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The collaborative work of funding partners, conservation organizations and government agencies has made strides in water and soil conservation work in Eastern Iowa.
The Cedar Rapids Utilities Department organized a celebration last week to mark the culmination of two years of work to construct farmland edge of field practices -- like saturated buffers and bioreactors -- to improve water quality in Cedar Rapids and the surrounding area.
In total, over the course of two years, 37 individual practices were constructed.
"Farmland water quality projects such as these are essential for moving the needle on reducing nitrate levels in the Cedar River and protecting the City's source water supply," Roy Hesemann, Cedar Rapids' director of utilities, said in a news release.
In the Indian Creek Watershed, Marissa Cartwright, Linn County's soil health coordinator, reported goals were not just met, but exceeded. Cartwright said the goal was to build five edge of field practices in the watershed, but they ended up with 16.
Cartwright said it was "really great" that the original goal could be surpassed for saturated buffers, which plant perennial vegetation between farm fields to act as a buffer that filters contaminants out of water, resulting in cleaner water flowing down to the water table.
Cartwright said funding for the first five bioreactors and saturated buffers in the Indian Creek Watershed came from benefactors: one was "self-funded" through the City of Cedar Rapids, one was funded by the Cedar Rapids-Linn County Solid Waste Agency, one by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and two paid by the Conservation Reserve Program. Both EQIP and CRP are programs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The 11 additional saturated buffers and bioreactors were funded through the Iowa Department of Agriculture's "batch and build" model that installs batches of conservation practices on multiple farms at once.
Cartwright said the Indian Creek Soil Health Partnership also more than tripled its outreach event goal, completing 35 events out if its original goal of 10.
The Indian Creek Watershed Management Authority is one of six watershed management authorities in Linn County that has been engaging in this work.
Linn County's Maquoketa River Watershed and the Upper Wapsipinicon River Watershed management authorities are two others that are engaging in similar work, including water quality efforts and soil conservation.
Indian Creek Watershed's accomplishments were among several celebrated at the event on Wednesday. Some of the 2024 achievements for Linn County Conservation include:
These projects "are really exciting stuff," said Daniel Gibbins, deputy director of Linn County Conservation. "And we've got a lot of things in the hopper coming up."
Matt McDonald, water quality initiative projects coordinator for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said this year saw about a 20 percent increase in cover crops.
In 2024, there were about 67,000 acres of Iowa land with cover crops planted in just state money, McDonald said, referencing numbers collected from the Department of Agriculture. That's out of a total 3.8 million acres of cover crops planted across the state.
"It's definitely encouraging to see," McDonald said.
Through the Cover Crop Cost-Share Program, Iowa's USDA office helps mitigate the price of planting cover crops for farmers. In 2024, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced that farmers who are planting for the first time could be eligible for $30 per acre in state money to help plant, while returning participants of the program are eligible for $20 per acre.
According to a map published by the department, eight Iowa counties were reported to have between 10,000 and 15,000 acres of cover crops in 2024. Only five counties had less than 1,000 acres of cover crops.
McDonald also spoke about the batch and build program. In total, nine Iowa counties -- most in central and Eastern Iowa -- had batch and build projects under construction in 2024.
Jeff Lucas, executive director of the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance said much of this work is targeting the Middle Cedar Watershed, a 1.5-million-acre watershed that spans 10 Eastern Iowa counties, including Linn, Benton, Buchanan, Black Hawk and Grundy.
Between 2013 and 2024, priority watershed areas throughout the state grew. McDonald said there are about 17 counties in the state with "up and coming" batch and build projects. The upcoming construction is primarily in central and north central Iowa.