52 NEBRASKAland • APRIL 2015
area is named, live there or visit.
"This place is one of the most beautiful pieces of land I've
ever seen," said Jackie Canterbury. "It's pretty stunning.
And secluded. It's a wild place."
Canterbury and Jack Gustafson sold the land to the
Nebraska Forest Service, which funded the majority of
the $565,000 purchase price with a U.S. Forest Service
Forest Legacy Grant. A $235,000 grant from the Nebraska
Environmental Trust was another major funding source
for the acquisition, which, with assistance from the
Conservation Fund, was also funded in part by the National
Wild Turkey Federation and the Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission. The area was transferred to the Commission,
which will oversee management with help from the
Nebraska Forest Service.
The land could have been sold to others, possibly for
much more than the appraised value. But Canterbury, a
California native now living in Wyoming and self-described
"public land junkie" who has studied birds throughout the
world, didn't want to see it developed into riverside homes
or simply grazed by cattle. She spent seven years studying
the songs of yellow-breasted chats that mate and nest in the
thickets along the river, research that earned her a doctoral
degree from the University of Nebraska.
"I think one of the most important things that really brings
A game trail leads through an understory choked with eastern red cedar on the north-facing slopes leading to the Niobrara River.
As part of its plan to use the area as a demonstration site, the Nebraska Forest Service will thin the ponderosa pine forest and
remove invasives such as cedars to improve the overall forest health and reduce the chances of catastrophic wildfires.
Aromatic aster is one of many wildflowers found on the area.
