(Radio Iowa) – Before farmland covered nearly 90-percent of Iowa, the vast majority of the state was prairie. Only a small fraction of that natural habitat remains, making Iowa one of the most biologically altered states in the nation. Some Iowans are working to resurrect the state’s natural habitats and the wildlife that comes with it. Kelly Madigan, who lives in Monona County along the Loess Hills, says Iowa’s natural areas have become very fragmented.

“We have made those strips of where plants and insects and a variety of animals can live, we’ve made them so narrow, and in some places, they’ve disappeared altogether,” Madigan says. “Those remnants to me are super important to preserve, they’re like a little lifeboat of what’s left.” Only a tiny sliver of Iowa prairie land, around one-tenth of one-percent, remains untouched by agriculture and the development that surrounds it.

Graham McGaffin, with the Iowa Nature Conservancy, points to the birds and the bison that populate the Loess Hills. McGaffin says it’s one of the state’s most biodiverse areas because it holds 75-percent of Iowa’s grassland prairies. “You’ve got ornate box turtles that exist in the hills, plains pocket mouse, the Great Plains spink,” McGaffin says, “you’ve just got a ton of species and the hills are so unique.”

Since 1963, the organization has been collaborating with landowners to bring back wildlife and he says they do so by connecting the fragmented natural spaces. The lack of protected natural land isn’t sustainable for Iowa’s wildlife, according to biology professor David Hoferer (HOE-fur-er) at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City. Hoferer says the destruction of the ecosystem is part of what has led to 47 animals and 64 plants being listed as endangered within the state.

“We’re at crisis point,” Hoferer says. “Either we do something this decade, or we’re gonna see massive, massive extinctions over the rest of the century.” Hoferer says it will take thousands of individual landowners stepping up to implement conservation practices to reverse the process. He says the state should focus on giving farmers incentives to reintroduce natural habitats on steep or flood-prone lands. Farmer Lee Tesdell planted strips of prairie across his 76 acres in Story County a few years ago and now has patches of purple and yellow wild vegetation interwoven in his soybean fields.

Tesdell says the biodiversity on his farm is blooming. “I saw a coyote coming by and a raccoon came by and a skunk came by then the badger came out to check everything out,” Tesdell says, “so there’s a lot of critters down there.” Tesdell says the strips can reduce sediment movement by 95-percent, significantly reducing water pollution.

(by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

A member of the Anita High School Class of ’79 recently had a heart transplant, and now some of his classmates are trying to raise money to help with his medical expenses. Doug Masker is also diabetic and needs a new pump costing $1,000 that he cannot afford. He is hospitalized in Omaha and the class is trying to raise funds to help him.

Doug Masker (photo submitted)

Donations can be sent to 52817 700th Street, Anita, IA 50020 c/o Judy Masker or Jeff Anderson. Anything helps. Thanks!

(Radio Iowa) – The executive director of the Iowa chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness says while the 9-8-8 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has melted down in some other states, that hasn’t been the case here. Peggy Huppert says that’s because the two crisis response services in eastern Iowa that have been handling 9-8-8 since it launched in July had been fielding suicide prevention calls and texts for some time.

“They were used to working together,” Huppert says. “And were used to working together with local law enforcement and other providers across the state.” Foundation 2 Crisis Services in Cedar Rapids is handling Iowa phone calls to 9-8-8. CommUnity Crisis Services in Iowa City is handling text messages to 9-8-8 and has been contracted to handle texts from other states that aren’t being answered quickly. Goals set for 9-8-8 include responding to a text or answering a phone call within 30 seconds. In July, the average pick-up time in Iowa was 18 second for phone calls.

“I’m really impressed with that,” Huppert says. “We do want to have people call for help and get immediate help.” Being able to text the 9-8-8 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is critical, according to Huppert. “If you’re under a certain age, that’s just how you communicate, so we absolutely have to have that capability,” Huppert says. CommUnity recently reported a 788 percent INCREASE in the text messages it answers from Iowans and other states. CommUnity is a national back-up center for texts to the 9-8-8 National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

Foundation 2 Crisis Services in Cedar Rapids answered more than 11-hundred suicide hotline calls from Iowa in July. That’s 55 percent above the monthly average from January through June.

(Creston, Iowa) [edited for clarification 9/6/22]- Sheriff’s officials in Union County report a man they said is linked to vehicle thefts in six different counties was arrested at around 2-p.m., Saturday. 39-year-old Daniel Floyd Edwards is allegedly responsible for a string of motorcycle, car, pick-up, 4-wheeler, tractor, dump truck, and semitrailer thefts in Union, Ringgold, Adams, Adair, Cass and Madison counties. Charges on the offenses were still pending as of the latest information.

Daniel Floyd Edwards

Authorities late last week alerted the public to be on the lookout for Edwards, who was wanted for parole violations, with nationwide extradition. He was taken into custody after a pursuit. No injuries were reported.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa DNR is now taking public comments as it prepares the rules for the revised bottle bill. The bill was created 44 years ago and after much debate through the years was changed in the last legislative session. The DNR’s Aime Davidson leads the Land Quality Bureau, an says they are not looking for ways to change the law, just input on the rules to implement it. “Our rules would need to be in compliance with the law. We can only work within the authorization that the law gives us,” Davidson says. “So, it would be looking at the law and then looking at the rules and seeing if they aligned, and if things make sense.”

She says you can make your comments online. “If you go to the DNR website, and the easiest way to get to it in the search bar is just search bottle bill and it will pull up the beverage containers control law web page. And it’s pretty much right at the top of the page, titled proposed rule revisions,” Davidson says. You can also email comments at: bottlebill@dnr.iowa.gov.

The input is part of the rulemaking process leading up to the implementation of the new law. “DNR will accept written comments during this informal period until September 21st, and then there’s a formal rulemaking process that includes going to the Environmental Protection Commission, the administrative rules review committee, with the goal that the rules are final by January 1st,” she says.

The changes in the bill will let most grocery stores and other retailers opt out of accepting empty bottles and cans and paying back the nickel deposits. The original Bottle Bill was created as a way to reduce litter and encourage consumers to recycle drink containers.

(Radio Iowa) – A small company that makes tasty treats was launched in an Iowa State University dorm room, and it will soon have its products on the shelves of a major national retail chain. Le Mars native Jarod Steffes, one of the co-founders of Muddy Bites, describes his simple idea that quickly morphed into an expanding business, offering the yummy nibbles in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate. “Muddy Bites is essentially the bottom part of a sundae cone, just that waffle end filled with chocolate,” Steffes says, “so essentially, we took the best part of a sundae cone and turned it into a bite-sized snack that one can enjoy over and over again.”

Steffes came up with the concept when he was still an I-S-U student and he needed a partner. Enter Tyler De Vos, who lived just down the hall. “I could do marketing a little bit, but I didn’t know how to make food whatsoever. I knew nothing about producing food, manufacturing, all that stuff and immediately thought of my network — who does?” Steffes says. “At the time, Tyler had started a barbecue sauce company out of his dorm room and so I was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea, you know a little bit at least about food, like, can you help me with this idea?'”

Steffes says De Vos only need to consider for about 30 seconds before agreeing to be a part of the project. From the start, the business partners decided to split up the workload. “He’s running more of the operational side of things and figuring out how to actually make Muddy Bites on a mass scale,” Steffes says, “and I kind of run all the other branding, social media/marketing side of the business. We really started that in 2018, and the idea really started in 2019 when we launched on Kickstarter.”

A crew of I-S-U students created the first batches of Muddy Bites, which are now manufactured in North Sioux City, South Dakota. The treats are already for sale in 52-hundred stores nationwide. The big break came earlier this year, when they competed with several thousand other firms in a “product showcase” before Walmart executives in Arkansas. Muddy Bites was among the products chosen for sale at Walmarts across the country. Steffes says they’re ramping up production to meet an April Walmart deadline.

On the web at https://www.muddybites.com/

(Radio Iowa) – A spokesperson for the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau says there are some simple things you can do to stay safe as you head home today (Monday) from the long holiday weekend. Jenie Sterbenz says with the shutdown for the pandemic, and some people driving less, we don’t remember some of the rules of the road. “It does seem that people have kind of forgotten the safety part of driving — driving the speed limit, wearing your seat belt, putting that phone down,” she says. Sterbenz says driving is not the time to be multitasking.

“When you’re driving that’s where your attention should be is on driving, not messing with the radio eating or watching a movie or playing with your phone,” she says. “We know that those are all distractions and they can cause your mind to be elsewhere.” You may be following all of the rules but still get into an accident. Sterbenz says wearing your seat belt is good protection for anything that happens on the roadway. “Forty-one percent of our traffic fatalities here in the state of Iowa, to date, have not been buckled up. That’s rather disturbing, especially since we’ve had the law in effect since 1986,” Sterbenz. “Even though we do have a great percentage of people buckling up, we still have those people that are not buckling up are the ones that seem to be involved in those fatality crashes.”

There will be extra officers out on the roadways looking for violations today (Monday). Sterbenz says they just want everyone to get into good driving habits again so the number of fatal and other types of crashes drop.