Decision Guide for Undecided Boaters

by Dan Haug | Nov 4, 2024

It should go without saying that there are decisions on the ballot that will affect the environment, but if you need a break from election news and commentary, read this Undecided Boater Guide for some low-stakes environmental education and take an opportunity to lower your stress levels by getting out into nature!

Left or Right?

Following the deepest, swiftest part of the river can be a good way to avoid obstructions, but you can’t do that by staying in the center. You have to go with the flow. When a river bends, the water has to travel faster on the outside of the bend, and that water can carry more sediment, producing a cut bank on the outside and a sandbar on the inside. My canoeing partner on Project A.W.A.R.E. gave me a good tip for following the thalweg, or deepest line of the river–look for a line of bubbles and fast moving debris. What, you thought I was making a political allegory? Nah, I just like canoeing!

Cyanobacteria bloom in Lake Darling, July 2024

In or Out?

The first question for the undecided boater is whether to get in the water! After hearing enough stories about brain-eating amoebas and toxic algae blooms, some people are afraid to go in any Iowa lake or river, any time, while others start to tune it alll out and proceed with their plans regardless of how the water looks, smells, or tests. I think we can enjoy Iowa’s lakes and rivers while taking some reasonable precautions. As our data analysis shows, some water bodies in Iowa are cleaner than others. Subscribe to Iowa Environmental Council’s Water Watch newsletter to get updates on beach advisories, and as a rule of thumb, stay out of water that looks like green paint. Minimize your exposure to pathogens by keeping your head out of water, and washing your hands (or applying sanitizer) before eating.

The Lesser of Two Weevils

“Living under a rock for the past few years” is a figure of speech sometimes applied to undecided voters, but for stoneflies, it’s literally true! By coincidence, I organized a group of volunteers to do a biological monitoring session in Ioway Creek during the weeks leading up the both the 2020 and 2024 elections, and we caught stoneflies in our net both times. The stoneflies we caught in 2024 were almost too big to fit in the ice cube tray we use for sorting and counting insects, and had finely branched gills that look like hairy armpits. The stoneflies we caught in 2020 were a fraction of the size and had no visible gills. After looking at specimens under a microscope and consulting a guidebook, I determined they are different species with different policies. The giant stonefly (Pteronarcys sp.) escapes predators by squirting blood out of pores on its leg joints. The small winter stonefly (Allocapnia sp.) escapes predators by producing a sort of natural anti-freeze and emerging from the water to mate when there is snow on the ground! However, both families of stonefly are shredders (eating dead leaves) and both are sensitive to poor water quality. I think that’s not a real choice and am writing in “dragonflies” as a protest.

Turtles offer a clearer contrast. The spiny softshell is aggressive and has a painful bite. The smooth softshell, less so. During a nature program at project AWARE, Denny Weiss demonstrated how to hold a softshell turtle to tell the difference while staying out of range!

Denny Weiss handles a softshell turtle for a Project AWARE nature program.

Closing thoughts

This election year included several first time water experiences for me: digging up mussels in the Wapsipinicon River for Scott Gritter’s Mussel Blitz, paddling and cleaning up trash as part of Iowa Project A.W.A.R.E., and going stand-up-paddling in Clear Lake with my family. Even a familiar location can hold surprises; I did not realize there were smallmouth bass in Ioway Creek until just a few weeks ago, when I saw a teenager catch one at Brookside Park on a fly rod. Undecided boaters should be aware that even in a state with many environmental challenges, there is a lot to enjoy and explore!

2024 Mussel Blitz, photo credit Aaron McFarlane

Biological monitoring in Ioway Creek, fall 2024

Drainage “Improvements”

by Dan Haug | Jul 31, 2023

Sometimes, cutting down trees and moving earth along a stream is necessary to ensure adequate drainage for crops or prevent destructive flooding. Sometimes, it is necessary to reconnect a stream with its floodplain after centuries of hydrologic alteration, erosion and siltation. Sometimes cutting down trees and moving earth isn’t necessary at all, or could be done in a much smaller footprint. You can’t always tell which is which unless someone who knows the land goes to the trouble of reading dull engineering reports and attending dull meetings.

In 2020, a group of landowners successfully petitioned to reclaim trusteeship of their drainage district from the Clay County Board of Supervisors in order to block what they see as a “huge, costly, and environmentally destructive improvement on Pickerel Run.” I share this story, related by Steve Swan, in hopes it encourages more people to go to the trouble.

-Dan

Drone footage of Pickerel Run (source: pickerelrun.com)

By Steve Swan

Pickerel Run is a tributary of the Little Sioux River, located east of Spencer. Drainage District #37 was formed in 1917 to improve drainage by dredging, straightening and widening parts of this stream. Pickerel Run is unusual in that it has not silted in and in many places is almost twice as wide as originally constructed, and therefore is capable of carrying more water than the original design. These days, fewer farmers are grazing livestock and trees have grown up along the banks. Trees can impede drainage when they fall into the channel or when they grow too close to the normal waterline, so some need to be removed, but most are not causing problems and seem to be stabilizing the bank.

Our understanding of the situation was not reflected in the 2018 report by Bolton & Menk, which took several years to complete and cost over $100,000. Landowners were oblivious to what was going on until the report was done and a $3.6 million improvement was recommended, which would remove all trees within a 300-foot work area, level the spoil banks, and dredge the stream. The engineers were sure that 55,000 acres of land upstream could be annexed once the project was completed and be made to pay a significant portion of the bill. This proposal came at a time when cash rents in Clay County had been falling for several years.

The highlighted stretch of Pickerel Run in included in D.D. 37

In many counties, the county supervisors act as trustees for the drainage districts. Iowa code is clear that trustees are obligated to make repairs if necessary, desirable and feasible. However, Iowa’s drainage laws (Section 468) make easy for engineering firms to initiate a massive drainage project—a single signature on a petition—and very difficult for the landowners who must ultimately pay for the project to stop it once it gets rolling. The remonstrance process requires representation of 70% of the acres and 50% of the owners to vote against the project, with parcels held the government or still in the name of a deceased owner defaulting to count in favor of the project.

Once they found out what was happening, landowners began the remonstrance process, and were assured that time would be given for owners to register their opposition of the project. The supervisors called the remonstrance vote early and an initial reading of the results showed a shortfall of the votes needed to stop the project, but the spreadsheet used to calculate the remonstrance contained many errors. A lawsuit ensued.

Realizing that the supervisors were going to stay their course, landowners took advantage of the law and forced a vote to make the trusteeship of the drainage district private. There were more irregularities and another lawsuit for which our landowners had to pay both sides.

Eventually landowners won control of Pickerel Run/DD#37. After the successful privatization of our district, the “drainage industry” successfully lobbied for an amendment to Iowa Code 468 making it more difficult for other districts to follow suit.

Since the landowner trustees have taken office, a plan has been developed to keep water flowing while still maintaining some of the wonderful habitat that had developed over the past 100 years. Some trees have been cut, but many have been saved. Money is being spent, but much less than what would have been spent. The bed of the creek, which supports five species of native mussels and seventeen species of fish, has been spared a clean sweep by big earth moving equipment. The banks are still a haven to a multitude of wildlife species, including a great blue heron rookery, bald eagles, countless waterfowl, and deer in a sea of corn and soybean fields.

Iowa is a farm state and water does need to drain. Perhaps the simplest and best way to ensure that drainage projects are only done when truly needed would be to amend the threshold required for a remonstrance to stop a project.

My dream would be that all the groups that support quality of life in Iowa would become aware how important Iowa Code Section 468 is to life in Iowa and come together to lobby and oppose self-serving engineering firms in the drainage industry that are mainly looking for additional projects to generate revenue, regardless of damage done.