Celebrate Soil and Water Conservation Week!
Join Free Online
To participate in the live virtual field day, shortly before 1:00 pm CT on May 2, click HERE.
Or, join from a dial-in phone line:
Dial: 312-626-6799
Meeting ID: 986 0833 5082
Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Nutrient Research Center (INRC), and Conservation Learning Group (CLG), is hosting a free virtual field day on Thursday, May 2 at 1 p.m. CT to celebrate Soil and Water Conservation Week.
Join us for a live discussion with IDALS Mines and Minerals Bureau Vince Sitzmann, Bureau Chief, and Mike Bourland, Senior Environmental Engineer, Mike Anderson, Iowa Department of Natural Resources Water Allocation and Use Program Senior Engineer and Rick Pedersen, Humboldt County Supervisor.
Agricultural drainage wells (ADWs) were developed in the early to mid 1900’s to discharge cropland tile drainage water to underground aquifers. The ADW Closure Assistance Program fund was established in 1997 to protect drinking water aquifers by cost-sharing with landowners to close agricultural drainage wells and develop alternative drainage outlets to surface streams or install alternative management practices. To date, IDALS has worked with landowners to close and adapt drainage for 195 of the wells. This virtual field day will explore the process of ADW closure, benefits to water quality and improved ease of farming with the use of innovative, alternative drainage systems.
“Ag Drainage Wells have been a focus area in Iowa for many decades. I want to commend the sustained effort to get them properly closed over the last quarter century by many landowners, partners and conservation professionals, including the team at the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “With the last 10 Ag Drainage Wells set to be closed this year, we are on the cusp of finally closing this chapter of Iowa’s history and marking another win in improving Iowa’s water quality.”
“The thing that is unique about this project in Humboldt County, is that it is at a very low elevation and there’s no practical way to have a gravity outlet. So we have been working with these 12 landowners to close seven of the remaining ten agricultural drainage wells and create a wetland mitigation bank,” noted Mike Bourland. “One of IDALS primary goals is to improve water quality in Iowa and through this project we are not only protecting water quality through the closure of these wells, but also through the creation of a wetland.”
Virtual Field Day Access Instructions:
To participate in the live virtual field day at 1:00 pm CT on May 2, to learn more, click this URL: https://iastate.zoom.us/j/98608335082 or visit https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/events-1.
Or, join from a dial-in phone line:
Dial: 309-205-3325 or 312-626-6799
Meeting ID: 986 0833 5082
The field day will be recorded and archived on the ILF website so that it can be watched at any time. The archive will be available at https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/virtual-field-day-archive.
Participants may be eligible for a Certified Crop Adviser board-approved continuing education unit. Information about how to apply to receive the CEU (if approved) will be provided at the end of the event.