311 7th St. SW, Suite #2 • Cresco, IA 52136
Ph: 563-547-3040 • www.howardswcd.org
The 2013 Spring Regional Meeting for Region 3 was held Wednesday, March 12, 2013 at the Prairie’s Edge
Nature Center, south of Cresco, IA in Howard County. CDI President, Jim Frederick, called the meeting to
order at 4:30 p.m. with 38 people in attendance. There was a break for dinner at 6:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m., at
which time the meeting resumed.
Welcome
The welcome was given by Jim Frederick, CDI President and the new Executive Director, Clare Lindahl.
Those present introduced themselves.
Moving Conservation Forward in the Face of Change: The Role of Conservation Districts of Iowa and
Commissioners
Executive Director, Clare Lindahl introduced herself, and gave a brief report of her background to the group.
She explained that the CDI office will be moving into Ankeny in the same building of the Iowa Soil and
Water Conservation Society building located at 945 SW Ankeny Road, Suite A, Ankeny Iowa 50021.
She informed the group that CDI will be going to quarterly reports presentations. She noted that there was
an increase of commissioners to the State Capitol this year from last year for Legislative Day at the Capitol.
She also said the committee was available for them to meet with, even with the holiday and weather event
around that day.
She encourages everyone to get to the Annual Conference in Des Moines. This is another opportunity for
our voice to be heard by the legislature. Soil Stewardship Week is April 28-May 5th. She also had a
PowerPoint presentation that she presented.
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy: What does it mean for Famers & Districts
Jim Gillespie, IDALS-DSC Director presented information on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The
Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a science and technology-based framework to assess and reduce
nutrients to delivered to Iowa waters and the Gulf of Mexico. It is designed to direct efforts to reduce
nutrients in surface water from both point and nonpoint sources in the scientifically supported, reasonable
and cost effective manner. The Iowa strategy has been developed in response to the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia
Action Plan that calls for the 12 states along the Mississippi River to develop strategies to reduce nutrient
loading to the Gulf of Mexico.
He continued that the 2.4 million had been set aside by Iowa’s Governor to help start this process. Currently,
there is no budget at the IDALS-DSC. State-wide strategies will need to be developed with help of districts,
along with timelines. A 45% reduction is what is being proposed, and questions have come up of, “Where
will they try to start?” and “How are they going to reduce the nutrients?”
Some ideas of how to start is; Water monitoring, CREP sites, edge of field monitoring, No-Till verses regular
till systems. There are many comments that came in during the comment period and IDALS-DSC is going
through them, to create a draft.
Cover Crops: A Year in Review and the Year Ahead & An Iowa Farmers Perspective on Cover Crops
Conservation Districts of Iowa, Clare Lindahl introduced Rick Juchems to talk about Cover Crops. He spoke
on behalf of the Practical Farmers of Iowa and presented a PowerPoint on type of cover crops that he used on
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his own farm and the use of cover crops to help with grazing of his grass fed cattle. He showed pictures of
some of the cover crop that you could still see from the winter. He has expressed the importance in his
operation of using the cover crops to help with the grazing and not having to find or rent more land to sustain
his herds. A brochure from Practical Farmers of Iowa, Cover Crop Business Directory was distributed to the
group that listed seed houses, custom sprayers, and aerial applicators. Questions about the Insurance of
crops, with cover crops on the crop ground were asked. Risk Management states that the cover crop has to
be terminated prior to the headed or budded stage, cover crops cannot be hayed or grazed past May 10th,
cover crop must be terminated prior to planting by means of herbicide or tillage before spring crop is planted.
Grazing is not a means of termination. But each producer should contact their insurance agent to determine
insurability.
Clare Lindahl also stated that there were 46 districts that participated in the state cover crops incentive this
past year. $277,020.19 was spent on 13,068.48 acres installed. Federal EQIP program also cost shares on
cover crops. Contracts can be for 3 years on the same acres. 1 million acres of cover crops were planted in
Indiana. Great information can be found out on the Midwest Cover Crop council website.
Farm Bill Update- Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Kevin McCall, ASTC with the NRCS for Area 2, provided a PowerPoint on the continuance of the Farm Bill.
He also stated that sequestration is in effect for the government. More information to follow as our congress
continues it work on the federal budget. He also stated that he did not see a potential sign up for CSP
program in this area. EQIP funding seems to be staying about the same.
Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship-Division of Soil Conservation
Jim Gillespie provided the group with the Soil Conservation and Water Quality Budget Request FY14. He
also explained that there are some proposed rule changes for Chapter 10 and Chapter 12 which affects Iowa
Financial Incentive Program and Resource Enhancement and Protection program.
State Soil Conservation Committee (SSCC)
Jody Kerns provided information about the State Soil Conservation Committee and their functions.
Host Highlight – Howard County
CRP
Neil Shaffer, District Project Coordinator, talked about the process for CRP contracts, the time requirements
for District employees, and the success of CRP in Howard County.
Lake Hendricks
Chad Gilles, District Project Coordinator, gave a PowerPoint presentation about the successful Lake
Hendricks project in Howard County.
Shannon Hurd
IDALS Secretary for Howard and Mitchell Counties
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