Contact: Tim Mallan
Email: tpmallan@aep.com

Location: Mountaineer Plant, New Haven WV

Select images view a larger version.

AEP's Mountaineer Plant employees work with Scouts to provide nesting site for ospreys

American Electric Power's Mountaineer Plant employees and Scouts from Pomeroy's Troop 249, have worked together to provide osprey with a nesting site at the plant.

A platform, built by the scouts, has been erected on plant property for the fish-eating hawk.

"Our employees have been seeing ospreys around the plant property for a couple of years," said Mike Slider, ash technician at Mountaineer. "This platform provides them with an additional nesting site, close to food sources."

Andy White, 16, son of Mountaineer employee Danny White and a student at Meigs High School, is a Life Scout who volunteered for the project. This project will help Andy become an Eagle Scout.

Andy became interested in the osprey project after his brother, Shawn, built a platform for Gavin Plant in Cheshire, Ohio. "After my brother worked on the osprey platform for Gavin, I thought it would be nice to build one for Mountaineer," Andy said.

Mountaineer Plant donated the material for the platform. The Scouts, along with Mountaineer employees, worked over 40 hours on the wildlife habitat project.

Andy, Shawn and their mother, Adell, met with Danny and other Mountaineer employees including Slider and Chris Long, senior chemist, to supervise the raising of the platform.

Ray Andews and Roger Hoffman, from AEP's Pomeroy line crew, set a 30 foot pole to hold the platform.

Andy, Shawn and Dan attached the osprey platform to the pole and then watched as it was raised.

"It feels good to see it up," Andy said, as he and his father looked at the platform. "We all really put a lot of work into this project."

The osprey platform is the newest wildlife habitat project completed at the plant. Other groups have completed projects there such as building and monitoring blue bird, kestrel, and wood duck boxes. Mountaineer's wildlife habitat team has won national recognition for the plant as a certified wildlife habitat. The team's goal is to work with outside volunteer groups to provide a habitat for many species of native wildlife and plants.

"We are pleased to be able to do these types of projects," Slider said. "They give us a great opportunity to work with the Scouts and other groups, while also providing appropriate habitats for wildlife."