Olivia Cohen

The Iowa State Patrol, National Weather Service and the Iowa Department of Transportation said in a webinar on Monday that Iowans should start preparing for winter weather and poor driving conditions even before snow hits the ground.

Researchers at Iowa State University are testing a new mobile app that alerts residents when their homes begin to overheat — a tool designed to help prevent heat-related illnesses in vulnerable communities.

Despite continued contamination and nitrate spikes in Iowa’s rivers and streams this year, University of Iowa researcher Elliot Anderson insists that the state’s water quality issues can be solved.

In a meeting with Linn County officials Monday, Larry Weber — who oversees a program that deploys dozens of sensors in rivers and streams across Iowa — said the quality of the state’s water is not improving, and that monitoring of the water must continue.

In an effort to keep an Iowa water quality sensor program afloat past next June, Polk County Supervisors voted this week to invest funds in it, and they invited Linn and Johnson counties to do the same.

Iowans should get their shovels ready and prepare to bundle up this winter as experts are predicting that parts of the state will see a wetter winter season than normal.

The fall colors in Iowa have been “stretched out” this year due to warmer weather and dry conditions, but leaves are starting to change.

Mari Hunt Wassink combines regenerative farming and social justice, cultivating culturally important crops to make fresh, local food accessible to Eastern Iowans.

The number of clean energy jobs in Iowa reached a record high in 2024, with more than 33,000 Iowans holding jobs in the clean energy space, surpassing the state’s previous record of 31,910 jobs in 2019.

Despite Alliant Energy’s announcement that it is “deprioritizing” a site in Fairfax that had been proposed for construction of a new gas-fired power plant, city officials and residents in the small Linn County town haven’t stopped debating the issue.

Alliant Energy will start construction on a new power plant in Cedar Rapids — called the Cedar River Generating Station and sited within the boundary of Alliant’s Prairie Creek Generating Station — next year, aiming to have the plant fully operational by mid-2027.

Following news last week that Alliant Energy is “deprioritizing” construction of a new natural gas fired power plant in Fairfax, the company said it is evaluating its options for siting a new power plant.

The use of cover crops in Iowa has expanded significantly in recent years. The conservation practice is promoted by the state through cost share incentives — an effort by the Iowa Department of Agriculture to reduce nutrients that contribute to the Gulf dead zone. But new research suggests that while the number of acres being planted with cover crops has grown, not all farmers are sticking with the practice.

The quality of Iowa’s water is a top environmental concern in Iowa, and for many Iowans, there can be a feeling of helplessness. That’s where Heather Wilson comes in. Her work at the Izaak Walton League strives to remove the “barriers of entry” to make water quality testing and advocacy more accessible to the public.

Alliant Energy, which has been exploring building a new power plant in Fairfax — a proposal that was met with resistance from some residents and officials at The Eastern Iowa Airport — said in a statement to the city that it is “deprioritizing” the Fairfax location.