- Introduction
- Community
- Products
- Operations/Performance
- Forestry
- Resources
Community
Where Wildlife and Work Meet
- Environmental
Environmental Dimension
- Using resources wisely
- Complying with laws
- Minimizing the impact of our facilities by operating in a safe, responsible and efficient manner
- Reducing the adverse impact of our products in use
- Economic
Economic Dimension
- Maintaining profitability
- Managing the cost to customers and consumers to use our products
- Making products that are preferred in the marketplace
- Positively impacting our communities through local purchases of goods and services, taxes and other community support
Where Wildlife and Work Meet
Within sight of large pulp and paper mills making thousands of tons a year of cellulose, tissue and containerboard products, the threatened gopher tortoise thrives, longleaf pine habitat is being restored and the American chestnut is getting a new lease on life. It’s all part of the work that's being done at four Georgia-Pacific mills participating in the Wildlife Habitat Council's (WHC) Wildlife at WorkSM program.
Created in 1988, WHC helps companies and other landowners manage their lands for the benefit of wildlife as well as conservation education. The Wildlife at Work program supports and certifies company efforts to create, restore and enhance wildlife habitat on their lands.
Learn more about Georgia-Pacific's Wildlife at Work certified sites:
Big Island, Virginia
The Big Island containerboard mill has established a 40-member wildlife team that works on initiatives
focused on birds, vegetation and education. The mill's signature Wildlife at Work project is a partnership with The American
Chestnut Foundation to reintroduce the American chestnut to its native habitat. The organizations planted 650 test
chestnut saplings on mill property in 2011. The mill has made a 20-year commitment to provide and manage the protected plot of
land so the saplings can be monitored in a natural setting.
Monticello, Mississippi
The Monticello containerboard mill has been Wildlife at Work certified since 1997. During that time, mill
employees have transformed a former baseball field into a wildlife meadow that attracts pollinators and provides foraging habitat
for white-tailed deer and wild turkey populations. The mill also has a nature trail with an outdoor classroom where wildlife team
members conduct learning activities for elementary school students. About 1,600 acres of the Monticello mill’s 2,200-acre property
are actively managed for wildlife.
New Augusta (Leaf River), Mississippi
Employees at GP's Leaf River cellulose mill manage diverse wildlife habitat areas on more than 4,000 acres in
southeastern Mississippi. They planted longleaf pine, bluestem and Indiangrass to provide better habitat for the gopher tortoise,
a federally listed threatened species. Signage and flagging are used to identify tortoise burrow locations throughout the habitat
area. The mill has also partnered with the University of Southern Mississippi and several local schools on "Discovery Days," an
environmental education program that is an integral part of the river ecology curriculum for schools throughout the region. The
"Discovery Days" program is certified by WHC as a Corporate Lands for LearningSM program.
Rincon (Savannah River), Georgia
The Savannah River consumer products mill designates green space on the mill site that serves as home to a
wide variety of species including beavers, southern leopard frogs, eastern wild turkeys, slender glass lizards and gopher tortoises.
Mill employees work to enhance nesting and feeding habitat for birds and bats and monitor nest boxes for bluebirds and Carolina
chickadees as well as owls and wood ducks. A key focus of the mill's program is to help restore native longleaf pine habitat.
Approximately 48,000 longleaf pine seedlings were planted on 100 acres of mill property in 2010. Wildlife team members are
monitoring the success of the seedlings.
Social Dimension