Houston Waterways for Wildlife Project  

The Wildlife Habitat Council in Texas

The Texas Regional Office supports the 45 plus WHC sites, located throughout Texas. The Houston Waterways for Wildlife Project (HWWP) was initiated by WHC to establish and expand partnerships with the corporate, public and regulatory communities along the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay Estuary system. WHC’s Corporate Campaign for Migratory Bird Conservation (CCMBC) and the Texas/Gulf Coast Migration Project, are both regional companion programs. HWWP develops partnerships with the numerous WHC members, their business partners and important public and private conservation organizations located in the project area.

The Houston Waterways for Wildlife Project

Numerous WHC member facilities and nature preserves, including petrochemical members, are located along the Channel and its tributaries of Galveston Bay. The HWWP is designed to develop habitat tracts with significant impact and maximum benefit to wetland, aquatic and upland habitat in the Greater Houston region. The primary criteria for project sites are the acreage, wildlife habitat value and potential for enhancement. The Pilot Site is on St. Mary’s Island where ExxonMobil restored the island from 2 acres to 10, during their pipeline project, creating nesting habitat for threatened migratory shorebirds. The Houston Ship Channel is situated in the primary Gulf Coast portion of the North American Central Flyway, which is the companion program for CCMBC.

The Port of Houston Authority, Texas Environmental Quality Commission-Galveston Bay Estuary Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. EPA Region 6 and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service support the project. Important nature conservation supporters are the Armand Bayou Nature Center, Audubon Society of Houston and the Galveston Bay Foundation.

ExxonMobil Wildlife at Work Family Day Program Soars

ExxonMobil employees worked with local Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from the Irving community to plant redbud trees (Cercis canadensis). In the spring, these small trees will grow to 20 to 30 feet with purple blooms.

When ExxonMobil employees started talking about the Eastern Bluebirds they’d seen on the rolling campus of their corporate headquarters, the company took official steps to protect the bluebirds and other wildlife. In 2003, the Irving, Texas-based site became a certified Wildlife at Work habitat through the Wildlife Habitat Council.

Today, 80 percent of the ExxonMobil headquarters’ campus belongs completely to wildlife. Eastern bluebirds live on the property, as do plentiful populations of great blue herons, egrets, red-tailed hawks, turtles and snakes and a wide variety of native Texas plants. 

Since earning its Wildlife at Work certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council, ExxonMobil has paved a nature trail for employees, developed a bluebird nesting box program increasing the local population of native birds and established an annual Family Day.

Family Day has become one of the campus’ most popular employee activities, and was created to increase awareness about the company’s surrounding habitat and involve more employees and their families in the conservation program. 

The habitat program at the ExxonMobil Irving Headquarters has been WHC certified since 2003.

On May 20, 2006, employees and their families gathered for a Saturday of wildlife conservation activities and education. Experts from the Dallas Zoo Conservation, Education and Science department were on hand to talk about wildlife, and local Boy Scouts planted redbud trees. 

"By participating in conservation activities and education programs, ExxonMobil employees and their families not only help to maintain our certification as a wildlife habitat, but also have a hand in helping to sustain our Texas environment," said Sherri Stuewer, vice president of Safety, Health & Environment at ExxonMobil. "We at ExxonMobil are dedicated to preserving our ‘Wildlife at Work Habitat’ because we believe it is essential to protect and enhance the natural beauty and wildlife that makes our campus so unique."

ExxonMobil campuses in Billings, Mont.; Kemmerer, Wyo.; and, on St. Mary’s Island in Houston, Texas also hold Wildlife Habitat Council certification as "Wildlife at Work" habitats.