May 29, 2024

FirstEnergy’s Green Teams regularly seek out creative ways to put our corporate value of Stewardship into practice. Their latest endeavor is waterway focused, helping bring life and vitality to ponds in our service territories through fish species releases.

“This is a brand-new initiative we’re starting this year to assist nature preserves in our local communities,” said Jessica Shaffer, Advanced Scientist and Green Teams Lead. “Each Green Team has a $200 budget to spend on either a fish or butterfly release project of their choice.”

Two Ohio Green Teams have already put their funds to good use, with Ohio Edison and The Illuminating Company (CEI) completing fish releases at local ponds in our service area this month.

Releasing fish has many benefits for water sources in our communities and the environment, including prohibiting excessive algae growth, fostering healthy marine life, growing fish populations and providing activity for those who enjoy catch and release fishing.

Bagged fish await release as part of an ongoing initiative sponsored by FirstEnergy’s Green Teams. Beginning this year, each FirstEnergy Green Team will be allotted annual funds to spend on a fish or butterfly release project of their choice.

Ohio Edison

The Ohio Edison Green Team purchased 12 white amur fish to release at a pond overrun with algae located at William J. Robertson Nature Preserve in Rittman, Ohio.

Created on the site of a former industrial facility, Robertson Nature Preserve is a popular outdoor recreation spot that hosts walking trails, a kayaking area and nine different ponds on its sprawling grounds.

Algae overgrowth deteriorates ponds and can make them uninhabitable and unusable for wildlife – and white amur fish are the perfect remedy to combat the algae issues, such as those occurring at Robertson.

White amurs are an algae-eating fish that cannot reproduce. This specific type of fish will clean up the pond at Robertson Nature Preserve while not overrunning it with excess population – a double win-win for nature and the park.

CEI

CEI’s Green Team selected to complete a fish release at a well-known boy scout pond located at Beaumont Scout Reservation in Ashtabula County. Operational since 1946, Beaumont features forests, fields, wetlands and lakes on 1,260-acres along the Grand River in Rock Creek, Ohio – 40 miles east from downtown Cleveland.

The chosen pond, which allows scouts to learn and enjoy the art of catch and release fishing, had not been stocked with new fish for many years and needed a refresh.

Led by Green Team member George Emery, Advanced Forestry Specialist, CEI made a generous donation to the Beaumont Pond that included one bag of fat head minnows, 12 six-to-eight-inch bass, 23 six-inch bluegills and two twelve-inch bass.

“The minnows provide a food source for the larger fish in the pond,” explained George. “The remaining fish we released will reproduce and provide many years of robust fishing opportunities for the boy scouts, as well as a healthy, thriving ecosystem within the pond.”

More information on the Green Teams and their projects making a difference in our local communities is available on their SharePoint site.

George Emery releases fish to one of the ponds at Beaumont Scout Reservation on behalf of CEI’s Green Team.