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Reimagine Iowa’s ecosystem
Mark Edwards
Aug. 23, 2022 8:08 am
Ecology is the understanding of our relationships with where we live. The foundation is simple - the more diversity the healthier the ecosystem. The healthier the ecosystem the healthier the individuals. We are currently in the midst of the highest extinction rate in 65 million years.
Iowa is now known as the most biologically altered state in North America. About two-thirds of our 36 million acres are reduced to just two annual species – corn and soybeans. These require massive amounts of fertilizer, insecticides, herbicides and petroleum.
Over 97 percent of Iowa has been altered for cities, roads and agricultural use. Today, roughly 87 percent is cropland, 6 percent cities and roads, and 3 percent in pasture, farmsteads and animal confinement buildings.
Only one-tenth of 1 percent of our original prairie ecosystem remained and no old-growth forests. About 10 percent of Iowa’s remaining prairies and forests lie within the public domain. Almost every single acre of public land was logged, heavily grazed, plowed, drained or mined before public protection.
All public land amounts to less than 3 percent of Iowa and their diversity continues to decline. All city, county, state and federal land contain developed areas with 60 percent as roadside ditches.
They contain hundreds of miles of roads, picnic areas, lodges, golf courses, sport fields, artificial lakes, campgrounds, parking lots, nature centers, sewage lagoons, shelters, beaches, houses, offices, storage buildings and a resort. In total, state-owned land managed by DNR comprise less than 2 percent of the state’s area.
This loss of diversity has gained some attention in relation to the Monarch Butterfly and pollinating insects such as bees. We know the Monarch’s decline is due to the loss of habitat and destruction of a once very common plant, milkweed. We have deeply depleted diversity of both the critters and their food in just a few generations.
As the historical Monarch migrations of millions have died off the situation is dire. Hundreds of organizations are calling for the Monarch to be declared endangered and going extinct. Individuals are being asked to plant Milkweed in their yards. Farmers are being paid with public money to install buffer strips along the fields.
We could continue this kind of farm economy of mining the carcass of the previous prairie and forest soils. But, with the current rates of erosion we have already lost well over half of the topsoil.
We could weigh the value of more corn, beans, petroleum and pipelines. We could continue our dependence on foreign lands to buy our excess produce and provide for our desires. Iowa now declares “we feed the world” while we import 85 percent of what we eat from an average of 1,500 miles away.
We could continue being the main culprit in creating the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Here at home, we warn the public not to let your dog drink from our public lakes. Common sense says not to swim in our streams, while our wildlife and fun continues to dwindle.
As we better understand our history, the ecology and relationships we have to our home land the more we need to look ahead. This means our present tactics, politics and blaming/shaming isn’t working as we all live in the same place. Our only future lies in the freedom to ReWild, to reimagine where we want to live while we encourage our ecosystem to heal and heal us.
Mark Edwards retired after 30 years from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in planning and coordination.
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