CSX is for the Birds!

Over a series of weekends this spring, CSX helped The Conservation Fund's Go Zero program address two of the nation's top environmental challenges — habitat loss and climate change — by planting 3,137 native seedlings across ten acres at Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. As they grow, the new forests will not only clean the air we breathe and filter the water we drink, but they will also help secure a bounty for birds and other area wildlife.

Each fall, hundreds of thousands of ducks descend on the Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge to rest and feed.
Photography is courtesy of the USFWS

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Each fall, hundreds of thousands of migrating birds descend upon the Gulf Coast region to escape the North's freezing temperatures, plump up on quality grub and select their mates for spring breeding. Many find shelter within the parks and wildlife refuges of central Louisiana. But over the past century, their wintering habitat has changed. Louisiana's once lush forests and waterways have been cleared, dammed, leveed and drastically altered, leaving less habitat for our partners in flight.

"Every day, we hear about the impacts of deforestation in the Amazon or Indonesia," says The Conservation Fund's Louisiana state director, Ray Herndon, "but it's happening in the Gulf Coast area too. Migratory bird populations have lost more than 24 million acres of bottomland hardwood forest habitat over the last century along the Red River and lower Mississippi River valleys. Habitat destruction is more pronounced here than in any other area of the United States."

To aid in restoration efforts, The Conservation Fund focuses on carefully selected sites, bringing in a mix of native seedlings that will help reestablish a natural ecosystem. As these new forests mature, they help keep the birds fed and sheltered, and at the same time, trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

"The Conservation Fund's Go Zero program is making tremendous strides in reforestation," said Tori Kaplan, CSX director of corporate citizenship. "We are proud to be a partner, through our Trees for Tracks initiative, in helping offset carbon emissions and restoring wildlife habitats for countless species of birds and animals."