Copyright 2000 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha
World-Herald
March 19, 2000, Sunday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6b
LENGTH: 959 words
HEADLINE:
Parks Advocates Rally For Conservation Bill
BYLINE: Julie Anderson
SOURCE:
World-Herald Staff Writer
BODY:
A handful of
Nebraskans - along with about 800 other parks and recreation advocates from
across the country - recently rallied in Washington, D.C., in support of a bill
pending in the House of Representatives.
The bill, the
Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 1999, was moved out of a
House committee in mid-February. A similar bill has been introduced in the
Senate.
Now all the House bill needs is a push to the floor for a vote,
said Darron Koolstra, parks and recreation director for South Sioux City, Neb.
Koolstra was in the capital for an annual meeting of the National
Recreation and Park Association, an organization involving people who work in
parks. He serves as legislative chairman for the Nebraska chapter, the Nebraska
Recreation and Park Association.
Parks and wildlife officials are
pushing the bill because it would put nearly $ 3 billion a year - from oil and
gas revenues from the Outer Continental Shelf - toward a variety of parks and
historic preservation and conservation programs, including the
Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Under the current
bill, Nebraska would receive $ 9.6 million a year and Iowa would get $ 11.9
million, said Marilyn Tabor, federal aid administrator for the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission.
"To me, it's just a no-brainer," she said.
The
money would go to nongame wildlife programs, which have seen dwindling funding
in recent years because of declines in contributions through checkoffs on income
tax refunds.
The money also would go for parks and recreation and
historic preservation. Nebraska has no other source of parks funding for
communities, unlike most other states.
And the need is there, Tabor
said. At one time, Nebraska received up to $ 3 million a year through the Land
and Water Conservation Fund. Sixty percent of those funds go to
local political subdivisions, such as cities and natural resources districts,
for park work, and 40 percent goes for state property.
But no money was
put into that fund from 1995 until last year, when Nebraska received $ 425,000,
Tabor said. Within a month, communities sent in applications requesting $ 3
million for various park projects.
Earlier versions of the bill prompted
concerns among some environmentalists that the use of oil and gas revenues would
encourage drilling in vulnerable areas, Tabor said. But the new version would
use only funds generated on leases in place before Jan. 1, 1999.
Tabor
said the House version of the bill could reach the floor before Congress' Easter
recess. If the House votes, there's a chance the Senate would, too.
Koolstra said backers would like to see the bill move soon.
"It's really key that if there are people out there that support this,
they should call their congressmen," he said. "The next two weeks are crucial."
Whooping Crane Center
The Platte River Whooping Crane
Maintenance Trust recently completed a $ 3 million construction and renovation
project and is inviting the public to see the results of its work at a
dedication and open house Saturday.
The two remodeled structures and one
new building at the Wild Rose site southwest of Grand Island - the Richard E.
Spelts Jr. Administration Building, the James L. Grahl Research Center and the
Thomas L. Kimball Habitat Laboratory - will be named after the first three
trustees appointed to the trust board in 1979.
The new administration
building - 5,400 square feet - contains offices, a library and a meeting room
available to community groups, said Paul Currier, the trust's executive
director.
The research center has 11 rooms designed to house scientists
working on projects in the area and to foster interaction with outside
researchers and the trust staff, who do habitat protection, management and
research on the Platte River. More than 300 species of migratory birds, from
cranes to ducks, use the river.
Gov. Mike Johanns is scheduled to speak
at the 2 p.m. dedication. Refreshments and building tours will be offered
afterward, along with walking tours and an art exhibit by Michael Forsberg, a
Lincoln nature photographer. Researchers will demonstrate how they use
rocket-propelled nets to catch sandhill cranes for research and for placement of
satellite transmitters and radios.
Award Winner
Audubon Nebraska
has named Ron Klataske, executive director of Audubon of Kansas, the first
recipient of its Fred Thomas Nebraska Stewards Award.
The award is
dedicated to Thomas, The World-Herald's late environmental reporter.
Dave Sands, executive director of Audubon Nebraska, said it was fitting
that Klataske receive the first award in Thomas' name because "both have had a
major impact on conservation in Nebraska."
The award
was to be presented to Klataske this weekend in Kearney at Audubon's Rivers and
Wildlife Celebration. Klataske organized the first river festival focused on the
migration of sandhill cranes in 1970. Now the annual event is the
longest-running wildlife festival in the Midwest, Sands said. Over the years, it
has helped focus state and national attention on the sandhill crane migration
and the birds' reliance on the Central Platte River.
Klataske also
established the National Audubon Society's Lillian Annette Rowe Sanctuary in
1974 and helped mobilize opposition to the proposed Norden Dam on the Niobrara
River. The dam would have flooded some of the most scenic and biologically
diverse parts of the river and would have condemned many ranches.
He
also influenced conservation in Nebraska, Sands said, by urging
conservationists to form local Audubon chapters. Four remain active today in
Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff.
LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2000
