Lake Darling State Park rededicated

BRIGHTON - The trees are the same, but everything else about 64-year-old Lake Darling State Park is new and improved.

'In effect, it really is a new state park,” said George Antoniou, coordinator of the Department of Natural Resources' Lake Restoration Program and one of several speakers at the park's rededication ceremony on Wednesday.

'It's even better now than when it was new, and it was awesome then,” said Phyllis Scheeler of Brighton, who, as the daughter of the park's first ranger, Joe W. Etzen, grew up in the park in the 1950s.

Antoniou said the $12 million, decadelong renovation of the park and its lake 'can serve as a model for what we can do around the state.” So can the vision, perseverance and resourcefulness of the many local partners who, faced with a deteriorating lake and declining park usage, decided to do something about it, Antoniou and several other speakers said.

Those local partners include the Friends of Lake Darling, the Izaak Walton League, Washington County Riverboat Foundation, the Sheldon Foundation and numerous private donors,

When the park opened in 1950, its shining attraction was a 302-acre lake that gradually filled with sediment from a largely agricultural watershed. By 2000, poor conservation practices had visibly degraded the lake, and park usage declined.

The lake had been drained in 2008 after the dam began leaking, and the 1,400-acre park itself was closed for renovation in 2010 and remained closed until July.

The renovated lake features a new dam, new sediment catch basins in the watershed, two silt dams in the lake, shoreline riprap, fishing jetties and piers and a new accessible fishing trail.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey praised the farmers in the lake's 12,500 acre watershed for adopting conservation practices to protect the lake's water quality. He also praised retired watershed coordinator Stan Simmons for his efforts to convince 59 of 71 landowners in the watershed to participate in improving the lake's water.

'For every 3 acres in the lake, there is 1 acre of pond up in the watershed helping to protect the lake,” Northey said.

Rains totaling 6 inches last week tested the ability of those conservation practices to protect the renovated lake's water quality.

There was no sign Wednesday of the chocolate milk-colored water that used to fill the lake after heavy rains, said DNR fisheries biologist Chad Dolan, who manages the lake.

DNR Fisheries Bureau Chief Joe Larschied said within two years the lake will teem with 9-inch bluegills and 15-inch bass and will become an angling hot spot.

DNR Director Chuck Gipp thanked the Legislature for appropriating $5 million in the past five years for the project and

congratulated local partners for their success in leveraging the state money.

During the rededication, Friends of Lake Darling leader Fay Vittetoe presided at a groundbreaking for six rental cabins that will make the park a four-season destination. She also announced that the Department of Transportation has agreed to rename the stretch of Highway 78 that runs in front of the park the Ding Darling Highway in honor of conservationist and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jay N. 'Ding” Darling, who was instrumental in the development of the park 64 years ago and for whom it is named.

Tom Basten, the DNR's southeast Iowa parks supervisor, said the park's all-new amenities compare favorably with those of any other state park.

They include new roads, a new campground with 50-amp service, new boat ramps, a new shelter at the boat rental area, new sand on the beach, new waterlines throughout the park, two new shower buildings, a new dump station, a new fishing bridge, a new trail bridge and a new park lodge.