Elizabeth Miglin | May 25, 2021
The Iowa state legislative session ended on Thursday with water quality bills taking center stage and receiving mixed responses.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig touted the 10-year extension of a state water quality program which will provide an additional $320 million in funding for water quality projects. Most of the funds will go to paying farmers for soil conservation and reducing chemical runoff projects; however, providing wildlife habitats and recreation will also be supported by these funds.
As Naig emphasized, this funding upholds the Iowa environmental goals adopted in 2013 known as the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The recommendations were expected to cost $89.3 million to $1.4 billion a year when adjusted for inflation. However, the Iowa Environmental Council noted that of the $500 million spent in Iowa on federal conservation programs in years past, only $17 million was focused directly on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Stra
Iowa environmental protection is in a coma It s really serious
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Izaak Walton Fishing Day at Marr Park. Iowa Division of Izaak Walton League
When voters approved the Iowa Natural Resource and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund in 2010, the Iowa Izaak Walton League was one of the prominent conservation voices behind the movement.
We saw then the trend of deterioration in Iowa’s rivers and lakes. Soil experts and many conservation voices within the agriculture community also were noting the growing problem with millions of tons of Iowa’s black gold laden with fertilizers and chemicals annually washing down the Mississippi River, a leading cause of the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nicole Welle | February 15, 2021
GOP members of the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee voted last week to advance a bill that would reduce tax breaks for Iowa forest reserves.
Currently, landowners qualify for a 100% tax break on land made up of forests as small as two acres. The new bill would reduce the forest reserve tax break to 75% of the property value, require a minimum of 10 acres to qualify and place a five-year limit on exemptions. GOP senators who introduced the bill argued that it could prevent landowners from cheating the system, but Democrats criticized its timing as Iowa fights chronic water pollution and continues to recover from the derecho that destroyed 25% of the state’s trees last August, according to an Iowa Capital Dispatch article.