LINCOLN - The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is celebrating 25 years of using permits for better habitat.

It’s the 25th anniversary of the commissions aquatic habitat program. Therefore, no matter the success on the water, anglers are helping restore habitat as a stamp is included with each purchase of a permit. Jeff Jackson of Game and Parks says this is a major milestone.

“Basically we’ve done 137 projects and spent $90-million over that 25 years,” Jackson said. “We just felt like we need to let that story out, and that’s kind of how we accomplished that.”

The program enhances aquatic ecosystems by implementing restoration techniques into lakes, streams, reservoirs, and the watershed that lead into them. The program also improves boat and bank angler access.

“We wanted to be real specific that the money was going to be strictly spent on aquatic habitat improvements and access improvements,” Jackson said. “We wanted to make sure that was pretty clear when that legislation went through.”

Jackson says the response from anglers across Nebraska, about the results from the program, have been overwhelmingly positive.

“We do have public meetings in the winter time, where we go over what projects we have coming up, and different projects we’ve done,” Jackson said. “So we do get a lot of feedback as a result of that and I’d say 90% is usually very positive.”