Iowans may see more mountain lions in their back yards and fields this year, as cougar populations are rising in their natural habitats — like Colorado and Oklahoma. Chuck Gipp, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says cougars are solitary and territorial so a growing population means some are forced to strike out on their own. Some will make it to Iowa, he says, which is how a big cat came to be shot in Des Moines last fall.  “As these young males get kicked out of their home area and they can travel significantly per day to get here,” Gipp says. “How it wound up in the middle of Des Moines is an interesting concept.”

While humans aren’t usually at risk, he says mountain lions prefer to prey on small mammals like rabbits and stray cats. “You’re going to see more and more of these types of things coming to Iowa because we’ve got a food source,” he says. Gipp says the rise of mountain lions in Iowa should balance itself out in the next few years. As more hunters in other states kill mountain lions, fewer shunned young males will wander into Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

Persons interested in recreation, wellness, trails and tourism are invited to attend the next meeting of the Nishna Valley Trails association, on Monday, January 28^th, from 6 to 7 p.m., at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1101 E. 13^th Street in Atlantic.  Officials with the organization say following brief updates on the development of trails in Cass County and Atlantic and reports on work with city and county partners, the group will brainstorm ideas for promoting and developing trails in the months ahead, including the next Bike/Trails Expo.

Everyone is invited to bring their good ideas and interest in community development, and join in the conversation.

Officials with the Des Moines Register are set to announce the route for the papers’ 41st annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. RAGBRAI 41 will start somewhere along the Missouri River in western Iowa, and makes its way to the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa, over the course of a week. Tonight’s party (Jan. 26th) preceding the announcement, will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Community Choice Credit Union in downtown Des Moines, with the proceeds from the price of admission to benefit the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. Last year’s party and fundraiser brought in $77,000 for the non-profit bike advocacy organization. The announcement of the route and the communities set to serve as hosts and pass through towns, will also be made available on-line during a live show at RAGBRAI.com., beginning at 8:15-p.m.

This year’s RAGBRAI event takes place July 21st-through the 27th. Last year’s trip began in Sioux Center in northwest Iowa and ended in the southeastern Iowa community of Clinton. The seven-day total mileage averages 468 miles while the daily mileage averages 67 miles. Atlantic has served as a host community for the event six times over the past 40-years, beginning in 1974, and as recently as 2011.

Despite the severe drought, a new report finds farm equipment sales remained strong across the U-S last year. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers reports combine sales were nearly steady from the previous year, while tractor sales rose ten-percent. The group’s senior vice president, Charlie O’Brien, credits farmers’ confidence in the ag economy. “That drove tractor sales in the smaller units for the smaller farming operations,” O’Brien says. “There was also certainly very good commodity prices which drove the 100-horsepower and four-wheel-drive tractor sales.”

A recent federal report found 60-percent of the lower 48 states are still in drought, including all of Iowa, a figure that’s been virtually unchanged since July. Strong demand around the world for American corn, soybeans and other crops means high commodity prices and that’s helped farmers keep their debt low. The result is there’s money available to buy new machinery. O’Brien’s outlook for this year is “conservative optimism” — conservative because he doesn’t yet know the long-term effects of last year’s drought.

He says, “Talking to some people that were severely impacted by the drought, there were some people in Indiana last week that said they’re still 12-inches below where they need to be from a moisture content perspective and whether or not there’s carryover in 2013 from pulling out of the drought.” There’s also concern about what might happen to the farm bill in Congress. For those reasons, he predicts farm equipment sales this year will be close to last year’s, but O’Brien thinks “flat is good.” The association has been tracking tractor and combine sales since the early 1970s.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowans submitted more than 600 photos as part of a contest to determine the cover of the next Iowa Travel Guide. Iowa Tourism Office spokesperson Jessica O’Riley says judges have now narrowed the field to three finalists. The finalists include boaters having fun on an Okoboji lake entered by Brock Bringle of Storm Lake, a family hiking at Maquoketa Caves State Park submitted by Kelsey Delperdang of Cedar Rapids and a kayaker enjoying the Turkey River sent in by Jessica Rilling from Cedar Rapids.

Fans or followers of the Iowa Tourism Office on Facebook will now choose their favorite of the three photos between now and February 1. The winning cover will be announced February 4. O’Riley says fans may vote for their favorite photo once a day per Facebook profile.

The new Iowa Travel Guide will be made available this spring. The annual publication features information about hundreds of vacation destinations in Iowa, as well as hotel and campground listings. The tourism office distributes more than 100,000 copies of the guide and a digital version is also available at www.traveliowa.com. The cover of the 2012 Iowa Travel Guide features bicyclists on the High Trestle Trail near Madrid.

(Radio Iowa)

Info from the Atlantic Animal Shelter.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A law firm says more than 70 Iowa communities are getting a total of more than $3.5 million from the settlement of a lawsuit filed against a Swiss manufacturer of the herbicide atrazine.  The Iowa City Press-Citizen says Iowa City’s share is nearly $141,000. Spokesman Jerry Brown for Korein Tillery, the law firm that handled the lawsuit, says a dozen Iowa communities will receive between $100,000 and $350,000 each from the $105 million settlement.  The lawsuit against Syngenta was settled in October.

City officials say Iowa City water customers are no longer being exposed to the weed killer, which can run off farm fields. The city began operating a new water treatment facility in 2003, and the water no longer comes straight from the Iowa River.

Iowa’s governor has assembled a task force that’s planning for possible drought this summer. Rather than hiring one state official to focus on water usage issues, Iowa Department of Natural Resources director Chuck Gipp says it makes more sense to have people from a variety of state agencies involved. “We’re not here to scare anybody about what the water usage available is, but we want to caution people that we are still in the middle of a drought and we have stream segments that are way below normal flow,” Gipp says. “In fact, if you look up at Ames to see the Skunk River, you won’t see a Skunk River.”

The state climatologist, the state geologist and a handful of other state officials are part of the “Hydrology Work Group.”  “They issue a report about every other week about water flows and streams that are in drought condition here and severe drought condition,” Gipp says. Current state law already lays out the protocol for which water users should be cut off first if the water supply dips. “It says that out-of-state water users get it cut off first. Then it’s lesser priority things like crops and then organic crops and then it’s livestock,” Gipp says. “And, obviously, the last entity that gets cut off of the use of water is people.” Gipp’s agency — the Department of Natural Resources — has the authority to order “lower echelon users” to give up their water supply if it’s coming from a river with a water level that’s dangerously low.

“We are required to allow enough water to go past that particular user to make sure there’s sufficient for the downstream user, so minimum flows we have to maintain, if we can,” Gipp says. “If there’s enough water coming from the top side, we have to maintain that for users all the way down the river system.” According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of the northwest third of Iowa is suffering through “extreme” drought. “Severe”drought conditions are reported in 58 percent of the state. A federal report issued last week concluded 60 percent of the entire country is in a drought, including the entire state of Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)