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A central Illinois conservation group has acquired one of the few remaining remnants of Hill Prairie habitat in Illinois. It's called the "devil’s backbone," an old-time name for the jagged geography of the 55 acres near the Mackinaw River in Woodford County.
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A central Illinois Chapter of the Audubon Society is distancing itself from the name of the founder of the national bird watching movement. The John Wesley Powell Chapter of the National Audubon Society has changed its name to the Grand Prairie Bird Alliance.
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Gov. JB Pritzker recently voiced support for the Chicago Hub Improvement Program (CHIP), a plan that also holds promise for Amtrak service through Bloomington-Normal. The investment in transportation infrastructure would fix several problems at Union Station and connect it to two potential passenger-focused main lines.
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The Ecology Action Center in Normal will get nearly $500,000 in federal grant money to grow more trees and study climate change vulnerabilities in the Bloomington-Normal community.
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For more than a year, the City of Bloomington has been looking into a new streetscape plan. It's a potential $30 million "generational" project that would replace aging under-and-above-ground infrastructure. Staff have said the effort is about far more than beautification.
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The McLean County State’s Attorney’s office has issued a legal opinion saying the county has only limited authority to regulate carbon sequestration wells.
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So-called "carbon sequestration" takes carbon dioxide produced by industrial processes like ethanol plants, compresses it to a liquid form, pipes it across the Midwest, and injects it deep under bedrock layers in places like Decatur, and potentially McLean County.
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If you see the bug, take a photo, squish it and then report it to the state Agriculture Department.
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Last month was the planet’s warmest August in the 174-year record of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Like other communities, Bloomington-Normal really noticed the impact of that heat. The August heat wave didn't just cause people to droop. City Manager Pam Reece said the town's shade cover wilted too.
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Efforts are ramping up at the state and federal levels to create more green energy infrastructure. There’s a lot in the federal Inflation Reduction Act and the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in Illinois to stimulate creation of infrastructure, and advocates are increasingly trying to get public buy-in of what will change the landscape — sometimes literally.