Iowa Water Center seeks partners for community arts event

We’ve got something brewing over here at the Iowa Water Center, and we’re pretty excited about it.

This year is the tenth anniversary of the Iowa Water Conference (in its current form), so we thought we’d make it kind of special. The conference agenda (which will be released soon!) is particularly spectacular this year, but we can always do more.

The idea started off that we’d have Luther professors Jodi Enos-Berlage and Jane Hawley bring their Body of Water performance to Ames for conference goers to attend on the first night of the conference. This multimedia approach to water education seemed like a provocative addition to our two-day event, and we’ve had requests for several years to bring back an evening reception/activity for those attending from out of town. A lovely idea!

But then, we learned about a project that local Ames High School students are working on that also combines art and water education. The students within The Bluestem Institute at AHS are creating photo collages combined with text from interviews to define water quality terms from a technical, social and cultural perspective. They’ll be presenting during the Iowa Water Conference, but the work they’re doing is something to behold, so we didn’t want to limit it to conference attendees.

LIGHTBULB. Gallery session before the Body of Water performance. A community event, adjacent to the Iowa Water Conference, but not solely for paid attendees. Invite the community, far and wide.  These unique approaches to water outreach and education need to reach as many people as possible. Our state has some incredibly innovative environmental education efforts (Water Rocks!, anyone?), and it’s our job to display, disseminate, expose and otherwise facilitate learning. We at the Iowa Water Center are on a mission to better the state of water in the state of Iowa. Education and outreach are a big part of that.

But, we can’t do it alone. We want this evening event to be well-attended and free of charge to patrons. So we’re asking for partners – be it financial sponsors, connectors, marketers – whatever you can do to help make this happen, we want to talk to you. If you are interested in learning more or helping us brainstorm, contact us. We can’t wait to talk with you!

Iowa’s Soil and Water Conservation Districts – Good conference, good people

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we headed down to Prairie Meadows in Altoona for the 2015 Iowa Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioners 69th Annual Conference. The Iowa Water Center has exhibited at the last three conferences, and we must say, it gets better every year. Clare Lindahl and her staff at Conservation Districts of Iowa work incredibly hard to put together a fun, informative conference with some big names in the business – the luncheon speaker on Tuesday was Kirk Hanlin, Assistant Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and on Wednesday, Iowa’s own Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

Our limited budget doesn’t allow us to exhibit at a lot of conferences each year, but we make sure to include this conference at the top of our list. We always see good friends, like Jamie Benning, who masterfully connects people and watersheds to Extension programming as the Water Quality Program Manager for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and Jackie Comito with Iowa Learning Farms and Water Rocks! (who, by the way, was honored this past spring as a recipient of the National Wetlands Award).  We were happy to see we were positioned next to our perennial neighbor at this conference, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. It gives us a chance to catch up with our colleagues – these are busy times in the Iowa water landscape, so we don’t always have the time to keep up with each other like we’d like to!

Another reason we keep coming back is the quality conversations we have with attendees of the conference. Our booth is boring compared to some others – we don’t hand out pens, or candy, or keychains – in fact, this year, we just had our display, Iowa Water Conference Save-the-Date postcards, and copies of our white paper of Water Resources Priorities from the 2015 Iowa Water Conference session. But the district commissioners don’t care that they won’t pick up a water bottle or a stress ball from us. They want to know who we are, what we do, what we’re working on, and how they can use us as a resource. These are elected officials who will go back home after two days of soaking up information and will use it to better soil and water conservation management in their district. There are 500 soil and water conservation district commissioners, and they want to talk to you (yes, you!) about what can be done in YOUR district for soil and water. Find contact information for your commissioners and have a conversation about conservation.

COLLABORATION: North Central Region Water Network

One thing about water – it affects everyone in some way, every single day. Water can bring us together (or tear us apart, but let’s focus on the positives).

One thing about the Iowa Water Center – we are innately connected to every other Water Resources Research Institute in the country (53 others – one in every state and four territories) through the National Institute of Water Resources. Collaboration is at our core.

Collaborating for better water management is one of IWC’s primary principles. To that end, this is the first post in the COLLABORATION category.

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The North Central Region Water Network

Mission: “We work together to ensure safe and sufficient water supplies by increasing the scope and positive impact of multi-state water outreach and research efforts in the North Central Region of the United States.”

Twelve states, working together for clean, abundant water. The North Central Region Water Network came together in 2013 as a mechanism for collaboration between Extension water resource professionals and university, federal, state, NGO and industry partners.

The Network as identified five priority areas:

-agriculture and water quality
-ecosystem restoration/protection
-water supply and waste systems
-water literacy and stewardship
-water management planning and leadership

The Network has a number of ways it is working toward making impacts in these areas. Today, we’ll highlight three – The Current webinar series, seed grant competition, and the North Central Region Water Network 2014 conference.

The Current Webinar Series

Self-described as a “speed networking webinar series,” The Current offers four, 10 minute “project snapshots” and 20 minutes for Q&A.  Past webinars include topics like soil health, social science in water, and decision support tools for nutrient management. The webinars are free and easy to access: a quick online registration form will get you signed up.

Seed grant competition

The Network’s seed grant competition is for multi-state initiatives in Extension or capacity building. Requests can be made for up to $30,000 per project. The current deadline is November 30, 2014.

What kind of projects is the Network looking to fund?

-planning projects
-program delivery projects
-professional development for Extension professionals to improve water-related Extension programs.

Proposals must include three states, address Network goals, and show the potential to demonstrate and document impact. The website currently has the 2014 RFA available for download; if you’re interested in the 2015 RFA you can contact Rebecca Power.

2014 North Central Region Water Network Conference

The Network’s inaugural conference was held last week in Bloomington, Minnesota. Over 100 Extension educators and researchers attended for an excellent opportunity to network, build partnerships and establish relationships for collaborative efforts.

Among traditional professional development presentations (including one from IWC Director Rick Cruse on the Iowa Daily Erosion Project), one of the most valuable activities at this year’s conference was the “Topic Table” discussion session. Attendees were split up based on their focus area of interest (seven in all, plus an ad hoc “watershed planning” group). At these tables, participants were encouraged to discuss current programming efforts and future needs and potential projects. In terms of spurning collaboration, this activity hit the nail on the head.

 

So, give the North Central Region Water Network a try. Hey, they’re even on Twitter!