University of Iowa reviewing its lease, future of Macbride Nature Recreation Area

IOWA CITY — More than six decades after the University of Iowa began leasing a 485-acre swath of mostly woodland known as the Macbride Nature Recreation Area — host to popular UI programs like School of the Wild, the Iowa Raptor Project and Iowa Wildlife Camps — the university is reviewing its use of that land “to ensure fiscal sustainability and consistency” with its mission of providing education and research opportunities for “a broad array of students.”

“Regardless of the review’s outcome, we will continue to provide unique teaching and learning experiences through our UI WILD programs, whether they continue at (Macbride Nature Recreation Area) or another location,” according to an email distributed Wednesday by UI College of Education Dean Dan Clay.

Sailing, education uses

The Macbride area — encompassing land once called “The Big Grove” off 2095 Mehaffey Bridge Road NE near Solon — had its first land survey in 1841, five years before Iowa became a state in 1846 and six years before the UI was established in 1847. About 30 years later, a UI professor began using the area for research and instruction in geology and paleontology.

The Army Corps of Engineers built the Coralville Dam in 1958, and the university a year later began leasing the parcel of Corps land, naming it after former UI president and naturalist Thomas Huston Macbride. The area is surrounded by Lake Macbride State Park and the Coralville Lake.

In the decades that followed, the university expanded its use of the land to include the UI Sailing Club, Raptor Center and youth environmental education.

UI Recreational Services took over stewardship of the lease in 1985 — the same year UI partnered with Kirkwood Community College to launch a raptor rehabilitation and education program there.

Iowa Wildlife Camps for grade school kids began in 1991, and School of the Wild — geared toward kids in the Iowa City Community School District — began in 1998.

UI’s current lease agreement with the Army Corps — a most-recent version drafted in 1989 and extended in 2005 — requires the university to submit a “plan of operation and maintenance” every year, outlining its activities, accomplishments, maintenance, development, budget and personnel, among other things.

The lease requires the UI to protect, restore and care for the land. It stipulates the university can “relinquish” the lease by giving three years of written notice.

In 2020, the area suffered significant damage during the derecho — including uprooted trees and marred roads, trails and structures — compelling the UI to close the area for months. Clean up involved arborists, construction crews and forestry teams.

UI Facilities Management and Landscape Services took over the lease from Rec Services two years ago in July 2022. A year before, in 2021, the UI College of Education assumed responsibility for the UI WILD programs, focusing on research and education.

Committee will issue report by May 2025

In Clay’s email this week, he said a UI committee charged with reviewing the lease — which expires in 2029 — has one year to “engage the community regarding the use of Macbride Nature Recreation Area.” The committee, consisting of representatives from departments that use the area, will provide a report to UI President Barbara Wilson by May 1, 2025.

“Input also will be gathered from the campus and broader community,” according to Clay, who said UI WILD programs — including the Iowa Raptor Project, Iowa Wildlife Camps and School of the Wild — will continue at the recreation area this summer.

“The review is part of a standard process whereby the university regularly evaluates programming and centers,” he said.

Although the Amy Corps — which owns the land — doesn’t charge the campus rent, the university is responsible for maintaining it.

“The university provides excellent conservation education through the UI WILD programs, and is committed to continuing this experiential learning for our future teachers and K-12 students in Iowa,” UI Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel said in a statement. “We understand these programs are important to the university and the greater community.”

‘Protected and restored forests’

Among research happening in the nature area this summer is the emergence of periodical cicadas. Researchers from as far away as the United Kingdom have visited to track, observe and study the phenomenon — with two different cicada broods emerging simultaneously for the first time in over 200 years.

“In Johnson County, they are rare to completely absent in most areas except for places that stayed continually in forest,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication. “The Macbride Nature Recreation Area is one of the places where land management practices have protected and restored forests, so we still find cicadas there today.”

The area includes 14 trails, an archery range and a bird blind for close-up viewing. It’s serviced by UI police and prohibits fireworks, hunting and trapping, shelter building and tree cutting.

UI officials have not answered other questions about the long-standing lease — or provided The Gazette with a copy of it.

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Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com