The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture explores and cultivates alternatives that secure healthier people and landscapes in Iowa and the nation.
Frontpage Features Archive
Why we love Iowa
Aldo Leopold spent many hours exploring the Mississippi River bluffs as a youth near his home in Burlington. How did the landscape shape his views? How did his experiences inform what later became known as the land ethic? This panorama shows the Mississippi River valley at Balltown, about 15 miles north of Dubuque. More about Aldo Leopold
Blue skies and a solar garden
Members of the Farm Energy Working Group (FEWG) tour the Farmers Electric Cooperative's Solar Garden at Frytown (in rural Kalona). Iowa's first community-owned solar garden began producing energy in November 2011. The 13.8-kilowatt installation has 72 modules that can be purchased by members of the cooperative who receive a monthly credit on their electric bill for the power their solar module produces. Details about this FEC project [PDF] The group also toured the Yoderville Biodiesel Collective that uses waste vegetable oil to produce energy. The Leopold Center is supporting the FEWG through a competitive grant. [Photo by Carole Yates, Farm Energy Working Group coordinator]
State Fair traditions
Venita Currie, administrator in the ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, places a temporary tatoo on a young Cyclone fan who visited the Iowa State exhibit in the Varied Industries Building at the Iowa State Fair this week. In addition to athletics, the ISU exhibit celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act that established the land grant university system in the United States. The exhibit, "Design in Action", focused on ISU's impact in Iowa communities, including the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative that began as a Leopold Center partnership [more about its beginnings]. More than a million people visited "Design in Action" earlier this summer when it was set up on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Farm to Table at ISU
Sally Gran (center) offers tomato samples to ISU Dining staff during a recent visit to her Table Top Farm east of Nevada. The tour helps foodservice personnel better understand the benefits and challenges of using locally-sourced fruit and vegetables. Supported by a grant from the Leopold Center's Competitive Educational Support Program, the tour included blueberry-picking at the Berry Patch and a look inside the packing shed at DeMoss Farm north of Ames. More about ISU Dining's Farm to ISU program, that began as a Leopold Center demonstration project. More photos on ISU Dining's Facebook page
Prairies and corn fields
Ongoing research at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge combines native praire strips strategically placed in row-crop fields to keep soil in place and protect water quality. At a recent field day in July, visitors inspect water collection flumes and water monitoring equipment between a prairie plot (foreground) and cornfield plot (background). A Landowner's Guide to Prairie Conservation Strips answers many questions about this new practice. Or watch a recent video about this research. More about one of the studies in this research project supported by the Leopold Center.
Learning the ropes of growing vegetables in Iowa
ISU students Kevin Sullivan (center with microphone) and Kyle Tester (in straw hat) share what they've learned about commercial-scale vegetable production this summer during a field day for growers at the ISU Hort Station on Monday. As part of their Horticulture Enterprise Management class, they have been growing peppers shown here, also tomatoes, watermelon and onions that will be sold to ISU Dining and possibly other markets. Although the one-acre plot is irrigated, high temperatures have caused blossoms to drop and ripening problems in the fruit. The course is coordinated by Malcolm Robertson (at left), who leads the Leopold Center's cross-cutting research initative. About 70 gardeners, commercial growers and others attended the ISU Fruit and Vegetable Field Day, co-sponsored by the Leopold Center.
Exploring crate-free systems for Iowa pigs
Lyle Rossiter, superintendent at the Iowa State Allee Demonstration Farm near Newell in northwest Iowa, sets up an insulated, round tent, or yurt, that will be used to farrow hogs in August and throughout the winter. Yurts are portable wood-framed structures traditionally used by nomadic people on the steppes of Central Asia. They are the focus of a new research project funded by the Leopold Center as a cost-effective, crate-free alternative for raising baby pigs. Read more about the research here.
Concern grows for stressed crops
From the highway, this field of corn may appear almost normal but a closer look reveals that it is in the last stages of leaf-rolling from lack of moisture. Parts of the field nearest the grassy waterway are beginning to take on a whitish cast, which indicates that the plants are dying. Recent record heat also is taking its toll, preventing pollination. This field is in southeast Iowa in Mahaska County, and the photo was taken July 11. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln reports that more of the country is in moderate drought or worse than at any other time in the 12 years of records kept by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Photo by Mark Rasmussen.
ISU Extension is updating its drought website with new resources.
Protecting Iowa's water quality
Riparian buffers, like this system of trees, bushes and other plantings along Bear Creek in Story County, can do wonders for water quality. Our newest fact sheet highlights 11 conservation practices that landowners can adopt to protect and improve Iowa’s water quality. All have been the topic of research projects supported by the Leopold Center. Other practices include adding deep-rooted vegetation to the landscape in prairie strips, rerouting tile drainage water into woodchip bioreactors or saturated buffers, and installing rain gardens in urban areas. Check out the new fact sheet here or read the news release.
Working to improve water quality
ISU graduate student Michaleen Gerken (left) oversees measurements taken along a stream by Joe Bolton and Alister Olson for a Leopold Center-supported study about the role of woodland plants on Iowa's water quality. They are part of a research team assembled by Jan Thompson, ISU professor of natural resource ecology and management. The team is cataloging plant species, collecting water samples and identifying aquatic insects twice a week at nine locations in central Iowa to better understand how understory plants can reduce water pollution. Watch a video about this work or read the news release.
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture |
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