As game species rebounded and became plentiful enough
to hunt, the pages began telling about people pursuing them.
For instance, each of the early deer seasons, the first in 1945
and the second in 1949, were celebrated in the pages of
the magazine, including reports on hunter success and the
average weight of harvested deer and photos of happy hunters.
The magazine also has helped celebrate the reintroduction
of species. It reported on the release of Merriam's wild
turkeys from South Dakota and Wyoming to the Pine Ridge
in the winter of 1958-1959, an effort that proved successful
after numerous other attempts failed. In 1958, it told of
the release of pronghorns south of Bassett to restore a
population lost to settlement.
It told about the bighorn sheep brought from South
Dakota's Custer State Park to be placed in a 500-acre
enclosure at Fort Robinson State Park in 1981, and when
that growing herd was released from the pen in December
1988. Nebraskaland photographers accompanied wildlife
division staff when they obtained sheep for ensuing
releases from Colorado, Montana and Alberta, Canada.
The magazine also told about releases of river otters
on the Platte, Niobrara and Elkhorn rivers between 1986
and 1991, and the species' recovery and removal from the
threatened list in 2020.
Just as state wildlife action plans such as the Nebraska
Natural Legacy Project have brought a focus to a wide
TOP LEFT: Kent Fricke releases a river otter into the Platte River in Hall County. ERIC FOWLER, NEBRASKALAND
TOP RIGHT: Pronghorn are released in the Sandhills. NEBRASKALAND
ABOVE: Turkeys are released in the 1960s as part of the effort to restore wild populations to the state. NEBRASKALAND
