Hoosier Energy’s quest to be a partner in conservation efforts by creating healthy pollinator habitats continues to evolve.

 

Three years after becoming the first generation and transmission cooperative to receive a Certificate of Inclusion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Nationwide Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for the monarch butterfly, and one year after that certificate helped secure a permit to use herbicides in the Hoosier National Forest right-of-way, Hoosier Energy is taking the next step.

 

A grant award of $7,700 from Stantech and the University of Illinois-Chicago will allow Hoosier, in partnership with EPRI and Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, to monitor the vegetation along that right-of-way over the course of the next three years. The study will compare the changes occurring as a result of selective herbicide treatment and brush control versus the previous results of 50-plus years of mowing.

 

EPRI’s Ashley Bennett, working with Stantec Consulting Services, set up the initial vegetation survey and will be analyzing the yearly reports, which will be recorded through GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to enable defined areas of study and provide verifiable data.

 

“By using a low-volume herbicide, we target invasive species and see more of the native habitat develop,” said Dave Appel, Hoosier Energy Environmental Team Leader. “We’d like to move from vegetation management to habitat management for all acreage in our right-of-way.”

 

To that end, Appel and Hoosier Energy are working on a grant application through the U.S. Forest Service to provide habitat enhancement for over 500 acres of publicly accessible land in the right-of-way. It would allow for overseeding and more robust treatment.

 

Another project near Tell City this fall has seen the restoration of ground along the Perry County Industrial Loop. The entire right-of-way was seeded with approximately 50 native species of grasses and wildflowers as a result of working with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.

 

“This marked the first time we’ve employed hydroseeding for seed mixes,” Appel said. “This is starting from bare ground, so we’re not just putting in stuff to make it green, but creating a habitat with the seed mix.”

 

Seeding was completed on September 18, and the area will also be the subject of a research project with EPRI in the coming years.