(Radio Iowa) – Experts say many Iowa trees are showing some brilliant colors right now due to recent cool temperatures. Mark Runkel is a forest health technician with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He says you don’t have to venture far to see nature’s autumn show. “Drive around your neighborhood. You can drive around your city parks. You can walk around some hiking trails,” Runkel says. “There are a lot of opportunities right near everybody’s home to just see some of these amazing color changes.”

For tree experts like Runkel, the colors of the leaves are a clue to what type of tree it is. “You can definitely tell which species based on what colors you’d be seeing,” Runkel says. “It can get a little bit challenging in a forest, if you’re looking at a forest from a distance, and just seeing all these vibrant colors,” Runkel says. Sugar maples, for example, often turn orange in the fall.

“I’m particular to the hard maples. I think that’s a really cool color,” Runkel says. “A lot of the oak species, as well, they kind of play off one another. Especially if you’re looking at a bluff full of trees, you can really see the differences between them really quickly.” Oak trees in Iowa are the last to show their fall color. The timing of this year’s show of fall foliage in Iowa is pretty typical, according to Runkel.

“We’re pretty much seeing it act normally as it would in year’s past,” Runkel says. “The drought conditions that we’ve had can sometimes really impact the fall color, but this year we haven’t really seen any significant impacts.”

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has a webpage that offers daily updates on the best viewing for fall colors in Iowa. Find a link at https://www.iowadnr.gov/Conservation/Forestry/Fall-Color

KJAN Sports Director Asa Lucas’ weekly discussion with Atlantic Head Football Coach Joe Brummer. This week we talk about the Week 8 loss against Harlan and the impact of this year’s seniors in this week’s game against Creston.

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Jim Field visits with Cass County native Tina Bakehouse, a communication consultant and coach, who just published her first book, “Discovering Our Magnetic Speaker Within.”  It is a guide to help you communicate your message and is available on Amazon.

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w/Kate Olson.

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued more than $1.77 billion this year to agricultural producers and landowners through its Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a critical piece of the Department’s efforts to support climate-smart agriculture and forestry on working lands. Right now, CRP’s more than 667,000 participants received payments from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) for their voluntary conservation efforts on more than 23 million acres of private land. Since 2021, CRP has grown by 21 percent in terms of acres enrolled, testament to the Biden-Harris administration’s program improvement efforts.

“Through the addition of tools to sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and better quantify these efforts, while also bringing into the fold more Tribes and underserved producers, we’ve made the Conservation Reserve Program better for our nation’s natural resources and for our agricultural producers and landowners,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “These producers and landowners voluntarily place their land under contract and, in the spirit of stewardship, agree to establish and maintain prescribed conservation practices for the life of contract. We’re grateful to all CRP participants who are making a tremendous difference by proactively addressing climate change and conserving natural resources now and for future generations.”

Top five states for CRP participant payments:
• Iowa, $402,508,900
• Illinois, $172,723,800
• Minnesota, $150,773,400
• South Dakota, $129,545,200
• Missouri, $99,849,600

Improvements to CRP
• Introducing a new climate-smart practice incentive for CRP general and continuous signups designed to reward participants who implement conservation practices that increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Enabling additional soil rental rate adjustments or rate flexibilities, including a possible increase in rates where appropriate.
• Increasing payments for practice incentives from 20 percent to 50 percent. This incentive, in addition to cost share payments, for continuous CRP practices is based on establishment cost.
• Increasing payments for water quality practices rates from 10 percent to 20 percent for certain water quality benefiting practices available through the CRP continuous signup, such as grassed waterways, riparian buffers and filter strips.
• Establishing a Grassland CRP minimum rental rate benefiting more than 1,000 counties with rates currently below the $13 minimum.

FSA’s conservation programs had a strong showing in 2023. FSA partnered with producers and landowners to enroll 3.9 million CRP this year –including 927,000 enrolled acres through General CRP, 2.3 million acres enrolled in Grassland CRP and 694,000 acres enrolled in Continuous CRP. These results underscore the continued importance of CRP as a tool to help producers invest in the long-term health, sustainability, and profitability of their land and natural resources.
More Information
CRP is a voluntary program contract with agricultural producers through which environmentally sensitive agricultural land is devoted to conservation benefits. CRP participants establish long-term, resource-conserving plant species, such as approved grasses or trees to control soil erosion, improve water quality and develop wildlife habitat. In return, FSA provides participants with rental payments and cost-share assistance. Contract duration is between 10 and 15 years.

To learn more about CRP and other FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center.

Jim Field visits with Amanda McCall of Zion Intergrated Behavioral Health Services about today’s free Mental Wellness Fair at the Atlantic High School from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

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Rains kept some farmers out of the fields at a key time last week as they tried to get the harvest completed. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig (like egg) says when rain comes during the harvest it can throw a wrench into progress — so it’s much needed but ill timed. Naig says the timing of the rain is something that was key for those farmers seeing good yields.
Naig says he’s generally hearing some pretty good reports out of large swaths of the state for yields.

The latest U-S-D-A crop report shows the harvest moved from 30 to 42 percent completed for corn last week, and from 52 to 74 percent completed for soybeans.

Jim Field visits with Zach Schumm, Insect Diagnostician with the Plant and Insect Diagnostic Clinic at Iowa State University, about spiders.

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(Radio Iowa) – There has been at least an area of moderate drought somewhere in Iowa for the past 172 weeks. This is the longest period of moderate drought in Iowa since the U-S Drought Monitor was launched in 1999. Thursday’s Drought Monitor shows Iowa, Louisiana and Mississippi as the only states with at least 95 percent of the state in moderate drought. State climatologist Justin Glisan says widespread rain last week is by no means a drought buster, but it will allow for some improvement in this week’s drought map.

DALLAS COUNTY, Iowa (KCCI) — Bicyclists and hikers will no longer need to purchase a permit to use the Raccoon River Valley Trail. The Dallas, Guthrie, and Greene County Conservation Boards hope this will encourage more people to use the trail that runs from Jefferson to Clive.

The permit requirement ends at the start of next year. A special trail event permit will still be required for large trail events.