Decatur

About the Program
The Indorama Ventures Xylenes & PTA LLC is a manufacturing plant just south of the Tennessee river in Northern Alabama working with the local Decatur City School system to provide a variety of educational opportunities throughout it's 100+ acre site. There are a variety of habitats on-site including wetlands, marshes, ponds and open fields that attract an array of wildlife species that help teach students the value of these ecosystems. With purple martin nesting towers, wood duck nesting boxes and eastern bluebird boxes, the Indorama Ventures Xlenes & PTA LLC aims to increase nesting opportunities for these species that rely so heavily on man-made nesting structures. 

Practices and Impacts

• There are 17 wood duck nesting boxes placed throughout 14 acres of wooded bottomland swamp. With a 41% hatchling success rate in 2020, this project has proved to provide valuable nesting opportunities for wood ducks along the Alabama Birding Trail.
• The Wetlands Edge Environmental Center on-site provides valuable learning opportunities for a high school field studies course through the Decatur City School system. Students help conduct wood duck nest box checks, eastern bluebird nest box checks and herpetofauna surveys using coverboards with the goal of learning about the natural environment through biological survey techniques.
• This environmental center also provides place-based educational opportunities for grades 3-5 through wetland ecosystem lesson plans where students learn the importance of these ecosystems and how humans impact these habitats. 
• Grades K-2 also use the Wetlands Edge Environmental Center to teach students about wetland ecosystem importance via the wood duck project on-site. 
• The eastern bluebird project comprises of 53 nesting boxes throughout the site, with all of these boxes replaced with recycled plastic boxes in 2018. These boxes are placed near open habitat to provide plenty of foraging opportunities for eastern bluebirds.
• Local university students design herpetofauna cover board survey inspired lesson plans for Decatur City School students to teach about the variety of amphibians and reptiles found in marsh, wetland and upland habitats. This provides learning opportunities for the Decatur students as well as the university students designing the lesson plans. 
• The Decatur City Schools Talented and Gifted program utilizes wetland and marsh habitats on-site to teach advanced elementary students the importance of wetland ecosystems through tailored lesson plans created by Decatur City School teachers.