Nine Mile Prairie, LLC

In January 2024, Jon and Bill Oberg and family placed their 75-acre property in a conservation easement with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District.

The property is close to Lincoln, Nebraska, and lies a quarter of a mile from Nine Mile Prairie, a large, protected tract of virgin prairie owned by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Foundation.

Being close to Nine Mile Prairie, the conservation easement on the Oberg property adds more land to the tallgrass ecoregion.

About the Property

The Obergs purchased the property in the early 2010s from the Eager and Furrer families who contributed importantly to the history and development of the city of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska.

Since purchasing the property, Obergs have strived to maintain the property in a native state.

Prior to the Obergs owning the property, most of the property was terraced and farmed. 
In the early 1980s and 1990s thousands of black walnut trees were planted with the intent to harvest a walnut crop or potentially harvest timber in the future.

Why the Landowner Chose Permanent Protection

The land is an important grassland of significance because of its virgin prairie and its importance to Lincoln’s greenspace.

Located within the tallgrass ecoregion, the Oberg property contains one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The native prairie that is located in the southeast corner of the property has remained unplowed since the Otoe-Missouria Tribes cession of the land to the United States.

The property contains a diverse suite of habitats from a riparian corridor, woodlands planted to black walnuts, virgin prairie, and wetlands. The diversity of habitats provides home to multiple wildlife species including at-risk-species listed in the Nebraska Natural Legacy Plan.

Tallgrass prairie once covered more than 170 million acres of the United States, from Indiana to Kansas and from Canada to Texas. Nearly all of it is gone, plowed under for agriculture or urban development, according to the National Park Service.

Protecting the Oberg property with a conservation easement close to Nine Mile Prairie is essential to the preservation of the tallgrass ecoregion.

How the Land Was Protected

The conservation easement was made possible through a partnership between the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Through its Agricultural Conservation Easement Program - Agricultural Land Easement (ACEP-ALE), NRCS purchased the easement.

The Oberg easement provides an environmental resource as a greenspace to the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. Protecting land near Nine Mile Prairie was listed as critical in the 2020 Nine Mile Prairie Environs Master Plan.

ACEP-ALE helps landowners and other eligible entities conserve, restore, and protect wetlands, productive agricultural lands, and grasslands at risk of conversion to non-grassland uses.

What Was Accomplished

The Oberg easement property is used primarily for hay which helps maintain the health of the prairie.

The intent of the Oberg easement is to protect the agricultural, aesthetic, and ecological value of the property that has been maintained by the Oberg family for more than 10 years.

About the Partners

Lower Platte South Natural Resources District

The Lower Platte South Natural Resources District is comprised of a six-county area of southeastern Nebraska, consisting of about one million acres and 350,000 residents. Its mission is to maintain a sustainable environment through the conservation of land, water, and wildlife. The Lower Platte South Natural Resources District has a history of innovation and leadership being among the first of the natural resource districts to utilize conservation easements as a resource's protection tool, to develop and manage recreational trails, to acquire and restore wetlands, and to partner with the City of Lincoln in stormwater quality and quantity management.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

NRCS provides America’s farmers and ranchers with financial and technical assistance to voluntarily put conservation on the ground, helping the environment and agriculture operations. To find out more visit: www.nrcs.usda.gov.

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