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.

 John Crabtree for the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska said  skyrocketing health care costs are undermining the foundations of the rural economy – self-employment and small business.  

“Family farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses are among the hardest hit by premium hikes.  And as premiums rise, fewer rural entrepreneurs can take the leap of faith to start a farm, ranch or business,” he said.

 Crabtree said the Senate’s health care bill will make insurance more affordable by providing refundable tax credits to offset insurance premiums for families and small businesses. 

“The proposal also contains crucial reforms to the insurance industry including, prohibiting denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, requiring premiums be used to cover actual medical care, and ensuring individuals are not stuck with unexpected and unaffordable out-of-pocket expenses,” he said.

  The establishment of an insurance exchange to increase competition and standardize information allowing easier comparison of insurance plans by consumers, Crabtree said, will also lower prices for family farmers, ranchers, small businesses and working families.

“The Senate would address rural America’s medical provider shortage by forgiving college loans to doctors who practice in rural areas and increasing support for rural students to become family physicians.  Moreover, the bill takes a major step in correcting the payment inequities that have plagued rural health care providers,” he said.

 Crabtree said no proponent of reform would call the Senate proposal perfect. 

“But it is crucial to maintain and strengthen the bill’s reforms and affordability provisions as the debate continues and then pass this historic legislation.  Rural America wants and needs the reforms that the Senate proposal offers.” he said.

Cooler North American temperatures in 2008 resulted from a strong natural effect, and the overall warming trend that has been observed since 1970 is likely to resume, according to university and NOAA scientists.

“Our work shows that there can be cold periods, but that does not mean the end of global warming. The recent coolness was caused by transitory natural factors that temporarily masked the human-caused signal,” said Judith Perlwitz, lead author of the study and a researcher with the Cooperative Institute for Research Environmental Sciences, and NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, both in Boulder, Colo. The paper will be published Dec. 8 in Geophysical Research Letters.

By Robert Pore

Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., both expressed concern Monday over the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declaring greenhouse gas emissions as dangerous pollutants. According to Smith, the EPA announcement to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions is a federal mandate that could force agricultural producers to make costly changes to reduce emissions – even if Congress does not pass cap-and-trade legislation. Smith said the EPA announcement comes as an international climate summit begins meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. “The announcement was a tremendous disappointment for everyone concerned for the future of production agriculture,” Smith said. “Agriculture is an energy-intensive industry, and new federal mandates could stifle any growth we are experiencing. This is a dangerous shift in policy which could result in a direct compliance tax on ag producers at a time when we can least afford it.” Smith is a cosponsor of H.R. 391, legislation which would exempt certain gases, including methane, from EPA regulations under the Clean Air Act. In April, Smith sent a letter to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) requesting a hearing on environmental burdens on rural American. “The decision by the Environmental Protection Agency today to announce an endangerment finding on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could carry severe consequences for America’s farmers and ranchers. Johanns said the announcement moves the EPA one step closer to regulating greenhouse gases. “This decision from EPA is bad for agriculture, bad for business and bad for anyone who flips on a light switch,” Johanns said. “Congress needs to act to stop EPA from imposing devastating regulations on Americans. We should review all available legislative options to address this action by the EPA. Johanns said climate change legislation before the Senate, the Obama-Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill, does nothing to stop this EPA action. “So if the Senate bill were to pass, Americans would get a double dose of regulation, taxation, and government manipulation,” he said. “This Administration seems to think there is no limit to the government’s reach into the everyday lives of Americans.” According to the EPA, greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people and that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat. According to EPA, GHGs are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans. According to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, EPA’s final findings respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that GHGs fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants. She said that the findings do not in and of themselves impose any emission reduction requirements but rather allow EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation. According to EPA, on-road vehicles contribute more than 23 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. EPA’s proposed GHG standards for light-duty vehicles, a subset of on-road vehicles, would reduce GHG emissions by nearly 950 million metric tons and conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-2016 vehicles. EPA’s endangerment finding covers emissions of six key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – that have been the subject of scrutiny and intense analysis for decades by scientists in the United States and around the world. According to EPA, scientific consensus shows that as a result of human activities, GHG concentrations in the atmosphere are at record high levels and data shows that the Earth has been warming over the past 100 years, with the steepest increase in warming in recent decades. Jackson said the evidence of human-induced climate change goes beyond observed increases in average surface temperatures; it includes melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans due to excess carbon dioxide, changing precipitation patterns, and changing patterns of ecosystems and wildlife. While the Obama administration supports a legislative solution to the problem of climate change, Jackson said climate change is threatening public health and welfare and it’s critical that EPA fulfill its obligation to respond to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.