Dominion News Releases

May 18, 2001

Dominion FalconTrak^sm Visits Florence Reizenstein Middle School

PITTSBURGH, PA. – Students at Florence Reizenstein Middle School in Pittsburgh went eye-to-eye with a live peregrine falcon today as part of an educational partnership with Dominion and its FalconTrak^sm research project.

Shawn Padgett, a falcon expert with the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., explained to the six grade students why the bird of prey was once nearly extinct in the United States and how programs such as FalconTrak will help ensure the birds' future survival.

"Children of all ages are fascinated by peregrines," Padgett said. "By bringing FalconTrak to schools such as Reizenstein, Dominion hopes to instill a better understanding and generate increased interest among students about science, the environment and man’s responsibility to protect our natural resources."

FalconTrak is the largest tracking and research project ever undertaken on wild peregrine falcons in the United States. Dominion and its partners will raise and track 19 young falcons over the next three years. The project will use small, solar powered transmitters and satellites to track the movements of juvenile falcons released in Virginia and Maryland. The information will be used to study the migratory and nesting patterns of the peregrine.

The Center is one of Dominion’s eight partners in the project. The other partners are Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, North Star Science and Technology of Baltimore, Shenandoah National Park, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Reizenstein was selected by Dominion Peoples, a member of the Dominion family of companies to play an active role in the three-year project.

As a partnering school, Reizenstein will adopt and name one of the wild, juvenile falcons Dominion is raising at sites in its headquarters of Richmond, Va., or Shenandoah National Park. Dominion will provide the school with lesson plans based on the project for each grade level, on-site visits by biologists, demonstrations and other educational materials.

"The lessons are designed to not only teach the students about falcons but to allow them to use and apply science and math skills, to learn geography and about satellite technology," Padgett said.

Students also can watch a nesting pair of wild falcons, named Virginia and James, hatch and raise their young by going to Dominion’s Web site at www.dom.com and clicking on the FalconTrak logo. This same site will also allow the students to track the movements of the bird they have adopted. The Dominion FalconTrak page also will provide links to falcon Web sites hosted by each of the partners.

Dominion is one of the nation’s largest producers of energy, with a production capability of 2.7 trillion British thermal units of energy per day. The company has a power generation portfolio of more than 19,000 megawatts, which is expected to grow to more than 28,000 megawatts by 2005. Dominion is also one of the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in North America, with 2.8 trillion cubic feet of equivalent reserves. The company has 7,600 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline and a delivery capability of 6.3 billion cubic feet per day. In addition, the company operates the nation’s largest underground natural gas storage system, with more than 950 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. Dominion also serves 3.8 million retail natural gas and electric customers, and owns a telecommunications business that is expanding its fiber-optic network from its current 35,000 fiber miles (3,600 route miles) to more than 800,000 fiber miles (9,000 route miles). For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

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