Walk into our Salem facility and you’re likely to pass a family of Great Blue Herons in a Cottonwood tree just outside our front door. When we built our facility along Salem’s marshy Mill Creek in 1999, we were already committed to mitigating our impact.

The more we learned about the importance of wetland health and the life it sustains, the more we wanted to do. We’ve introduced native plants such as Aster, Camas, Red Alder, Lupine, and Sword Fern. We’ve also introduced aquatic plant species such as Wapato and Marsh Pennywort to enhance biological diversity in the wetland pond. We’ve created a trail system for people to enjoy the nearly 2-acre system, complete with interpretive signs and goslings.

With the restoration of our wetlands, the herons have returned every year, and it’s a view that continues to inspire us.