by Dan Haug | Jan 8, 2020
Thank you to the board members who brought in donuts and coworkers who brought home-baked desserts to the office in 2019. As a result, my New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and eat healthier!
Kidding aside, Prairie Rivers of Iowa is an organization with a long track record of supporting local food systems. Local food is a much better framework for healthy eating than picking processed foods based on high-this or low-that claims on the box. Whole foods—vegetables from the farmers market or CSA, eggs from my backyard chickens, fruit from U-pick orchards—are not just nutritious but a source of joy in the harvesting, purchasing, and cooking. “Eat more locally grown fruits and vegetables in 2020” is a pledge that makes me look forward to the coming year rather than dreading it.
But I’m not overweight and in pain because I don’t eat fruits and veg. Like most members of my extended family, I have chronic health conditions that are exacerbated by sugar, saturated fat, and refined carbohydrates. Like most Americans, I eat a diet high in those things because of they are socially encouraged (how many times have you accepted cookies to be polite) or cheap, convenient, and well-advertised. With half a pig in the freezer (raised by Tom and Carman Rosburg), I asked my doctor for dietary recommendations that did not involve giving up ham and got a very sensible response—cut back the red meat to one or two meals a week. A similar strategy can apply to sweets, white rice, potatoes, and baked goods made without whole-grain flours.
I’ve had one week of planning for moderation and succeeding, after a previous week of planning for abstinence and failing. I can already see how that shift in perspective could be more sustainable—both in the sense of “being able to keep it up past February” and in the sense of “preserving soil, water, and biodiversity.”
When I budget my pastry intake for the week, it becomes imperative to choose something I really like, rather than something convenient like store-bought donuts, muffins, or cookies. That has benefits for the environment, as these foods are often made with palm oil, usually produced by cutting down rain forests.
If full fat cheese and red meat are viewed as an indulgence rather than a staple, I can afford to buy premium products directly from local farmers that are employing the most sustainable practices –for example, Lost Lake Farm near Jewell makes delicious hard cheeses with a rotational grazing system that builds soil organic matter.
Currently, 36% of the US corn crop goes to feed livestock, which converts about 20% of that energy into food calories. 40% of the corn crop goes to ethanol and much of the rest goes into processed foods and sweeteners. This is not an efficient way to feed the world. Prairie Rivers of Iowa has worked with corn, soybean, and livestock producers of all sizes who are making changes to protect soil and water, but widespread adoption of cover crops, perennials and extended rotations has been limited by a lack of local markets and processing for additional crops. If consumers ate less meat and processed foods and more whole grains, and Midwestern farmers shifted some acres out of corn*, it would have undeniable benefits for public health, climate, soil, and water.
*We could shift away from sugar beets, which produce even less nutrition per acre than corn and have their own environmental impacts. You’re not getting off so easy, North Dakota and Minnesota!
by Dan Haug | Nov 20, 2019
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is seeking public comment on the newly released draft impaired waters list. Prairie Rivers of Iowa will be recommending that Squaw Creek and East Indian Creek be added to “Waters in Need of Further Investigation.” We’ll also take this opportunity to try to demystify a topic that can be confusing, using examples from the South Skunk River watershed.
Every two years, the DNR is required to assess the available data to determine whether Iowa’s lakes, rivers, and wetlands are meeting their designated uses. About half the rivers, and a bit more of the lakes have enough data to assess. Since new waters are considered each cycle, the length of the impaired waters list doesn’t really tell us whether water quality is getting worse. Since nutrients aren’t considered for most uses and the data used for the 2018 assessment is from 2014-2016, it doesn’t tell us whether the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is working. What it tells us is the extent and severity of local water quality problems that have been officially vetted.
Recreational Uses
A river segment, lake, or reservoir that gets use by paddlers or where children play would be designated A1 (primary contact recreation use) or A3 (children’s recreational use). To determine whether the water quality is good enough to support these uses, the DNR compares E. coli bacteria to the state standard (a geometric mean of 126 organisms per 100mL). If the stream consistently exceeds the standard, that means there could be enough human or animal waste in the water to pose a health risk to anyone that swallowed some–a child splashing in the creek, or a paddler who tipped their canoe might get exposed to a waterborne illness.
Fully supporting: None of the lakes or rivers in our watershed appeared on this list
Partially supporting: The South Skunk River above Ames was slightly impaired with high E. coli levels in one of three years. Indian Creek near Maxwell, the upper part of Long Dick Creek in Hamilton County, Montgomery Creek in Boone County, Hickory Grove Lake in Story County, Lake Keomah and White Oak Lake in Mahaska County all have moderate E. coli problems.
Not supporting: Prairie Creek in Boone County has consistently high E. coli levels. The data was collected through an agreement between Iowa DNR and volunteers with the Squaw Creek Watershed Coalition.
Not assessed: This includes Squaw Creek, East Indian Creek, McFarland Pond, and many others.
Wait a minute, Squaw Creek and East Indian Creek? Didn’t we work with City of Ames and Story County Conservation to collect three years of monthly E. coli samples, starting during the assessment period? Wasn’t the 2016 geometric mean ten times higher than the standard? Yes, but DNR never approved a quality assurance plan, so under Iowa’s Credible Data Law, they can’t use our data. However, we will write to DNR to recommend that they add those streams to Iowa’s list of waters in need of further investigation (WINOFI). We’re aware that bacteria cleanup plans for large rivers are difficult to do and are a low priority for the department, but we want people to be more aware of the health risks.
Aquatic Life Uses
The South Skunk River is a warm water stream with a smallmouth bass fishery, so is designated B(WW-1). Most of its perennial tributaries don’t have enough water or habitat for gamefish so are designated* B(WW-2) for other aquatic life. Fish kill reports, biological monitoring of fish and invertebrates, and monitoring of dissolved oxygen and some toxic chemicals are used to assess whether water quality is good enough to support these uses.
*Adding to the confusion, smaller creeks are given a presumptive A1 B(WW-1) designation until a Use Attainability Assessment proves otherwise. This change supposedly gives them extra protection, but I don’t see how that would work in practice.
Fully supporting: A lower segment of the South Skunk River in Mahaska County, Little Wall Lake, Hickory Grove Lake, lower Squaw Creek, and Montgomery Creek appear to have good enough water quality for a healthy aquatic community. FYI: Fish aren’t bothered by high nitrate or E. coli.
Partially supporting: The South Skunk River above Ames, the upper part of Squaw Creek, Long Dick Creek, upper Ballard Creek, and Walnut Creek are on the impaired waters list due to fish kills or a low quality fish or invertebrate community.
Waters in Need of Further Investigation: Onion Creek, Worrell Creek, and College Creek had some low scores for fish or invertebrates, but DNR hasn’t worked out an appropriate threshold for these headwater creeks. The lower part of Ballard Creek was removed from the impaired waters list and placed in this category when DNR discovered an error in the previous assessment.
Not Assessed: This includes several segments of the South Skunk River, Dye Creek, Clear Creek, Keigley Branch, West Indian Creek and many others.
Takeway message:
If a river was added to the impaired waters list, don’t assume it’s gotten dirtier. Maybe it was always polluted and we hadn’t bothered to look. And by the same token, if a river is not on the impaired waters list, don’t assume it’s clean.
by Dan Haug | Oct 9, 2019
Nitrogen rate management (MRTN) is the low-hanging fruit of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, a win-win for profitability and the environment. On closer inspection, that fruit is even juicier than we thought; but harder to reach.
Here’s the paradox of nutrient management that the general public fails to grasp. We don’t know with any certainty at application time how much nitrogen the corn crop will need or how much nitrogen will be left in the soil come July when the crop starts maturing. Corn stalk nitrogen tests and split applications can improve the accuracy of the guess, but farmers still have to guess. If they guess too low, they lose income. So most farmers err on the high side, which means that (all else being equal) more nitrogen will end up in our streams.
Figure by John Sawyer at ISU. The economically optimum nitrogen rate varies by year, even on the same field.
We may not know what’s the right amount of nitrogen to apply this year, but we can pinpoint a range that makes the most economic sense across sites and years. In 2005, Iowa State University researchers crunched the numbers and developed an online calculator. A farmer can enter current prices for corn and fertilizer to get the Maximum Return To Nitrogen (MRTN). Above that range, they might get a bit higher yield, but the revenue from those extra bushels doesn’t offset the cost of the extra nitrogen. Applying nitrogen at the MRTN is a rare win-win for profitability and the environment.
Along with cover crops, wetlands, and bioreactors, MRTN was one of the more promising practices for nitrogen outlined in the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. Still, the authors cautioned that it wouldn’t get us very far by itself. An average field would cut nitrate losses by 10 percent. Since some parts of the state apply less nitrogen than others, universal adoption of this practice would get us a 9 percent reduction in nitrate concentrations.
That modest reduction assumes Iowa farmers currently apply 150 lbs of N/acre on a corn-bean rotation and 190 lbs/acre on continuous corn, a figure the authors admitted were “possibly outdated.” A 2017 survey by ag retailers found that Iowa farmers apply 169 lbs/acre of nitrogen on corn after beans and apply 210 lbs N/acre on continuous corn. I updated Dr. Helmers graph with those numbers and an MRTN based on current corn and nitrogen prices to determine the potential water quality benefit. This low-hanging fruit is juicier than we thought!
And that’s just the average! Inspired by a recent essay by Chris Jones, I read a manure management plan for a field in one of our watersheds. It receives 190 lbs/acre of nitrogen and 146 lbs/acre of phosphorus in the form of liquid swine manure. If that manure could be spread over more acres at a rate of 140 lbs/acre, that could reduce nitrate losses by 31%. If it replaces rather than supplements commercial fertilizer, we could get another 4% cut in nitrate. Manure is a slow-release fertilizer and less susceptible to leaching.
Is that economical? Hard to say. Daniel Anderson reports that liquid swine manure can be moved seven miles and still be cheaper than synthetic fertilizer. In Story and Boone County that might work. Hamilton County has 218 manure management plans, so I’m not sure how far you’d need to travel to find a field not already being treated. Are there changes in processing or additional cost share that would help make it more feasible? I don’t know. No-one is talking about it. But cover crops work equally well. Winter rye grows thicker with fall-applied manure and can scavenge nitrogen that would otherwise be lost.
Unfortunately, neither of those options (MRTN or cover crops) are even suggested as part of manure management plans and the loudest voices in the room are saying livestock producers don’t need to be doing anything differently. Until that situation changes, the widespread adoption of rate management that’s assumed in statewide and watershed-based scenarios won’t happen and we will fail to meet our nutrient reduction goals.
by Dan Haug | Sep 17, 2019
GIS mapping is a big part of my job, but I’ll be the first to admit there’s a limit to what you can learn about a stream without getting your feet wet, or at least dipping a bucket into the water.
I’ve been testing West Indian Creek and Grant Creek at the lovely Jennett Heritage Area, just above their confluence. (With some help from David Stein and Rick Dietz) West Indian Creek flows through Nevada and drains 28,417 acres at this point. Grant Creek, also known as Drainage Ditch 5, drains 13,344 acres between Ames and Nevada.
Based on soils and landcover in the watershed, I’d expect Grant Creek to have comparable or slightly worse water quality than West Indian Creek. There are nutrient loading models available online and in the Story County Watershed Assessment that predict just that.
Instead, I’ve found that water quality is consistently better in Grant Creek. West Indian Creek has normal nitrate levels but very high phosphorus levels. At this point, I don’t know why.
| Orthophosphate (mg/L) | Grant Creek | W. Indian Creek |
| 5/14/2019 | 0 | 0.6 |
| 6/11/2019 | 0.1 | 1.0 |
| 7/25/2019 | 0 | 3.0 |
| 9/10/2019 (after rain) | 0.6 | 4.0 |
| Nitrate (mg/L) | Grant Creek | W. Indian Creek |
| 5/14/2019 | 2 | 5 |
| 6/11/2019 | 2 | 5 |
| 7/25/2019 | 2 | 5 |
| 9/10/2019 (after rain) | 0 | 0 |
I do know there are people in the West Indian Creek watershed working to improve water quality, both on private land and public land. If you own land or farm in the watershed and are thinking about doing more to conserve soil and water, contact our Watershed Coordinator, David Stein, to set up a free consultation.
If you live near Nevada and are want to help solve the mystery of these two creeks through water testing, contact Dan Haug. Prairie Rivers of Iowa is working with Story County Conservation and the Izaak Walton League to plan for and support volunteer stream monitoring around Story County in 2020.
A final note: Don’t judge a stream by its name, or lack of a name. The lower part of Drainage Ditch 5 is a natural creek with buffer vegetation, fish, clean water, and public access. The map below shows a pre-settlement land survey superimposed over a current topographic map. Interestingly, West Indian Creek was forested while Grant Creek was prairie. Thanks to the restoration efforts of Cindy Hildebrand and Roger Maddux, parts of Grant Creek are prairie once again.
by Dan Haug | Jul 30, 2019
“None of the lakes hereabout are very deep. They are all marsh-like, only distinguished from a thousand marshes by the courtesy of the pioneer who called them lakes to suit his fancy, recognizing their greater width and possibly, in some cases their bluffy shores.”
-Thomas H. McBride, Geology of Hamilton and Wright Counties (1910)
Two of the four lakes shown in the 1875 map (by A.T. Andreas) have been drained.
The governor has proclaimed July as Lake Appreciation Month. We’ve got a few lakes in the South Skunk River basin that we appreciate for different reasons.
- Hickory Grove Lake is a 100-acre impoundment that we appreciate for swimming and fishing. The effort involved in constructing it and now restoring it is a testament to how much Story County residents value our lakes.
- Ada Hayden Heritage Park Lake is a 137-acre former gravel pit that we appreciate for paddle sports, fishing, and admiring from the trails.
- Little Wall Lake is a 249-acre natural lake that we appreciate most for swimming and motorized sports.
- Cairo Lake is a 1300-acre former lake that we now appreciate as corn ground.
Did you know about that last one? Located between Jewell and Kamrar, it was drained starting in 1895 by a system of ditches (71 and Rahto Branch) and tiles, but you can still see the shoreline on aerial photos. “Lost Lake Farm,” a dairy on the north “shore”, is named as a nod to that history.
The scale of the work involved is impressive, especially given the technology available at the time, and was just one of many such alterations that built up Iowa’s agricultural economy. In this case it made farmable over 1000 acres of Blue Earth muck loams with a corn suitability rating of 63 to 66.
The work could not have happened without statutes adopted by the Iowa Legislature around 1890 that allowed for the formation of drainage districts, and reinforced by an amendment to the Iowa Constitution in 1908 to provide drainage districts with additional authority.
Today we have plenty of good farm ground but few clean lakes. We’ve got amazing yields but not reliable profits. We’ve got too little carbon in the soil and too much in the atmosphere. We’ve got too much nitrogen washing off our fields toward the Gulf. The environmental challenges are daunting, but when I look at old maps, it makes me wonder what today’s Iowans could accomplish, if we had the legal framework and economic incentives to make it possible.
