CenterPoint Energy’s preservation and conservation initiatives include habitat restoration projects, endangered species conservation activities, and native wildlife rescue and release efforts.
- Our facilities and construction activities are typically contained within narrow linear overhead power and gas pipeline corridors, which helps to minimize their overall footprint.
- We strive to maintain strong relationships with stakeholders impacted by our facilities and engage the conservation community, as appropriate, in building and maintaining company facilities.
- Our leadership is involved with a number of conservation organizations, contributing time and guidance to nonprofits and promoting stewardship to local governments and the public. Our employees also serve on the boards for and volunteer with habitat conservation organizations.
Collaboration with Ducks Unlimited to Support Texas Coastal Wetlands
Since 2022, the CenterPoint Energy Foundation has provided Ducks Unlimited, a non-profit conservation organization that has conserved more than 15 million acres of waterfowl habitat, with $100,000 in grants to further habitat conservation efforts. The latest funding supports the enhancement of 137 acres of crucial habitat for the federally threatened Eastern Black Rail bird along of the Texas Gulf Coast’s San Bernard Wildlife Refuge. This effort aims to safeguard the intricate ecosystems these birds rely upon. With limited breeding territories, the scope of this project will accommodate multiple breeding pairs, while also offering a sanctuary for numerous wintering and migrating birds.
2023: 18,673 Wildlife Habitat/Conservation Acres Preserved
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and National Conservation List Species with Habitats in Areas with Operations
A total of 24 federally-listed endangered species reside in – or visit seasonally – CenterPoint Energy’s electric service territories in Texas and Indiana. In these states, two designated critical habitats are located in our service territory. During facility construction and maintenance activities, we work closely with U.S. Fish and Wildlife to avoid potential impacts, where possible, and mitigate impacts, if they are unavoidable.
CenterPoint Energy’s electric service territory includes:
- No known IUCN red list species’ habitats in the category of “critically endangered”
- Four known IUCN red list species’ habitats in the category of “endangered”
- Four known IUCN red list species’ habitats in the category of “vulnerable”
- Five known IUCN red list species’ habitats in the category of “near threatened”
- A large number of IUCN “least concern” species. Notable among these are bald eagles and brown pelicans, which have been delisted in recent years due to recoveries from near-extinction and benefits from CenterPoint Energy’s avian protection efforts.
Goats Aid CenterPoint Energy Restoration Project
Since 2001, CenterPoint Energy has been working on a long-term prairie restoration project at the Dakota Station Peak Shaving facility, located along the Minnesota River Valley in Burnsville, Minnesota. On much of this property, non-native invasive plants, such as buckthorn and other shrubs, trees and weeds, have taken over the natural plants, grasses and wildflowers indigenous to the area. We have partnered with volunteers, nonprofit organizations, contractors and a company called Prairie Restorations to remove certain trees, shrubs and plants via cutting, burning, spraying, planting, seed collecting and propagation.
CenterPoint Energy has also been using a nontraditional resource in the fight against invasive plants and shrubs: goats.
Goat Dispatch, a company located in Faribault, Minnesota, was hired by CenterPoint Energy in 2019 to develop a site-specific grazing plan, utilizing grazing goats to control terrestrial invasive species. The goats have made significant progress – not only do they eat the buckthorn leaves, but they also eat the bark. When the bark is chewed off the buckthorn shrubs, it weakens the plant and eventually kills it. The University of Minnesota discovered that goats are very effective at destroying buckthorn seeds when they eat the fruits and pose very little dispersal risk.
