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(Radio Iowa) – Lawmakers have directed the Iowa Natural Resources Commission to review how accessible state parks are to people with disabilities and recommend improvements. Governor Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law at Big Creek State Park. “It’s hard to imagine a better way to experience the natural beauty Iowa has to offer than by making a trip to one of our many outstanding state parks,” Reynolds says. “Every Iowan, regardless of physical ability, should have the opportunity to experience them first hand.”
The bill passed the legislature unanimously. Representative Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City, made the proposal in January.”It was because I’ve heard from so many Iowans about challenges finding outdoor opportunities that are accessible,” Zabner said.
The new law directs the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to come up with a list of opportunities for persons with disabilities in state parks and public recreation areas and put that list on the department’s website. “Iowa is such a beautiful state and I know that access to the outdoors can be transformative,” Zabner said. “This time of year, all I want to do is get out to Lake Macbride in Johnson County, so very, very excited that we were able to get this done.”
Iowa Department of Natural Resources director Kayla Lyons says new construction projects at the parks over the past dozens years have met Americans with Disabilities Act standards. Over the past five years, engineering interns traveled to all state parks with D-N-R staff to audit accessibility issues. “We want to provide facilities and experiences for everyone,” Lyons says. “…With more accessible facilities, better information on our website about accessible trails, bathrooms, fishing piers and other items.”
The agency has purchased an electronic track chair that will help Big Creek visitors with limited mobility get around the park. “It will be available to anyone now, free of charge to anyone. It’s on a first come, first served basis through our concessionaire here at Big Creek. It’s the only one we have so far, but hopefully we’ll have more in the future,” Lyons says. “We’re excited to have the combination of the track chair and our infrastructure improvements to address accessibility in our state parks.”
A grant from the Ford Motor Company’s Bronco Wild Fund paid for the track chair and a person named Jack used it to move from sidewalks to grassy areas and the beach after the bill signing ceremony. Senator Annette Sweeney, a Republican from Iowa Falls who led senate debate of the bill, says it shows how making state parks accessible will open up new adventures for some Iowans. “With this bill being definitely a bipartisan bill, we got to work together because we believe all Iowans should be able to enjoy our great outdoors,” Sweeney said.
The legislature appropriated 250-thousand dollars to finance some of the fixes, including sidewalk and curb repairs, needed to make state park facilities more accessible to people with disabilities.
(Radio Iowa) – The latest report out today shows the amount of drought in Iowa continues to shrink.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly 53% of the state is now drought free. That compares to September when the entire state was in some sort of drought, and the start of this year when only about three percent of the state had no drought conditions. 
The driest conditions remain in a line from Mitchell County at the northern border down through 23 other counties in northeast and central Iowa. Those counties all have some level of severe drought.
(Radio Iowa) – The recent crossover outbreaks of avian influenza in cattle in several states have Iowa beef and dairy producers on alert and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley is calling for better communication from multiple federal agencies on the topic.
Grassley says with bird flu outbreaks in cattle in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, he wants to ensure the U.S. Department of Agriculture. is working hand-in-hand with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in sharing information with each other and with the public.
“It’s fair to assume we could have the same bureaucratic problems that we have throughout government on any issue, not just avian flu,” Grassley says, “and that is, each department operates like a silo. There’s not the proper cooperation on any issue.”
Back in 2015, a widespread outbreak of avian flu forced the slaughter of more that 43-million birds in 15 states, including nearly 30-million just in Iowa, the nation’s top egg producer. Egg prices bounded some 120-percent over the course of just a few weeks.
“In 2015, when the avian flu first hit birds in Iowa, there weren’t any protocols in place,” Grassley says. “And now when we have break out in poultry, we don’t worry too much about it. We know that the Iowa Department of Agriculture knows what steps to date.”
Grassley and several colleagues from both parties have sent a letter to the three agencies, urging them “to strengthen and coordinate public information-sharing” to ensure producers — and the public — are being fully informed about outbreaks.
“Now, I’m not saying that that isn’t happening in the case of avian flu and the three agencies that we wrote to,” Grassley says, “but we want to make sure that we’re on top of it, so we don’t be in the same place with dairy cattle that we were with poultry in 2015.”
In their letter, lawmakers said previous outbreaks have benefited from a “consortium strategy” where the USDA brought together experts in epidemiology and animal health research to lessen the potential economic and societal cost of the spread.
(Radio Iowa) – Due to challenging market conditions, Deere and Company is reducing is prediction of profits for its current operating year. Over the past three months, net sales and revenue for Deere products worldwide were down 12 percent. Deere’s chairman and C-E-O points to a decline across the global agricultural sector. Corn and soybean prices are falling, production costs are increasing, and the U-S-D-A predicts farm income in the United States will be down over 25 percent this year.
Deere predicts sales of large farm equipment, like tractors and combines, will be down between 20 and 25 percent for the year. Still, the world’s largest farm equipment maker projects net income for its current fiscal year will be seven BILLION dollars. That’s about half a BILLION below its previous estimate.
Deere’s C-E-O says the company is managing production and inventory levels to adapt to demand. Over three-hundred workers at John Deere’s Waterloo Works were laid off indefinitely at the end of April. Last week, Deere announced 34 workers at one of its plants in Moline, Illinois would be laid off at the end of May.
(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed legislation that creates new labeling requirements for meat and egg alternatives. “If it comes from a plant, an insect or a petri dish, consumers deserve to know,” Reynolds said. Starting July 1st, any plant-based, lab grown or insect-based protein product sold in Iowa stores will have to be clearly labeled as something other than meat or eggs.
“It’s about the common sense idea that a product that’s labeled chicken, beef, pork and so on should maybe actually come from — get this — an animal,” Reynolds said. “That’s kind of what we’re up against sometimes, right?” Reynolds signed the bill before a large crowd gathered on a farm near Ladora where hogs and cattle are raised.
Senator Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg who raises cattle, calls it a “meat integrity” law. “Consumers deserve the truthful labelling on products,” Driscoll said, “and our children deserve better than lab-grown protein.” The law directs state officials to seek a waiver to prevent Iowans from using federal food assistance to buy imitation egg products. It also prohibits school districts, community colleges and the three state universities from buying lab-grown meat and any misbranded protein.
Governor Kim Reynolds signed two bills into law before a crowd on the Pat and Laura Bloome farm in Iowa County, near Ladora. (RI photo)
Representative Heather Hora, a Republican from Washington, is a pork producer. “This bill protects the millions of farmers’ check off dollars invested in marketing meat and eggs throughout the world,” Hora says. “Iowa’s farm families work hard every day to bring nutritious red meat to the market. Lab-grown products are not the same as high quality pork or beef or other meats raised by Iowa farm families and consumers deserve truthful, transparent labeling on products.”
Reynolds signed a second bill into law during her farm stop. It extends a capital gains tax break on state income taxes for the sale of livestock used for breeding, like bulls, boars and rams. “Farm families will save nearly $18 million by 2030,” Reynolds says.
Only Iowans who own livestock and get at least half of their annual income from farming will be able to claim the tax break.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – At the Iowa Environmental Protection Committee’s next meeting (May 22nd), the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will present a litigation report in which they ask the Attorney General to seek penalties relating to March 11th, 2024 fertilizer spill in Montgomery County. The Iowa DNR announced approximately two weeks later that the spill resulted in nearly all the fish being killed in a 50-mile stretch of the East Nishnabotna River to the Missouri border.
New Cooperative notified the Iowa Department of Natural Resources following the spill that approximately 1,500 tons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer (32% solution) had discharged into a drainage ditch. Officials say the release occurred due to a valve left open on an aboveground storage tank overnight. The fertilizer then traveled from the drainage ditch into the East Nishnabotna River.
According to the Iowa DNR’s litigation report, Iowa Code states that those liable for polluting water of the state are in violation of state law and should be liable to pay restitution for injury caused to a wild animal due to the pollution.
You can read the full litigation report HERE.
(Hamburg, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), next month, is hosting a public meeting to discuss past and future management of the 1,317-acre Forney Lake Wildlife Area. The meeting takes place June 4th, from 6-8 p.m., at the Wa-Shawtee Lodge within Waubonsie State Park, located at 2635 Wa-Shawtee Rd., northwest of Hamburg.
Staff with the Iowa DNR will give a presentation on Forney Lake, and then listen to comments and concerns from the public.
If you have special requirements such as those related to mobility or hearing impairments, please contact the DNR or ADA Coordinator at 515-725-8200, Relay Iowa TTY Service 800-735-7942, or Webmaster@dnr.iowa.gov, and advise of specific needs.
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