(Radio Iowa) – Voters in Story and Johnson counties approved conservation bonds to help fund new trails, support wildlife and improve water quality. The 25 million dollar Story County Water and Land Legacy Bond passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote. Jim Pease is chair of the Story County Conservation Board.

“It says, I think to us, how important parks and wild places and wild things are to the people of Story County and to people in general,” Pease says. He says the new funding will support more than one dozen projects in the next two decades and shows that people want more opportunities to recreate outside and that they value wild places in Iowa.

“Iowa is one of the most altered states in the union. The prairies, woodlands and wetlands that were once here have been tremendously altered to make a very strong agricultural state and a very altered state from the nature that was here,” he says.

Nearly 80 percent of the voters in Johnson County approved a 30 million dollar conservation bond. Residents passed a similar measure in 2008. Polk County passed conservation bonds in 2012 and in 2021.