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Author: Iowa Farmer Today

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Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new interactive planning tool to create networks of small wetlands in Midwest farmlands, which could help the region prevent massive spring floods and also retain water and mitigate droughts in a warming climate.

The planning approach, which is being developed and tested in a crop-dominated watershed near Indianapolis, is designed to identify the small areas best suited to wetland development, optimize their location and size, and restore a significant portion of the region’s historic water storage ability by using only a small fraction of its land.… Read more ›

Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

The Turkey River Watershed Management Authority met on March 28th at the YMCA in Postville. Approximately 60 attendees, including the TRWMA Board, listened to presentations given by NRCS Iowa State Conservationist, Jay Mar and Larry Weber, the Director of IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering and Iowa Flood Center.

Before the presentations, the TRWMA Board accepted a recommendation from the TRWMA Executive Committee and voted unanimously to recommend the Iowa Flood Center select Otter Creek in Fayette County for modeling.… Read more ›

Flood Mitigation

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration plans to collect Iowa precipitation data this spring that could launch a new era of timely and accurate flood predictions. The data will help scientists understand how satellite radar images relate to actual rainfall so they can more accurately predict rainfall amounts and flood events, said Vitold Krajewski, director of the Iowa Flood Center, which is partnering with NASA on the Iowa Flood Study project. Sara Steussy, a research support coordinator at the flood center, said most of the instruments will be deployed in a line running roughly from Waterloo to Iowa City, with the most powerful portable radar unit situated southwest of Waterloo. That radar unit will fill a gap in coverage of the four National Weather Service radars operating in Iowa, Petersen said. A second cluster of about 20 rain gauges with soil moisture sensors and two smaller portable radars will be deployed in the Turkey River Valley, Steussy said.
Flood Mitigation

The Iowa Flood Center has announced that the Soap and Chequest Creek, Turkey River, and Upper Cedar River watersheds will each receive a $1.5 million grant for construction of watershed improvement projects to support flood mitigation, such as farm ponds, wetlands, and floodplain easements in a targeted area of the watershed. The grant, provided with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is part of the Iowa Watersheds Project, an effort of the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa.… Read more ›

Watershed Management Authority

Turkey River Watershed HUC 12 WatershedsAs our comprehensive watershed planning process begins in the Turkey River Watershed and the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) looks to implement a Watershed Demonstration project, it has become apparent that we need to start identifying sub-watershed projects in the Turkey River Watershed for both the comprehensive watershed plan and the IFC watershed demonstration project.

We will know on February 19th whether the Iowa Watershed Advisory Council has selected the Turkey River Watershed for funding a HUC 12 watershed project in partnership with the Iowa Flood Center, and we plan to operate on the assumption that the Turkey River Watershed is one of the 3 out of 4 watersheds that is selected.… Read more ›

Point of Interest

Jessica Rilling’s great photo of a Turkey River kayaker approaching Motor Mill is one of three finalists for the honor of being the cover image for the new Iowa Travel Guide. What a great opportunity to spread the word about northeast Iowa’s Motor Mill Historic Site and the Turkey River Recreational Corridor! But we need [...]
Clean Water, Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

Innovative research on northeast Iowa’s Turkey River may herald a breakthrough in state efforts to mitigate future flood damage.

“This really is the first time that hydro modeling has been done in advance of project implementation to get the highest value for the investment,” said Larry Weber, director of IIHR — Hydroscience & Engineering, the parent organization of the Iowa Flood Center.… Read more ›

Clean Water, Watershed Management Authority

A brand new program, the “Water Resource Restoration Sponsored Projects” will help cities, watershed organizations, landowners and others address local water quality problems.  A total of $15 million will be available per year for watershed protection practices such as stream buffers, wetland restoration and green infrastructure.

The Iowa General Assembly initiated the effort in 2009 when lawmakers authorized a new funding mechanism. … Read more ›

2012 Daily Mean Streamflow Levels at Garber
Water Sampling

The USGS Iowa Water Science Center measures streamflow at six gages within the Turkey River Watershed. The graphs below show water flow in cubic feet per second (cfs) at the gage nearest the mouth of the river, at Garber.

The lowest recorded streamflow at Garber in 2012 was 187 cfs on October 5th (pending USGS certification). Average streamflow in the state for the 2012 water year (Oct.… Read more ›

Clean Water, Fishing

Dave Vetrano, retired Wisconsin DNR fisheries biologist, has more than 32 years of cold water stream management in the Driftless Region. His presentation, given to our neighbors, the Basin Alliance for the Lower Mississippi in Minnesota (BALMM), gives a short history of land use changes in the Driftless Area since the time of European settlement, and then discusses the effect those changes have had on the coldwater streams.
“In well managed grazing systems, soil erosion, manure, pesticide and herbicide runoff is reduced to almost zero.”