Through the NiSource Charitable Foundation, NIPSCO and its parent company NiSource Inc. has awarded The Wetlands Initiative (TWI) a $50,000 grant in support of a major new ecological restoration project in the City of Gary in the Calumet region of Northwest Indiana.

Longtime birder Vicky Sroczynski typically doesn’t “chase” rare birds, but she considered the opportunity to see a Roseate Spoonbill—normally a resident of the Gulf Coast and rarely seen further north—at TWI’s Dixon Waterfowl Refuge too good to miss. As soon as Vicky entered the Refuge gates after a two-hour drive from her home in Darien, she craned her neck toward the boat launch… just in time to glimpse a pink-winged bird fly behind the island and disappear.

Get ready to cast your lines and paddle your way through the picturesque waters of the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge! The 2023 public fishing and paddling season kicked off on May 1st and runs through September 4th. We encourage all visitors to carefully review the rules before visiting the Refuge to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.

For the past several years, the Wetlands Initiative has been an active partner in a new collaboration of conservation groups called the Middle Illinois River Conservation Collaborative (MIRCC). Earlier this summer, that partnership led to a grant to Ducks Unlimited (DU) from the federal North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) program that will support infrastructure improvements at TWI’s Dixon Waterfowl Refuge, among other benefits for Illinois River Valley wetland conservation sites.

The winter season has been far from slow and quiet for the Wetlands Initiative’s restoration projects at the U.S. Forest Service’s Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. At this 30-square-mile former site of the Joliet Army Arsenal in Will County, Illinois, TWI recently completed our largest amount of native seeding ever. Working closely with the Forest Service and another critical restoration partner, the National Forest Foundation, we seeded 574 new acres that are going into restoration with 183 native prairie and wetland plant species—a total of 9,817 pounds of seed planted!

On August 3 and 4, participants in the Wetlands Initiative’s second-ever Dixon Refuge BioBlitz made biodiversity history by finding and identifying 883 species of living things over two days—far exceeding the final tally of 675 species from our first BioBlitz in 2015. From eastern red bats and raspberry pyrausta moths to indigo milk cap fungus and Yellow-billed Cuckoos, the 2018 BioBlitz was a vibrant and immersive nature experience to remember.

The striking black-and-orange monarch butterfly, once a common sight flitting through American backyards, has sharply declined in numbers in recent years. With a new two-year grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund, the Wetlands Initiative will give this charismatic insect a helping hand in Illinois through habitat restoration at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and a special seed production effort at both Midewin and our Dixon Waterfowl Refuge.