Soil conservation is needed

In 1976, local river conservationist William Weir wrote in his North Iowa Times column “Conservation Concerns”: “Spend more on soil conservation and land improvement. In fact, require land-use practices that will avoid soil depletion. One of the reasons for flooding along the river is that millions of acre feet that were holding areas for water are now filled with siltation. Big business, hungry for money, has no conscience about waste or greed, and it makes me shudder at the way our ecology is being destroyed.”

What would William think today of his beloved river?

The Mississippi River is the world's third largest watershed, draining 41 percent of United States. We speed up the water leaving the land, constrict it to flow in an ever tighter conduit and the strongest element on earth - water - wins the battle every time. If folks with river interests think that this massive flooding of 2011 is not gonna be a regular thing, you would be naive to do so.

The USDA estimates that more than 40 percent of Iowa cropland has subsurface drain tile. Iowa has lost 90 percent of its wetlands since early development. Highly erodible lands continue to be cleared for corn production. Even right-wing conservative presidential candidates are calling for the repeal of the unsustainable corn ethanol tax subsidies.

Data based on tracking erosion after every storm over a period of years shows that Iowa farms are losing precious topsoil up to 12 times faster than government estimates.

Timothy Mason

McGregor