Why I am Getting into Soil and Water

Post submitted by Lindsay Brown, recent graduate from Iowa State University and member of Iowa State’s Soil and Water Conservation Club (SWCC)

My name is Lindsay Brown and I have recently graduated Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and Environmental Science. I joined the Soil and Water Conservation Club (SWCC) in the fall semester of 2016 and it has provided me with vast amounts of knowledge surrounding the topic of soil and water conservation. Over the years I have heard many presentations from graduate students, professors and other professionals working in the field. The presentations range from land management and conservation to farming practices. Hearing from these various professionals has allowed me to diversify my knowledge about these topics and develop a better understanding on how conservation efforts can be implemented and managed. The SWCC does not only meet every other week and listen to presentations, but we also sell, assemble and present Groundwater Flow Models. These models visually represent how water moves throughout the ground. This visualization can help students, farmers, faculty, or really anyone to realize the importance of water movement on the surface and underground and how understanding its movement can lead to specific water management practices. The Groundwater Flow Models are sold and distributed nationally and internationally and the profits go toward club funds, which allows us to go on trips and attend conferences for professional experience.

The SWCC also has an annual publication called Getting into Soil and Water that is put together by the publication committee. Getting into Soil and Water is a publication that is composed of a variety of articles related to soil and water about local and international subjects written by professionals from various backgrounds. I have been an editor for this publication since August of 2016 and have learned a lot about the editing process, leadership skills, and how to communicate efficiently and effectively with my peers, authors and sponsors. At the beginning of the year, the publication committee discusses and brainstorms different possibilities for themes the publication could follow. After the theme is discussed and we’ve reached a consensus, authors are then contacted to see if they would like to write an article in the publication. After all the articles are retrieved, the editing process begins. Each article is edited many times by each member of the committee and compiled into a cohesive publication. Once the publications are printed, they are distributed to people all around the state of Iowa. Through my experience of being an editor, I learned how to delegate effectively and to recognize the value each person brings to a team in achieving a larger goal. Being an editor also gave me experience running meetings, helped me to develop confidence voicing my opinions in a group setting and allowed me to share ideas with my peers in the publication committee. All of these experiences will be useful for my future career goals and aspirations.

Since graduation I have moved to Minneapolis and now have an internship with the University of Minnesota partnered with the City of Woodbury leading a water conservation project. My future career goals are to work with environmental consulting to decrease environmental degradation and improve the health of communities and ecosystems. Being a part of the SWCC and the Getting into Soil and Water publication committee as an editor, has provided me with multiple years of experience learning about conservation practices as well as practical communication skills. I would definitely recommend students to get involved in student organizations like the SWCC on campus, because it provides you with lifelong practical skills for your future career.

Lindsay Brown is leading a water conservation project with the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has a B.S. in Biology and Environmental Science from Iowa State University. She is currently looking for full-time employment doing environmental consulting in the Twin Cities area.

 

Our Watershed, Our Community

39161637680_115ee78523_k

Post written by Tianna Griffin, the Iowa Water Center’s Special Projects Assistant

The Iowa Water Center hosted the annual Iowa Water Conference, in Ames, Iowa on March 21-22. The conference theme was “Our Watershed, Our Community.” The conference had a variety of presenters from different disciplines. One of my favorite presenters was Peter Kageyama, author of “For the Love of Cities” opened the first day of the conference and talked about citizens having an emotional connection to where they live and making one’s city stand out in a creative way. An example he gave was a city hiring an artist to paint murals on sidewalk sewage drainages to encourage its citizens not to dump and pollute in waste water systems.
The conference was attended by professionals in water related careers, including farmers, students, and collegiate professionals. The conference had a photo contest as well as informational posters on student research and watershed projects. There were opportunities for student posters to be entered in a contest for a cash prize. There were over 35 water related posters on display for attendees to view. There were also exhibitors present to learn about their products, services, and to network with. The Water Conference had five sponsors this year who financially supported the conference: Conference Champions Fyra Engineering and Houston Engineering Inc., and Conference Supporters Dave’s Dozing, Shive Hattery, and Wenck.
Some sessions that stood out to me that I attended were “25 years of flooding in Iowa: local perceptions and governance during recovery: A panel discussion,” with panelists: John Soenksen, City of Bettendorf; Paul Assman, City of Denison/Crawford County; Amy Walters, Doris Frese, Steve VanDeWalle and Diana Dunning, City of Chelsea. This panel discussion shed light on flood events that have taken place in Iowa and what the community can do to help mitigate flooding in the future.
In “The Watershed Project: Making learning come to life,” Laura McCreery and her students made up a panel to talk about a grant they received from the Iowa Water Center. The students talked about their projects they did to help improve the Mississippi watershed and what it was like to experience community focused project-based learning. The students first evaluated what they can do to improve the Mississippi River Watershed. They then choose which project they wanted to do. A few projects they could choose from were, rehab the rain gardens at North High School, participate in a waterway cleanup competition, and promote cover crops and stormwater education with farmers. Their teacher talked about how the community-based learning was implemented. This was one of my favorite sessions to attend because, as a college student, I realized that when I was in high school there weren’t classes that were community-based, and I didn’t know what a watershed was. Most students at my high school weren’t concerned with making a difference in the community or learning to work in teams. Attending this session and realizing the importance of knowing about ecology, I have hope that project-based learning will spread to other schools to prepare youth for their careers.
There was a closing story told by Hank Kohler the last day of the conference. The presentation titled, “The Positive and Negative Impact Water has Made on My Life,” outlined Hank’s story, which invoked an emotion to not only be connected to water resources, but to have a passion for life’s journey. He spoke about his experience with water and how it both brought good and bad times into his life. The conference was successful because it honored people who are making a difference in their watershed by presenting awards, it honored students and their research in water related issues, and it brought together professionals in water-related fields and offered sessions that they can take away with them after the conference to be better communicators and to work in teams. I am thankful I was able to attend the conference to learn water-related issues that I didn’t know, meet new people, and to listen to speakers like Hank Kohler who inspired me with my own endeavors.

Watershed Management Authorities of Iowa

Cultivating a Community of Practice for Watershed Management

Submitted by Melissa Miller, Associate Director of the Iowa Water Center

The word is starting to get out on one of our latest Iowa Water Center initiatives: Watershed Management Authorities of Iowa (WMAs of Iowa). This is a statewide organization to unite the ever-growing numbers of Watershed Management Authorities in the state. The goal of this group is to create a network for WMAs to connect with each other, give WMAs a voice in the state, and serve as an information resource for all watershed management stakeholders. WMAs of Iowa helps cultivate a community of practice for watershed management in Iowa.

Let’s be honest here – we did not come up with this great idea. The need for this group came from the WMA stakeholders themselves, and they are the ones who will drive it. Multiple work sessions this winter with the WMA community resulted in a strategic framework that needed one thing: implementation. IWC proposed to act as a catalyst for implementation by offering administrative capacity – organizing meetings, managing a timeline, maintaining a listserv, coordinating all the work that has already gone into creating a presence for this group.

Right now, we’re in the process of inviting WMAs to join us, and we’re looking for board members from those existing and newly forming WMAs to drive the organization forward. We hope to have a board in place by this fall with a website, newsletter, and other outreach and resource activities to follow.

Why is IWC involved?

Great question.

I’ve confessed before to being the president of the WMA fan club, and waxed poetic about the effectiveness of watershed-based planning. I’ve also been using the admittedly odd metaphor that IWC can act as caulk for water groups in the state – we seek to fill gaps and build capacity that connects groups to use resources effectively and efficiently.

By building up WMAs in the state, we’re promoting a research-backed method of natural resource management that will lead to better water resource management and implementation of creative and practical solutions to water resources related problems. That is the reason we exist, you know. (Need proof? Read the Water Resources Research Act as amended in 2006!)

Geographic Information Systems at Iowa State University

Big data requires big software and big ideas. This can be especially true when it comes to managing our water-related resources. Today, we have access to numerous data points about our soil and water that can assist in understanding current landscape conditions and to plan for the future. Information such as this is not useful unless it can be analyzed by the experts using software such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Continue reading

Eagle Grove Students Learn about Conservation Practices on the Farm

Eagle Grove, IA – On September 20th, the Earth Science class from the Eagle Grove High School took a field trip to a farm operated by Tim Smith. Smith, a White House Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture, showed how he incorporates cover crops, strip tillage, and a bioreactor into his farm operation. Students also traveled 12 miles north of his farm to tour a wetland CREP site. Tim, along with Bruce Voigts and Tas Stephen from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in the Clarion USDA office, discussed how the benefits these practices add to soil health and water quality.

Continue reading

The Elixir of Life: An Invitation

Guest blog by Jodi Enos-Berlage, Biology Professor at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa

Water—one of the simplest molecules on earth, is the basis for all life, and this requirement is non-negotiable. The great mystery then, is how we humans have allowed this sacred molecule to become the most polluted substance on earth, and what we should do to solve this problem.

Six years ago, an ISU Extension representative called me to ask if I would be interested in leading a water quality monitoring effort in an impaired waterhshed in Northeast Iowa. I was a scientist and an educator who grew up on a farm. I had read about the many water quality problems in Iowa. In fact, I lived in this impaired watershed, and knew my farm might be contributing to the problem. I said yes.

What began as project to collect water quality data evolved into something much bigger—sharing data and forming relationships with local farmers, using that data to secure funding for water quality improvement practices, developing a three-week, water-focused laboratory in my microbiology course, six years of water quality research involving over 15 undergraduate students, eight presentations and publications, and finally, an amazing collaboration with a dancer, a musician, and a cinematographer at Luther College that resulted in Body of Water. I now invite you to experience this unique work.

Body of Water is an original, unique performance that intermixes dance, music and video components. Art and science are intentionally interwoven to create an end product more powerful than the sum of its parts. The overall goal was to reveal the sacredness of this essential molecule and elixir of life. No one in our group was aware of a precedent for this type of performance, so it was a real experiment.  While the videos, many of which I narrate, tell the story of the essentialness of water for life, its geographic connectivity, its chemistry and biology, and the major pollutants that impact both surface and groundwater, the dancers and musicians produce complementary and novel movements that provide the basis for emotional and human connection.  We spent hours interviewing various stakeholders about water–this informed the performance, and some of their visual and audio clips are included.  Local and state water issues, both agricultural and urban, are highlighted.  The reverence that Native American populations have consistently and powerfully exhibited for this precious resource also inspired the work.

Notably, the purpose of the performance was not to take any particular position, e.g., a regulatory or voluntary approach, mainly because no matter where someone might stand on this spectrum, it has a divisive effect.  Our goal was to create a performance that would unite, through an informational, and perhaps more importantly, emotional and spiritual experience. Based on the audience responses at the multiple sold out shows at Luther College, and at the subsequent Grinnell Summer Arts Festival, we are humbled by the outcome.  The audience we attracted at Luther was one of the most diverse ever in terms of a performance, and included members of agricultural, urban, and conservation groups, scientists and artists, educators and students, and community members and leaders. It is our sincere hope that the performance at ISU will attract a similarly diverse audience.

We are incredibly excited to be partnering with a group of Ames High School students—the Bluestem Institute—for the pre-performance, as the creative work of our young people provides the greatest inspiration. These students will be presenting the beautiful products of their year-long research and service learning project focused on water. We have much to learn from them.

Ultimately, we acknowledge Body of Water as a prayer to return to a right relationship with the earth—recognizing that our own success is not dependent our abilities to control or dominate, but on our abilities to harmonize and see ourselves as a part. In this spirit, we are freely contributing our energies to spread this message. There is no charge for admission and we hope you will be inspired to attend.

Body of Water will be presented as a part of Art of Water 2016 on March 23 at CY Stephens Auditorium in Ames, Iowa

104(g) National Competitive Grants Program RFP Available

The 104(g) National Competitive Grants program is one of three grant programs administered annually by the Iowa Water Center in coordination with the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR). 

Funding alert – the National Institutes for Water Resources in conjunction with the US Geological Survey has issued their call for proposals for the 2016 104(g) National Competitive Grants program.

Here’s the scoop…

Proposal URL (<——CLICK ME!)
Due Date: February 25, 2016 at 4 PM CST
Submit to: niwr.net (hint: you have to create a log-in to get submit, so you may want to get in the system to play around sooner rather than later)
Award maximum and duration: 1-3 years, $250,000 maximum. 1:1 match
Scope: Proposals must focus on “water problems and issues of a regional or interstate nature”. Collaboration between organizations and agencies (particularly USGS) are highly encouraged and USGS partnerships receive extra weight in evaluation.

2016 Priorities:

  • Evaluation of innovative approaches to water treatment, infrastructure design, retrofitting, maintenance, management and replacement.
  • Exploration and advancement of our understanding of changes in the quantity and quality of water resources in response to a changing climate, population shifts, and land use changes; including associated economic, environmental, social, and/or infrastructure costs.
  • Development of methods for better estimation of water supply, both surface and groundwater, including estimation of the physical supply and of the economic supply of water.
  • Development and evaluation of processes and governance mechanisms for integrated surface/ground water management.
  • Evaluation and assessment of the effects of water conservation practices, as well as adoption, penetration and permanence.

Other interesting information:

Iowa has seen some success in getting proposals in this competition funded in the past few years, most recently a project in 2014 from University of Iowa PI Dr. Gabriele Villarini.

The Iowa Water Center reviews all proposals after they have been submitted and must approve them in order for them to be considered by the selection committee. While your application SHOULD be complete at the February deadline, if there are any changes needed, IWC staff will be in touch before final approval.

ISU PIs: You do NOT need a Gold Sheet to submit your proposal to niwr.net. IWC will initiate Gold Sheet routing upon review for the March submittal.

Have any questions? Just send a message to Melissa Miller and we’ll get it taken care of!

The Seventh [Business] Day of Christmas: Breakout: Water Quantity

On the seventh [business] day of Christmas, the Iowa Water Center gave to me…descriptions for the breakout session Water Quantity.

The following presentations will take place at the Iowa Water Conference in Ames on the morning of Thursday, March 24, 2016. Registration for the conference will open in January.

Hydrologic Impacts of Drainage Systems
Kristie Franz, Associate Professor & Meteorology Program Director, Iowa State University

Drainage of soils using subsurface tiles and surface drainage through constructed ditches have been trademarks of the upper Midwest landscape for more than 100 years. In 2011, the Iowa Economic Development Authority funded a 2-year study of the Hydrologic Impacts of Drainage Systems- a joint effort between scientists at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. The study included a literature review examining methods and results of relevant studies and hydrologic analyses using computer-based models of example Iowa watersheds. Results of this study and recommendations for future studies will be discussed.

Are the Great Plains Going Dry?
Daniel L. Devlin, Ph.D., Director, Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment and Kansas Water Resources Institute, Kansas State University

The Ogallala Aquifer underground aquifer underlies 450,660 square kilometers in parts of eight states, that are some of the most productive regions in the United States for growing crops and provide cattle operations with feed for 40% of the feedlot cattle output in the United States. The success of large scale agriculture in areas of inadequate precipitation and lack of perennial surface water for diversion has depended upon pumping ground water for irrigation. Water level declines began in portions of the aquifer after extensive irrigation began using ground water.  This presentation will give background on the issue and discuss possible new water use policies and irrigation technologies that will need to be implemented in the future to sustain the region.

Long-term and recent-term trend analysis results for floods, high flows, and low flows in Iowa
David Eash, Hydrologist, US Geological Survey

Results of Kendall’s Tau trend analyses are presented for floods, high flows, flow durations, and low flows for 55 streamgages in Iowa for the entire period of record and for the last 30-year period of record from 1984-2013.

New Data/Old Date – A Behind the Scenes Look at the Creation of a FEMA Floodplain Map
Kyle Riley, Water Resources Engineer, Snyder & Associates, Inc.

We count on FEMA Floodplain Maps help us design infrastructure, keep citizens out of harm’s way, and plan for the future. The story of how these maps are created is more interesting than the information on the maps themselves.

The 12 [Business] Days of Christmas

We were absolutely “pumped” (get it? a water pun that never gets old) to release the agenda today for the 2016 Iowa Water Conference. But some of you are hungry this time of year – hungry for information (and cookies, maybe). So, to satiate your brains, we present the Iowa Water Conference 12 [Business] Days of Christmas. For the 12 business days leading up to Christmas, we’ll post descriptions of the 32 breakout sessions, 6 plenaries, optional workshop, and special conference extras. The schedule follows below:

Dec 9: Wednesday Plenaries
Dec 10: Green Infrastructure: Function
Dec 11: Strategies for Social Engagement
Dec 14: The Soil/Water Connection
Dec 15: Next Generation of Water  Professionals
Dec 16: Thursday Plenaries
Dec 17: Water Quantity
Dec 18: Current Technology
Dec 21: Green Infrastructure: Benefits and Maintenance
Dec 22: Nutrient Management
Dec 23: Optional workshop
Dec 24: Conference “extras”

Be sure to check in often to learn more about the super schedule we have for this year’s Iowa Water Conference!