Iowa would have 18 fewer law enforcement officers under an alignment plan the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is using to phase out park rangers. The DNR says this move will consolidate all law enforcement staff and won’t harm safety in Iowa’s 69 state parks. Some state park advocates disagree.
Also, nicotine vapes that are not approved by the feds would be banned from sale in Iowa under a bill also moving in the House
About 10 employees of a Keokuk company might have been exposed to airborne asbestos when they demolished several buildings northwest of that town last year, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Rangers at Iowa’s 69 state parks all will gradually be classified as conservation officers assigned to one or more counties, rather than assigned to a specific state park or parks, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources confirmed.
It is the biggest fish kill in Iowa in at least a decade and the fifth-largest on record, according to state data.
An equipment failure at the city’s wastewater plant lift station caused the sewage to flow into a storm drain leading to the river, the Iowa DNR reported.
A DNR fisheries biologist who evaluated sections of about 50 river miles over the course of four days following the southwest Iowa fertilizer spill, reported that he found no living fish. He also noted there were numerous dead frogs, snakes, mussels and earthworms.
Many of these beloved public spaces aren’t accessible to people with disabilities. In some cases, it’s because the parks were built decades before federal accessibility standards were enacted. But even some new state park features are not fully accessible, a former state official said.
More than half of Iowa’s assessed streams and rivers had impairments and 63 percent of lake or reservoir segments were impaired in the 2024 draft list
The crop fertilizer killed fish and might have affected the river all the way to the Missouri border.
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.
Wastewater, including blood from Agri Star’s beef processing facility, went into Williams Creek before Postville city staff discovered the problem, diverted the waste into a holding tank and alerted Agri Star.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, charged with managing Iowa’s state parks, tries to strike a balance between safeguarding Iowa’s big trees and letting visitors see, touch and experience them.
Iowa DNR Director Kayla Lyon told organizers she no longer will let conservation officers or other department employees spend as much paid time at the event and asked organizers to remove the agency’s name and logo from all marketing materials, boat trailers and other equipment.
Also, Iowa Senate Republicans once again advanced a proposal to require all businesses use the E-Verify program for verifying employees’ U.S. residency status
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