Lincoln, NE – May 28, 2019 – Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement Project announced today that it will receive $37,746 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust for the “NCORPE Re-seeding Project” project. The Trust Board announced funding for the project at its meeting on April 4, 2019 in Lincoln. This is the first year of award with a potential for 2nd and 3rd year funding totaling $159,486 and $9,783 respectively. The project is one of the 117 projects receiving $19,501,444 in grant awards from the Nebraska Environmental Trust this year. Of these, 85 were new applications and 32 are carry-over projects.

NCORPE’s re-seeding project is a result of nearly 14,000 acres of formerly irrigated cropland, in the Sandhills Ecoregion of Nebraska as defined by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, being planted to a native prairie seed mixture. Due to the magnitude of converting the largest contiguous tract of cropland to native prairie in Nebraska’s history some of these acres inevitably failed to become fully established rangeland. Currently, the task for the Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement Project (NCORPE), an interlocal agency that is comprised of the Upper Republican, Lower Republican, Middle Republican, and Twin Platte NRDs (NCORPE), is to re-seed those acres deemed unsuccessful at becoming fully established and to potentially inter-seed forbs into the remnant corners. The portion of the project for which NCORPE is seeking an NET grant is the incorporation of native forb seeds into an all native grass mixture and the drilling costs associated with this entire seed mixture.

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Environmental Trust in 1992. Using revenue from the Nebraska Lottery, the Trust has provided over $305 million in grants to over 2,200 projects across the state. Anyone – citizens, organizations, communities, farmers and businesses – can apply for funding to protect habitat, improve water quality and establish recycling programs in Nebraska. The Nebraska Environmental Trust works to preserve, protect and restore our natural resources for future generations.