A pontoon boat makes it's way past another boat on the Coralville Lake near Mehaffey Bridge Road Monday, May 21, 2012 near North Liberty. Law Enforcement personal will be out in force next weekend in an attempt to ensure boater safety on the lake during the busy Memorial Day weekend. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

Alcohol-related laws for boat operators should be the same as those for highway vehicle drivers, say Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officials.

“It is inconsistent that we allow open containers in boats, but not in highway vehicles,” said Robert Garrison, chief of the DNR’s Law Enforcement Bureau.

It is also inconsistent that boat operators can legally drink while driving as long as they don’t exceed the 0.08 blood alcohol limit, said Garrison, who served eight years as chief of the Iowa State Patrol before stints with the Department of Corrections and the DNR.

Sobriety afloat will be especially important during the upcoming Memorial Day weekend when many of Iowa’s 229,000 registered boats will take to the water.

Garrison and Jennifer Lancaster, DNR law enforcement supervisor for northeast Iowa, praised the Legislature for reducing the legal blood-alcohol limit for boaters from 0.10 to 0.08 last year, making that threshold consistent with the legal limit for drivers of highway vehicles.

The same justifications for restricting alcohol on the highway would apply to restricting it on the water, Lancaster said.

Garrison and Lancaster said they would support law changes that would further reduce or eliminate remaining inconsistencies.

“Boating and alcohol do not mix. I think it would be great if boaters could not drink at all,” Lancaster said.

Lancaster said the DNR has been encouraging designated boat operators who abstain from alcohol.

The DNR has no immediate plans to ask the Legislature to change boating laws, said spokesman Kevin Baskins. Educational campaigns to encourage Iowans to “leave the alcohol on shore” are in the works, he said.

Susan Stocker, the DNR’s boating law administrator, said she knows of no state that has banned open alcohol containers in boats. A bill to do so was introduced last year in the Nebraska Legislature, but it never made it out of committee, she said.

Wind, wave action, sun and glare can magnify the intoxicating effects of alcohol, she said.

Stocker said 54 boaters were cited last year for boating while intoxicated — a condition that slows reaction time and impairs judgment. The DNR also recorded 38 boating accidents last year, well below the state’s annual average of 54.

This past weekend, four people died when two boats collided at 2 a.m. Saturday on the Mississippi River. Authorities said Monday it was not yet known if alcohol played a role, but Des Moines County Sheriff Mike Johnstone said the boats were shuttling partyers to shore from an island.

Iowa boating fatalities totaled four last year, five in 2010, three in 2009, none in 2008, 10 in 2007 and five in 2006. Of the 23 boating fatalities recorded from 2006 through 2010, 13 (or 56.5 percent) involved alcohol, according to DNR statistics.

Stocker said the Mississippi River, Coralville Lake and lakes within state parks will be among Eastern Iowa’s most popular areas for motor boats on Memorial Day weekend.

That’s why the Army Corps of Engineers will step up patrols this weekend on Coralville Lake.

“Memorial Day weekend is typically the busiest of all the weekends,” said Randy Haas, chief ranger at Coralville Lake. “The DNR will be out with probably a couple of boats. Most likely the Sheriff’s Department will have a deputy or deputies on the boat with the Corps of Engineers ranger.”

The Corps relies on local law officers to assist with patrolling, because they cannot write tickets for state drinking offenses.

The number of boats on Coralville Lake is not limited, so the water can become crowded. Officers said it is difficult to patrol the entire lake because of its multiple boat-launch sites.

“It’s just like I was instructed with guns. Every gun is loaded; that boat is loaded,” said Al Kennedy, a longtime boater who was buying a boat Monday from Coralville Lake Marina. “You can enjoy it and have pleasure, or it can kill.”

Besides limiting alcohol consumption, boaters should wear a properly fitting lifejacket, Stocker said.

State law requires boat operators to carry a properly fitted wearable lifejacket for every person on board. Passengers 12 and younger are required to wear their life jackets whenever the boat is under way.

More than 50 percent of drowning victims were not wearing life jackets, Stocker said.

Staff writer Mark Carlson contributed to this story.

A sign warns boaters of low water conditions upstream from the Mehaffey Bridge Road boat ramp Monday, May 21, 2012 on the Coralville Lake near North Liberty. Law Enforcement personal will be out in force next weekend in an attempt to ensure boater safety on the lake during the busy Memorial Day weekend. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

A sediment trap is one of the water quality improvement practices used by a landowner near the Fountain Springs Park trout stream. The trap improves water quality by reducing the number of sediment, nutrients and bacteria reaching the watershed. The trap also reduces flooding by slowing water reaching streams. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

State officials are ignoring important public policy recommendations to cope with climate change and increased risks of flooding and water pollution, Iowa Policy Project researchers said Monday.

“Iowans are going to see increased problems with water quality and quantity, in the form of flood damage, unless we make changes,” said Brian McDonough, lead author of the report and an intern with the Iowa City-based research group.

The report said that recommendations of three committees established by the Legislature — the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council, the Iowa Climate Change Impacts Committee and the Water Resources Coordinating Council — have all been largely ignored.

The authors noted, for example, that the Legislature has rejected all the key recommendations of the Water Resources Coordinating Council. Among them were adoption of a 500-year flood as the statewide regulated flood plain and increasing the safety and operation requirements for critical facilities within the flood plain, such as wastewater treatment plants.

Policy Project Executive Director David Osterberg, a co-author of the report, said state leaders have acknowledged that Iowa faces a future of increased precipitation and increased frequency of extreme rainfall events.

“Legislators keep asking questions, but the response to experts’ recommendations has been little or nothing,” he said.

Researcher Will Hoyer, another co-author, said state and local policymakers must work with farmers to keep water on the land where it falls rather than letting it run off as floodwater.

McDonough said increased row crop production driven by high commodity prices, coupled with precipitation trends, creates “a perfect storm” for increased flooding and degradation of water quality.

Traffic travels along Main Street in McGregor on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Fracking — a controversial oil and natural gas extraction method — is creating controversy along Main Street in this historic tourist destination.

Not that there is any actual fracking going on here, but a steady stream of heavy trucks loaded with silica sand, a key fracking ingredient, is stirring dust, noise and discontent.

“My peace is gone. I can’t sleep at night,” said Roger Knott, proprietor of McGregor’s Top Shelf, a gourmet and specialty food shop at 221 Main St.

The trucks from Pattison Sand Co., which mines silica sand near the town of Clayton about 10 miles south along the Mississippi River, often run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to Knott, who counted 140 of the loaded 40-ton trucks during a single day last year.

“The roar shakes the windows. Layers of fine gritty dust cover everything,” said Knott, who worries he could lose his 4-year-old business if the trucks drive away tourists.

Forty-year McGregor businessman Jim Boeke said his biggest concern is the constant vibration. “I love the town’s old buildings, and I don’t want to see them shook apart,” said Boeke, who operates the River Junction Trade Company, a dealer in 19th century dry goods just up the street at 312 Main.

Both Boeke and Knott acknowledge the importance of the estimated 150 jobs created by Pattison Sand and believe that hydraulic fracturing — which entails the high-pressure injection of water, silica sand and chemicals into underground shale deposits — is a legitimate means to extract oil and natural gas.

They just wish that Pattison would route its trucks on the Highway 18 bypass around McGregor, rather than through the downtown business district.

City officials have met twice with general manager Kyle Pattison — who declined to be interviewed for this story — in a vain effort to secure such a compromise, according to City Administrator Lynette Sander.

“Let’s just say we feel like we didn’t accomplish anything,” she said.

The Pattison Sand Co. near Clayton, as seen from Mississippi Road on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Sander said the city put an 8-ton weight restriction on two city streets to discourage heavy trucks with little noticeable effect.

Sander said some residents believe the dust, noise, traffic and loss of serenity are affecting property values.

“I feel bad for the businesses. It’s a tough mix when you are catering to tourists,” she said.

The frac sand mining boom has tracked the hydro fracking boom, with demand for the specialized sand quadrupling from 2000 to 2009 and doubling again in 2010 to more than 12 million metric tons per year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Geologist and sand mining expert Kent Syverson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire, said sand from the Pattison mine is especially suitable for fracking because its strong, round quartz grains do not crush under high pressure.

The sand grains hold open fissures in the shale, facilitating extraction of oil and gas, he said.

Syverson said the mining of frac sand, which is done primarily in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Texas, is controversial in part because controversy surrounds the fracking process, which is subject to charges, among others, that it contaminates groundwater and air.

Several counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin have recently approved moratoriums on frac sand mining.

As for the mining itself, “the major issue is truck traffic, along with complaints that it degrades scenery and quality of life,” said Syverson, who believes that both hydro fracking and frac sand mining are, on balance, beneficial.

Clayton County supervisors Chairman Gary Bowden, who maintains a chiropractic office on McGregor’s Main Street, said the board met last year with McGregor residents concerned about sand truck traffic.

“We basically told them, ‘It (Main Street) is a state highway (76). We have no control,’” Bowden said.

Doug Hawker, the Department of Natural Resources environmental specialist who monitors water quality at the mine, also said Pattison officials have generally complied with applicable regulations and “ask before they take action.”

The state, in an April 1 consent order, did assess a $10,000 penalty for drainage practices that resulted in discharges of sand into the Mississippi, Hawker said.

Hawker said Pattison has been quarrying sand for the past several months after the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration shut down the underground mining operation because of unsafe supports.

The mining agency’s order remains in effect while the company works to establish safe conditions.

A Pattison employee, Rebecca Dysart, 48, was killed in a mining accident on April 24, 2008, when she was run over in the darkness by a 54-ton front-end loader operated in reverse.

Iowa Bear Map (courtesy of Iowa DNR)

A wandering black bear left West Union under a police escort on Friday morning.

“He was pretty compliant,” said Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher, who used his own ATV to herd the bear to a timber about two miles northwest of town.

The bear, believed to be the same one seen Tuesday in Ridgeway, was spotted Friday just north of town between Highway 150 and County Road W42 about a half mile north of North Fayette schools.

After advising the school to keep students inside until the area was cleared, deputies blocked off a three-quarter mile stretch of Highway 150 so the bear could safely cross, said Fisher, who was assisted in the field by Chief Deputy Jim Davis.

The slowly unfolding process attracted a crowd, according to the sheriff. “We took our time because we did not want to overheat the bear or put him in a defensive posture,” Fisher said.

Fisher said his office last dealt with a black bear sighted near St. Lucas on June 25, 2008.

Bears are becoming almost annual visitors to northeast Iowa, said Jim Jansen, the Department of Natural Resources wildlife supervisor for that region.

While bears are not protected by law in Iowa, the DNR strongly discourages shooting or harassing them.

“They really would try to avoid people if given a choice, and they get aggressive only when threatened or cornered,” Jansen said

Bears in Iowa are almost always young males reared in Minnesota or Wisconsin and in search of their own territory, he said.

If left alone, they generally return to their state of origin, Jansen said.

After spending almost all of this year near or south of her natal area, the yearling took off May 3 for points north.

As of Wednesday – after covering 453 miles in 12 days, including a 139-mile leg on May 8 – she was well above Lake Superior, apparently bound for Hudson Bay.

“Her peregrinations are proving to be most exciting. We are learning so much about the movements of an Iowa-fledged eagle,” said Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, whose nest-cam website attracts millions of viewers.

Anderson said he was shocked at her sudden departure and lengthy journey, which appears to be far from complete.

“I’m guessing she will spend the summer near Hudson Bay and stay there until winter drives her south,” said Anderson, who fitted her with the transmitter on July 12, a few weeks after she fledged from her parents’ nest near the Decorah Fish hatchery.

This year’s brood of three eaglets will fledge around June 20, according to Anderson, who intends to fit one of them with a similar transmitter around the Fourth of July.

Anderson said the detailed tracking of D1, which signifies Decorah first satellite, has impressed him with her pronounced affinity for rivers, her ability to make long flights and her apparent wanderlust.

“She has spent time along at least a dozen different rivers, which underscores the importance of maintaining good water quality,” he said.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, he said, is “how fast she can book – 140 miles in a single day.”

Although Anderson initially expected her to reside along the Mississippi River, not far from her natal area. her current northern journey is already her second, following a four-month, 850-mile tour of Wisconsin and Minnesota late last year.

Anderson said he is looking forward to 4:30 p.m. Monday, when his favorite television show, “Jeopardy,” will feature the Decorah eagles.

“I’m not sure if it will be a single question or a category, but the show’s producer said they were going to use some footage I sent them,” said Anderson, who described his allegiance to the program as “bordering on obsessive-compulsive.”

To view the Decorah eagles nest, go to www.raptorresource.org and click on the “bird cams” tab at the top of the page.

Although state law allows boat operators to drink within the legal .08 blood alcohol limit, “We recommend a designated boat operator who abstains from alcohol,” said Susan Stocker, the DNR’s boating law administrator/education coordinator.

Effective last July 1, the state lowered the legal limit for boaters from 0.10 to 0.08, making it consistent with the law applying to operators of land-based vehicles.

Open containers, which are illegal in cars and trucks, are still permissible in boats, but Stocker said DNR officials would prefer, for safety’s sake, that boaters leave all alcoholic beverages ashore.

Wind, wave action, sun and glare can magnify the intoxicating effects of alcohol, she said.

Stocker said 54 boaters were cited last year for boating while intoxicated – a condition that slows reaction time and impairs judgment.

The DNR also recorded 38 boating accidents last year, well below the state’s annual average of 54.

Iowa boating fatalities totaled four last year, five in 2010, three in 2009, none in 2008, 10 in 2007 and five in 2006.

Of the 23 boating fatalities recorded from 2006 through 2010, 13 (or 56.5 percent) involved alcohol, according to DNR statistics.

Stocker said the Mississippi River, Coralville Lake and lakes within state parks will be among Eastern Iowa’s most popular areas for motor boats on Memorial Day weekend.

Besides limiting alcohol consumption, boaters should wear a properly fitting lifejacket, according to Stocker.

State law requires boat operators to carry a properly fitted wearable lifejacket for every person on board. Passengers age 12 and younger are required to wear their lifejackets whenever the boat is under way.

More than 50 percent of drowning victims were not wearing lifejackets, Stocker said.

Water fills a trench on C Avenue NW after heavy rain in August 2009. (Jeff Raasch/The Gazette)

A scientific report issued Wednesday confirms what most Iowans have long known or suspected: that heavy rains have been falling with increasing frequency, causing disastrous flooding.

Incidences of the most severe downpours have doubled during the past 50 years in eight Midwest states, according to a report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Among the eight states in the study, Iowa registered the lowest impact with a 32 percent increase in the frequency of rainfalls totaling 3 or more inches in 24 hours. The other states, with their percentage increase in parentheses, are Indiana (160), Wisconsin (203), Missouri (81), Michigan (180), Minnesota (104), Illinois (83) and Ohio (40).

“The increases were much more than we expected,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the report’s lead author.

The new study, unlike others preceding it, includes data from 2008 through 2011, he said.

For the past several years, Iowa climate scientists – including Eugene Takle and Christopher Anderson, both of Iowa State University – have been documenting and warning Iowans about the increase in extreme rainfall events.

Saunders said the trend toward more frequent extreme storms accelerated during the past decade.

In the Midwest, the first 12 years of this century included seven of the nine top years (since 1961) for the most extreme storms, according to Saunders.

For the June 2008 storm that swamped Cedar Rapids and other Iowa locales, 48 percent of the floodwater fell in the form of extreme rainfall events, he said.

The study also found that the average interval between extreme storms at an individual Midwest location had shrunk from 3.8 years in the 1960s to 2.2 years during the past decade.

Although Saunders acknowledged that localized data does not constitute proof of human-caused climate change, he said that other global studies have established that connection to the satisfaction of most scientists.

Sal Giunta, Medal of Honor recipient and Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2003 graduate, answers questions in Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School's black box theater during a community reception for Giunta before the senior class recognition night on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at the school in Cedar Rapids. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Medal of Honor recipient Sal Giunta told members of the senior class at Kennedy High School he is confident they will change the world for the better.

On Tuesday night, the 2003 Kennedy graduate presented the first Sal Giunta Scholarship to graduating senior Abi Gray, 18, of Cedar Rapids.

One of the decisive factors in Gray’s selection for the $1,000 award is her commitment to community service, said Giunta, 27.

The scholarship, endowed by the Brian LaViolette Scholarship Foundation, also pays tribute to the memory of Giunta’s fallen comrades — Sgt. Josh Brennan and Spc. Hugo Mendoza — who were killed in the Oct. 25, 2007, Taliban attack in which Giunta was recognized for extreme bravery.

Doug LaViolette of Oneida, Wis., whose son Brian drowned in 1992 at age 15, said his family established the foundation to ensure that his son’s commitment to making a positive difference lives on. The foundation will present 40 scholarships this year, he said.

After 7 1/2 years in the Army, Giunta ended his military service on June 13, 2011, and the Oct. 6 birth of Lillian Grace Giunta has smoothed his transition to civilian life, he said.

“People told me, ‘it’s going to change your life.’ But I figured I’d been through a few life-changing events and would take it in stride,” said Giunta, who grew up in Hiawatha.

“Well, it’s turned my life upside down in the most positive way,” he said.

Giunta, who lives in Fort Collins, Colo., with his wife Jennifer and their daughter, said he travels about 20 days a month delivering speeches for the Washington Speakers Bureau. His audiences include corporations, military and veterans groups.

He said he especially enjoys talking with ROTC and active duty military. “The people who have written a blank check to America, in an amount up to and including their lives — they are the people I want to talk to,” he said

Giunta said he still misses the camaraderie of the Army units he served with and acknowledged that combat — while “ugly and horrific” — entailed a high level of excitement.

“The buzz I get from speaking to 500 people kind of takes its place,” he said.

Giunta said he declined to re-enlist because he understood that his celebrity would preclude his preferred role as a combat soldier.

“I joined to jump out of planes and fight bad guys, and that was not going to happen any more,” he said.

Giunta said he plans to attend college starting in January but is not sure what course of study he will pursue.

President Barack Obama presented the medal to Giunta at a White House ceremony on Nov. 16, 2010.

Citing official accounts of the battle, Obama said Giunta repeatedly risked his life to save the other men in his unit when they were attacked by a numerically superior Taliban force in Afghanistan.

The initial salvos killed Mendoza, the squad’s medic, and riddled its point man, Brennan, with at least six gunshot wounds.

Giunta coordinated the squad’s defense and repeatedly charged through enemy rounds, first to assist the squad leader and then to rescue Brennan, killing and wounding the two Taliban fighters who were dragging away his close personal friend.

Brennan later died of his wounds while being transported from the battlefield.

Sal Giunta, Medal of Honor recipient and Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2003 graduate, stands with Kennedy senior Abi Gray after she was awarded the $1000 Sal Guinta Scholarship of Honor during the senior class recognition night on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at the school in Cedar Rapids. The scholarship is in memory of Sgt. Josh Brennan and Spc. Hugo Mendoza, killed during the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan battle. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

“Seeing it from the outside provides a new perspective,” said Wanda Goins, vice president of the Buchanan County Historical Society and a leading authority on the hidden remains of Independence’s 1870s-era business district.

As contractors have removed sections of the sidewalk this month, onlookers have gathered to peer into the concrete holes at the town’s original business district. The opportunities have been fleeting as crews have quickly closed the holes with new sections of sidewalk.

Duane Kress, proprietor of the Wapsi Vintage Wares antiques store, took advantage of the opportunity Tuesday to examine the long-hidden exterior of the basement beneath his store.

“It’s one of the few with an original window still in place,” said Kress, who like most downtown merchants intends to preserve the underground façade as an important part of the community’s history.

People had gotten to see parts of the underground business district during tours sponsored by the historical society during the past two summers.

“But it’s easer to understand what happened when you can see the old buried facades beneath today’s storefronts,” Goins said.

What had been street-level storefronts in the early decades of the city are now little-used and seldom-seen basements beneath the businesses along First Street East, said Historical Society President Leanne Harrison.

The original storefronts were buried when the street was raised about 6 feet in 1864 to counteract frequent flooding of the nearby Wapsipinicon River, Harrison said.

Early downtown merchants “had built according to their fancies and the inclines and declivities” of the unimproved main street, according to Harry and Katharyn Chappell, authors of a 1914 “History of Buchanan County.”

Harrison said the grading and elevation of the street in 1864 began the burial of the initial business district. After fires in 1873 and 1874 destroyed the aboveground structures, merchants rebuilt on the same limestone foundations, which are now the hidden basements, she said.

The historical society will again lead tours of the underground business district on July 21 and Aug. 18, according to Goins.

Tour proceeds will help pay for a badly needed new roof on the Wapsipinicon Mill, the community’s foremost historic treasure.

Harrison said the new roof and other mill repairs will be done this year if the historical society can raise the project’s $480,000 estimated cost. The society continues to raise money while awaiting the outcome of its application for a key state Community Attractions and Tourism grant, she said.

Leon Helmuth, a member of the recently establish Amish community near Delhi, drives a team of percherons pulling a soil compactor across a hayfield on Monday, April 2, 2012. In the background is one of several new Amish homes constructed in the Delhi area. Orlan Love/The Gazette

DELHI — Economic opportunity, religious freedom and a scenic rural landscape have attracted a new Amish community to the rolling hills southwest of here.

Organic farmer John Henry Yoder said “religious differences” with the elders of the Edgewood Amish community, the settlers’ former home, played a role in his family’s move to the Delhi area last May.

One of the main disagreements, Yoder said, involved a bishop’s rule limiting Amish men in the Edgewood community to two days per week off-farm work.

“That was a good thought to have more people staying on the land, but some things we have to do a little differently in this day and age,” said Yoder, the father of 15 children.

“I’d really like to see all my boys on the farm, but with the price of land I can’t help them all get started,” he said.

The Yoders are one of 17 Amish families that have moved during the past 15 months from the Edgewood-Garber area of Clayton County to a settlement centered along 220th Avenue in Delaware County.

“It was time to split off, I guess,” said Lydia Borntreger, who with her husband Bennie and their seven children recently built a new home just west of Delhi.

“The elders want us to farm, but farmland is scarce and expensive. Eventually we want to farm, but we have to earn the money first,” she said.

Like many Amish men, her husband works on a construction crew that hires a driver to transport the workers to job sites, she said.

Elders perceive being away from home and family all day as more of a threat to the Amish way of life than engaging in non-farm occupations, said sociologist Donald Kraybill, the leading authority on the Amish in North America.

More than 60 percent of Amish households derive their primary income from non-agricultural pursuits such as shops, businesses, carpentry, construction, retail stores and roadside stands, said Kraybill, senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa.

The Delhi community is the 23rd Amish settlement in Iowa, which ranks ninth among the states in Amish population, according to statistics provided by the Young Center.

From 2009 to 2011, Iowa’s Amish population increased 17 percent from 6,770 to 7,895 — the second-highest rate of increase among the 26 states in which Amish reside. While births account for most of the growth, Iowa registered a net gain of 34 Amish families via immigration from 2006 to 2010.

A new Amish school constructed recently on the farm of Amos Christner on 220th Avenue accommodates 28 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, according to Rosanna Helmuth, one of the school’s two teachers.

Christner, a supplier of metal roofing and siding and one of three ministers serving the new Amish community, said the area’s woods and creeks and the availability of small tracts of land made the Delhi area attractive to the Amish.

“We love nature and spending time in the woods,” said Christner, adding that woodlots are important to the many Amish who burn wood to heat their homes.

Retail businesses in the community include a dry goods store, a bulk foods store, a greenhouse and a bakery.

Edna Borntreger and her daughter Mary sell baked goods on Fridays and Saturdays out of their home at the corner of County Highway D5X and 220th Avenue.

Business has been good, and their new neighbors have warmly welcomed them, Edna Borntreger said.

“Every weekend we get new customers, and we should get more when the lake is back,” she said.

Amish living within the boundaries of the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District do not mind the prospect of an increased property tax levy — $12.20 per $1,000 of taxable value — to support the rebuilding of the Lake Delhi dam, she said.

“We’ll get good out of the lake, and the increased traffic in the area will be good for business,” she said.

Business also is improving at the Woods Edge Country Store, farther south on 220th Avenue, according to Lori Helmuth, 19, who often tends the store in the absence of her mother, Emma.

The store, which operated in the Edgewood community before moving in September, stocks dry goods, with shoes and kitchen ware among the most popular items, she said.

Amish shop there, but most of the business comes from the “English,” the Amish term for non-Amish, she said.

While construction work is an important part of the livelihood of many Amish men in the new community, many also derive income from specialized agricultural pursuits.

Edna Borntreger’s husband, Joe, for example, sells organic eggs produced by a flock of 5,000 hens.

Yoder, who raises organic crops on 60 acres, tends hens and goats, which produce organic eggs and milk.

Both men say the extra care and work entailed in organic production yields significantly higher prices.

“It’s a good market niche and a better way of life for the family,” Yoder said.

Christner said he tells young Amish farmers to focus on specialties in which their own labor adds value to their products.

“Don’t raise anything that can be combined, I tell them. You can’t compete with a combine,” he said.

Christner, who has six grown children and 51 grandchildren, said Amish life revolves around family and community.

“It’s not ‘you go your way, I go mine.’ We help each other out,” he said.

The Effigy Mounds National Monument, situated on the bluffs along the Mississippi River in northeastern Iowa. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

The resurfacing last summer of a box of human bone fragments has prompted a federal investigation into the mishandling of Native American remains at Effigy Mounds National Monument.

“We would hope that the powers that be do something. All we want is justice and to take care of the remains of our ancestors,” said Johnathan Buffalo, historic preservation director for the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, also known as the Meskwaki Nation.

“The general public does not really know how serious a matter this is,” said Buffalo, who is representing the Meskwaki on a committee established to monitor and participate in the investigation.

Representatives of the Meskwaki and 11 other tribes with ancestral connections to Effigy Mounds “were understandably upset,” said Jim Nepstad, superintendent of the National Park Service facility established to preserve and make accessible to the public more than 200 Indian burial and effigy mounds along the Mississippi River north of Marquette.

Nepstad said Tom Munson of Prairie du Chien, Wis., a former superintendent at Effigy Mounds, returned the box of bone fragments last summer. The bones, which had been removed from the museum collection at Effigy Mounds, had been stored in Munson’s garage.

Munson said the bones were transferred from an Effigy Mounds storage building to his garage without his knowledge when he retired from the Park Service in 1994.

He had been living in a home at the Effigy Mounds site and the box of bones – which he described as “about the size of an apple box” – was inadvertently transported along with his personal possessions to his home in Prairie du Chien, Munson said.

When he later discovered the contents of the box, Munson said he called then-Effigy Mounds Superintendent Karen Gustin, who asked him to retain custody until an appropriate storage site could be found.

When asked about the bones last year, Munson said he promptly returned them.

Munson said he does not believe he did anything wrong and is not “feeling any pressure” from the investigation.

Ranger Bob Palmer, who worked at Effigy Mounds before transferring last year to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, said the investigation started with a “very innocent general inquiry” into the whereabouts of artifacts covered by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

An inventory of collections and records revealed that dozens of ancient human remains had been removed from the museum collection in 1990 – the same year Congress passed the law that required the return of human bones and funerary objects to lineal descendants or tribal organizations.

“Given that a lot of time had passed (between the enactment of the law and the discovery of the missing artifacts), we were seriously at risk of losing the trust of the affiliated tribes,” Nepstad said.

Accordingly, the National Park Service established “an unusually transparent procedure” for conducting its investigation, Nepstad said.

The Park Service formed an oversight committee that includes Buffalo and three other tribal representatives, as well as Iowa State Archaeologist John Doershuck, Jerome Thompson of the State Historic Preservation Office and NPS archaeologist Jeff Richner.

“This was something that really needed to be looked at carefully. It was not just neglect of paperwork,” Doershuck said.

NPS Special Agent David Barland-Liles, who is leading the investigation, said his focus is on whether a crime has been committed in the mishandling of the human remains.

He said the Graves Protection and Repatriation Act may have been violated and that a crime may have been committed even before that law took effect.

Barland-Liles is also conducting a second investigation into the malfeasance of officials who built three elevated trails and a maintenance shed at Effigy Mounds without first securing clearances under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires federal agencies to consider the impact of projects on “significant historic properties.”

Though he declined to provide details, Barland-Liles said both investigations “are moving along well.”

Nepstad said members of the human remains committee are kept fully informed of the progress of the investigation, with copies of all relevant documents.

“They can see what we see, so it can’t be swept under the rug again,” he said.

Nepstad said it is difficult to quantify the volume of the missing remains.

“Some are just fragments. Others are larger. The documentation often lacked specific detail,” he said.

In addition to the returned box of remains, “there is still quite a bit (of the recorded artifacts) missing,” he said.

Nepstad said he understands that whoever has the missing remains might be reluctant to return them out of embarrassment or fear of prosecution.

“I worry that somebody might do something stupid with them,” like disposing of them, he said.

“We’re hoping someone will leave them where they can be found by others,” he said.

Abuses by Effigy Mounds officials “have made the spirits of the natives buried in these wooded hills restless,” said Tim Mason, 61, of rural McGregor, a former 19-year seasonal Effigy Mounds employee who was among the first to call attention to the violations of the National Historic Preservation Act.

“So far, so good,” said Dave Nading of Strawberry Point, whose 650 apple trees appeared to have survived unscathed.

Nading said he had heard local reports of 29-degree lows – a temperature that his still tightly clustered apple blossoms apparently could withstand.

Like other orchard operators, Nading said he hopes it doesn’t get any colder next week, when sub-freezing lows are predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dave Hinegardner, who tends 3,000 apple trees near Montour in Tama County, said he had light frost on the ground but no damage.

“My trees are at their most vulnerable stage – all bloomed out with the bees working,” he said.

“The ground was a little frosty, but I think the apple blossoms are fine,” said Waunita Brunscheon of Eastview Orchard near Fredericksburg.

“We’ve never lost a crop in 25 years, but we are not out of danger for a few more weeks,” she said.

Brunscheon said this year’s blossoms are by far the earliest she’s seen. “The trees are usually in full blossom around Mother’s Day,” which this year falls on May 13, five weeks from Sunday, she said.

“Everything is about five weeks early this year,” said Pat Maas, the fourth generation of his family to operate Stierman’s Orchard in Dubuque.

Maas said the temperature bottomed out at 29.6 degrees Friday morning at his orchard, where about 75 percent of the apple trees are in full blossom.

“I think we fared OK. We’re good until the temperature hits 28 degrees,” he said.

At 28 degrees, he said, about 10 percent of the crop is lost if the apple trees are in full bloom.

“When you get into the 24 to 25 degree range, you get more than a 90 percent kill,” he said.

The protections, known as antidegradation rules, limit the harmful effects of new pollution in Iowa’s waters. They require the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to consider how new pollution in an area might harm uses of the water like drinking, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation when the agency issues permits allowing new pollution discharges.

Different standards of protection apply to different waterways based on their existing quality, and the protections are stronger in places where the water is more pristine.

This rule “finally brings Iowa into compliance with the Clean Water Act,” said Cedar Rapids attorney Wallace Taylor, legal chairman of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, which intervened in the case to support the rule.

Taylor said the DNR worked almost three years with the regulated community and environmental groups to develop the rule, which provides extra protection for high quality waters – those with pollutant levels lower than required under state rules.

Those waters include the Iowa Great Lakes and 32 northeast Iowa trout streams.

A lawsuit, brought by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and Iowa Water Environment Association challenged the rule, alleging that the Environmental Protection Commission’s vote to approve the rule was invalid because one commission member resided out of state and another had a conflict of interest.

Carrie LaSeur, founder and president of the environmental activist group, Plains Justice, was living and voting in Montana when she cast her vote, but Judge Gunderson said the residency issue was a technical infirmity and ruled her vote was valid.

Another commission member, Susan Heathcote, was an employee of an environmental group, the Iowa Environmental Council, that pushed for approval of the antidegradation rules.

Judge Mary Pat Gunderson said Heathcote’s employment did not constitute a conflict of interest because she did not profit from the outcome and because the rule finally adopted was not the same rule advocated by her employer.

The court found that the specialized expertise Heathcote brought to the commission made her

more qualified to serve there, not less so, and pointed out that the state law creating the commission in fact requires members to have knowledge of the areas of law their work will affect.

The Environmental Protection Agency approved Iowa’s antidegradation rule and antidegradation implementation procedure in September 2010.

Dick Sloan of rural Brandon injects hog manure into one of his cornfields on Thursday, March 29, 2012. The manure, which is tested for nutrient content before application, supplements the commercial fertilizer used to nourish Sloan's corn and soybean crops. Orlan Love/The Gazette

As long as Iowa farmers lead the nation in corn production, they will be among the leading contributors of nitrogen fertilizer to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Peak corn production, upon which much of Iowa depends, itself depends upon nitrogen fertilizer, the pollutant responsible for the dead zone, and upon the key conveyor of the pollutant to the gulf, agricultural drainage tile.

Illinois and Iowa are the leading contributors of nitrogen to the dead zone — a 6,400-square-mile area with oxygen concentrations too low to support life.

In 2008, the Mississippi River Watershed Task Force created the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan, calling for a reduction of the size of the dead zone by 2015. This would require a reduction of nitrogen runoff by 45 percent, a goal that most environmentalists and policymakers recognize as impossible.

In part because of the rapidly increasing price of nitrogen fertilizer — now about $750 per ton, enough for 10 to 12 acres of corn — farmers have developed techniques to use it more efficiently.

The leaching of nitrogen from the soil into drain tile is a fact of life, though, said Linn County farmer Curt Zingula.

“Nitrate leaching is really the only downside of tile,” said Zingula, who farms about 1,500 acres in northeast Linn County.

Without tile, crop yields would be substantially lower and soil erosion and stream siltation would be worse, said Zingula, who is helping to form an organization to manage flooding and water quality on Indian Creek.

Without tile, the process of denitrification — which releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere — also would be worse, he said.

To ensure maximum crop utilization of expensive fertilizers, Zingula in 1999 began using variable-rate application — which incorporates grid soil testing, computers and global positioning system technology — to apply precise amounts in specific field locations.

Like many other farmers, Zingula also strives to apply nitrogen just before and during the growing season, when plants can most fully use it.

It takes about a pound of nitrogen fertilizer to make a bushel of corn, and Iowa farmers raised about 2.3 billion bushels of corn last year. That means that at least 1.15 million tons of nitrogen, in the form of livestock manure and commercial fertilizer, were applied on 13.7 million acres — or about 38 percent of the state’s surface area.

Some of it gets away, mostly through agricultural drain tiles emptying into ditches and streams that are part of the vast Mississippi River watershed, eventually contributing to the dead zone.

The Iowa Environmental Council and other environmental groups have sued the Environmental Protection Agency, contending that the EPA has failed to enforce regulations to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus, resulting in the failure of states to develop effective water-quality policies.

Although manure application is regulated, chemical fertilizers are not, leaving only the voluntary efforts of farmers to control fertilizer usage.

When fertilizer was cheap, the rule of thumb was “plant thick, pour on the fertilizer and pray for rain,” said Charles City farmer Mark Kuhn.

That has changed since the run-up of fertilizer prices, but farmers still tend to err on the side of high yields, said Kuhn, a member of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors and a leader of the seven-county Upper Cedar River Watershed Management Improvement Authority.

Farmers are aware of their contribution to the dead zone, said Kuhn, who believes the watershed organization can encourage the use of voluntary, incentive-based practices that will reduce nitrogen and sediment pollution in the upper Cedar.

Conscientious fertilizer management is a key component of Brandon farmer Dick Sloan’s commitment to “tread lightly on the Earth.”

Taking into consideration the price of corn and the price of fertilizer, he calculates the amount of fertilizer that would yield the optimum return on his investment.

“There is a point beyond which you could apply more fertilizer and grow more corn, but you would also be wasting fertilizer and money,” said Sloan, president of the Lime Creek Watershed Improvement Association,

Sloan supplements his commercial fertilizer with the manure of 1,000 hogs, which he injects to a depth of 6 inches. Lab testing pinpoints the manure’s nutrient value, enabling him to precisely calculate the amount of commercial fertilizer he needs to attain his yield objectives.

Testing of the nitrogen content of his cornstalks after harvest helps ensure Sloan is not wasting fertilizer.

Constructed wetlands at tile outlets effectively filter much of the escaped nitrogen before it enters streams, but government funds to aid wetlands construction are in short supply. A new project, the Iowa Wetland Landscape Systems Initiative, would expand the wetlands filtration concept to larger areas.

Pilot projects of the so-called “Iowa Plan” include a completed site in Pocahontas County and six other sites that are in the hearing process. If monitoring at the seven sites demonstrates a substantial reduction in nutrients, more such systems could be built across the state.

Garlic mustard

Rap sheet: A rapidly spreading plant introduced from Europe in the mid-1800s for medicinal and herbal uses. Its tall, dense stands, first appearing in Iowa about 15 years ago, dominate woodland understories, crowding out wildflowers, ferns and tree seedlings.

Control: It can be controlled through the diligent use of herbicides, hand pulling and prescribed burns.

Asian carp

Rap sheet: The prolific and voracious bighead and silver carp — Asian imports that escaped commercial fish ponds in the South — eat plankton, threatening the food source that sustains most freshwater aquatic life. The silver carp, with its proclivity to leap from the water, also threatens harm to boaters and water skiers. One or the other species has been found in many Iowa rivers and East Okoboji Lake. So far, they have not been found in the Wapsipinicon, Maquoketa, Turkey, Yellow or Upper Iowa rivers.

Control: Only physical barriers, such as dams, can impede their spread, and the effectiveness of dams can be neutralized by floodwaters. Iowa officials are resigned to their gradual dispersal through state waters.

Zebra mussel

Rap sheet: Small Eurasian mollusks inadvertently introduced into American waters via the ballast of oceangoing vessels, zebra mussels were first documented in the Mississippi River in Iowa in 1992. They have since spread to Clear Lake, the former Lake Delhi, the Maquoketa, Shell Rock, Winnebago and West Fork Cedar rivers, as well as Lake Rathbun. The filter feeders directly compete with native species, including mussels and fish fry. They also adhere to hard objects, enabling them to smother native mussels and clog water intake pipes.

Control: Educational programs targeting boaters have been initiated to contain their dispersal.

Emerald ash borer

Rap sheet: This native of eastern Asia, found in far northeast Iowa in 2010, poses a threat to Iowa’s millions of ash trees.

Control: Though the borers cannot be effectively exterminated, the state has implemented a quarantine on wood products in Allamakee County and is conducting extensive monitoring to detect their spread.

Reed canary grass

Rap sheet: This aggressive grass, spread by seeds and rhizomes, displaces native vegetation in low-lying moist areas. It tends to exclude all other vegetation. A European native, it also may have been indigenous to the northwestern United States.

Control: It is extremely difficult to eradicate once established.

Sericea lespedeza

Rap sheet: A warm season, perennial legume native to eastern Asia, first planted in the United States in 1896 for its perceived value for erosion control, livestock forage and wildlife habitat. With a long tap root, thousands of seeds that remain viable for 20 years and its production of a chemical that inhibits growth of other plants, it is well-equipped to outcompete native plants, especially grasses. It has become much more noticeable in Iowa during the past decade and is considered a major problem at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County.

Control: Mowing, burning and herbicides can control its spread.

Leafy spurge

Rap sheet: This major pest of parks and preserves was accidentally introduced from Europe as a seed contaminant. It can completely overtake large areas of land and displace native vegetation.

Control: The release of flea beetles approved for biocontrol has helped reduce population in managed natural areas in the Loess Hills.

Purple loosestrife

Rap sheet: This “pretty” flower, introduced from Europe and Asia in the 1800s for ornamental purposes, invades wetlands, forming dense stands that displace native vegetation. It is found in about half of Iowa’s counties. One plant can produce about 2 million seeds a year.

Control: The release of beetles has reduced population density in some areas but has not been effective in Iowa.

Common buckthorn

Rap sheet: A European native introduced here as an ornamental shrub, buckthorn invades forests, prairies and savannas and can form dense thickets crowding out native shrubs and understory plants.

Control: Once established, it is difficult to remove.

Eurasian watermilfoil

Rap sheet: This submersed aquatic plant forms dense mats in lakes and ponds, inhibiting growth of beneficial aquatic plants, reducing fish habitat and impeding boat traffic. A native of Europe, Asia and northern Africa, it was accidentally introduced into the United States and is now found in about 20 Iowa counties.

Control: It has been effectively controlled with applications of the herbicide fluridone.

Sources: Johnson County Conservation director Harry Graves; Linn County roadside vegetation manager Rob Roman; and Department of Natural Resources biologists: botanist Daryl Howell, zoologist John Pearson, forester Tivon Feeley and aquatic invasive species manager Kim Bogenschutz.

Related articles

• In battle against invasive species, Iowa DNR fighting for time (thegazette.com)

Crabapple trees are leafing out at Hughes Nursery & Landscaping on Friday, March 23, 2012, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The unusually warm temperatures have caused trees to bloom and leaf out prematurely. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

CEDAR RAPIDS — While record March warmth has put a spring in the step of most Iowans, precocious plant development has caused problems for specialty crop growers.

At Hughes Nursery and Landscaping in southwest Cedar Rapids, the early budding and leafing of shrubs and trees has quickly closed the annual window of opportunity for digging and preparing trees for transplant, said co-proprietor John Hughes.

“This year that window was six days. It’s normally six weeks. It’s really put us behind the eight ball,” said Hughes, who runs the 104-year-old business with his brother, Dwight III.

The warm March also has halted the flow of maple sap, sharply reducing the production of syrup for local sugar bush operators.

Of course, orchard owners are on pins and needles, hoping that a return to normal weather — and the killing frosts that might entail — does not catch their apple trees in full bloom, destroying all or most of their crop.

Traditional row crop farmers, meanwhile, are just enjoying the fine weather and resisting the temptation to start planting money crops.

State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said this March will easily be the warmest in 134 years of records.

Through March 22, the statewide average temperature was 15.4 degrees warmer than normal, well above the 1910 record of 12.8 degrees above normal, he said.

Cedar Rapids either tied or broke high temperature records from March 14 through March 20, he said.

“This has been the toughest spring in the 104 years we’ve been in operation,” said Hughes. “The trees are moving out of dormancy from four to six weeks ahead of schedule.”

Once the trees leaf out, cutting their roots shocks them, greatly reducing the prospects of a successful transplant, Hughes said.

In effect, the trees they dug during that six-day window will be their transplant supply for the spring and summer. Not only will they have a reduced inventory, but they will have to baby the trees to keep them viable.

For the Green Sugarbush in rural Castalia, which has operated continuously since 1851, “this will be our second-poorest year,” said Karen Green, who runs the business with her husband, Dale. They usually gather sap from 1,500 taps throughout the month of March, but they stopped collecting more than two weeks ago, she said.

“You need below-freezing nights and above-freezing days for the sap to flow,” she said.

The last freeze in Iowa was March 15, Hillaker said.

Sap collection stopped March 10 at the Indian Creek Nature Center, said director Rich Patterson.

“It’s kind of like ‘The Twilight Zone,’ with everything being so far ahead of normal,” said Shirley Peckosh of Peck’s Flower and Garden Shop in Cedar Rapids, which has had to scramble to supply eager gardeners with the plants they want.

“There’s nothing to do but roll with it,” she said.

Even with soil temperatures well above the 50-degree threshold for corn planting, most farmers understand it is too risky, said Jim Fawcett, Iowa State University Extension field agronomist in Iowa City.

“You might see farmers planting an acre just to say they did it, but they know the last killing frost usually comes around May 1,” he said.

Moreover, any corn planted before April 11 would not qualify for federal crop insurance, Fawcett said.

“It costs between $400 and $500 per acre, not including rent, to plant corn. You can’t afford to plant it twice,” said Paul Short, who with his brother, Phil, farms near Monti in southern Buchanan County.

Short said he is content to apply anhydrous ammonia when field conditions permit and work on his planter until the middle of April.

“With today’s big equipment, you can plant a lot of corn in three or four days,” he said.

Rows of trees lay on one another after being harvested at Hughes Nursery & Landscaping on Friday, March 23, 2012, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The unusually warm temperatures have caused trees to bloom and even leaf out prematurely. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

Larry Karels carries one of three beavers that he trapped along the Maquoketa River in Monticello. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

“I’m what you call a serious trapper,” said Larry Karels, who during the past season trapped and skinned 185 coyotes.

While most Iowans seldom if ever see a coyote, Karels, 64, of Monticello, has trapped more than 1,300 of the wily predators during the past decade — a tribute not only to his skill but also to the abundance of the adaptable canines.

“They’re getting thicker all the time, I’m telling you,” said Karels, who trapped 32 coyotes in five traps on a single farm this year. This year’s take also includes 270 raccoons, 70 opossums, 40 each of fox and skunk and about 50 beavers.

Karels, who started trapping in 1957, has taught himself to think like his quarry. “I can look over a farm for five minutes and tell you where the coyote is going to cross,” he said.

“Larry can catch them. No doubt about that,” said Craig Sweet of St. Charles, president of the Iowa Trappers Association, a 39-year trapping veteran who himself took 38 coyotes off a 310-acre farm this season.

During the height of the season, Karels deploys hundreds of traps, including 120 set specifically for coyotes. He trapped 17 coyotes in a single day this year but did not get up a sweat carrying the 35- to 40-pound critters out of their haunts.

“If you’re walking, you’re wasting time,” said Karels, who traps from 4 a.m. until dark during the season and spends his evening hours skinning and stretching his catch.

Karels’ sets are invisible but not necessarily unsmellable. They appeal to the coyote’s irresistible urge to mark its territory, he said.

He manufactures vile but alluring potions whose ingredients, like many of his techniques, are proprietary secrets. Aspiring expert trappers pay $400 a day to accompany Karels on his daily rounds.

Karels, who provides animal control services for the city of Monticello, sets traps in Jones and three adjacent counties, always at the request of landowners desiring control of nuisance animals. Coyotes are a threat to both pets and livestock, while the dams built by beavers often impound water that encroaches on farm fields, he said.

Thriving coyotes

Larry Karels unloads three beavers from his canoe after checking his traps along the Maquoketa River in Monticello, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/)

Department of Natural Resources furbearer biologist Vince Evelsizer confirms that coyotes are thriving in Iowa.

“The population is quite strong, despite a continuous open season on them, but they are good at staying off the radar and avoiding human encounters,” he said.

Though harvest statistics are not available for the current trapping season, Evelsizer said the coyote harvest increased from 2,500 in 2009 to 8,089 in 2010.

Sightings by bow hunters, a key wildlife survey tool for the DNR, increased markedly from 2009 to 2010, but declined slightly in some parts of the state this fall.

While coyotes prey mainly on mice and rabbits, packs of coyotes work together to “run deer into the ground,” he said.

Karels said his annual trapping income varies with the price of furs. At an average price of $25 per pelt, this year’s coyote harvest would yield about $4,600.

In addition to his trapping income, Karels cuts and sells large volumes of firewood and raises and sells produce from his extensive garden.

When he’s not extracting his living from nature, he pursues walleyes and catfish in the Wapsipinicon and Maquoketa rivers.

Escape from stress

Karels said his time alone outdoors helps him cope with the post-traumatic stress disorder that still plagues him from his service as an Army medic in Vietnam.

After 27 years with a road construction crew, Karels said he became so moody that he had to retire.

“I’d go out in the timber all day and sit around crying. There was no thinking about it. It (suicide) was going to be done,” he said.

Karels, who is on 50 percent disability from the Army, said he is alive today only because of the ongoing care he receives from the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

In February and March, Karels concentrates on beaver, which can be even more trap-wary than coyotes. Few Iowans trap them, he said, because they are hard to catch and because skinning them is so much work.

Karels, who for 20 years trapped beaver on contract for the state of Arkansas, said he once made a $100 bet with an Arkansan who fancied himself a rapid beaver skinner.

“I went first and finished in 2 minutes and 47 seconds. He just handed me the hundred dollars and left,” Karels said.

Coyotes in Iowa

• Coyotes were prevalent in Iowa at the time of settlement but they were considered varmints and persecuted extensively. Though they were never completely extirpated, they became quite rare in the 1920s.
• By 1937, coyotes had staged a modest comeback and were considered occasional and irregular throughout Iowa.
• Coyote numbers began to increase noticeably in the 1950s. One factor that likely contributed to the growth was the corresponding increase in whitetail deer, which coyotes prey upon, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
• Since the 1970s, coyote harvests have generally been in the range of 6,000 to 12,000 per year.
• Coyote populations are somewhat self-regulating in that they have the ability to produce larger litters when numbers are down and smaller when numbers are high, the DNR said.

Sources: Department of Natural Resources and “A Country So Full of Game: The Story of Wildlife in Iowa” by James J. Dinsmore

In this image taken last year from live streaming video provided by the Raptor Resource Project, an eagle feeds its newly-hatched chicks in their nest in Decorah on Sunday, April 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Raptor Resource Project, Bob Anderson)

Hatch watch is under way at the world famous Decorah eagle nest.

“Here we go again,” said Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, which installed and maintains the nest cam that provided more than 200 million glimpses of the eagle family’s domestic life last year.

“My guess is the first chick will hatch Saturday, but it could come any time after Friday evening,” said Anderson, noting that the 35-day incubation period ends Friday.

If the chick hatches Saturday, it will be six days earlier than last year’s first chick, but Anderson does not attribute the early hatch to the mild winter and early spring.

“She is just becoming a more experienced mother. She has been laying a few days earlier each year,” he said.

To view the eagle nest, click here.

“Here we go again,” said Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, which installed and maintains the nest cam that provided more than 200 million glimpses of the eagle family’s domestic life last year.

“My guess is the first chick will hatch Saturday, but it could come any time after Friday evening,” said Anderson, noting that the 35-day incubation period ends Friday.

If the chick hatches Saturday, it will be six days earlier than last year’s first chick, but Anderson does not attribute the early hatch to the mild winter and early spring.

“She is just becoming a more experienced mother. She has been laying a few days earlier each year,” he said.

To view the eagle nest, go to www.raptorresource.org and click on the “bird cams’ button at the top of the page.

Water from the Maquoketa River flows through the breach in the dam at Lake Delhi on Sunday, July 25, 2010, in Delhi. (Jim Slosiarek/SourceMedia Group News)

MANCHESTER — The Delaware County supervisors on Monday authorized a $3 million essential county purpose bond to help rebuild the failed Lake Delhi dam.

The supervisors had announced their intention to do so on March 5, when they set Monday’s public hearing as an opportunity for opponents to express their views.

Five opponents spoke at the meeting, most of them expressing dissatisfaction that the supervisors were not allowing county residents to vote on the bond issue.

“The people want to have something to say about it. I know I sure do,” said Jerry Keenan of Manchester. And Bruce Rafoft of Earlville questioned why all Delaware County taxpayers will be required to support a project that primarily benefits the owners of about 830 Lake Delhi properties.

Supervisor Jerry Ries, who had been adamant that the bond be approved by a vote of county residents, said he changed his mind in response to timing issues with an anticipated $5 million appropriation by the Legislature (see box).

The supervisors said legislators have told them that the state appropriation depends upon a Delaware County funding commitment. Given that a referendum could not be scheduled until May — after the Legislature adjourns for the session — Ries said it would be too risky to wait for a vote.

Almost all of the approximately 50 speakers at a Feb. 29 public forum on the proposed county funding urged the supervisors to authorize the bond without a vote.

Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs said the board received feedback from hundreds of constituents with only six written objections to the funding.

The Lake Delhi proponents have intimidated most opponents into silence, according to Peter Komendowski, a spokesman for the Iowa Whitewater Coalition. The group worked with American Rivers, a national rivers advocacy group, to fund a telephone survey of county residents shortly after the Feb. 29 meeting.

The survey found 36 percent opposed the county funding for the dam, with 35 percent in support and 29 percent unsure.

Komendowski said a professional service called 3,600 residences, with 10 percent of them participating.

If the legislative appropriation comes through, work on the first phase of the $11.9 million rebuilding effort could begin in late spring or early summer, said Steve Leonard. He leads the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District, the lake area’s official governing body.

Ryan Alton of Charles City, casts into a pooll downriver of one of the water features at the Charles City WhiteWater park. The park is an example of a growing interest in developing Iowa rivers for recreational activities.. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Drive west out of Dyersville on Highway 20 and within 100 miles you will cross five good rivers — the North Fork of the Maquoketa, Maquoketa, Wapsipinicon, Cedar and Iowa.

Turn north and take a winding route back and you will cross the West Fork of the Cedar, Shell Rock, Volga, Little Turkey, Turkey, Upper Iowa, Yellow and other rivers too numerous to mention.

While Corn Belt rivers are often considered flat, meandering and muddy, which is not altogether untrue at certain times of the year, they and their timbered corridors can also provide an agricultural state’s best facsimile of a wilderness experience — a realization that is dawning on an increasing number of Iowans.

“Iowans are looking at their rivers in a more positive light, and that’s good for all of us,” said Nate Hoogeveen, river programs manager for the Department of Natural Resources.

The heightened status of rivers, he said, has coincided with a nationwide surge in the popularity of paddle sports and with state and local initiatives to make rivers more accessible and attractive to recreationists.

More Iowans are spending more time on their rivers, expanding the constituency for clean water and recreational opportunities, said Larry Stone of Elkader, a member of the Clayton County Conservation Board.

The magic of moving water is often transformative, said Brian Soenen, founder and coordinator of the DNR’s Project AWARE, which in nine years has coordinated 2,152 volunteers who have removed more than 200 tons of trash from 700 miles of rivers.

“Time spent on the river will turn you into an environmental advocate,” Soenen said.

“There is definitely a growing interest among Iowans in connecting with their rivers,” said Rosalyn Lehman, executive director of Iowa Rivers Revival, an advocacy group formed in 2007 precisely to foster such connections.

Lehman credits the DNR with serving as a catalyst for increasing Iowans’ awareness and appreciation of their rivers. “But it would not be happening without river enthusiasts at the local level,” she said.

DNR-led initiatives include Project AWARE and the Water Trails Program, which has established about 900 miles of designated trails with maps, signage and stream access.

The DNR has also led efforts to remove dangerous low-head dams or to replace them with safer structures that also enhance recreational opportunities. And few if any DNR programs have connected more Iowans with their rivers than its fingerling walleye stocking program, which has convinced thousands of anglers that they need not travel to enjoy world-class walleye fishing.

Water of the Cedar River churns in one of the water features at the Charles City WhiteWater park. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The state’s first white-water course, completed last year on the Cedar River at Charles City, has brought residents together at the riverfront, according to City Administrator Tom Brownlow.

“Rivers used to be dumping grounds for wastes,” said Brownlow, noting that arsenic-tainted sludge and organic waste from a Charles City pharmaceutical manufacturer once threatened both the river and groundwater at the infamous Labounty Superfund site.

“Now everybody is down at the river enjoying themselves,” he said.

The Charles City project and others like it in the planning stages signify that “communities are embracing the rivers they once turned their backs on,” said Gary Siegwarth, manager of the DNR’s Big Springs Hatchery near Elkader,

Nearly a decade ago, Cedar Rapids was at the forefront of the movement to reconnect communities with their rivers, but city and county voters in 2003 rejected a local-option sales tax to support RiverRun, a proposed development whose centerpiece was a white-water boat course.

A few years later, declaring 2008 “The Year of the River,” Cedar Rapids leaders planned a celebration that would have placed discussion of riverfront development front and center. But then the Cedar swamped the city, instantly changing priorities from development to recovery.

While part of the recovery includes a riverside amphitheater, in-depth efforts to capitalize on the Cedar’s recreational potential will have to wait until flood recovery is closer to completion, said Cedar Rapids Recreation Superintendent Sven Leff.

A stream flows between two farm fields Wednesday, March 16, 2011, in Benton County, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/SourceMedia Group News)

The Iowa Environmental Council and other environmental groups have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying the agency and the state of Iowa haven’t done enough to keep nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from degrading water quality in Iowa, the Mississippi River basin and the Gulf of Mexico.

Excessive nitrogen and phosphorous from farm runoff and sewage treatment plants threaten drinking water, recreation in rivers and lakes and aquatic life, said Marian Riggs Gelb, executive director of the council.

The groups say the federal Clean Water Act requires the EPA to set numerical pollution limits on the commonly used fertilizer ingredients. Susan Heathcote, the council’s water programs director, said she thinks political pressure has kept the agency from meeting the requirement.

“We don’t take legal action very often, but this may be a case where the courts can give EPA the push they need to uphold the law,” she said.

One lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Orleans, appeals the EPA’s rejection last year of a petition seeking the limits. The second lawsuit asks a federal court in New York City to force the agency to respond to a petition seeking broad changes to sewage treatment standards. The environmental groups say the limits will help reduce pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, where a low-oxygen “dead zone” has been linked to fertilizer pollution.

The EPA once directed states to adopt specific limits on nitrogen and phosphorous pollution, but last year it said they could be more flexible.

Iowa, which had been planning to implement specific pollution standards, then shifted to a nutrient reduction strategy without clearly identified pollution limits, according to Heathcote.

“We support state development of a nutrient reduction strategy, but we are concerned that it can’t succeed without science-based pollution standards,” she said.

Excessive nitrogen and phosphorous from farm runoff and sewage treatment plants threaten drinking water, recreation in rivers and lakes and aquatic life, said Marian Riggs Gelb, executive director of the Iowa Environmental Council.

The groups contend that the federal Clean Water Act requires EPA to set numerical pollution limits on the commonly used fertilizer ingredients.

Susan Heathcote, water programs director for the Iowa Environmental Council, said she thinks political pressure has kept EPA from meeting that requirement.

“We don’t take legal action very often, but this may be a case where the courts can give EPA the push they need to uphold the law,” she said.

One lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Orleans, appeals EPA’s rejection last year of a petition seeking the limits. The second lawsuit asks a federal court in New York City to force EPA to respond to a petition seeking broad changes to sewage treatment standards. The environmental groups say the limits will help reduce pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, where a low-oxygen “dead zone” has been linked to fertilizer pollution from Iowa and 30 other states.

The EPA, which had once directed states to adopt specific limits on nitrogen and phosphorous pollution, last year advised states that they could be more flexible.

Iowa, which had been planning to implement specific pollution standards, then shifted to a nutrient reduction strategy without clearly identified pollution limits, according to Heathcote.

“We support state development of a nutrient reduction strategy, but we are concerned that it can’t succeed without science-based pollution standards,” she said.

Lake Delhi flood damage (Sourcemedia Group)

MANCHESTER — The Delaware County supervisors on Monday announced their intention to authorize a $3 million essential county purpose bond to help rebuild the failed Lake Delhi dam.

“I may lose some friends over this, and I have been told that,” Supervisor Jeff Madlom said in proclaiming his support for the bond issue.

Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs, saying applicable studies have been completed and Lake Delhi leadership has made itself more accountable to the public, said, “I’m ready to move forward.”

Supervisor Jerry Ries, who had been adamant that the bond be approved by a vote of county residents, said he now favors authorizing it without a referendum. Ries said he changed his mind when it became clear that a referendum could not be scheduled until May — well after the projected adjournment of the Iowa Legislature, which is being counted on to appropriate $5 million for the rebuilding effort.

The supervisors’ approval of the bond bodes well for legislative passage of the rebuilding funds, said Steve Leonard, president of the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District, the lake area’s official governing body.

The supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the county bond and set a public hearing on the matter for 1:15 p.m. March 19. They’re expected to formally authorize the indebtedness then.

“I really don’t think our position will change,” Helmrichs said.

She said the board received feedback from hundreds of constituents.

“A lot of people said they would have liked to see it go up for a vote, but a lot also said they could live with our decision,” Ries said.

“I may lose some friends over this, and I have been told that,” Supervisor Jeff Madlom said in proclaiming his support for the county bond issue.

Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs, noting that applicable studies have been completed and Lake Delhi leadership has made itself more accountable to the public, said, “I’m ready to move forward.”

Supervisor Jerry Ries, who had been adamant that the bond be approved by a vote of county residents, said he now favors authorizing the bonds without a referendum.

Ries said he changed his mind when it became clear that a referendum could not be scheduled until May, well after the projected adjournment of the Iowa Legislature, which is being counted on to appropriate $5 million over two years for the rebuilding effort.

The supervisors’ approval of the bond bodes well for legislative passage of the rebuilding funds, said Steve Leonard, president of the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District, the lake area’s official governing body.

The supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the county bond and set a public hearing on the matter for 1:15 p.m. March 19, at which time the supervisors are expected to formally authorize the indebtedness.

“I really don’t think our position will change,” Helmrichs said.

Helmrichs said the board received feedback from hundreds of constituents.

“A lot of people said they would have liked to see it go up for a vote, but a lot also said they could live with our decision,” Ries said.

Leonard said the supervisors’ willingness to listen to constituents and evaluate large volumes of information speaks highly of their leadership abilities.

Even as awareness of impaired waters has grown, funding for seven of 10 state-managed water protection programs has declined during the past decade, say the authors of the report, research associate Will Hoyer, intern Brian McDonough and David Osterberg, director of the Iowa City-based research and advocacy organization.

Because natural resource budgets are complex and channeled through multiple sources, the authors focused on 10 clear water quality line items administered either by the Department of Natural Resources or the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

They found that funding for seven of the 10 programs, when adjusted for inflation, declined over the span of 10 budget cycles. Among those programs are Resource Enhancement and Protection, the Water Quality Protection Fund and Soil Conservation Cost Share.

For most of the decade, totals for the 10 programs have hovered just above $20 million. In fiscal year 2011, however, spending dropped below $15 million and will have barely rebounded in the 2012 budget.

Osterberg noted lawmakers, at a minimum, would have to restore $5 million in state funding to get back to average water quality spending over the last decade.

The authors based their assertion that Iowans are willing to spend more on water quality on the 63 percent voter approval in 2010 of a constitutional amendment to establish a natural resources trust fund to be funded by a share of the next increase in the sales tax.

The report asserts that more funding is needed to counter the potential water quality

effects of recent record-high grain prices, which have encouraged farmers to plant row crops on more acres.

Without adequate funding for water protection and conservation, “Iowa

waterways will continue to be plagued with problems that limit Iowans’ ability to get out and enjoy them,” the authors said.

Other potential changes include increasing trapping quotas from 650 to 850 for river otter and from 350 to 450 for bobcat and changing the zone structure and season dates for waterfowl.

Under the deer proposal, 107,175 paid antlerless licenses would be available during the upcoming deer season — 25,725 fewer than have been available in each of the past two years.

The reduced quota would allow deer numbers to stabilize in counties where numbers have been satisfactorily reduced while still allowing hunters to harvest extra does where numbers need to be reduced, said Dale Garner, chief of the Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Bureau.

The reduced quotas would be confined to 20 contiguous Eastern Iowa counties, with some of the sharpest percentage reductions in Linn (from 1,900 to 450), Johnson (from 2,000 to 375) and Jones (from 1,500 to 0) counties.

“Iowa’s deer herd has shrunk considerably since its peak in 2006. To respond, we have to roll back some of the liberalized harvest quotas,” said Tom Litchfield, the DNR’s deer biologist.

Besides reducing the overall antlerless quotas, proposals include eliminating the November antlerless season, removing four counties from the January antlerless season and shortening that season by a week and excluding early muzzleloader season hunters from obtaining a paid antlerless deer license during the shotgun deer seasons.

The DNR proposed similar reductions in antlerless quotas last year, but Gov. Terry Branstad, asserting that deer remained too abundant in much of the state, intervened to prevent the reduced quotas.

Garner said the public meetings are part of a new process initiated by Branstad to ensure that rule changes serve the public without unnecessarily hurting the economy.

Eastern Iowa locations for the meetings, which run from 6 to 9 p.m., are the elementary school in Middle Amana, the high schools in Clinton and La Porte City and Preus Library at Luther College in Decorah.

Kristi Ruth, 20, posing here at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, had her left arm mangled in an accident five years ago on her parents' farm near Columbia in southwest Iowa. She has since given about 200 farm safety presentations to 4H, FFA and other groups. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Kristi Ruth speaks with utmost credibility during the hundreds of farm safety presentations she’s made to youth groups.

“When I show them my arm, they fall silent, and some have even started crying,” said Ruth, 20, whose left arm was mangled five years ago in an accident on her parents’ farm near Columbia in south-central Iowa.

In part through the efforts of farm safety advocates like Ruth, whose arm wrapped repeatedly around a power takeoff shaft, the rate of childhood injury on farms and ranches has declined sharply during the past decade.

But Ruth, who was a family farm member before she became a safety advocate, comes down firmly against a recent U.S. Department of Labor initiative to further reduce the incidence of youth farm accidents.

“It’s shocking to me that the government thinks it can fix a problem with a piece of paper. You have to encourage people to want to do it themselves,” said Ruth, who recently completed studies at Kirkwood Community College and will enroll at Iowa State University this summer.

Ruth, whose arm remains far from fully functional and a source of constant pain, said she thinks the proposed restrictions would inhibit the development of the work ethic for which farm kids are well known.

The debate over youth farm labor started in September when the Labor Department proposed revisions to a rule that exempts children under 16 from specified restrictions if they are working on a farm owned or operated by a parent or person standing in place of the parents.

Under the proposed change, the family exemption would apply only if the farm were wholly owned by the parent. The proposed change would also restrict youth work with power-driven equipment, livestock and pesticides and would forbid youth from working more than 6 feet off the ground.

In response to pushback from farmers, the Labor Department on Feb. 1 said a re-proposed portion of the rule covering the parental exemption will be available for comment in the summer.

Effects on family farms

Kristi Ruth, 20, has limited use of her left arm after an accident five years ago on her parents' farm near Columbia in southwest Iowa. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Iowa farmers fear the rule would adversely affect family farms structured as partnerships or limited liability corporations — an increasingly common arrangement, said Trudy Wastweet, national policy adviser for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

“They worry, for example, that the 15-year-old son of one partner would be precluded from working on the farm of his uncle or grandfather,” Wastweet said.

While acknowledging the importance of farm safety, Bill Northey, secretary of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said in some respects the proposed rules are a solution looking for a problem.

Both Northey and Gov. Terry Branstad have called the proposed rule “a prime example of federal overreach,” stating that farm families are better than the federal government at ensuring the safety of children in agriculture.

Northey said the proposed rule would keep “town kids” under the age of 16 from doing farm work involving driving tractors or working with livestock.

“Farm work offers youngsters the opportunity to develop self worth and to understand the boss-employee relationship. We believe those are valuable milestones in the upbringing of children,” he said.

Lack of statistics

While Iowa does not maintain comprehensive farm accident statistics, from three to five Iowa children die in farm accidents each year, according to University of Iowa professor Kelley Donham, chairman of the UI’s Rural Safety and Health Department.

For all children who live on, visit or are hired to work on farms, the rate of injuries fell 59 percent — from 16.6 per 1,000 farms in 1998 to 6.8 per 1,000 farms in 2009, according to the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety in Marshfield, Wis.

That dramatic decline indicates that research and public awareness efforts are making an impact on one of the nation’s most hazardous industries, said Barbara Lee, the center’s director.

Donham and Lee say the proposed Department of Labor changes are modest and overdue, bringing agriculture closer in line with other industries.

The hazards facing farm youth are changing, with all-terrain vehicles and horses accounting for an increasing share of accidents, said Marilyn Adams, founder and president of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, an Urbandale-based international organization with 131 chapters.

Adams, who founded the group after her 11-year-old son Keith suffocated in a grain wagon in 1986, said she thinks the federal review will help keep the spotlight on farm safety.

History of issue

•  The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act prohibited most employment of minors in “oppressive child labor,” but allowed them to work on their family farms.
•  In 1966, Congress prohibited children under 16 from doing work considered “particularly hazardous,” but it exempted those working on their parents’ farms.
•  On Sept. 2, 2011, the Labor Department proposed a rule amending the exemption for a farmer’s own children to only apply to farms “wholly owned” by the child’s parents.
•  On Feb. 1, the Labor Department said it would re-propose the family exemption rule to accommodate farmers’ suggestions.

This section of the Maquoketa River in downtown Manchester would become a white-water park according to a plan under consideration in the Delaware County community.

MANCHESTER — Plans to convert a downtown section of the Maquoketa River into the state’s largest white-water park were unveiled Monday night.

“This is exactly the kind of forward-looking project needed to attract businesses, jobs and residents to the community,” said former City Council member Leo Monaghan, chairman of the community’s Good to Great Committee, which is sponsoring the project.

Monaghan said the white-water park can turn the flood-prone Maquoketa River, often considered a liability, into an attraction that brings people together around one of northeast Iowa’s finest natural features.

With an estimated cost of $1.6 million, the course would begin about 350 feet above the Marion Street bridge and continue downstream, through the existing 9-foot, city-owned dam, to the railroad bridge, according to project leader Ryan Wicks, an engineer with TeKippe Engineering in Manchester.

The 800-foot-long course would have six drops, each of about 1.5 feet — twice as many drops as the recently completed white-water course on the Cedar River at Charles City, according to Shane Sigle, an engineer with Recreation Engineering and Planning of Boulder, Colo., the same firm that designed the Charles City course and is working on a project to enhance recreation at the Mon-Maq dam at Monticello.

Plunge pools beneath each drop would enhance fishing opportunities, Sigle said.

Wicks said the dam would be lowered about 5 feet and incorporated into the third drop.

The project would permit fish passage through the dam while maintaining existing depths above the dam, according to Sigle.

Mayor Milt Kramer said the city is on board and would likely fund about one-third of the cost. Later this year volunteers plan to kick off a fundraising campaign that they hope will generate another $600,000 for the project. Wicks said he thinks state and federal grants can be secured to complete the funding, with construction slated for next year.

Wicks said the white-water course is part of a long-term plan to create a Maquoketa River recreational corridor extending throughout Delaware County.

About 80 people attended Monday’s meeting, and more are expected for a follow-up meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. March 7 at Hanson Auditorium at West Delaware High School. Charles City representatives will discuss the benefits their community has realized through the introduction last year of their white-water course.

The forum starts at 7 p.m. at the Delaware County Fairgrounds Pavilion, 200 E. Acres St., Manchester.

A countywide debt service levy would likely be needed to pay for the funding, according to Delaware County Auditor Carla Becker.

Written comments, which must be received by 4:30 pm on Feb. 29 to be considered, may be sent to the Delaware County Board of Supervisors’ Office or the Delaware County Auditor’s Office, 301 E. Main St., Room 210, Manchester 52057.

Vast sand and mud flats that had formerly been the bottom of Lake Delhi flank the new channel of the Maquoketa River just upstream from Lake Delhi dam, which breached during July 2010 flooding. (Orlan Love/The Gazette)

DELHI — The health of the environment will be subordinate to the interests of several hundred Delaware County disaster victims if the state helps fund the rebuilding of the Lake Delhi dam.

That is the contention of environmental groups opposing a $5 million appropriation over two years to help pay the estimated $11.9 million cost of rebuilding the dam, which failed during Maquoketa River flooding in July 2010.

Rebuilding the dam “would in effect be putting the needs of the few ahead of the needs of the many,” said Iowa Whitewater Coalition spokesman Peter Komendowski of Waterloo.

Calling the Delhi impoundment a sediment trap, members of Iowa Rivers Revival predict a chronic demand for state funding to pay for dredging.

The Department of Natural Resources, from whose budget the proposed allocation would come, agrees that the environment would be better served by a free-flowing river than by an impoundment.

Dams slow the impounded river’s natural flow, causing sediment that would normally be transported downstream to settle out in the impoundment, said Nate Hoogeveen, the DNR’s river programs manager.

The increased silt deposits degrade the lakebed’s value as habitat for fish and other aquatic animals, decreasing habitat complexity and species diversity, he said.

A connected river that is not disrupted by dams will support more species of fish that will grow bigger and faster and be less susceptible to toxic spills and low dissolved oxygen, he said.

“But what is better for the river does not always rise to the top in public policy matters,” Hoogeveen said.

DNR will have some input

While the Legislature and the governor will decide the matter, “we have an obligation to provide input on how money from our budget is spent,” said Chuck Gipp, DNR deputy director.

Iowa’s lake restoration guidelines would have to be set aside to support the rebuilding of the Lake Delhi dam with funds from the DNR’s lake restoration budget, said Mike McGhee, the DNR’s lakes and rivers project coordinator.

The DNR, he said, has four major concerns with the rebuilding plan: the sustainability of the lake, given its 500-to-1 watershed-to-surface-area ratio; shortcomings in the treatment of wastewater in what the DNR describes as “Iowa’s largest unsewered community”; the plan’s absence of a provision for fish passage; and inadequate public access.

Lake Delhi, which had 448 surface acres, drained a watershed of 223,630 acres. That 500-to-1 ratio is comparable to the 528-to-1 average ratio of the Corps of Engineers flood-control reservoirs in Iowa: Coralville, Rathbun, Red Rock and Saylorville.

It is about 13 times higher than the 38-to-1 statewide average ratio for state- and county-constructed lakes. For the two constructed lakes in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area — Pleasant Creek and Macbride — the ratios, respectively, are 5-to-1 and 20-to-1.

Frequent dredging may not be needed

Leaders of the rebuild effort maintain that the lake is sustainable without frequent dredging.

The 2006 dredging, for which lake residents incurred $2.2 million in debt, was the first since the lake was impounded in 1928, said Steve Leonard, president of the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District, the lake area’s official governing body.

“One time in 80 years seems like a good investment,” he said.

While the lake district had planned to re-dredge portions of the lake after 2008 flooding nullified much of the 2006 project, that second dredging, which was never accomplished, would not have been necessary to maintain navigation, said Pat Colgan, a retired civil engineer and volunteer coordinator of the rebuild effort.

Bacterial contamination is an issue

The stretch of the Maquoketa River that includes the former lake, like many other Iowa water bodies, is designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as impaired by bacteria.

While it is difficult to pinpoint sources of bacterial contamination, the DNR believes the elevated level is at least partly attributable to the more than 800 septic systems serving residences along the former lake.

Environmental specialist Mike Wade, who works out of the DNR’s Manchester office, said the agency has long been concerned about effluent, or outflow, from Lake Delhi septic systems contaminating groundwater.

“Many septic systems are just too close to wells,” he said.

Although Wade has seen little evidence of septic systems discharging into the river, “contaminated groundwater contributes to the river,” he said.

DNR water-quality specialist Mary Skopec said tests conducted in 2006 on Lake Delhi yielded many readings above the safe swimming standard for bacteria. Those readings, she said, “were not that much out of line with readings for the rest of the river.”

Since 2000, several Lake Delhi residents have regularly collected water samples from 10 sites in and around the lake for tests under the IOWATER water-quality program.

During that time, between 300 and 400 samples have been tested for temperature, pH, nitrite-N, nitrate-N, phosphate, dissolved oxygen and transparency, with median results almost always falling within the normal range for Iowa rivers and lakes.

Tests for chloride, which can indicate human and animal waste, also have been conducted on 129 samples, again with median results falling within the normal range for Iowa rivers.

Bob Galiher, 72, a Lake Delhi resident for 40 years and an IOWATER volunteer since Lake Delhi testing began, said his impression of the test results is that they are “pretty acceptable and surprisingly good.”

Lake Delhi residents, he said, “are concerned about water quality and committed to do the right thing.”
Delaware County water and sanitation administrator Dennis Lyons, while acknowledging that many wells do have high bacteria counts, said he has “never heard of anyone getting sick from swimming in the lake or drinking from the wells.”

Expensive to aid fish passage

As for the DNR’s insistence on provisions for fish passage, the lake district’s Leonard said, “The Legislature needs to weigh the costs and benefits of this luxury.”

Because of the rebuilt dam’s 40-foot height, an inclined fish ladder with enough resting pools to get fish over the top would cost between $700,000 and $800,000, Colgan said. Because good populations of game fish already inhabit upstream and downstream sections of the river, the fish ladder would do little good, he said.

Leonard said the lake district is more than willing to work with the DNR on improving public access, which is already available at two county parks and a marina.

In addition to the hoped-for $5 million in state support, lake residents have committed to $6.1 million in general obligation bonds and have secured about $1.7 million in private pledges and donations. The Delaware County supervisors, which have yet to commit to the rebuilding, are considering a $3 million bond issue.

Public input

The Delaware County supervisors will hold a public meeting on a proposed $3 million bond issue to help rebuild the Lake Delhi dam. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Delaware County fairgrounds.

Related articles

• Restoring the Lake Delhi dam (thegazette.com)
• Branstad ready to work with community on Lake Delhi dam restoration (thegazette.com)
• Flooded homes finally starting to be removed from Lake Delhi (thegazette.com)
• Bill seeks $5 million to restore Lake Delhi dam (thegazette.com)
• Lake Delhi overwhelmingly approves bond issue (thegazette.com)

“This was a senseless and deliberate act of vandalism,” said Dick Heft, board chairman of Turn In Poachers of Iowa, which has offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Heft said pertinent information should be referred to local law enforcement authorities and can be provided anonymously by calling the TIP hotline, 1-800-532-2020.

“I have no clue why someone shot that swan,” said Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Aric Sloterdyk, who is leading the investigation. Sloterdyk said the bird was shot multiple times with bullets larger than .22 caliber but smaller than a shotgun slug.

While it is illegal to shoot a trumpeter swan under any circumstances, most past shootings have involved claims that the swan had been mistaken for a goose or some other legal game. In this case, the swan was within city limits, no pertinent hunting season was open, and it was shot with a gun that cannot legally be used for waterfowl.

Kirkwood parks and natural resources students who routinely monitor the three trumpeter swans that live on the pond discovered the dead bird around 10 a.m. Sunday, according to Kirkwood instructor Jerry Reisinger.

Since 1994, Kirkwood parks and natural resources students have been caring for swans on or near the campus as participants in the DNR’s successful trumpeter swan reintroduction program.

The dead bird was not part of a mated pair, but the two survivors are, Reisinger said. The pair have been raising cygnets that eventually join the state’s wild swan population, he said.

All three swans had been injured at some point and cannot fly. The pond has an aerator that ensures enough open water for the swans to escape animal predators. The fence is constructed to keep the swans in but it would not keep people out, according to Reisinger.

Three options for replacing the deteriorating 110-year-old dam with structures designed to enhance the river’s natural and recreational attributes were presented last month at public meetings in Monticello and at gatherings of Monticello High School students.  Sixty-six adults and 172 students completed questionnaires.

Asked if they think the dam should be modified, 97 percent of the respondents said yes.

Eighty-eight percent of the respondents said they prefer Alternative A, the most expensive at an estimated cost of $2.8 million, which entails four stone structures resembling mini-waterfalls. The largest, with a 3-foot drop, would be built at the dam site. Three smaller ones, each with a 1 1/2-foot drop, would be constructed in a 2-mile stretch of river upstream of the dam.

Fifteen percent of the respondents chose Alternative B (estimated cost: $1.8 million), which would consist of the stone structure with the 3-foot drop at the dam site.

Just 1 percent of the respondents chose Alternative C (estimated cost: $2.3 million), which entails replacement of the dam with a rock arch rapids consisting of from six to seven drops, each in the 12- to 18-inch range.

The percentages do not add to 100 because some of the participants chose more than one alternative, according to Larry Gullett, director of the Jones County Conservation Department, which owns the dam at the heart of the proposed re-engineering project.

Eighty-nine percent of the respondents supported construction along the river of a land-based, hard surfaced trail, with an estimated cost of more than $1 million, that would connect the structures and could be used for running, walking and bicycling.

Eighty-three percent said the trail should be combined with the river restoration into a single project.

Given that the county owns the dam and that most of the area proposed for a land trail is within city limits, 90 percent of respondents said the county and city should cooperate in moving the project forward.

Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they think the city and county should help fund the project along with state and federal grants and corporate and private donations.

The award, presented annually by Iowa Rivers Revival, a river advocacy group, recognizes the community’s efforts to enhance its connections to the Cedar River through conversion of a dangerous low-head dam into the state’s first whitewater kayak course.

The project also included installation of the state’s largest permeable paving system and improved public access on both sides of the river.

“Charles City responded to record floods in 1999 and 2008 by embracing the Cedar River with new ideas and bold projects” that both protect and celebrate the river, said Jerry Peckumn, Iowa Rivers Revival’s board chairman.

Previous “River Towns of the Year” recognized by Iowa Rivers Revival are Webster City, Elkader, Coon Rapids, and Cedar Falls.

In response to the project, local businesses have expanded inventories and services, including lodging packages, sales and rental of equipment and shuttle services, according to Charles City officials.

State funding included Department of Natural Resources grants for dam mitigation, channel improvements and the boat ramp and fishing area below the whitewater course. The Department of Cultural Affairs’ “Iowa Great Places” program supported the river walk area park and bank improvements.

“The state contribution to the Charles City project — about $1.3 million — is an excellent example of public money spent for public projects that will be used by the public,” Peckumn said.

The National Weather Service on Monday released a 30-day outlook predicting above-normal temperatures for Eastern Iowa and precipitation at or slightly above the approximately 1 inch that typically falls in February.

“The jet stream has stayed farther north than usual this winter,” helping to keep arctic air out of Iowa, “and there is no sign yet of it moving back south,” State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said Wednesday.

In 139 years of record keeping, only eight other December-January periods have been warmer than the one just concluded, Hillaker said.

The average statewide temperature in January was 25.4 degrees, 6 degrees warmer than normal. December’s statewide average temperature was 29.8 degrees, 6.9 degrees above normal. For the two months combined, this winter’s average temperature of 27.6 degrees exceeded normal by 6.4 degrees.

“This winter seems even milder than it is because the last four winters have been above average for cold and snow,” Hillaker said.

The statewide average snowfall stood at 10 inches through the end of January – a little more than half the normal statewide average of 19.1 inches through the first two months of winter. That is the 19th lowest total in 126 years, Hillaker said.

Hillaker said temperatures would have been higher in the latter half of January had snow cover not suppressed them in much of the state. As of Wednesday, however, snow had melted in all but the northeastern third of the state, and coverage there was rapidly thinning.

At Cedar Rapids, daylight increases from 10 hours and 1 minute on Feb. 1 to 11 hours and 13 minutes on the last day of the month. The average high temperature increases from 30 degrees at the start of the month to 38 degrees at its end.

Kelly Kellner of Cedar Rapids checks the sights on a revolver as she practices at the indoor shooting range at the Izaak Walton League on Saturday, Jan. 21, in northeast Cedar Rapids. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — For reasons ranging from personal security to “because I can,” the number of Iowans with permits to carry concealed weapons increased 154 percent during the first year of relaxed laws governing their issuance.

Dennis Rosekrans, 63, of rural Cedar Rapids — one of more than 60,000 Iowans who’ve secured permits in the year since Iowa went from a “may issue” to a “shall issue” state — said the main reason he obtained one is that the Legislature made it easier to do.

Rosekrans said the law change enabled him to act upon his long-held interest in taking responsibility for his and his family’s defense.

Melissa Halserty, 43, and Kelly Kellner, 41, friends and neighbors in southwest Cedar Rapids, say concern about safety and security in their homes inspired them to seek a license to carry a handgun.

“We’ve had three recent home invasions in our neighborhood, and my husband has been after me to learn how to protect myself,” Halserty said.

Instructor Cyndee Godlove (from left) demonstrates a shooting stance to Melissa Halferty and Kelly Kellner on Jan. 21 at the Izaak Walton League shooting range in Cedar Rapids. Halferty and Kellner have permits to carry concealed handguns but say they want the guns for safety at home. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

“It’s not the worst neighborhood in town, but it’s not the best, either,” said Kellner, whose husband often works an overnight shift. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

At the beginning of 2011, 39,397 Iowans had permits to carry concealed weapons, secured during an era in which county sheriffs had considerable discretion over their issuance.

At the end of 2011, with the sheriffs’ discretion largely nullified by the law, that number had climbed to 99,932, with more 2011 permits still trickling into the state database, said Sam Knowles, bureau chief of the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

That surge — during which the percentage of Iowans with a permit to carry increased from 1.3 percent to 3.3 percent — has been “a bit of a phenomenon,” Knowles said.

“Just the widespread general awareness that it is available led a lot of people to think about (obtaining a permit), but in the end, I couldn’t tell you why” the response has been so dramatic, he said.

“Honestly, I was not surprised at the increase,” said Jeff Burkett, president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, which lobbies and advocates for the right to keep and bear arms. “I fully expected (the number of Iowa permit holders) to reach 100,000 by the end of last year.”

In Linn County, where the number of permits increased 183 percent — from 1,871 to 5,298 — during 2011, Sheriff Brian Gardner said widespread publicity surrounding the law change was the biggest factor.

“People found out how easy it was to get one and took advantage,” Gardner said.

Many Iowans “got permits just because they can,” said Lonny Pulkrabek, sheriff of Johnson County, which registered more than a fourfold increase in carry permits — from 552 to 2,270 — during the past year.

Pulkrabek and other informed observers say many of the permit holders have no intention of ever carrying their weapons in public.

Halserty and Kellner, who were practicing their marksmanship Saturday at the Izaak Walton League indoor shooting range in Cedar Rapids, said they fall into that category.

“I just want to feel more competent that I could handle a dangerous confrontation if one ever occurred,” Halserty said.

Pulkrabek, a critic of the law, said Johnson County issued 381 permits last year to people with criminal records that did not include felony convictions or other disqualifies specified in the law. “I probably would have denied a good portion of them if I still had discretion,” he said.

Knowles at the Department of Public Safety said he had heard of only a few untoward incidents involving people with permits to carry, mainly drunken driving arrests of people carrying weapons.

Pulkrabek and Gardner said they still worry about the law’s lack of a requirement that applicants demonstrate proficiency with a weapon before being granted a permit.

So does Bob Godlove, a 20-year handgun instructor at the Izaak Walton League in Cedar Rapids, which for many years conducted all the training classes, including range qualification, for Linn and Johnson County weapons permit applicants.

The league, which trained 300 applicants in 2011, still requires range qualification before training certificates are signed.

“I was in favor of the ‘shall issue’ law, but I am not at all in favor of giving a permit to anyone who steps up and wants one,” Godlove said.

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• Iowa weapons permit applications up 170 percent in 2011 (thegazette.com)

“A recovery is still possible. All we’d need is two good winters and springs in a row,” said Bogenschutz.

To many, that seems like a lot to hope for, given that the last five years have been characterized by excessively snowy winters followed by wet nesting seasons.

That persistent pattern, coupled with the ongoing conversion of perennial vegetation to row crops, has driven Iowa’s pheasant population to an all-time low, as measured by the annual August roadside survey, which found a statewide average of seven pheasants per 30-mile route.

Hunters, who opened the season Saturday, are expected to harvest a record low 150,000 to 200,000 roosters before the season ends Jan. 10 — a far cry from the million-plus harvests that have occurred in Iowa 33 times since 1962.

National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger, speaking in Iowa last week, urged the restoration of grassland habitat as the best means to save pheasants from the perils of climate change.

But given Congress’ mandate to cut spending, funding for conservation is likely to be substantially reduced in the 2012 farm bill, leaders of Pheasants Forever said. And given continuing high commodity prices, most farmers would rather plant corn and soybeans than grass on marginal ground.

Steve Ries of Alburnett, who until two years ago hunted often in northern Linn County, said his only Iowa hunt this year would be on the opening weekend.

“I think Iowa will soon be like Illinois and Indiana, where there won’t be a pheasant population attractive to hunters,” he said.

Another veteran pheasant hunter, John Houck of Cedar Rapids, said he too would confine his Iowa hunting to opening weekend this year.

“I almost hate to shoot one now,” he said.

“It’s understandable that people think the good old days are gone forever, but pheasants can be very prolific when conditions are right,” said Tom Fuller, Eastern Iowa regional representative for Pheasants Forever, a self-described “glass is half full guy.”

As proof, Bogenschutz points to the two years of near perfect weather that followed the bitter winter of 2000-2001.

After a then-record low harvest of 470,000 birds in 2001, pheasant populations doubled in each of the two succeeding years, yielding Iowa’s last million-plus harvest in 2003.

Pheasant lover Kent Bergstrand, 56, of Manchester, is proof that pheasants can still succeed if they have suitable habitat. Since he returned to his native Iowa from Texas in 2005, he has established 100 acres of grass on two farms near the Buchanan-Delaware county line. He also feeds pheasants at nine locations whenever snow covers the ground to a depth of 3 inches.

Each of his two 50-acre grass plots is home to more than 100 pheasants, Bergstrand estimates.

Teresa Kress of Quasqueton runs with her dogs, Dexi and Belle, past Wolfey's Wapsi Outback Bar and Grill and the Quasqueton Area Historical Society museum on Wednesday, Jan. 4. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Most Iowans believe they and the state they live in are not nearly as bad off as University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom portrayed them in his infamous Dec. 9 essay in The Atlantic online.

Bloom remains unapologetic about calling small-town Iowans “elderly waiting to die” and “waste-toids and meth addicts.” His only regret, he said, is that they don’t get the satire with which he attempted to communicate “unspeakable truths” about them.

Most residents believe the rural Iowa problems that he cites — a shortage of good jobs, the exodus of bright young Iowans, an aging, slow-growing population and meth addiction, for example — are neither new, peculiar to Iowa, nor all that dire.

Unemployment, for example, is worse in 44 other states. Iowa’s 5.7 percent jobless rate in November was nearly three points below the national average.

The brain drain, an aging population and the meth epidemic are more acute in Iowa than in some other states, but progress has been made in the war on meth, and getting older is generally considered preferable to the alternative.

Reversing or even slowing the brain drain, which accentuates the expansion of the elderly demographic, will take a transformational reordering of the state’s economy, experts say.

Resilience in the workforce

Contrary to public perception, unemployment rates are not dramatically worse in Iowa’s rural counties than in its urban areas, either. According to state unemployment figures for November, 12 of Iowa’s 15 most-populous counties had unemployment rates lower than the statewide average, as did 60 of Iowa’s 84 rural counties.

Small-town workers demonstrate resilience and adaptability. Take the case of Wilbert Plastics, which employed 115 people in the Buchanan County town of Winthrop, population 850, before shutting its doors on July 16, 2010, in the depths of the recession.

Those 115 displaced Wilbert workers joined 113,700 other out-of-work Iowans at a time when the state’s unemployment rate stood at 6.8 percent, with a comparable national figure of 9.5 percent.

Devlin Reinhold lost his job at Wilbert Plastic Services in Winthrop when the plant closed 18 months ago. Photographed at the plant on Tuesday, Jan. 17. He quickly landed a new job. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

“They told us in February that it would be closing,” which gave workers four months to find another job while still drawing a paycheck, said Chad Schwarting, 38, of Quasqueton, a 17-year Wilbert employee.

By the time the plant actually closed, Schwarting and his wife, Jan, 45, another veteran Wilbert worker, had secured jobs at Viking Pump in Cedar Falls. Neither missed a payday.

“We were pretty nervous about it. We had our health insurance there. We had all our eggs in one basket,” Chad Schwarting said.

While Jan Schwarting remains at Viking Pump, earning more than she had at the plastics factory, her husband has moved on to an even better paying job at Red Star Yeast in Cedar Rapids. The Schwartings say they are better off now than before.

Having stayed in touch with many of their former Wilbert co-workers, they estimate that “more than half upgraded themselves,” while many others have found at least comparable employment.

One who has not is Devlin Reinhold of Quasqueton, a 13-year Wilbert employee who has been drawing down his savings to pay his bills, which include about $500 a month for health insurance under the COBRA program.

Reinhold, a Navy veteran, said he has been tapping his savings since July, when his unemployment compensation ended.

“I tried to get back into welding. I took a refresher course at Hawkeye (Community College in Waterloo), but that hasn’t worked out yet,” he said.

Reinhold, 55, believes his age is working against him. “They are not going to tell you that (age is a consideration), but I feel it is. (Employers) definitely want the younger people,” he said.

Hawkeye Community College training administrator Jean Wright, who helped displaced Wilbert workers upgrade their skills, said she agrees that employers would never admit a preference for younger workers.

“But common sense and observation tell me that age can be a barrier to re-employment,” she said.

Impact on small towns

Winthrop Mayor Gerald Dennie said the loss of the town’s leading employer, which began as Triangle Plastics in the 1960s, could have been worse.

The building is still used and maintained and will be on the property tax rolls at full assessed value for at least another year, he said.

A local development group has leased the building, which is used for storage by Independence-based corncob processor Best Cob, Dennie said.

Barbara Hackmann (from left), Emily Bicknese and Robert Bollman, all of Elgin, count precinct ballots during the Republican caucus at the Clermont Opera House on Tuesday, Jan. 3. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

“To be honest with you, the future of that building is probably as a warehouse” — a use that would entail minimal jobs, Dennie said.

Citing 2009 figures, Buchanan County Economic Development director Nate Clayberg said that only 8.5 percent of people holding primary jobs in Winthrop actually resided there, with 63 percent commuting from surrounding rural areas. Many of the displaced Wilbert workers, he said, found jobs in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Independence, Oelwein and Manchester.

Information on the outcomes of displaced workers at specific employers is confidential under federal law, said Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, but Clayberg and Hawkeye College’s Wright believe the Wilbert workers fared exceptionally well.

Wright said 34 of the 115 displaced workers enrolled in training supported by federal Workforce Investment Act funds.

“We had hoped to enroll more,” she said, adding that the 30 percent participation suggests that many of them moved on quickly to other jobs.

“A lot of them had been there a long time. That plant had so many quality, experienced workers that they could almost name their new jobs,” Clayberg said.

Wright and Clayberg said experienced factory workers have little trouble finding jobs.

“Manufacturers are desperate for skilled workers. The pool of skilled workers with good attitudes and work habits is simply not adequate to fill their needs,” Wright said.

“We’ve got plenty of jobs around here — manufacturing, retail, health care and ag-related — if someone wants to work,” Clayberg said.

The brain drain

While Iowa has job openings in manufacturing and industries that process and refine agricultural products — most of which pay an hourly wage in the teens — the state’s shortage of high-tech, high-paying jobs has caused an exodus of college-educated young Iowans — the brain drain.

Between 2000 and 2008, Iowa lost 7 percent of its 25- to 44-year-old population — a loss most pronounced in rural areas and small towns, which lost 16 percent of that key demographic, said Christian Fong, 34, a Cedar Rapids businessman who chaired a legislative commission to study the brain drain.

If not stemmed, the brain drain will cost the state its next generation of leaders, said Fong, a candidate for governor in 2009. He cites as proof that five of the 15 members of the Generation Iowa Commission left the state during its three years of operation.

While one-third of young Iowans attain a college degree, just 12 percent of available jobs require one, he said.

Fong said an assumption that the quality of life in Iowa is not attractive to young, well-educated Iowans is off-base. Young Iowans, he said, “are very satisfied with the quality of life here and want to stay here.” What’s lacking, he said, are jobs commensurate with their education.

“We need to change Iowa’s economic foundation from manufacturing to creative, information-based, high-tech enterprises,” Fong said.

Karris Golden, 35, of Cedar Falls, another member of the Generation Iowa Commission, said many young Iowans who leave the state do so with plans to return to raise their families.

“But they won’t come back if they can’t find rewarding jobs,” said Golden, president and chief operating officer of Wasendorf & Associates, a Cedar Falls publishing firm.

Golden said the state could make itself more attractive to young professionals by encouraging entrepreneurs to develop their businesses here and by “wiring every nook and cranny of the state for high-speed Internet access.”

Meth problem is resurging

Like the brain drain, meth abuse is more severe in Iowa than in many other states — a fact underscored by statistics compiled by the Drug and Alcohol Services Information System. In Iowa during 2010, 12.6 percent of all drug treatment admissions were meth-related, exactly twice the national average.

Still, statistics from Iowa law enforcement agencies show the meth epidemic that left many Iowans with toothless frowns peaked between 2003 and 2005, declined markedly for three years and then resumed a gradual upward trajectory.

In Fayette County, the focal point of “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town,” about one-fourth of all crime is meth-related — down from more than 70 percent at its peak, said Assistant County Attorney Nathan Lein, whose efforts to put meth cooks in jail were documented in the popular non-fiction book.

A state law strictly regulating the sale of the antihistamine pseudoephedrine — a key meth ingredient — “has helped a great deal in getting rid of mom and pop labs.”

Meth imported from Mexico fuels a continuing addiction problem, though, Lein said.

More than 80 percent of the illicit methamphetamine consumed in Iowa is smuggled into the state, said Dale Woolery, director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy.

Some of it, he said, comes from “well-financed and sophisticated criminal operations, including Mexican drug cartels.”

Woolery declined to say methamphetamine remains the state’s most dangerous drug but said it is especially problematic because of its high addiction quotient, its ease of manufacture and its potential harm to innocent bystanders through explosions and fires in the manufacturing process and exposure to toxic materials.

Perhaps the drug’s gravest collateral damage, however, is to the children of abusers. The number of confirmed or founded child abuse cases involving meth-addled caretakers peaked at 353 in 2003.

By 2007, that number had fallen to 56, following implementation of the pseudoephedrine law, but such cases, like all indicators of meth abuse in Iowa, have since been steadily rising.

Meth seizures, for example, peaked at 174,000 grams in 2003, dropped to 18,300 grams in 2009 and stood at 14,000 grams through the first 8 1/2 months of 2011. Responses to meth labs peaked at 1,500 in 2004, dropped to 178 in 2007 and stood at 257 through the first nine months of 2011. Meth-related prison admissions peaked at 711 in 2004, bottomed out at 304 in 2009 and climbed to 416 in 2011.

“There was a big drop around 2005-2006 in meth-rehabilitation clients. We saw that at ASAC,” said Shirley Schneider, director of the Area Substance Abuse Council’s east Cedar Rapids outpatient clinic.

Acknowledging that meth addiction remains a serious problem, Schneider said most meth addicts do not voluntarily seek treatment but enter the program through court orders or referrals from the Department of Human Services.

Schneider said methamphetamine stimulates pleasure centers in the brain. “Users quickly become addicted because they like the effect, and they stay addicted to avoid painful withdrawal,” she said.

As usage increases, they become less productive at work, family relations suffer and they spend more time trying to access the drug, she said.

After prolonged abuse, Schneider said many users match the stereotype — emaciation, stringy hair, damaged skin, bad teeth. Dental damage may be at least partly attributable to neglected hygiene, but the chemicals in meth also leach calcium from the body, she said.

Seniors are active voters

Though 14.8 percent of Iowans are 65 or older, which ranks Iowa fourth among the states in that category, they are hardly waiting around to die, said Donna Harvey, director of the Iowa Department on Aging.

Many of them remain active in the work force and often volunteer their services, she said.

Nor are they barely subsisting. While their household incomes are substantially lower than the statewide average, just 7.3 percent of older Iowans are defined as living in poverty, compared with 11.8 percent of all Iowans.

Iowa’s seniors also take their citizenship seriously, voting at a higher rate than any other age group — 76.2 percent in a recent national election. Though they made up less than 15 percent of the state’s population, they cast 19.4 percent of the votes.

By 2030, older Iowans’ share of the state population is expected to rise from the current 14.8 percent to 22.4 percent.

With that same demographic trend accelerating faster elsewhere, however, Iowa is expected to drop from fourth to 12th among states in percentage of residents age 65 or older.

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Commentary: Orlan Love and his neighbors on the joy of small-town Iowa

Garion Lopez, 25, of Quasqueton, the night shift clerk at the Quasky Mart convenience store, waits behind the cash register for his next customer on Jan. 4, 2012. (Orlan Love/The Gazette)

QUASQUETON — A Facebook posting by one of this town’s 554 residents could easily read: “Nothing much to report.”

Which suits them — and many other residents of Iowa’s 726 incorporated areas with fewer than 1,000 people — just fine.

For the most part, they like the status quo in the small Iowa towns that University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom savaged in a recent Atlantic article.

“Research clearly shows that most rural Iowans are highly satisfied with their communities and their lives,” said Iowa State University sociologist David Peters, who has studied rural and small town Iowa for 15 years.

Bill and Nellie Berns, proprietors, Wee Willy's tavern, Quasqueton

Most residents of Quasqueton, my hometown — including Bill and Nellie Berns, who will soon celebrate 25 years as proprietors of the town’s popular Wee Willy’s tavern — consider themselves satisfied.

Removed from many of the dangers and temptations of cities, “Quasky is a great place to raise children,” Nellie Berns said.

“It’s the people’s values. They are good neighbors, willing to reach out and help when needed,” Bill Berns said.

The spirit of neighborliness, a central part of the Christian Gospel, is often visible in rural communities, said the Rev. Kevin Jennings, pastor of the Quasqueton Union Church.

Small-town residents share a common history and interests and a spirit of caring that binds them together, Jennings said.

The Rev. Kevin Jennings, pastor, Qusqueton Union Church

Few small-town residents believe that Bloom’s complaint of their “in-your-face religion” is even a problem.

“For those of us who believe in the faith we were raised in, it is a comfort, a part of the fabric of our lives and not a shield we throw up to keep others out,” Jennings said.

Leone Sauer, who has attended the Quasqueton church for 87 of her 92 years, said: “People around here are very quiet about their faith. The Bible encourages us to spread the good news, but we are pretty timid about that.”

Far from falling into Bloom’s category of elderly Iowans “waiting to die,” Sauer — who is active in the town’s garden club and historical society, as well as church — said she’s too busy to think about dying and too satisfied to consider leaving the farm she and her late husband, Vincent, bought in 1950.

“I am going to tell you that most would not leave their small towns if they could help it,” said Donna Harvey, director of the Iowa Department on Aging.

Leone Sauer, 92, of Quasqueton

The church, the garden club and the historical society, along with the fire department, the community club, the American Legion and its women’s auxiliary are among the volunteer associations that strive to enhance the quality of life in Quasqueton.

Patriotism is the special province of the Legion and auxiliary, which join forces each Memorial Day to organize a veterans’ commemoration service that most residents have come to know by heart. Prayers are said.

Dozens of the 71 members of American Legion Post 434 typically turn out to provide an honor guard at the funerals of local veterans, providing an additional personal touch to a ritual that brings solace to the bereaved. Prayers are said.

“It’s in the Legion constitution to help the community to the best of our ability. We do a lot behind the scenes,” said Cleon Ohrt, commander of Post 434.

Cleon Ohrt, commander, American Legion Post 434, Quasqueton

The flip side of small-town unity, as ISU professor Peters acknowledges and Bloom noted in his essay, is an insularity that can be unwholesome.

“Rural communities are tight-knit, which is a positive when someone needs help, but if you are new to an area, it can be isolating,” Peters said.

Jennings said he thinks small-town residents give newcomers the benefit of the doubt. “They are as willing to accept you as you are to become a member of the community,” he said.

Garion Lopez, 25, who moved to Quasqueton from San Francisco 3 1/2 years ago and works nights at the Quasky Mart convenience store, said he was readily accepted into the community.

Lopez, whose distinctive clothing styles often include a coat and tie when he’s working the counter, said, “I definitely knew I was different (from most Quasqueton residents), but people just don’t care. Everyone says hi and calls you by name.”

Small-town residents have a reputation for being biased and close-minded, he said, “but it is no more pronounced here than anywhere else.”

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Iowa pragmatism: Residents don’t see Iowa as bleak, or its problems as insurmountable

Snow and ice cover much of the Maquoketa River around the Mon-Maq Dam near Monticello on Friday. Proposals to enhance the area around the dam are the subject of two meetings this week. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

More than 300 people are expected to provide input this week on plans for improving one of the state’s most popular river segments — the Maquoketa River on the east edge of Monticello.

“We want the public to tell us what to do. The only way it works is with community support,” said Larry Gullett, director of the Jones County Conservation Department, which owns the deteriorating 110-year-old Mon-Maq dam at the heart of the proposed re-engineering project.

The dam is among several in Iowa under consideration for removal or modification.

That attitude of incorporating stakeholder feedback into the plan “serves as a model for other communities working on dam removals, water trails and other river improvement projects,” said Gregg Starks, a leader of the Sticks in the Water paddle sports club.

Jones County’s inclusive approach helped it develop one of the state’s foremost water trails, the 7.8-mile stretch from the Mon-Maq dam to Pictured Rocks, which was dedicated 15 months ago, said Nate Hoogeveen, director of the Department of Natural Resources river programs.

The Mon-Maq dam project “has the potential to be just as spectacular as the water trail,” Hoogeveen said.

Three options for replacing the dam with structures designed to enhance the river’s natural and recreational attributes will be presented at public meetings today and Thursday in Monticello.

Alternative A, the most expensive at an estimated cost of $2.8 million, entails four stone structures resembling mini-waterfalls. The largest, with a 3-foot drop, would be built at the dam site. Three smaller ones, each with a 1 1/2-foot drop, would be constructed in a 2-mile stretch of river upstream of the dam.

Alternative B (estimated cost: $1.8 million) would consist of the stone structure with the 3-foot drop at the dam site.

Alternative C (estimated cost: $2.3 million) entails replacement of the dam with a rock arch rapids consisting of from six to seven drops, each in the 12- to 18-inch range.

A land-based, hard surfaced trail, with an estimated cost of more than $1 million, could be linked with the river project or undertaken separately, Gullett said.

Funding would come from a combination of sources including donations and grants. “We would not propose a bond issue or other tax levy,” Gullett said.

Dam modifications to enhance river recreation gained increased public attention last year with the completion of a white-water paddling course on the Cedar River at Charles City.

The six-blocks-long course, built at a cost of more than $1 million, has increased tourism and brought the community together around its central natural feature, said Charles City City Administrator Tom Brownlow,

Kayak enthusiast Hannah Eden of rural Anamosa said the Mon-Maq improvements, coupled with a planned white-water course at Manchester, could make the Maquoketa River even more of a regional attraction than it already is. Gullett said more than 1,000 people often paddle the water trail on summer weekend days.

Monticello resident Kyle Gassman, a self-described river enthusiast, said he’s “all for” removing and replacing the dam. “My big question,” he said, “is will the release of silt stored in the impoundment cause problems downstream?”

Monticello Mayor Dena Himes, a trails enthusiast, said she thinks the proposed Maquoketa River improvements, combined with an integrated land-based trail, would, like the Charles City project, attract visitors and bring community members together.

Though Gullett sees some similarities with the Cedar River project, he emphasized that none of the three alternatives would yield anything resembling a white-water course.

Improved paddling opportunities was just one of several priorities — along with fish passage, improved angling and ecological and economic benefits — identified by a 10-member advisory committee that has studied dam options for nearly four years, Gullett said.

Monticello City Administrator Doug Herman said the study committee’s research will help guide the community toward the best means to fully use one of its most valuable resources.

Gullett said 2008 flooding severely weakened and undermined the dam. Rather than investing in expensive repairs of a dam that no longer serves a useful purpose, the Conservation Board appointed the committee, which has worked with the Corps of Engineers, the DNR and the National Park Service to identify options.

Meetings this week

• 6:30 p.m. today and Thursday, Renaissance Center, 220 E. First St., Monticello. To register, call (563) 487-3541.

Other dams

•  In addition to the Mon-Maq dam, other Eastern Iowa dams slated either for removal or modification include the Wapsipinicon River dams at Littleton and Quasqueton.
•  In 2010, the state’s first rock arch rapids was constructed on the Turkey River in Howard County, and a navigational hazard was removed from the Yellow River in Allamakee County.
•  The Charles City white-water course was completed last year, and discussions have occurred on potential dam modifications on the Shell Rock River near Rockford, the Maquoketa River at Manchester and the Turkey River at Clermont.