News

“The Nebraska Sandhills,” released this week by the University of Nebraska Press and edited by several current and former University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty and staff members, highlights both the science and beauty of the Sandhills region.

By Con Marshall,
Chadron State College             

A retired Chadron State College professor who was a world leader in range management, Dr. Jim O’Rourke, died early Tuesday, March 5 at the Chadron Community Hospital of a heart attack. He was 81. A celebration of life will be in June at the family’s ranch south of Chadron. 

This multi-year project was made possible by a diverse community of people–dedicated to wildlife and working lands in the American West. Enjoy! 

The 230-acre Nine-Mile Prairie is one of the last remnants of a once expansive ecosystem that spanned over 400,000 square miles across central North America, the tallgrass prairie. From Manitoba to the Gulf of Mexico, and from eastern Nebraska to Ohio, the landscape was dominated by an ocean of grass that was maintained by frequent fires, large herbivores, and Indigenous peoples. As European settlers pushed west, the prairies were quickly plowed under and replaced with crops.