Our ability to protect these resources is made possible only by the decisions of landowners and those farming the land and how their actions reflect a concern for and sense of stewardship.
More than 75 years ago, Iowa adopted the soil and water conservation law creating our 100 Conservation Districts to partner with USDA and local farmers. Iowa was first to appropriate state funds as cost-sharing to help landowners install conservation practices.
Third, I believe Iowa farmers and landowners have a basic commitment to stewardship and doing what is right – when it comes to soil conservation and water quality.
Iowa’s water quality is not getting better, and tiling is making it worse – At best our water quality is going sideways. Its brochure states that “farmers need to what know what does and doesn’t work, and the public needs to be assured conservation efforts lead to improved water quality.” This is a great goal for Iowa’s water quality policy – as is continuing to have an Iowa Flood Center.
The many farmers and landowners working to protect soil and water are not well served by those who resist increased funding for water quality, who won’t endorse basic tenets of stewardship and who are unwilling to police “bad actors” — the 20 percent of farmers responsible for 80 percent of the problems.