Conservation Issues

1. Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

2. Wilderness Protection and Designation

3. Wind Energy

CAFOs have been a chapter focus for the last 6 years. We have put energy and resources into this issue, particularly through Laura Krebsbach, our staff support on this issue. We continue working on the threats to water and air quality posed by the large livestock confinement facilities. We work with local groups around the state that are fighting these facilities. We also focus on state legislation and regulations affecting this issue.

Wilderness Protection and Designation is primarily focused on a campaign to get Congress to officially designate four areas as Wilderness areas to protect them from development and to preserve their wilderness character. When Lewis and Clark explored the Louisiana Purchase, they discovered many exciting areas in a vast wilderness. Today, only a few of those areas still retain that wilderness character. We have identified the following four areas that should be protected:

1. Toadstool Park, located north of Fort Robinson in the Nebraska Panhandle.

2. Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, in north-central Nebraska.

3. Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, in the central panhandle region.

4. The Dismal River Region of Nebraska National Forest, located in the heart of the Sandhills.

Wind Energy is a new but important issue drawing attention because of rising energy costs. This issue has many aspects, and we have a newly formed Wind Committee that is developing strategies and positions on this issue.

Please contact our Conservation Chair, Dick Boyd, if you are interested in working on any of these issues.