15 Environmental Projects Receive Funding

NIPSCO announced recipients of its 2020 Environmental Action Grant, which will be awarded to 15 local organizations that applied for the opportunity earlier this year.

In its fifth year, NIPSCO’s Environmental Grant has donated $250,000 to date, helping 74 projects come to fruition. This year’s recipients feature pollinator habitats at Indiana Dunes, restoration projects at Steuben County’s Clear Lake and Carrol County’s Whistler Woods and multiple youth projects to support outdoor and nature engagement such as citizen science at the Dunes, a teen conservation crew at the Fort Wayne Zoo and a water quality monitoring program in LaGrange County, among others.

The 2020 NIPSCO Environmental Action Grant winners include:

• Clear Lake Township Conservancy, Cyrus Brouse Clean Stream Project
• Dunes Learning Center, Virtual Citizen Science
• EACS Educational Foundation/Paul Harding High School, Nature Trail
• Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Teens for Nature - Conservation Crew
• Friends of Indiana Dunes, Pollinator Gardens
• Gabis Arboretum at Purdue Northwest, Woodland Restoration Project
• Izaak Walton Porter County Chapter, Bat Watch 2020
• LaGrange County Community Foundation/Friends of LaGrange County Parks, Student water quality monitoring
• NICHES Land Trust, Woodland Restoration Project
• Northwest Indiana Paddling Association, East Branch of the Little Calumet River Water Trail Extension Phase II
• Ryan Park Elementary, Nature Trail Improvement and Educational Enhancement
• Shirley Heinze Land Trust, environmental education programming
• TEkVenture Incorporated, outdoor wildflower meadow play area
• IU Kokomo, Camp Persimmon environmental sustainability day camp
• Windsong Pictures, youth environmental project videos

"These grants leverage and expand on the environmental work we're already focused on across the communities we serve, ranging from improvements in air and water quality, reforestation, restoration and environmental education," said John Stout, NIPSCO manager of vegetation management. "The projects that were selected embody the vision of our conservation framework. We believe these projects will contribute toward enhancing a local quality of life and provide great value to the places where we all live and work."

Using innovative conservation initiatives, NIPSCO is committed to maintaining its infrastructure while protecting the environment. Among other efforts, NIPSCO works to establish early successional habitat on rights of way, in an effort to create as much pollinator habitat as possible.