Wal-Mart has done it again.

Not only does Wal-Mart appease my hunger by supplying me with my crucial supply of cheap cold cereal and toast (a college kid necessity), it has now entered the realm of appeasing my environmental aesthetic needs. Wal-Mart has currently pledged over $35 million to create wildlife habitats. The corporation was approached by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a non profit organization, and immediately hopped on the boat. The Corporation pledged to buy an acre of land for every acre they purchased to build their establishments. Not to shabby. However the Sierra Club is still skeptical of this generosity.
Wal-Mart previously paid $3.1 millions in fines for excessive run off and have contributed to urban sprawl, as such, many are questioning if Wal-Mart is doing this to help the environment or rather its image. Well, of course they are doing it to improve their corporate image, what company wouldn’t. Corporations are still self interested and improving their image is a main goal, so why not promote a healthy environment in the process.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation says that the first projects they will tackle will be the

“* Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana: Buying privately owned land to expand the refuges by 40 percent to 6,098 acres.
* Sherfield Cave/Buffalo National River in Arkansas: Adding 1,226 acres of bat habitat.
*North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona: Buying two private ranches with 1,259 acres.
*Squaw Creek in Oregon: Buying a conservation easement on a private ranch to protect 1,120 acres along a tributary of the Deschutes River to aid salmon and steelhead fish populations.
*Downeast Lakes region of Maine: Protecting 312,000 acres around Washington County, including 54 lakes and 1,500 miles of river and stream shoreline.”

And even if you hate Wal-Mart, like most of us do, by stepping in and supplying grants and help to organizations, we begin to tread into an area that allows for more privatization and a better way to a market approach environment. Less red-tape equals more efficient solutions.