The squeeze on federal conservation spending is echoed in the Nebraska Legislature.
Two proposals in the Legislature would eliminate or divert funds from the Nebraska Environmental Trust.
Losing both state and federal funding designed to be matched by others would cripple conservation initiatives in Nebraska, said Steve Donovan of Grand Island, Neb., manager of Ducks Unlimited's conservation programs in the state.
“Wetlands conservation work in Nebraska would be in a real pickle,” he said.
Mark Brohman, executive director of the environmental trust, was more blunt. “It would be devastating,” he said.
State Sen. Deb Fischer's Legislative Bill 299 would divert $7 million annually from the trust to a fund used to solve irrigation-related water problems in Nebraska.
State Sen. Lavon Heidemann's Legislative Resolution 51 CA would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to eliminate the trust and divide the annual fund between the water problems fund and the Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln.
Both proposals remain in committee.
The Nebraska Environmental Trust gets its funding from the state lottery. Voters in 2004 directed that lottery profits be directed to education, the State Fair, help for compulsive gamblers and the environmental trust.
— David Hendee
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