DES MOINES – Iowa Department of Natural Resources Director Richard Leopold and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey will be at Union Grove Lake in Tama County on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. to recognize the broad partnerships that are helping to improve water quality in the lake and in six other watersheds across the state.

The Union Grove Lake Watershed Project will receive a projected $550,010 over three years in state and federal funding to help improve water quality in the lake.  The seven watershed projects will receive a projected $5.4 million over three years in state and federal funding.

The Union Grove event will introduce the project and how it aims to work with locals to improve the lake. It will also feature demonstrations of a solar watering system for livestock, a working rainfall simulator from the Iowa Learning Farm, a working streamtable and water monitoring at the lake. Leopold, Northey and Marty Adkins, NRCS assistant state conservationist for water resources, will also make a brief presentation to the project.

The projects are a partnership between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship – Division of Soil Conservation (IDALS), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD).

In each case, the Soil and Water Conservation District works one-on-one with local landowners to make changes in the watershed, which is the land that drains to a lake, river or stream. Those changes can help keep pollutants like excess sediment, nutrients and bacteria out of Iowa’s waters. The funds target the most critical needs and apply conservation measures.

The details of the event follow here:

            Who:             Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture                                    

Richard Leopold, Director of Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Marty Adkins, Assistant State Conservationist for Water Resources, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Melody Bro, Union Grove Lake Watershed Project Coordinator

Where:            Union Grove Lake, 1215 220th Street, Gladbrook, IA (Event to be held at the youth shelter, located on the east side of the lake)

When:              Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 10:00 a.m.

What:              Watershed Partnership Recognition

How:                For more information about the event please contact Dustin Vande Hoef with the Iowa Department of Agriculture at 515-281-3375 or Jessie Brown with the Department of Natural Resources at 515-281-5131

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