Easement protects habitat & vistas on Great River Road

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This article was written and released in May 2007.

Every fall, residents and tourists alike travel through northeast Iowa. Their mission: to see the colorful foliage on full display. Their route: the scenic, unspoilt beauty of the tree-covered bluffs along the Great River Road.

Thanks to conservation efforts put forth by landowner Mike Kluesner, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and other partners, more of those scenic vistas are now permanently protected for today and future generations.

Kluesner recently placed a second conservation easement, protecting another 118 acres of his land. The site borders Effigy Mounds to the south, Yellow River State Forest to the west, and the Great River Road to the east. Kluesner, a farmer and licensed general contractor, has loved this place for 30 years.

"For me to put a house in the middle of that property would be devastating,” Kluesner says.

Though the property remains in private ownership with private access, the easement yields many public benefits. By linking two public areas, the private easement expands and multiplies the value of their critical habitat for native plants, migrating birds and other wildlife.

The easement also preserves the scenery that defines this corner of Iowa: mixed deciduous forest and open vistas of the Mississippi River. Kluesner loves the land’s picturesque views so much that—to preserve the scenery—he took extra care to bury power lines on the property rather than run them on poles aboveground.

In 2005, Kluesner protected the wooded portions of his property through the Forest Legacy Program, administered through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The purchase of the recent conservation easement that covered the remaining cropland was funded by the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program (FRPP), administered by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Both easement programs maintain the landowner’s right to have a working forest and to farm, respectively, but the land is under a conservation easement that restricts residential and commercial development forever.

“INHF took the lead in applying for the FRPP grant funds from the NRCS. We then worked with Mike to establish the terms of the easement, coordinated with NRCS to implement the grant program paperwork, and we will be responsible for monitoring the easement in perpetuity,” said Lisa Hein, INHF’s program and planning director. “The land remains in private ownership and available for agricultural practices, but now its scenic bluffs can never be developed into housing.”

For more information or a free copy of the newly published Landowner’s Options booklet (which helps landowners understand easements and other permanent conservation protection methods), call 800-475-1846.

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