On World Nature Conservation day, Tractor Supply Company has announced a $300,000 partnership with Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited. While Tractor Supply is the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the United States, Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited are some of the world’s largest nonprofit organizations dedicated to conservation and ecological restoration.
Tractor Supply will invest $150,000 in each conservation organization over the next three years to enhance conservation projects. The projects are focused on land conservation, wetland restoration, and tree-planting efforts. Honoring TSC’s commitment to being “Stewards of Life Out Here,” the partnership aims to conserve 90,000 acres of working lands and wetland restoration. Tractor Supply aims to preserve 25 million gallons of water by 2025 — the three-year project alone will save 12.5 million gallons of water.
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“To advance our stewardship efforts, Tractor Supply is dedicated to finding innovative solutions to put our values in action, such as partnerships like these,” said Mary Winn Pilkington, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Public Relations and President of the Tractor Supply Company Foundation. “Trout Unlimited and Ducks Unlimited engage in conservation and restoration work that can have a direct impact in preserving Life Out Here for our customers, communities and wildlife alike.”
Conservation in Action: Ducks Unlimited
Ducks Unlimited will focus on private lands in North Dakota and Texas. North Dakota’s project alone will support 30,000 acres of conservation on working lands. This area is a high priority based on the critical waterfowl breeding habitat it encompasses as a part of the Prairie Pothole Region. The groups will improve wetland conditions by reducing tillage, planting diverse cover crops, and incorporating strategic grazing management practices to increase grass productivity and drought priority.
In Texas, Tractor Supply will support Ducks Unlimited’s project to restore, enhance, and protect shallow, seasonally flooded wetland habitats. The Texas Prairie Wetlands Project focuses on private lands within a 28-county area along the Texas Coast.
“This new, three-year partnership with Tractor Supply will help us consistently deliver more on-the-ground conservation projects beneficial for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities in Texas and North Dakota,” Ducks Unlimited Chief Conservation Officer Dr. Karen Waldrop said. “Agriculture is at the heart of our traditional culture and core base of supporters, just as the ag community is a strong customer base for Tractor Supply. In serving our mutual customers, we can amplify our shared commitment to serve people who live the rural lifestyle.”
‘Plant for our Future’ by Trout Unlimited
The “Plant for our Future” campaign by Trout Unlimited will plant 25,000 trees annually to intercept and store 4.12 million gallons of water from storm runoff. The trees should sequester 3.5 million pounds of CO2 by June 2025. Aside from financial contributions, Tractor Supply will also help provide more than 2,500 volunteers, including team members and community partners, in the planting campaign.
“Trout Unlimited’s network of staff and volunteers across the country work tirelessly to care for the local rivers and streams in their communities,” said Helen Neville, Trout Unlimited’s Senior Scientist. “With a partner like Tractor Supply, whose stakeholders share the same commitment to conservation, we’ll be able to double the number of trees we plant – creating colder, cleaner and healthier rivers while also removing thousands of pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere to combat climate change and conserving and cleaning millions of gallons of polluted stormwater runoff.”
