Three Illinois-based companies — ComEd, Hanson Material Service and Midwest Generation — recently hired Biodiversity Project to help coordinate their work on creating a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the Hine’s emerald dragonfly (HED), a federally endangered species found in Illinois, as well three other Midwestern states. The proposed Habitat Conservation Plan, based on recent scientific recommendations, will be the first formalized strategy in the U.S. to address the habitat management issues of the Hine’s emerald dragonfly.

Biodiversity Project’s past experience creating and implementing environmental communication and outreach initiatives for large and diverse groups helped to secure the contract. Biodiversity Project will develop an Outreach and Education plan designed to help Will and Cook County municipalities and landowners use best practices in stormwater management, which will help protect the dragonfly's breeding ground.

Biodiversity Project will design and develop brochures, displays, fact sheets and other tools to spread the message about what individuals and businesses can do to protect the endangered Hine’s emerald dragonfly and its habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will review the final plan in the summer of 2009.