2020 has been, well 2020. Pandemic news aside, agriculture is dealing with another year of weather extremes. I was in the middle of a covid mandated Zoom call when it was cut short by a derecho event striking central Iowa. Fortunately, we came out only losing a few branches and had power back after 12 hours. However, this weather extreme, damaged an estimated 3.57 million acres of corn and 2.5 million acres of soybeans in Iowa. It also devastated Iowa’s 2nd largest city, Cedar Rapids, and many others. Of course, the derecho was not on anyone’s mind in July, but the drought conditions spreading throughout the Midwest have been.

ADMC has entered into an agreement with the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District, central Iowa to facilitate the implementation of a minimum of 25 saturated buffers by December of 2020. The saturated buffers will be located within five small HUC 12 watersheds in the county.

Director’s Desk This month’s newsletter starts off on a somber note as Paul Sweeney passed away after his battle with cancer. Paul was a long time ADMC board member who represented Ecosystem Services Exchange. I knew Paul both from his time with NRCS as well as with ESE. Paul made huge contributions to water conservation Read more about November Newsletter[…]