For the past couple of weeks, I have been on the road across Iowa. These trips vary in their purpose, but one thing that remains the same is the evident erosion in the fields along my travels. Regardless of where I am – whether it is in the Loess Hills visiting family or in the Des Moines Lobe for a meeting – spring rains have revealed that there are deep cuts in the bare brown soils where lush, even soils used to be.
Continue readingDevelopment of a Watershed Project Extension
The Boone River Watershed Nutrient Management Initiative project has been granted additional funding from Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS). This is in order to extend the project for another three years to increase the use of conservation and water quality practices in Prairie and Eagle Creek Watersheds. In these projects, we will continue working towards meeting Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy goals. The extension process involved writing a new grant application based on the lessons learned from our first three years.
Continue readingIowa State University Research Farms Utilize Conservation Practices for Science, Stewardship
Iowa State University’s 13 Research and Demonstration Farms around the state have served for decades as models of agricultural and scientific progress for Iowa’s farmers and landowners.
Continue readingPodcast spotlights a pioneer of precision conservation
Precision agriculture is a unique, emerging field, and it is certainly one that is rapidly evolving before our very eyes. The complex world of remote sensing, big data, ag informatics, statistics, and on-the-ground farm management means there’s a whole lot of data out there … how do we make sense of it all?
Continue readingIntroducing the Iowa Watershed Approach
The Iowa Watershed Approach (IWA) is a new five-year project focused on addressing factors associated with flood disasters in the state of Iowa. The IWA project will also provide benefits of improved water quality by implementing conservation practices outlined in the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy.
Continue readingGet to know the Rathbun Land and Water Alliance
The Rathbun Land and Water Alliance was established in 1997 to promote cooperation between public and private sectors in an effort to protect land and water resources in the Rathbun Lake Watershed. The Rathbun Lake Watershed is located in the six southern Iowa Counties of Appanoose, Clarke, Decatur, Lucas, Monroe, and Wayne and covers 354,000 acres. Rathbun Lake is the primary water source for Rathbun Regional Water Association, which provides drinking water to 80,000 people in southern Iowa and northern Missouri.
Continue readingOut in the Field in the Miller Creek Watershed
Throughout my time in Iowa, I would find myself at a field day or conference looking at a graph showing nitrate levels in water. Before volunteering with the Miller Creek Watershed Project, I saw this kind of graph as a series of data points along an undulating line without a concrete connection to the landscape. I drew conclusions about tillage and other land management practices, about weather, about the planting, growing, and harvest seasons, and how this all relates to water. I did not see how these data points, when taken together, tell a story about what is happening in a watershed.
Continue readingFarmers are Covering Iowa
The Iowa Seed Corn Cover Crops Initiative is a new Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Water Quality Initiative project that will run through 2018. This project is through the Iowa Seed Association in collaboration with the Agribusiness Association of Iowa, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Corn Growers Association, and the Soil and Water Conservation Society.
Continue readingPlate of the Union Water Quality Panel Discussion
This year, the Iowa State University Sustainable Agriculture Student Association (SASA) received a national grant from the Plate of the Union Campus Challenge. Part of this sponsorship included hosting a panel on water quality issues
Continue readingGet to know the Daily Erosion Project
Answering a speaking request from the Nebraska Natural Resource Districts, I delivered a talk last week in Central Nebraska. Kearney, Nebraska to be more exact. Kearney is located deep into the irrigated area of the Great Plains, and so I wondered a little – actually more than a little – why this group would be interested in my focus area of soil erosion. More specifically, why they would be interested in hearing about our Iowa State University project called, The Daily Erosion Project.
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