The Nebraska Environmental Trust has awarded 21 grants totaling more than $1.9 million to University of Nebraska-Lincoln projects.

The grants were awarded by the NET board in June, part of a total of 118 projects receiving $20 million.

Grant amounts awarded in 2020:

• StreamNet: Building capacity to improve water quality, $307,730, Jessica Corman, School of Natural Resources. Details
• Direct removal of groundwater nitrate coupling water treatment and algae growth, $240,187, James Allen, biochemistry. Details
• Development of efficient and comprehensive recycling operation, $199,962, Prabhakar Shrestha, facilities management and operations. Details
• Improving soil health using heat-treated manure, $105,552, Xu Li, civil engineering.
• Nebraska farmers and farmland owners’ attitudes of targeted conservation, $104,971, Andrew Little, School of Natural Resources. Details
• Improving statewide performance of conservation investments on eastern red cedar invasions, $77,000, Dirac Twidwell, agronomy and horticulture. Details
• Improving water quality and surveying fish populations using eDNA in Nebraska, $75,000, Mark Pegg, School of Natural Resources. Details
• Transforming manure and cedar mulch from “waste” to “worth” – Part II, $59,813, Amy Schmidt, biological systems engineering. Details
• Developing a statewide community tree canopy map in Nebraska, $51,057, Yi Qi, School of Natural Resources. Details
• Detecting atrazine dissipation and evaluating herbicide programs without atrazine for weed control in corn and their environmental impact quotient: research and extension, $49,979, Amit Jhala, agronomy and horticulture. Details
• Eastern redcedar design-build microdwelling, $28,412, Jason Griffiths, architecture. Details

Continued 2020 funding for projects from 2019:

• Water use and soil-water storage effect of individual and mixed cover species and impacts on soil quality variables, $153,026, Suat Irmak, biological systems engineering. Details
• Beneficial impact of injected air into a subsurface drip irrigation system on plant growth and uptake of emerging antibiotics using runoff from a feedlot, $104,847, Xin Qiao, biological systems engineering. Details
• Low-cost biological odor treatment using an adsorption/desorption concentrator unit for reducing sulfur emission in Nebraska, $97,662, Ashraf Aly Hassan, engineering. Details
• Citizen Science: A valuable approach for monitoring groundwater quality in the Bazile Groundwater Management Area, $86,939, Matteo D’Alessio, Nebraska Water Center. Details
• Delivery of watershed science education to decision makers – a multi-agency collaboration, $71,751, Troy Gilmore, School of Natural Resources. Details
• The Master Naturalist program: expanding conservation capacity, $49,179, Dennis Ferraro, School of Natural Resources. Details
• Developing a decision-support tool for the successful incorporation of cover crops into Nebraska cropping systems, $41,530, Andrea Basche, agronomy and horticulture. Details
• Protecting the terns and plovers of Nebraska and mentoring the next generation, $21,355, Larkin Powell, School of Natural Resources. Details
• Milkweed in the Classroom, $18,069, Doug Golick, entomology. Details
• Student integrated forest and prairie management at Cedar Point Biological Station, $13,842, Jon Garbisch, School of Biological Sciences. Details

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Environmental Trust in 1992. Using revenue from the Nebraska Lottery, the Trust has provided more than $328 million in grants to more than 2,300 projects across the state. Anyone – citizens, organizations, communities, farmers and businesses – can apply for funding to protect habitat, improve water quality and establish recycling programs in Nebraska. The Nebraska Environmental Trust works to preserve, protect and restore natural resources for future generations.

Natural Resources