(Radio Iowa) – Nominations are now being taken to recognize Iowa farmers who go above and beyond to conserve resources and the environment. The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is in its 73rd year of awarding the Iowa Conservation Farmer of the Year, which honors Iowa farmers committed to environmental stewardship and conservation. Farm Bureau president Brent Johnson says while Iowa is well known for its production capabilities, the award is a chance to highlight the conservation work. “We actually lead the nation in so many different conservation practices, and a lot of that is born on the farm directly, through innovation provided by farmers to implement new ways of conserving their resources and the environment around them,” said Johnson. “They’re doing a fantastic job, and there are so many good stories to tell.”

One nominee is selected from all 99 counties and will be considered for nine regional awards. Those nine individuals would then vie for “Conservation Farmer of the Year.” Johnson notes they are also looking for individuals who have continued innovating their conservation practices. “Those folks who have been involved in conservation practices for a long time, trying some new things and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work — making those tweaks and advancing in those areas,” Johnson says. “Those are the types of people whose stories we are looking to share with other farmers — those who have that ‘lead-by-example’ kind of mentality.”

The winner of this year’s award — announced at the Iowa State Fair in August — will also receive free use of a John Deere 5-M Series utility tractor for up to 12 months or 200 hours. Over the years, Johnson says he has heard of various ways farmers go about preserving the land and their resources. “I’ve heard of farmers using CREP water lands where they’ll use tile to fill up a pond and then rewater those acres so there’s water circulation,” he said. “There’s various different types of structures being put onto farms to help with water flow or soil erosion and then you can talk about buffer strips, bio-reactors, and terraces. There are so many good stories that are being implemented out there.”

Nominations are due May 10th, and forms are available at cdiowa.org/awards. The prize, valued at over $12,000, was donated by Van Well Equipment of Perry and John Deere.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Master Gardeners have a busy month planned in May! On Saturday May 11, the group will host their annual Spring Plant Sale on the Cass County Fairgrounds. A few weeks later, on Wednesday May 22, the annual Master Gardener Bus Trip will leave from the fairgrounds for a day of education, garden exploration and plant nursery shopping. Any interested member of the public is invited to both events to help kick off the start of the gardening season!

The Plant Sale begins at 8 AM on May 11 , and will be held in the front parking lot of the Cass County Community Center on the fairgrounds at 805 W 10th Street in Atlantic. The event promises to have a wide variety of perennials available for gardeners to add to their landscape this year, as well as lawn tools, décor, and gardening books. Interested gardeners are encouraged to arrive early for best selection. All items will be sold for a free will offering, with all proceeds used to support Master Gardener community grants, scholarships, and other projects around the county. A resource table with information on gardening topics and local projects will also be available.

For the annual spring sale, Cass County Master Gardeners offer a variety of perennial and annual plants from their own gardens, as well as plants dug from gardens in the local area. The Atlantic FFA chapter and horticulture students will again be set up at the plant sale, offering food plants and flowering annuals for sale. All FFA plants will be sold at a separate booth and individually priced. Information will also be available on student plant sales from other Cass County schools. Community members are welcome to donate plants to this event, and members may even help you dig! If you are dividing perennials in your yard this spring and have extra plants to donate, please call in advance and make arrangements to drop off donated plants before the date of the plant sale.

The annual Bus Trip on May 22 features a full day of garden visits, educational activities, and a chance to explore and shop specialty plant nurseries. The trip heads north this year, and includes stops near Wall Lake, Odebolt, Auburn and Lake View. The bus departs the fairgrounds in Atlantic at 8 AM and returns around 6:30 PM. The trip is coordinated by the Cass County Master Gardeners but is open to everyone.  Registrations are taken on a first-come basis, so register soon and be sure to reserve your spot on the bus! The cost is $65 for the day, which includes transportation, a meal and snacks. Registration forms are available at the Cass County Extension office and can also be found on the Cass County Extension website at www.exension.iastate.edu/cass. A full itinerary is on each registration form.

The goal of the Master Gardener program is to provide community service and education in horticulture.  The Cass County Master Gardeners utilize funds raised from their annual spring and fall plant sales for local community projects, include maintaining community garden spaces around the county, providing education programs to youth and adults, and providing financial support to local horticulture projects. Other upcoming events from the Master Gardeners include a local garden walk at the end of June and the fall plant sale on September 14. Master Gardeners will also be providing education to community members at events throughout the summer and offering the opportunity to train as a new Master Gardener beginning later this summer.

For more information about the plant sale, bus trip, and other Master Gardener activities in Cass County, please call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, or email Cass County Extension Director and Master Gardener Coordinator Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu.  In addition, you are invited to follow the Cass County Master Gardeners at their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CassCoMG or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass/master-gardener-program to keep up with local events and tips for gardening and learn more about becoming a Master Gardener in Iowa!

Cass County: Corn $4.18 Beans $10.90
Adair County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.93
Adams County: Corn $4.15 Beans $10.89
Audubon County: Corn $4.17 Beans $10.92
East Pottawattamie County: Corn $4.21 Beans $10.90
Guthrie County: Corn $4.20 Beans $10.94
Montgomery County: Corn $4.20 Beans $10.92
Shelby County: Corn $4.21 Beans $10.90

Oats: $3.45 (same in all counties)

(Radio Iowa) – Farmers got the rain they’d been hoping for last week, but it cut down on the time they could be planting. The U-S-D-A crop report shows there were only three days suitable for fieldwork due to the weather. Corn planting hit 13 percent complete by the end of the week — up from four percent last week. That is three days ahead of last year and the five-year average. Eight percent of the bean crop is now in the ground, which is four days ahead of last year and six days ahead of the five-year average.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is announcing plans for a two-point-two million dollar upgrade at a popular park in north-central Iowa. The D-N-R’s Jacob Schaben says the Brushy Creek State Recreational Area covers 65-hundred acres of Webster County and it’s a proven destination for campers, hikers and horseback riders. For starters, Schaben says they’ll be renovating all three campground areas.

“Some of the things that we are looking at doing is upgrading electrical services in those areas. We have several campsites that do not have electricity,” Schaben says. “We’re looking to put in some water and sewer services as well in several of our campsites, and make some modern amenities to upgrade the park to the way people use it, including a concrete parking lot for visitors.” He says construction crews will be doing their best to keep the majority of the park open as they upgrade one or several areas at a time.

“We’re in the design phase of the project right now. We had a public meeting to showcase to the public what our intentions were,” Schaben says. “We’re looking at probably finishing up those designs over the course of the next couple of months. We could potentially start to see work as soon as November of 2024. We’re hoping to potentially have everything knocked out and finished by the time Memorial weekend rolls around in 2025.”

He says there’s also a plan to carve a new road through the north campground to make the area more user-friendly.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State Fair C-E-O, Jeremy Parsons, is preparing for his second event after taking over the top job last year.  “You know last year when I came in I really got to take advantage of the great staff and the fact that my predecessor Gary Slater had a lot of those details in place when I arrived in March and this year it’s kind of been I guess my own leadership getting those details in place,” Parsons says. He says they have been planning and working through the winter to prep for the August event.

“I think this year at the fair you’re just going to see an increased focus on the fair goer, what are some things we can do to make the fair goer experience better,” he says. “And so that’s going to be the driving force behind a lot of our things that we’re planning for this year.” Parsons says you’ll notice things across the fairgrounds.

“A new shower house up in the campgrounds for our great camping community, you’re gonna see a lot more seating at this year’s fair in terms of picnic tables places to sit down benches shaded areas,” Parsons says, “so be looking for those around the fairgrounds as well and just a lot of other improvements.”

This year’s Iowa State Fair runs from August 8th through the 18th.

(Iowa News Service) – A new report from the National Wildlife Federation warns that the effects of climate change in the Quad Cities, along the Iowa-Illinois border, will be severe. But researchers got the public involved in studying to find ways to head off some of the most pressing concerns. The report says climate change means a warmer, wetter future for the Quad Cities, which straddle the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois. But rather than repeat what experts have already been saying about drastic flooding along the Big Muddy, Prairie Rivers Network River Health and Resiliency Organizer Nina Struss said researchers and Quad Cities residents brainstormed solutions to tackle the effects of climate change.

“Flooding and flash flooding were the top concerns,” said Struss. “Extreme heat was also a big concern, as well as drought and other extreme weather events.” Researchers combined that information with hard science at the University of Illinois to create 3D models depicting what climate-induced flooding along the Mississippi could look like in the future. The survey also asked people to identify which geographical areas and populations are most at risk from the effects of climate change, and worked with the community on solutions to mitigate some of them.

Struss said this research proposes what are known as nature-based solutions to combat the effects of climate change – restoring, preserving and even expanding existing ecosystems, like wetlands and tree canopies. But creating more eco-friendly infrastructure, too. “Can we work to maybe have our pavements that we’re putting in be more permeable, so that they can absorb that water and have that higher water-holding capacity?” said Struss. “Can we focus on areas to plant more native plants that have stronger root systems, versus ones that have shorter root systems, to help with that water-holding capacity?”

Struss said this research isn’t a one-off. It will continue to change, she said, as the climate changes, the needs become more clear, and the effects more drastic. She said progress in addressing climate change relies on more research, education and funding.

(Radio Iowa) – If you were to try counting all of the trees on the University of Iowa campus on this Earth Day (Monday), you’d need to be able to count to eight-thousand. The man who leads the team that cares for them all realizes he’s one of the lucky people who’s found the perfect job for himself. U-I arborist Andy Dahl says he’s been planting and caring for trees since he was five years old. “I used to pick up acorns and put them in my pocket and plant them all over, or mow around the baby oak trees coming up in my parents’ yard,” Dahl says, laughing. “My dad would get so angry that I was leaving those, missing big swaths of grass to let the trees grow, so yeah, my love of trees started at an early age.”

The U-I has been named a Tree Campus USA for the 15th straight year, in large part because of those eight-thousand trees which cover an astounding 350 different species.  “I’m big into diversity, so the more species of trees you have, the less chance you have of something like Dutch elm disease or emerald ash borer coming in and wiping out wide swaths of trees,” Dahl says, “so we try and plant a wide diversity of trees to avoid that.” The list of trees on the Iowa City campus includes an apple tree that was grafted from one planted by Johnny Appleseed, and a horse chestnut tree grown from the one that symbolized hope for Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis during World War Two. One of Dahl’s campus favorites is the giant American elm on the Pentacrest, just outside Schaeffer Hall.

“It’s a former state champion and it dates back to the 1870s,” Dahl says. “It is very, very large. Now in 1998, we lost about 30 feet of height in it from the straight line winds, but it’s still hanging on. I think it’s beautiful. Others think it has character with the scars over the years from the storms.” That’s the only tree on campus that’s being treated chemically in order to prevent the scourge of Dutch elm disease. Several campus tree plantings are planned as part of Earth Day celebrations, while Dahl and some co-workers will be on the Pentacrest at 10:30 A-M, handing out 100 whorled milkweed plants to students and anyone else.

“We’re going to give them away in little cups, so people can grow them on their windowsill until later,” Dahl says, “or they can do what we call guerrilla planting: if you see a spot in the ditch, on a railroad track or something, you can plant that to benefit these native pollinators.” He says the whorled milkweed species will grow to two or three feet in height with white flowers. It’s native to Iowa and is vital for insects like bees and butterflies, especially monarchs.

(Radio Iowa) – The chair of the Federal Trade Commission was in Iowa this weekend to hear concerns about consolidation in the fertilizer industry with the sale of a fertilizer plant in southeast Iowa. A Koch Industries subsidiary is buying the plant, but the sale is being reviewed by the F-T-C — and the agency could try to block the acquisition over competitiveness issues. During an Iowa Farmers Union forum, Ankeny farmer LaVon Griffieon said it’s harder for farmers to make money and stay in business when a handful of companies control equipment, seeds and supplies like fertilizer.

“This just keeps happening and happening in every aspect and so we really need to pay attention to what we’re doing to the heartland.” After the forum, F-T-C chair Lina Khan said she understands the concerns given that the state invested millions in incentives to get the plant up and running as a competitor to Koch.

“The goal being to have another company in the market to have some competition. The idea that now within a few years that competition that everybody invested in might go away seems troubling to a lot of people and I can understand that.” Khan says if the F-T-C decides to intervene it will file a lawsuit to stop the purchase from being finalized. A judge would make the final decision.

In a statement, a Koch Fertilizer spokesperson said the company is confident the deal will go through after the F-T-C hears from more customers and completes its analysis.