News

News

​ Free water quality test kits offered to rural residents

​ Free water quality test kits offered to rural residents

Do you know what’s in your water?
 
If your home’s water comes from a private well in Nebraska, you may have elevated levels of common nutrients found in agricultural fertilizers. Consuming water with elevated levels of nitrate-nitrogen can have significant health risks, especially for younger people. Annual testing of your...Read More

City of York to Receive Statewide Recognition for Outstanding Community Conservation

City of York to Receive Statewide Recognition for Outstanding Community Conservation

Since 2017, the City of York and the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District have worked together to protect water quality in the city’s wellfield through Project GROW (Growing Rotational crops On Wellfield). Five years into the program, the partnership continues to accomplish its goals and has also generated something unexpected: statewide...Read More

​No-cost cover crop option for some producers

​No-cost cover crop option for some producers

Cover crops offer many benefits, from reduction of compaction to reducing erosion to increasing water infiltration, but for corn growers in Nebraska, there is one major challenge: time. Drilling cover crops is most often done post-harvest, but depending on weather conditions, planting that late in the season may be difficult. That’s why the Upper...Read More

​Moore to be honored as Director of the Year at statewide conference

​Moore to be honored as Director of the Year at statewide conference

Since the founding of Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts in 1972, Larry Moore has been a fixture of the board room at the Upper Big Blue NRD. Moore first started attending NRD board meetings 50 years ago, not as a director, but as a driver. One of his friends, Raymond Burke, was elected to the first board of directors for the local district,...Read More

Trees for Conservation and Celebration

Trees for Conservation and Celebration

Upper Big Blue NRD wraps 2022 tree planting season


For 50 years, Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts have been committed to local conservation activities that safeguard soil and water resources. A bedrock of NRD programs has been tree...Read More

NRD Basin Tour Explores Nebraska’s Panhandle

NRD Basin Tour Explores Nebraska’s Panhandle

Approximately 50 directors and staff from Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) convened in Scottsbluff for the annual NRD Basin Tour hosted by the South Platte, North Platte and Upper Niobrara White NRDs, June 6-7, 2022. Two directors from the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District participated in the tour, David Robotham and Larry...Read More

Testing Reveals Economic Impact of Soil Health

Testing Reveals Economic Impact of Soil Health

A side-by-side comparison of soils from the Project GROW (Growing Rotational Crops on Wellfield) site and an adjacent field that is conventionally farmed shows the difference practices like no-till, cover crops, and rotational cropping can make.

In early May, NRD staff collected soil samples from two fields...Read More

​Gone Fishin’

​Gone Fishin’

Local lake assessed for fishery health


It is overcast and cool on the lake at Pioneer Trails Recreation Area on the morning of June 1, as a team from Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) readies their equipment: boats, buckets, long handled nets, and...Read More

​Local control, local solutions, global mindset

​Local control, local solutions, global mindset

Brazilian delegation visits Nebraska to learn about water resource management

How do Nebraskans manage water resources? What are the agricultural and environmental challenges in the state regarding water quality and quantity? And what can key decision makers from other heavily agricultural regions of the world learn from the way...Read More

NRD Reports Small Average Water Level Decline

NRD Reports Small Average Water Level Decline

Groundwater level declines, yet remains well above allocation trigger

During March and April 2022, staff of the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District measured roughly 500 observation wells throughout the district to determine an average water level change, based on a weighted change from each well.  For spring 2022...Read More

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