Johnson County gets state grant to buy rare wetland

IOWA CITY – A state grant awarded Tuesday will help the Johnson County Conservation Board acquire a property that its director calls the most unique he's ever dealt with.

“This is the most exciting thing I've ever seen in my life,” conservation director Harry Graves said.

He was talking about 81 acres in northeast Johnson County that the Conservation Board hopes to take possession of next month. The land includes a 1.5-acre pond that contains one of only two nutrient-poor fens in Iowa, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

A fen is a type of wetland.

A grant from a DNR environmental program known as Resource Enhancement and Protection, or REAP, will cover $172,145, or 60 percent, of the purchase price for the land.

The other 40 percent, which would be about $114,763, will come from the conservation bond Johnson County voters approved in 2008. The bond promises the Conservation Board $20 million over 20 years to buy green space for outdoor conservation and recreation.

This would be the third purchase under the measure, Graves said.

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation bought the 81 acres last December and entered into a repurchase agreement with the county, Graves said.  The land is a little more than one mile southeast of Sutliff Bridge.

Fens are wetlands that receive nutrients from sources other than precipitation, usually through drainage from surrounding mineral soils and groundwater, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels than bogs, which allow them to support a much more diverse plant and animal community, the EPA says.

Graves said 234 species of plants, many of them rare, have been cataloged in the Johnson County fen. There's also a diverse wildlife community that resides in the area, he said.

The fen is about three-eighths of an acre in size and includes a floating mat of vegetation, according to the DNR.

The acidity of the water, due to the decay of plants in it, is what makes the fen nutrient poor, Graves said.

The only other nutrient-poor fen in Iowa is Dead Man's Lake near Forest City in north-central Iowa, he said.

Graves said these types of wetlands were more common in the past, but most were destroyed as Iowa was settled.

Now, the Johnson County one will be preserved for all time, and Graves said it will serve as a “living classroom” for everyone.