The Environment

By Duane Hovorka

Climate change may be a global problem, but the risks to natural resources on the Great Plains were brought home at a Sportsmen’s Forum on Climate Change and Nebraska Fish and Wildlife, on Dec. 1, 2009, in Lincoln, Neb.

By John Kimble

There are many people saying we can reduce the dependency on fossil fuel by using renewable resources, such as biomass from crops like corn stubble, for ethanol along with grains. Are we at the Dawning of a New Age on the farm where biomass will provide a new income stream for farmers, or are we back to another point in time where we will be exploiting our soils for a quick-term profit without regard for the sustainability of the soil resource? Many have suggested that biofuel is a possible solution to the continued exploitation of fossil fuel, which is a nonrenewable resource.

By Ted Lee Eubanks

Green travel. Geotourism. Ecotourism. Heritage travel. Culinary travel. Nature tourism. Avitourism. Agritourism.

By Tim McCoy

In the search for alternative and renewable sources of energy, wind turbines that generate electricity have a lot going for them. They generate little or no pollution, do not contribute greenhouse gas emissions to the environment during operation, do not require water resources for cooling or power generation and are increasingly becoming cost-effective.

By Paul A. Johnsgard

When I was very young, I used to walk along railroad track right-of-ways near my home in the Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota. I didn’t know that the “turkey-foot grass” that grew higher than my head was something special, and under its more formal name of big bluestem is a charter member of the tallgrass prairie that once covered much of eastern North Dakota.

By Mary Bomberger Brown and Linda R. Brown

The National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is the oldest and largest citizen science event in the world. This winter bird survey has been held every year since 1900—110 years.

By Joyce Coppinger

Build with what you have at hand. Use indigenous and salvaged materials. If the pioneers had too much waste from their crops—straw, for example—or if plants such as cattails and reeds filled the marshes and wetlands, or if the native grasses could use a bit of trimming, they found ways to use the “waste” or the overabundance of plants and grasses. They baled the waste, plants or grasses and built walls and thatched roofs to protect the structure, themselves and their livestock. Not wasting these precious materials but using them for shelter.

By Consul General Martin Loken

The United States and Canada have always had an unparalleled relationship as neighbors, friends and allies.

Nowhere is that relationship more evident than in the extent of our two countries’ commercial relationship: More than seven million U.S. jobs were supported by trade with Canada as of 2005, Canada buys 3.6 times more from the United States than does China and close to $2 billion in goods and services cross the Canada-U.S. border every day.

By Samuel J. Truax, PE

My boss was driving us back to Lincoln, Neb., along Highway 2 from meetings in Alliance and Chadron. Suddenly, near Whitman, a pair of large white birds with black beaks flew right in front of our windshield from a nearby pothole lake. After recovering from the fright of such a near miss, my boss said, “Wow! Big birds.” He was impressed. But in my case I was so excited, I could hardly even say “big birds.” As a matter of fact, my adrenalin level was at least as high as if I were at a Husker game and they had just scored a spectacular touchdown.

By Dave Titterington

October: A time of change. Winter will soon be settling in across the Central Great Plains and the signs are everywhere. Shorter daylight hours are changing the leaves from summer greens to autumn’s gold, red and orange. The sweet aroma of a wood fire drifts from a chimney. And the blackbirds are massing in the treetops, waiting to be escorted south by the first cold front.

This article is the third of a three-part series on the environmental changes to the Missouri River. The legislation that caused the environmental damage is reviewed and explained, along with new legislation that, over time, will hopefully provide the cure.

By Gene Zuerlein and Lacey Bodnar

By Don Hutchens

Agriculture is under attack. On one hand, corn is vilified as the cause of obesity; while on the other, the conversion of corn to ethanol is causing worldwide starvation. Corn prices, supposedly driven by ethanol demand, have led to high food prices. To hear others tell it, American farmers are destroying the environment, depleting natural resources and mistreating animals.

By Mark Derowitsch

Growing up in Nebraska during the 1970s, I enjoyed a free-range childhood. That is to say, I was free to explore the neighborhood on my own, and it wasn’t unusual for me to be outside in the summer months from morning until night.

By Matt Gersib

In a world that works so hard to stay connected every single minute of the day, there’s something amazingly calming about the escape that can be found on the meandering flow of Nebraska’s waterways. The kids don’t have to fuss about what’s happening on their favorite social networking site. There’s no need to worry about mowing the lawn or whether the stock market went up—because when you’re on the river, it’s all about your family, your canoe, the water and the environment around you. It’s time to take it all in.

By Mark Derowitsch

America has some of the world’s most breathtaking trees.

Think about it for a moment. There are majestic, towering redwoods along the West Coast. Colorful, vibrant maple trees throughout the New England countryside. Stand after stand of pines, as far as the eye can see, high up in the Rocky Mountains. And lush, green parks liberally scattered around the nation filled with trees of all different shapes and sizes.

By Ingrid Kirst

When asked why she likes having a community garden plot, Sherry Simons said, “We’ve been eating a lot more fresh vegetables, which has been great for my kids because it’s teaching them to like vegetables and build a preference for fresh, healthy food.” Jennifer Verhein said, “There’s something magical about planting tiny tomato plants the first week in May, and now they’re taller than me in mid-July.”

By Gene Zuerlein and Lacey Bodnar

Dam building, channelization, bank stabilization and levee construction resulted in the ecological alteration of nearly three million acres of natural riverine and floodplain habitat, significant land-use changes and inundation of valley lands under reservoirs.

By Becky Erdkamp and Jessica Kelling

Our community forests are the trees in our parks and surrounding our homes, businesses and buildings. Both individually and as a whole, these trees provide clean air and water, increase property values, increase consumer spending in business districts, reduce heating and cooling costs and reduce the need for “hard infrastructure” by extending the life of roadways and managing stormwater runoff.

By Twyla M. Hansen

Prairie is from the French, a word defined as a treeless, grass-covered plain. But I would add and so much more. Prairie provides us with a solid sense of place, as in this is our natural heritage. Try to imagine the entire central U.S. and Canada covered in grasses and forbs—millions of acres—alive with animals great and small, above and below ground. Prairie is the epitome of rootedness, as in we are not going elsewhere, as in we’re adapted to harsh winters, fierce winds and punishing summers. And in spite of losing most of this historic vegetation to the plow, we still have excellent examples of tallgrass prairie close by to experience up close and personal.

By Terry Zene Riley, Ph.D.

The Great Plains is a broad expanse of grassland that lies east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada, covering all or portions of the U.S. states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Man­itoba and Saskatchewan.