Thousands of private wells that Iowans use for drinking water are contaminated with unsafe levels of bacteria and nitrates, a study looking at 16 years of data shows.

The Environmental Working Group and the Iowa Environmental Council blame farmers’ use of fertilizer for the pollution.

LINK… Read more ›

The Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced funding for water quality projects across Iowa including a new project in the Turkey River Watershed. More details can be found here. … Read more ›

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/1/3/using-native-species-in-urban-landscaping?fbclid=IwAR0vzuM27FVB4zubXgV4sVJuRHOnLS3ZdrfCqpU3XKtHyGMp1lply2FNvG8… Read more ›

Watershed Scale, Not Field Scale… Read more ›

Watershed Management Authorities: Opening the Communication Line Between Cities and Farmers… Read more ›

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The Daily Erosion Project (DEP) estimates precipitation, runoff, sheet and rill erosion, and hillslope delivery in near real time, on over 2000 watersheds in the Midwest (Figure 1). It does this by running the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model with a combination of remotely-sensed precipitation weather stations, remotely-sensed crop and residue cover, remotely-sensed topography, and soils databases.

It is an update and expansion to the Iowa Daily Erosion Project (Cruse et al., 2006) that is designed to further investigate large scale erosion dynamics while maintaining hillslope level input resolution.… Read more ›

October 20^th, 2016

Fayette County Conservation has been awarded a $100,000 grant from Iowa Resource Enhancement and Protection, commonly referred to as REAP.

REAP invests in projects that enhance and protect Iowa’s natural and cultural resources.  15% of REAP is set aside for grants to cities and counties for projects that help establish natural areas, and encourage outdoor recreation and resource management.… Read more ›

With farming margins tighter than ever, farmers in the Turkey River Watershed can get help identifying areas of their operations dragging their bottom-line.

The Iowa Soybean Association, in conjunction with the Northeast Iowa Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D), is leading a project in the Turkey River Watershed to offer farmers a confidential profitability analysis at a discounted price of 25 cents/acre.… Read more ›

WMAs – Why Supervisors Should Be Involved and Enthusiastic (PDF)

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Originally appeared in The Gazette, 1/21/2016 by ORLAN LOVE Iowa flood efforts win big boost U.S. awards $97 million to improve resiliency from disasters Iowa got a $97 million boost Thursday in its efforts to make the state more resilient to flooding and to reduce nutrient pollution. “This is a big deal,” said Ben Hammes, spokesman… Continue Reading »