More oxbows are being restored across Iowa. Here’s why that matters and how organizations are working together

When Jeff Pudenz was in high school in the 1970s, he joined a conservation group in Calhoun County where he learned about the importance of wetlands and how to manage runoff and erosion.

Those lessons kick started a passion for conservation in Pudenz, who grew up with farmers on both side of his family.

“It really lit a fire under me,” said Pudenz, 70, who farms in Sac County.

That’s why when Pudenz had the opportunity to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Iowa Soybean Association to implement an oxbow on his land, he jumped at the opportunity.

What is an oxbow?

In conservation, an oxbow is a restored wetland that creates a “U” shape that splits off from the flow of a stream or river. Oxbow wetlands can store excess water that otherwise might lead to flooding. They can improve water quality and provide habitat for wildlife and aquatic animals.

According to Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, oxbows are wetlands that form when a stream or river that starts with a meandering — winding — path, cuts a straighter path through a loop. The oxbow is where the stream used to meander.

As oxbows fill with organic material from the land surrounding them, they gradually disappear. In order to restore the oxbows, the material that filled in the oxbow must be removed.

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Drew DiAllesandro, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s private land coordinator for Illinois and Iowa, has been working closely with the Iowa Soybean Association on Pudenz’s oxbow project — and other projects — for several years.

He said oxbows are important in conservation work for multiple reasons.

“They provide habitat for countless species of wildlife and plants and they improve water quality and help mitigate impacts from flooding,” DiAllesandro said. ”Oxbows can be great places to fish, hunt, passively view wildlife or take photographs or bring children to learn and explore.“

Oxbows also have served as “critical habitat” locations for many fish species, including the endangered Topeka shiner minnow. According to a guide produced by the Iowa Soybean Association, oxbows across the state are now home to 40 fish species.

How the partnership works

DiAllesandro said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been working closely with the Iowa Soybean Association for more than 20 years on a variety of projects.

“That relationship started in the early- to mid-2000s when efforts focused on restoring off-channel oxbow wetlands as habitat for the federally endangered Topeka shiner,” he said.

DiAllesandro said the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Soybean Association work with private landowners and partners to voluntarily restore and enhance fish and wildlife habitats on their properties through projects like oxbows.

“Iowa Soybean Association prioritizes production, profitability, and sustainability for Iowa soybean farmers who are private landowners,” he said. “The overlap in those priorities made the partnership between ISA and USFWS come together nicely.”

So far, DiAllesandro said the Service’s partnership with the Soybean Association has resulted in the restoration of more than 50 oxbows, with more than 30 oxbows in “various stages of planning” currently around the state.

The Service, working with all of its partners, has restored more than 200 Iowa oxbows since 2001.

DiAllesandro said the cost to implement an oxbow can vary depending on a variety of factors.

That includes how much material has to be removed to create the oxbow, how far the material has to be moved from the site, costs associated with a contractor for the project, and whether trees need to be removed from the area.

On average, DiAllesandro said the Service’s estimated cost for an oxbow restoration project is about $25,000 per acre.

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Todd Sutphin, conservation services and programs lead for the Iowa Soybean Association, said the partnership between the Association and the Fish and Wildlife Service formed when oxbow restoration was still fairly new to the Association and to Iowa.

“We were looking at (oxbows) as a way to mitigate flooding and look at water quality,” Sutphin said. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had a lot of good technical expertise in the area, and so we had partnered with them on a few projects in north central Iowa, to learn the ropes of oxbow restoration.”

Sutphin said the work he and his team are doing with oxbow restoration is happening statewide, but there are a few targeted areas.

He said that the North Raccoon and the Boone Rivers are two higher-priority areas. The Middle Cedar watershed and some areas in northwest Iowa also are being targeted for oxbows.

“One of the selling points of these oxbows is that they're in, almost all the time, in unproductive areas of a farmer's field. They're an old river scar that's cut off from the main stem and they're usually in soil not suitable for farming,” Sutphin said. “So there's stacked benefits on restoring these back to the landscape. One is for water quality purposes, two is for habitat and three is for flood retention. And then some farmers are actually getting another benefit, where they're usually utilizing the oxbows for watering a cattle.”

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Oxbow construction across the state

Other groups, organizations and local governments have undertaken efforts to restore oxbows across the state.

In 2020, the Iowa Geological Survey — which is housed by the University of Iowa — completed a study that found oxbows help reduce nitrate levels in Iowa waterways.

In April, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the state would invest $2.7 million to support 14 urban water quality projects throughout the state. The projects include restored oxbows, permeable parking lots and pavers, bioretention cells, bioswales, rain gardens, native landscaping and wetlands to slow and filter stormwater runoff.

Mary Beth Stevenson, watersheds and source water program manager for the City of Cedar Rapids, said oxbows have been restored in Eastern Iowa through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

Cedar Rapids worked with The Nature Conservancy to restore an oxbow on city property near the Northwest Water Treatment Plant on Ellis Road. The Conservancy also worked with private landowners, and it worked with Linn County Conservation to restore oxbows at Morgan Creek Park, Stevenson said.

Increased collaboration

Sutphin said the partnership between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Soybean Association grew in 2017 when the two groups could pool more resources to complete more conservation work.

“One thing that we like to do here on a partnership level is that Iowa Soybean can bring some dollars to the table. Another partner can bring some dollars to the table, and then we double our efforts. And so we come forward as a trusted resource with the grower,” Sutphin said. “We bring along U.S. Fish and Wildlife with additional technical expertise, and through that collaborative effort, we're able to get many, many more projects on the ground to the benefit of the Iowa landowner and the Iowa farmer.”

Sutphin said the two groups also work with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and private landowners and funders to complete conservation projects.

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Pudenz — who farms about 725 acres — said he was able to restore the oxbow on his land because different organizations worked together to reach conservation goals.

Years ago, Pudenz said those groups likely would not have worked together.

“This is something that is definitely new (and it) isn’t something that I have grown up with. In the past, when you had any organization, they always had the rules and regulations and they didn't like you working with other organizations … they all had their programs, but they didn't mix together,” he said. “I am extremely happy with this, now they're working together.”

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com