(Iowa DNR News) – Iowa residents can try fishing without buying a license on June 2, 3 and 4, as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) free fishing weekend. All other regulations remain in place. Free fishing weekend is a great time to share the fun of fishing with a kid, your family or a friend. Outdoor fun awaits at hundreds of Iowa lakes, thousands of miles of rivers or a neighborhood pond. Joe Larscheid, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Fisheries Bureau says “A summer of family fun is just a short drive and a fishing pole away. The water is waiting. Get your lines in the water and put your worries behind you.”

Find a list of stocked lakes and ponds that are easily accessible in parks and along trails on the Iowa DNR’s interactive Iowa Community Fisheries Atlas at www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/Fish-Local. Fun, hands-on fishing events will be offered across Iowa to help families new to fishing get started. Check the general fishing calendar on the DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/fishing for a list of free fishing events.

Keep the fun going all summer long by buying a fishing license. It’s easy to buy a fishing license with the DNR Go Outdoors Iowa online licensing system at https://license.gooutdoorsiowa.com/Licensing/CustomerLookup.aspx. You can download the public Go Outdoors IA mobile app for iPhone and Android devices to buy and store your fishing license, so you will always have access to your license no matter where you are. Yearly, seven-day, or 24-hour fishing licenses are available.

Enticing a fish to bite your hook is fun for all ages. Get tips for taking kids fishing and catching crappie and bluegills on the DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/Ready-to-Fish.

(Radio Iowa) – Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, and Iowans who spend any time enjoying the outdoors need to be on-guard for ticks, as Lyme disease cases are on the rise in the state. Dr. Greg DeMuri, an infectious disease physician, says you can cut your chances of an infection by taking a few simple precautions anytime you’re heading into the woods for a hike. “Looks a little nerdy, but if you put a rubber band at the base of your pant legs to keep the ticks from crawling up, that’s number one,” DeMuri says. “Number two, doing tick checks after you’re done.” There are also a wide variety of tick repellents on the market which can be highly effective at keeping the pests away.

“Ticks are out with a vengeance. Some of the immature forms of the tick, the nymphs, are out and the ticks are reproducing right now,” DeMuri says. “Those forms of tick can highly transmit Lyme disease, they’re smaller and more difficult to see. So this is, unfortunately, a very high risk time for acquiring Lyme disease.” If you find and remove a tick from yourself or someone else, pay attention to its coloring before you dispose of it. A deer tick’s lower back is red in color, while a wood tick has a black lower back section.

“If you can identify whether it’s a deer tick versus a wood tick, it’s important to distinguish the two,” DeMuri says. “If you have a wood tick, there’s no risk of Lyme disease. If it’s a deer tick and it’s been attached for 72 hours or more, then you should contact your doctor. You might want to take a preventative antibiotic.” Scientists say our planet is gradually warming and DeMuri says climate change may be contributing to the number ticks in Iowa and across the region.

“When we don’t get those really, really deep freezes, that are below 20-below, the ticks can survive more,” he says, “but more importantly, their hosts can survive.” If you do get infected, Lyme disease can typically be cured with a course of antibiotics that runs two to four weeks, though some patients may have symptoms six months later. Those symptoms can include things like pain, fatigue and difficulty concentrating.

(Iowa DNR News) – The calls have been coming in to Iowa DNR field offices and conservation officers for the past few weeks and deer fawning season. Officials say those called are expected to increase, as the first few weeks of June marks the peak of the deer fawning season. Callers report finding an “abandoned” fawn in an unusual place, like a flowerbed or small patch of cover. Rest assured this is normal deer behavior. Jim Coffey, forest wildlife research biologist with the Iowa DNR, says “The doe searches out an isolated location where she feels safe and on occasion those places are not what we may think of as ideal. She chose that location because it made sense to her. The worst thing someone can do is to ‘rescue’ the fawn. Mom is likely nearby and watching you. Leave it be or if you did handle the fawn, return it to where you found it and walk away.”

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will not be rehabbing or co-mingling fawns with other deer to avoid the potential of spreading chronic wasting disease – or other disease – to new areas. The spindly legged newborn fawn is designed with a few survival tools built in –its spots are cryptic camouflage that emulates the sunlight spots on the leaf litter on the forest floor and its lack of movement the first two weeks helps to reduce scent patterns. This combination is its best chance at survival until it is able to follow the doe. After the fawns are born, the doe will return to fairly normal behavior – sleeping, feeding – but returning to nurse and care for the fawn.

The fawning season also coincides with an increase in deer vehicle collisions. “There is a lot of movement this time of year that is part of the social structure of deer. The doe is on the move looking for the safe isolated place to have the fawns.  In addition last year’s fawns – teenagers now – are starting to venture out to find new space. These yearlings have to make their own decisions for the first time, encounter other adult deer and build new social structures,” Coffey said. “This movement behavior can occur during all times of the day. Once it settles out, the active time will return to dawn and dusk.”

Drivers are reminded to drive defensively, avoid distractions, and slow down and not to veer for deer. If they hit a deer, drivers can get a salvage tag by calling either the local conservation officer or local law enforcement. There is no fee for a salvage tag it does require that the entire deer is taken.

Chris Parks and Cass/Adair County Conservation Officer Grant Gelly talk about all things outdoors. This week they discuss the beginning of summer season fun and reminders to go through your water safety checklist. They also discuss spring spawn fish kill, free fishing weekend, and more.

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(Iowa DNR News) – Thousands of Iowans will be camping and building campfires this Memorial Day weekend and throughout the summer. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) encourages campers to buy firewood from where they will burn it instead of bringing it from home. Tivon Feeley, DNR forest health forester says “Moving unseasoned firewood around the state can threaten the health of our forests by spreading insects like emerald ash borer that live in firewood.”

The emerald ash borer (EAB) is a small, metallic-green, invasive wood-boring beetle native to east Asia that attacks and kills ash trees. It attacks trees of any size, age, or stage of health. The spread of EAB into uninfected areas has been primarily through people moving firewood from county to county or state to state. Feelet said “These pests don’t move far on their own, but they can travel hundreds of miles in a single day in contaminated firewood.” Plenty of firewood is available locally to your favorite state or county park. Ask a park ranger or campground host where to get firewood locally. Make sure to burn all firewood at the campsite and not leave it or transport to a new area.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship requires all firewood sold or acquired in Iowa to have the county and state of harvest location on the label of packages and the delivery ticket for bulk firewood. Learn more about emerald ash borer and why not to move firewood on the DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/eab.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the U-S Supreme Court has put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to the Clean Water Act. Grassley says the court’s decision on the E-P-A’s so-called Waters of the U.S. or “WOTUS” regulations has dramatically narrowed the agency’s authority to regulate wetlands and boggy areas.  “This is a great victory for farmers, even Chuck Grassley, who could have been threatened with thousands of dollars of fines if Biden’s WOTUS rules were to become law,” Grassley says.

Grassley and 46 other Republican senators filed a brief with the court a year ago, arguing the proposed E-P-A regulations went too far and violated the rights of property owners. Grassley says state officials should be the primary regulators of land and water resources within their borders.  “This decision clears up 50 years of confusion and puts a check on EPA’s mission creep,” Grassley says.

The governor, the state’s Ag Secretary and other Republicans in Iowa’s congressional delegation released written statements, praising the court’s decision. It restricts the E-P-A to regulating waterways and wetlands that have a continuous surface connection to lakes and rivers that can be navigated by boats. “A victory for farmers, builders, landowners, county supervisors so their ditches don’t have to be regulated,” Grassley says.

President Biden says the ruling upends the legal framework that has protected America’s waters for decades and it defies the science that confirms wetlands play a critical role in safeguarding our nation’s water resources from pollutants.

(Radio Iowa) – As Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy reaches the 10-year mark, the state’s Ag secretary says there are signs of momentum for conservation, even if the state is far from the mark on water quality. The most recent data shows an uptick in cover crops on Iowa farmland, nearly three-million acres, but that’s only about a quarter of what is recommended in the strategy, according to Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig. “We need to think of multi-decades here in terms of the work that needs to be done,” Naig says.  He says conservation is accelerating as we head into the strategy’s second decade. “What we’re seeing now is more partners that are coming into this effort that hadn’t been doing this kind of work before,” he says.

The Nutrient Reduction Strategy takes a voluntary approach to reduce nitrates from farm runoff into lakes and rivers. Iowa State University data shows a rise in cover crops and areas draining into nitrate removal structures, but Alicia Vasto at the Iowa Environmental Council says the scale of change is small and has yet to show in overall water quality. Vasto faults the strategy for not setting specific benchmarks over the last decade. “We still need policy from the state level to actually implement a structure that is going to help us see water quality improvement on a broad scale,” Vasto says.

Meanwhile, Naig points to programs like “Batch and Build” in Polk County as a sign of positive momentum. The county has scaled up construction of farm conservation projects by planning and funding dozens of at a time.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds and the governors of Nebraska and Missouri have signed off on a letter that urges that E-P-A to increase the federal requirement for biodiesel production. The three Midwest governors say diesel fuel supplies remain at low levels and farmers and truckers are dealing with stubbornly high prices. A year ago, the average price for a gallon of diesel hit an all time high of just over five dollars a gallon in Iowa. It’s fallen to about 3-72 a gallon today according to triple A.

The governors say in their letter that soybean-based biodiesel and biomass-based diesel — made with other plant materials — supports the rural economy and expands the fuel supply. The governors of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri are urging the E-P-A to substantially increase the biodiesel production volume for 2023, 2024 and 2025 under the Renewable Fuels Standard — but so do without reducing ethanol production requirements.

There’s a June deadline for establishing the latest round of E-P-A rules on renewable fuel blending requirements for oil refineries.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Local gardeners are invited to “Hop on the Bus!” and join the fun when the Cass County Master Gardener group hosts their annual bus tour again in 2023. This year’s trip is scheduled for Wednesday, June 7, departing from the Cass County Fairgrounds in Atlantic at 7 AM and returning around 6:30 PM. The trip will be visiting gardens in and around Lincoln NE, with stops to include The Sunken Garden, the Hamann Rose Garden and the Backyard Farmer Garden on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Following lunch, and an optional ice cream treat at the UNL Dairy store, the bus will stop at several nurseries and greenhouses in the Lincoln Area before heading home. A boxed lunch will be provided to all participants with a choice of roasted turkey or ham and swiss sandwich.

The trip is coordinated by the Cass County Master Gardeners, but is open to everyone interested in touring and learning about gardening. Registrations are taken on a first-come basis, so register soon and be sure to reserve your spot on the bus! Registrations must be received by Thursday, June 1 to guarantee a lunch will be available. The cost for the tour is $65. 00 which includes transportation, meal and snacks. Registration forms are available at the Cass County Extension office, and can also be found on the Cass County Extension website at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/cass. A full trip itinerary is on each registration form. Be sure to bring plant labels and boxes to mark the goodies you pick up along the way, and a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated while you learn and shop!

Other upcoming events from the Cass County Master Gardeners include a local garden tour on Sunday June 25 from 2-6 PM, educational activities at the Produce in the Park Market and other summer events, and their annual Fall Plant Sale on Saturday September 9th.

For more information about Master Gardener activities in Cass County, visit https://www.extension.iastate.edu/cass/master-gardener-program, call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, or email Cass County Extension Director and Master Gardener Coordinator Kate Olson at keolson@iastate.edu. In addition, you are invited to follow the Cass County Master Gardeners at their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CassCoMG to keep up with local events and tips for gardening!

(Radio Iowa) – The U-S Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the Clean Waters Act in a ruling today (Thursday). The ruling overturned the E-P-A’s Waters of the United States or WOTUS rules introduced in the Obama Administration. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley signed onto a brief that urged the High Court to overturn the regulations.

Grassley issued a statement saying “thankfully, the Supreme Court saw through this federal overreach and unanimously determined that it violated the Clean Water Act.” He says after years of uncertainty, the decision is a victory for farmers, builders, landowners and common sense.

Senator Joni Ernst says in a statement that ‘the federal government has no authority to impose blanket jurisdiction over puddles, waters, and wetlands with vague, overreaching regulations.” She calls it a big win for Iowa.