The Nebraska Wildlife Federation works to protect Nebraska’s rivers and streams, to restore our state’s aquatic habitat, and to make Nebraska rivers and lakes swimmable and fishable once more. NEWF’s Executive Director, Duane Hovorka will be the guest speaker at the Nebraska Sierra Club’s annual banquet, Saturday Nov. 19. The topic of his presentation will be “Will the Platte Survive for Wildlife?”

The Platte River’s beauty as a natural resource and the risks it faces from irrigation, factory farming and urban development. Hovorka is an advocate for the Platte. He helps represent conservation interests on the Platte River Cooperative Agreement Governance Committee and Water Management Committee. Hovorka also represents conservation interests on the Governor’s Water Policy Task Force.

The Nebraska Wildlife Federation is also at the forefront of efforts to improve Farm Bill conservation programs, to make them as effective and efficient as possible in promoting wildlife and wildlife habitat in Nebraska. The Federation works with farm and rural community organizations to support change in the structure of agriculture in Nebraska.

Hovorka provides advice to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service State Technical Committee. NEWF is one of the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, which develops farm bill policy options to benefit wildlife, family farmers, and rural communities.

The Federation presents information at public hearings, contacts legislators and the governor on key wildlife issues, cooperates with conservation and environmental organizations, and alerts members when votes on key issues are pending. Where the Federation has members who are interested in local wildlife, land use planning, and water quality issues, the Federation will provide advice and support to NEWF members willing to get actively involved at the local level. NEWF was instrumental in promoting a Greenprint for the Lincoln/Lancaster County area, which was carried out by then-mayor Don Wesely’s administration and which now guides zoning and land use decisions.

Chartered in 1970, the Nebraska Wildlife Federation is a state-wide, non-profit, membership based organization dedicated to fish and wildlife conservation through environmental education, fish and wildlife conservation, and common sense public policy.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2005 issue of the Missouri Valley Sierran