Key Incentive Programs in Nebraska

The table below includes an assessment of the state's overall ability to meet the ten criteria for effective incentive programs given the current combined efforts of all programs in the state, including the programs shown on this page.

The statewide assessment is not an average of the performance of programs in the state, but rather an evaluation of state-led efforts to provide effective incentive programs.

Landowner Incentive Program

The Landowner Incentive Program is a federal program that has dramatically enhanced Nebraska's ability to protect and restore tall and shortgrass prairie habitat for wildlife and at-risk species on private land.  Nebraska has successfully implemented the Landowner Incentive Program to address conservation priorities in the state's valued habitat areas.

Private landowners who own native prairie (tallgrass, mixed-grass, or shortgrass), wetland, or other diverse native habitats are eligible to apply. The program provides up to 75% cost share to private landowners for implementing a variety of practices including native prairie seeding, prescribed burning, and conservation easements.

Participants in the program sign a 10-year agreement with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission that focuses on the management goals of the individual landowner. The Game and Parks Commission has signed a programmatic agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expedite the enrollment process for the landowner. This agreement allows landowners to enter contracts that meet specific guidelines without waiting for a review from the regional Fish and Wildlife office. This significantly shortens and simplifies the federal permit process.

Other Uses of Funds

Nebraska uses the Landowner Incentive Program funds in a variety of ways in addition to providing cost share opportunities.

Private Land Biologists

The Game and Parks Commission employs full-time Private Land Biologists who assist landowners with information and advice on management techniques for their projects.

State Partnerships

Funds are also used to initiate state partnerships such as the Tallgrass Prairie Partnership and the Shortgrass Prairie Partnership. These partnerships are cooperative agreements to initiate habitat improvements on privately owned lands in the short and tallgrass prairie regions of the state. The partnerships provide outreach to private landowners and the general public about the importance of prairie habitat in the state. They also provide on-the-ground habitat improvement projects and encourage landowners to use the state's cost-share, rental payment, and conservation easement programs.

Other Projects

Currently a database is being developed to map the prairie areas of the state and help direct conservation efforts to the highest priority sites. Also, a project is underway using graduate students to monitor the responses of flora and fauna to current project practices.

Nebraska Buffer Strip Program

The Nebraska Buffer Strip Program offers annual rental payments to landowners who agree to create and maintain vegetated buffer strips on croplands adjacent to perennial and seasonal streams, ponds, and wetlands.

Primary Focus

The primary focus of the program is to reduce the amount of agrichemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, that reach surface water from runoff. This increases water quality for drinking, recreational uses, and aquatic life and also provides secondary benefits by creating terrestrial wildlife habitat.

Eligible Buffer Types

Two types of buffer strips are eligible for the program: filter strips (native grasses) and riparian forest buffer strips (native trees and grass).

Length of Program

Landowners involved in the program sign a contract with the Natural Resources District agreeing to maintain the strips for 5 to10 years in exchange for annual rental payments.

Enrollment

To enroll, a conservation technician, agronomist, or forester from a Natural Resources Conservation Service or local Natural Resources District office determines a landowner's eligibility, either through a site or office visit.

If the site is approved, a contract between the landowner and the local Natural Resources District office is developed.

Selection Criteria

Projects are chosen using a rating system with preference given to the projects in proximity to watersheds of high priority for water quality identified by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. A number of other factors are also considered, such as whether or not acreage has an established buffer already.

Funding

The state funds the Nebraska Buffer Strip Program by charging a fee on registered pesticides to manufacturers and distributors in the state.

Program Administration

To administer the program, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture works very closely with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Natural Resource Districts. The Natural Resource Conservation Service provides technical assistance to landowners, working with them to ensure eligibility, to determine the dimensions and location of the buffer strip, and to stake out the buffer area so the landowner knows where to seed or plant. Once the buffer strips are completed, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and the Natural Resources District perform compliance checks to make sure the buffers are functioning.

Summary

The Nebraska Buffer Strip Program was designed to be used in conjunction with the federal Conservation Reserve Program, other state programs, or as a stand-alone program. This program supplements the federal payments of those enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program and also encourages participation from those not enrolled. The Nebraska Buffer strip program offers more flexibility than the Conservation Reserve Program, as landowners may hay or graze the buffers in accordance to Natural Resource Conservation Service haying and grazing regulations without being penalized. This practice is not allowed with the Conservation Reserve Program.

Rainwater Basin Joint Venture

The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture was initiated to preserve waterfowl nesting and migration areas in a 17 county region of Nebraska. The area was chosen as a way to link together the larger migration zone of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan extending from Mexico to Canada.

Through the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture, state, federal, and private agencies in Nebraska joined together in a partnership with the goal of restoring and protecting 50,000 acres of Nebraska's wetland and associated upland habitat. The Joint Venture provides the structure for partnerships between government agencies, landowners, local communities, private organizations, businesses, concerned citizens.

All of these partners work toward the Joint Venture's primary goals while trying to accommodate the needs of the community:

• Protect, restore, and create an additional 25,000 wetland acres, plus 25,000 acres of adjacent upland habitat.
• Ensure reliable water sources for a minimum of 1/3 of all protected wetland acres to provide sufficient water quantity, quality and distribution to meet migratory waterfowl and aquatic bird needs.
• Develop and implement wetland enhancement strategies to optimize those values wetlands provide to waterfowl, endangered species and other wetland-dependant birds.

Any landowner in Nebraska's 17 county region is eligible if there are depressional wetlands on the property.

Generally, there are two ways for people to get involved in a project

• interested landowners in the 17 county area contact a partner agency and ask to join the program
• landowners in priority areas are invited to join by Joint Venture staff

The Joint Venture developed maps of wetlands of high importance in the state. It currently staffs two people to visit landowners in these priority areas and invite them to join the program. Once a property is determined to be eligible to join, a bioengineering team of project partners visits the property and crafts a wetland plan for the landowner. The engineering team then combines various state, federal, and private incentive programs to come up with the package that best meets the landowner's needs for implementing their plan. Many projects in the Joint Venture are combined with the WILD Nebraska program. Once the project is established, the bioengineering teams monitor the projects and check their status with on-site visits about every other year.

One major limitation for the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture is its lack of staff. The Joint Venture receives its administrative funds through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The rest of its operations are funded or staffed by contributions from the other partners involved. It has been difficult to implement new projects because partners are too busy concentrating their efforts on current projects.

Sandhills Task Force

The Sandhills Task Force is a regional partnership that promotes land stewardship as a way to sustain prosperous ranching operations while supporting native plant and animal communities. Over the years, the Sandhills Task Force has completed many habitat restoration projects as well as a Beginning Rancher Program, Grassland Bird Study, several monitoring projects, and numerous educational and outreach activities.

It is a non-profit organization of ranchers and conservation agencies that promotes research, education, technical assistance, and on-the-ground conservation practices in Nebraska's 20-county Sandhill region. This region is the largest contiguous grassland in North America with an area of more than 19,000 square miles.

The taskforce was created to provide funds and expertise to private landowners in the Sandhills interested in protecting its soil, native grassland, and water resources. It builds partnerships between ranchers, conservation organizations and natural resource agencies to accomplish its goals.

The Sandhills Task Force works with landowners to design projects suited to their operation and needs. While the Task Force funds some projects, it often brings together the expertise and funding of diverse private conservation organizations and existing government programs to accomplish goals that few organizations or landowners could accomplish alone.

Funding

Funding for its conservation efforts comes from a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust and cooperative agreements with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited. Participants sign 10-year agreements outlining a conservation strategy that meets the needs of the landowner while implementing conservation practices and enhancing wildlife habitat. In the agreements, the amount of assistance each landowner receives is based on the amount of benefit for wildlife and natural resources, with greater wildlife benefits receiving larger amounts of cost-share.

WILD Nebraska

The WILD Nebraska program is the result of partnerships formed between the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and several other state, federal, and private agencies and organizations.

It was initiated to encourage landowners to set aside land for wildlife habitat by consolidating existing wildlife habitat management programs in the state to offer greater flexibility and a streamlined process to private landowners interested in habitat conservation and restoration.

The program is very flexible to address different issues across the state. Projects can be tailored to the local resource and the landowner. Generally the state tries to use funds from federal programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program and Wetlands Reserve Program before using WILD funds. Most projects in the program are upland projects that aren't covered by federal programs. WILD is a way to fill in the gaps.

Three habitat types are eligible for enrollment in the program: grasslands, wetlands, and woodlands.

Landowner assistance is provided for both wildlife habitat restoration and wildlife habitat management. Participants in the program may receive up to 100% cost-share on habitat restoration materials, per-acre payments on land restored for habitat, and technical assistance for restoring and managing habitat areas.

Selection Criteria

Project applications are prioritized on a statewide and regional basis. The program aims to evenly divide the funds between the three eligible habitat types. The wetland restoration aspect of the program is the strongest. Typically WILD will pay 80% of cost-share on the projects. However, participants in wetland projects usually receive 100% cost-share for their activities by combining funds with other state and federal programs. If the state thinks a project is especially important, they will also pick up the costs that the federal programs don't cover.

To start a project, a biologist visits the landowner's property in order to draft a management contract. Together they figure out what types of activities are needed to restore or manage wildlife habitat on their property. The local Natural Resources Districts give landowners advice, help them with project implementation, and help arrange project engineering. Bonus payments are provided for public access to land. Compliance visits are performed on an annual basis to make sure participants are following contract terms. Currently, efforts are being combined with the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture to enter all wetland projects into a GIS database. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission would like to expand this database to include all other habitat