Editorial

Nebraska needs more thinking outside the box

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Is the drought over?

That depends, according to state climatologist Al Dutcher.

Texas is still feeling the brunt of the rainfall shortage, but there's no evidence that it will definitely move this far north.

How much moisture the state receives through the end of April will determine the breadth of the drought in Nebraska, he told a meeting of the Nebraska Climate Assessment Response Committee.

Southwest Nebraska is in the best shape it's been since 1999, largely because of October precipitation, he said. But farther east, along the Republican and Platte rivers are at or near record low flows, and Omaha is having one of the driest winters on record.

Rocky Mountain snowfall may help the North Platte refill Lake McConaughy, but low flows in the Republican are especially worrisome, we all know, because we need to try to comply with the lawsuit settlement with Kansas.

A few years of good rainfall would solve all our problems -- or would they? Perhaps, for a few years.

But drought eventually would return, and no more can we pump irrigate our way out of it like we have in the past.

Clearly, rural America and Southwest Nebraska must find ways to diversify and reduce our dependence on the weatherman.

As Mark Drabenstott, director of the Center for the Study of Rural America told the University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Friday, "we really need to use our imaginations."

Some of those include biofuels and other value-added agriculture, tourism development, pharmaceutical crops and wineries.

And some people are already getting the message.

For instance, the Kearney Area Ag Producers Alliance plan to go live in May or June with Country Adventures, a Web site they say could become the "eBay of agritourism." For a $7.50 annual posting fee plus a sliding scale once a sale is made, farmers can advertise weekend tourism like hunting, fishing, bird watching, horseback riding, outdoor tours, farm visits or all-terrain vehicle use.

"People will pay to help you do chores," Executive Director Marge Lauer said.

Also in Kearney, the Nebraska Public Power District has hired a Denver firm to study the feasibility of another idea.

Whitewater rafting. Down the spillway of Kearney Lake over the boulder-strewn canal through the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus and alongside Yanney Heritage Park.

Of course, accomplishing it safely and economically is another issue, but if that isn't thinking outside of the box, what is?

And speaking of water -- how about the water futures market? Nebraska's Bostick Irrigation District irrigators will consider an agreement next week to sell this year's water allocation to help Nebraska meet its Republican River obligations to Kansas.

Taking that a step farther, University of Nebraska researchers are recruiting up to 48 farmer-irrigators for a project to conduct a simulated "water market" in UNK's Calvin T. Ryan computer lab.

"It's been my opinion for some time that at some time in the future, we're going to have to establish water markets in Nebraska," Ray Supalla, University of Nebraska-Lincoln ag economics professor said.

That's more thinking outside of the box, just what Nebraska needs.

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