1 / 11

Private Lands, Public Benefits John Glenn Southern Iowa Farmer and Executive Director,

Private Lands, Public Benefits John Glenn Southern Iowa Farmer and Executive Director, Rathbun Regional Water Association. Lake Rathbun The most important water resource in south central Iowa. Farming and Water Quality Issues.

randall-schmidt
Download Presentation

Private Lands, Public Benefits John Glenn Southern Iowa Farmer and Executive Director,

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Private Lands, Public Benefits John Glenn Southern Iowa Farmer and Executive Director, Rathbun Regional Water Association

  2. Lake Rathbun The most important water resource in south central Iowa

  3. Farming and Water Quality Issues • Rathbun Lake - 11,000 surface acres of water and 21,000 acres of public land • Uses: Water supply, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, flood control, down stream navigation • 354,000 acre watershed • Silting in 3 times faster than planned • Reallocation of sediment storage impacts uses • Watershed currently has 52,000 acres of CRP

  4. Farming and Water Quality Issues • Changes needed in CRP • 1) Ease regulations to emphasize management on CRP such as grazing or harvest for biomass • 2) More emphasis on critical placement of CRP acres with aid of buffer strips, riparian areas, and grassed waterways • 3) Eliminate restrictions on small drainage areas and intermittent streams • 4) Change eligibility requirements such as cropping history

  5. Gully erosion in CRP field

  6. Riparian buffer example

  7. Farming and Water Quality Issues • EQIP practices well received by field staff and farm operators • Practice components are very diverse and address many conservation issues • Program resources very limited and restrict whole farm applications • Need to create flexibility to work with other potential partners on joint projects

  8. On-road structures replace expensive bridges and stop sediment, nutrients, and pesticides from entering the lake Other benefits include wildlife habitat, fisheries, and a source of water for livestock

More Related