Going wild: Environmental stewardship in the energy industry

When Consumers Power Co., Michigan's largest utility, bought the lake plain acreage in St. Clair County, the company valued the land for what was underneath--potential gas storage fields. But that was before the state informed them that they owned the largest remaining stand of old-growth plain forest in Michigan. Growth rings date one hickory tree to 1796, in George Washington's administration; one white oak may date to 1752, one year before the Liberty Bell was hung in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Today, while Consumers still owns the site, land preservation management is in the hands of the Michigan Nature Association under a conservation, nondevelopment easement. The industry is making way for wildlife for pragmatic as well as idealistic reasons: Conservation, some say, persuades key audiences of a company's good corporate citizenship, which in turn saves the company time and money when it needs public and/or government support. Other proponents stress that land preservation allows wildlife to flourish and stems the current trend of species extinction. Still another group points to the large-sized carrot coming from environmental groups, which have rolled out the welcome mat to business