Help DTE Energy Name Bald Eagle Chicks!

MONROE, Mich., June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- DTE Energy's (NYSE: DTE) Monroe Power Plant and Fermi 2 Nuclear Plant have four new residents:  bald eagle chicks.  And the company needs your help to name these iconic American symbols just in time for the Fourth of July.

Starting today, you can visit DTE Energy's Facebook page -- Facebook.com/dteenergy -- to suggest names for the eaglets.  There are two male eaglets at the Monroe Power Plant, and two eaglets at Fermi 2 that are too young to determine their genders.

The guidelines are simple: keep the names clean, creative and respectful in accordance with the grandeur of America's national bird and official emblem.

DTE Energy is excited to have four new eaglets on our sites and wanted to share that excitement with everyone by extending an invitation to help name them.

To help inspire you, here is a little more information about the eagles:

The Fermi 2 eaglets live in a 105-foot tall cottonwood tree near the plant's cooling towers. The nest, about five feet in diameter, is about 60 feet off the ground.  The eaglets are the offspring of a pair of mating adults who have built five nests on site during the past 15 years. But this nest is very special: it replaces one that was destroyed during the 2010 tornado that swept through the area.  Biologists from the U.S. Wildlife and Fisheries Department banded the eaglets, but the birds were too young to identify their gender.

The Monroe Power Plant eaglets are nesting in a 90-foot-tall tree near Plum Creek.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said there are 13 breeding pairs of eagles in Monroe and Wayne counties, which they described as a "healthy and robust breeding population."

To participate, go to Facebook.com/dteenergy.  Find the post about naming the eaglets and make your suggestions.  Pictures of the eaglets are posted on the Facebook page.  DTE Energy staff will pick out our favorite names, then create a poll on Facebook for people to vote.

Final eaglet names will be announced July 1 – and DTE Energy also will post the names of the first people who suggested the winning names.  Then, we'll all have time to ponder the wonder and symbolism of the magnificent bald eagle over the Fourth of July weekend.

There are no monetary rewards or gifts associated with the naming initiative. Instead, participants will have the pride and satisfaction of helping name the bald eagles — and who can say they've done that?

DTE Energy has a long record of environmental stewardship. The company participates in many conservation programs throughout the region, with 28 facilities certified as wildlife sites through the Wildlife Habitat Council.

These sites provide homes for many species of wildlife, including bald eagles, fox, beavers, bluebirds and white-tailed deer. DTE Energy was the first business partner within the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge to enter a cooperative management agreement with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, allowing the service to protect and manage wildlife and fish populations on 656 acres at the Fermi 2 plant.

SOURCE DTE Energy