Articles Tagged: conservation

$4.1 million project to be funded with sale of stream mitigation credits

A bill that would limit the authority of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to purchase land for public use was shelved Wednesday ahead of a key legislative deadline.

American Transmission Company, ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative Inc. want to build a 102-mile, 345-kilovolt line linking Iowa's Dubuque County and Wisconsin's Dane County.

After 10 years of successes and complications of the Nutrient Reduction Strategy, The Gazette reviews how it could be improved.

The two-pronged plan details how Iowa hopes to reduce its nutrient pollution from agriculture and industry.

The Gazette dove into ISU data to investigate how to-date conservation practices and facility upgrades have impacted Iowa’s nitrogen and phosphorous pollution

The Mississippi River is one of the world's great rivers, but it seems to carry less reverence than other iconic water bodies across the country, an attitude with serious consequences. River advocates are finding their own ways to help people connect.

$5B nationwide investment includes over $400M for Iowa

Some agricultural groups have said it is too difficult for farmer to acquire new land in part because of land going to public use

Great egrets, which can nest in Iowa, were visible below the 5-in-1 dam in Cedar Rapids this week. The birds are on their migration to the southern United States and Central America for the winter.

A Rochester man’s proposal to turn a portion of southeast Minnesota’s Driftless region into a national park died less than a month after he proposed it this year. But discussion about protection and promotion of the region — which stretches into northeast Iowa, southwest Wisconsin and northwest Illinois — continues.

But there’s still more work to be done to close the gender gap in landownership education and resources, advocates say.

Irvine Prairie is being developed and managed by the Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa.

Bills would direct more money to the Iowa governor’s office, maternal health care and foreign animal disease preparedness, and away from water quality monitoring.

Proposed legislation would require the state to prioritize maintenance of current publicly-owned lands over the acquisition of new lands. Iowa ranks near the bottom of the list of U.S. states for its share of publicly-owned land. About 3 percent of the state is public land.