Steve Chick, Nebraska state conservationist for the NRCS, said a U.S. Census report showed what he calls a  ”rather alarming population trend numbers for the period of 2000 to 2008.”

 Chick said only 17 counties in Nebraska showed population increases during that time frame and most of those are in Eastern Nebraska surrounding Omaha and Lincoln. 

He said the greatest percentage declining counties in Nebraska were Blaine (26.6%), Arthur (23.9%), Garden (23%) and Thomas (20%), but there were 38 counties with greater than 10% population declines. 

In actual numbers of decline, Chick said  Holt County had the greatest decline at 1318 followed by Richardson (1237), Cedar (1208), Madison (1206), Box Butte (1115) and Keith (1054).   

“Perhaps more alarming to me is the concentration of declines within the state,” he said.  ”The Panhandle counties generally suffered relatively high numbers and high percentages of loss as did the tier of counties along the Kansas border within the Republican River Basin.”

He said those were two areas hit extremely hard by the drought, which makes him wonder how much impact that may have had on these population declines. 

“It reminds me of the story of Old Jules, who along with many other early settlers were drawn to the Box Butte County area during times of plentiful moisture, but when normal dry conditions returned many were forced to retreat,” Chick said.

He said the other significant tier of counties impacted is the extremely rural area generally within the Sandhills. 

“It is these kinds of rural America population declines that are creating national policy discussions on what can be done to help rural economies be more sustainable,” Chick said. 

 There are some positive surprises in the numbers, he siad.

According to the Census Bureau,  Cheyenne County stands alone as an island in the Panhandle with a +1.4% population increase.  The interstate row of counties of Lincoln, Dawson, Buffalo and Hall Counties are all on the positive side with Buffalo showing a +7.3% increase.  Overall Nebraska showed a +4.2% gain increasing in numbers by 72,166 to 1,783,432. 

“ I am certainly no expert on what these numbers really mean, but I would like for NRCS to respond in anyway possible to use our conservation programs to help stabilize the rural to urban shift within Nebraska,” Chick said.