NEBRASKAland Articles

Story and photos by Gerry Steinauer Two years ago, while morel mushroom hunting in a creekside woodland near Aurora, I saw a pink, dime-sized “ball” sprouting from a log. Baffled, I concluded it was a strange puffball mushroom. I snapped a photo and texted it to my go-to guy for mushroom identification, Chance Brueggemann, woodland ecologist at Indian Cave State Park. His response: “It’s wolf’s milk, a slime mold.” I wasn’t sure what a slime mold was. I assumed they …

Appreciating the Small Things Photos and story by Joshua Redwine Landscape photography often means finding that perfect moment by trusting your instincts and the direction of the wind, following wherever it takes you. I began my career as a civil engineer, and my desire was to protect the environment by focusing my education in environmental engineering. In 2007, I was offered the opportunity to travel to Haiti, a once-in-a-lifetime journey. Armed with a few amenities from home and a sleek, …

By Gerry Steinauer, Botanist One morning last June, while photographing wildflowers in the Sandhills blowout, I came upon a pair of ornate box turtles. I determined, based on eye color — male box turtles have red eyes, while a female’s are yellowish-brown — that they were of the opposite sex, apparently an amorous couple on a blowout tryst. And I was intruding. I hated to be rude, but with no box turtle photographs in my portfolio, this was, for me, …

Billy Chromy is a big picture kind of guy when it comes to wildlife habitat. That likely comes from his background, which includes growing up on his family’s farm in the hills near Linwood, and working as a conservation technician, game warden and park ranger before returning home, where he now farms with his father and is also a contractor who helps landowners implement conservation practices on their land. An avid hunter, Chromy has been managing the woodlands, pasture and …

Conestoga Lake is a peaceful retreat. But it’s not as quiet as it used to be. That’s what happens whenever improvements are made to a fishery near Nebraska’s capital city. And the improvements made to Conestoga were many. Located south of Emerald, Conestoga State Recreation Area is one of 11 Salt Valley Lakes built around Lincoln in the 1960s and 1970s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The dam on Holmes Creek that created the reservoir was completed in …

By Cassidy Wessel, Wildlife Biologist I can remember the first rooster pheasant I ever held as a kid, standing over the trash can in our garage helping my dad clean birds and thinking that this brown, purple, blue, red and green iridescent thing might just be too pretty to pluck. And I’m sure I did think “pluck” — skinning a bird at that time would have been completely foreign to me. Pheasants were rare table fare. Being the fifth generation …

The Sandhills region is tops for Blanding’s turtle habitat and numbers Grass-covered sand dunes accented by wetland marshes and lakes as far as the eye can see. Humans and vehicle traffic sparse. Vibrant community of turtles and other wildlife. If real estate advertisements targeted wildlife, such words would catch the eye of at least one species. Thanks to research at the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, we know many Blanding’s turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) are already living the good life in the …

How to Tell a Story Calling Dick Turpin a hunter education coordinator, turkey call maker, conservation officer, entertainer, songwriter or any of his other titles fails to describe who he was — a person who made you feel good when he was around. Regardless of what hat Turpin was wearing when you met, you would forever remember one of his greatest gifts was that of a storyteller. Long-time staffers at Nebraskaland agree that while PG-rated Dick Turpin stories were good, …

In registering visitors for campsites, Nebraska’s largest reservoir sailed uncharted waters in 2021. The predominant verdict is that it was a highly successful voyage. Last April, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission implemented changes needed to create a safer, family-friendly environment at the 22-mile-long Lake McConaughy and the smaller reservoir below its dam, Lake Ogallala. One change was requiring reservations during the peak season for camping at the two state recreation areas. The new system, largely implemented to combat problems …

Heavily marred with dirt, dings, scratches and rust, it did not look like much. Despite its condition, I knew the item handed to me — a Stevens Springfield 87A .22 semi-automatic rifle — was a special gift. I best remember the gun from my childhood in southwestern Nebraska in the 1980s; it hung on the rack in Grandpa Alfred’s beat-up green Ford as it was parked at his and Grandma’s service station on Danbury’s main street. Resting in the rear …