AMES, Iowa—Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, and Conservation Learning Group (CLG), is hosting a free virtual field day featuring the efforts in the Clear Creek Watershed to improve water quality and quantity issues on Thursday, March 4 at 1 p.m. CST. Join us for a live discussion with John Rathbun, Clear Creek Watershed Coordinator and Johnson County landowners Pat and Burne Sippy.

Located in Iowa and Johnson County, the Clear Creek Watershed Coalition is working to implement seventy conservation practices to improve water quality and reduce downstream flooding. One unique project in the watershed being highlighted during the virtual field day, is the construction of a fringe wetland along the edges of a revitalized pond owned by the Sippy family.

The fringe wetland will create a land shelf 6-18 feet in width around about 90% of the pond and will be just above the normal pool of the pond. It will provide consistently saturated soil for wetland plants and wildlife and will be become inundated during rain events to store additional water and filter the water as it moves through the wetland. Combined with additional practices, the Sippy’s land will be storing water during high rain events and significantly reducing the flood potential to the Tiffin, Coralville and Iowa City communities.

“In a 1,850-acre sub-watershed of Middle Clear Creek, five landowners have installed twelve practices that treat eleven percent of the acres.  The Sippy family has installed three of these practices and will be installing two more in another sub-watershed.  They exemplify the conservation ethic and stewardship of land, water and wildlife that makes them a good neighbor to their downstream neighbors, Clear Creek, and Iowa,” noted Rathbun.

To participate in the live virtual field day at 1:00 pm CST on March 4 to learn more, click HERE or visit www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/events and click “Join Live Virtual Field Day”.

Or, join from a dial-in phone line:

Dial: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 876 9923
Meeting ID: 914 1198 4892

The field day will be recorded and archived on the ILF website so that it can be watched at any time. The archive will be available at https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/events.