2025 Nebraska Annual Report

Writer Jill Wells sat down with Katie, TNC's director of external affairs and climate policy, to talk about her work in Nebraska and beyond.

How do you describe your role at TNC?

I’m on point for helping communicate our conservation priorities and objectives to policy makers at the state and federal levels. As a science organization, we often have solutions to bring to bear—either through testing hypotheses on our own preserves or by co-creating strategies with input from the farmers and ranchers with whom we often collaborate.

When does TNC get involved in a policy issue?

Generally, this is a high bar. Our engagement is triggered when it is both germane to our mission and our voice is uniquely additive to the deliberation. Our approach to policy is nonpartisan, grounded in science and rooted in the perspective that nature unites us. Four out of five Nebraskans think more needs to be done to protect our lands and waters—this holds true across political parties.

Tell us about a recent issue you’ve advocated for in the state legislature.

Last session, we helped successfully defend the Nebraska Environmental Trust from structural changes that would have halved its operating budget; however, this effort will continue to need public engagement and support. The Trust is funded by Nebraska Lottery proceeds. In spite of this being a constitutionally mandated competitive grant agency, it continues to be targeted as a means through which to backfill the everyday responsibilities of state agencies.

What’s a federal issue that you’d consider a win this year?

Nebraska played a role in helping get the U.S. Foundation for International Conservation Act enacted into law. This legislation establishes a groundbreaking fund to support local communities and Indigenous Peoples in managing protected and conserved areas. FY26 Appropriations permitting, the fund will leverage up to $100 million annually in federal dollars and incentivize a 2:1 match in private and philanthropic investments to help address critical challenges, such as biodiversity loss and the degradation of natural habitats, while contributing to global security and resilience.

What gives you hope?

The people with whom we work. Each of us is rooted to place in meaningful, authentic ways, and we channel the purpose and intention we find in our home and this landscape to communal action. We offer clear-eyed, actionable pathways and forge our way with the tools we have before us.

Lance first became involved with the Nebraska program during a land transfer from TNC to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. In 2018, he was vice-chair of the Tribe and was instrumental in 444 acres of land in the Rulo Bluffs returning to Tribal control. At that time, Lance said, “To be somewhere where it’s quiet, that’s one of the things I enjoy about being here…and the fact that our ancestors are here. In our private moments we hear them sometimes. We communicate with them. You just feel that this place is part of you, and you’re part of this place.”

Building on that relationship, Lance agreed to join TNC’s board. State Director John Cougher asked him how TNC could increase collaboration with Tribal nations as conservation partners. “Lance told me that we need to be working together urgently to halt biodiversity loss,” said Cougher. “He encouraged us and offered to help us connect with leaders of other local Tribal nations.”

Foster suggested convening a gathering of conservation leaders of Nebraska’s Tribal nations. Brandon Cobb (then a Claire M. Hubbard Young Leaders in Conservation Fellow) took this suggestion and held the Nebraska Intertribal Conservation Summit in April of 2023, bringing together the six landholding Tribes and the Maya community.

“This gathering, which set a number of successful collaborations in motion, would not have happened without Lance’s encouragement, leadership and effort,” said Cobb.

In fact, the summit sparked the Nebraska program to add a new position built on the advice that Lance had given the chapter—an Indigenous Partnerships Program Manager. Cobb, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, stepped into that role and has developed partnerships based on shared conservation goals and Lance’s vision for more connected, supported and stewarded Indigenous lands in Nebraska and beyond.

When Lance passed away in January, his loss was deeply felt around the nation. As Tribal Historic Preservation Officer since 2013, Lance served as a leader, mentor and role model in historic preservation on a regional and national level, as well as within his Tribal community. He had tremendous impacts in the fields of language, sociology and archaeology.

“We are so much better for Lance’s leadership,” said Cougher. “I miss not just his counsel but his unique perspective and sense of humor. He will never be forgotten.”