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MIDAS Council of Governments

Project Title: Boone River Landcare Project – Hamilton County, Iowa

Name of Council: MIDAS Council of Governments

State/Region Incorporated: Iowa – Planning Region V

Population of Region: 100,000 (Northcentral Iowa)

Project Manager: Stephen F. Hoesel, Executive Director

Link to Website or to final document: http://www.midascog.org/


Project Description

The MIDAS Council of Governments formed a partnership with the Prairie Rivers RC&D and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture to initiate a Landcare discussion for a sub-watershed (#28) of the Boone River of Northcentral Iowa. The project site is located within the larger Mississippi River Basin, within which the model could be easily replicated, particularly within the American Corn Belt. The project created a Landcare discussion that focused on alternatives to reduce urban/rural sediment runoff and particle borne contaminants that contribute to the Gulf of Mexico’s Hypoxia Zone.

The partnership packaged National Forest Service/NARC and Nature Conservancy Altria funds to provide an approximate $36,000 budget to hire a “Project Coordinator” to work one-on-one with area farmers and community interests to discuss and implement a variety of soil conservation and urban conservation practices. Once the discussion began, the partnership leveraged funds and assistance from other partners who are now providing more detailed technical studies, such as erosion analysis by NRCS, GIS mapping by CARD, Nitrogen/Phosphate testing by the Iowa Soybean Association, and financial-project support from the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Corn Producers.

The program was structured through collaborative efforts by Partners that brought to the table a variety of Landcare interests whose input was critical to the end product. Prairie Rivers RC&D functioned as the principal facilitator because of its historic work with the private sector, farmers, environmentalists, and agricultural chemical companies. Iowa State University (CARD) provided specialty mapping services. The Leopold Center worked actively with MIDAS and PRRC&D in the design and planning of meetings and activities associated with the project; provided contacts and links to other projects; and facilitated implementation strategies that reflect sustainable agriculture principles. The MIDAS Council of Governments assumed a primary function of bringing into the discussion the local elected/appointed officials that it deals with on a daily basis through issues of improved sanitary treatment, sound land use practices to discourage runoff and pollution, and improved cleaning of storm water discharge.

Short Term and Long Term Strategies:

  • Utilize the expertise of the National Agroforestry Center to review logical solutions to sediment reduction.
  • Identify downstream concerns that subsidize upstream improvements and quantify environmental benefits.
  • Demonstrate and monitor in-field nutrient and pesticide use practices with current commodity crops that increase efficiency.
  • Demonstrate incentives, conservation payments, increased economic returns that show why farmers should have a financial interest in the project.
  • Plan and implement infrastructure changes in the watershed to include more wetlands, drainage alterations, and water management modifications to the landscape.
  • Show how existing and new programs may qualify as Landcare activities. 
  • Design and evaluate alternative cropping systems to meet new markets. 
  • Spin off projects or partnerships to develop markets for “treatment” crops; i.e. forages, natives, biomass, fiber. 
  • Work with the farm community to develop alternative cash crops to compensate for reduction in farmable land through buffer strip and wetland creation.

Project Tasks:

  1. Identify a sub-watershed in the Boone River Watershed for the initial project demonstration area.
  2. Establish a committee of watershed residents to coordinate local participation.
  3. Complete a GIS-based watershed assessment to support watershed planning. 
  4. Complete a biological assessment of the Boone River to establish environmental goals for the sub-watershed addressing stream hydrology, chemistry, and physical habitat conditions. 
  5. Establish in-field nutrient reduction demonstrations, collect and analyze data from demonstration sites and correlate to GIS data. 
  6. Evaluate in-field farming practices to identify practices potentially amenable to improvements that will benefit both the farms and the watershed. 
  7. Complete a collaborative planning effort for the sub-watershed for all stakeholders, including individual farmers, who are interested in active participation in or observing the process.Convene local government and development interests to review development ordinances that would reduce sediment run-off from existing urban areas and in potential development zones.

Implementation:

  • Area Planning Process
  • GIS-based assessment of current soils, drainage, land use
  • Demonstrations
  • Monitoring/modeling
  • Landowner feedback
  • Identification of funding incentives
  • Policy development
  • Evaluation

Partners and Potential Funding Sources:

  • Prairie Rivers of Iowa RC&D
  • MIDAS Council of Governments
  • The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
  • The Nature Conservancy in Iowa
  • Iowa Soybean Association
  • State Agencies such as Iowa DNR and Iowa Dept. of Agriculture
  • Federal Agencies such as U. S. Forest Service, NRCS, and EPA
  • Altria Environmental Grants

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