Leopold Center - Projects involve students for education, outreach

These are big questions, especially in southern Iowa, which has a large percentage of highly erodible land and thousands of acres with Conservation Reserve Program contracts ending in the next four years. (In Adams, Union, Taylor and Ringgold counties alone, CRP contracts on more than 160,700 acres are set to expire by October 2009.)

During their summer break, Iowa college students have been finding answers to these questions. They’ve been learning first-hand about the fragile ecosystem in southern Iowa and how to manage it more effectively. And best of all, they’ve been sharing their experiences with neighboring farmers, fairgoers, their professors and anyone willing to listen.

The students are part of several Leopold Center-funded projects underway on or near the Adams County CRP Research and Demonstration Project farm north of Corning. The farm covers about 360 acres and was set up in 1990 by the Southern Iowa Forage and Livestock Committee (SIFLC). The group secured special USDA permission to use CRP land to show how grass cover on marginal lands could produce a more sustainable income by grazing than by returning that land to row-crop production.

The farm has become an outdoor classroom and an important testing ground for alternative grazing systems. Three grants from the Leopold Center Ecology Initiative are being used to answer important questions about several management options. They also expand the project’s education and outreach at a critical time for farmers and landowners as their CRP contracts expire in the next several years.

The Center’s Ecology Initiative is funding:

“Getting information from the research is the primary goal of this project because at this point what we’re doing with wildlife and grazing is so new,” said John Klein, CRP farm project manager and soil conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in southern Iowa. “But giving young people an opportunity to do field work and helping them become conservationists are definitely secondary benefits.”

Klein said he hopes the project can help young future farmers see the benefit and value of forage production for long-term resource and enterprise sustainability. He also hopes that more farmers will grow warm-season forages and manage their grasslands to support upland wildlife habitat.

Bruce Johnk, who brought 35 agriculture students from Atlantic High School to the farm in May, said he appreciates the opportunity for in-field learning.

“It was a good tour that showed my students alternative ways of using marginal land that is less intrusive on wildlife and that land doesn’t have to be plowed from one road to the next to be productive,” he said. “They also saw watering systems for grazing that used sunlight or wind and little or no outside power.”

He said his students, as well as their parents, are more receptive to alternatives than they were when he began teaching 31 years ago. “As I drive the countryside, I’m seeing more land in pastures, buffer strips and other uses. Education has been an important part of those changes.”

The CRP farm is a cooperative effort that has support from local producers and organizations, as well as the Adams County Extension Council, NRCS, Farm Service Agency, Pheasants Forever and Iowa State University Extension. Some of the Leopold Center project work is being supplemented by grants from the NRCS.