Hoosiers lose environmental news source as IER funding ends
The Indiana Environmental Reporter is closing after serving Hoosiers important coverage on the state’s environmental well-being and how it affects residents for the past five years.
The independent reporting organization launched in 2018 through Indiana University’s Grand Challenges Program, which provided the news outlet with a three-year grant. The Media School at IU picked up the tab for two additional years after the original funding expired but will no longer continue the program.
IER will stop its operations June 30, but the website will remain operational until April.
Anne Kibbler was the director of communications at IU during IER’s life and played a vital role getting the newsroom off the ground and editing stories.
“We need more reporting not less. It’s just extremely unfortunate," she said. "I do understand the school has to follow its mission putting students, research and faculty first, but it’s just too bad.”
Who was behind the bylines at IER?
Beth Edwards, with IER since the beginning, fell in love with video when attending the Brooks Institute of Photography in California. After graduation she worked on commercials, reality television and documentaries.
After honing her videography skills, she applied to help kick off IER where she became a producer and director, leading her to single-handedly put together the documentary, In the Water, that explores coal ash and its effect on public health and the environment. The work was an official selection at the 2020 Indy Film Fest and Lulea International Film Festival.
Edwards also wrote about confined animal feeding operations, groundwater contaminants and a variety of farming stories.
Enrique Saenz, also at IER from day one, is originally from Texas and began his journalism career in the U.S. Marine Corps embedding with units and telling those stories. After completing his service, he joined a local TV news station as a photographer in Texas.
Following nearly a decade of covering border issues, crime, immigration drugs and cartel violence, an opening at IER popped up and it seemed logical to him that he could cover environmental issues the same way.
“We noticed that there has to be often like a tragedy that needs to happen before people get interested in telling these environmental stories and we wanted to tell the story while people could do something about it,” he said.
IER’s accomplishments through the years
Kibbler said the IER team, with two full-time reporters, is happy with what they’ve accomplished. They set out to reach all 92 counties in Indiana and were able to reach 88 of them in just the short time the site was active.
“People appreciated the work," Kibbler said, "and we hope we’ve made a difference.”
Matt Meersman, director of the St. Joseph River Basin Commission, wrote to IER to express his sadness of the outlet’s closing, but gratitude of its work.
“There will be a huge gap in understanding and awareness of environmental issues in Indiana with the absence of the IER,” Meersman wrote. “Thank you for keeping us so well informed!”
IER won awards and recognition from the Indiana Pro Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, the Woman’s Press Club of Indiana, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Federation of Press Women.
Past stories will continue to be available until the website closes next year.
IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Environmental Reporter to close after funding runs dry
