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KJAN’s Chris Parks and Cass/Adair County Conservation Officer Grant Gelly talk about all things outdoors. On this week’s show they discuss shed antler hunting protocols, the Iowa Deer Classic, gearing up for Spring Turkey season and more.
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(Radio Iowa) – Luther College is being recognized as one of the most sustainable campuses in the country, having cut its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 72% in the past 20 years. Jon Jensen, director of Luther‘s Center for Sustainable Communities, says they’re on target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
“We’ve got a wind turbine right off the edge of our campus,” Jensen says. “We’ve got almost two megawatts of solar, but really sometimes it’s the little unseen things that make a big difference. Switching out to LED lights, making changes within our HVAC system, lots of little conservation behaviors as well.”
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education has named the Decorah college the fourth best baccalaureate institution in the nation for its efforts in sustainability. Jensen says every college and university, private and public, needs to show leadership.
Solar panels at Luther’s Baker Village (Luther College photo)
“All of us need to take steps to reduce our use of fossil fuels, to address climate change. That’s important for human health, it’s important for reducing some of the risks to Iowa, and really, to the world,” Jensen says. “But ultimately, I think as educational institutions, we have a role to play in educating the next generation.”
The college is setting an example in the classrooms, in labs, and across the campus, he says, demonstrating how vital it is to plan for a sustainable future. Jensen says Iowa homeowners can do their part, too.
“Looking at ways that you heat and cool your home, and heat pumps, or looking at geothermal,” Jensen says, “and just being mindful of our own actions, turning off the lights when we leave the room, being aware of only conditioning our spaces when we’re there. It’s that mindfulness and being open and exploring alternatives that I think is the most important thing.”
Luther’s wind turbine generates one-third of the college’s electricity, while several large solar arrays also impact the carbon footprint. Jensen says 53% of Luther’s electricity comes from renewable power sources — wind and solar — generated on campus.
The college also has a program called “Caf to Community,” keeping excess cafeteria food out of the landfill and putting it onto the tables of those who need it.
(Radio Iowa) – A new study says converting more land to grow crops for biofuels may negatively affect wildlife protected in Iowa and elsewhere under the Endangered Species Act. Researcher Tyler Lark, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, authored the report which he says demonstrates the environmental consequences of expanding corn production. “When you plow up a grassland to plant additional corn or switch from some other crops to something that’s more intensive, like corn production,” Lark says, “that generally results in greater nutrient pollution to waterways.”
The report highlights whooping cranes, Poweshiek skipperling butterflies and black-footed ferrets. Lark says these endangered species would likely be affected by the drainage of wetlands and conversion of grasslands for crop production. “Identifying the issue is the first step and that’s what this work really aims to do, but we can’t stop there,” Lark says. “There are simple solutions available right now that can reduce or even reverse the impacts of bioenergy policy on threatened and endangered species.”
Lark says one solution is expanding cover crops on acres that grow corn for ethanol, which animals could use as habitat. The executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association rejects the study.
(by Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)
(Radio Iowa) – Five northeast Iowa counties are hiring an attorney to respond to development of a carbon capture pipeline. Navigator’s proposed Heartland Greenway pipeline would run through 33 Iowa counties, covering about 800 miles. Delaware County Supervisor Shirley Heimrichs says it makes sense to unite with neighboring Bremer, Butler, Emmet and Floyd Counties.
“It’s going to be a more realistic, more responsible way of spending money through a collaborative effort just because we don’t have to do all of our own work. Basically they’re doing the same work for all of us,” she says. “I think that’s going to work well for us because we’re counties of similar size and the pipeline would potentially be looking at going through all of us.” The boards have hired Timothy Whipple, a Des Moines attorney who specializes in work with government boards.
“His representation is to assist with the drafting of any future ordinances and whatever representation we might need in Utility Board hearings,” Heimrichs says. The counties are filing what’s called a petition to intervene. Heimrichs says it would ensure the county is part of any government proceedings or public meetings about the Navigator pipeline.
Navigator CO2 map.
“It’s not an ordinance, but it allows us to be in Utility Board hearings and be able to have, basically, a seat at the table,” she says. “…We’re working on getting an inspector — this is in our petition to intervene, that if we need more than one and definitely we would need more than one. In past history, if you needed one, they were 10 miles down the line and that’s not OK for our landowners. We’re trying to be proactive.” Heimrichs says it appears the pipeline route through Delaware County impacts up to 80 property owners.
“We really feel it’s important to keep doing what we can for our landowners that will be affected and ultimately this will affect everybody because it’s a land use issue, It’s a right to own your own property and not be fearful of what’s going to happen to it,” Heimrichs says. “There’s people that would like us to do more and there’s people that would like us to not to much of anything.”
Navigator’s proposed pipeline would collect carbon from ethanol and fertilizer plants and would run through Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and end in Illinois, where the carbon would be stored underground.
(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – Officials with Guthrie County ISU Extension and Outreach report an in-person NO COST Grant Writing 201 Workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, April 5th, 2023, in Guthrie Center, Iowa. Representatives of nonprofits, local government, schools and other organizations from Guthrie County and the surrounding area are encouraged to register for the Grant Writing 201 workshop presented by an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach – Community & Economic Development Specialist.
Grant Writing 201:
Grant writers who want to upgrade and polish their skills may register for Grant Writing 201, presented from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5th, in Guthrie Center, IA at the Guthrie County Iowa State University Extension and Outreach office. The target audience for Grant Writing 201 is individuals with prior grant writing or grant management experience, or who have previously participated in Grant Writing 101. If you have grant experience but have not previously participated in Grant Writing 101, please email Lindsay Henderson at lindsayh@iastate.edu prior to registering and describe your prior grant writing experience in the email.
Participants are encouraged to come with an active project or program in mind for which they are seeking grant funding. A workbook will be provided for drafting a grant proposal during the session, and participants may also bring any information for a grant program of interest to the April 5th workshop.
Topics addressed will include documenting need with evidence, methodology, logic models, evaluation, budgets, and writing tips. Participants will have time to work on sections of their grant proposal during the workshop and receive feedback from their instructor and peers. Participants should also bring a laptop or tablet device to the workshop.
The hands-on workshop is being sponsored by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach of Guthrie County at no cost to participants. The workshop will be held at the Guthrie County Extension office located at: 212 State Street, Guthrie Center, Iowa 50115. Registration is required by April 4th. Go to https://go.iastate.edu/RNKX0R to register.
Grant Writing 201 will be presented by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Community Development Specialist, Lindsay Henderson, who has extensive experience writing and reviewing grant applications and working with various federal, state, local and private foundation grant programs. For more information about the workshops, contact Lindsay Henderson at lindsayh@iastate.edu or 515-835-6605. For assistance with registration, contact Krista Downing at the Guthrie County Extension office by calling 641-747-2276, or email kristad@iastate.edu.
(Radio Iowa) – A House committee has approved a bill to require that developers get permits from every other state other along proposed carbon pipeline routes before construction could begin here. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
“Why would we want construction of this pipeline to take place in Iowa and have our valuable farmland disrupted if it ultimately is never completed?” Holt asked. The bill was approved last (Tuesday) night by Holt’s committee. It outlines how farmers could file claims if tile lines are damaged or the topsoil from cropland displaced by the pipelines isn’t restored. The bill also would require voluntary participation from property owners along 90 percent of the route before state regulators could grant the pipeline companies authority to seize the rest of the land.
The renewable fuels industry oppose the bill. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton who voted for the bill, says private property rights are worth protecting. “This legislation is not anti-agriculture. This legislation is not anti-ethanol, period!” Kaufmann said. “I’m going to spend the rest of my adult life relying on the price of corn for my survival. The last thing that I personally would do would be to do something to harm agriculture.”
During last (Tuesday) night’s committee meeting, Representatives Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids and Megan Srinivas, of Des Moines, announced they would not vote on this or any other bills dealing with the pipelines. Both said their families may have a financial stake in the pipelines since the routes pass through their land and the companies offer compensation for those easements.
(Radio Iowa) – The Master Gardener Program through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is reporting significant growth in 2022. Alicia Herzog, the program’s coordinator, says more than 440 people were trained statewide last year, which is an increase of 41-percent from the year before. The program was offered twice last year, in the summer and fall, instead of just once, which accounts for the jump in numbers. The program is also reporting more than 100-thousand volunteer hours logged last year by nearly 18-hundred volunteers. Herzog says Master Gardeners in Iowa provided more than two-point-two million dollars in services during 2022. It’s much more than just growing flowers and vegetables. She calls Master Gardeners “educational stewards” for their communities, as they offer seminars, consult with community groups and help educate and inform the public about access to healthy food.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University researchers are studying an emerging field called agrivoltaics, the practice of farming on land where solar power is being generated. Matt O’Neal, an I-S-U professor of plant pathology, entomology and microbiology, says the team will be planting a variety of fruits and vegetables literally in the shadow of an array of solar panels at a planned site south of Ames. I-S-U has won a four-year, one-point-eight million dollar grant from the U-S Department of Energy to conduct the research in the non-traditional farm setting. Agrivoltaics holds much promise, O’Neal says, as there’s an increasing amount of prime farmland that’s -not- being used for farming because it has solar panels planted instead.
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