Iowa state parks invite campers to visit this weekend and help celebrate Camping Kick-Off, May 3 – 5. “Year of the Volunteer” is the focus of this year’s Camping Kickoff celebration as the Iowa DNR anticipates the 100th anniversary in 2020 by hosting more than 30 volunteer and family events across the state. A full schedule of programs is available at www.iowadnr.gov/campingkickoff. Campers will also receive a free issue of Iowa Outdoors magazine. T

Todd Coffelt, chief of state parks for the DNR, says “We are looking forward to this season opener and to welcome visitors and campers to our parks.” Those wanting to join the Camping Kickoff celebration can make advanced reservations through today (Wednesday, May 1st). Reservations can be made at https://iowastateparks.reserveamerica.com or by calling 1-877-427-2757. Phone center hours are 7 AM to 7 PM CST (Mon. – Fri.).

After today (Wednesday), campers can use walk-in camping on a first-come, first-serve basis for any sites not already reserved.

(Radio Iowa) — Spring planting season is finally underway and state public safety officials are reminding motorists to check their speed as they approach over-sized farm equipment. Iowa Highway Patrol Sergeant Nate Ludwig says traditional cars and trucks are no match for agricultural machinery which often weighs several tons. He says trying to get around those big tractors pulling implements can be dangerous. “They think they start to make that pass and they do it before the yellow line they’re fine,” Ludwig says, “and then they meet a car at the top of a hill coming the other direction, which always results in a bad situation.”

Ludwig says he hopes drivers will resist the urge to pass lumbering farm equipment in no passing zones. He says not only is that a bad idea, it’s against the law. “If you can’t make a complete pass from start to finish before that solid yellow line, that’s illegal,” Ludwig says. “I don’t think people know that. They think maybe if they start to make that pass and they do it before the yellow line, they’re fine.”

Even if the farmer waves you around, Ludwig says it’s best to wait until you can actually see that it’s safe to pass. Planting season often runs around the clock and huge equipment is frequently moved between fields at night. Ludwig says farmers need to share responsibility by making sure it’s obvious when they’re going to turn or come to a sudden stop.

(Thanks to Pat Blank, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — U-S Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue visited Iowa Monday. During a stop in Pella, Perdue was asked about an updated total on the agricultural damage done in the state by flooding. He says the total continues to be added up — but said the most important thing is for Congress to approve disaster aid. “Congress is back into session this week, I am hoping they will address that. Certainly from the midwest flooding, to the hurricanes in the southeast, to wildfires in California, and get what people need,” Perdue says. He was asked about covering the grain in Iowa that was lost to flooding. “Hopefully there will be a provision in there that dealt with that — there’s not really an insurable opportunity within U-S-D-A programs there. That’s really what we need,” according to Perdue.

Perdue stopped at Vermeer Manufacturing, which was heavily damaged by a tornado last July. Perdue says the recovery effort at Vermeer is indicative of what Iowans do. “These are people that they don’t wait for people to come and provide help for them,” he says,”they help themselves while others come and help them as well. That’s what’s great about this, the recovery.” Part of Perdue’s visit was to highlight the importance of the U-S Mexico Canada Agreement (MCA), which replaces NAFTA. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has said he doesn’t think the new agreement can be passed without tariffs being lifted by the administration. Perdue says he thinks that may be possible if it moves forward. “In every aspect, whether it be labor, health, safety, ag access, all those things, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, this new U-S M-C-A agreement is better than the original NAFTA. I just hope Congress will once again put politics aside and vote for America and ratify this,” Perdue says. “I believe the president if at some point if that is the case, could be persuaded to go back to a quota system.”

Perdue was asked if there is potential to continue increasing pork exports to China with the problems they’ve been having with African Swine fever. He says a trade deal with China would do that. “Not only in pork, but certainly in beef and poultry, beans as well as corn. If we get the deal that’s looked at now with the countervailing duties on D-D-G’s Iowa corn farmers as well,” Perdue says. ” So, It’s a huge potential. I just don’t want to raise expectations that it’s a done deal.” Perdue also made a stop in Johnston to visit the Corteva Agriscience Mendel Greenhouse.

BELLEVUE, Iowa (AP) — Officials are trying to stop the spread of gypsy moths in eastern Iowa’s Jackson County. The Telegraph Herald reports that the state conducted aerial treatments of land west of Bellevue earlier this month. The gypsy moth has spread slowly west from Massachusetts since the 1870s. It’s an invasive species that can cause extensive deforestation as its larvae eat leaves, particularly oak leaves.

Mike Kintner is gypsy moth outreach and regulatory coordinator for Iowa, and he says last year’s treatment reduced the number of gypsy moths, “but we noted that there was movement northward. This year we’re trying to stop that spread.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa attorney general’s office says Deere & Co. has agreed to pay $1 million for violating air quality standards at its Cedar Falls facility. A news release said Thursday that the Moline, Illinois-based heavy equipment company has agreed in a consent decree to annual third-party environmental audits for at least three years. They will continue until Deere receives two consecutive audits reports with few or no violations.

The Iowa Natural Resources Department has said Deere didn’t comply with emissions limits at its Performance Engineering Center, operated without proper air quality permits in some cases and provided inaccurate information on compliance reports to the department from 2005 to 2016. Deere spokesman Ken Golden says problems arose from past errors in air permits issued in 2005 for the center’s engine test cells. He says that Deere took corrective actions and worked with Iowa officials toward the issuance of new permits after learning of the problems in late 2016.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Senate has given final legislative approval to the Iowa Hemp Act. The bill sets up a state licensing program for growers. If the governor — as expected — signs the bill into law, it will immediately become legal for Iowa retailers to SELL hemp-based products. “Allow the building of the infrastructure of this market now, so that when it comes time for our farmers to harvest their crops, there will be a robust demand and an outlook for industrial hemp.”  That’s Reprsentative Jarad Klein of Keota, a farmer who worked on the legislation. Hemp has been banned for decades and the 2018 Farm Bill effectively legalized growing it again. Representative Mike Sexton of Rockwell City is urging caution, though, as planting hemp could make a farmer ineligible for crop insurance.

“I wholeheartedly support this bill, but I just think it’s incumbent upon us to make sure we let Iowa farmers know: ‘Don’t rush right into this thing without checking wth the government agencies to make sure you don’t make yourself non-compliant,” Sexton says. The bill identifies two state agencies to oversee hemp growers, transporters and processors in the state. Iowa farmers would be allowed to grow up to 40 acres of hemp, starting in the 2020 growing season. Representative Jeff Shipley, a Republican from Fairfield, voted for the measure, but expressed some frustration.

“There still is a lot of red tape in this bill,” Shipley said. “Technically we are growing government with licenses and fees and it’s hard for me to comprehend that because my understanding of hemp is basically it is an inert plant and it’s very hard for me to wrap my mind around why we need government holding people by the hand to make sure they don’t make any mistakes here.”

Forty-one other states already have an industrial hemp program in place.

w/Denny Heflin.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Officials say late-winter moisture, flooding and low temperatures have delayed corn and other plantings in Nebraska and in some parts of Iowa. A U.S. Department of Agriculture report for the week ending Sunday says just 2% of the expected corn crop has been planted in Nebraska, compared with the five-year average of 8% by the date. Officials say 4% of the Iowa crop has been planted, compared with the 10% averaged over the past five years.

Nebraska oats planted was 30%, well short of the 72% average. The USDA says 48% of the expected Iowa oat crop has been planted, six days ahead of last year’s pace but five days behind the average pace over the past five years. Associate Nebraska climatologist Al Dutcher told The Grand Island Independent that the spring flooding is still affecting ag producers.

(Radio Iowa) — The start of Pella’s annual tulip festival is still more than a week away and thanks to warm spring weather, about two-thirds of the southeast Iowa community’s famous flowers are already in bloom. Jeanette Vaughan, community services director for the City of Pella, says they’re putting the word out in hopes some people might make an early “tulip trek.” “We do have some folks who are more interested in the tulips than a festival atmosphere,” Vaughan says, “so we do like to let them know when tulips are blooming if that’s their primary purpose for a visit.”

Pella plants between a quarter-million and 300-thousand tulip bulbs in some 180 beds every year and Vaughan estimates 60-to-70-percent of them are now in full bloom.  “It’s going to be perfect for Tulip Time this year,” Vaughan says. “Once our tulips start to bloom, if weather conditions are right, the blooms will stay good anywhere from one to three weeks, so, even our tulips that are blooming right now, many of them will still be around for Tulip Time.”

Pella celebrates its Dutch heritage May 2nd through 4th. The 84th annual Tulip Time Festival will feature two parades daily, food, costumes, dancing, displays, demonstrations and tours. The festival typically draws 175-thousand visitors over its three-day run. Later in May, once the hundreds of thousands of tulips have run their course, Round Two of the color show will begin. “We do dig all the tulips up after they’re done blooming in the spring and we replace all of them with annual flowers so we have a secondary season of our annual flowers that goes through the fall,” Vaughan says. “When the annual flowers are done blooming at the end of September or early October, we remove all of those and plant new bulbs.”

There will be a free tulip dig day announced later in May where anyone is welcome to dig up bulbs from the city beds, under specific guidelines, for their own gardens. Some bulbs produce flowers three or four years in a row while others will continue to bloom for much longer.
www.visitpella.com

The Cass County Conservation Board is sponsoring a Wildflower Walk this Saturday (April 27). The program will be held at the Pellett Memorial Woods north of Atlantic, just east of Olive Street, beginning at 9-a.m.  The event is free. The Oak Strollers Nature Club for Families are welcome to join at this event! You’re invited to walk through the early spring wildflowers with Naturalist Lora Kanning, and learn the names, uses and history of the Wildflowers.

Those in attendance will meet at Pellett Memorial Woods- located just outside of Atlantic, ½ mile north and ¾ mile east of the KJAN radio station.