This article was written and posted on INHF's website in September of 2006.
A coalition of conservationists has protected an important tract in Iowa’s unique Loess Hills along the Missouri River valley in Monona County about five miles northeast of Castana.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) recently purchased 78 acres of Loess Hills woodlands, prairie, and crop fields as an addition to the state’s 2,800-acre Loess Hills Wildlife Management Area (WMA) near Turin. The tract joins and will help buffer the Sylvan T. Runkel State Preserve. It also falls within the National Park Service’s “Turin Special Landscape Area.”
Ed Weiner, a wildlife management biologist for INDR, said he’d long hoped for an opportunity to buy the property.
“Very few parcels of land adjacent to this public area have become available for purchase in the past 20 years,” he noted. “This piece is really valuable because it’s kind of a transition area from the Loess Hills down to the Missouri River bottoms.”
Some of the best prairies in the Loess Hills grow on the west-facing slopes at the edge of the floodplain, Weiner added, and this site has such slopes.
When the tract came up for sale, Weiner contacted the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) for help. INHF is a nonprofit conservation group that has helped public and private partners protect more than 90,000 acres throughout Iowa, including many sites in the Loess Hills.
“It’s an area that’s prime for restoration,” said Weiner. One of his first priorities will be to clear cedar trees from the ridges and western slopes, allowing the rich prairie vegetation to thrive. Some of the small crop fields may be reseeded to prairie, Weiner said, while others will be kept in a crop rotation that includes grain and nesting cover for wildlife.
INHF president Mark Ackelson negotiated the purchase from Sharon Strohm, and then INHF held the property to give the DNR time to arrange funding.
“We are pleased that INHF was able to use a portion of our restricted Loess Hills funds to complete this transaction,” noted Ackelson. “Our many donors and supporters made this project possible—along with Sharon Strohm, who really worked with us to see the area protected.”
Strohm’s father-in-law, Albert Strohm, acquired the site in the 1930s, and she and her husband moved there in 1970. After decades of enjoying the land’s beauty, she said she wanted to see it protected from development and kept as a natural area for others to enjoy. Her agreement with INHF and the Iowa DNR will assure those goals.
Other conservation partners also provided funding support, including 11 Pheasants Forever chapters, the Iowa Pheasants Forever Council, the Loess Hills Alliance and the Iowa Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Because the site provides excellent wild turkey habitat, the Iowa DNR also contributed funds from its wild turkey program.
In addition, the family of the late Kevin Pedersen, of North Oaks, Minn., donated $10,000 in his memory. Pedersen’s widow, Dorothy, said she and her husband often had visited the Loess Hills when they lived near Omaha more than 30 years ago, and Kevin loved to hunt in Iowa.
INHF continues to work with the Iowa DNR and other public and private partners to protect important natural areas in Iowa’s Loess Hills.
