Articles Tagged: conservation

The population of each Iowa furbearer species — coyotes, foxes, bears, beavers, raccoons, minks and bobcats — is different and nuanced, but expert say some — like bocats — are in “expansion mode.”

Iowa’s Forest Reserve Program, which provides a tax incentive for property owners to maintain woodlands, remains intact after this year’s legislative session, but the Iowa Woodland Owners Association anticipates the fight to keep the program to continue.

Today’s Jens Jensen is stewarding the relatively new Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park, named for his ancestor. It’s nestled into the grounds of the Museum of Danish America. Located in the tiny town of Elk Horn, about 200 miles west of Cedar Rapids, the museum is emerging as a fascinating place for people of all ethnic backgrounds to visit.

A misunderstanding purportedly led a farmland owner to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture to overturn protections for millions of acres of ag wetlands. A judge is considering requests to dismiss the case before it goes to trial.

The event in Cedar Rapids serves up pancakes and sausage with real maple syrup, and offers visitors a look at the process that produces maple syrup. The event concludes Sunday, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Wildcat Bluff Recreation Area in Benton County, a park known for its camping, hiking and renowned disc golf course, is doubling in size after two years of collaborative work by Benton County Conservation and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.

Outdoor recreation is Iowa’s top source of tourism and accounts for $8 billion annually in economic output, according to a recent study.

The number of monarch butterflies that spent the winter in Mexico doubled this year, giving hope for a species that has faced decline in recent decades. And while conservationists welcome that news, they warn those numbers still lag and more work is needed.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources relies on Iowa volunteers, and some power plant employees, to monitor peregrine falcons’ nests to ensure the species, which was reintroduced in 1989, continues to take refuge in the Hawkeye State.

These four scientists studied Iowa’s flora, preserved prairie, and drafted legislation to establish Iowa’s state park system.

Over 77 percent of voters in the county approved the measure, which needed 60 percent approval to pass. This was the second time that Johnson County voters approved a conservation bond — in 2008, voters approved a $20 million bond. The bonds are paid off through property taxes.

The number of donors to Iowa’s Fish and Wildlife Fund has declined by 50 percent in the last 20 years, the DNR reports.

Tax exemptions provide an incentive to qualifying landowners to preserve their woodlands, but bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature last year and again this year seek to change the state’s Forest and Fruit Tree Reserve program.

Government officials across the Midwest face pressure to address high levels of nitrate pollution in water. In Iowa, saturated buffers — installed with taxpayer money — are being promoted by the state. But research and records show the state’s saturated buffers aren’t as effective as promised.

Many researchers who’ve spent their careers studying the natural world experience environmental grief from witnessing the changes and disappearances of some species. They encourage people to reconnect with nature, and say climate change is a challenge that an be turned into an opportunity.