Lincoln, NE – June 22, 2020– Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement Project announced today that it will receive $159,486 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust for the “NCORPE Re-seeding Project” project. The Trust Board announced funding for the project at its meeting on June 11, 2020 in Lincoln. This is the second year of award with a potential for a 3rd year funding totaling $9,783. The project is one of the 118 projects receiving $20,000,000 in grant awards from the Nebraska Environmental Trust this year. Of these, 73 were new applications and 45 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 $328 million in grants to over 2,300 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.