The Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary and Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center were awarded grants from the Nebraska Environmental Trust totaling over $700,000 over the next few years. 

Audubon’s Spring Creek Prairie was awarded $337,121 to be an anchor for tallgrass prairie conservation and collaborative prairie management on private lands within the Denton Hills landscape. The prairie will serve as a key node for habitat management experimentation and demonstration, prescribed fire, collaboratively driven landowner engagement and education, and will provide an exemplary sense of ownership of these grasslands by landowners and the general public. This project will result in improved habitat quality and management practices for the at-risk species and people dependent upon the remaining tallgrass prairie. This is the first year of award with a potential for 2nd and 3rd year funding totaling $117,421 and $112,171 respectively.

Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary was awarded $69,890 for expanding Rowe’s conservation footprint through innovative partnerships and creating a stronghold for vulnerable species in the face of existing and emerging threats. Components of the project will improve and connect important riparian habitats within the Sanctuary, remove obstacles associated with property boundaries as well as enhance large tracts of grassland habitat, and protect new habitat through private/public partnership. The Trust Board has also recommended a Statement of Intent for Rowe Sanctuary in the amount of $82,975 for 2021.

The Nebraska Environmental Trust has been a valuable resource that helped advance multiple Audubon projects and many other innovative projects since it began in 1992. Learn more about NET by visiting https://environmentaltrust.nebraska.gov/.