Press Releases
02/07/2019
The Avangrid Foundation and NFWF Announce New Partnership to Conserve Imperiled Wildlife Across North America
The Avangrid Foundation and NFWF Announce New Partnership to Conserve Imperiled Wildlife Across North America
“Through partnering with the Avangrid Foundation, NFWF will have the ability to expand our efforts across three programs conserving species and habitats unique to their region,” said Lila Helms, executive vice president of external affairs for NFWF. “The partnership will support critical research to better understand and fight white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease affecting bats. In New England, funds will conserve healthy forests and rivers fornative bird and freshwater fish populations. And in the West, the partnership will support healthy grasslands and working ranchlands that are an essential part of the culture and livelihood of this iconic landscape.”
The new partnership will invest in projects that will:
Fund potential treatments and new approaches to managing white-nose syndrome (WNS), a devastating disease that has killed more than 6 million hibernating bats across the United States and Canada over the past decade.
Strengthen the health of forest systems in New England by improving the management of public and private forestlands to create a mosaic of mixed-age forests in the region.
Restore aquatic connectivity and instream habitat in New England by removing barriers to fish passage and restoring streamside forest buffers and floodplains, to benefit eastern brook trout, river herring, Atlantic salmon and other fish. Maintain or improve 1 million acres of interconnected, native grasslands in the Northern Great Plains through restoring habitat, improving land management, and working with ranchers to voluntarily conserve working ranchlands and key wildlife areas, ultimately supporting ranching communities and benefitting migratory grassland birds like Sprague’s pipit, chestnut-collared longspur and McCown’s longspur. Additional information for each program can be found at these links: Bats for the Future Fund, New England Forest and Rivers Fund and Northern Great Plains Program.
About Avangrid: Avangrid, Inc. is a leading energy company in the United States working to meet the growing demand for energy for homes and businesses across the nation through service, innovation, and continued investments by expanding grid infrastructure and energy generation projects. Avangrid has offices in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Oregon, including operations in 24 states with approximately $47 billion in assets, and has two primary lines of business: networks and renewables. Through its networks business, Avangrid owns and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England and in 2024. Through its renewables business, Avangrid owns and operates more than 75 energy generation facilities across the United States producing over 9GW of power for over 2.2 million customers. Avangrid employs approximately 8,000 people and has been recognized by JUST Capital as one of the JUST 100 companies – a ranking of America’s best corporate citizens in 2025 for the fifth consecutive year. The company was named among the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2024 for the sixth consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. Avangrid is a member of the group of companies controlled by Iberdrola, S.A. For more information, visit www.avangrid.com.
About Iberdrola: Iberdrola is one of the world's biggest energy companies and a leader in renewables, spearheading the energy transition to a low carbon economy. The group supplies energy to almost 100 million people in dozens of countries. With a focus on renewable energy, smart networks and smart solutions for customers, Iberdrola’s main markets include Europe (Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy and Greece), the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Australia. The company is also present in growth markets such as Japan, Taiwan, Ireland, Sweden and Poland, among others.
With a workforce of nearly 40,000 and assets in excess of €141.7 billion, across the world, Iberdrola helps to support 400,000 jobs across its supply chain, with annual procurement of €12.2 billion. A benchmark in the fight against climate change, Iberdrola has invested more than €130 billion over the past two decades to help build a sustainable energy model, based on sound environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.
