What does $15 million get you?
If you are a citizen of Nebraska, $15 million can get you 77 projects across the state, preserving our natural resources for generations to come. This year the Nebraska Environmental Trust (NET) is granting $14,798,718, and with more than an additional $10 million in matching funds, the impact to the state is tremendous.
Awards ranged from $8,500 to $1,600,000 and from the Missouri River to the Wyoming border. The four largest awards totaled $4.5 million and consisted of two projects near Lincoln and Omaha and two projects from the Scottsbluff area.
The largest grant, $1.6 million, was awarded to the High Plains Weed Management Association for their North Platte River Invasive Species Control Project. The funds from the trust will be used to remove and control invasive species in the riparian areas of the North Platte River watershed. The association consists of eight panhandle counties, and they have taken on the responsibility to address the expansive growth of invasive species. Three main invasive species (Russian olive, saltcedar and phragmites) are targeted to be controlled on approximately 14,300 acres. Monitoring sites and test plots for existing and new technologies will be established.
The other large grant in western Nebraska was $1 million awarded to the Platte River Basin Environments, Inc. (PRBE) of Scottsbluff to acquire the 4,800-acre Montz property, a critical habitat located in the Wildcat Hills of Scotts Bluff County. Acquisition and conservation of the Montz property will enhance the network of conservation lands owned and managed by partners in the Wildcat Hills Wildlands Initiative, which include PRBE, The Nature Conservancy and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. This property is critically important in that it falls within the Wildcat Hills Biologically Unique Landscape, identified in the Nebraska Natural Legacy Plan as an area critical to the conservation of Nebraska’s biological diversity. The area serves as critical habitat for bighorn sheep; contains native plant communities, including western mixed-grass prairie, sandsage prairie, pine woodland, rock outcrops and springs; serves as habitat for native species including six Tier I and 34 Tier II species; and contains rare archeological sites, fossils and geological features.
Development pressure is rapidly consuming native habitat between Lincoln and Omaha, and the Nebraska Land Trust has been working to preserve some of the last remaining tracts in the scenic Schramm Bluffs near Schramm Park in Sarpy County. The $1.1 million NET grant will allow the Nebraska Land Trust and private landowners a rare conservation opportunity to permanently protect land from subdivision and development with conservation easements. The bluffs are an Audubon Important Bird Area that is part of a biologically unique landscape that attracts a diverse assortment of wildlife, especially migrating songbirds. Future generations will enjoy the bluffs because of the Land Trust’s foresight.
The Eastern Saline Wetlands Project, sponsored by the City of Lincoln, received $800,000. The city is partnering with Lancaster County, the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, The Nature Conservancy, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Lincoln Homebuilders Association and the Wachiska Audubon Society to conserve the most imperiled natural community in Nebraska. The eastern saline wetlands ecosystem is located primarily in the Salt Creek watershed in northern Lancaster and southern Saunders counties and is home to the endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle and saltwort plant, as well as other rare fauna and flora. Only about 4,700 acres of saline wetlands still exist, and many of these acres are only partially conserved.
Conservation of the saline wetlands will be executed by acquiring the wetlands and adjoining buffer and connective tracts in fee simple from willing sellers; by purchasing permanent conservation easements from willing sellers on the wetlands and adjoining buffer and connective tracts; by employing a Saline Wetlands Coordinator; and by restoration and management work on the wetlands.
At the other end of the funding spectrum are the small projects. The trust awarded $8,500 to fund continued work on Nine Mile Creek controlling invasive species; $15,000 for a no-till drill in Webster County, $15,000 for one in Frontier County and another $15,000 for one in the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District, allowing landowners to plant native grasses and forbs for wildlife benefits; $13,275 to help fund two mobile prescribed-burn units that contain all of the equipment you need to conduct a safe and effective prescribed burn (the units can be checked out from Pheasants Forever and used for free); $14,100 to help fund an invasive species conference; $15,000 to restore native plants in the Missouri River floodplain; $14,450 to acquire soil moisture equipment to help producers determine when irrigation is needed; and $10,159 for prairie restoration.
The other 64 funded projects are between $15,000 and $560,000. To see a complete listing of the projects funded this year and learn more about the project, visit the trust’s Web site at: www.environmentaltrust.org.
Over the past 15 years, the trust has provided over $126 million for 1,035 projects. The Nebraska Environmental Trust gets its funding from the Nebraska Lottery. The trust receives 44.5 percent of the proceeds from the Lottery. When you purchase that one-dollar scratch ticket or Powerball ticket, the trust receives about nine cents. Nine cents does not seem to be a large amount of money, but when it adds up to $10–$15 million a year, it is significant. So the next time you buy a scratch ticket or a Powerball ticket, whether you win or lose, our environment is still a big winner.
