Welcome to Nebraska Backcountry Hunters & Anglers February newsletter!

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

 

As a Nebraska BHA member, there are votes coming up on three items that we ask you to contact your state senator about. First, LB 1072  tries to pull more money into state agencies by improperly replacing their budget money lost due to tax cuts with Nebraska Environmental Trust dollars. Over $40 million dollars is proposed to be taken from the Trust. Those funds are used for vital outdoorsman access projects as well as wildlife habitat projects. Ask your senator to vote NO on LB 1072. Next, A constitutional amendment, LR 298CA, would stop this problem by locking the Trust’s mission, independence, and competitive‑grant structure ino the state’s constitution thus ensuring future public land access and habitat improvements for wildlife. Ask your senator to vote YES on LR 298CA.

Finally we’re seeing an attack on our publicly owned wildlife in LB 1197. LB 1197 allows landowners to receive half price big game tags they can resell. In a state with less than 2% public land, this would be a disaster. Nebraska would become a place where only the wealthy can hunt leaving your average citizen hunter helpless to hunt the big game THEY OWN. Essentially Nebraska would be turned into a European hunting system. Tell your senator to vote NO on LB 1197!

 

Latest: 

• The Nebraska Chapter had a booth at this year's Deer and Game Expo (site HERE) in Lincoln last month. (Special thanks to Board member Bill Grossniclaus who constructed the chapter’s booth setup, it will be used frequently for meeting events, see below!) Numerous folks stopped by the booth to learn about our efforts to improve availability and access to public lands in our state.

 

• NEBHA will host a booth again this year at the Nebraska Bowhunters Association Banquet (https://www.nebraskabowhunters.com/Banquet/) from March 6-8 in Kearney. Board members Bill Grossniclaus and Kyle Broadfoot will also be making a presentation at the event describing who we are as a chapter and national organization, what we have accomplished, and our plans for the future. Please join us at the NBA Banquet in Kearney!

 

 News, Requests, and Reminders

• The Chapter is hosting a volunteer event at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in Cherry County on March 28^th 2026! We need volunteers to remove old fence that affects grouse, deer, and antelope habitat on the refuge. We will start at 9am at the refuge headquarters. Please join us at beautiful Valentine NWR in late March! RSVP  here https://www.backcountryhunters.org/events/pageid/signuptoevent/eventid/4856/e/fence-removal-at-valentine-national-wildlife-refuge-valentine-ne-28-mar-2026 

• To stay abreast of potential gains or losses of WMA access please follow the public notices on the Nebraska Game and Parks public notices https://outdoornebraska.gov/about/notices/public-notices/ IF WE want to maintain access to specific pieces of our WMA public property we must follow these announcements and speak up. As always if you hear of potential loss of access to any public lands in the state, notify the Nebraska BHA chapter. 

• Nominate a PUBLIC LANDS HERO!! The Nebraska Chapter’s “Public Lands Hero Award” is presented annually to an individual who has provided dedicated and sustained service towards improving access to, and/or increasing the amount of, public lands available for hunters and anglers in the state. Anyone who has demonstrated this effort can be nominated including, but not limited to, state, federal, local, and non-governmental agency personnel. Nominations can be made throughout the year by any member or supporter of the Nebraska BHA. Nominations can be sent to the Board at nebraska@backcountryhunters.org and should include a detailed description of the nominee’s accomplishments. 

• Finally, would you be willing to spend a few minutes each time you’re out fishing, hunting, foraging, etc. on public lands to clean up the area a bit??? ANY public lands (for example, NPPD canals, state wildlife areas, US Forest Service lands, US Fish and Wildlife Refuges) are good! We certainly would encourage you to do so and send us a photo of the trash pickup and its location. We will then use those photos in future social media and newsletters! Not only will this help the environment and improve the experience of future visitors to the site but also help with how adjacent landowners view public land and the people that use them.