Sandhills focus of ecological study LINCOLN, NE (NET Radio) - A thousand years ago, Nebraska's Sandhills region was a haze of dry, blowing sand. That happened after prairie grasses that had served as a cap for the dunes withered away during a major, prolonged drought. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are trying to better understand what happened to the Sandhills in the past, and what could happen in the future if similar conditions ever returned. © Copyright 2017, NET Radio