The Nature Conservancy’s Nebraska Program Hires Specialist To Help Restore Wetlands Along the Missouri River

OMAHA, Neb.—June 6, 2007—The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska announced the hiring of Tyler Janke as wetlands restoration specialist for its Missouri River Program. Janke works to support efforts to restore natural areas along the river on both public and private lands.

Janke provides technical assistance in the development, implementation and management of Missouri River restoration activities within Nebraska. He assists landowners who want to bring their lands back to a diverse native plant community through management strategies such as prescribed burns and planting native seed.

“Tyler is an accomplished botanist with expertise working with wetland plant species and plant communities,” said Jason Skold, Missouri River program manager for the Conservancy in Nebraska. “His insight and experience will be very valuable in tackling the current and future planning, management and monitoring needs of restoration sites along the Missouri River.”

Janke spends a majority of his time working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Wetlands Assistance Team based in Syracuse, Neb. This group assesses habitat conditions and helps develop restoration and long-term management and monitoring plans on Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) and Wetland Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP) easements. WRP and WREP are voluntary NRCS programs authorized under the federal Farm Bill that offer landowners the opportunity to protect, restore and enhance wetlands. NRCS programs have helped restore over 10,000 acres of wetlands along the Missouri River in Nebraska.

Janke’s career has included graduate work at the Conservancy’s Glacial Ridge project in northwestern Minnesota, where he researched how plants responded when wetlands and grasslands were restored. He also studied alternative ways of evaluating restoration efforts. Prior to his graduate work, Janke worked on wetlands restoration projects for both NRCS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“One reason why I wanted this position with The Nature Conservancy is to work with partners and private landowners, building relationships with those who live, work and enjoy the Missouri River,” Janke said. “We all benefit by restoring natural areas along the river."

Janke, 25, resides in Burr, Nebraska.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.