Research

DiVentures in Omaha has become one of the largest scuba schools in the Midwest. As Dean Hollis began to think about how he wanted to spend his retirement, his thoughts kept returning to the water. Hollis grew up in Florida “on, in and under the water.” When a career with ConAgra brought him to land-locked Omaha, he continued to spend time scuba diving, swimming, boating and water skiing. When he retired as Conagra’s Chief Operating Officer in 2008, he imagined …

UNL students can now rent hunting equipment on campus. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is now offering hunting equipment rentals at its Outdoor Adventure Center to any registered student on campus. In addition to bike, hike, camping, climbing and paddling gear, student hunters can now rent pop-up blinds, layout blinds, turkey decoy or waterfowl decoy combinations from the university for a small fee: $3 per day or $6 per weekend (3 days). The equipment is available through a grant partnership between …

Preparation exceeds decoy set-ups and camouflage when filming your own hunts By Jake Jadlowski As a high school teacher, I routinely see all things bad about social media. There may be no quicker way to waste one’s time. But as an outdoorsman, social media provides a platform to keep track of what hunters and fishermen are doing all across the country. Hunting and fishing photos and videos dominate my Facebook and Instagram feeds and I’m probably guilty of spending just …

Fundraising trail ride in Nebraska National Forest at Halsey celebrates 20th anniversary. Head, Heart, Hands and Health – since 1958, the Nebraska 4-H Foundation has been supporting youth through hands-on projects that encourage them to stay active and engaged in their communities, and prepare them for the future. With programs ranging from animal science to business to the arts to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the foundation’s mission is to help provide the financial backing and manpower needed to …

Slamming car doors, shifting cargo, stumbling feet. Each has been unkind to my fishing rods more times than I care to admit. After a fly rod somehow broke while riding freely in my truck bed this spring, it was time to take action to keep it from happening again. Of course, many excellent rod cases are available from retailers. After some research, though, I found a simple design created from a favorite inexpensive building material – PVC pipe. Not only …

Process allows researchers to monitor changes in survival, abundance and movement over time. By Tim Lyons and Mark Vrtiska Canada geese are perhaps one of the most easily recognized birds in Nebraska. From record lows in the 1960s, the goose population in Nebraska has rebounded, and geese are now common throughout the state. This growth has allowed increased recreational opportunities for hunters and wildlife-watchers, but also created problems in urban areas. Effectively managing the goose population, whether to sustain recreational …

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blogger Hank Shaw will visit Nebraska on this latest book tour. By Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley Award-winning Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blogger Hank Shaw will visit the Nebraska Game and Parks Outdoor Education Center in Lincoln to talk about wild game on Oct. 4, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The seminar will show hunters how to get more out of their wild game and fish through new cooking tips and techniques, with a focus on upland birds. Shaw will …

Help Uncover a Mystery By Renae Blum, NEBRASKAland Contributor It’s one of the miracles of nature: each fall, millions of insects weighing less than one gram fly to overwintering sites in Mexico from across the United States, some traveling several thousand miles. This is the monarch butterfly, and the details of how this migration occurs are still surrounded by questions. Since 1992, Chip Taylor and his team at the University of Kansas have endeavored to find answers via a monarch …

Sometimes nature sends obvious signs about what a person should not touch. Cacti, yucca plants, porcupines and rattlesnakes have signals akin to a flashing billboard. Then there are more devious dangers such rash-inducing urushiol on unassuming poison ivy plants. I am not sure where the subject of the following story fits into that spectrum, but I now know I should have been paying a little closer attention to some signs. “Ohhh, look at the fuzzy caterpillar,” my 10-year-old daughter Kiera …

It is just before dawn in Nebraska’s eastern saline wetlands. You sit quietly on the edge of a salt marsh – a nearly level pan of sparse vegetation and mud. Just in front of you water laps in rhythmic beats at the shoreline. On the opposite shore, the growing light gently begins to fill in the dark spaces, giving definition to the dusky shapes that have been murmuring in the distance. They are a mixed flock of shorebirds and waterfowl …