(Des Moines, IA – Iowa DNR) – Iowa state parks and forests invite you to join in on a First Day Hike.  More than 40 locations are offering either a guided hike with park staff or a suggested hike to explore on your own.  Kick off the new year outdoors, surrounded by the quiet beauty of nature in winter, and experience spectacular views, beautiful settings and the cultural treasures offered by Iowa’s state parks and forests.

Locally, First Day Hikes are being held at:

• Lake Anita State Park (Anita): Hikes ranging from 1/3 of a mile to 4 3/8 miles are available. We will start at the east end of the beach parking lot. We will start out as a group and split up depending on how long everyone wants to walk. Friends of Lake Anita will provide snacks and drinks.
• Prairie Rose State Park (Harlan): Hike the 2-mile grass path around the east side of Prairie Rose Lake. The hike is pretty easy, with just a couple of hills. The Friends of Prairie Rose State Park usually provides hot cocoa and popcorn following the hike.
• Spring Brook State Park (Guthrie Center): Celebrate 100 Years of Springbrook State Park. Join park staff for a 2-mile hike to the highest point in the park, stopping at geologically and historically significant sites along the way and looking for signs of wildlife activity. Warm up with hot chocolate and cookies afterwards! Please dress for weather. There may be areas with ice or snow on trails.
• Waubonsie State Park (Hamburg): Noon – shelter open for potluck/refreshments. Hike starts at 1:00 PM; Meeting Location:Wa-Shawtee Lodge; The Hike will be approximately two miles long on a moderate route through the woods and prairies of Waubonsie State Park and nearby Wildlife Management areas.  Park staff will select a route that best fits weather and snowpack conditions during the week of the hike.  Wildlife viewing and landscape overlooks are abundant on our hikes.  The Friends of Waubonsie will serve lunch from noon through the beginning of the hike, and Wa-Shawtee Lodge will remain open for an hour after the hike for participants to warm up. The trails are mostly compacted dirt, with some intermittent steep sections and rolling terrain.

Find a First Day Hike near you!

(Des Moines, IA) – Dec. 30, 2025 – Iowa farmers and other private landowners invested millions in conservation practices to help treat natural resource issues on their lands last year, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Officials with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service said Monday, through four major Farm Bill conservation programs offered in Iowa, the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), Iowa farmers contracted with NRCS to address natural resource concerns such as soil erosion and water quality on about 258,000 private land acres in fiscal year 2025 (FY25).

Overall, NRCS obligated $75.3 million in conservation practice funding to Iowa farmers in FY25 through 1,337 Farm Bill program contracts. Farmers and other USDA customers can sign up for Farm Bill conservation programs on a continuous basis, and most are funded through three- to five-year contracts.

State Conservationist Jon Hubbert says Iowa farmers, contractors, agribusiness companies, and state and local government agencies should be congratulated for the work they accomplished alongside NRCS in 2025. “Iowa is unique in the way we partner with so many others to implement conservation plans, practices and programs,” he said. “It’s great to see the continued interest in conservation here in Iowa. Working together with Iowa landowners, we can help them meet their conservation goals.”

The most popular conservation practices in Iowa, by number of contracts with Iowa NRCS throughout 2025, include:

• Grazing Management
• Cover Crop
• Fence (to support grazing management)
• Brush Management
• Watering Facility (to support grazing management)

Program Breakdown

ACEP: NRCS helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities protect, restore, and enhance wetlands, grasslands, and working farms through conservation easements. During FY25, NRCS obligated about $6.9 million through three new easements that will cover 523 acres. Included in ACEP funding is more than $1 million in stewardship activities on existing easements, which could include prescribed burns, tree removal, or controlling invasive species. There are 1,722 federally funded easements in Iowa across 197,000 acres.

CSP: Through CSP, NRCS helps farmers build a customized plan to meet their conservation goals and needs. Iowa NRCS obligated $21 million through new and renewed CSP contracts during the past year to 320 landowners who signed five-year contracts, covering about 142,000 acres.

Statewide leaders in CSP:

• Jackson County led the state for the third consecutive year with 30 new and renewed CSP contracts, totaling 6,878 acres, with an obligation of nearly $1.5 million.
• Jones County was next with 24 contracts, covering 17,467 acres and an obligation of $2.6 million.
• Winneshiek County had the third most CSP contracts with 22, covering 6,638 acres, obligating more than $1 million.

EQIP: Iowa NRCS contracted about 43 percent of new federal conservation funding through EQIP – a voluntary program that promotes agricultural production and environmental quality, where farmers can choose from a conservation list developed at the county level to treat local resource issues. Through EQIP, NRCS obligated $32.2 million covering 65,658 acres through 467 contracts.

Statewide leaders in EQIP:

• Lucas County led the state with 18 new EQIP contracts that will help treat resource concerns on 2,553 acres at an obligation of nearly $1.4 million.
• Wapello County was second in Iowa with 16 contracts that will cover 5,450 acres for total obligation of nearly $1.7 million.
• Wayne County had the third most EQIP contracts with 15, covering 2,541 acres, obligating $708,978.

Statewide EQIP highlights:

• Through the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI), Iowa NRCS obligated more than $4.6 million, covering 15,840 acres through 50 new contracts. The goal of MRBI is for landowners to adopt practices that will minimize the contributions of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface waters within the Mississippi River basin.
• Iowa NRCS obligated more than $5 million through 276 program contracts, covering about 10,500 acres, to fund wildlife habitat practices statewide. Some of the practices include conservation cover, brush management, tree/shrub establishment, wetland restoration, and wildlife habitat planting.
• Through the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI), Iowa NRCS obligated nearly $1.5 million through 19 contracts covering 3,658 acres. Through NWQI, NRCS provides targeted funding to treat water quality problems in small watersheds.

RCPP: Iowa NRCS provided more than $15 million to Iowans in 2025 through RCPP projects that will treat resource concerns on more than 50,000 acres. NRCS assisted producers through 13 partnership agreements and 547 contracts. For the four RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangement (AFA) projects, a conservation partner directed the project, taking the lead in conservation planning and contracting.

Disaster Recovery

NRCS also helped several Iowa communities recover from recent flooding and damaging high winds through with assistance through the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program. NRCS funding exceeded $1.4 million to assist the Cities of Pleasant Hill, Johnston, and Spencer, and Polk and Webster Counties by helping with debris clearing and removal and stream bank protection.

For more information, please visit nrcs.usda.gov or contact your local USDA Service Center. Detailed Iowa NRCS program results and information are available at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2025-12/2025At-A-Glance.pdf or https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/data-and-reports/rca-data-viewer.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who have sidewalks and driveways they care for sometimes face a quandary during the wintertime about the use of salt to break up ice and provide traction. Aaron Steil, a consumer horticulture specialist at the Iowa State University Extension, says if you don’t use enough ice melt, you might slip and fall, but if you use too much, the eventual runoff could critically damage your lawn and nearby plants. “Excessive salt can be a problem, especially for those areas near sidewalks and driveways,” Steil says, “and the best option is just to not overuse salt.” The chemicals used in some ice-melting pellets can cause damage to your concrete, especially if it’s newly poured this year.

Steil says there’s a simple remedy that only employs the use of two key ingredients. “One of the things that we do here on the campus of Iowa State, that’s a really nice way to reduce salt but still have the safety that you need, is to mix salt with sand,” Steil says. “Doing that, you get some traction and you’re using less salt.” When spring arrives, you’ll likely know right away if you used too much salt, as anything that was growing nearby may be struggling — or it’s already dead.”When we have a buildup of salt in the soils next to these areas that are heavily salted, it can cause a drying out, as salt can desiccate roots and those kinds of things,” he says, “and so it can cause some damage when it’s in excess.”

Steil says it’s possible those plants can be revived in the spring with a heavy watering to wash out the salt.

(A report by the IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Landowners opposed to a carbon sequestration project in Iowa have asked a state court to reconsider its decision to pause a lawsuit over the permit for the pipeline until state officials rule on a filed amendment.  Landowners argue the Polk County District Court’s decision to send the permit back to Iowa Utilities Commission “relied heavily” on the existence of a South Dakota law prohibiting the use of eminent domain for carbon sequestration pipelines.

Landowners, counties and the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter filed a suit in 2024 against the Iowa Utilities Commission decision to grant a permit to Summit Carbon Solutions for the first phase of its proposed carbon sequestration pipeline. The permit stated the Iowa-based company could not begin construction on the pipeline to connect to biorefineries and transport carbon dioxide to underground storage in North Dakota, until it had secured permits from the Dakotas.

In the spring of 2025, however, South Dakota enacted a law that prohibited the use of eminent domain for carbon sequestration pipelines. Eminent domain is used to force unwilling landowners to allow the use of their property for projects considered in the public interest, at a price set by a county commission. South Dakota’s law meant Summit would have to obtain 100% of necessary land easements through voluntary contracts.

Pictured, Iowans opposed to carbon dioxide pipelines hand out buttons that read “No CO2 pipelines” at the Iowa State Capitol March 18, 2025. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Summit filed for an amendment to its permit in September with the IUC to replace the Dakotas-specific language and instead require that the company receive permits for adequate sequestration and storage sites, not in a specific location. The company then requested the court pause proceedings on the case against the permit until the IUC ruled on the proposed amendments. After oral arguments on the request in October, the Iowa District Court for Polk County remanded the permit to the IUC and paused judicial proceedings until the commission decided on the proposed amendments.

The changes in South Dakota, which occurred after the IUC issued the initial permit, were influential to the court’s decision. Polk County District Court Judge Scott Beattie referred to the law as the “S.D. CO2 Pipeline Ban” in the decision and said it “render the IUC’s Final Order void” and would require Summit to find a route outside of South Dakota to get to its planned underground storage site in North Dakota.

Landowners requesting the reconsideration of the case said the South Dakota law is “not a ban” on carbon dioxide pipelines in the state and that the law should not be a “relevant or material factor” in the case as Summit could still pass through South Dakota under the law. The motion from landowners argues that because Summit has not stated that it no longer plans to route the pipeline through South Dakota, the remand to the IUC gives the company a “second bite at the apple” and a “business flexibility” which leaves affected landowners “in the lurch.”

Representation for Summit argued before the court that it made “little sense” to proceed with the case if the permit were to be amended at the IUC level. Judge Beattie also noted that staying the case until the IUC decided on the permit amendment would also prevent the case from potentially being litigated a second time. Beattie wrote in the decision that “adjudicating the merits of a permit that is actively being amended serves no useful purpose.”

Summit Carbon Solutions did not respond to a request for comment. The landowners, represented by an attorney, asked the court to reverse its finding that the South Dakota law renders the IUC order void and to reverse its remand to instead set a briefing schedule for the appeal.

If the court does not reverse its decision, the motion asks the court to “specifically identify” and direct the IUC to “rescind route approval and eminent domain approval for all portions of the Iowa route from the South Dakota border back to the nearest connecting Iowa ethanol plant” in order to avoid “pipelines to nowhere.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) – Avian flu has been confirmed in several wild bird flocks in central Iowa, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. KCCI reports that Maffitt Reservoir near Des Moines is closed while workers dispose of dozens of dead birds found there. Officials say there is no public health risk and drinking water is safe.

Central Iowa Water Works has confirmed that drinking water is safe because the treatment process eliminates viruses and bacteria.

(Radio Iowa) – The price of Iowa farmland has only dropped once in the last seven years and that’s likely because the ownership profile hasn’t changed much. Rabail Chandio oversees the annual I-S-U extension farmland price survey. “Iowa is primarily a market for farmland that is held up by farmers, existing, relocating. Even investors here comprised mostly of farmers, out-of-state farmers who are interested in farmland in Iowa,” Chandio says. She says farmers are in for the long haul.

“Farmland continues to be a very stable, very consistently growing asset, which is why the demand from farmers, the demand from investors, has remained as a top supporting factor for farmland over the last few years,” she says. Chandio says investing in farmland isn’t playing the stock market. “There is very low risk for returns that are pretty much expected, pretty much guaranteed. The returns are low, but they are safe,” she says. Chandio says figures from another survey on farmland ownership show 84 percent of Iowa farmland is owned debt free.

“What we also see in that in that survey is that 66 percent of Iowa farmland is owned by experienced farmers, by late stage farmers, farmers were aged 65 and above,” Chandio says. “So the combination of debt -free ownership and experience is what really helps build up the cash reserves. What really helps keep the strong demand for farmland in the farm sector, even when it’s a loss share even when we are struggling when it comes to income.”

Chandio says the ownership hold on farmland is usually only broken when farmers decides to pass it on to family, or they die. “Overall, retried farmers and estate sales continued to make of the largest categories of sales in Iowa farmland markets. This has been true for quite a long time,” she says. Chandio says she doesn’t see that sales trends changing anytime soon.

(Sioux County, IA) –  KCAU-TV reports a plot of land in northwest Iowa has set a new record for the most expensive land sale in the State’s history. A plot of land measuring nearly 35.5-acres northwest of Orange City, sold for $32,000/acre at auction on December 1st. The total purchase price was just over $1-million.

That breaks the previous land sale auction price of $30,000/acre, also set in Sioux County, back in 2022. The winning bidder was a neighboring property owner who plans to farm corn and soybeans on the land.

(Radio Iowa) – The leader of Iowa State’s Master Gardener Program says gardening continues to be a popular hobby. Alicia Herzog says some people turned to it when they were stuck at home during the pandemic.

Herzog says she doesn’t have exact numbers, but she knows through their the winter home gardener webinar series that there’s a lot of interest.

She says it’s something that anyone can learn to do.

Herzog says Iowa State University can answer a lot of the questions people may have on how to start a garden and how to keep it growing.

(Radio Iowa) – A national study shows falls from tree stands are now the leading cause of injury for deer hunters, even exceeding the risk of gunshot wounds. With more than 100-thousand deer hunters predicted in Iowa this season, an expert is offering suggestions to help even the odds. Megan Anderson, an injury prevention coordinator at Emplify Health by Gundersen, says one of the top causes of tree stand falls is human error, where a hunter simply loses their balance.

Falls from tree stands can be fatal, though she says hunters are more likely to survive.

She says Iowa deer hunters should consider taking some simple precautions that could help to prevent this type of fall from a tree stand.

When a hunter gets in place, she says it’s wise to check for cell reception, and if there’s no signal, to consider carrying a two-way radio in case there’s a problem. While higher might be better in some situations, Anderson says tree stands don’t have to be towering above everything else in the woods, as lower is safer.

Studies find more than 80 percent of firearm hunters and 90 percent of bow hunters hunt from a tree stand or an elevated position.

Emplify Health by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association is urging Iowa lawmakers to include money for development of vaccines for bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease in next year’s state budget. Kelli Klink is director of government relations for the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association.

“If we want affordable beef on our grocery store shelves, we must do everything we can do to protect our livestock,” Klink said. Foot-and-mouth disease is a fast-spreading viral disease that primarily affects cows and other animals with split hooves, like pigs and sheep. Foot-and-mouth disease has been eradicated from North America, but livestock producers are concerned it could arrive in the U-S in a shipment of livestock from another country.

Since 2024, bird flu has been detected in 13 dairy herds in Iowa. Joel Harris is C-E-O of Genvax Technologies in Ames, which received a state 250-thousand dollar grant last year to support its research into a bird flu vaccine. He says the virus has been the most significant animal disease event in U.S. history. “In Iowa alone, millions of chickens and turkeys have been depopulated to stop the spread, costing farmers, straining rural communities and impacting food prices,” Harris said.

“Investing in foreign animal disease preparedness, especially vaccine development, is one of the most cost-effective tools we have. It helps protect Iowa farmers, reduces the need for mass depopulations, strengthens biosecurity and keeps our food supply stable and affordable.” Harris made his comments during a recent online forum with Governor Kim Reynolds. The governor says she gets a monthly update from the U-S-D-A about bird flu.

“It is critical we figure out how to get in front of this,” Reynolds said. Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are part of a bipartisan group of senators that have called on the U-S-D-A to speed up its review of the agency’s avian flu vaccine strategy for poultry. Last February, U-S Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a billion dollar plan to address the ongoing outbreak of bird flu — and it included 100 million dollars for research into a bird flu vaccine and other potential treatments.