Bulrushes to be saved
on Big Spirit Lake

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in October of 2005.

Don and Nancy Yarnes of Dickinson County have announced that, instead of proceeding with plans to develop 3,500 feet of shoreline along Big Spirit Lake, they have contracted to sell the site to a conservation group. A previously proposed shoreline development plan, contested by concerned citizens, is being abandoned.

The site’s shoreline contains the last major bulrush bed in Iowa’s Great Lakes, providing both scenic beauty and a critical “nursery” for numerous fish and wildlife species. Shoreline development would have destroyed the bulrushes, irreversibly damaging the entire lake’s fishing and water quality.

“My grandfather, Consider A. Yarnes, received the deed to this land from the federal government in 1872, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant,” said Don Yarnes. “The land has been in my family ever since, and we value its natural resources. When the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation approached us with this alternative proposal to protect the shoreline for conservation, we listened to what they had to say and liked what we heard.”

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), a nonprofit conservation group, intends to purchase the site over a period of two to three years. To cover purchase and initial restoration and management expenses, INHF and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) must raise up to $6.67 million in public and private funds. Once funding is raised, INHF would transfer the property, located in Anglers Bay, to the IDNR for public use. The area will not be open to the public until the contract purchase is completed.

Shoreline development plan: The original development plan included 35 houses and their accompanying docks along 3,500 feet of shoreline. Local residents fought the plan because of its potential damage to the offshore bulrush beds and to Hales Slough, an adjoining public area. By agreeing to sell the site on contract to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation—a nonprofit conservation group—owners Don and Nancy Yarnes took this option off the table

“Acquisition of shoreline on Iowa's natural lakes has been and will continue to be a priority of the DNR and the Natural Resources Commission,” noted IDNR Director Jeff  Vonk. The Commission is the group of appointed citizens that approve state conservation projects.

According to Mark Ackelson, INHF president, his organization took on the project’s financial risks in order to achieve four goals:

• preserving one of the last undeveloped stretches of the Big Spirit Lake shoreline and its accompanying bulrush habitat
• restoring wetlands and prairie elsewhere on the site
• expanding and buffering adjacent public land (Hales Slough)
• providing a corridor to extend the Great Lakes Trail System.

Ackelson noted that he has spent the past several months discussing the site’s future with the Yarnes, local conservationists, the Iowa DNR, potential supporters and opponents, consultants and others.

Full conservation plan: The Iowa Department of Natural Resources would own and manage the entire 93-acre site for public use. The area would remain undeveloped except for possible park amenities—such as the trail extension, public restrooms, limited camping sites or picnic shelters—in the less sensitive areas. Estimated fundraising needs for the purchase plus initial restoration are about $6.67 million.

Ackelson summarized, “We considered three potential futures for the site: allowing the original development plan to continue, raising funds to protect the site’s most critical features while placing a conservation development on its less sensitive areas, or raising enough funds to place the entire site under public ownership.”

Despite the financial risk of a multi-million dollar fundraising effort, INHF’s board unanimously ruled out the “do-nothing” option. “By agreeing to this contract purchase, our board and the Yarnes family have allowed us to remove the shoreline development plan from the table,” said Ackelson.

“However, there’s no question that full public ownership would provide additional conservation and public recreation benefits,” Ackelson continued. “If we can raise full funding within the time frame, that’s our first choice. But a good conservation development plan can be consistent with the Foundation’s four major goals in protecting this site. If we raise only enough for partial public protection and the conservation-friendly development, we’ll implement and celebrate that success—and then refocus INHF’s efforts on other Iowa resources in need of protection.” INHF is a statewide, nonprofit conservation organization that has protected 85,000 acres throughout Iowa, including 3,500 acres in Dickinson County.

IDNR Director Vonk said, “Though the bulrush beds already face water quality threats, our fisheries experts felt the proposed docks would be their death sentence. This area contains Iowa’s most diverse submergent aquatic plant populations in Iowa, hosting not just schools but entire universities of fish. To lose this piece of undisturbed natural shoreline would threaten the ecology of Big Spirit Lake as we know it today.”The Dickinson County Supervisors had scheduled a vote, to be held during their next regular meeting on Oct. 18, about rezoning the site for shoreline development. However, after reaching a purchase contract agreement with INHF, the Yarnes development proposal will not proceed.

“We appreciate Don and Nancy’s decision to pause in their plans, consider alternatives, and work with us so that the land’s natural features can be saved,” said Ackelson. “Anglers Bay contains one of the longest stretches of undeveloped shoreline at the Iowa Great Lakes—and an accompanying treasure trove of natural resources.”

“This is not the end, but rather the beginning, of a challenging project in which millions of dollars will need to be secured and many important decisions discussed,” Ackelson continued. “We look forward to working with those who love the Iowa Great Lakes to make this site the kind of place they will cherish.”

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For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.