Lyndon Vogt, Central Platte Natural Resources District
Center-pivot irrigation in the Central Platte NRD.
T
he Central Platte Natural Resources District (NRD) is one of 23 NRDs in Nebraska, and is tasked with managing the soil, water, wildlife and forest resources across a service area of over 2 million acres centered on Grand Island, Nebraska. As an essential business, Central Platte NRD has had to find new ways to operate during the COVID‑19 pandemic. In this interview, Central Platte General Manager Lyndon Vogt tells Irrigation Leader about the challenges the NRD has had to overcome in order to continue providing its services.
Lyndon Vogt: I have been employed with Nebraska’s NRDs for 24 years and have lived in Grand Island for the last 7 years. Central Platte NRD has a broad range of responsibilities dealing with groundwater quality and quantity, erosion and flood control issues, forestry, wildlife, and surface water. We’ve actually purchased 50 percent of one irrigation district and have 30‑year management
18 | IRRIGATION LEADER | JUNE 2020 - COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE
Irrigation Leader: How has the COVID‑19 pandemic affected your operations? Lyndon Vogt: Typically, we have 16 full-time employees in our headquarters in Grand Island. On March 16, we sent everyone home. All but a couple of our employees already had laptops, so the transition to working from home went fairly smoothly. While the front door of our office is locked to walk-in traffic, our office is still doing business, just not business as normal. We have one or two employees here all the time to take care of any in-office work requirements and to assist other employees who need information from the office. The majority of customers call first, and we can take care of most business over the phone or through our website. However, on occasion some paperwork requires a signature or to be delivered to the office. IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM
PHOTO COURTESY OF CENTRAL PLATTE NRD.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about yourself and Central Platte NRD.
agreements with two others to put water back into the Platte River to address endangered species needs and to keep the NRD in compliance with its integrated management plan.
