NIPSCO is awarding 15 local nonprofit organizations with grants – totaling $50,000 – to help fund restoration and education projects throughout NIPSCO’s service territory.
This year’s winners include:
- ACRES Land Trust, Trine University restoration partnership
- Highland Community Foundation, community tree canopy project
- Lake Station Community Schools, pollinator garden
- Little River Wetlands Project, urban turtle education and conservation efforts
- Michiana Area Council of Governments, Partners for Clean Air/Bicycle Parking Project
- Michigan City Parks Department, Trail Creek Week
- NICHES Land Trust, environmental steward docent training
- Porter County Chapter of Izaak Walton League of America, E-STEAM in the Field
- Porter County Conservation Trust, Eagle Scout project
- Sisters of the Holy Cross, Urban reforestation and pollinator support
- St. Joseph County Parks Foundation, playscape native plantings
- The Nature Conservancy in Indiana, East Chicago Monarch outreach and habitat support
- Town of Chesterton, Coffee Creek Park riparian restoration project
- Town of Churubusco/Smith-Green Community Schools, rain garden
- IU Kokomo, Camp Persimmon environmental sustainability day camp
“The projects funded through the Environmental Action Grant embody the vision of our conservation framework,” said Brian Kortum, NIPSCO manager of natural resources permitting. “Together with our neighboring communities and conservation groups we are striving to be a leader in the preservation, protection and restoration of critical habitats.”
Using innovative conservation initiatives, NIPSCO is committed to maintaining its infrastructure while protecting the environment. Among other things, NIPSCO works to establish early successional habitat on rights of way, in an effort to create as much pollinator habitat as possible.
In its fourth year, NIPSCO’s Environmental Grant has donated $200,000 to date, helping 59 projects come to fruition, including support for pollinator habitats in Lake Station, South Bend and East Chicago, a youth environmental sustainability camp in Kokomo, urban turtle education and conservation program in Fort Wayne and land stewardship education for Trine University students in Steuben County in 2019.
To see what NIPSCO is doing to support the environment, visit NIPSCO.com/Environment.