(Radio Iowa) – State wildlife officials are asking Iowans not to skip over the Fish and Wildlife Fund this tax season, what’s popularly known as the Chickadee Check-off. Stephanie Shepherd, a state wildlife diversity biologist, says contributions on your state tax form go to the Iowa DNR to help conserve non-game species across the state. “It’s how the DNR is able to have staff dedicated to working on songbirds, raptors, frogs and toads, turtles, bumble bees, butterflies,” Shepherd says, “and so we work on all of those things on a statewide basis.”

Along with habitat restorations, the fund helps DNR staff train volunteers to monitor wildlife populations in the state. For example, volunteers recorded nearly 1,200 bumble bees representing ten species during last year’s inaugural Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas. “Our program works on all the wildlife you can’t hunt, fish and trap out there,” Shepherd says, “so, that’s thousands of species.”

American Tree Sparrow (Photo by Karl Schilling of Des Moines)

Avian ecologist Anna Buckardt Thomas is tracking the migration patterns of the wood thrush, a forest songbird that’s population has declined 50-percent since the 1960s. “They have this really beautiful flute-like sound,” she says. “If you’ve ever heard one, it just stops you in your tracks.”

Iowa taxpayers contributed around $134,000 to the Chickadee Check-off last tax season. It’s roughly half of what Iowans contributed in 1982 when the state legislature created the fund.

DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is reminding anglers, that ice fishing shelters, left unattended, must be removed from state-owned lands and waters, including parking lots and boat ramps by Feb. 20th. Ice fishing shelter owners who camp in a paid campsite within a state park can remain past the February 20 deadline. Ice fishing shelter owners are encouraged not to wait until the last minute to get their shelter off the ice. If a shelter falls through the ice, the owner is responsible for getting it out of the lake.

On a separate note, the DNR says the walleye fishing season on Spirit, East and West Okoboji lakes is open through Feb. 14th.  It will close after that date and reopens on May 3. Those are the only Iowa lakes that have a closed season for walleye. For more information on fishing regulations, go to www.iowadnr.gov/fishing.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig presented reports for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to an appropriations subcommittee Monday, highlighting the ongoing struggles with the highly pathogenic avian influenza, as well as successes with the Choose Iowa program and conservation efforts.  Naig appeared in front of the Iowa House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee to share information on IDALS’ budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year.

According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, he began with an update for the subcommittee on the ongoing threat of the highly pathogenic avian influenza which jumped from birds to dairy cattle in 2024 and since 2022 has impacted nearly 30 million commercial and backyard birds in Iowa. “It’s just a reminder that, unfortunately, foreign animal disease is a constant threat, a year-round threat,” Naig said. “We need to be staffed and prepared to respond to it.”

The governor’s recommendations for FY 2026 include a $500,000 appropriation to the department for foreign animal disease vaccine development.  Naig highlighted the conservation work of the department in 2024, sharing that Iowa had nearly 4 million acres planted with cover crops and set another “record year” for conservation cost-share programs. “We always say a state dollar doesn’t act alone,” Naig said, noting that “$27.1 million worth of state investment was matched with $41.2 million in private sector dollars.”

Representatives on the subcommittee, and Naig, expressed enthusiasm about the Choose Iowa program, which helps to market and support locally made foods and products. The program has more than 170 members in 72 Iowa Counties and Naig said he hopes to expand to 300 members this year. The Choose Iowa program issued grants for value-added farm products, to dairy innovation and recently the department announced an allocation for butchery innovation. The initiative also had a pilot program aiding local food banks, and beginning this spring, from local schools.

Rep. Sami Scheetz, D-Cedar Rapids, noted recent moves from the Trump administration to put tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada, both of which have been postponed by a month, and asked Naig how this would affect Iowa farmers. Naig said he is “not a fan” of tariffs in general, but said the president is using the tariffs as a “tool” to support his border and immigration policies.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Gov. Reynolds today (Monday) authorized a disaster proclamation for O’Brien County, Iowa effective immediately through March 5, 2025. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed a positive case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial layer chickens.

This proclamation allows state resources from Iowa Homeland Security, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and other agencies to assist with tracking and monitoring, rapid detection, containment, disposal, and disinfection. The proclamation also waives regulatory provisions related to commercial vehicles responding to affected sites.

The recent HPAI detections in birds do not present an immediate public health concern, and it remains safe to eat poultry products. If producers suspect signs of HPAI in their flocks, they should contact their veterinarian immediately.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is hosting a series of public meetings to discuss the past hunting and trapping season and possible rule and regulation changes to the sports. The meetings will be in locations across the state from Feb. 17th through the 20th. This past weekend on KJAN’s Conservation Report, Cass-Adair County Conservation Officer Adam Gacke says during the meetings, biologists generally come out to provide an update specific to each area in the state.

In this area, meetings will be held in Mills and Union Counties.

Gacke says they’re hoping to have a good turnout at those and other meetings across the State.

Comments collected from the meetings will be presented to the Natural Resources Commission and will be considered by DNR before it proposes any changes to hunting or trapping regulations.

Again, those area meeting locations and dates are:

• Glenwood, Feb. 17, 6:30 p.m., Southwest Iowa Sportman’s Club, 22869 Jamett Road
• Creston, Feb. 20, 6 p.m., Performing Arts Building multi-purpose room (124), 1201 West Townline St.

In other outdoor news, Gacke says persons wanting to go ice-fishing need to be aware that with the recent heat wave, ice conditions are variable, and can be dangerous.

The Iowa DNR reported nine OHV/ATVs broke through the ice late last month – seven at the Iowa Great Lakes on the Minnesota border, and two at Lake Rathbun, on the Missouri border. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. Gacke says where you start onto a lake or body of water can be completely different from where you intend to set-up your ice-fishing equipment.

Officials with the Iowa DNR announced in January, the agency sold more than 300,000 hunting, fishing or combination annual licenses to Iowa residents in 2024 and nearly 50,000 annual fishing, hunting or combination licenses to nonresidents. The figures do not include shorter time period licenses, lifetime licenses or specific season licenses. Annual licenses for 2024 expired Jan. 10, and Iowa’s final deer seasons wrapped up Jan. 19, which according to DNR’s harvest report, more than 101,000 deer were harvested in 2024. This was close to the totals for 2023, which reached 104,000 deer.

DNR asked the public to help collect samples throughout the hunting season to monitor for chronic wasting disease. The department collected more than 5,000 samples from deer across the state during the 2024-2025 deer seasons and confirmed 51 wild deer were positive for the disease that is fatal to deer. The department increased the number of samples it gathered in 2024 after confirming the disease in 128 wild deer in 2023. The 2024 figures are close to what the state saw in 2021, according to the DNR interactive database.

(Radio Iowa) – A series of workshops will be launched this week that are designed to teach Iowans how to extend the habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Liz Ripley, an outreach specialist at the Iowa Learning Farms on the campus of Iowa State University, says the four workshops will be held in four different areas of the state during February and March — and they’re all free. “So it’s open to anyone who would like to attend. We’d like to see a good mix of farmers, landowners and urban residents,” Ripley says. “When it comes to creating more habitat, we need everybody at the table. Obviously, the largest portion of our land here in Iowa and across the Corn Belt is in agricultural production, so definitely trying to reach a lot of farmers and landowners.” Like farmers, Ripley says pollinators help ensure the world eats. Studies find about 75% of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators. That’s why the workshops are important, she says, as all Iowans can play a role.

“It’s an opportunity to learn a little bit more specifically what the monarchs as an indicator-pollinator species need and desire for their habitat and survival,” she says, “but also the role they play when it comes to our ability to grow things, not only here in Iowa, but across the Midwest and Corn Belt.” Iowa is in the middle of the annual monarch commute lane as the orange-and-black insects made the incredibly long journey. Experts can establish their population counts by the number of acres occupied when they overwinter in Mexico, and the numbers have fallen drastically in the past 20 years. “They can estimate the number of monarchs based on how much area that they cover each winter, and that does ebb and flow depending on different survival rates from the year prior,” Ripley says. “We have seen that continued steady decline of these monarchs, and a lot of that has been driven by habitat loss along their migratory journey north and south each year.” She says the workshops will provide Iowans with an opportunity to learn more about monarchs and how to integrate additional pollinator habitat into the state’s landscape.

Photo courtesy of the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium

“These workshops are going to be held February 6th in Ames, February 11th at Storm Lake, March 11th in Fairfield, and March 18th in Coralville,” she says, “and if you’re interested in joining us, we just ask folks to RSVP to help us make sure that we have enough food on hand for the complimentary meal that’s included with each of these workshops.”

To RSVP, contact Ripley at 515-294-2473 or ilf@iastate.edu.

http://www.iowalearningfarms.org