A gift to Iowa’s environment

Cathy Irvine is an environmental hero in a state that needs many more of them.

Irvine originally donated 77 acres of farmland for prairie restoration. But she was honored recently for giving even more land, a total of 292 acres for the Irvine Prairie, honoring the memory of her late husband, David, who died in 2016.

“When my husband died, there was a gap in my life. I didn't know what to do,” Cathy said, according to The Gazette’s Brittney J. Miller. “I thought returning some land to the prairie would be a wonderful tribute to his love of the land.”

It is a wonderful tribute, and a gift for the state’s environment.

Prairies bring many benefits. Deep-rooted prairie plants curtail soil erosion, improve soil health and increase its ability to soak up runoff. A wide variety or prairie plants from a habitat for scores of wildlife species. There’s also the beauty of a blooming prairie in mid to late summer.

The donated land provides a setting for research by the Iowa Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa, which is managing and developing the project. A team from the center has selected a seed mix for the prairie, used several methods for planting and has so far panted on 97 acres. Some 128 plant species have been placed in the prairie.

“Irvine Prairie will no longer produce corn and soybeans,” said Laura Jackson, professor and director of the Tallgrass Prairie Center. “It's a place that produces clean water, abundant wildlife, healthy soil and renewal of the human spirit.”

Iowa was once covered in prairies, but only a small smattering of those prairies remains. The conversion of most of Iowa into row crop agriculture through massive reengineering of the land has led to soil erosion, the degradation of water quality and the loss of wildlife habitat and plant diversity. Some state lawmakers and farm groups have sought legislation making it harder to donate land which they believe should be farmed, not conserved.

So Iowa needs more landowners such as Cathy Irvine, who see the value in setting aside land for conservation that will serve the needs of future generations. We can’t put it better than she did.

“We hope that one little beacon of light might encourage others,” Cathy Irvine said. “Maybe it's just nudging people a little bit, even if it's only changing their attitude — and certainly their appreciation.”

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com