The Cass County Conservation Board has several events scheduled over the next couple of days. On Friday, Aug. 31st, the Board will host the “Mysterious Monarchs” program at Lake Anita State Park’s campground loop, beginning at 4:30-p.m. The event will also be held Saturday, Sept. 1st, at the Cold Springs State Park campground shelter, beginning at 4:30-p.m. And, the Cass County Conservation Board is holding a “Movie in the Park” campground program this Friday (Aug. 31st), in the campground shelter at Cold Springs State Park, in Lewis. The movie is “Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature,” which begins at 9:30-p.m.

Bring a blanket or chair to the show, and dress for the weather. If it rains, the movie will be rescheduled to Sunday, Sept. 2nd, at 9-p.m. You do not have to be a registered camper to attend the show. For more information on those, and other Cass County Conservation Board events, call Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning, at 712-769-2372.

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Officials have confirmed that invasive zebra mussels have been found in northwest Iowa’s Storm Lake. The Iowa Natural Resources Department says juvenile and adult zebra mussels inhabit several lake locations. Officials say the mussels probably arrived on or in a boat that had been in an infested water body, such as the Spirit/Okoboji chain of lakes or the Missouri River.

The small, black and white mussels are native to eastern Europe and voracious eaters that gobble up plankton many native freshwater fish need to survive. The mussels can attach themselves to boat motors, bait buckets and dam mechanisms and cause damage to motors and facilities.

Boaters are urged to clean, drain and dry watercraft to prevent the spread.

(Radio Iowa) — U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is in Iowa, holding events with Republican office-holders and assuring the state’s farm community that international trade disputes “will work out fine.” “I’m really proud of our agricultural community,” Perdue says. “They’ve stood with the president. It’s been painful. They’ve seen the prices drop on hogs and soybeans and other crops, but they understood he’s doing it for the right reason. China has cheated and farmers don’t like cheating.”

Perdue visited the Farm Progress Show in Boone yesterday (Wednesday), then headed to a farm near Melbourne for a town hall meeting with Republican Congressman Rod Blum and a few dozen Iowa farmers. “Secretary Perdue understands what you’re saying,” Blum said. “He knows that we’re nervous out here about trade and tariffs, right? And he understands ethanol. He understands that we need E15.” Perdue told the crowd the president is an ethanol backer and the ag secretary indicated there is “momentum” for trade deals with Mexico, Canada and Japan. “The president has gotten the leverage. He’s gotten their attention and, like a lot of people here in the United States, they’re not quite sure what he’s going to do next,” Perdue said, “so to some degree we’re using that leverage in negotiation to get that done and then I’m hoping we can move on with the EU and then I think China will finally recognize that they need to come along in that way.”

Perdue acknowledged farmers are uneasy, but likened the trade situation to a weight loss program that’s “kind of painful when you’re going through it, but at the end you’re healthier.” Representatives of pork producers and dairy farmers raised concerns about how the U-S-D-A has calculated the federal payments meant to off-set losses due to the trade war. Perdue says his agency calculated “tariff damage” in a way that could be defended if the payments are challenged to the World Trade Organization. “Everybody would want more. I understand that, but the program’s pretty well set,” Perdue said.

Perdue later told reporters he is optimistic the trade impasse with Canada can be resolved yet this week, so a re-negotiated trade deal with Mexico AND Canada can be presented to congress soon. This (Thursday) morning, the U-S ag secrerary will join Republican Governor Kim Reynolds and Republican Mike Naig — the STATE ag secretary — for an event with farmers at an Ames co-op, then Perdue will travel to rural Panora to tour conservation sites with Republican Congressman David Young. He’ll also be in Atlantic from 2:45-to 3:45-p.m. along with David Young.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue will travel to Atlantic, Thursday, for a Town Hall meeting on Trade. He’ll be joined by 3rd District Republican Congressman David Young. The meeting takes place from 2:45-to 3:45p.m. Thursday, at the Cass County Community Center.  According to a press release, the focus of the meeting is to bring together farmers and rural Iowans to discuss the importance of trade, conservation, commodity markets and more.  The meeting is open to the public.

(Radio Iowa) — The state’s pheasant population is expected to be up when hunters take to the fields, despite up and down spring weather this year. Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says the results from the roadside survey show an uptick in numbers. He says he put the numbers into the weather model he uses and that showed stable to increasing numbers — so it was a “pleasant surprise” to see the numbers up.

Bogenschutz says most regions of the state had more birds out and about when the survey took place. “Last year they came out about 15 a route and this year were 21 — so about a 39 percent increase,” Bogenschutz says. “You know we had a fair bit of snow in northwest and north-central and the counts didn’t change up there, they are basically the same. The rest of the state saw some pretty nice increase, anywhere from 30 to 100 percent.”

The birds are counted in the morning when the dew is on the grass and they come to the side of the road to dry off. Bogenschutz says the lack of dew through off their count last year and they had to adjust it. “Counting conditions were much better this year, so that could be part of the increase…I think there’s probably a few more birds than what we counted last year. But, even if I tried to account for that as best I can, I think our counts still went up this year, even if I tried to kind of fix last year,” according to Bogenschutz.

The bird counts lead to an estimation that hunters could take 250 to 300-thousand roosters this fall. “You know it’s our second best count in the last 10 years,” he says. “It was 2015 when we were a little bit higher than we are this year. And that was our best harvest in about the last 10 years — best harvest and most hunters. So, I think we should probably see an uptick in both hunters and harvest this fall.”
The pheasant season opens October 27th and runs until January 10th.

The 2018 Guthrie County Fair begins Thursday (8/30) and continues through Monday, Sept. 3rd, in Guthrie Center. There is no admission to the fair, which features numerous events and activities during its run. Carnival rides are free. The grandstand is the site for: Mutton Busting and Rodeo, Friday at 6:30-p.m; music from the “Pork Tornadoes” Saturday, at 8-p.m., and Figure 8 racing Sunday, starting at 7-p.m.  In addition, there’ll be several livestock shows, with 4-H and FFA members showing-off their Horses, Swine, Rabbits, Sheep and Goats. The Beef Show is Sunday at 10-a.m.

The Guthrie County Fair Parade starts at 10-a.m. Saturday, and there’s all sorts of entertainment this weekend. There’s also a new, 100-foot addition to the pen barn added to the fairgrounds last year, which will enable many more cow and calf pens to be available. For more information on the Guthrie County Fair, go to https://www.guthriecountyfair.com/

(Radio Iowa) — It’s been a summer of both dry and wet conditions depending on where you live in the state. The D-N-R’s Mark Moeller says either situation can cause concerns for drinking water.  “Droughts and floods can affect public water supplies. Floods can affect a public water supplies wells if they are near or in a flood plain,” Moeller says. He says the state tries to help communities think ahead so neither problem ends up leaving them without water. “We work with them to become more drought or flood resilient,” Moeller explains. “So, in the case of a drought, we want them to have multiple resistant sources.”

He says for example, cities which use shallow wells as their source need to think about different scenarios to be prepared. “The water table can fluctuate with a drought, and so we like for them to also have back up deeper wells. The deeper wells are not as prone to drought conditions. We really like our systems to be resilient, so that they can keep providing safe and adequate water during a flood or drought,” according to Moeller.

Ninety-two percent of the states 18-hundred public water systems get their water from wells. But a majority of the water customers get their water from a lake or river — as many of the larger cities use surface water to supply their drinking water needs.

(Radio Iowa) — As Iowa farmers face as much as two-billion dollars in losses due to international trade tariffs, the Trump administration is announcing a tentative trade agreement with Mexico. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says President Trump has his mind set on eliminating the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a longstanding deal between the U-S, Mexico and Canada. “I’m encouraged by the progress made,” Grassley says. “I’m also hopeful that a fair trade deal will be struck with Canada so we can still have a trilateral agreement as opposed to bilateral between us and Mexico.”

Grassley says he held 20 town hall meetings in Iowa this month and at every one, the issue of trade was brought up by concerned residents. For many farmers in Iowa and elsewhere, we’re in the fifth straight year of falling revenues. “The sooner we get a new agreement in place, the sooner farmers and businesspeople in Iowa and across the country can focus on exporting,” Grassley says, “particularly for Iowa, exporting our agricultural products to Mexico and Canada without any concern of tariffs.”  Any trade agreement the Trump administration may make must be ratified by Congress. Grassley notes the law stipulates Congress needs to be notified 90 days before it can be sent such a measure for approval.  “The hope is to get this done within the United States Congress before this Congress adjourns,” Grassley says, “and before a new president is sworn in in Mexico, which is December the 1st.”

Iowa’s senior senator, a Republican, acknowledges the White House took the risk of upsetting Canada’s leadership by announcing this tentative trade deal with Mexico first. “Yeah, I suppose it irritates Canada but I’m sure this is the administration’s strategy, to put pressure on Canada.”  Canada is Iowa’s number-one trading partner, with nearly double the market of Mexico for Iowa exports.

The Wellmark Foundation today (Tuesday) has announced 12 Iowa organizations were awarded Matching Assets to Community Health (MATCH) grants. Applicants were able to request up to $100,000 in grant funding. To ensure community support for the grant project, recipients were challenged to match the award amount dollar-for-dollar. Each of the grant recipients submitted projects that can help individuals, families and communities achieve better health through built environment initiatives that encourage physical activity and/or access to and consumption of nutritious foods.

Among the award recipients, was

• The Pottawattamie County Conservation Board, which received $100,000, for Pottawattamie County Trails. The Pottawattamie County Conservation Board and Pottawattamie County Trail Association are moving into phase two of the Railroad Highway Trail. The new trail additions will extend 4.23 miles from Weston to Underwood, Iowa. Once completed, the 15-mile trail will be the first rural trail built as part of the Frontier Iowa Trail system and will connect multiple Iowa communities.
• The Shelby County Trails Board also received $100,000, for “Ballpark to Ballpark.” The Shelby County Trails Board is developing a 10-foot-wide, multi-use, paved trail between Panama and Portsmouth, Iowa. The 6.5-mile trail will separate recreational bike and pedestrian traffic from State Highway 191 and crosses four waterways. Local artists will create artwork on the trail bridges that display aspects of a healthy lifestyle.

Wellmark Foundation  Executive Director Becky Wampler said “The Wellmark Foundation is proud to award a cumulative total of $996,289.50 to these 12 grant recipients. We are proud to support these organizations as they focus on sustainable initiatives that will improve the well-being of citizens and their communities well into the future.”

(Radio Iowa) — The U-S-D-A on Monday revealed details of a trade relief package for farmers. For now, it amounts to $4.7 billion, with the possibility of more aid if exports continue to suffer. Iowa Soybean Association President Bill Shipley, who farms near Nodaway in Adams County, says the best they can hope for is some mitigating help to assist farmers in staving off red ink in their operations.”We can at least pay our expenses. That’s about all it will do is get us up to our break-even price,” Shipley says. “Everybody’s got a different break-even price, depending on yield and price. It’ll get us up to break-even, maybe. It’ll make our bankers feel a lot better.”

Soybean producers are set to receive $3.6 billion in direct aid. Many farm groups have responded with calls for “trade not aid.” Shipley says the farm economy and the impacts of the retaliatory tariffs is worrying Iowa lenders. “I’ve talked to several, I haven’t talked to my own, but I’ve talked to several others and they are concerned, deeply concerned, about the farm economy,” Shipley says. “If you can at least cover your expenses, it’ll make them feel better. It’ll make me feel better, too. I don’t want to be going backwards.”

Shipley hopes U-S and Chinese negotiators are making progress with their discussions about the current trade war and find some possible ways to resolve it. “They’re supposed to meet for six or seven days and at least they’re talking, that’s always positive,” Shipley says, “and that’s the best we can hope for.”  Shipley says trade issues are complicated and involve more than just agriculture so it could take some time to hammer out a positive agreement. On Monday, U-S Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said producers can begin to apply for the aid on September 4.