WAUKON, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Natural Resources Department has reported a rare, confirmed sighting of a predatory mammal known as a fisher. The department says on its Facebook page that a trail camera captured an image of one in November on a wooded hillside in Allamakee County. The department says the photo is the first documented sighting of a fisher in Iowa in about 150 years.

The department says the fisher likely came from southeast Minnesota, where Minnesota officials have said fishers are expanding. Mammalogists say fishers can weight up to 12 pounds and are primarily carnivores – cousins to weasels, otter and mink – and are known for their fierceness.

A Polk County judge rules the Iowa Utilities Board was right in its decision to allow the use of eminent domain for the building of the Bakken oil pipeline. Fourteen Iowa landowners sued, saying the I-U-B improperly allowed the use of eminent domain to seize the land for the pipeline because it has had no direct public benefit for the state as it ships oil from North Dakota through Iowa to Illinois.

Judge Jefferey Farrell determined the I-U-B properly weighed several factors, including the economic impact on the state and safety concerns, in determining the company could use eminent domain for the pipeline. The ruling says the board correctly found there is no requirement that the product has to be shipped to or from the state. A news release from the lawyers representing the landowners in the case says they are disappointed and they intend to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

(Radio Iowa)

CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) – Floyd County has joined other counties in seeking changes to the state’s master matrix for siting animal feeding operations. The Board of Supervisors approved a resolution Tuesday that will be sent to lawmakers.

The Iowa Natural Resources Department’s master matrix is a scoring system that can be used to evaluate the siting of confinement feeding operations. The supervisors expressed concerns Tuesday that the system is failing to protect air and water and the health and quality of life of county residents.

Allamakee and Winneshiek supervisors also have formally called for changes in the matrix, and Pocahontas and Webster county officials last year asked legislators and environmental regulators for a moratorium on factory farms and changes to the master matrix.

In response to Trump administration policies, a Mexican senator plans to introduce a bill directing that nation to stop buying American corn in favor of corn from Brazil and Argentina. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says U-S farmers should be concerned about the threat and he plans to discuss the situation today (Tuesday) in a White House meeting with the head of the National Trade Council. Grassley says, “That’s one of the points I’m going to make, that you’ve got to be pretty cautious about these renegotiations of trade pacts that we don’t get retaliation against agriculture.”

Of the three key economic categories of manufacturing, agriculture and services, Grassley says agriculture is the only one where the U-S has a surplus, or more exports than imports. The North American Free Trade Agreement was agreed upon in 1994 by the U-S, Mexico and Canada, an agreement President Trump referred to as a “disaster” during the campaign. Grassley suggests when NAFTA was ratified, there may’ve been a different sentiment about America’s strengths. “The United States is the #1 economy in the world,” Grassley says. “We can give a little more than we get, and maybe what Trump is up to is modifying that so the United States isn’t so much a giver nation now than it was.”

President Trump met Monday in Washington with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump said he wants only small changes in NAFTA in regards to Canada, adding, the bigger issues will be with Mexico. “We already had a free trade agreement with Canada before we negotiated the three-way NAFTA agreement,” Grassley says. “We have pretty good trading relationships with Canada and I’m not sure we can do much better.”

Iowa is the nation’s top corn producer and Mexico is one of the top buyers of American corn. In 2015, Mexico bought nearly two-and-a-half BILLION dollars worth of U-S corn. Compared to 20 years before, just after NAFTA was signed, Mexico bought 391-MILLION dollars worth of U-S corn in 1995.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Audubon County are asking for your help in solving a case of theft. Authorities say sometime during the evening or overnight hours of February 8th and 9th, tractor weights were stolen from a John Deere tractor in the 300 block of North Market Street, in Audubon. The weights were valued at more than $1,200.

Anyone with any information about the crime is asked to contact the Audubon County Sheriff’s Office at 712-563-2631, or Audubon County Crimestoppers at 712-563-2234.

Bob Bebensee and DNR Conservation Officer Grant Gelle talk about all things outdoors.

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Ice fishing is not recommended over about the southern third of Iowa and caution is advised across the state. D-N-R conservation officer Michael Miller recently had to rescue an ice fisherman who fell through the ice on West Lake near Osceola. Miller says people may get fooled by a couple of cold days and think the ice is safe.

“It takes some pretty extreme conditions to make ice…and now we are having open water and when that water gets blown around by the wind, that weakens the ice,” Miller says. Temperatures were rising again Friday and Miller says that also adds to the problem.

“You don’t make very much ice on sub-32 degree days this time of year,” Miller says, “it needs to be 32 and under for considerable amounts of time.” He says far more ice is lost on warm days than is gained when the temperature might dip down below 32 at night. Miller says the water remains cold and the is a bigger concern when someone falls through the ice than drowning as it does not take long for hypothermia to set in and be deadly.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports State Conservation Officer Michael Miller was on routine patrol late this (Friday) morning when he saw two men setting up an ice fishing shelter on West Lake Osceola, in southern Iowa. In a press release Miller said “I saw them out there and yelled ‘how much ice are you on?’ and they said ‘three inches.’” He told them to get off the ice immediately.

Miller said one angler made it safely off the ice, but the other broke through about 10 yards from shore.  Office Miller grabbed his throw bag from his vehicle, threw it to the man in the lake and with the help of the other angler, pulled him to shore. It all happened in about five minutes.

According to Miller, the man said he was losing feeling in his hands, and his hands were hurting. “At this point”, he said, “I was more worried about the threat from exposure than from drowning.” Paramedics arrived and examined the angler, who was then released from the scene.

Miller, who covers Clarke and Decatur counties for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, has seen anglers break through the ice before, but has never pulled one out. He said “I told them next time they want to go ice fishing this time of year, to go north. It’s 48 degrees here with a south wind. Our ice conditions have been deteriorating quickly for some time.”

Ice fishing is not recommended over about the southern third of Iowa. Anglers should use extreme caution during the latter part of the winter as the longer days, thaw-freeze cycles and warmer winds begin to weaken the ice.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Once near extinction, the bald eagle population is seeing a spike in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The Omaha World-Herald reports that warm temperatures ahead mean the birds are following their waterfowl prey as they head north. Joel Jorgensen, Nebraska Game and Parks’ nongame bird program manager, says the migration makes it prime time for eagle-viewing.

The Game and Parks department documented a record 162 active bald eagle nests in 2016, a huge jump from when the state recorded its first active nest in about a century in 1991.

Jorgensen says the eagle population will flourish as long as illegal shooting of the birds is minimized and the pesticide DDT stays banned. Bald eagles are protected by federal law.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) – The nation’s largest 4-H livestock show is relocating from Omaha to Fonner Park in Grand Island, where the Nebraska State Fair runs. The Aksarben Foundation sponsors the Aksarben Stock Show, which began its Omaha run in 1928.  The foundation’s Kevin Kock says moving to Grand Island will help the event expand.

Last year it drew nearly 1,100 4-H participants from surrounding states. Kock says the Fonner Park facilities offer more room than Omaha’s CenturyLink Center, which has hosted the show since opening in 2003.  This year’s stock show will be held from Sept. 28 through Oct. 1.

A professional rodeo has run with the show since 1947, but Kock says a contract for the 2017 rodeo hasn’t been signed yet.