(Iowa DNR; DES MOINES) –Fall leaves are beautiful – until they pile up in your yard. But don’t send those precious nutrients up in smoke. Instead, put them to good use. Your leaves, branches and other landscape materials can nourish your lawn, garden or community. It’s as easy as 1 – 2 – 3:

1. Compost.
   Composting leaves and food scraps is a great way to turn this waste into nutrients for your garden. It’s also a great way to get kids outside, learning practical hands-on science. They can start by researching the many types and sizes of compost containers. (For tips on low-tech ways to compost, see a DNR tutorial.) Managing the compost pile provides exercise and a learning opportunity. A good compost mix needs both carbon (dead or dry leaves) and nitrogen (green materials like food scraps and grass clippings). Carry the project forward to spring, and use finished compost to enrich the soil and gardens.
2. Mulching.
   Your lawn will love you if you chop up and leave your leaves in place. Leaves are a free and natural fertilizer and they add organic matter to enrich your soil. Use your regular lawn mower. Or use a mulching lawn mower to shred and mix leaves and grass into your yard.
3. Bag it.
   If you have too many leaves or branches to compost, check with your community to see if they collect yard waste or have a drop-off site. Sometimes there’s a fee, but the upside is that anyone can pick up composted materials for their yards or gardens.

Burning leaves seems to capture the smell of autumn. But breathing leaf smoke pulls pollutants such as carbon monoxide, soot and toxic chemicals into your lungs. While it may smell good, smoke is especially harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems such as asthma. Turning leaves into nutrients is the healthy way to protect your and your neighbor’s lungs.

w/Brandon Schuering.

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Monona-Harrison-Shelby Counties
336 AM CDT Thu Oct 15 2020

…FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 10 AM CDT FRIDAY…

The National Weather Service in Omaha/Valley has issued a Freeze Warning, which is in effect from 1 AM to 10 AM CDT Friday.

* TEMPERATURES…33 to 29 degrees .

* TIMING… 1 AM to 10 AM

* IMPACTS…Freezing temperatures could kill sensitive vegetation and damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.

* ADDITIONAL INFORMATION… We are now about a week past the typical growing season for the counties in the warning. This will the the last freeze warning of the season.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A Freeze Warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely. These conditions will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.

A Burn Ban is now in effect for Guthrie and Adair Counties, until further notice. Emergency Management Coodinator Bob Kempf reports the State Fire Marshal approved requests from Kempf to prohibit open burning in both counties, until such time as the activity does not constitute a danger to life or property.

Kempf made the request after consulting with the fire chiefs in each respective county. Any violation of the proclamation order is a simple misdemeanor.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R is asking deer hunters to take part in a program once again this year that donates venison to help feed the hungry. Coordinator Alicia Plathe says the Help Us Stop Hunger or HUSH program has donated millions of meals since 2003. “Once a hunter is successful in their harvest and they register their harvest — they field dress their deer, take care of it just like it was their own to take to a locker or to process themselves — but instead, they will drop it off at one of our participating HUSH lockers,” Plathe.

DNR HUSH Coordinator Alicia Plathe

She says the deer is then processed for the program. She says the hunter fills out information and the locker processes the deer into two-pound tubes of pure ground venison. Those tubes of venison are taken to the Food Bank of Iowa for distribution. “It’s been a really good partnership for the hunters, especially when they are either done with their hunt or don’t hunt for consumption purposes. They have a good positive outlook for those deer once they are done,” Plathe says.

Plathe says the program was started to help those in need and has been able to supply many meals.”I think we will break 15 million meals that have been donated since the conception of this program — which has been just about 20 years, not quite 20 years ago when it started — so that will be a good milestone for us to hit,” according to Plathe. “The last few years we’ve run anywhere from 25 to four-thousand deer that have been donated through the program. So, it’s not a small number that we are seeing every year.”

You can find information on the HUSH program on the D-N-R’s website at iowadnr.gov.

w/Kate Olson.

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[COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA, October 13, 2020] – Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Director Doug Reed, Tuesday, said “The current weather forecast and environmental conditions indicate a potential for very high to extreme fire behavior on Wednesday, October 14th through Saturday. This includes easy ignition potential and rapid fire spread. Conditions will slightly alleviate but remain high Thursday and Friday, degrading again on Saturday.”

Pott. County EMA

According to Reed, “Fire departments in Pottawattamie County have responded to two large cropland fires over the past week and ask for everyone’s compliance with the current Open Burning Ban. In addition, the Emergency Management Agency is asking all residents to discontinue the use of recreational fire pits, campfire rings, covered burn barrels, and any type of burning through the remainder of this week and weekend.”

“Pottawattamie County,” he said, “has seen the devastating effects of fire in extreme conditions, including firefighter injuries and loss of residential properties and other structures. We want to do everything we can to help prevent unnecessary injuries or devastating property losses from occurring.”

Violation of the existing burn ban, especially actions or negligence causing injury or property loss, can subject a person to citation or arrest for disobeying a burn ban, reckless use of fire, or other applicable statutes. For updated information on conditions you can find further information on the county’s social media, and web pages.

An Open Burning Ban will remain in place until environmental conditions improve.

It’s that time of year for the Cass County Conservation Board to once again ask you…”When do you think the first Trumpeter Swan will arrive at the Schildberg Quarry?” Call in your prediction (by November 11^th) to the Conservation Board, at 712-769-2372, leave a message and return phone number if their staff are not in.

A Trumpeter Swan (file photo)

Duplicate dates will not be allowed. For example, if a caller predicts November 25th, no one else will be allowed to predict that arrival date. So, call anytime until November 11th to make your prediction! One prediction per family, please.

The sponsors of this contest will determine the official arrival of more than 6 trumpeter swans to Lake 4. The winner will receive a Trumpeter Swan 8×10 print from the Cass County Conservation Board. Sorry, this contest is only for residents of Cass County.

Trumpeter Swans have visited the Schildberg Quarry for, at least, Twenty-one out of the last twenty-two winters. Arrival and departure dates of the swans have been as follows:

• 1997/1998 December 18 – January 2
• 1998/1999 Nothing on record
• 1999/2000 December 25 – February 15
• 2000/2001 November 23 – March 6
• 2001/2002 December 25 – February 24
• 2002/2003 November 23 – March 15
• 2003/2004 November 26 – March 21
• 2004/2005 November 25 – March 18
• 2005/2006 November 17 – March 5
• 2006/2007 October 30 – March 9
• 2007/2008 November 22- February 14
• 2008/2009 November 18- March 12
• 2009-2010 November 19 – January 5
• 2010-2011 November 5 – February 10
• 2011/2012 November 17 – February 21
• 2012/2013 November 24– March 4
• 2013/2014 November 12- April 7
• 2014/2015 November 11- April 6
• 2015/2016 November 22- March 24
• 2016/2017 November 19- March 9
• 2017/2018 November 9- March 20
• 2018/2019 November 11- January 23
• 2019/2020 November 8- March 3

Cass County Conservation is hosting their 6th Biennial Lighted Halloween Campground, Saturday October 24th at Cold Springs Park in Lewis, from 7-9 PM. The event is designed to be non-scary, Family Friendly, and FREE to drive into the night! Prizes will be for the top 3 voted sites, and for some special categories. Prizes are donated by event sponsor Cappel’s Ace Hardware. The event will be cancelled if there is inclement weather.

(Radio Iowa) – Construction is underway in Mason City on what will be the world’s largest freestanding grain bin. Sukup Manufacturing of Sheffield has designed the bin, with a peak height of 155 feet and a capacity of 2.2 million bushels, for the Golden Grain Energy ethanol production plant.

Sukup rendering of the grain world’s largest grain bin.

The new bin would beat the two, 2-million bushel Sukup bins built in Atlantic for the Elite Octane LLC Ethanol plant, which went into operation in July, 2018. The two Sukup corn storage bins in Atlantic are each 156 feet in diameter and 150-feet tall. They hold 2,000,000 bushels each, for a total corn storage capacity of 4,000,000 bushels. They are capable of encasing a Boeing 757 jet.

Sukup president and CEO Steve Sukup says the 165-foot diameter bin in Sheffield will be large enough to hold a Boeing 767 jet.

Golden Grain C-E-O Chad Kuhlers says the bigger grain bin will increase the company’s total storage capacity from about 1.275 million bushels to almost 3.5 million bushels.

Kuhlers says the increased storage capacity can help with production around holidays and other times when corn can’t be delivered. He notes Christmas and New Year’s are both on Fridays this year, and a lot of people don’t want to deliver corn that week in between the two holidays.

Construction on the bin is scheduled to be completed in May or June of next year.