El Paso Corporation Donates $50,000 to Wyoming Wildlife Projects

LANDER, WY— June 9, 2008— El Paso Corporation (NYSE: EP) has donated $50,000 to The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming to bolster various conservation projects around the state. Funding will support private lands conservation agreements, wildlife projects, and streamside restoration near communities where the Houston-based energy company operates in Wyoming.

One of the projects El Paso’s donation supports is the Conservancy’s Shiras Moose Conservation Fund, a matching grant through Wyoming’s Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust for private lands conservation projects that focus on the Shiras moose, an iconic species living on the Wyoming Range’s eastern slope. The Conservancy’s fund matches trust-selected projects on a million-acre stretch of private ranch lands harboring what many believe is the largest concentration of Shiras moose in North America.

Left to right: Richard Erickson, Area Operations manager for Colorado Interstate Gas Company (CIG), a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation, presents a $50,000 check to Paula Hunker, associate state director of The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming. Also taking part were Steve Jester, the Conservancy's Southwest Wyoming program director; Floyd Robertson, an environmental manager with El Paso; and Steve Tarpley, CIG Area Operations supervisor. Photo © TNC

El Paso’s gift also helps the Conservancy initiate a collaborative effort to combat salt cedar, also known as tamarisk, an invasive species that has taken hold along streams in parts of southwest Wyoming’s Upper Green River basin. The program will reach out to agencies, landowners and other partners to address the ecological impacts of salt cedar invasion and coordinate a detection, mapping and control effort in the area.

The donation also supports the Conservancy’s program in northeast Wyoming along the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, where several landowners are working with the Conservancy to safeguard private lands at risk from subdivision growth.

“El Paso’s donation represents the true spirit of our commitment to collaboration,” says Andrea Erickson Quiroz, the Conservancy’s director in Wyoming. “We can achieve powerful results by finding allies across the state that trust in our mission to safeguard our state’s natural heritage.”

“We are proud to support The Nature Conservancy’s good work in Wyoming,” said Bruce Connery, vice-president of Investor-Media Relations, for El Paso Corporation. “The projects that we are supporting are consistent with our commitment to being the ‘Neighbor to Have,’ a core value of El Paso, and protecting the environment in our areas of operation. We are working with The Nature Conservancy in a number of states across the country because the organization has demonstrated excellence in applying sound ecologic science with an unwavering commitment to protect wildlife, water, and vegetation.”

El Paso Corporation provides natural gas and related energy products in a safe, efficient, and dependable manner. El Paso owns North America's largest interstate natural gas pipeline system and one of North America's largest independent natural gas producers.

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 www.nature.org.