Thanks to a land donation by Enbridge, students in Illinois are learning about nature while being surrounded by nature.
In 2021, Enbridge donated 20 acres of prairie property to Operation Endangered Species, a program founded a decade earlier by Paul Ritter, a science instructor at Pontiac Township High School in Central Illinois.
Kickapoo Prairie, named by students for the Indigenous tribe that lived the longest in the region, is just a five-minute drive from the school, making it a kind of field lab for multiple disciplines, from STEM subjects to history and English.
“When I say it’s a living laboratory, that’s 100% what it is,” said Ritter, who also serves as OES’s executive director. “You can look at it as a piece of property, or you can look at it as a changer of lives.”
The donation came through Enbridge’s Tribal Initiatives and its Fueling Futures Program, which energizes communities through partnerships and sponsorships that strengthen safety, vibrancy and sustainability.
In the last couple of years, students have planted 20 acres of native plants, tracked monarch butterfly populations and feeding patterns, and reestablished a species of reptile that had been extirpated from the state. (They also learned that “extirpation” means the local extinction of an organism or species.) In 2023, students worked with the school superintendent to design an outdoor learning center at the prairie.
The students’ long-term goal is to return the entire site to its natural prairie habitat. Along the way, they continue to work with the Odawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi communities, who have lived on the land for thousands of years.
“We are happy to see what OES has been able to do with the prairie property since 2021,” April Holdren, manager of stakeholder relations at Enbridge, told American Gas. “A hands-on outdoor learning center for students is exceptional and delivers so many long-lasting benefits.” —Eric Johnson