The deer season in Iowa includes some continued testing of the animals taken to see if Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has spread in the herd. D-N-R spokesman, Tyler Harms says they are ramping up the sampling efforts in different parts of the state. The positive tests for C-W-D in wild deer have all come in counties along the border in eastern Iowa.  “We collect samples in every county and the number of samples varies depending on where you are in the state,” Harms says. “Those samples are collected by our wildlife field management staff. We are certainly encouraging hunters to help us with collecting those samples if you are contacted by some of our staff.”

Another disease the keep an eye for in the deer herd is Epizootic hemorrhagic disease. Commonly known as E-H-D, and surprisingly we did not receive many reports of that disease this year despite the dry conditions we experienced in late summer. So, Typically we see spikes of E-H-D after drought years or in drought conditions,” Harms says.

Harms expects hunters to take around 100-thosuand deer when all the seasons are complete.

(Radio Iowa)

A new report from the USDA shows the urban-rural poverty gap continues to close. John Cromartie, with USDA’s Economic Research Service, say “Today, the gap is around three percentage points, around 16 percent rural poverty versus 13 percent urban poverty.” Cromartie says the gap has been slowly declining since 1960 when the Rural America at a Glance Report was first published. At that time, 54 years ago, the gap between rural and urban poverty was at 17 percent. Cromartie says while overall rural poverty rates declined slightly from last year, persistent rural poverty — or rural counties with 20 percent or more of their population poor for at least 30 years — continues to be very regional.

“These persistently poor counties are located very much in the South, 85 percent of them are in the South for the rural counties, but rural poverty is also entrenched in parts of the Southwest and the Northern Great Plains,” Cromartie says.

The report also found the rural population is shrinking for the first time. USDA credits fewer births, an aging population and an outmigration of young adults for the decline. Employment in rural areas since 2011 has increased modestly with medium incomes also increasing. The report says infrastructure investments like access to broadband and more public services could improve rural economies and quality of life for residents. In Iowa, just under 36-percent of the state’s residents live in rural areas. According to the most recent data from the USDA, the poverty rate in rural Iowa is 11.5 percent, compared with 11.9 percent in urban areas of the state.

(Radio Iowa w/thanks to Nicole Heslip, Brownfield Ag News)

Republicans and Democrats say finding a long-term source of money for water quality efforts is a priority for the 2018 Iowa legislative session — and they expect quick action. It’s still a matter of debate, though, as to WHICH policy option will be pursued. Senate President Jack Whitver of Ankeny acknowledges the House passed one approach LAST year, while the Senate approved a different one.

“But at the end of session, we decided there were too many dollars on the line and too much policy to hammer out to do that at the last minute and just patch it together,” Whitver says, “and we decided we wanted to take time and make sure you’re going to do it right because that’s plan that’s going to be around for 20 or 30 or 40 years.”

House Republican Leader Chris Hagenow, of Windsor Heights, expects “hundreds of millions of dollars” to be dedicated to water quality projects over the next few decades.”We shouldn’t see this one bill that we have as the beginning and the end of our work on water quality,” Hagenow says. “I see this as a generational challenge.”

Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen of Des Moines favors an approach that addresses pollution at the watershed level. “The problems with water are not evenly sprinkled across our state and we should be going after the areas that is most poisoning our water,” Petersen says. “We should be going after those areas first, I believe.”

House Democratic Leader Mark Smith of Marshalltown says it’s a mistake to make look solely at the quality of surface water. “We need to be focusing on good soil and retaining Iowa soil, which is our lifeblood here in this state,” Smith says. “By doing so, we will correct the water quality issues that we have in our state and many other issues as well.”

Addressing flood-prone areas of the state through water improvement projects is important, according to Smith. The legislative leaders made their comments Thursday during a forum sponsored by the Greater Des Moines Partnership. It represents 23 chambers of commerce in central Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

WRIGHT COUNTY, Iowa – DNR conservation officers responded to a personal injury hunting incident on November 29 around 1:20 p.m., in southwestern Wright County. 36-year old William Rancourt, of Lebanon, New Hapshire was pheasant hunting on the Boone River Greenbelt Conservation Board Public Hunting Area with three other hunters when he was hit in the back by bird shot pellets from another hunter’s 12-guage shotgun.

The shotgun was lying on the ground when a hunting dog stepped on the trigger guard causing it to discharge hitting Rancourt in the back nearly 22 yards away. Rancourt was transported to Trinity Hospital in Fort Dodge with non-life threatening injuries. The DNR was assisted at the scene by the Wright County Sheriff’s Office.

The DNR reminds hunters to unload your firearm and be sure the safety mechanism is in place before setting it down.

The amount of conventional ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply next year will be roughly equal to this year’s required level. The E-P-A has met today’s (Thursday’s) deadline for setting the Renewable Fuels Standard for 2018. As indicated a couple of months ago, the federal mandate for biodiesel and “cellulosic” ethanol will be lower in 2018. Required production of traditional ethanol production will remain the same next year. On Tuesday, Governor Kim Reynolds told reporters it’s a yearly fight to maintain the federal production mandates for ethanol and biiodiesel. “It is important to our economy. It’s important to rural Iowa. It’s how we add value to the products that we grow,” Reynolds says. “…I’m going to get up on Friday and I’m going to go back to the mat and we’re going to continue to fight on behalf of Iowans and Iowa farmers because we believe it’s important, but we can, in fact, feed and fuel the world.”

This fall, Reynolds joined other farm state lawmakers and the biofuels industry in a public relations push to persuade President Trump to insist his E-P-A side with farmers and ethanol producers rather than the oil industry, which wants reduced biofuel production mandates. Reynolds called President Trump and met with the E-P-A Administrator.in October to press the issue. “It is really important to the economy, the rural economy in Iowa, especially our Iowa farmers,” Reynolds says.

Senator Chuck Grassley issued a statement Wednesday night, saying the E-P-A’s decision is “disappointing,” and falls “short of the full potential of the U.S. biofuels industry.” However, Grassley says he is glad the E-P-A backed off a proposal that would have reduced mandatory production levels even further.

(Radio Iowa)

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man was burned by a fire that spread across his business site in central Iowa. Cedar Rapids television station KCRG reports that firetrucks were dispatched around 1 p.m. Tuesday to Morrison Repair in Grinnell. An outbuilding with tractors and farm equipment, a semitrailer full of tires and several piles of tires were aflame when firefighters arrived.

Investigators say people at a nearby business had been burning items at the rear of that property, but strong winds spread the flames to Morrison Repair. Authorities say owner Ron Morrison suffered burns to his face while trying to get tractors out of the outbuilding.

w/Kate Olson.

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Iowans may be pulling more green out of their pockets to purchase a Christmas tree this year, especially if that tree was grown out of state. Iowa Christmas tree grower Rod Heintz, says there’s an undersupply of some popular evergreens nationwide due to wildfires and drought. “Right now there’s a shortage of Christmas trees because of that,” Heintz says. “Everything is up three to five dollars a tree this year.”

Heintz manages Strautman Tree Farm near Cambridge. He says Iowans can likely save a few dollars this year if they get a tree grown within the state’s borders. Heintz did NOT raise his prices from last year. “We sell ’em from three feet tall to 15 foot…so, they range anywhere from $30 to $250 a (tree),” Heintz says.

There are around 100 Christmas tree farms in Iowa, growing on a total of about 1,500 acres. Heintz says he was pleasantly surprised with the strength of his Christmas tree crop this year. “We had absolutely no rain this growing season, but they look tremendous,” Heintz told Radio Iowa. “I can’t believe how well they look.”

Heintz says many of his customers return year after year because they enjoy the experience of buying a tree direct from a farm, rather than from a big box store.

According to the Iowa Christmas Tree Grower’s Association, it can take up to 15 years to grow a tree of average retail sale height (6 feet), but the average growing time is seven years. The top selling Christmas trees in Iowa are Scotch Pine and White Pine.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources report Conservation Officers responded to a hunting incident at around 3:30 p.m., Saturday, in Audubon County. Authorities say 56-year old Arthur Goupille, of Negaunee, Mich., was hunting pheasants in Audubon County when his gun discharged hitting two members of his hunting party standing about six feet away.

The group had completed a drive and was taking a break when the incident occurred. Goupille’s gun fell over, discharged, and struck the nearby hunters. The hunters were taken to the Audubon County Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. They were treated and released.

The DNR reminds hunters to use safe hunting practices, treat every firearm as if it is loaded and always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

The corn harvest is completed in a majority of the state. The final crop report from the U-S-D-A says good weather allowed farmers to get into the field every day last week. That allowed them to make a dent in the corn that remains standing in the fields and the report says 96 percent of the corn has been harvested. The leaves the state eight days behind the five-year average. The report says southwest and south-central Iowa are on the only areas with more than five percent of the corn remaining to be harvested. The bean harvest was wrapped up last week.

(Radio Iowa)