The Indiana DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife was given this year’s Excellence in Conservation award from the Midwest Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies for installing native plant habitat at an Indianapolis school.
The annual award recognizes the agency that has shown excellence in conservation through a specific project.
The project recognized was funded through grants from the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation’s Give Adventure program and Reconnecting to Our Waterways. The goal of the project is to foster a conservation ethic in an underserved Indianapolis community. To achieve this goal, Fish & Wildlife focused on specific activities that took place in 2019, including native habitat installation at Wendell Phillips School 63 (WPS 63), workforce development, conservation education, and community engagement.
Early last summer, Fish & Wildlife staff worked alongside WPS 63 students and youth as well as young adults participating in Groundwork Indy’s GroundCorp program in planting approximately 750 plugs in three habitat installations at the school. In addition, the project team developed three bilingual signs that were installed to highlight the front pollinator garden, as well as the wetland pond and monarch waystation behind the school.
In July, the project team worked with staff across DNR to host a workforce development day for Groundwork Indy at Atterbury Fish & Wildlife Area. Twenty-six Groundwork Indy youth and young adults participated in the event, where they experienced fishing and attended an information session about potential future careers with DNR and in natural resources fields.
Before the 2019-20 school year, Fish & Wildlife’s education outreach specialist conducted a Project WILD educator workshop with 55 teachers to introduce them to the school’s habitat installations and provide training to incorporate the habitat installations into curriculum.
The project culminated in a community festival event at Reverend Mozel Sanders Park in Indianapolis in September 2019. The project team worked together with partners and other Fish & Wildlife staff to host booths around the park focused on topic-specific activities, including pollinators, wildlife tracks, watersheds, archery, fishing, and macroinvertebrates and water quality.
“Through a variety of experiences, this team and our partners helped to deepen people’s connection to nature and conservation,” said Angie Haywood, Fish & Wildlife’s assistant director of planning and public engagement. “The project required a great deal of coordination and effort, and we are so proud of the results. We are excited to continue our work with these partners in the future.”
Although the primary grant activities have concluded, Fish & Wildlife staff continue to work with Groundwork Indy youth and young adults to maintain WPS 63’s pollinator habitat.