A river runs through them

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This article first appeared in INHF's Winter 2007 magazine.

By Larry Stone

Heather Jobst/INHF

These project sites, which protect Clay County (top) and Delaware County (bottom), were “rough” land along rivers. Both were purchased by INHF and are now owned and managed by county conservation boards.

Looking for the wildest parts of Iowa?

Look first in our river and stream corridors. While much of the state has been plowed, cleared or developed, ribbons of natural habitat often remain along our 70,000 miles of rivers and creeks.

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has recently helped two county conservation boards acquire significant tracts along rivers for wildlife habitat, public recreation and water quality protection. INHF provided temporary ownership while the counties raised acquisition funds.

Ocheyedan River corridor

A 177-acre tract stretching for more than a mile along the Ocheyedan River west of Spencer is “a diamond in the rough,” declares Dan Ellis, president of the Clay County chapter of Pheasants Forever. The chapter contributed significant site acquisition funds.

“Dan Ellis was key to the negotiations with the landowner in acquiring this ground,” notes Dan Heissel, director of the Clay County Conservation Board, which now owns and manages the site.

“It’s a piece of property that’s very unique,” says Ellis. The pasture along the river apparently has never been farmed. Several old oxbows and wetlands dot the river bottoms. In some parts of the remote site, “it looks like man has never been there.”

Heissel adds that the site has tremendous potential for habitat and diverse recreation. The river will offer canoeing and fishing, while oxbows will provide wetland habitat. Restored prairie and scattered trees will add more diversity. Because the area will be open to public hunting, no developed trails are planned, but hikers can use firebreaks and service roads.

Eventually, the tract may become part of a greenbelt that could stretch more than seven miles along the river from Spencer to Everly, linking several state- and county-owned properties.

Ellis and other partners are particularly excited about the land’s prairie restoration potential. Even though the site had been heavily grazed for many years, some native forbs and grasses were visible only months after the livestock was removed. More prairie species should recover over time—especially after planned burns.

Three-fourths of the cost was paid by a Wildlife Habitat Stamp grant. The money, which is administered by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), is contributed by people who buy hunting licenses. Pheasants Forever has committed to paying the balance over a five-year period.

Maquoketa River corridor

In eastern Iowa, an INHF project on the Maquoketa River near Delhi will link two popular wildlife areas and improve access along one of Iowa’s premier smallmouth bass fishing streams.

The Delaware County Conservation Board is buying the 317-acre tract with funding from an Iowa DNR Wildlife Habitat Stamp Grant and donations from the National Wild Turkey Federation and Pheasants Forever.

“This is wilderness,” says Garlyn Glanz, director of the conservation board. The land includes about 1.5 miles of river between the county’s 150-acre Shearer Wildlife Area and the 175-acre Retz Wildlife Area. The Iowa DNR has designated the river as “catch-and-release” for smallmouth bass, making it an excellent fishing area.

According to Glanz, the land is a mixture of timber, pasture, prairie and cropland. Crop fields had been enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and the county is now converting those to wildlife food plots, tree plantings or reconstructed prairie. Pheasants Forever volunteers already have helped seed two 10-acre prairie plots and planted 10,000 trees, Glanz noted. Volunteers also have been working to eradicate multiflora rose.

“We’re excited!” Glanz adds. He expects anglers, hunters, canoeists, birders and other nature-lovers to treasure the Maquoketa River corridor.

Larry Stone is a freelance writer/photographer and long-time INHF member from Elkader

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.