Marathon Oil Corporation and Partners Donate $160,000 to Aid in Tamarisk Tree Removal Along Colorado's San Miguel River

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The tamarisk tree has been called "the wickedest weed out West." It's a non-native, invasive species that severely depletes rivers and watersheds at a rate of up to 300 gallons of water per day per tree. Tackling the tamarisk problem is a vitally important part of improving the health of rivers and wildlife habitat across the nation and especially in Colorado and other parts of the Rockies.

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To help remove and control tamarisk trees along impacted watersheds, Marathon Oil Corporation announced today that it has launched a significant conservation effort with an initial contribution of $100,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). The Company has committed to provide total funding of up to $350,000 through 2009 to benefit the major watersheds and tributaries of the Colorado River.

Marathon's contribution to NFWF will be directed to assist The Nature Conservancy in completing the removal of tamarisk along 40 miles of the San Miguel River - one of the last remaining free-flowing rivers in the West. With additional funding provided by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, a total of $160,000 is directed to the San Miguel tamarisk project. The announcement is the culmination of nearly a year of planning and coordination between Marathon and the organizations.

"One of Marathon's core values is to help preserve the environment for future generations. We know that we are guests in the communities in which we work; and therefore, we live by our principles of promoting sustainable social, environmental and economic benefits wherever we operate," said Steven P. Guidry, Marathon's regional vice president, North America Production Operations.

"Marathon is committed to promoting the public-private partnerships necessary to address this major challenge. Long-term, we hope to expand upon this successful tamarisk control model and help bring together a larger coalition of support for the effort," Guidry said.

"We applaud Marathon's leadership in directing their contributions and private industry's attention toward solving a serious conservation issue in the West," said Jeff Trandahl, executive director, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The tamarisk control project on the San Miguel River, which began in 2001, is the first major watershed control effort of its kind. Led by The Nature Conservancy, the project has been focused within the San Miguel headwaters to the confluence with the Dolores River, a distance of more than 120 miles covering 1,400 acres of land in Colorado's San Miguel and Montrose Counties. The effort involves the labor of cutting of tamarisk and applying herbicides directly to the stumps, in combination with mechanical removal in certain locations.

Charles Bedford, the Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in Colorado commented, "Financial support from Marathon and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation comes at a critical time when we are concluding our work on the San Miguel River and looking for future partners to extend this work into other watersheds."

Marathon employee volunteers from Grand Junction and Houston will join teams from The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and National Fish & Wildlife Foundation in tamarisk removal projects along the San Miguel River throughout the year. The San Miguel project is expected to be completed in December 2008.

"Marathon is proud to be able to assist The Nature Conservancy in completing this important San Miguel River tamarisk project. Through The Nature Conservancy's leadership and with support from their project partners, substantial tamarisk control efforts have been achieved," Guidry said.

About The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

Established by Congress in 1984, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is a nonprofit organization that sustains, restores and enhances the Nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats. Through leadership conservation investments with public and private partners, NFWF is dedicated to achieving maximum conservation impact by developing and applying best practices and innovative methods for measurable outcomes. Since its establishment, NFWF has awarded nearly 9,500 grants to over 3,000 organizations in the United States and abroad and leveraged - with its partners - more than $400 million in federal funds into over $1.3 billion for conservation.

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at http://www.nature.org/ .

About Marathon Oil Corporation

Marathon is an integrated international energy company engaged in exploration and production; oil sands mining; integrated gas; and refining, marketing and transportation operations. Marathon has principal operations in the United States, Angola, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Norway and the United Kingdom. Marathon is the fourth largest United States-based integrated oil company and the nation's fifth largest refiner. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at http://www.marathon.com/ .

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