(Radio Iowa) – The only oak species that are native in all of Iowa’s 99 counties is facing some disease issues. The D-N-R’s Tivon Feeley, says they are seeing a lot of Bur Oak Blight. “And that is a fungus that is on the leaf. And it tends to overwinter on the bud scales where the leaf will come out the nest year and infects the tree next spring,” according to Feeley. “The numbers of Bur Oak Blight have been kind of fluctuating. We’ve seen it high, the last couple of years it has been low. But once you have it — if you don’t treat the treat it — the tree will eventually decline. And those numbers are now showing up in our forest inventory data.” He says it’s a concern from two aspects.

“You’ve got the landscaper, you know the person who owns the property that wants the beauty of these big bur oak trees out there. And then you’ve got it from the forestry perspective/. If you are out in western Iowa in the Loess Hills, it’s one of the drought-tolerant oaks that you can grow — and if you want you can harvest,” he says. While there is a treatment — he says it is not the best for a large scale.

He says it is an injectible fungicide that you inject in the spring. “The problem with bur oak blight is it is so common that the treatments are only affordable and can work in small capacities like one or two yard trees. It’s not something you can use to treat a forest worth of bur oaks,” Feeley says. He says if you suspect you have a tree is suffering from Bur Oak Blight, get the problem correctly diagnosed before any management decisions are made. You can send samples to the Iowa State University Plant Diagnostic Clinic for testing.

Chris Parks and Cass/Adair County Conservation Officer Grant Gelly talk the great outdoors. This week they discuss upcoming listening sessions, late season ice fishing, eagle numbers, and great backyard bird count.

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(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is joining with Iowa State University on a project to document and help a specific type of turtle increase its numbers. The D-N-R’s Karen Kinkead says the Blanding’s turtles don’t mature and reproduce at a very fast rate. “The average is about 14 years — but it varies individually by turtle before they lay their first eggs. And the nests are very susceptible to predators — particularly raccoons and skunks,” Kinkead says. She says there’s been less trapping in the state and that has led to increased predators for the turtle. The Blanding’s turtles are found in wetland areas of northwest and central Iowa. “They are a state-listed species, so we don’t give out specific locations,” according to Kinkead. “They’ve got a bit of a black market following, so we try to keep that private so that the turtles aren’t collected illegally.”

Blanding’s turtle (IA DNR photo)

The plan is to monitor the turtles with radio transmitters. “The University of Northern Iowa has been doing some work on a different species of turtles for a very long time — and so they’ve sort of figured out the methodology of which transmitters to use and how to set them and how to attach them to turtles. And it should work the same way on the Blandings turtles that we are interested in,” she says. They also plan to work with the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines to gather some eggs and hatch out turtles to be placed back in the wild. “We think that doing it that way a turtle in captivity will be about the size of a three-year-old turtle in the wild after about a year,” Kinkead says. “And just that just gives them a bit more protection and gives their shell will harden and they get to a larger size — so it’s harder for like a great blue heron to swallow them whole for example.”

The Blanding’s turtles can live to be 75 years old. She says it’s important the D-N-R’s Wildlife Diversity Program does what it can to help this species. “They’ve certainly been around a very, very long time and I don’t think it is responsible of us to let them go extinct on our watch if we can help it,” Kinkead says.

The D-N-R is providing 163-thousand dollars for the project, with I-S-U chipping in 57-thousand. They have a two-and-a-half-year agreement to track and detail the lives of the turtles.

(Radio Iowa) – What’s billed as the Midwest’s largest and most colorful winter kite festival is scheduled for Saturday in north-central Iowa. Libby Hohn, tourism director for the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, says the Color The Wind Kite Festival is an exhibition of hundreds of traditional and inflatable kites, and even stunt kites doing aerial choreography to music. “We’re expecting great crowds and beautiful kites,” Hohn says. “We have dozens of kiters from all over the United States and even a kiter coming over from England to show off their kites.”

The 36-hundred acre lake is an ideal venue for kiting, she says, as there are no obstacles like trees or power lines. Ten-thousand spectators are expected for the one-day festival which will go on whatever the weather — as long as there’s wind. “Several years ago, there was very low wind and they would just attach kites to some ATVs and drive them around to try and pick up some wind,” Hohn says. “The way our topography is here in Clear Lake, there’s typically a nice breeze or wind so that’s also what makes us a great sailing lake in the summertime.”

Color the Wind Kite Festival (File photo, Clearlakeiowa.com)

At last check, the ice was 19-inches thick, so it’ll be safe to walk right onto the frozen lake to take in the spectacle in the skies. “We really recommend to dress for the weather. If you want to wear ice cleats on your boots, if you’re going to venture out on the ice, that helps with stability,” Hohn says. “If you’re bringing children, we recommend bringing a wagon or even a sled to pull them around on the ice.”

She notes, only kiters can park on the ice, though there’s free parking at Clear Lake High School and free shuttles. The event runs Saturday from 11 AM to 4 PM.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is reporting a drop in income but a rise in sales. John Deere is reporting first quarter net income of 903-million dollars. That’s down more than 321-million from the first quarter a year ago. Worldwide net sales and revenues for Quad Cities-based Deere rose five-percent in the quarter to more than nine-and-a half billion, up from about eight-billion last year.

Deere chairman and C-E-O John May calls the performance “impressive” given last fall’s U-A-W strike as well as “persistent challenges posed by the supply chain and pandemic.”

Jim Field speaks with Griswold FFA members Trista Swain, Logan Evans, Emma Mundorf, and Bailey Baucom about their chapter and celebrating National FFA Week.

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(Radio Iowa) – A coalition of environmentalists and land owners is seeking a meeting with Governor Kim Reynolds, hoping she’ll intervene and block the Iowa Utilities Board from granting eminent domain so carbon pipeline developers can acquire land from reluctant property owners. Judy Sebern Beachy and her sister inherited a farm in Floyd County that’s been owned by her family for four generations. One of the three pipelines would either run through the farm or be next to it.

“I’m all for doing things to help the climate, but I don’t feel that a pipeline is the answer for Iowa at this time.” Emma Schmit, an Iowa based organizer for Food and Water Watch, says the pipelines are a carbon con job, being proposed to ensure the oil and gas industry lasts longer.

“They’re also demanding to use our land against our consent…all to increase their own private net worth,” Schmit says. Schmit was among a small group that rallied at the statehouse this (Thursday) afternoon after a bill that would have prohibited the use of eminent domain for pipelines was tabled in a senate committee.

Bruce Rastetter owns Summit Carbon Solutions, one of the companies seeking landowner easements for a carbon pipeline. He says the project will be transformational for the ethanol industry and, by extension, the agriculture industry and hundreds of farmers have already signed voluntary easements to have the pipeline run through their property.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Director Bryant Rasmussen reports the roads in Sunnyside Park are once again open. The Park’s roads were closed for the season Dec. 10, 2021. Rasmussen said, while the roads in Sunnyside Park are open, the restrooms will remain closed until warmer temperatures are more consistent.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans on the Senate Ag Committee have approved a bill that would forbid energy companies, including Rural Electric Cooperatives, from installing solar panels on land that’s suitable for growing corn and soybeans. Senator Dan Zumbach, a Republican from Ryan, says he sponsored the bill because of a rapidly expanding solar farm in his district. “It’s about protecting our most precious resource and that’s Iowa’s farmland,” Zumbach says.

If the bill becomes law, solar panel fields also would have to be at least half a mile from other solar installations and 12-hundred-50 (1250) feet from a neighbor’s property line. Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, says the bill limits his local R-E-C from expanding its solar operation, which is five miles from Kinney’s farm. “We’re also dealing with property rights, someone owning a property and being able to do with that property as they wish,” Kinney says.

Aerial shot top view of solar panel photovoltaic farm

Democrats on the committee voted against the bill, and the Senate’s Democratic leader says it would have a chilling effect on investment in solar energy installations in Iowa. Zumbach says he’s willing to consider changes to the bill, but he says there are no statewide restrictions on solar arrays today and it’s time to put some lines in the sand. “I’m saying the word ‘sand’ because lines in sand are movable,” Zumbach says, “but what we do need to have is some good energy policy on putting solar farms on agricultural land which is being used for agricultural purposes and having respect for folks on both sides of those fence lines.”

The bill would forbid solar installations on land with a Corn Suitability Rating of 65 or above, meaning the soil is considered fertile ground for row crops. The Iowa Solar Energy Trade Association and the Iowa Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives are opposed to the bill, while both the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Farmers Union have registered as undecided.

(Updated 11:45-a.m.) (Radio Iowa/KJAN) – MidAmerican Energy is proposing a wind farm of around 90-140 wind turbines altogether in Mills and Pottawattamie Counties, as part of their effort to achieve a 100 percent renewable energy supply. But some residents in the path of the wind farm are concerned about how it will alter their community. Treynor farmer Corey Vorthmann says he believes the sound and light that wind turbines produce would be disruptive to residents. “It’s something that is really unthinkable for us to see that we would wake up every morning and not really be able to take in the beauty of mother nature, but have it polluted with 300-foot wind turbines,” according to Vorthmann.

Charity Duey lives in Silver City and says the uncertainty of how the wind turbines may impact everything from the quality of life to migratory birds concerns her. “Just looking at it as a whole and going is this a fit for our community? That’s where people are going ‘I don’t think this is going to work for us,’” Duey says.Almost 800 people have joined a FaceBook group dedicated to stopping the project.

MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Geoff Greenwood tells KJAN News the project is simply a proposal at this point. He points out “The estimated property tax benefits to the two counties would be around $187-million over the life of the project for both counties. And that’s property tax revenue that goes toward hospitals and schools and roads in those counties, and that’s a big benefit.” For now, they are in the process of gauging landowners’ interest. He they know from experience that there are land owners who request to have turbines on their property, especially with fluctuating commodity and grain prices. “This is a steady paycheck for them for the next several decades, over the duration of the project.”

Greenwood said there are approximately 3,300 wind turbines in the State. MidAmerican has 37 wind projects in 32 counties. Their proposed “Wind Prime” project – an almost $4-billion  dollar project – includes more wind and some Solar Energy. When complete, the project will add approximately 2,000 megawatts of power to the system. It’s not yet known how many additional turbines or projects will be included, but Greenwood says it may very well be up to nine such projects. The company hopes to complete the proposed project in 2024.

(Reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio; Updated by KJAN News Director Ric Hanson)