(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.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R Fire Program has a new group trained and ready to fight wildfires across the country. Spokesman Ryan Schlater says there are some differences between fighting structure fires and wildfires. “Weather kind of plays a bigger role in wildland firefighting than in your typical structure fire. Rh, temperature, wind, and then of course, terrain as well. There’s a lot more terrain issues with fire running uphill,” he says. “There’s a lot of safety information that comes through the training that all these 35 people get.” Those who complete the training are emergency hires, part-time firefighters when the U-S Forest Service calls on them.

“Some of them are volunteer fire departments, some are full-time structure departments, some are students, some work for county conservation boards, others are just private individuals, who do you know, other jobs. A lot of them take vacations to do this, to go out on wildfires for us,” according to Schlater. He says they had been averaging 50 people a year in the program, but it dropped off during the pandemic and is now coming back. Schlater says one of the goals is to provide new recruits for the permanent fire crews. “We’ve had several who have left the state and gone on to full-time careers, you know with, with hot shots with engine crews on forests, the BLM out west, the Bureau of Land Management, I should say, and then other agencies, National Park Service, etc. So, yeah, it’s kind of a goal of ours to get people into the career field, eventually,” Schlater says.

He says the alert status is a little higher right now for the Iowa-trained firefighters as many of the full-timers are working up north. “A lot of federal partners within the Forest Service, the National Park Service, etcetera. They went to Canada to fight the Canadian wildfires that are up there,” he says. “You know, you’ll get that smoke here in Iowa a few days ago from those Canada wildfires coming down. And so they asked for help up there.” He says emergency hire firefighters aren’t able to go to Canada. Sclater says the wildfire season has started out slow after record amounts of snow and precipitation out west.

“Like California, for example had a lot of rain recently and so they’ve got a flush of water and flush of new growth,” Schlater says. “But the thing is that it seems to be cyclical. So right now the grass is growing big or it’s going to be growing big and then later on in the the summer it will dry out and so then there’s more fuel available for a wildfire later.”

The Iowa D-N-R Fire Program has been sending wildland firefighters to national incidents since 2006.

Des Moines, IA – State Auditor Rob Sand today (Wednesday) urged Iowa agricultural producers who experienced revenue decreases in 2020 as a result of the pandemic to apply for the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP). “PARP addresses gaps in pandemic assistance for farmers by taking into account their overall loss of revenue during the first year of the pandemic,” said Sand. “Previous assistance programs targeted specific commodities and loss of access to markets.”

PARP provides financial assistance to producers who experienced a 15% reduction in allowable gross revenue for the 2020 calendar year, as compared to 2018 or 2019. Producers who received assistance previously from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for pandemic-related losses may be eligible for additional assistance through PARP.

“Iowa farmers feed the world and boost our state’s economy by tens of billions of dollars annually,” said Sand. “Their financial well-being is critical to Iowa’s long-term economic health.”

Producers eligible for PARP must have an average adjusted gross income (AGI) of less than $900,000 for tax years 2016, 2017, and 2018, and have been in the business of farming during at least part of the 2020 calendar year. Additional eligibility requirements apply.

Eligible producers may seek additional assistance on the application process by working with the Farm Service Agency office at their local USDA Center. The application deadline is June 2, 2023.

(Radio Iowa) -Woodbury County Supervisors have unanimously approved changes to the county’s wind turbine regulations. The county’s ordinance originally barred wind turbines within 600 FEET of city limits, but now wind turbines may not be placed within two MILES of the city limits of any community in Woodbury County. Woodbury County Supervisors chairman Matthew Ung says the change protects future growth around cities.

Mathew Ung. (KSCJ photo)

“As for the amount of distance we’ve established as a board and as a department — the annexation limits — and how that ties into this number, in my opinion it’s important to be in a defensible position logically and legally just for the good of not only the board’s position, but also the public and the county,” Ung says. It’s possible MidAmeircan Energy may file a legal challenge of the supervisors’ decision.

Some Woodbury County residents, like Moville Mayor Jim Fisher, had hoped for wider no-go zones for wind turbines. “At our last council meeting which was last Wednesday evening we went ahead and had this on our agenda as far as setbacks,” he said. “It was brought forward and it was unanimous by our city council that we’d like to have the setbacks from city limits five miles.” Fisher says the concern is scenic views around Moville will be ruined by the wind turbine structures. Bob Fritzmeyer of Sioux City was the only resident at the supervisors’ meeting who spoke in favor of wind turbines. “They provide clean energy for people like us and help MidAmerican Energy the company that has been a real (stalwart) and a foundation for this community and the whole county,” he said.

Daniel Hair of Hornick responded… “The rest of us out in the rural part of this county that have to live amongst those noisy, dangerous giants…want absolutely nothing to do with them,” Hair says. “All you have to do is drive across the state and look at these things. They are everywhere. They are ruining rural Iowa. It’s going to be the downfall of Iowa if we keep pushing this green energy religion nonsense. There’s nothing green about these things.”

Supervisors approved another change in Woodbury County’s wind turbine ordinance, extending the no-go zone to a mile for turbines placed near conservation areas.

w/Kate Olson.

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(Radio Iowa) – Volunteers are needed once again this summer to drive around and track the bat population in the state. D-N-R wildlife diversity biologist, Stephanie Shepherd, says the volunteers record the noises bats make as the fly through the night.The D-N-R has teamed with Iowa State University for the last ten years to track the bat signals with they can use to identify the species of bats. Shepherd says the survey begins 30 minutes after sunset and takes roughly two-and-a-half hours to complete.

They are looking for volunteers in Pocahontas County, Dubuque County, two routes in Franklin County — one in southwest Franklin and one in southeast Franklin, and then southwest Marshall County. The survey routes are run in June and July.

If you might be interested in monitoring bats, go to the D-N-R web page at iowadnr.gov/vwmp to sign up.

(Lewis, Iowa) – Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries biologists have investigated recent reports of dead bluegill and crappie in southern Iowa lakes. Chris Larson, DNR fisheries supervisor said Tuesday (today) “These natural fish kills are a common occurrence at a number of lakes each spring during spawning season. There is little danger to the overall population of bluegill or crappie. Iowa lakes can support thousands of panfish per acre of water.”

The spawning season is very stressful. A variety of factors can cause this stress, including changes in water temperature, water quality and availability of food. Fish are more vulnerable to predators during spawning, which can add to their stress levels.

“Overcrowding is one of the main causes of spawning stress in bluegills and crappies,” Larson said. “When too many fish are in a small area, they can become stressed and agitated. This can lead to fights and injuries that can cause stressed fish to become more susceptible to various bacterial or fungal infections.”

If you see dead fish – especially when there are several species or sizes, or when you can see a pollutant present – call the DNR’s 24-hour spill line at 515-725-8694 as soon as possible. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of a fish kill and potentially stop a fish kill in progress.

(Radio Iowa) – An official who’s in charge of state boating safety courses says the first step to a safe boating weekend is checking the equipment that will be transporting a vessel on land. Susan Stocker has been the boating law administrator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources since 2009. “Memorial weekend is coming up and, of course, it’s the start of the Iowa boating season,” Stocker says. “People, before they even head out to the lake, make sure that their trailer, wheelbearings and their lights are all in working condition so you’ll be able to get yourself to the body of water you want to go on.”

Once on the water, Stocker says boat operators and passengers need to be on the look out for floating debris. “We’ve got some higher water throughout Iowa, so you want to make sure that you see if there are any logs that are just under the surface of the water and you want to make sure that you, though surrounded by water…drink plenty of water and have sunscreen.” Stocker says, “and make sure that you save the alcohol when you’re back on shore.” Stocker says drunk boating can be as dangerous as drunk driving on the roads because the affects of the wind and glare of the sun can enhance the effects of alcohol.

“It can slow a person’s reaction and cause some hazardous conditions when trying to operate a boat,” she says. A wearable life jacket is required safety equipment for every person aboard a boat. Vessels that are 16 feet or longer need a floating device, like a ring buoy on a rope, that can be thrown to someone who may be in trouble in the water.