Rural lifestyle retailer will invest $150,000 each in Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited over the next three years to enhance conservation projects
Tractor Supply Company, the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the United States, announced today, on World Nature Conservation Day, a conservation agreement with Ducks Unlimited (DU) and Trout Unlimited (TU). The Tractor Supply Company Foundation will invest $150,000 into each conservation group over the next three years to support projects aimed at land conservation, wetland restoration and tree-planting efforts.
Tractor Supply’s engagement with DU and TU supports the Company’s sustainability goals as part of its commitment to being “Stewards of Life Out Here.” The partnership with DU aims to conserve 90,000 acres of working lands and wetland restoration, enough to conserve 12.5 million gallons of water, bringing Tractor Supply significantly closer to fulfilling its goal to conserve 25 million gallons of water by 2025. The Company’s partnership with TU also supports its water conservation goal, along with its previously established commitment to reducing its carbon footprint to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.
“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. We are proud to support these impactful conservation projects where we work, live and play. We look forward to making great progress together in the communities we call home.”
Conservation in Action: Ducks Unlimited
Beginning in 2022, Tractor Supply’s three-year partnership with DU is focused on private lands in North Dakota and Texas. The North Dakota project is designed to support 30,000 acres of conservation on working lands by reducing tillage, planting diverse cover crops and incorporating grazing management practices to increase grass productivity and drought resistance. The area is a top-priority landscape for DU as it encompasses the Prairie Pothole Region, North America’s most important waterfowl breeding habitat.
In Texas, Tractor Supply will support DU’s Texas Prairie Wetlands Project designed to restore, enhance and protect shallow, seasonally flooded wetland habitat on private lands within a 28-county focus area along the Texas Gulf Coast.
“This new, three-year partnership with Tractor Supply will help us consistently deliver more on-the-ground conservation projects that are 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.”
See related article: Tractor Supply Commemorates Earth Week and Establishes New Water Conservation Goal
“Plant for our Future” by Trout Unlimited
Beginning this year, Tractor Supply’s support will enhance the depth and breadth of TU’s “Plant for our Future” campaign by planting 25,000 trees annually to intercept and store 4.12 million gallons of water from stormwater runoff and sequester 3.5 million pounds of CO2 by June 2025. Through this collaboration, TU will also activate more than 2,500 volunteers, including Tractor Supply Team Members and other community partners, in a national 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.”
To learn more about Tractor Supply’s sustainability efforts, visit corporate.tractorsupply.com/esg.
Source: Tractor Supply