The Blue Basin includes 1,722,200 acres of land and spans ten counties. It includes the Blue River and four primary tributaries.
More than 56,000 citizens rely on the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District (NRD) to provide direction and assistance in the wise use, conservation and development of our soil, water and related natural resources.
The NRD system was created in 1972, following Nebraska legislation which consolidated 154 statewide special-purpose districts into 24 NRDs.
The NRDs correspond to major river basins in Nebraska. NRDs carry the names of these rivers, hence the Upper Big Blue NRD is named after the uppermost portion of the Big Blue River.
Each year the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District sells between 15,000 and 25,000 trees for local landscape improvement.
500 observation wells are monitored annually in the Upper Big Blue NRD.
The Upper big Blue NRD is the most heavily groundwater irrigated district in the state of Nebraska, with 1.2 million acres under irrigation.
The district maintains 47 flood control structures.
The district contains 27 community wellhead protection areas.
