HOLDREGE, Nebr. –

Seventh and eighth graders from across Nebraska will come together soon for the 2026 Adventure Camp about the Environment (ACE Camp).

Adventure Camp about the Environment is a four-day, three-night youth summer camp providing students with opportunities to dive into hands-on activities focused on natural resources. Sessions educate youth on Nebraska’s water resources, wildlife, soil, trees and other plants, range, grasslands, and more. ACE Camp gets students outdoors to explore the world around them.

Ace Camp will take place near Burwell at Kamp Kaleo June 21-24.

Activities at ACE Camp include fishing, collecting macroinvertebrates, close encounters with educational animals, campfire fun, swimming, learning about and sampling edible plants, archery – and the famous Water Rockets activity where the students design model rockets from cardboard mailing tubes and use water and compressed air to launch them into the sky.

Students complete camp with an awareness of natural resources careers by learning from dedicated professionals who work in those fields every day. The Lower Loup NRD and Upper Loup NRD host the camp in cooperation with professionals from other Natural Resources Districts. This year’s presenters include experts from the University of Nebraska, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, PlantNebraska, and the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment. New this year will be a presentation on Outdoor First-Aid by National Park Service staff.

Ace Camp was co-founded by the Lower Loup NRD and Upper Loup NRD in 2010. The camp skipped 2020 due to the pandemic. Then, the camp was left temporarily homeless in 2023 after the October 2022 Bovee Fire destroyed most of the Nebraska State 4-H Camp near Halsey, where the camp had been hosted since its beginning. Kamp Kaleo became the new home of ACE Camp in 2024.

ACE Camp is for youth preparing to enter seventh or eighth grades in the 2026-2027 school year. The camp is open to all youth who meet that criteria (including the homeschooled equivalent) and reside within one of Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts.

The ACE Camp fee is $235 per camper. Many NRDs offer scholarships. Interested residents should contact the NRD in which they reside for more information. ACE Camp 2026 will take place June 21-24. Register through Kamp Kaleo’s website, www.kampkaleo.com, by June 1, 2026.

“Education is a very important part of the mission of Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts,” said ACE Camp Coordinator Alan Bartels. “It may be difficult to fathom, but even in rural Nebraska, some children have never waded in a stream catching crawdads and minnows with a dipnet. Others have never reeled in a bluegill. Some have never seen a turtle up close, sat around a campfire with friends, or given thought to the importance of clean water for all living things. ACE Camp provides all of that and more. I look forward to this year’s ACE Camp and the energetic new group of campers who will learn about our state’s precious natural resources while making friends and lots of fun summer camp memories.”

Anyone with questions about ACE Camp scholarships should contact their local NRD. Contact the Tri-Basin NRD at 308-995-6688.