For the past three summers, the Leopold Center has helped Practical Farmers of Iowa's Field to Family project with its Iowa Youth Camp. This is no ordinary week, although participants still sing songs and tell stories around a campfire, ride horses and swim. This camp focuses on communities and the environment.
On the days I helped at the YMCA campground north of Boone, we discussed many types of communities and all the human elements we would desire in a community. There also were team projects designed to help children work together to accomplish a task. Projects included habitat work, such as sowing native prairie seed for a reconstruction project and planting willow trees along the Des Moines River to help control erosion. Campers also took field trips to nearby farms where they learned about local food systems and crops grown in Iowa.
Our young people need to learn about conservation issues, and the fragile life systems around us. This also is our community. In Iowa, we are economically dependent on agriculture, yet we must be able to produce those goods without endangering our other natural resources.
Working with these campers was an honor and a blessing. As I reflect on the experience, I think the children taught me more than I actually taught them. Thanks to camp director Shelly Gradwell, and to all campers for a wonderful and rewarding experience! - Amy Oliver, Leopold Center Summer 2000 intern
Under the golden rays of a late afternoon sun, 65 men and women wandered through patches of big bluestem, whose turkey-foot-shaped seedheads swayed gently at head level. These visitors were not early Iowa settlers but farmers, educators and agribusiness people who wanted to learn more about establishing and maintaining native grasses and prairie forbs on land enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
I was able to attend one of two Native Grass Seeding Field Days in August, events supported in part by a grant from the Leopold Center's workshop and conference program. The speakers gave me-as well as other participants-lots of good ideas about what's possible for CRP ground as well as practical information about implementation.
Prairies can be easy to establish
We strolled through experimental plots at the Southeast Research Farm near Crawfordsville, which hosted the field day with Iowa State University Extension and several other groups. Contrary to what people believe, prairies are easy to establish, according to presenter John Osenbaugh, who operates a grass seed company in Lucas. We learned the geographic origin of each variety and their benefits, including varieties that Osenbaugh recommends for fields used by hikers and hunters.
We also heard from Shawn Depp of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), who talked about ways to improve CRP land for wildlife. He stressed the importance of planting flowers, which attract insects that are a food source for chicks and migrating birds such as the bluebirds, bobolinks and wrens that pass through Iowa each spring. Much to the chagrin of some participants, Depp suggested sowing weed seeds into low-diversity areas such as brome fields, noting that the seeds of foxtail and lambsquarters are high in protein and energy.
The CRP is the federal government's single largest environmental improvement program. As of 1997, there were 1.7 million Iowa acres enrolled in CRP, and around 34 million acres nationwide. The Native Grass Seeding Field Day is a worthwhile way to complement work that's already underway.
For information, contact Greg Brenneman, Iowa State University Extension agricultural engineering specialist, (319) 337-2145.- Ellen Cook, Leopold Center Summer 2000 intern