Boone River
The Boone River is a tributary of the Des Moines River — a
secondary source of water for Des Moines. It is a 20,000-acre
prairie pothole watershed in north-central Iowa. The Boone River
flows through a relatively flat terrain that has very shallow
potholes — many of them only a few feet deep. Soils here
are very productive, so most land is intensively farmed and there
are many confinement livestock operations. There are numerous
row crop and CAFO farming operations in the area along with significant
tile drainage — in fact, most of the natural hydrology
of the Boone River watershed has been altered with stream channelization
and drainage tiles.
Boone River Watershed Partners
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Hamilton Soil and Water Conservation District
The Nature Conservancy
Prairie Rivers of Iowa Resource Conservation & Development
Mark Claude, Farmer, Webster City
“A couple things convinced us to sign up for the Boone River
watershed project. First is the thought that if farming is going
to be regulated at some point in the future, we'd at least like to
know where we stand from the beginning. Also, I knew that if this
area was selected as a CSP watershed, being involved in the watershed
project would put us in better position to take advantage of the
program. When it comes down to it, I understand exploring the idea
of reducing N rates to see if we can impact the environment. But
in the long run, the importance of N strip trials might go beyond
looking at possible environmental impact. We're seeing this season
how just the high costs fertilizer and fuel alone might force farmers
to learn do this kind of research on their farms. And it's helped
me learn how I can try to test other ideas. Some of the things I
can do with these research techniques include studying deep ripping
versus no fall tillage, and looking at yield checks on the effects
of each.”
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