Restoring Critical Wildlife Habitat

Hoopeston Wind and Grand Prairie Friends partner to restore bat populations in central Illinois.

Cat Strumlauf, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications
4 minutes

In 2006, symptoms of one of the worst wildlife diseases in modern times first appeared. Little more than a decade later, white-nose syndrome has killed millions of bats across North America and has decimated the populations of the federally endangered Indiana bat and the federally threatened northern long-eared bat.

Hoopeston Wind—developed, constructed, and operated by Apex Clean Energy—is partnering with conservation land trust Grand Prairie Friends (GPF) to restore these populations, starting with the reestablishment of 165 acres of forestland in central Illinois. Together, Apex and GPF are discovering that wind energy, although not a major contributor to bat population declines, can be part of the solution.

Related Content

Apex Clean Energy wildlife 1

DO NOT REPUBLISH Supporting Wildlife Conservation

Apex representative elected to the American Wind Wildlife Institute board of directors.

Authors

Cat Strumlauf

Senior Director of Marketing and Communications

Cat leads Apex’s marketing and communications team, with a focus on corporate communications, content creation, and media and partner relations. Prior to joining the company, she worked in broadcast journalism as a reporter. Cat holds an MSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a BA in marketing and entrepreneurship from the College of William and Mary’s Mason School of Business.