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Why You Should Visit
The Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Valley Preserve is one of the largest Conservancy preserves in the U.S., and a model for grassland management using bison, cattle and fire. It encompasses majestic pine-clad canyons, extensive grasslands, and a 25-mile stretch of the Niobrara River, an area known as the "biological crossroads" of the Great Plains. Visitors can absorb the beauty of the preserve from spring through fall, and of special interest is the bison herd grazing in the vast open prairie.
Location
Brown, Cherry and Keya Paha counties
Size
60,000 acres
Directions
From Ainsworth, drive west 10 miles on U.S Highway 20, then 16 miles north on the country road towards Norden.
Download a map of the preserve location.
What to See: Plants
Big bluestem, little bluestem, buffalograss, indiangrass, junegrass, needleandthread grass, sand bluestem, sand lovegrass, hoary puccoon, leadplant, prickly poppy, shell-leaf penstemon, yucca, yellow lady slipper, wild begonia, paper birch, ponderosa pine, bur oak, American elm, eastern cottonwood.
What to See: Animals
Bison, mule deer, bald eagles, Great Plains toad, ornate box turtle, many lined skink, American bittern, great blue heron, horned lark, belted kingfisher, ovenbird, upland sandpiper, whip-poor-will.
Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The Nebraska Natural Heritage Program identified the Niobrara Valley Preserve as the biological crossroads of the Great Plains. To date, 581 plant, 213 bird, 86 lichen, 70 butterfly, 44 mammal, 25 fish, 17 reptile and eight amphibian species have been recorded at the preserve.
What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The preserve was acquired by The Nature Conservancy in 1980. The goal of the Niobrara Valley Preserve is to maintain the diversity of regional biological resources by adapting land-management practices to local environmental conditions. Land management consists of planned grazing by several thousand head of cattle and several hundred head of bison, prescribed burning, and noxious weed control.
Learn More
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"The Niobrara Valley Preserve is a flagship project for The Nature Conservancy and one of our largest preserves worldwide. The ground-breaking work in grassland management forged at the Niobrara has helped inform our prairie conservation efforts throughout the Great Plains and as far away as Brazil's Pantanal"
- Steve McCormick, president, The Nature Conservancy |
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| Download a fact sheet (PDF) describing a quarter century of Grasslands conservation at the Niobrara Valley Preserve. |
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| Bison at Niobrara. © Chris Helzer | |
