“Hundreds of trees are just…just gone.” That’s what hunters, fishermen and other visitors might think as they gape at a radically changed landscape during their next visit to the NRD’s Meadowlark Lake.

Late last year, a contractor cut down trees and shrubs as part of an effort to enhance prairie lands on the property, five miles northwest of Agnew. The NRD has enrolled Meadowlark in the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s “Focus on Pheasants” program and 75% of the $54,000 total cost of the project will be reimbursed by Game and Parks, using federal wildlife funds. The objective of the program is to provide better habitat for game birds and other wildlife, “and in this case,” according to NRD Resources Coordinator Dan Schulz, “that meant cutting trees that have encroached onto areas originally intended as native prairie.”

Schulz explained those types of plants thrive on sunshine and the trees were providing too much shade. Some wooded areas were allowed to remain at Meadowlark. To complete the project, the NRD plans some seeding and prescribed burning on the property.

Meadowlark is one of the NRD’s eight public access wildlife areas. The 55-acre lake is surrounded on three sides by another 265 acres of land. All eight areas have lakes that are primarily maintained for flood storage, but the areas also offer fishing, hunting, boating and many other recreational opportunities.

Learn more at www.lpsnrd.org click on Recreation.