Northern Wisconsin groups earn Ecofootprint grants

Two fish swimming

First round of funding to support pine-oak barrens, trout spawning conservation projects

Nov. 28, 2023

In celebration of Giving Tuesday, and the people and communities across the Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project area, Enbridge and its partner Lumberjack RC&D announced today the Ecofootprint grant awards in support of conservation work by northern Wisconsin organizations.

Northwestern Sands Barren Restoration is an effort of Bayfield County Forestry and Parks Department to create and maintain pine-oak barrens, which is a globally rare landscape left behind by glaciers 10,000 years ago. Historically, barrens were a common landscape in northwest Wisconsin but were nearly wiped out by fire suppression, agriculture, and reforestation. In collaboration with the Wisconsin DNR, Bayfield County will receive a $50,000 Ecofootprint award to maintain high quality barrens in strategic locations to maximize the connectivity of these isolated landscapes.

Cranberry River Fish Passage Project is the vision of the Bayfield County Land and Water Conservation Department in collaboration with the Town of Clover and Wisconsin DNR. With support of a $100,000 Ecofootprint award, this project will add 5.5 miles of spawning grounds for native brook trout to the Cranberry River system through the replacement of a failing culvert that is preventing trout from swimming upstream.

Ecofootprint is a two-year, $500,000 grant program created in 2023 by Enbridge to support environment restoration and improvement projects along the Line 5 Segment Relocation Project in northern Wisconsin across Ashland, Bayfield, and Iron counties as well as the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa and the Red Cliff Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa.

Enbridge is partnering with Lumberjack Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. to administer the Ecofootprint Grant Program. Lumberjack RC&D is a nine-county, conservation nonprofit in northeastern Wisconsin which, through its own community conservation grant program, has distributed more than $1.2 million to over 100 conservation projects in the past 20 years.

Ecofootprint grant awards were selected from among applicants by a panel of ecology, conservation and philanthropy experts according to the following program priorities:

Improving and/or protecting surface water and/or groundwater quality in watersheds crossed by project.
Advancing research and science related to threatened and endangered species and/or declining populations.
Fostering environmental postsecondary education and stewardship.
Improving research related to the transportation of crude oil as it relates to the environment.
Focusing on environmental areas most relevant to local communities

The second application round of the Ecofootprint Grant Program will open in 2024. To learn more about the program and how to apply, visit the Enbridge website or Lumberjack RC&D.

For more information contact:

Juli Kellner
Enbridge
218-461-7837

Tracy Beckman
Lumberjack Resource Conservation and Development Council
715-369-9886