STORYTELLERS - Pollinator Power Party 2021. Online registration by Cvent

FirstEnergy is a forward-thinking electric utility dedicated to reliability, safety, and operational excellence. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, FirstEnergy maintains over 13,000 corridor miles across seven states and ten operating companies. We are committed to helping build a brighter and more sustainable future for the communities we serve, and to meet that commitment, we have engaged in many innovative initiatives to contribute to pollinator habitats across our facilities and acres. These include biodiversity commitment projects, programs to preserve monarch butterfly habitats, sustainable vegetation practices, and other corporate responsibility projects.

We look forward to discussing what we have learned from these programs, as well as sharing exciting new plans for upcoming initiatives. As we continue our commitment to protect pollinators and drive conservation across our footprint, we will focus on implementing innovative ideas and creating strong partnerships long into the future. It is our goal to ensure we not only do our part to protect the environment, but fulfill our mission to make our customers’ lives brighter and our communities stronger. Join our presentation during the Pollinator Power Party to learn more!

Together with neighboring communities and conservation groups, NiSource is striving to be a leader in the preservation, protection and restoration of critical habitats.

Using innovative conservation initiatives, we are committed to maintaining our infrastructure while protecting the environment. That's, “Doing business the NiSource Way.”

Come and take a tour with us during the Pollinator Power Party as we highlight our biodiversity program across our 6 states. Whether its Monarch Way stations in Kentucky, high quality sedge meadow habitat next to the Indiana Dunes National Park, or along our miles of managed rights-of-way, we are making a valuable impact on the ecosystems we cross.

Dairyland Power Cooperative (Dairyland) provides wholesale electricity to 24 distribution cooperatives and 17 municipal utilities throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Dairyland is committed to protecting natural resources though sustainable practices and environmental stewardship. As a founding member of the Power-in-Pollinator Initiative, Dairyland has made significant investments in pollinator habitat restoration.

Since 1994, Dairyland has created approximately 50 acres of pollinator habitat at its generation and substation sites. Dairyland’s pollinator habitat work includes establishing a native prairie on a 38-acre landfill cap, restoring a 7.5-acre goat prairie on bluff land property, and creating pollinator plots at several substation sites. Dairyland continues to actively manage these sites and consider future opportunities to develop additional pollinator habitat.

Hear more from our experts during the Pollinator Power Party!

LADWP has the responsibility of ensuring the sustainability of two of the most precious resources that sustain over 4.2 million people in LA –water and electricity. In this climate decade, LADWP remains committed to pursuing its goals of decarbonization, electrification, and sustainable water while protecting the environment and the ecosystem that we operate in. This includes our generation and distribution facilities, transmission lines, water reservoirs, treatment plants, operational and office buildings.

Our presentation during the Pollinator Power Party will focus on LADWP’s Water System and Western monarch tagging efforts. Western monarchs are those individuals that migrate from Canada and states west of the Rocky Mountains to overwintering sites located primarily along the California coast.Unlike some parts of California, Inyo and Mono Counties have large swaths of public and private land that are undeveloped and provide suitable monarch habitat. Monarchs have been observed utilizing habitat in Inyo and Mono Counties for roosting, nectaring, and laying their eggs. LADWP has supported tagging efforts conducted through the Southwest Monarch Study to help track individuals to improve the body of knowledge regarding monarch migration patterns and habitat use. LADWP plans to continue to support these tagging efforts as well as document the presence of monarchs and milkweed on City of Los Angeles property in the Owens Valley.

AEP serves nearly 5.5 million customers across 11 states and maintains a transmission network of more than 40,000 line miles. Our actions matter to the communities we serve and to the environment. A dedication to sustainable solutions is part of the culture at AEP, and not only inspires corporate initiatives, but individual efforts as well. From maintaining pollinator gardens at corporate offices to restoring local habitats, AEP employee volunteers are doing their part to support pollinators across our footprint. At our Right-Of-Way Vegetation Demonstration Project on the Transmission Headquarters campus in New Albany, Ohio, AEP’s Environmental Services specialists and other stakeholders have been collaborating with an environmental consultant in the planting, managing and monitoring of eight vegetation research plots. Regionally appropriate native seed mixes were planted in various plots to attract birds, deer and pollinators, and optimize mixes for use on transmission rights of way and solar farms. The demonstration area will eventually be open to visitors who want to learn more about sustainable vegetation. Hear more about our efforts to support pollinators as we share our experiences and feature employee beekeepers during the Pollinator Power Party.

A number of factors contribute to Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) increasing involvement and participation in pollinator conservation. These include alignment with TVA’s Mission of Environmental Stewardship, federal regulatory drivers(e.g., Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act), efficiencies gained in maintenance and labor costs (business case), ownership/management of large landholdings and associated large-scale benefits, emerging biodiversity goals, and opportunities for collaboration with sister utilities and agencies. TVA carries out a number of internal programs and projects that benefit pollinators, some of which have been in place for years and not necessarily specifically for pollinators but, nevertheless, provide ancillary benefits. Programs include prescribed burning, grasslands and agricultural lands management, management of natural areas, and integrated vegetation management on transmission line rights-of-way (ROW). TVA also has undertaken site-specific efforts to create habitat in areas conducive for enhancement, such as where ROW crosses public land (e.g., state parks, day use areas near dams). Emerging endeavors include incorporation of pollinator habitat into solar project design and construction. External partners include the Tennessee Environmental Council, local power companies, the Southern Grasslands Initiative and EPRI. TVA is considering development of a formal pollinator strategy that provides a cohesive framework for identifying and prioritizing both internal and external partnership opportunities across the seven-state power service area as well as achieving better alignment with other efforts taking place within the southeast region. Our presentation during the Pollinator Power Party will briefly touches on several projects TVA currently has under way associated with pollinator conservation.