Dustin Vande Hoef
Communications Director
515/281-3375 or 515/326-1616 (cell)
or Dustin.VandeHoef@IowaAgriculture.gov
DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey will tour damage to soil conservation practices and view crop damage in the Delhi/Dyersville area on Wednesday, Aug. 4 following the recent record rains and flooding in the area. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has made $1 million available to repair practices not covered under a maintenance agreement in counties designated a disaster by the Governor.
The tour will start at the Delaware County USDA Service Center in Manchester at 12:00 p.m. to leave for a tour of the Delhi area and finish in Dyersville around 2:00 p.m.
The $1 million to repair conservation practices is the remainder of the $6.5 million the Department received through Governor Culver’s bonding plan to support the repair of conservation practices damaged by flooding and other severe weather in 2008 and 2009.
The Department will be accepting applications through December 30, 2010 and the repairs must be complete by June 30, 2011. The current list of counties declared a disaster and eligible for funding follows here: Appanoose, Black Hawk, Buena Vista, Butler, Clay, Davis, Emmet, Fayette, Hamilton, Howard, Humboldt, Jasper, Jefferson, Kossuth, Lee, Lucas, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Van Buren, Webster, Cherokee, Decatur, Franklin, Hancock, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, Polk, Ringgold, Shelby, Sioux, Taylor, Union, Wapello, Warren, and Wright.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Division of Soil Conservation works with landowners and other government agencies to support the installation of conservation practices and will meet with local officials to discuss steps to repair conservation practices damaged by the flooding.
Who: Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture
Where: Delaware County Service Center, 200 S. 12th St., Manchester
When: Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010, 12:00 p.m.
What: Tour of Damage to Soil Conservation Practices
How: Media are welcome to join the tour. For more information please contact Dustin Vande Hoef with the Iowa Department of Agriculture at 515-281-3375 or 515-326-1616 (cell), or Mike Freiburger at the Delaware County Conservation office at 563 927-4590 x121.
