflowers to flourish. In some cases, these cut costs. In others, they help project a positive image. Duke Power was the first company to get involved in the program, and employees at Buck have been working on their own to preserve wildlife habitats since the '80s. Several who own farms near Buck, 45 miles northeast of Charlotte, have donated tractors, other equipment and their time to plant a meadow for butterflies and construct a shelter where school kids can help track Monarch butterflies' migration. John Kistler has worked at Buck for 25 years, and the duck hunter began building boxes for wood duck nesting on Buck property about a decade ago. Duke donated some scrap wood and pipe, and he built small boxes to give wood ducks a warm, dry place to raise their young. He and a few friends also fit bands on ducks, tracking their migrations. Duke employees have helped Lisa Wear, a science specialist for Rowan-Salisbury Schools, build sandboxes to track animals' paw prints and lay pieces of plywood on the ground for snake habitat. "It's a great demonstration of having a fairly intrusive industry but contain it where you can have a pristine environment," said Drew German, Buck's production manager. As Gestwicki searches for other companies to join Duke, he doesn't feel discouraged that the state's largest heron nesting area shares the grounds with a coal-fired power plant, which emits more pollutants than natural-gas-fired plants. "We have to take the approach that every drop in the bucket counts," he said, "Every parcel of land that's protected counts; every child that comes in contact with a nature trail counts; every bluebird that has a successful clutch counts."