wildlife

No “One Size Fits All” Solution

Justin and Beth Jordan, Iowa Learning Farms farmer partners and Warren County residents, started farming in 2000. Justin grew up farming and working in construction alongside his dad and grandpa, saving up the funds to buy his first farm right out of high school. Today the Jordans raise corn, soybeans, and hay and rent pasture ground to a neighbor. In addition to farming, Justin works as a city building inspector and is a Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner.

After making his first land purchase, Justin noticed erosion issues and knew he would need to make some changes to how he managed the land. He utilized different cost-share programs to build terraces and rebuild waterways. These practices helped start the transformation, but Justin knew more could be done. “A lot of my erosion was due to low organic matter in the soil,” said Justin, “I started no-tilling to preserve the soil, but noticed during big rains erosion was still happening.”

In 2007, all the acres Justin farms were switched to a no-till system, and he continued looking for more ways to boost the organic matter content. He started using cover crops under a Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) contract and changed the type of fertilizer used. Now his erosion issues are gone, and the land has great water infiltration. “I’ve learned how to take a farm and transform it; boosting its organic matter and making it more productive at the same time,” said Justin.

Another way Justin has added conservation to the farm is by rotating small areas in and out of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Not only does this help stop erosion and boost organic matter in the soil, but it also adds wildlife habitat. Something he initially wasn’t passionate about, but now can’t imagine not having an area for wildlife. “We want to create a place where we all work together,” said Beth and Justin. “There’s a balance between raising food, having wildlife, and preserving the prairie remnants.”

Justin walking through an Evergreen Grove the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) planted in 1957 in a contract with a previous landowner.

The Jordans have seen great success in the last 20 years and have learned a lot. In the last couple of years, Justin has started managing his dad’s land and implementing conservation practices. He has adapted his process and is adding grass strips instead of terraces this time around. He is making this switch because his focus is on fixing the soil health first resulting in less erosion issues. With this approach he will be able to mow and bale the grass strips instead of taking that land out of production.

Justin works to incorporate practices that meet his goal of zero erosion while watching the bottom line. He is cognizant of time requirements, cost of practices, and just what works best on that piece of land. “In farming there is no one size fits all and that is the same for conservation practices,” stated Justin, “What works for me might not work for someone in Kansas, Maine, or even my neighbor.”

–Alena Whitaker

Putting Conservation Before Profitability

Despite leaving her family’s Greene County operation after high school, Iowa Learning Farms farmer partner Chris Henning has grown a love for preserving the land. Beginning with the flood of 1993, Chris knew that action was needed to reduce the impact of her farm on Iowa’s landscape. Since then, she has implemented buffers along streams, CRP, no-tillage, cover crops, and reclaimed wetlands. Having all these practices in place, Chris hopes to make a difference for others downstream.

Chris Henning outside her Greene County home

Chris was the oldest of six girls growing up on her family’s farm in rural Greene County. In addition to helping care for her siblings, she was tasked to help on the farm. “I began driving a tractor when I was ten years old.” Although she had deep agricultural roots, Chris chose to leave the farm after graduating high school. She settled in Des Moines working in labor relations but made the occasional trip home. After marrying in 1991, Chris’s husband felt she should be closer to her roots. Within a year the couple bought an acreage with 145 acres. Chris’s father farmed the ground until the flood of 1993. After seeing the devastation across central Iowa, Chris knew a change was needed. She immediately began planting 100-foot prairie buffers along the four creeks on her property with help from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. This totaled in 26 acres of prairie that got Chris hooked on conservation. 

Prairie plants on Chris’s farm

With the flood of 1993 came Chris’s increased concern for how her land was managed. Because of this, Chris has leased her land mostly through a 50/50 crop share. While she liked the hands-off aspect of having a tenant rent the land, she was concerned about how well the land was being cared for. With crop share, she can give her opinion on all parts of managing the land. Having experience as a landlord, Chris has become an ambassador for those looking to implement conservation practices on their tenant operated land. Through the National Wildlife Federation and Women Food and Ag Network, she has shared lessons on cover crops and soil health.

Profitability in agriculture is a necessity for many farmers, but not Chris. With a main goal of preserving the land, she has become content with breaking-even. While her husband insisted on a 5% return, Chris knew that their off-farm jobs would allow for some flexibility. She has also seen the benefits of taking some of her low yielding areas out of production. Restoring low spots to wetland habitat in one of her fields has resulted in an overall higher return on investment. By emphasizing sustainability over profits, Chris is putting full focus on making Iowa better for all people. 

Prairie plants on Chris’s farm

Since moving back to Greene County, Chris has come to enjoy learning about the history of her land. She takes great interest in seeing how the land has changed since she moved in 1991. As agriculture continues to evolve, she hopes of the state become greener through increased cover crops and tree plantings. Chris sees the great benefits to humans, as well as the swans, beavers, geese, and turtles she enjoys seeing on her property. “Sometimes we forget just how much humans need wilderness.” 

–Mitch Harting

Exploring Agriculture and Natural Resources through Children’s Books

Like most toddlers, my two-year-old has a long list of favorite things ranging from applesauce to zoos and things starting with all the letters between. However, books and trips to our local library vie for the top spot and have become a weekend tradition for our family. Through these children’s books, our family takes weekly explorations of life on the farm and how we can care for our natural resources.

Reading the stories aloud, the illustrations of the farms in children’s books have stuck out to me. The crop fields are black/dark brown, save for the crops growing, indicating that there was tillage and no weeds to manage. As someone working in agriculture and encouraging the use of practices that help protect the soil from erosion and improve water quality, I am more sensitive to the illustrations than others might be. I don’t expect these works of fiction designed for young children to dive into all the aspects of agriculture and the impact on water, soil, wildlife, and more. However, I do think there is an opportunity to incorporate conservation practices and the importance of our natural resources in the text and illustrations.

Here are some of our family’s favorite books that do just that!

Additional favorites highlighting the importance of protecting our natural resources and how much our actions matter:

As quoted from a favorite childhood show, Reading Rainbow, “You don’t have to take my word for it!” Check out these titles for yourself at your local library or gift them to a reader on your holiday gift list this year! If you have additional recommendations, I would love to hear from you – just click on the signature below and send me an email.

–Liz Ripley

Sociology Unearthed #4: Rare Birds & Roadkill

Driving in north central Iowa, I encountered an eagle eating a dead raccoon in the road. I passed slowly while the eagle quickly flew a low circle ending back at the roadkill. For a few seconds, I braked and fumbled with a camera, but I figured that photographing a bird eating roadkill is about as good as photographing roadkill, so I kept driving. I’ll hold on to the blurry photos as some sort of data, digitally marked with time and date, but I doubt that I’ll find any real use for photographs containing roadkill.

I want to write this week about birds in Iowa, photographs of birds in Iowa, the news media and social media that absorb and spread photographs of birds in Iowa, and how collectively selecting for eagles over roadkill can trick us into feeling like there are more eagles on the highway than dead raccoons. Okay, nobody thinks that. However, we do seem to collectively understand that photographs and other visual media, as an aggregate, do not seem to represent reality back to us very accurately.

A steady flow of news stories and social media posts about rare bird sightings over the last several years have painted a conservation landscape of rare and charismatic avian species, far beyond their range, spotted by lucky citizen scientists. Earlier this year, Hurricane Idalia blew flamingos up from Florida into Pennsylvania and Ohio. Snowy owls made rare appearances in southern California in 2023 and New York City in 2021. Rare sightings of temperate wetland-dwelling limpkins have been made in Nebraska, Colorado, and Iowa. Midwestern sightings of roseate spoonbills have become more frequent in recent years, the birds even venturing as far north as Wisconsin. A rare tundra bean goose was recently spotted in Iowa.

The news stories are driven by photographs; proof that yes, the bird was there, apparently verified by the social media posts of flocking ornithophiles. What do the sightings mean? In ancient Rome, religious officials called augurs professionally read the behavior of birds as omens linked to commerce, war, famine, etc. Now, we ask scientists to read bird behavior for insights into climate change and ecological well-being. Photographic encounters with rare birds are data, evidence of something if only the significance would be revealed to us by scientific officials. As Arctic birds descend and tropical birds ascend, will Iowa become more permanent grounds for unfamiliar species?

Insisting on uncertainty, the scientists make awkward augurs. Often, they suggest that rather than rare and photogenic bird encounters, more tangible evidence of ecological threats can be found in the collective behavior of less flashy species. For example, tree swallows have been used in studies of environmental stress due to their sensitivity to the effects of chemical pollution and other exogenous environmental factors (McCarty 2001). Indeed, scientists have lately warned that declines in insectivorous birds may signal the somewhat invisible yet highly alarming absence of insect prey (Tallamy and Shriver 2021). Perhaps the ranging of rare birds is more photogenic than the widespread death of insects. Perhaps wildlife is photographed more than wild death.

If you do want a more accurate picture of how climate change may be impacting Iowa birds’ food sources and nesting sites, the Audubon Society has a very user-friendly tool with interactive maps. Further data on Iowa bird sightings made by citizen scientists is also publicly available.

To my knowledge, no such interactive tools, nor widespread conservation news stories, nor widely followed social media accounts, nor popular hashtags seek to document the widespread death of animal species, even as Cornell scientists warn that North American birds are rapidly declining, as much as 1/3 of North American birds disappearing in the last 50 years.

As the unphotogenic deaths of plants, insects, and offspring inspire birds to range, our conservation news and social media captures glimpses of rare and photogenic species apparently trailblazing adaptive grounds. Hidden somewhere behind this representational reality produced by news and social media, the decline of North American avian and insect biomass is obscured. If we are trying to augur with Iowa birds in 2023, it may be worth remembering that relevant data points are likely far outside of a photograph’s frame, decaying. Maybe then I will say that driving in north central Iowa, I encountered a raccoon, and though it was dead in the road, its body had attracted an eagle.

Happy Halloween!

References

McCarty, J. P. (2001). Use of tree swallows in studies of environmental stress. Reviews in Toxicology, 4(1), 61-104.

Tallamy, D. W., & Shriver, W. G. (2021). Are declines in insects and insectivorous birds related?. The Condor, 123(1), duaa059.

-Jon Dahlem

Redefining Our Relationships to “weeds”

Picture a weed. Or better yet, a mess of them.

Now, what if I told you to turn to a stranger contemplating the same question and share your imaginings: do you think you’d have pictured the same place or plants?

My guess is no.

Sure, I suspect some non-trivial proportion of Iowans reflecting on my prompt let their mind drift quickly to a stand of waterhemp towering over soybeans. But too, I bet just as many (almost certainly more actually) pictured piles of lambsquarters seedlings next to neat row of emerging garden plants. Others pictured a yard carpeted in yellow blooms in early summer, while some picture a pasture overrun with leafy spurge or Canada thistle. Others still, an image of a woodland carpeted in honeysuckle or garlic mustard. Among the boaters, perhaps a lake in August and a with propeller sheathed in an endless twine of submersed plants.

Native vegetation on erosion-prone areas like hillsides are multifunctional aspects of our farms, protecting soil and helping wildlife.

Now, I’m going to get back to this hypothetical, but let me take a brief pause for a confession. Wildlife, and thus wildlife biologists like me, love weeds. A drive past my house in Ames, where you’d see purple coneflower growing from cracks in my sidewalk, cages around volunteer walnut trees in the yard, and a whole third of the lawn in transition from what past owners mowed and yours truly does not, would provide sufficient evidence. Visit the addresses of other wildlife lovers like me throughout Iowa and you’ll find more of the same. We tend to go the way of Ralph Waldo Emmerson’s assertion that a weed is “a plant whose virtues have never been discovered.”

Then I think of the hatred I have towards Hackelia virginiana and I’m snapped back to reality. Yeah, I hate that weed.

So what then is a weed?

Each of the imaginings I posed in my hypothetical answers above seem to me to check the “weed” box. Waterhemp shading soybeans: weed. Thistle stamping out forage: weed. Annuals in gardens, invasives in forests, exotics overrunning lakes: weeds. Maybe Ralph and all his romanticism had it wrong.

But then I reflect on the more expansive conceptualization of “weeds” I’ve been exposed to in my life spent evangelizing the less loved plants among us and I’m reminded of the work we have to do. Patches of ragweed on a field edge doing no harm to a crop, ravaged with the mower before the bobwhites could escape under their shade in late summer or turn their seeds into warmth for a cold winter’s night. Milkweed, dotting an abandoned fencerow wilting in the wake of 2,4-D, starving the monarch of a nursery on which to raise her young and the Oyamel fir of its winter ornamentation. A cottonwood ripped from a wet spot before it becomes the trusses for an oriole nest or the site of a cavity stuffed full of barred owl chicks.

Milkweeds are critical for monarchs. Viceroys (lower right) are one of the many other butterflies that benefit from nectar sources “weedy areas” provide.

Sometimes the harm goes beyond the individual plants to whole paradigms of how land should look or what plants constitute propriety. Where I worked in Ohio, a family meeting was called to raise exceptions to a new Conservation Reserve Program filter strip along the flood-prone creek through the farm because someone at the coffee shop asked Grandpa why the farm was “grown up in weeds.” Early in my career in Iowa, someone wearing the same red shirt as me at a conference disparaged native seed dealers as “weed seed dealers” at the height of Palmer paranoia.

So what then, is a weed anyway?

Some say, “a plant out of place.” But that definition falls short in its failure to focus on the consequences of any one plant or it’s impacts on any one place. Refining the definition to include those plants out of place that are also doing some measurable harm – economical or ecological – gets us closer.

Such a distinction becomes particularly consequential as we step away from the portions of our farms where we grow commodities and into the margins: field edges, natural areas, wet spots, landscapes, yards, roadsides, barn lots, fencerows, flood-prone fields, and so on. There among our land’s tired, poor, and huddled masses, a paradigm that’s a little more inclined towards a pillar of our judicial system – innocent until proven guilty – would do right by wildlife, soil, and water that wild plants so often protect.

Natural areas with a mix of herbaceous and woody plants on the margins of farm fields are essential to support wildlife in Iowa.

Redefining our relationship to weeds can even help the bottom line. Laying off the mower can save money and time (and green house gas emissions). Diverse, well maintained native plant communities are more resistant to invasions by exotic invasive species that do more harm. And natural plant communities on the margins of our farms help the animals that help us too like pollinators, bats, and insectivorous birds. Shoot, you can even eat your weeds if you’re so inclined, as George Washington Carver once espoused his war time friends and neighbors to do.

So next time you’re thinking about your farm or yard or roadside or any piece of Iowa’s 36 million acres you own or have influence over, think about redefining your relationship to weeds and discovering more virtues in the plants with whom we share this place.

–Adam Janke

Is that a pond or a wetland? How to tell ponds and wetlands apart and why the correct name matters.

While ponds and wetlands may look similar at first glance, they are two distinct ecosystems with different structural characteristics and ecosystem functions. Some key features that can help to tell them apart include water depth, surface area, percent of emergent plant cover, and bank slope. These differences influence the types of plant communities present, what animals live in or use the ecosystems, and their water quality benefits.

Unfortunately, there is not one universally recognized definition for wetlands or ponds. Definitions vary by agency, organization, and state, but tend to include information on water depth, surface area, and percent of emergent plant cover. Emergent plants are plants that are rooted in saturated or flooded soil and grow above the water’s surface. Common examples of emergent plants include pickerelweed, arrowhead, and cattails.

Ponds have a maximum depth of up to about 15 ft, tend to have an average water depth ranging between 4 to 8 ft, and have less than 30% emergent plant cover. Pond surface area can range from less than an acre in size up to about 12 acres. In contrast, wetlands tend to have a maximum depth of about 8 ft, have an average water depth less than 3 ft, and have more than 30% emergent plant cover. Wetland surface area can range from less than an acre in size to covering an expanse of hundreds of acres. A common water quality improvement wetland in Iowa, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) wetland, is even shallower with an average water depth of about 2 ft. Figure 1, from a study comparing multiple publications to classify ponds, lakes, and wetlands, provides a visual example of these structural differences.

Figure 1 Structural comparison of different aquatic ecosystems including ponds and wetlands. Source: Richardson et al. 2022.

Another key characteristic is bank slope or the steepness of the pond and wetland sides. If you consider practice design standards through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, ponds (Code 378) have a suggested side slope of 2 horizontal lengths to 1 vertical height (2H:1V) or flatter. For created wetlands (Code 658), the National Engineering Handbook (Title 210, Part 650, Chapter 13) suggests slopes of 6H:1V or gentler, with 10H:1V to 15H:1V being common. If shallow wetland habitat for amphibians and reptiles is being constructed, a slope of less than 20H:1V is recommended. A visual comparison of these suggested maximum slopes can be found in figure 2. In general, ponds have steeper bank slopes than wetlands.

Figure 2 Comparison of maximum slope suggestions for ponds and wetlands.

Bank slope and water depth determine the types of plant communities present in ponds and wetlands. Pond and wetland plant zones include a wet meadow where plants grow in moist soil, an emergent marsh where plants grow in saturated soil or shallow standing water, and areas of floating and submerged aquatic vegetation in water deeper than 1 ft (figure 3). Most emergent plants are not capable of growing in water deeper than about 1.5 ft but can handle short periods of higher water levels. Wetlands have gentler slopes than ponds and thus larger areas of shallow water where emergent vegetation can grow, resulting in greater than 30% emergent vegetation cover. Ponds with steep bank slopes may have little to no wet meadow, emergent marsh, or floating aquatic vegetation.

Figure 3 Wetland plant zones along a water depth gradient. Source: Iowa Wetlands.

Gentle bank slopes and dense vegetation can provide wildlife habitat for amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Due to the shallow nature of wetlands, some will be fish-free ecosystems. The lack of fish is particularly good for amphibians as their eggs, tadpoles, and larvae are all eaten by fish. Wetlands with gentler bank slopes and dense emergent marsh vegetation tend to have higher numbers of amphibian species present (Shulse et al 2012). On the other hand, ponds commonly have either naturally occurring or introduced fish populations. The presence of fish drastically reduces or excludes amphibian populations in ponds.

Ecosystem services, like water quality improvements, also differ between ponds and wetlands.  A study comparing multiple ponds, lakes, and wetlands found that wetlands had lower total nitrogen concentrations than ponds (Richardson et al. 2022). The difference in total nitrogen concentrations may be due to higher rates of denitrification in wetlands compared to ponds. Denitrification, a microbial process where nitrate is converted to nitrogen gas, removes nitrogen from the water and improves water quality.  This suggests that wetlands had better water quality from a nitrogen standpoint. 

While ponds and wetlands are sometimes lumped together or their names used interchangeably, they are two distinct ecosystems. Calling a pond a wetland incorrectly characterizes the structure of the ecosystem and its functions. This also leads to the incorrect assumption that there are more wetlands and thus more wetland ecosystems services than actually exist. Using the correct name of a pond or wetland assures that you are accurately representing that ecosystem’s structure and function.

– Kay Stefanik

References:

Richardson et al. 2022. A functional definition to distinguish ponds from lakes and wetlands. Scientific Reports, 12, 10472. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14569-0.

Shulse et al. 2012. Testing wetland features to increase amphibian reproductive success and species richness for mitigation and restoration. Ecological Applications, 22, 1675-1688.

USDA NRCS. 2008. National Engineering Handbook (Title 210), Part 650, Chapter 13, Wetland Restoration, Enhancement, or Creation. Washington, D.C. https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=46277.wba

UPDATED Whole Farm Conservation Best Practices Manual Now Available

The Whole Farm Conservation Best Practices Manual has undergone a series of revisions and additions over the past year, and we’re thrilled to announce that the UPDATED version of this award-winning publication is now available! This second edition expands the range of conservation practices and decision tools, and incorporates feedback from users who have employed the manual since 2020.

The manual includes detailed information about in-field and edge-of-field conservation practices, and includes step-by-step decision tools to aid in determination of the best practice(s) to meet the goals of the farmer or landowner.

Additional conservation practices featured in the new release include:

  • Multipurpose oxbows
  • Windbreaks
  • Riparian forest buffers
  • Bottomland timber establishment

Sections covering practices such as cover crops, no-till, terraces, ponds, water and sediment control basins and grassed waterways also include expanded information. In addition, each conservation practice profiled in the manual is covered in detail regarding fit for land type, conservation goals such as reduction in nitrogen-N or phosphorus-P, soil health and wildlife habitat. Focused specifically on farmers and landowners, the updated Whole Farm Conservation Best Practices Manual is available for free download or in hard copy from the ISU Extension Store.

Resources and conservation practice information specifically targeted toward agricultural consultants and conservation professionals have been moved out of the manual and established online. This will facilitate access by these individuals while keeping the farmer- and landowner-focused manual streamlined and most effective. The online Addendum: Decision Tools for Conservation Professionals is available for free download from the Conservation Learning Group website.


This manual is a joint publication of Iowa State University and USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under No. 6000004181.

Supporting Wildlife While Farming

Wildlife and insects are important for biodiversity in Iowa. How do we provide a habitat for them while still remaining large producers in farming markets? In the most recent Iowa Learning Farms Conservation Webinar Jorgen Rose, the Habitat & Policy Viability Manager with Practical Farmers of Iowa, presented several ways farmers and landowners could make changes to promote wildlife habitat while benefitting various farming operations.
  • Prairie Strips
  • Precision Conservation
  • Beneficial Insects
  • Grazing Native Perennial Forage

Rose discussed how prairie strips are now a recognized CRP practice, CP-43. They not only improve soil health benefits but also improve infiltration rates and reduce nutrient losses from fields.

PFI prides itself on supporting farmers on what to farm, not how to farm.

You’ll see a theme here as we go which is we want to make native plant communities native habitat work for us. Whether to achieve specific environmental conservation goals on the farm or to actually benefit the farming operation and improve the bottom line.

Jorgen Rose

I personally learned a lot about insectary strips and how a lot of farmers across Iowa are planting them to improve insect pollination. The strips are great at natural pest control; they provide a habitat for insects that prey on other crop pests, like the soybean aphid.

Lastly, when livestock are managed correctly they can graze on native grasses and forbs. Once native perennials are established, they are more drought tolerant than exotic cool season grasses and can grow all summer.

Tune in to Rose’s full presentation, Making Space for Wildlife on Working Farms. And for any other webinars you’ve missed in the ILF Conservation Webinar series, all past webinars are archived on the ILF Webinars page for your viewing pleasure.

–Alena Whitaker

Wildlife and Working Farms are an Excellent Pairing

Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Aug. 17, featuring Jorgen Rose, habitat and policy viability manager at Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). Rose is part of the PFI team that works with farmers to connect them with people, networks, education and resources they need to build more resilient farms and communities. He has a strong interest in integrating multi-benefit edge-of-field and habitat conservation practices into farming operations benefits wildlife, water quality and soil health.

In the webinar, “Making Space for Wildlife on Working Farms,” Rose will discuss broad strategies for integrating wildlife conservation practices into different types of agricultural operations, including field crop operations, specialty crop farms and livestock operations. In addition, he will offer insights into the direct and indirect benefits of establishing and maintaining wildlife habitats as an element of working farms. Rose will also highlight the different services and outreach provided by PFI to aid farmers in learning about and implementing working-lands habitat conservation practices.

Blooming prairie strip

“We know that many farmers are interested in edge-of-field practices that contribute to water quality protections while also making space for wildlife, building soil health and fighting climate change, in ways that align with operating a financially successful farming business,” said Rose. “PFI is dedicated to providing access to information, education and resources that empower farmers to make decisions for their lands which also support their conservation and financial goals.”

Participants in Iowa Learning Farms Conservation Webinars are encouraged to ask questions of the presenters. People from all backgrounds and areas of interest are encouraged to join.

Webinar Access Instructions

To participate in the live webinar, shortly before noon CDT Aug. 17:

Click this URL, or type this web address into your internet browser: https://iastate.zoom.us/j/364284172

Or go to https://iastate.zoom.us/join and enter meeting ID: 364 284 172

Or join from a dial-in phone line:

Dial: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 876 9923

Meeting ID: 364 284 172

The webinar will also be recorded and archived on the ILF website, so that it can be watched at any time. Archived webinars are available at https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/webinars. For a list of upcoming webinars visit https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/events.

A Certified Crop Adviser board-approved continuing education unit (CEU) has been applied for. Those who participate in the live webinar are eligible. Information about how to apply to receive the credit will be provided at the end of the live webinar.

The Search for Iowa’s Beavers

Today’s guest blog post comes from water resources intern Mitch Harting.  Originally from Jesup, IA, Harting is a rising senior at Iowa State University majoring in Agricultural Studies.

When applying for the Water Resources Summer Internship through Water Rocks!, I knew it could give me the opportunity to travel the state, meet new people, and share my passion for Iowa’s natural resources. What I didn’t know was that I would get the chance to search for beavers. As crazy as it sounds, looking for beavers and their dams is important to water quality research. Led by graduate student Andrew Rupiper, my fellow interns and I set out to find these interesting creatures and the structures they build.

The general belief among landowners is that beavers are bad. Reasons for them being bad vary depending on who you ask but some claim they cause issues with tile drainage; others don’t like the damage they cause to nearby vegetation. Whether you like or dislike beavers, their dams can be beneficial to water quality. The water held upstream by beaver dams can go through the process of denitrification, similar to a wetland. This process pulls excess nitrogen from the water, making it cleaner. These dams also give sediment the chance to settle. This is important because phosphorus moves with sediment. So, while many people think these dams hurt the environment, they can actually help to improve it.

Unfortunately for us, beaver dams aren’t as accessible as one would think. This meant we needed to put on our waders and get knee deep in a creek. We started near Boone where we entered a small creek. After nearly a half hour of walking, we stumbled across one of these dams. We quickly went from walking in eight inches of water downstream of the dam to walking in 48 inches of water upstream. While they might seem simple, beaver dams require a lot of engineering. Beavers usually begin their dams by bringing in sticks to slow the current. Once the current is slowed, sticks are pushed into the creek bottom. From there, beavers continue to bring in material to create a structurally sound, watertight, dam.

Established beaver dam changing the water depth.
On the way to search a new area.

With one beaver dam found, we headed south in search of more in a new, unexplored, creek. It didn’t take us long to find the remnants of beaver dams. Unfortunately, a large rain event recently caused a flash flood to sweep through the area. This influx of water washed away a number of beaver dams, but this doesn’t mean the beavers left. A common misconception is that beavers live in their dams. In reality, beavers live in lodges. These lodges are simply holes in the bank where the beaver can hide from predators and store food. Finding a beaver lodge full of fresh vegetation proved to us that the beavers are still in the area.

Andrew Rupiper pointing out a beaver lodge.
The beginning of a new beaver dam.

While the thought of wading through the four feet of water in search of beaver dams was intimidating at first, I soon began to enjoy it. I was amazed by how much there was to know about these water loving creatures and the dam they build. Even more eye opening was the way these dams can help correct some of the issues humans have caused to water quality. This one-of-a-kind opportunity not only helped me gain respect for the countless species in Iowa, but for one species that I once thought of as a pest.

–Mitch Harting