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
Indianola native Dayton Duncan will discuss and screen part of his new project "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," which he produced with Ken Burns. The documentary premieres nationally on Sept. 27. WHEN and WHERE: 3 and 7 p.m. Friday at Simpson College's Lekberg Hall in Indianola... 7 p.m. Saturday at Iowa Western Community College's Looft Hall in Council Bluffs ADMISSION: Free BONUS: An earlier Duncan/Burns project, "Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery," airs at 3 p.m. Sunday on Iowa Public Television. INFO: pbs.org/nationalparks Dayton Duncan, an Indianola, Iowa native, will visit Indianola on Friday and Council Bluffs on Saturday to talk about the filming process - all six years, 800 rolls of film and 50 interviews of it. He'll talk about how the show, like earlier projects with Burns ("The Civil War," "Baseball" and "Jazz"), explores the big sweep of history and draws parallels with today. Duncan's research also casts new light on some of the parks' unsung heroes, including the late U.S. Rep. John Lacey, an eight-term Republican from Oskaloosa. He authored bills around the turn of the last century that protected park animals from poaching and gave presidents the authority to set aside new areas for historic and scientific reasons. Theodore Roosevelt used Lacey's Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect Devils Tower and the Grand Canyon, and President Carter used it to save wildlife in Alaska. Most recently, President George W. Bush used the law to preserve Hawaii's northwestern islands. The Antiquities Act "really is the greatest tool for conservation in history," Duncan said. "As a fellow Iowan, I'm particularly proud to give John F. Lacey the credit he's due."The filmmaker hopes the series will renew enthusiasm for the "uniquely American" idea of the national parks.
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. 
