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A lake’s best neighbors
Pasture and hayland adjoining Lake Icaria exemplify good land use in Three Lakes Project |
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If you owned a lake (and by the way, you are a part owner of all of Iowa’s public-owned state lakes, like every other citizen in the state), you’d want the Olive family as your neighbors. That’s because you’d want the lake to last for a long time, and have clean water coming into it, with few chemicals and sediment. And that’s what Lake Icaria in southwest Iowa gets from its close neighbors to the east, the Olive family. “Water from our land goes directly into the lake,” says Mary Olive. “We want to preserve the lake and the land.” Most of her farm, now in a family trust, is highly erodible, and it couldn’t be farmed in a way that would be better for the lake. Three years ago was the last time a rowcrop was planted; at that, only non-erosive land. About 75 percent of the 496 acres of land is terraced, and all that land is in hay, pasture, or Conservation Reserve Program. The land also has 11 multipurpose ponds, built to improve and protect the water in the lake. “The object was to put a pond on every draw that fed to the lake,” Mary says, “to keep sediment out of it.” The Three Lakes Water Quality Project Area includes Lake Icaria, Lake Binder, and the West Lake Corning City Reservoir watersheds in Adams County. Practices implemented to provide protection to the lakes include but are not limited to 53 grade stabilization structures, 30 miles of terraces, 986 acres of manure management, 721 acres of rotational grazing, 100 acres of pasture planting, and a stream crossing. A comprehensive water quality monitoring program was also undertaken. |
Fishing is better in Lake Icaria (top), one of three lakes being protected with the Adams County Three Lakes Water Quality Project, because of practices used by neighboring landowners. Mary Olive, neighbor Keith Longabaugh and daughter Madeline Olive (above) talk about how the Olive farm helps the lake. Signs (below) help identify and publicize the work done in the Three Lakes Water Quality Project..
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One in a series of summaries of watershed projects in Iowa carried out by local conservation districts, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Division of Soil Conservation, and other partners. |
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