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(Lincoln, NE) -- The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is awarded a federal grant to work with conservation organizations and private landowners to conserve wetlands on two parcels of land in south-central Nebraska.
Game and Parks says conservation efforts will benefit the endangered whooping crane and the threatened eastern black rail, as well as common bird and wetland species. The Commission says the two properties will remain privately owned and will remain in agricultural production, as nonprofit organizations work with the landowners to conserve habitat. The Nebraska Crane Trust will partner with the property owner on a 285-acre parcel along the Platte River in Hall County. Wetlands America Trust will partner with the landowner to manage a 95-acre parcel in the Rainwater Basin in Clay County.
The nearly $600,000 award by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, through the Department of the Interior, comes from the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund’s Recovery Land Acquisition grant program. Nebraska, 15 other states and Guam were awarded grants to conserve at-risk species through programs focused on habitat conservation.
The grant is authorized by the Endangered Species Act and partially funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.