Inland Sea Shorebird Reserve
Acreage once dominated by over-grazed lands, salt evaporation ponds and illegal dumps has been transformed by Kennecott into a 3,670-acre shorebird and waterfowl reserve along the south shore of Great Salt Lake.
The Kennecott Inland Sea Shorebird Reserve (ISSR) was created by Kennecott under a mitigation plan developed in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to offset the loss of 1,000 acres impacted when the company expanded its tailings impoundment in 1996.
Located about 20 miles west of Salt Lake City, the ISSR consists of five mitigation ponds managed for shorebirds and waterfowl and four additional ponds that constitute Mitigation Bank. Kennecott can use the Mitigation Bank for any future mitigation needs or sell portions of the Bank to other parties that have mitigation needs.
The Great Salt Lake has always been an area of particular significance for birds. Birds are an indicator of the health of the ecology and surrounding environment. They are often the first to show the signs of poor environmental conditions and pollution. Kennecott monitors the bird populations to increase its understanding of the surrounding environment and continuously improve its management of the area. The number of bird species at the ISSR has grown from 50 in 1995 to more than 150 today.
"The ecology of the Great Salt Lake is a place for migratory shore birds and nesting shore birds to stop, eat, and rest, " said Ann Neville, Wildlife Biologist, Kennecott Utah Copper. "Many of the birds move thousands of miles to Alaska and Argentina, the ISSR is a stopping place."
While remaining a haven for birds, the reserve also has an important educational and community role. It is visited by Kennecott employees, birding groups, schools and university research teams.
- An estimated 120,000 shorebirds and waterfowl use the ISSR each year. These numbers represent an increase of between 1,955% and 3,068% from baseline totals recorded before the reserve opened.
- Over one hundred fifty bird species have been sighted on the ISSR, including Snowy Plovers, American Avocets, Long-billed Curlew, American White Pelicans, Caspian and Black Terns, Sage and Grasshopper Sparrows, Peregrine Falcons, Swainson’s Hawk, and Burrowing and Short-eared Owls.
- The ISSR is also home for other wildlife species that occur in the shrub steppe habitat near Great Salt Lake. Deer, antelope, rabbit, skunk, coyote, red fox, voles, field mice, chorus frogs, racers and gopher snakes are regularly seen on the ISSR.
In 1999, the Inland Sea Shorebird Reserve was designated the Outstanding Environmental and Engineering Geologic Project by the Association of Engineering Geologists:
"Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation, working with representatives from National Audubon Society, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, US Fish and Wildlife Services, US Environmental Protection Agency, and US Army Corps of Engineers, has successfully accomplished a major mining project while compensating for loss of wetland resources and creating opportunities for future mitigation. The procedures used and the success realized should serve as examples for future wetland mitigation planning."
The ISSR, as part of a larger ecological unit Gilbert Bay, was accepted in 2004 as a BirdLife International and National Audubon Important Bird Area. This identified Gilbert Bay as part of a global network of places recognized for their outstanding value to bird conservation.
http://www.audubon.org/
To highlight the importance of birds all Rio Tinto business units participate in a project called Birds and the Environment developed between Rio Tinto and BirdLife International. The aim of the project is to encourage interest in watching and monitoring birds by employees and their families at, and around Rio Tinto’s sites world-wide. Through this we aim to assess the status of birds and their habitats around the group, and forge long term links with the global BirdLife network.
BirdLife International is a global partnership of 63 national non-governmental conservation organizations with a focus on birds. This network, when combined with the BirdLife Secretariat, provides unparalleled technical expertise in bird and biodiversity assessment world-wide. (More information about BirdLife International can be found on their web-site at www.birdlife.net).
Rio Tinto has chosen birds as the focus of a project because they are important indicators of environmental quality, biodiversity and sustainable land-use practices, as well as providing a powerful focus for engaging employees and local communities. Significant environmental management issues such as water use and land rehabilitation at our sites are closely connected with bird populations, and a number of operations already have bird programs.
Through the relationship with BirdLife we aim to build on this work, as well as to reinforce and focus the interest of staff who are birdwatchers. In the long term, this project will contribute to our growing commitment to biodiversity management in all our activities by raising awareness; it will help us to measure and evaluate changes in environmental quality using birds as indicators, and to identify opportunities for bird conservation projects.
