| Refinery Supports DPISD Outdoor Learning Center
Forty Shell Deer Park Refining Company managers partnered with students from Deer Park High School on Oct. 14 to plant trees at DPISD’s new Outdoor Learning Center.
The Center, located on Line Drive near Red Bluff, provides opportunities for kindergarten through 12th grade students to investigate, interpret, explore, manage, discover and make informed decisions about environmental issues critical to the community. Related topics include air and water quality, soil composition and waste management.
Each Shell/student team was instructed on the proper techniques for digging holes and planting the trees by Ron Jones, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thirty-eight trees were planted along the Center’s nature trail. All trees, grasses and shrubs on the property are indigenous to the area.
As part of the day’s activities, Tim Hake, President and Chief Executive Officer of Shell Deer Park Refining Company, presented a $100,000 check to Arnold Adair, Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, DPISD. The funding is for one of the supplemental environmental projects that the refining company is undertaking as part of a 2001 consent decree with the U.S. EPA. It will support the Outdoor Learning Center for the purchase of various supplies, development of the nature trail, water quality and soil testing equipment and instructional materials.
Reflecting on the day’s planting project, check presentation and fellowship with DPISD students, Hake said, “This was a great opportunity to experience firsthand the commitment of the school district to environmental science, and to being a valued partner with Shell Deer Park. I plan to stop by the Outdoor Learning Center from time to time to check the progress of the Center and to see how the tree I planted is doing.”
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