Doane University sold its 320-acre (130-hectare) Fillmore County property to soybean farmers in April. Conservationists and animal lovers had criticized the more than $2.6 million sale of the Aldrich Prairie Research Site for endangering the prairie dog colony.

The land had been used for student research into prairie dog behavior for years. Maureen Franklin, Doane’s former vice president for academic affairs, had said in a letter to the university that its decision not to protect the prairie dogs was “academically short-sighted and not in keeping” with the school’s ethical values.

Conservation groups Nebraska Wildlife Rehabilitation and Audubon of Kansas oversaw about 30 volunteers who trapped and relocated the prairie dogs to Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary near Bassett last month.

The Prairie Dog Coalition of Boulder, Colorado trained volunteers on how to properly handle the animals, said Laura Stastny, executive director of Nebraska Wildlife. The process involves baiting small cage-traps with sweet horse feed.

Stastny said the rescued animals are integrating well into their new sanctuary and consolidating into family groups.

The project cost an estimated total of $35,000, Stastny said. The university donated $20,000 to the cause.

Nebraska Wildlife will keep about 50 young prairie dogs at its Fort Calhoun facility until August.

Stastny said prairie dogs are often seen as a nuisance, but are key to prairie ecosystems. Prairie dogs serve as prey to badgers and hawks, as well as homemakers for insects, squirrels and burrowing owls, she said.

“A lot of states kind of villainize prairie dogs, so their colonies are being eradicated,” she said. “But they are an exemplar of the interconnectiveness of nature.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker is leaving the Legislature to become the executive director of a new economic development group.

Blueprint Nebraska announced Monday that state Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion will help lead the organization. Smith has served in the Legislature since 2011 and was slated to step down in January because of term limits.

Smith is a small businessman who served as chairman of the Legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and the tax-focused Revenue Committee. He introduced numerous bills to cut taxes during his tenure, including some championed by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Blueprint Nebraska describes itself as a statewide, citizen-led economic development initiative. The group says it’s looking to create a proactive plan to stimulate economic growth while making Nebraska more competitive and building on the state’s strengths.

The new law will allow the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to hire a project’s designers and builders at the same time, instead of bidding out parts of the job separately.

The “design-build” approach typically allows one firm to take on the whole project, ensuring that all players work collaboratively while avoiding last-minute design changes.

“It’s a very effective tool for specialized projects,” said Sen. John Stinner, of Gering, who introduced the law and has approved design-build projects as a former school board member. “It’s a more efficient way to get projects designed and built in a timely fashion.”

Stinner said the design-build approach particularly makes sense in rural areas that have a shortage of individual contractors. Lawmakers and Gov. Pete Ricketts approved the law in March, and it’s scheduled to go into effect later this month.

Game and Parks officials requested the law in hopes of using it on future projects, although they’ll continue to bid out some work in the traditional way, said Tim McCoy, the commission’s deputy director.

McCoy said the design-build approach tends to reduce the number of times state officials must ask for a project redesign due to problems identified by the construction firm.

“There are some places where we think this can really provide us some benefits,” he said. “I don’t know if there will be a huge dollar savings, but the efficiency is really what we’re looking for.”

One example, he said, was a recent effort to build an aquarium at Schramm State Recreation Area in Sarpy County. McCoy said the project faced additional design costs and had to be reworked because one of the contractors didn’t get input from a consultant that specializes in aquarium projects.

“The designers wished we had that ability” to offer design-build projects, he said. “It would have made it a lot easier.”

McCoy said the commission will likely use design-build for special projects, such as a planned “raging river” ride at Mahoney State Park, but will stick to traditional bidding for routine work, such as adding roofs or upgrading water and sewer systems. The latter projects need to go slower because they’re required to get permits from state health and environmental regulators, McCoy said.

The commission has been adding new features as Nebraska’s state parks and recreation areas grow increasingly popular, with a rising number of visitors. In 2015, the commission unveiled a $35 million plan to create recreational parks along the Platte River that would allow children to scale rock walls and splash around in floating playgrounds.

The new law gives greater flexibility to state officials and contractors that work on projects, said Jean Petsch, executive director of the Associated General Contractors’ Nebraska Building Chapter. Petsch said the private sector has done design-build projects for at least 20 years, and the service is also allowed for public school districts and the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

“Different projects have different schedules, different budgets and different needs,” she said. “It’s that flexibility that is the big advantage.”