(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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IDALS launches $1.9 million Beaver Creek watershed improvement project • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-07-08
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced Tuesday it launched a Water Quality Initiative project to reduce nitrate and other nutrient runoff in the Beaver Creek watershed, which is upstream of Des Moines.
IDALS joined Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District and several other partners on the initiative, which will install saturated buffers, oxbows, bioreactors and promote the use of cover crops in the watershed over the next three years.
A press release from IDALS said the project follows the “batch and build” model the department has used to streamline the construction process and complete more projects in a given watershed.
“Iowans expect progress when it comes to water quality, and that’s exactly what this project helps to deliver,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said in a statement. “This partnership project is a great example of how we can bring farmers, landowners, and public and private partners together to accelerate this important work and be part of the solution.”
Water Quality Initiative tools: — Oxbows: a bow-shaped meander of a stream, separated from the flow of water, that acts as a wetland to prevent flooding, provide habitat for wildlife and filter nutrients. — Saturated buffers: an area of vegetation between cropland and waterways, usually where a tile line drains, that helps absorb nutrients from water before it drains into a stream. — Bioreactors: a trench buried on the edge of a field at a tile outlet and typically filled with woodchips that allow microorganisms to remove nitrates from the water and instead release them as nitrogen gas. — Cover crops: a crop planted between cash crop rotations to help keep nutrients and soil in a field.
The department has already completed more than 20 water quality initiative projects in the Beaver Creek watershed, which flows into the Des Moines River on the north side of the capital city’s metro.
In mid June, Central Iowa Water Works, which represents 600,000 central Iowa customers, issued a lawn watering ban due to high nitrate concentrations in the Des Moines River and Raccoon River, which serve as surface water sources.
A two-year water quality study, commissioned by Polk County to investigate water quality issues in the region’s main rivers, was also released in the same time period. The report pointed to agriculture as a main source of nitrate pollution in the rivers.
A spokesperson for IDALS said the Beaver Creek watershed is an “important watershed” and the project has been “in the works” prior to the recent public awareness of the nitrate issue.
“We are actively recruiting landowners and locations for practices, and we are also recruiting more public and private partners who want to help us get more practices established,” Don McDowell, the department’s public information officer, said in an email.
Segments of Beaver Creek have been on the Department of Natural Resource’s list of impaired waters since 2016.
DNR is also a partner in the project, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, Polk County Public Works and The Nature Conservancy.
According to the press release, IDALS allocated $244,100 to the project.
The Beaver Creek project also promotes the use of cover crops, which can help keep nutrients in the soil when cash crops aren’t growing. IDALS’s Water Quality Initiative has a cost-share program for farmers interested in adding cover crops into their rotation.
“By partnering with local farmers and landowners and by investing in proven conservation practices like bioreactors, saturated buffers, oxbows, and cover crops, we’re improving water quality in these communities as well as for those downstream, including the Des Moines metro,” Naig said.
Jeremy Gustafson, a Boone County farmer, and chair of the Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District, said the partnership between the organizations will “showcase modern approaches to water quality improvements.”
Farmers and others interested in the project can reach out to the Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District office or contact Justin Grieff at the office.
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