Flood Mitigation

Tuesday April 7th 2015, staff from the Iowa Flood Center and IIHR in Iowa City put on a training for new flood forecasting tools available for the Turkey River Watershed. The web-based tool is called the Iowa Flood Information System or IFIS. Some of the tools available through IFIS, such as stream gauge information, have been available for a couple of years but the Iowa Flood Center has recently added some new tools to help people anticipate and prepare for flooding.… Read more ›

Clean Water

“An Iowa State University research team has discovered that strategically adding a little bit of prairie back onto the agricultural landscape can result in many benefits – in water and soil quality, habitat for wildlife and pollinators, as well as opportunities for biomass production. Learn more about this new conservation practice and the excitement it is generating both within and outside Iowa.”… Read more ›

Clean Water, Watershed Management Authority

permeable parking lot in Monona

A press release by the DNR  regarding the permeable paver parking lot in Monona has garnered a lot of attention. The video in the release on February 10, 2015 has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. The DNR has also fielded many calls inquiring about the project. The permeable paver parking lot was completed in 2014 by the City of Monona in an effort to reduce the water quantity and improve the water quality of a nearby un-named tributary that eventually feeds into the Turkey River.  … Read more ›

Event

12-4-2014 – Postville Iowa – The Turkey River Watershed Management Authority met on Thursday December 4th and heard a presentation from the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) regarding information from their modeling results in the Turkey River Watershed and the Otter Creek Watershed.  The models used by the IFC simulate surface and subsurface conditions leading up to and following large precipitation events.… Read more ›

Clean Water, Flood Mitigation

Wayne Fredericks says he isn’t a poster child for conservation.

But the 63-year-old farmer near Osage is willing to test ideas, gather data about the results, and see what works best in the field.

“Farmers have been real hungry for data,” said Fredericks, a farmer participating in the Rock Creek watershed improvement project in north-central Iowa. “They want to know what these practices are going to do and how they will affect yields and the bottom line.… Read more ›

Clean Water

8-28-2014 — The City of Monona unveiled the brand new parking lot at the LeRoy & Colleen Darby Family Aquatic Center to a group of partners and citizens.  The new parking lot features a new surface made up of permeable pavers designed to eliminate most of the runoff from the formerly gravel parking lot.

In addition to being more environmentally friendly, the revisions make the parking lot more practical.  … Read more ›

Watershed Management Authority

POSTVILLE, IOWA – May 20TH, 2014 – Five rainfall and soil moisture gauges have been placed in the Otter Creek watershed, a sub-watershed of the Turkey River that covers a 30,000 acre area from West Union to Elgin in Fayette County.  The gauges measure hourly rainfall, soil moisture, and soil temperature at each location.  Data is available online at http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/main/?v=b… Read more ›