Nebraska

E

Plant Life

Originally, grasslands covered about 98 percent of the state and forests only 2 percent. Bluestem and switch grass were the major grasses in the east. Blue grama, side oats grama, and a shorter variety of bluestem were common in central Nebraska, with shorter gramas and buffalo grasses prevailing in the west. Bluestem and sand dropseed were found principally in the Sand Hills. Cultivation and grazing have to a large extent changed their composition and stands. Many invaders, such as thistle, cactus, and yucca, can be found in the grasslands of the Sand Hills where grazing has outrun the growing capacity of the grasses. In central and eastern Nebraska overgrazed pastures are experiencing an increase in cool-season grasses, such as bluegrass and bromegrass, to the detriment of the native grasses. Serious invasions of noxious weeds such as leafy spurge and spotted knapweed are occurring across the state.

Currently forests cover just 2 percent of Nebraska’s land area. Trees are found along the river valleys and on some of the higher tablelands in the west. These are primarily deciduous trees. The cottonwood, elm, ash, maple, oak, and willow are the most common species. On the rougher and higher lands in the west large stands of coniferous trees are found. The predominant species are ponderosa pines and redcedars. Since the late 1800s the Eastern redcedar has been expanding throughout the state. Along the bluffs of the Missouri River and in the eastern third of Nebraska oak, black walnut, and hickories are occasionally found.

F

Animal Life

Bison (American buffalo), mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, coyote, beaver, prairie dog, jackrabbit, skunk, and squirrel were found in large numbers by the first settlers. Bison, in particular, were hunted indiscriminately and were eliminated by the 1880s. Other species have survived and prospered. Pheasant, quail, sharp-tailed grouse, prairie chicken, and wild turkey are also abundant. Wildlife has increased considerably in recent years as conservation practices have been applied to the land and as farmland has been converted to grassland. Many migratory waterfowl, varieties of shorebirds, and the nearly extinct whooping crane use Nebraska waters during the fall and spring migrations. Thousands of sandhill cranes stop along the central Platte River every year during their migration. Crappie, perch, pike, catfish, bullhead, bass, bluegill, and trout abound in Nebraska’s lakes and streams. Fish hatcheries may be found near Benkelman, North Platte, Valentine, and Burwell.

G

Conservation

Nebraska has implemented numerous programs to protect its natural resources, especially soil and water. Contour farming, whereby crops are planted to follow the contour of hills; strip-cropping, or alternating close-growing forage crops that retain and rebuild the soil with cash crops; and grazing controls are commonly used to prevent soil erosion. During the 1930s many shelterbelts were planted across the state to reduce wind erosion and protect crops. Many watershed projects have been developed to minimize flooding, especially in southeastern Nebraska. The largest project is the Salt-Wahoo, which provides protection for Lincoln and for other parts of Lancaster County. Upstream dams in the Dakotas and Montana have reduced large-scale flooding along the Missouri River. Flooding on the Republican River is largely controlled by five reservoirs in Nebraska, as well as by others in Colorado and Kansas.

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The use of underground water is regulated through a system of natural resources districts. The 23 natural resources districts conduct water quality planning programs. The Department of Environmental Quality, established in 1971, is responsible for air and water pollution control, solid and hazardous waste management. Laws concerning drinking water standards and radiation control are administered by the Department of Health.

In 2006 Nebraska had 12 hazardous waste sites on a national priority list for cleanup due to their severity or proximity to people. Between 1995 and 2000, the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the environment increased by 52 percent.

III

Economic Activities

Since its early settlement in the mid-19th century, Nebraska has had an economy based on agriculture, specifically the raising of livestock and the growing of corn (for feed) and wheat. During the 1930s the economy suffered from the effects of the Great Depression and an extended drought. Widespread use of irrigation wells in the second half of the 20th century has been responsible for the increased area of farmland under irrigation. Although farming is still extremely important, services and manufacturing have expanded rapidly in recent decades. Nebraska, the home to many national insurance companies, receives an unusually large share of its gross state product from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector.

In the early and mid-1980s Nebraska suffered through its worst agricultural crisis since the Great Depression. As in other farm depressions, many farmers had taken large loans to purchase land and modernize operations and were driven into bankruptcy when crop prices dropped and land values fell. Many farmers lost their land, and some banks with extensive farm loans followed them into insolvency. The metropolitan economies of Omaha and Lincoln escaped the worst effects of the farm crisis, but rural areas, heavily dependent on farming and farm-related business, suffered. By the late 1980s the economy began to recover. To further promote growth and recovery, the state in the late 1980s adopted a package of tax incentives to provide new and expanding businesses with income tax credits, sales tax refunds and credits, and in some instances personal property tax exemptions.

Although large, older Omaha-based companies continued to influence the state’s economy, new smaller companies scattered across the state in the telecommunications, insurance, health care, and tourist industries became increasingly important in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The proliferation of these businesses fueled the state’s economic revival. As a result Nebraska’s economy grew steadily in the 1990s, enabling the state to avoid most of the effects of a national recession in the early years of the decade. In the late 1990s most sectors of Nebraska’s economy continued to grow at a steady rate.

Nebraska’s unemployment rate fell below 3 percent in the early 1990s and remained one of the lowest in the nation for the rest of the decade. A long-term labor shortage forced companies and civic groups to launch campaigns to recruit workers from out of state. Nebraska has become attractive to workers because wages and income have risen steadily while the cost of living and crime rate have remained well below national averages. In 2006 there were 974,000 jobs in Nebraska. Of those, 36 percent were in services; 20 percent in wholesale or retail trade; 17 percent in federal, state, or local government, including positions in the military; 11 percent in manufacturing; 7 percent in farming, including agricultural services; 18 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 21 percent in transportation or public utilities; 5 percent in construction; and just 0.1 percent in mining. In 2005, 8 percent of Nebraska’s workers were members of labor unions.

A

Agriculture

In 2005 there were 48,000 farms in Nebraska, 74 percent of which had annual sales of $10,000 or more. One-third of the farms had annual sales of over $100,000. In the eastern third of the state farms are much smaller than the state average, while those in the Sand Hills and the Panhandle are substantially larger. Farmland occupied 18.5 million hectares (45.7 million acres), of which 49 percent was cropland. The rest was mostly pasture and range. Some 26 percent of the cropland (mostly used to grow corn) was irrigated each year.

Most of the people working on farms in the 1990s were the farm operators or members of their families. Although some Nebraska farms are quite large, most are owned and operated by individuals and only a very few are owned by non-farm corporations. In 1982 Nebraska adopted Initiative 300, commonly called the Family Farm Preservation Act, a constitutional amendment that protects family farmers from the economic pressure of large agricultural corporations by prohibiting individual farmers from selling their land to nonfamily-farm corporations.

The sale of livestock and livestock products accounted for 62 percent of Nebraska’s farm income in 2004. Sales of cattle and calves make up four-fifths of farm income from livestock, although hogs are also important. One-fourth of total farm receipts are from the sale of corn, although much corn is fed to livestock on farms where it is raised. In 1997 it was the state’s leading crop, raised on 3.4 million hectares (8.3 million acres) of land. Other important crops included soybeans, wheat, hay, grain sorghum, dry beans, and sugar beets. In 1997, Nebraska ranked fourth in the nation in total farm sales, second in livestock sales, and seventh in crop sales. The state ranked third in the value of cattle and calf production, third in corn and grain sorghum, seventh in hogs, and seventh in soybeans.

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