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University of Nebraska–Lincoln

School of Natural Resources

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NET Grant Helps UNL Conservation Efforts For Least Terns and Piping Plovers


Interior Least Tern
Piping Plover
Interior Least Tern
Piping Plover

LINCOLN, Neb. – A three-year grant totaling $270,000 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust (NET) will help the University of Nebraska-Lincoln further its conservation efforts for federally endangered Interior Least Terns and threatened Piping Plovers.

NET announced earlier this month that UNL will preliminarily receive $130,000 for a project  “Advancing Tern and Plover Common Sense Conservation into the Future.” This is the first year of three grants for the project, totaling $270,000.

The funding will go to the Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership, which operates within UNL’s School of Natural Resources. The Partnership is recognized nationally and internationally as a model for proactively resolving threatened and endangered species controversies and conflicts.

"The partnership has demonstrated that by working cooperatively with commercial interests, local communities and government agencies, effective conservation and management measures can be implemented,” Partnership program coordinator Mary Bomberger Brown said.

The three-year NET grant will help the partnership broaden and develop partner community efforts, expand education programming, build a scientifically sound adaptive management framework and become more cost efficient, Bomberger Brown said.

"The greatest success will be having secure populations of interior least terns and piping plovers, so they will no longer be state or federally endangered or threatened anywhere in their ranges,” she said.

In addition to their federal Endangered Species Act status, least terns and piping plovers are identified by the Nebraska Legacy Project as tier one at-risk species, which indicates a critical need to increase their reproduction and population, Bomberger Brown said.

"Least terns and piping plovers nesting along the Platte, Loup and Elkhorn Rivers are utilizing several of Nebraska’s unique biological landscapes, as identified by the Nebraska Legacy Project. By working in these areas, the Tern and Plover Partnership has additional opportunities to protect those habitats that multiple species depend on while protecting terns and plovers,” she said.

The UNL grant is one of 77 projects receiving a total of nearly $14.8 million in NET funding this year.

  • Source: Mary Bomberger Brown, program coordinator, Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership, UNL School of Natural Resources, (402) 472-8878
  • Writer: Steven W. Ress, communications coordinator, UNL Water Center, (402) 472-3305, sress1@unl.edu

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