Covering about 24,000 square miles of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin is a natural treasure — the awe-inspiring and ecologically diverse Driftless Area.
Over 12,000 years ago, the area was bypassed by glaciers during the Ice Age, resulting in a beautiful landscape of waterfalls, bluffs, caves, rare geology and wildlife. It boasts the largest concentration of cold-water streams in the world, and visitors from across the country travel to the Driftless Area to savor its beauty. Over time, the region has become more susceptible to soil erosion, diminishing water quality and flooding, threatening wildlife habitats and farms.
Protecting and preserving the Driftless Area has long been a priority for farmers, conservationists, local officials and families alike. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the Driftless Area Landscape Conservation Initiative, a public-private partnership, to help farmers fight erosion and restore cold water stream corridors. The program was a conservation success story, measurably improving drinking water quality and reducing flood risk, but it expired in 2017.
That’s why we’re working on the next chapter of Driftless Area conservation through our bipartisan Driftless Area Landscape Conservation Initiative Act.
The DALCI Act will re-establish this beneficial program at no additional cost to taxpayers, providing Driftless Area farmers and landowners with the tools to manage and restore working lands, woodlands, prairies and cold-water streams. Under our bill, farmers will be able to access funding through existing USDA programs to reduce soil erosion and mitigate flooding, sequester carbon and improve biodiverse habitats — a win-win for our farmers, homeowners and the environment. Empowering the farmers and landowners who call the Driftless Area home, and have known and worked that land their whole lives, is the best way to build on the program’s restoration successes.
While we are blessed to have this scenery in our backyards, the Driftless Area also attracts tourists and recreationists nationwide. Its scenic hikes and well-known trout fishing bring new visitors to our communities and boost our tourism economies — a 2015 study showed that recreational angling in the Driftless Area generated over $1 billion in annual economic impact for Driftless communities. These dollars are even more impactful in small, rural communities that might not otherwise generate much tourism. Investing in the Driftless Area will have a significant economic benefit for rural Iowa and Illinois and drive tourism to our states for years to come.
The Driftless Area is cherished land. We will continue working across the aisle — and across the Mississippi River — to preserve the Driftless Area for future generations of farmers, families and recreationists.
A Republican, Hinson has represented the Dubuque area in Congress since January of 2021. Sorensen, a Democrat from Moline, has represented Illinois’ 17th District since January.
