Family protects key sites
along Upper Iowa River

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in May 2002. 

As canoe season gets underway, canoeists on the Upper Iowa River can now float by some beautiful scenery and know it will stay beautiful.

Brothers David and Bill Heine donated a conservation easement on 105 acres of their Chimney Rock Ranch, which contains soaring chimney rocks and palisades along one of the most scenic river bends between Kendallville and Bluffton. Further downstream, David and wife Kirsten Heine, are placing an Emergency Wetland Protection (EWP) easement on another lovely river bend.

A conservation easement allows interested landowners to maintain private ownership but donate or sell selected rights. For example, the Heines have permanently surrendered their development, mining and some agricultural rights to protect the area’s scenery, wildlife habitat and water quality. If Heines sell the property later, the easement restrictions are part of the deed and transfer to future owners.

“The whole Upper Iowa River is a phenomenal natural resource, and the Heine properties are part of what make it phenomenal,” said Joe McGovern, Director of Land Stewardship with the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF). “When canoeists take their favorite photos of this river’s scenery, they’re often photographing the Heine property. This family has made a huge gift to their neighborhood, to Iowa and to the land. Though the Heines continue to own the land and maintain private access, every local resident or tourist will benefit from the scenery, wildlife and water quality they have protected.”

INHF is a nonprofit, conservation group that works with private landowners and other partners to protect Iowa’s land, water and wildlife. INHF will hold and monitor the Chimney Rock Ranch easement.

David and Bill are natives of Cedar Falls and remember many long weekends spent hunting and fishing along the Upper Iowa River. “Kirsten and I moved to Decorah because we have a passion for the Upper Iowa,” said David. “We love the river and we wanted to live near it and enjoy it. At the time we had no idea that it needed protection. But shortly after living here, we saw land being bought up and beautiful bluffs being desecrated.”

David and Kirsten have remodeled and live in the house that was built on the property in 1853. “We’ve restored all the original farm buildings, including a 1901 barn. We raise soybeans and some livestock, so we are not anti-agriculture,” notes David. “We created these conservation easements because we’re anti-sprawl.”

“This place is a gift, so we need to preserve and take care of it,” said Kirsten, who grew up in Decorah. “Our goal is water quality, soil conservation and protecting this beautiful landscape.” David is a doctor at the Decorah Clinic-Mayo Health System and Kirsten works for the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah.

Bill Heine lives in Denver, Iowa, and is president and CEO of Fosters, Inc., in Cedar Falls. “The Upper Iowa River corridor is definitely one of those special places that Iowa has to offer that needs to be safeguarded against the sprawl of modern life so that we can all get an occasional glimpse of Iowa as our forefathers saw it,” said Bill. “We were very happy that the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation was able to help us protect a part of this beautiful river.”

The Heines are not the first family to place private conservation easements along the Upper Iowa River. They expanded an earlier easement placed on their land by INHF and then then-owner in 1987. Last year a dozen landowners in the River Bend region east of Decorah area donated private conservation easements to INHF and the Iowa DNR. INHF is talking with many other landowners about permanent land protection elsewhere along the river. The Heine easement and other land protection projects are featured at a new section on INHF’s website: www.inhf.org/upperiowariver.htm.

The value of a conservation easement is determined by an appraised value of the relinquished property rights-such as development or mining. Some federal programs, like the EWP program administered by the NRCS (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), pay for these rights. Even so, David and Kirsten opted to receive only 60% of their EWP payment. David and Bill donated the entire value of the Chimney Rock Ranch easement-“a substantial gift to the people of Iowa,” says McGovern. Such donations can provide income tax benefits to the donor.

“Now that the Heines and other landowners along the Upper Iowa River have implemented conservation protection, we’re getting a lot more questions from neighbors about how they can protect their land’s natural values as well,” said McGovern. “It’s been exciting to see how each project we complete sparks more questions and interest.”

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

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