Category: WAIT

When we think about wildlife conservation, we often think about education, land stewardship, and habitat creation, all of which our long-time WAIT partner, Spartanburg Water, has been doing for decades. People connect to nature through education and outdoor experiences, and with this connection they gain a better understanding and love for the environment in which they live.

Through educational nature-related kayak paddles offered to the public, taking students from local schools onto a pontoon boat for “floating classrooms” to learn about water quality and ecology, and hosting a two-day event where approximately 200 employees remove 20,000 pounds of trash from the environment, Spartanburg Water provides opportunities to the community and their employees to connect with their local wildlife and the habitat in which it lives. Members of their team also visit local schools to teach them about water quality and ecology, enabling them to educate students from all grade levels in their community.

In addition to education, Spartanburg Water volunteers and employees enhance and improve habitat, provide nesting opportunities for local birds, and manage approximately 1,500 acres of forested property for a myriad of plant and animal species. By serving as a local oyster shell collection site for the SCORE program, and by constructing oyster reef beds with SCDNR at prime coastal areas, Spartanburg Water is participating in clean-water conservation efforts all across the state. They also host approximately 30 Wood Duck boxes on two of their reservoirs, provide nest boxes for Eastern Bluebirds, and have plans to host boxes for the Eastern Screech Owl on their Lake Blalock property, which just opened a public 2-mile nature loop in November of 2025.

With future plans to create demonstration areas to teach local students about forest management practices and water ecology, Spartanburg Water shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to connecting their community to its natural resources. Education and connection equals conservation, and the SCWF applauds Spartanburg Water’s efforts to educate its employees and its community about our amazing planet!

Proterra, a leading manufacturer of advanced battery technology, is our newest WAIT partner! Located in Greer, SC, Proterra is helping power the shift to a sustainable future by providing innovative battery solutions for heavy-duty commercial vehicles and equipment manufactures.

During a recent visit, Jay Keck, SCWF’s Industry Habitat Manager, explored the property with staff and led a nature walk for approximately 25 enthusiastic employees eager to learn about habitat creation and conservation. Along with installed nest boxes for the Eastern bluebird and wood duck, Eastern screech owl boxes will be installed at the edge of a forested area, increasing the likelihood of this beautiful but declining bird to breed in the area. Prairie areas border much of the property and provide food for many pollinators and the animals that feed upon them. Plants like goldenrod, blackberry, and pokeweed, are numerous and provide food for dozens of bird species and possibly hundreds of types of moths and butterflies. Larger plants like sassafras, black cherry, white oak and willow oak, provide the property with an excellent source of food for caterpillars, birds, reptiles, and mammals.

The WAIT team at Proterra has created a fun and easy way for employees to record the plant and animal species on the property by providing a QR code for employees to scan which directs them to a common page where they can input their findings. This inventory of plants and animals, and its access to employees, has the potential to open up their eyes to the biodiversity on the property, which can lead to conservation efforts on and off the property. To assist employees with the inventories, field guides of local plants and animals are available for employees in the lunchroom. In addition to these guides, nature books, interpretive nature signs, and information about the WAIT program and Proterra’s commitment to habitat conservation is available for employees to explore.

We applaud these initial efforts by Proterra and cannot wait to see what they do for wildlife and wildlife conservation in future years. The name Proterra means “For the Earth” and we love to see their employees living this out daily. Well done, Proterra!