News

A major focus for the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture (RWBJV) throughout last year (2023) was on postcard and letter outreach. Even with modern efforts like social media and content creation, this form of communication continues to be one of our more successful tools. Program focus for these communication campaigns was on the Inflation Reduction Act […]

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) is pleased to provide an update (one long overdue) on two of the latest wetland restoration projects on our Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) within the Rainwater Basin: North Lake Basin Wildlife Management Area is comprised of approximately 364 acres and is located ½ mile north of Utica, NE […]

The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture is committed to transparency and building trust with our stakeholders by clearly articulating our goals and objectives in our long-term Planning documents and Annual Operations Plan.  As part of that commitment, RWBJV also makes the geospatial data we develop to inform those plans Open and available to the public to […]

  Missy (Melissa) Baier, Watershed Planning Coordinator, has been selected as the Assistant State Conservationist for Water Resources & Easements effective January 29, 2024. This new position will oversee the multi-discipline watershed team and easement team that we currently have on NRCS staff in Nebraska. Our conservation easement workload continues to be strong and reaches […]

The most recent U.S. Farm Bill allows for annual revisions to USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Conservation Priority Areas (CPAs). As part of CRP general signup competitive ranking process, contract offers within CPAs receive additional points toward their overall score, allowing areas with wildlife and water quality concerns to be more competitive with offers of […]

The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) is a conservation program which protects agricultural viability by limiting nonagricultural uses and protects grazing use by restoring and enhancing wetlands and conserving grazing lands. The two programs within ACEP are Agricultural Land Easements (ALE) which protects croplands and grasslands on working farms, and Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE) which […]

The USDA Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) is a roughly 35,000ac tract of public land located in the western part of Clay County.  The MARC’s objectives are to increase efficiency of production while maintaining a lean, high quality, safe product.  About 50% of their efforts focus on beef cattle production.  MARC staff are continually conducting […]

Herbicide application has long been used as a tool to enhance wetland habitat in the Rainwater Basin. Spraying an appropriate chemical, such as aquatic glyphosate, often produces bare ground. This can create the opportunity for more desirable, moist-soil plant species to flourish. In the Rainwater Basin, moist-soil dominated plant communities are desirable because of the […]

Lunch With A Landowner The Rainwater Basin is a landscape of shallow playa wetlands scattered across gently rolling loess plains in south-central Nebraska. The goal of the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture (RWBJV) is to support our agricultural communities while providing habitat conservation for millions of migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, and other wildlife in the Rainwater Basin. […]

The Funk Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) had a substantial increase in whooping crane use this spring.  A total of 32 whooping cranes used ponded areas on Funk WPA, and during the migration period, there were whooping cranes on Funk for at least 14 days bringing the total use-days to 89. The first family group arrived 30 […]