(West Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Farm Bureau said Tuesday, a sharp downturn in the agriculture economy is causing a ripple effect throughout the state resulting in the loss of up to 11,400 jobs and $1.5 billion in value-added economic activity (GDP) and a $100 million loss to the state and local tax base. The data comes from an exclusive Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) economic analysis, and says 23 businesses in Iowa announced layoffs for 4,097 individuals working in production agriculture and adjacent industries from the first of the year through Sept.18, 2024, but IFBF’s analysis finds those numbers balloon when taking broader impacts into consideration.

IFBF economics and research manager Christopher Pudenz says “Ultimately, this starts with depressed incomes at the farm gate that have ripple effects on the Iowa economy,” said Christopher Pudenz, Iowa Farm Bureau economics and research manager. “For example, because farm incomes are down, farmers aren’t making the same machinery purchases they’ve made in previous years which means manufacturers, suppliers and retailers slow down production and are forced to lay people off.”

Iowa’s ag-related layoffs have occurred during a prolonged period of economic hardship and uncertainty for farmers. USDA’s September 2024 farm income forecast projects another challenging year for farmers, who are expected to lose nearly a quarter of their income in just two years due to slumping commodity prices and stubbornly high input costs.  Net farm income, a key measure of profitability, is projected to decline 4.4% from 2023, following a record year-over-year drop of 19.5% from 2022 to 2023.

IFBF photo

Pudenz said that the downturn is particularly impactful in Iowa, considering agriculture accounted for more than 22% of Iowa’s total economic output in 2022, according to a study commissioned by the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers. Nearly one in every five Iowans are employed due to agriculture and ag-related industries, accounting for more than 385,000 jobs. “Agriculture is the heartbeat of the Iowa economy, and when agriculture struggles, those pains are felt throughout the state,” Pudenz said.

IFBF President Brent Johnson says “This analysis underscores why a farm bill is so important – farmers need assurances as they try to balance economic uncertainty. A farm bill extends beyond the farm and protection of our food supply; it also provides access to nutritional programs for families facing hunger, advances conservation efforts and spurs innovation through research. If a new farm bill isn’t passed, many critical programs will face significant interruptions.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass/Guthrie County Environment Health Executive Director Jotham Arber, Tuesday, presented his monthly report to the Cass County Board of Supervisors. In his report, Arber said the main thing he wanted to note, is “This weird thing going on with a few septic systems” in Audubon and Cass Counties.

He said there are around 9 or 10 septic systems that have the same weird, greasy substance. He said in Audubon County, the septic systems were installed by the same contractor, but in Cass County there were four different contractors, so it doesn’t appear to be an installation issue. Samples will be taken and sent to the State Hygienic Lab for breakdown and analysis, so see if there are commonalities in the substance.

Jotham Arber said also the Environment Health Department is finishing-up water test sampling in Cass County. The test results will be analyzed and made available during the Board of Supervisors meeting in December.

He said there has been a huge increase in people who are taking the opportunity to contact the EHD and getting their private wells rehabbed. That’s something he’s happy to see.

By “rehab,” he means those wells that were installed more than 40-years ago, both shallow and deep, that used technology that incorporated bricks, and which deteriorates over time, as well as those where the pumps ave gone bad, etc. Those issues can be corrected allowing the wells to be accessed safely.

He said “A lot of folks want to keep their wells, and if we can help them keep it, it’s not bad to have good drinking sources of water.” Arber said also, they’ve seen an increase in the number new wells being drilled in Cass County. Most of the newer wells are drilled deep, because more is known now about nitrates and how to make those wells more secure from bacteria.

The Environmental Health Department, he says, can help property owners better position new wells that are less prone to run-off, and in incorporating better structural features.

(Iowa News Service) – A nonprofit group that tracks oil and gas development has created an interactive map to show how close CO2 pipelines in Great Plains states come to environmentally and ecologically sensitive areas. The map includes Indigenous land that hasn’t been included in similar previous projects.

Ted Auch, Midwest program director for the FracTracker Alliance, said it focuses on Indigenous areas but goes further, showing in detail how close proposed CO2 pipelines would come to soybean and ethanol facilities, for example, but also to private land. He said the interactive map is an improvement over existing ones.

“Which is to say that you could look at it as a static image, but you can’t interact with or manipulate the data in terms of, like, scrolling in, scrolling out, finding addresses – you know, that kind of thing,” said Auch. “It’s available as a PDF or a JPG. So, what we’ve done is, we’ve taken that stuff and we’ve digitized it and we’ve included it on this map, so that people can actually – spatially and in real time – interact with the data itself.”

The Great Plains Action Society says CO2 pipelines pose risks that disproportionately affect Indigenous communities and people of color.  Auch said FracTracker is working on another version that takes a deeper look at the proximity of pipelines to the Winnebago reservation south of Sioux City. Energy companies say the pipelines are a safe and effective way to capture carbon from industrial processes, and store it underground, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Auch said the interactive map will give farmers and other landowners near the proposed pipelines what they need to understand what’s happening on their land, leveling the information playing field with corporate interests. “You have these large, multinational corporations, and then on the other side of the ledger are small, medium-sized frontline or Indigenous groups that either have small budgets or no budgets,” said Auch, “and don’t have the capacity, the time, or the expertise to develop maps to inform their organizing activism or advocacy.”

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Omaha is making a livestream available as it hears oral arguments today in a case involving Iowa landowners affected by CO2 pipeline proposals, some of whom face seizure of their property by eminent domain if the Summit Carbon Solutions project moves forward.

The Iowa DNR is seeking campground hosts for the 2025 camping season. If you enjoy camping and meeting new people, this may be the perfect volunteer opportunity for you.

Campground hosts work alongside DNR staff to help clean and beautify the park, ensure reservations are up-to-date and accurate, and assist visitors in a welcoming and helpful manner. Actual duties vary based on each park’s individual needs.

In this volunteer position, hosts are provided a free campsite and live in the park for one to five months during the summer season. Hosts volunteer a minimum of 20 hours per week, often including weekends and holidays, while living on site in their own camper.

Each park’s camping experience is unique – some are rural and rustic, others are in popular tourism areas; some have small campgrounds, and many are hubs of activity, especially on peak weekends. In addition, assigned lengths of stay are dependent on each park’s needs for the upcoming season.

Parks currently needing hosts: 

• Backbone – need hosts for 2 campgrounds (Delaware County)
• Bellevue (Jackson County)
• Clear Lake – 2 slots available (Cerro Gordo County)
• Geode (Henry County)
• Lewis and Clark (Monona County)
• McIntosh Woods (Cerro Gordo County)
• Pilot Knob (Winnebago County)
• Pine Lake (Hardin County)
• Prairie Rose (Shelby County)
• Red Haw (Lucas County)
• Stephens State Forest (Lucas County)
• Union Grove (Tama County)
• Walnut Woods (Polk County)
• Wapsipinicon (Jones County)

To learn more about a park’s unique experience and needs, please contact the individual state park office; a list of parks and their contact information can be found at www.iowadnr.gov/stateparks, or for general inquiries about campground host opportunities, email: iowa.stateparks@dnr.iowa.gov

Additional information about volunteering and applying for a campground host position is available at www.iowadnr.gov/volunteer. The list of parks needing campground hosts can change, so please check back to this web page regularly for additional opportunities.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has scheduled a virtual public meeting to update the public on statewide chronic wasting disease surveillance and management efforts.

The meeting is scheduled for Dec. 5, at 7 p.m., and will be hosted on Zoom. Those wishing to attend must register in advance using the link below. To view and listen to the presentation, attendees will need a computer or smart device (e.g., phone, tablet) with a secure internet connection. Attendees can also join by calling in but will only be able to listen to the audio. The recording will be posted to the Iowa DNR’s YouTube channel and shared on social media platforms, when available.

To register to attend, visit: https://bit.ly/CWD120524

As of Nov. 19, a total of 397 wild deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease in 25 Iowa counties.

“Chronic wasting disease will be a generational challenge,” said Dr. Rachel Ruden, state wildlife veterinarian with the Iowa DNR. “What we do to limit the spread of this disease today will pay dividends tomorrow, and we need everyone at the table.”

This public meeting is an opportunity for all Iowans to learn more about chronic wasting disease surveillance and management efforts in Iowa, understand ways they can help, and most importantly, ask questions.

“As this disease continues to expand its geographic footprint in Iowa, we encourage all Iowans to stay up-to-date on where we have found CWD so they can make informed consumption decisions,” she said.

Testing for the disease requires a tissue sample from a particular lymph node found just behind the jaw.

Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disease belonging to the family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. It attacks the brain of infected deer causing the animal to lose weight, display abnormal behavior, lose body functions, and die. It is always fatal to the infected animal and is present in all tissues, including the meat.

To learn more about chronic wasting disease and the DNR’s surveillance and management efforts, visit www.iowadnr.gov/cwd.

(Radio Iowa) – Summit Carbon Solutions has submitted a second application in South Dakota for construction of a carbon pipeline. Last year, South Dakota’s Public Utilities Commission rejected Summit’s initial application. Officials said it did not comply with county zoning rules. Earlier this month, South Dakota voters upheld those restrictions. According to a news release from Summit Carbon Solutions, the company has made major changes in its South Dakota pipeline route after more than a year of one-on-one work with landowners.

Iowa and North Dakota regulators have approved permits for the project. It would ship carbon from 57 ethanol plants in five states to underground storage in North Dakota.

Summit’s C-E-O says the project represents a pathway to new markets and lasting economic growth for generations to come. Nine IOWA counties passed zoning ordinances for carbon pipelines and tomorrow (Wednesday), judges on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Omaha will hear arguments over ordinances in Shelby and Story Counties that Summit sued to overturn. Summit has pending lawsuits against Emmet, Kossuth and Palo Alto Counties and recently sued Bremer County over its zoning ordinance.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s a change this year in how you register you snowmobile before running the trails in Iowa. The Iowa D-N-R ‘s Jessica Flatt says it simplifies the process. “Residents of Iowa are no longer required to purchase the user permit. They’ll only be needing to register their vehicle annually. So previous to this law change, they would have had to register and buy a trail permit, and now they’ll only have to buy the registration,” she says. Flatt says the registration fee was increased, but it balances out with no permit required.

“You know, they’re basically netting out the same cost, but now it’s only a single item that they have to purchase is that registration fee, Flatt says. “So the registration fee did increase from, you know, 15 to 30, but now they’re not required to buy that separate permit.” Flatt says the fee goes to help the users. “All of the money from the permits and the registration go into a dedicated fund, and the department administers that fund, but we partner with the Iowa State snowmobile Association, and 70 percent of those registration funds go to them, and they run a trail program, and so they work with all the local clubs that have designated snowmobile trails,” she says.

(ISSA photo)

You can register your snowmobile on the D-N-R website.  “If a snowmobile has not been registered before, they’re going to need to go to their county recorder’s office. But to renew an existing registration, they can visit the county recorder, or they can just go online or use our go outdoors app if they already have that,” Flatt says. Flatt says they’ve been consistently seeing around 20-thousand registered snowmobiles each year.

(Radio Iowa) – It’s been a tough couple of years for Iowa’s tree canopy, between terrible tornadoes, derechoes, and killer insects like the emerald ash borer wiping out tens of thousands of trees. Chip Murrow, an urban forestry program specialist at the Iowa D-N-R, says the agency’s now offering 900-thousand dollars in competitive grants for Iowa communities to plant trees. “The money is for tree planting, and along with that, they can do staking if needed, mulching, supplemental watering,” Murrow says. “It’s a two-year grant, so the idea is they can do planting both spring and fall of 2025 and 2026.”

The grants do not require matching funds and are being awarded in amounts of between 10- and 30-thousand dollars per community. Murrow says the trees to be planted have to come from the D-N-R’s list of approved species, which is on the agency’s website. He says a group of Iowa foresters created the list of about 85 species, everything from the black maple to the Serbian spruce. “We discussed what ones are still good, what ones are starting to show problems that we haven’t seen before, if there’s any new cultivars, we can add to it, so we update it every so often,” Murrow says. “The idea is that we keep a good list of tree species that do well in the Iowa environment and also in the urban settings where we’re planting trees.”

Iowa’s seen more than its share of severe weather this year, with a record of 127 tornadoes, and many towns still haven’t replaced all the trees they lost during the “land hurricanes” known as derechoes in recent years. “Communities are hurting for tree resources,” he says. “We’re not a highly canopy-covered state, as we put it. We know that our canopy is low. We have a goal of in 2050 to try and increase our canopy growth by three-percent or 3,000,000 trees, but the emerald ash borer, of course, and the derecho has set us back a little bit on that.” The funding for communities comes through the I-R-A Iowa Tree Planting Grant. The deadline to apply is December 30th.

Learn more at the Iowa DNR’s Urban Forestry website: https://www.iowadnr.gov/Conservation/Forestry/Urban-Forestry