Guest Post - I-WILL Vote Yes for Natural Resources Protection

I am writing to alert you that November 2nd, Iowans will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to significantly increase natural resource funding in our state.

On the back of the ballot is Question 1, known as Iowa's Water and Land Legacy (IWILL), to create a constitutionally-protected Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund. A small percentage of any future sales tax increase will be dedicated to this fund.


In Missouri, Minnesota and deveral other states, such measures have led to significant increases in natural resource funding and a boom in nature and eco-tourism.


I am voting YES for IWILL, because:

• Iowa ranks 49 out of 50 states in public lands, and 47 out of 50 states in natural resource spending.
• Although our rich soils are the lifeblood of our state, over half our topsoil has already washed away. Iowa is losing a staggering average of five tons of topsoil, per acre, per year.
• Major flood events are increasing, at great human and economic cost.
• We have 500 impaired waterways. Excess nutrients flowing down the Mississippi have created an enormous dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Song-bird and other wild-life populations continue in decline as their habitat is degraded.
• Farmers and landowners need assistance in funding additional voluntary conservation measures.
• The state Department of Natural Resources does not have enough resources to adequately maintain our state parks.
• Enhanced REAP funding is needed to fund trails, environmental education, and other outdoor recreation options.
• We need to maintain our agricultural productivity long-term, and create jobs linked to outdoor recreation. The Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund will provide a permanent and accountable funding mechanism for protection of water quality, conservation of agricultural soils and improvement of natural areas in Iowa, including fish and wildlife habitat.

The next two weeks are crucial! A majority vote is needed to have this measure pass. Please, spread the word to your friends and family and urge them to vote YES for IWILL!

Feel free to forward a linke to this blog to any groups you may belong to.

For more information, see:  http://www.yesiowa.org/

Why do I care?

As board-member of the non-profit Whiterock Conservancy land trust (www.whiterockconservancy.org), and director of a non-profit that promotes small-town vitality (www.creatinggreatplaces.org), I believe that investments in preserving natural resource are vital to our economic future as a state.

Thank you for your time and interest. Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this. Also, please let me know if you would prefer to be taken off my email list.

Sincerely,

Rachel Garst

home 712-651-2015 rgarst@netins.net

office 712-999-7031 rachelg@creatinggreatplaces.org

Iowa's Natural Heritage: On the October 8 edition of The Iowa Journal

Thursday’s episode of The Iowa Journal takes to the great outdoors to explore Iowa’s role in the preservation and conservation of the state’s and the nation’s natural heritage. This special one-hour program airs Thursday, October 8 at 8 p.m. Portions of this program will be rebroadcast Friday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m. on statewide Iowa Public Television. The full one-hour show will air again on Saturday, October 10 at 8:30 a.m. It will also be available online at iptv.org/iowajournal.

In the first half hour of the program, Dan Kaercher takes viewers around the state to learn about people who have made and are making a difference to Iowa’s environment, in the past, the present and the future. Kaercher introduces viewers to four early Iowa conservationists: John F. Lacey, Charles Reuben Keyes, Ada Hayden, and Margo K. Frankel.

He also travels the Loess Hills in western Iowa and learns what people are doing to save the unusual topographical formation there. The program also visits Lakeside Lab on West Lake Okoboji. Founded in 1909 to teach students about “nature in nature,” Lakeside Lab offers opportunities students can’t find anywhere else.

The Thursday and Saturday broadcasts will also feature host Paul Yeager discussing environmental issues in the studio with Bill Northey, Iowa’s secretary of agriculture; Pat Boddy, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources; former Congressman Neal Smith who served Iowa for 36 years in the U.S. House; Connie Mutel, from The University of Iowa, ecologist and author of Fragile Giants about Iowa’s Loess Hills and The Emerald Horizon: The History of Nature in Iowa; and Chad Graeve, natural resource specialist at the Hitchcock Nature Center near Honey Creek.

For more information about The Iowa Journal, visit www.iptv.org/iowajournal

DNR DIRECTOR TO HOLD PUBLIC FORUMS ACROSS IOWA

Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, will be holding public forums across Iowa again this year to discuss natural resource issues with Iowans.

The first forum will be held at Honey Creek Resort State Park on Thursday, Aug. 6.

“I really look forward to hearing from Iowa’s citizens. Last year, we got great feedback and ideas from more than 300 attendees,” said Leopold about the seven forums held last year. “Our relationship with Iowans is something we highly value within the DNR and we will work together on the things most affecting our natural resources.”

Each public forum begins at 6 p.m. with Director Leopold outlining the DNR’s top priorities, the environmental report card, providing an update on budget cuts and discussing local issues. Another hour-and-a-half will be devoted to answering questions from the public.

Public forums scheduled for Director Leopold are as follows listed by date:

Moravia
Honey Creek Resort State Park Lodge
Thursday, Aug. 6, 6 p.m.

Lehigh
Dolliver State Park Lodge
Thursday, Aug. 20, 6 p.m.

Solon
Lake Macbride State Park Main Lodge
Thursday, Aug. 27, 6 p.m.

Bellevue
Bellevue State Park Lodge
Thursday, Sept. 3, 6 p.m.

Bedford
Lake of Three Fires State Park Lodge
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 6 p.m.

Clear Lake
Clear Lake State Park Lodge
Thursday, Sept. 17, 6 p.m.

Sioux City
Stone State Park Lodge
Thursday, Sept. 24, 6 p.m.

MEDIA CONTACT: Tammie Krausman, DNR, at (515) 402-8763 or Tammie.Krausman@dnr.iowa.gov.