(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter has released a report that summarizes habitat loss in the state and calls for urgent action to expand corridors that connect wild areas. Drake University ecology and botany professor Thomas Rosburg says Iowa has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands and prairies and around three-quarters of its forests and woodlands in the last 200 years. “And this means of course that millions and millions of individual plants and animals that once were here are now simply gone,” he says. He says what’s left of Iowa’s native ecosystems is largely fragmented, which makes it harder for species to move for food, mates and shelter.

“And that’s of course a tremendous conversion from what once was a tremendously diverse and bountiful and productive landscape to again, a now landscape where biodiversity is threatened,” Rosburg says. He says expanding and improving habitat corridors along streams and rivers could help connect the state’s remaining prairies, wetlands and forests. “The other type of corridor that’s sort of ready to use is our roadways,” he says. He says we could add more native grasses and wildflowers alongside roadways to make a difference.

Sixty-two counties and 25 cities in Iowa do this, according to the Tallgrass Prairie Center

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has announced proposed rules that remove the category of “special concern” species from its rule on threatened and endangered species.  Species on the “special concern” list include bald eagles, peregrine falcons, southern flying squirrels, smooth green snakes and a number of butterflies. The move came as part of DNR’s adherence to the governor’s executive order to simplify administrative rules across agencies.

Tammie Krausman, the department’s public information officer, said the decision to remove the category allows the department’s administrative rules to follow the relevant chapter of Iowa statute.  Krausman said in an email this will make the administrative rules “consistent with” the statute that “explicitly addresses that DNR responsibilities are to identify those species that are endangered or threatened in the state.”

“The ‘special concern’ classification is not identified in that law,” Krausman said. This is not the first notice DNR has put out about its efforts to refine its administrative code. In fact, all state agencies have been completing the same work following an executive order, known as Executive Order 10, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2023.

A bald eagle soars above the Des Moines River in late January 2025. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

The executive order created a moratorium on administrative rulemaking and ordered agencies to complete a “comprehensive review” of all existing administrative rules. Reynolds, in the release about the order, said it was a “commonsense approach that gets government out of the way and leads to a more robust economy in every community.”

The order also called for an evaluation and “rigorous cost benefit analysis” of existing rules to determine if the public benefits justified the cost.  A press release from DNR about the proposed rule change regarding special concern species said “there is no change in policy or enforcement in the new rule.” Many of the special concern species have small populations in the state, like peregrine falcons, which were reintroduced in Iowa and are regularly monitored by DNR staff and Iowa volunteers.

Some species from the “special concern” category were moved to the threatened or endangered category in the proposed rules. Species moved to the “threatened” list include: black tern, pirate perch, bullsnake, two spotted skipper, and regal fritillary. Species moved to the “endangered” list include: pugnose shiner, dusted skipper and ottoe skipper.

Wally Taylor, legal and conservation chair with the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, said it was “a problem” to remove the special concern category from the administrative rules. Taylor has opposed several changes DNR has made in its efforts to follow Reynolds’ order, and is involved in a lawsuit against the state that alleges the governor does not have the authority to make agencies adopt less-restrictive standards.

Krausman said the list of special concern species will continue to be part of the Iowa Wildlife Action Plan, and she said the department will “actively monitor the status of these species.” DNR is accepting informal comments from the public on the proposed rule changes through July 15. Those interested can submit their written comments via email to John Pearson and Kelly Poole at the department : john.pearson@dnr.iowa.gov and kelly.poole@dnr.iowa.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – U-S Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says there will be no amnesty for workers on farms and in food production plants who’re facing deportation because they entered the U-S illegally.  “The promise to America to ensure that we have a 100% American workforce stands, but we must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportations so as not to compromise our food supply,” Rollins says. “Ultimately the answer on this is automation, also some reform on the governing structure.” Rollins says it’s up to congress to come up with a permanent fix to the immigration system — and she says now is not the time to compromise on the president’s promise of mass deportations.

“Then also when you think about there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program,” Rollins said. “There are plenty of workers in America.” The ag secretary’s comments follow President Trump hints during a speech in Iowa last Thursday that his administration was working on legislation so that farmers would be able to vouch for their migrant workers.) “Brooke Rollins brought it up and she said: ‘We have a little problem. The farmers are losing a lot of people,'” Trump said. “We figured it out and we have some great stuff being written and let the farmers be responsible.” Trump suggested farmers would be able to vouch for undocumented employees who’ve worked for them years.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins (official USDA photo)

“And I think that’s going to make a lot of people happy,” Trump said. “Now, serious radical right people who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy, but they’ll understand — won’t they?” During a news conference in Washington, D.C. yesterday (Tuesday), Rollins said the president has been unequivocal that there will be no amnesty and mass deportations will continue in a strategic and intentional way.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The 2025 Shelby County Fair that got underway July 5th, continues today with a full slate of activities. Here’s the schedule for Wed., July 9th:

6:30 – 8:30 a.m………….Enter & Weigh 4-H/FFA Swine – Unload at dock and be inspected by veterinarian.
8:00 a.m…………………..Flag Raising
8:00 – 10:00 a.m………..4-H Cake Decorating Entries – 4-H Exhibit Building
8:45 a.m…………………..4-H Table Setting Exhibitors’ Meeting
9:00 -11:00 a.m…………4-H Table Setting – 4-H Exhibit Building (see Green Book for detailed schedule)
9:00 -10:00 a.m…………Enter & Weigh 4-H/FFA Sheep and Goats – Unload at dock and be inspected by a veterinarian
10:00 a.m…………………4-H Booths to be finished
11:00 a.m…………………Willard Olson Swine Contest – 4-H Exhibit Building

12:00 – 6:00 p.m………..Enter Open Class Non-Livestock Exhibits
4:30 – 5:30 p.m………….4-H/FFA Horses will be checked in – All livestock must be inspected by the vet before going to stall.
4:30 – 7:00 p.m………….Enter & Weigh 4-H/FFA Market Beef, Breeding Beef Heifers, Bottle/Bucket Plus Ones, & Dairy Heifers – Unload at dock and be inspected by a veterinarian.
6:00…………………….Market Beef Pen of 3 – check-in for carcass scanning
5:30 – 6:30 p.m………….Enter 4-H/FFA Rabbits – All livestock must be inspected by the vet before going to their cage

6:00 p.m…………………..Western Iowa Pullers Tractor Pull – Grandstand
6:00 p.m…………………..Bill Riley Talent Search
6:30 p.m…………………..Judge Open Class Non-Livestock Departments (if not judging Thurs.)
6:30 – 7:30 p.m………….Enter 4-H/FFA Poultry

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County gets underway today. The Fair continues through July 13th. Here’s the schedule of events for July 9th:

*ALL animals, including horses, will be inspected by a veterinarian on the trailer before going to the barn/scale. Livestock trailers will enter through the pit area and line up for the veterinary check. Animals to be weighed must arrive during their specific time frame. All livestock (not poultry) must be stalled and checked in with the superintendent by 12:00 pm.

6:00 am All livestock (not poultry) may begin arriving
7:00 am – 8:00 am Enter Rabbits – West end of Dairy Barn Rabbits will go directly to the barn
and will be inspected by a veterinarian upon arrival.
7:00 am – 8:30 am Weigh Swine
8:00 am til gone Donuts/rolls provided by Adair County Health System – near scale house/barns
8:30 am – 10:00 am Weigh lead market beef followed by junior feeder pen cattle
10:00 am – 10:30 am Weigh Bucket/Bottle Calves
10:30 am – 11:00 am Weigh Meat Goats
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Weigh Sheep
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm Quilt Show Entry – Varied Industries Building

1:00 pm Bucket/Bottle Calf & Bottle Lamb/Goat Record Books Due to 4-H/FFA Center
Dog Show – Mid-American Arena Dog Parent Showmanship- directly following youth Dog showmanship class.
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm Enter Swine Performance – Swine Barn
1:45 pm – 2:30 pm Enter Lamb/Goat Performance – Swine Barn
3:30 pm Clover Kids Rabbit/Cavy Show – Swine Show Ring
4:00 pm 4-H/FFA Rabbit/Cavy Show – Swine Show Ring Rabbit Parent Showmanship- directly following youth Rabbit showmanship class.
4:00 pm Fun with Water Event- NW corner of fairgrounds; Hosted by Adair County Hot Shots
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm The Amazing Bubble Factory Show – Midway

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Live Music – Gazebo
Quilt Show – Varied Industries Building
Conservation Station Trailer – in front of 4H/FFA Center
5:00 pm – 11:00 pm $1 Inflatables in the Midway
6:00 pm Free BBQ Hamburger/Pork Burger Meal compliments of the Adair County Fair Board –Courtyard
Ice Cream Social (Historical Society) – Courtyard

4-H/FFA Building Opens
4-H Silent Auction Begins – 4-H/FFA Center
6:30 pm – 7:00 pm The Amazing Bubble Factory Show – Midway
8:00 pm GAZEBO PRESENTATIONS
Little Miss and Little Mister Adair County
Local Conservation Awards – Adair County Soil & Water Conservation

Adair County Extension:
● Awards: Crops in the Field, On-Site Garden, Bucket of Junk, Pride of Iowa, Cookie Baking Contest, Cookie/Cupcake Decorating Contest, Quilt Square Creation
● 4-H Hall of Fame
● 4-H Senior Recognition

Adair County Fair Queen Coronation
8:30 pm – 9:00 pm The Amazing Bubble Factory Show – Midway

(Radio Iowa) – From green foxtail to goosegrass, a contest at the Iowa State Fair next month will test Iowans’ knowledge of weeds. There’ll be three divisions, for future agronomists under 19, a general division, and one for professionals. They’ll need to correctly name between 20 and 35 common Iowa weeds. Meaghan Anderson, a field agronomist with the Iowa State University Extension, says contestants will have to be able to identify real weed samples, potted on a tabletop display. “The primary goal is just to raise awareness of some species that people may see all the time but don’t know the names of,” Anderson says. “We also like to provide some fun facts so people know a little bit more about the species that are surrounding us in our environment.”

The extension has online weed guides so anyone can learn how to distinguish crabgrass from quackgrass from witchgrass. “A lot of the species are really common ones like velvetleaf, common lambsquarters or dandelions,” Anderson says, “and we accept any common name that we are aware of, so if you call it creeping Charlie, but I call it ground ivy, we’re still going to give you the points for it on the test.” Perhaps you already know bull thistle, bush honeysuckle and burcucumber, but Iowa is home to many dozens of invasive plants, like the Japanese knotweed.  “We encourage you to study a little bit ahead of time, identify some of those common weeds, focus on things that you may see in your yard or in your neighborhood, and you’re going to be pretty good on identifying at least a handful of them,” Anderson says. “If you’re not quite ready to compete, we do put them in the Ag Building at the State Fair and they will stay in there for the duration of the fair and they will have their labels on them.”

There are cash prizes for the top finishers in each division, but Anderson says most contestants aren’t in it for the money.  “I think the bragging rights is probably the most important thing, right? A good family competition is important, so the kids and the parents can compete against each other and see who wins to get the most correct,” Anderson says. “We do have State Fair ribbons, so the top five in each of our divisions, the blue ribbons are usually the nice, big blue ribbons, very fancy.”

The contest will start at 9 AM on Friday, August 8th in front of the John Deere Agriculture Building.

https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/weed-identification-fact-sheets

(Radio Iowa) – The state and other partners are launching a more than one-point-nine MILLION dollar project in five Iowa counties to reduce nitrate run-off into the Beaver Creek Watershed. A 380 square mile area drains into the watershed and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says the money will be used over the next three years to finance conservation measures around Beaver Creek.

“Things that will have an impact on reducing nitrate loss and nitrate levels in the stream and so of course that’s of interest, certainly, in central Iowa, but I would stress that it’s really been a focus of ours now for several years,” Naig said, “and we’ve done projects like this before and so it’s a next round, if you will.” Beaver Creek flows into the Des Moines River, a drinking water source for over 600-thousand customers in metro Des Moines.

Central Iowa Water Works has banned lawn watering since June 12 as the utility’s nitrate treatment facility has had a hard time keeping up with high nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. Naig says he’s focused on collaboration with the utility and other parties. “We know that they’ve got infrastructure needs and investments that they certainly need to make on the water treatment side and there’s work that needs to be done and is being done upstream in the farm landscape,” Naig said.

“It’s time to talk again, of course, and we’ll continue that conversation…I don’t think that playing the blame game is a good idea. Let’s figure out ways we can work together on both ends of the equation.” This latest water quality project along Beaver Creek will finance efforts in Boone, Webster, Greene, Dallas, and Polk Counties, like bolstering oxbows in the stream.

“When a stream meandered and then through flooding or just normal kind of how the water flows, it’ll cut a new channel, but it leaves the remnant of that bow out of the stream and so what you can actually do is work to engineer those in a way that they can once again be useful in denitrifying water,” Naig said. Over time, soil fills in oxbows, but Naig says mapping can discover where those oxbows were and plans can be made to restore those side channels along Beaver Creek into wetlands.

“They are a low cost practice that can be very, very effective,” Naig said. “They don’t work everywhere and they don’t exist everywhere, but where they do they make a ton of sense.” The money will also be used to help landowners build saturated buffers and bioreactors that filter run off from farm fields.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture, the Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District and other public and private groups are partners in the project.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking informal comments on administrative rules related to game harvest reporting and landowner tenant registration. Executive Order 10 (EO10), signed by Governor Reynolds on January 10, 2023, requires all state agencies to identify which administrative rule chapters will be retained or rescinded. The EO10 process includes public engagement with the opportunity for input.

The Iowa DNR has reviewed chapter 571 Iowa Administrative Code (IAC) Chapter 95 (Game Harvest Reporting and Landowner-Tenant Registration). Based on the review, DNR has revised this chapter to modernize processes and improve clarity to customers on methods to report harvests. The public is invited to provide informal comments on the proposed rule changes. DNR will accept written comments through July 15, 2025. Written comments regarding the proposed rules should be submitted to: denise.roberg@dnr.iowa.gov. Comments should be made to specific portions of the rule.

After receiving and reviewing informal comments, the DNR will create a draft Regulatory Analysis and draft Notice of Intended Action.

Drafts of the rules, including a “clean” copy and a version showing revisions, can be found on the DNR webpage: www.iowadnr.gov/eo10.

(Iowa DNR News) -Iowa’s 2024 estimated pheasant harvest was the second highest in nearly two decades, coming in at more than 460,000 roosters last fall, surpassed only by the 2023 harvest of 590,000. This is the best back to back pheasant harvest years since 2007. Only South Dakota had more pheasants harvested last year. The 2024 August pheasant survey showed a population decline of 14 percent from 2023, likely due to ill-timed spring flooding across northwestern Iowa. “The roadside counts were confirmed in the small game harvest hunter survey, but overall we had a really good fall and are looking forward to this year’s August roadside survey to see where the bird numbers are ahead of the 2025 season,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The statewide August roadside survey is conducted by Iowa DNR staff between Aug. 1-15, who drive 225, 30-mile routes on gravel roads at dawn on mornings with heavy dew. Hen pheasants will move their broods to the edge of the gravel road to dry off before they begin feeding, which makes them easier to count. Bogenschutz estimated more than 77,400 hunters pursued pheasants in Iowa last fall, down from 83,600 in 2023. Iowa’s quail hunters harvested 27,500 birds or 2,700 fewer than last year. Iowa’s rabbit and squirrel harvest both increased over 2023; rabbits by 13 percent to an estimated 77,000, squirrels by 32 percent, to more than 124,300. Iowa mourning dove hunters harvested an estimated 143,000 doves, down from the 195,000 in 2023.

A century of pheasant hunting

The Iowa DNR and Pheasants Forever are celebrating 100 years of pheasant hunting in the Hawkeye State. The first season was held Oct. 20-22, 1925, when 13 counties in north central Iowa were opened to pheasant hunting. Hunters were allowed a three-rooster limit, for a half-day of hunting. An estimated 75,000 hunters participated. Hunters can commemorate the 100^th anniversary by purchasing a hard card featuring Iowa Pheasants Forever Print of the Year when they purchase their 2025 hunting and fishing licenses.

Information on places to hunt, the August roadside survey results and more is available online by clicking the 100 Years of Pheasant Hunting link at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey.