Nebraska Environmental Trust votes to grant out $20.5 million

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Environmental Trust voted Thursday to award nearly $20.5 million in grants to 49 projects, ranging from recycling and groundwater monitoring programs to restoring streams for trout and marshes for waterfowl.

The special meeting to award the grants was marked by an absence of public criticism that has plagued Trust meetings in recent years.

Last year, the agency awarded only $11 million in grants for 23 projects — just over half of the funds it had available. That prompted criticism that the agency was discouraging groups from applying for grants, which are financed by proceeds from the Nebraska State Lottery.

The ungranted funds were later transferred to a state water resources fund in a controversial shift proposed by Gov. Jim Pillen. Critics said the governor should not use Trust money as a “piggy bank” to replace regular tax funds.

Trust board members said Thursday that a “process improvement” effort undertaken by the agency in recent years had served to clarify which grant applications were eligible and which ones deserved to score highest for funding.

Trust Board member Josh Andersen, who heads the committee that scored the grants, said he still hopes that more groups will apply for grants.

This year, the Trust received 80 applications for grants, of which 69 were deemed eligible. That compares to 81 grant applicants in 2022, of which 47 were deemed eligible.

In 2021, the Trust received 118 grant applications in 2021, about 30% more applicants that in the past two years.

The 49 highest scoring grant applications were approved by the Trust Board, though two of the grants generated comments from board member Rod Cristen of Steinauer.

One involved a $297,204 grant to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, which is working to open a “tribal national park” in the extreme, southeast corner of Nebraska, south of Rulo.

Cristen, who has previously toured the park site, questioned whether the tribe’s plan to eradicate a designated noxious weed, Sericea lespedeza, on the park land using some of the grant funds would be effective.

He said that burning, as the tribe’s grant outlined, isn’t enough to kill the fast-spreading plant and that an herbicide application is also needed.

After some discussion, the tribe’s grant was approved with the assurance that grants are checked to assure they are accomplishing their goals.

The land in the 444-acre Ioway Tribal National Park was initially purchased by the Nature Conservancy in 1994 with help of an Environmental Trust grant. The park land was later turned over to the Iowa Tribe, which established the park in 2020.

The park is located within Missouri River bluffs that have been designed as a preserve due to their biologically unique landscape.