The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), a statewide, nonprofit conservation group that protects Iowa’s natural resources, recently received a $50,000 donation from Clear Lake Telephone Company and another $50,000 from the Young Family Foundation of Waterloo. Meanwhile, the Alliant Energy Foundation and Winnebago Industries Foundation each donated $5,000.
The donations are part of a $630,000 campaign undertaken by INHF and local Foundation members for the Ventura Cove Enhancement Project. The west end of Clear Lake has long provided recreational and scenic opportunities for year-round residents and seasonal visitors alike. The two components of the Ventura Cove Enhancement project will add to these opportunities.
The Ventura Cove Woodland component provides public lakeshore access, an important trail linkage and water quality protection. INHF purchased this 25-acre woodland last year through a bargain sale by owners George Daskalos, Meredith Saunders, Jay Shriver, and John, Aristotle and Socrates Pappajohn.
This site will be available to the public for low-impact activities like birding, hiking and conservation education. The woodland offers peaceful scenery while the site’s wetlands filter and cleanse runoff water before it enters the lake. INHF has granted a no-cost easement for a corridor across this property for the hiking and biking trail being planned and built by the Cerro Gordo Trails Association.
The adjoining Ventura Grade Enhancement component, purchased in 2004 by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), will provide additional lake access; a picnic shelter and public restrooms; parking, which will be linked to the fishing jetty by a trail; as well as other amenities. The IDNR is carefully designing these enhancements to provide water quality benefits.
Private donations to the project now total over $130,000, leaving about $500,000 yet to be raised. Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has submitted funding proposals to six area foundations and will submit a proposal for funding through the Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) state grant program. The balance of the funds needs to be raised from additional private sources.
Visit the Ventura Cove home page to learn more about this project and ways you can help, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, director of communications, or call (515) 288-1846.
Project contributions may be sent to “Ventura Cove Project” at the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, 505 Fifth Avenue, Suite 444, Des Moines, IA 50309.
