Fairborn Cement Co. is providing a hand in saving pollinators, reported the Fairborn Daily Herald.
The Fairborn, Ohio, cement plant received a grant in 2016 to plant 30 acres of wildflowers, which are expected to bloom tenfold in the coming months.
“It’s a very good end-use for the land,” Quality Control Manager Rusty Strader said. “This is all reclaimed quarries, so this is a very good use – it’s good for the environment.”
This year, the company set aside a plot specifically aimed to attract monarch butterflies, which is set on a 10-year-old reclaimed quarry. Some Fairborn Cement employees volunteered on April 21 to scatter seeds across the plot to ultimately sprout future monarch butterfly nutrients. Saving pollinators has been a plant-wide effort, involving various departments across the company, according to Strader.
“Eventually we’ll turn this into a land-learning lab,” Strader said of the pollinator-friendly area. He hopes to have community members and schools visit the site in the future.
Cemex sold the Fairborn plant to Eagle Materials Inc. in February for $400 million. Fairborn Cement is now a subsidiary of Eagle Materials Inc.
