The head of the Iowa DNR’s State Forest section is predicting an “average” year for fall colors. Jeff Goerndt is hoping he’s wrong, but says recent wet and cool conditions may not result in the best and brightest show for leaf watchers. “We’re really keeping an eye on northeast Iowa, where we typically have our best fall color. We’ve had some really heavy rain, storm events and flooding in that area. There’s more cooler and wet weather forecast for that area and that’s not necessarily the best recipe for good fall color,” Goerndt says.

Northeast Iowa has an abundance of hard maple trees, which supply bright red and orange colors. Goerndt suggests the Loess Hills in western Iowa offer a completely different, yet equally stunning, fall look.

Photo from the Iowa River, Coralville, Iowa City CVB via Radio IA

“There are a lot of cedar trees, which give you sort of green colors, mixed in with a lot of yellow colors from some of the ash and cottonwood trees,” Goerndt says. “It’s sort of a different fall color look than what you’re going to see around the rest of the state.”

Leaves typically change first across northern Iowa between the last week of September to the second week of October. Central and southern Iowa generally change color between mid to late October. The annual fall color show is a big tourist attraction for many cities and towns around the state. “Folks like to visit our state parks and state forest areas, especially the areas around the larger reservoirs with a lot of trees. Also, if you get out there and drive those scenic byways around the state, those are great places to view fall color,” Goerndt says.

Weekly updates on fall color information can be found at iowadnr.gov/fallcolor.

(Radio Iowa)

Fall arrives Thursday and the Iowa Department of Transportation is already looking ahead to winter by signing farmers up for the Standing Corn Program. Scott Suhr,  the D-O-T’s district transportation planner, based in Atlantic, explains how it works: “We actually have this program where we pay farmers to leave corn in their field. The corn that’s left in the field in drifting areas holds the snow back from the roadway and has a benefit to the DOT and to the motorist by keeping the snow off the road.”

The program has been around some 15 years. The agency also pays farmers five-dollars for each bushel of corn left in the field. Once spring arrives, farmers are free to harvest the corn. There is a second installment of the program that involves installing snow fences. Suhr says, “If we have drifting areas along certain highways, you can put up snow fence and we’ll pay the farmers to put that fence up, I think it’s a dollar a foot that we pay out for that.”

The program makes the D-O-T’s work more efficient. “Some of the winters we have in Iowa, you can get a lot of blowing snow and if you have this eight or ten rows of corn that’s holding that snow that’s drifting back from the roadway, then, motorists don’t have to deal with it or our maintenance crews,” Suhr says. “It also helps us clean up these winter storms a lot quicker.”

To qualify, the unpicked corn rows must be nearest to the road and the D-O-T will only compensate farmers for up to 16 rows. There’s no official deadline date for farmers to join, but he says they like to have all the information ready by the time harvest starts — by the first or second week of October.

(Radio Iowa)