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In battles like that over Bangor's Penjajawoc Marsh, Wal-Mart's massive stores have become symbolic of the fight between environmentalists and developers. Now, the company aims to transform its reputation by committing $35 million over the next 10 years to protect more than 138,000 acres of wildlife habitat in the United States. A Washington County conservation project will get $6.1 million from Wal-Mart in the first round of funding. In partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the company intends to buy, or protect by easement, at least 1 acre of wildlife habitat for every acre nationwide covered by Wal-Mart stores, parking lots and distribution centers, company executives announced Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Tuesday lauded the Wal-Mart program, called "Acres for America," as a model for other corporations that want to work with local groups on the sorts of voluntary private sector conservation efforts being promoted by the Bush administration. "It helps to have the world's biggest retailer and America's biggest employer at the head of the parade," Norton said. "We're pleased to leverage our size ... Being a large company, we can have a large impact," said Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke. Others cast a more cynical eye on Wal-Mart's effort to "green" its reputation. "I just basically see this as too little, too late, to buy easements after they've paved over habitat and open space," said Valerie Carter of Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development. BACORD led the successful fight to prevent approval in 2003 of a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Penjajawoc marsh and stream off Stillwater Avenue in Bangor. While Carter supports any effort at wildlife conservation, she said the $35 million wouldn't make up for the forests and marshes that Wal-Mart has destroyed in the construction of new big-box stores. "That just doesn't compute," she said. But regardless of the motivation behind it, "Acres for America" will have an immediate benefit in Maine. The Downeast Lakes Forestry Partnership will be among the first beneficiaries, receiving $6.1 million for its 339,000-acre conservation project in Washington County. With 50 lakes, 1,500 miles of rivers and streams and 50,000 acres of wetlands, the area to be protected "is a veritable Noah's ark for future generations," said John Berry, executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in announcing the Maine grant Tuesday. The project, begun by a group of Washington County guides, will lock up development rights while continuing traditional fishing, hunting and logging on the land, said Stephen Keith, executive director of the Downeast Lakes Land Trust in Grand Lake Stream. "This is the best way of assuring outdoor recreation in the future ... having these lands open to the public and keeping an intact forest available," he said. The $35 million pledged by Wal-Mart will be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a private nonprofit group created by Congress in 1984 to leverage federal dollars for conservation projects. The foundation plans to raise another $35 million to match the Wal-Mart money, but said it would start off by putting $8.8 million from Wal-Mart toward a $20.5 million project to conserve land in five locations, including the one in Maine. The other four conservation projects for 2005 are a cave system in Arkansas that shelters endangered bats; a ranch near the north rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona; a region in Oregon that is home to rare salmon and trout, as well as herds of elk and mule deer; and the Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, a critical stopover for migratory birds. The Maine grant is crucial for the Down East effort to place a working forest easement on 312,000 acres and to buy 15,335 acres. More than 12,000 acres already have been purchased, much of it along the St. Croix River, but partners have been struggling to raise the remaining funds needed to close on the project's final and largest component in late May. Maine's push to conserve its forests with huge easements in recent years has left donors tapped out, said Amos Eno of the New England Forestry Foundation, one of the partners. With the Wal-Mart funds now assured, only $5.8 million stands in the way of one of the largest land conservation deals in American history, Eno said. "This is getting us within striking distance," Eno said. On the Net: Wal-Mart: http:///www.walmartfacts.com National Fish and Wildlife Foundation: http:///www.nfwf.org
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