The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has been recognized with the 2025 North American Pollinator Protection Campaign Electric Power Award for the utility’s sustainable land management work at Pine Hill Preserve.
This project uses Integrated Vegetation Management practices to enhance biodiversity, expand pollinator habitat and reduce wildfire risk.
The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), facilitated by Pollinator Partnership, honored eight outstanding pollinator advocates from the United States, Canada, and Mexico during its 25th annual conference and virtual award ceremony.
NAPPC is a collaborative body of diverse partners, including respected scientists, researchers, private sector stakeholders, conservationists, and government officials working to find common ground to catalyze groundbreaking initiatives that benefit pollinators.
The Electric Power Research Institute sponsored the 2025 NAPPC Electric Power Award, recognizing SMUD for its outstanding work at Pine Hill Preserve.
SMUD’s Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) practices span over 11,000 miles of power lines, serving 1.5 million people. Its approach both reduces wildfire risk and enhances biodiversity by creating habitat corridors and supporting rare plant populations, EPRI noted.
The SMUD project employs IVM practices to manage vegetation and support wildlife populations by creating habitat corridors, maintaining early successional plant landscapes, and increasing biodiversity of flora and fauna.
The goal at Pine Hill Preserve is to conserve rare plant populations and protect human life and property by reducing wildfire risk through the use of IVM practices that are recommended by the Bureau of Land Management.
With monitoring equipment provided by EPRI, SMUD is now conducting pilot wildlife surveys to document what types of wildlife utilize this site to identify the best ways to expand pollinator habitat in the future.
