Taking over management of the scenic Niobrara River would come with costs
Paul Hammel
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Nebraska would have to dig into its pocketbook if it wants to take over management of the scenic Niobrara River from the National Park Service.
That seems clear after officials from Ohio, a state that has a rare “cooperative agreement” to manage federally designated wild and scenic rivers within its state, told the Examiner that it spends $1.2 million a year on its state scenic river program. Ohio manages three, federally designated scenic rivers and 13 other streams that have either a state scenic, wild or recreation designation.
The state assigns 11 staff members to manage stream quality, promote preservation of forest corridors and scenery and protect sensitive areas along the streams, as well as assist landowners, developers and other stakeholders. State personnel also work with advisory councils associated with each of the scenic rivers to give local landowners and other interests a voice in management decisions.
The issue of cost came up after Nebraska State Sen. Tanya Storer of Whitman proposed an interim study of the state possibly taking over of management of the Niobrara River, a federally designated scenic river, from the National Park Service.
Part of Storer’s district includes the 75 miles of the Niobrara that was added to the federal list of wild and scenic rivers in 1991. The designation followed an effort that prevented the damming of the unique stream by the proposed Norden Dam.
Currently, the Park Service operates on an annual budget of $1.2 million to help police the popular river, help conserve the wild and scenic nature of the Niobrara and staff a visitors center in Valentine. In addition, the Niobrara Council, a committee of local officials that provides input and runs some river-related programs, gets about $52,000 a year from the state and, until this past year, $100,000 a year from the federal government to help fund its activities.
Advocates for retaining federal management of the Niobrara maintain that the State of Nebraska lacks the expertise and the funds — given its recent budget shortfalls — to take over river management. Meanwhile Storer and the head of a local natural resources district have pushed back on that, saying they doubt it would take too much money. They maintain that the interim study — set for a hearing at 1 p.m. on Friday at the State Capitol — will help answer the cost question.
Bob Gable, the scenic rivers administrator for the Ohio Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, said he could not separate how much of his state’s money and staff were devoted to Ohio’s three federally designated scenic rivers — the Big and Little Darby Creek, Little Beaver Creek and the Little Miami River. He said it wasn’t as simple as dividing the funding equally among the 16 rivers, which would be about $75,000 per river spent in Ohio.
Gable said managing federally designated rivers comes with additional coordination with the federal government. For instance, the National Park Service must review and approve water resource projects that impact banks and streams. All told, Ohio manages 945 miles of streams in its scenic river program, a program that began in 1968, a few months before the federal government passed the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
“This is a fact that we are very proud of,” Gable said in an email, of the Ohio program preceding the federal act.
Storer did not respond to calls and texts seeking comment on this story.
Sändra Washington, who worked with scenic river programs in Ohio and later with the Park Service, said it would be difficult to estimate what it might cost for the state to take over the management of the Niobrara River.
Much, said Washington, now a member of the Lincoln City Council, would depend on whether state agencies have the expertise to do it. It would certainly cost more to create a new scenic rivers program from scratch than if the state had an existing one.
Storer has said that uncertainty about federal funding for the National Park Service to manage the Niobrara River and funding for a local river advisory council, the Niobrara Council, call for a look at taking over management of the scenic river by the state and some local entities, such as the Middle Niobrara Natural Resources District.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, called for the cancellation of the lease on the scenic river visitors center in Valentine. That decision was later reversed.