OUTDOORS Tax season provides an opportunity for Nebraskans to contribute to wildlife and habitat conservation. When filling out your taxes this year, consider donating a portion of your tax refund to the Nebraska Wildlife Conservation Fund. The fund focuses on saving Nebraska's wildlife and wild places.

We all benefit from providing the non-game species as well as the endangered species in our state with what they need to survive by being able to see them in the wild. Hunters, anglers and trappers have supported the conservation of game and furbearing species since the early 1900s. But what about funding for non-game wildlife and those species considered endangered or threatened, how are they managed, conserved and who supports them financially? As hunters and sportsmen and women our money spent on supplies for our sport has a percentage that supports game animals, their conservation, habitat to live in, etc.

The check-off is a way every person can contribute funding for our non-game wildlife species in our state. Non-game species More than 2,000 species of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and plants are considered non-game species in Nebraska. They are species that are not hunted, trapped or fished — these constitute over 95% of all species in Nebraska.

Species such as hawks and herons, bats and brown snakes, turtles, flying squirrels and prairie flowers are all non-game. In addition, tens of thousands of invertebrates, like beetles and butterflies, also fall und.