Easement to protect trout streams,
restore land

---

Three Iowa trout streams in Allamakee County will be enhanced and protected forever thanks to a new conservation easement near Dorchester. The easement also includes an effort to reestablish tallgrass prairie and oak savanna.

Landowners Michael Osterholm and Barbara Colombo donated a conservation easement on 98 acres of their land to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), a non-profit conservation organization that protects Iowa's land, water and wildlife. This easement both prevents destructive use of the land and protects current habitat improvement efforts.

Osterholm, a Waukon native, and his wife Colombo live in Greenwood, MN.

"This project is a lifelong dream for me. Since I was a young boy fishing and exploring the trout streams in this area, I've always appreciated the unique beauty and resource value it represents," Osterholm explained. "For Barb and me, this is a legacy issue; it's our opportunity to help future generations experience this gift of nature that is in our own backyard."

Their property contains sections of Waterloo and Duck Creek, which both support naturally reproducing populations of trout, and is adjacent to state property on Waterloo Creek.

The site also contains a third cold-water spring stream that had been channelized in the early 1940s, reducing its habitat value. With the support of a variety of organizations, Osterholm plans to restore the stream's natural meander and introduce native brook trout from South Pine Creek, another INHF project area.

The remeandering project was submitted to Trout Unlimited's highly competitive, nationwide Embrace-a-Stream program for support. The project ranked fourth out of 52 proposals submitted this year and will receive a grant to support the effort.

The Osterholm property is open to public fishing by permission only. The owners require catch-and-release fishing and only barbless hooks.

Working with Driftless Land Stewardship, Osterholm has developed a multi-year restoration plan that will return the valley bottomland back to tallgrass prairie. Prairies have extensive root systems that hold soil and minimize erosion. They also provide for the increased production of insects, a food source for the trout population.

The property's upland wooded areas will be restored to native oak savanna, which is characterized by scattered oak trees with a groundcover of grasses, sedges and wildflowers.

Osterholm is supporting scientific research and education on the site. He is working with the Luther College Biology Department, and will support a Luther student to research changes in plant and invertebrate populations over the next several years. Luther College and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will conduct ongoing studies to measure the long-term benefits the project produces.

"Mike's conservation ethic is admirable and INHF's goal is to preserve it for perpetuity," said Darrel Mills, INHF's Blufflands Conservation Coordinator. "The easement protects the land's natural features so that future landowners don't counteract all of his hard work."

A conservation easement allows landowners to maintain private ownership while permanently extinguishing select rights in order to protect the land's natural features. This easement permanently protects the Osterholm property from destructive practices that would impair its conservation values: development on all but one acre, mining and most agricultural practices. It also preserves any of Osterholm and his many partners' current and future ecological restoration and will apply to future landowners.

"This project is really a collaborative effort of many, very committed organizations and individuals who have a similar understanding of what this land used to be and the vision of what it can be in the future," Osterholm said.

Osterholm noted the Iowa DNR and Trout Unlimited have been principal partners in his remeandering and brook trout introduction project. To date, other organizations providing support to his efforts include the Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association, the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA, the Conservation District of Iowa, the Allamakee County Conservation Board and the Upper Iowa River Alliance.

"Working with Mike has been a real pleasure, because he is so committed to the land and its resources," said Joe McGovern, Land Stewardship Program Director. "I look forward to seeing his land and streams restored and healthy."

Other INHF projects in Allamakee County include several private conservation easements and plus the Heritage Addition to Effigy Mounds, Clear Creek and Upper Iowa River access, Paint Rock and other public sites.

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