Larkin Powell, director of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will speak about his new book, The Best of Intentions: A Story of Landscape Change in the Heart of the Great Plains, at the Center for Great Plains Studies.
It is no surprise that Nebraska — at the heart of the Great Plains — has long served as a canvas for sweeping transformation. Once a prairie teeming with bison and Native maize, it has become a landscape of center pivot irrigation, herds of cattle and hybrid corn. How did these changes happen so quickly? And who were the people, policies and pressures that synchronized new uses of the land?
Taking themes from his book, Powell will discuss the forces that have reshaped the Plains — our ethics that impact our decisions, the “conductors” that cause landscape transformations to occur quickly and our ability to shape the landscape through environmental design. Drawing on decades of research, Powell blends historical photographs, personal narratives and long-term ecological data to ask how the past might guide us toward a more resilient future.
Books will be available for sale at this event. This is part of the Paul A. Olson Great Plains lecture series by the Center for Great Plains Studies.
More details at: https://events.unl.edu/plains/2026/02/11/196506/