Report: Continuing Macbride Nature area lease would cost UI $14.8M, plus upkeep

IOWA CITY — Maintaining its lease of the historic Macbride Nature Recreation Area that for decades has hosted thousands of researchers, naturalists, and students will cost the University of Iowa an immediate $14.8 million in repairs and upgrades — plus nearly $1 million annually to maintain — according to a new report on UI use of the land.

“There is currently no specific UI or departmental source of funds allocated for these expenses, which are associated with the no-cost lease from the Corps of Engineers,” according to the report from a 10-person review committee charged with evaluating the UI lease with the Corps of Engineers to “ensure fiscal sustainability and alignment with the university’s mission of excellent education and research opportunities for a broad array of students.”

UI administrators initiated the review last summer amid fallout from recent changes to the property’s oversight and financial responsibility — with UI WILD programs, offered on the Macbride land for decades, moving from under UI Recreational Services to the UI College of Education in 2021.

‘This is disappointing’

A 2023 plan for the 485-acre recreation area reported, “Funding for the land management positions, budget, and other funding needs of MNRA will be covered by the UI College of Education with the goal of having funding responsibilities taken over by the University of Iowa’s general fund in coming years.”

But UI Education Dean Danial Clay last year informed his staff that UI administrators had denied him funding help.

“This is disappointing but understandable given the institutional priorities and limited resources,” Clay wrote March 29, 2024 — sharing plans to explore running its popular UI Wild programs — like School of the Wild, Iowa Wildlife Camps and the Iowa Raptor Project — at “alternative locations.”

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Following weeks of discussions, one staff member asked Clay about a rumor “the university is notifying the Army Corps at the end of this month that they are not going to continue the lease when it is done in three years. It this true?”

Clay responded, “I do not know if a final decision on that has been made by the university or not,” according to emails obtained by The Gazette.

The university’s current extension of the lease with the Corps of Engineers for 400-plus acres near the Lake Macbride State Park — dating back 65 years to 1959 — runs through 2029. The agreement lets UI exit the deal with three years’ notice.

Corps spokesman Allen Marshall last year told The Gazette the UI administration put the Corps on notice that they’re “conducting a ‘standard institutional review” of MNRA use, long-term needs, and financial viability as a university site.”

Now responsible for costs associated with the area, the College of Education in the 2023 budget year reported a deficit of $533,840 — with its $1.2 million in expenses far surpassing its $643,216 in revenue.

In addition to standard upkeep, the university during COVID and the 2020 derecho incurred heavy losses and one-time expenses — not to mention a fire at the Iowa Raptor Center in early 2024 that damaged the facility and killed four birds.

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“Our UI WILD programming does not generate enough revenue to cover any of these expenses, so we are fully subsidizing this from the college’s other funds, which we do not have the ongoing resources to commit to,” Clay wrote to UI Provost Kevin Kregel last year, when the university denied his petition for help.

Financial burden

In the committee’s review of the lease and land use, members evaluated its financial needs, academic offerings, and potential partnerships with external groups.

Given the nature area features 2.2 miles of asphalt paved roads and walkways that haven’t been updated in 60 years, “a significant portion of the MNRA roadway system requires full replacement,” according to the report.

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That project alone would cost $6.6 million — with officials rejecting alternatives like gravel or wood chips, given snow removal and maintenance needs.

Updating the remote area with site-wide cellular coverage — necessary for emergencies — and improved technology for educational needs would cost hundreds of thousands, according to the report.

Including those roadway, technology, and other facility and equipment repairs, the “year one” costs reach $14.8 million, according to a three-person financial subgroup of the larger review committee that included UI Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz, UI Business and Real Estate Senior Director David Kieft, and Josie Welker, sustainability director for UI Graduate & Professional Student Government.

Annual costs are estimated at $917,200.

“If the UI ends the lease, the site will revert to Corps of Engineers property and remain in its natural, undeveloped state, like other areas around Lake Macbride managed by the Corps,” according to the report.

‘Unbelievably positive’

The area annually hosts on average 33 courses educating nearly 600 students across the colleges of education, law, liberal arts and sciences, and the University College.

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The Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences alone typically enrolls 250 to 300 students a year in courses involving outdoor field labs or field trips. The university’s Lifetime Leisure Skills Department has offered 139 for-credit classes to 1,928 students — amounting to 29,866 contact hours — over the past five years.

“College of Education students had ‘unbelievably positive’ feedback about MNRA and saw it as transformative for their future classrooms,” according to an academic subgroup’s portion of the report. “MNRA is critical because it represents the natural state for conducting research as opposed to Kent Park or Hickory Hill, which have been regrown and altered.”

The land’s centuries-old forest offers a unique research environment — recently attracting global scientists to study the 17-year cicada brood emergence.

“Because the land has largely been untouched for hundreds of years, it provides a unique ecosystem to study how living species are evolving with changing weather patterns, a potential bellwether for human health,” according to the report.

To the question of Lifetime Leisure Skills courses taught at MNRA like kayaking, hiking, and wilderness first aid, course instructors said — although not ideal — “they could likely find other venues for hosting these courses if MNRA isn’t available.”

‘Declined the opportunity’

A third subgroup charged with evaluating collaboration with external organizations found broad community support but little interest in assuming the lease and financial burden.

One community group’s response to taking over the lease was, “No. Too much deferred maintenance.”

Another acknowledged love for that area and land but said, “There are issues with cell service and storm safety.”

Through a public survey, all but six of more than 670 respondents requested the university to maintain the nature area. That feedback compelled the committee to seek community collaboration — offering a range of partnerships, from full responsibility of the lease to shared responsibility.

“These community organizations declined the opportunity and to the committee’s knowledge the Corps of Engineers has no plans to develop the land,” according to the report.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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